'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎225] (260/714)

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THE SEISTAN QUESTION
225
1871, but is not uniformly observed. Both these last sections of
frontier—viz. the upper and the lower Perso-Beluch borders-will
Zinoes Tr 1106 * l*ter c, lapterdeaUng with ^ ^
provinces. They are mentioned here only in order to place Seistan
m its proper focus to surrounding conditions.
I have already, in the preceding chapter, spoken of Seistan as
a beln/c or snb-dmsion of the Persian province of Kain, ruled by
£?S of am i Khan of Bil -j^d, who deputes an official to
represent him and to command the garrison at Nasr-
atabad Here let me describe the circumstances which have led
to its being a Persian possession at all, and which necessitated the
despatch of the Boundary Commission in 1872 ; whilst, in order to
make this part of the narrative clear, some sketch will be required
both of the province itself and of its earlier history.
The derivation of the name Seistan or Sejestan from Sagastan,
the country of the Sagan, or Saca3, has, says Sir H. Rawlinson,
Derivation nG ™ r heen ^uhted by any writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. of credit, either Arab
name 0r ersian ' ' a]tIl0u gh it is curious that a band of roving
nomads, as were these Scythians, who descended hither from
the north m the third century a.d ., should have bequeathed a per
manent designation to a country which they only occupied for a hun
dred years. Expelled by the Sassanian monarch Varahran II. ( a.d . 275
-292) they have long vanished from history themselves; but in the
name of the district they may claim a monumentum cere perermius.
At different epochs of history territories of very differing sizes
lave been called Seistan, according as the dominion of their rulers
cation Pli " liaS 136011 extenclecl or curtailed. In its stricter applica-
tlon - however, the name has always been peculiar to the
great lacustrine basin that receives the confluent waters of the
Helmund and other rivers, whose channels converge at this point
upon a depression m the land's surface, with very clearly defined
orders, and a length from north to south of nearly 250 miles.
It is certain that in olden days this depression was filled by the
waters of a great lake; and, were all the artificial canals and
irrigation channels, by which the river-contents are now reduced
an exhausted, to be destroyed, I imagine that it would very soon
ielapse into its primaeval condition. 2
^rown S lZlf ngli f- Write f S,hOWeVer,haVe cWed 11 from a wood that ig
grown locally and is used as fuel by the Persians.
I or further information on the Helmund River, vide a Paper by C. R. Mark-
vol. i.
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