‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎146r] (296/722)

The mineral productions of Khurasan consist of turquoise mines at Mad an,
near Nishapur. Salt is found all over it in the shape of a thick efflorescence ;
and iron, lead, alum, and copper are said to exist.
The animal productions are horses, camels, sheep, and oxen.
The produce of Khurasan consists of fruit in great variety and most kinds
of grain ; some silk, saffron, large quantities of asafoetida, and a little cot
ton ; also manna, tobacco, pistachio-nuts, and gums.
The outturn of opium in the province during the year 1879-80 was esti
mated at 1,400 Shah mans, or 950 cases. The revenue raised by the Persian
Government from opium is considerable. The government takes one chest
of opium in ten, in kind; but, besides this, the local governors manage to
get various sums out of the poppy cultivators, beyond what is paid for land
cultivated with cereals. Poppy cultivation is, therefore, encouraged by the
authorities. It must, however, have a limit in Khurasan; inasmuch as that
province used to export wheat to Yazd and Ardakan, and now, from the
decrease in land devoted to cereals, it has now only sufficient for its own
consumption.
The manufactures of this province consist of the celebrated Khurasam
sabres, firearms of superior make, stoneware, carpets of considerable fine
ness, namdas, woollen cloths, cotton goods, poshtms, or sheep skin
pelisses, velvets, armour, &c.
Mashhad may be said to be the centre of Khurasan traffic. Here the
Bukhara, Kabul, and Indian trades concentrate by Marv, Balkh, and Herat.
The intercourse along all these lines is much affected by the turbulence of
the various communities that border them. Where officials and chiefs are
both violent and corrupt, trading communities should possess visible
representatives. Russia is aware of this ; and Armenian merchants, in con
nection with Russian agents at Shahrud and accredited consuls on the
Caspian, extend Russian influence in Khurasan, and even Kandahar. By
the occupation of Marv, Russia entirely commands the Bukhara traffic, and
threatens that through Balkh.
If we look forward, leaving out military and political questions, the trade
of Khurasan will fall to that nation which is most favourably situated as
regards its railway connections on the line Shahrud, Herat, Kandahar, and
Quetta. The revenue of Khurasan during the reign of Fateh Ah Shah, i.e.,
about the year 1835, was 200,000 tumans in money, besides 50,000 khar-
wars (675 lbs. each) in grain. The amount now levied from the province,
the population of which has decreased, is close upon 340,000 tumans in
money and, in kind, 45,000 kharwars of barley and wheat, 620 kharwars of
rice, and 83 kharwars of tobacco.
None of the revenue of Khurasan reaches the Shah’s treasury in Tihran.
The whole amount is absorbed in the province in payments for military
service, pensions, salaries, and other local disbursements.
Khurasan is administered by a governor general. In former days the hold
of the central government on this province, and especially the mountain
districts, was so weak, that it was necessary to submit to the assumption of
partial independence of the border chiefs, and to humoui them in -many
ways. This is now unnecessary, and much better terms might with justice
be made with them.
The relations of the ilkhanis, or chiefs, with the provincial government
are of a somewhat anomalous Inature, and in fact depend to a great
extent on the personal character of the incumbents of the two offices. Ihe
Saham-ud-Daula, Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. of Bujnurd, was almost independent of the