'Notes on Persian Seistan' [‎41v] (87/142)

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NOTES ON PERSIAN SEISTAN.
POLITICAL.
The political situation has changed greatly during the last few years, that
. is, since the arrival of British and Russian political officers on the scene, and
Seistan has now become, comparatively speaking, a civilised country, where
a knowledge of French is as necessary as a knowledge of Persian. The
change in the political situation has necessitated the despatch of Persian
officials from Tehran, with the result that the authority of the Central
Government is now the chief factor to be reckoned with. The change has
consequently not been for the better from the point of view of British
interests.
The Amir Hashmat-ul-Mulk and the Chief Sardars, who previously exercised
great authority and influence locally, have now lost most of their power,
which will in ail probability continue to decrease in the course of the next
few years.
At the present time the situation is such that when the Amir and his
younger but legitimate son, Mir Ma'asum, are in Seistan, the INahrui and
Sinjarani Sardars, Sayid Khan and Khan Jan Khan, become influential, while
with the departure of the Amir and Mir Ma'asum and the advent of
Mohammed Reza, the Amir's elder but illegitimate son, Sardar Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division. Purdil Khan,
the Sarbandi Chief, whose daughter Mohammed Reza has married, becomes
au important figure.
However, the day of all these local chiefs is passed, and in the course of
conversation with intelligent Seistanis, at the time of the arrival of the
Boundary Commission, I found they all considered that the local Government
and men of local influence and standing were of no importance compared
with the Persian officials, who had arrived with Tehran influence at their
backs.
The main bulk of the population, whether Seistanis or Baluchis—and it is
difficult to distinguish the one from the other—have no martial spirit, are
ill-armed when armed at all, and, in the event of a disturbance, could neither
protect themselves nor afford real help to others. Moreover, the poorer classes
openly avow their wish that either the Russians or ourselves, no matter
which, would take possession of Seistan and relieve them from the oppression
of the present Governor, the Hashmat-ul-Mulk. From a military point of
view, the latter, the tribal chiefs, and indeed the whole population, may be
disregarded.
SEISTANI DIALECT.
The Seistani is far more closely allied to the Persian spoken in Afghanis
tan than to that of Persia, the terminations of many of the words being
clipped or contracted, especially in the case of verbal terminations.
Many of the words in the vocabulary which follows are merely the
contractions everywhere used by uneducated people, e.g., birazdah for biradah
zadab, meaning iC brother's sou," but the Seistanis are slow at understanding
words not pronounced exactly as they have always heard them pronounced,
and so they have been included. The chief difficulty for anyone who has
previously studied modern Persian, in talking to Seistanis, is that the latter
only understand one word for each thing or idea, and until that particular
word is employed, they do not grasp what is meant, though they themselves
may use the same word, with a closely allied meaning, a moment later.