![‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎202v] (411/722)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0002d7/Mss Eur F112_376_0417.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎202v] (411/722)")
‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [202v] (411/722)
The record is made up of 1 volume (384 folios). It was created in 1886-1895. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
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358
straight line from the foot of the scarp; and the average breadth of the lip
of the basin hardly exceeds one hundred miles.
A «lance at a map will bring this prominent feature more clearly home to
the reader than any mere description. He will also notice at once that the
inward draining part of the plateau is divided into two sections. Of these,
the eastern drains into a single central depression, the Hamun, 01 lake of
Sistan and is usuallv termed, from the name of its principal river, the
Helm and basin. The western and larger half is, as it were, honeycombed
into many depressions, each receiving the drainage of an area of more or le-^s
magnitude. The number of these depressions is quite uncertain ; but the
extent and character of the principal will be separately described hereafter.
This natural separation of the central area into two parts is nearly followed
in the political division of the plateau. The whole of the western division,
with the exception of a small corner near Herat, belongs to 1 ersia, as does
the narrow belt of country draining into Hie Sistan lake from the west,
with the greater part of the lake itself, and the fertile plain on its east
bank. The rest of the Helm and, with a large part of the Oceanic and
Caspia-Aral basins, belongs to the states of Afghanistan and Kalat, and
their details are, therefore, beyond my limits.
The drainage areas ot the whole Iranian plateau aie appioximately as
follows :—
The ocean drains' ... ... - 230.000 square miles.
The Aral and Caspian ... ... 250,000 „ „
Leaving 550,000 to the interior drainage, of which surface the Helmand
basin covers over 200,000.
The
610,000 square miles included in Persia
proper are drain
folluws :
—
Into the ocean
130,000
Into the Caspian and Aral Seas
100,000
Into the Sistan lake
40.000
Into Urmia lake
20,000
Interior drainage .. •••*
320,000
Total
610,000
Referring to the map, it will be seen that the area draining into the
ocean consists of a long strip, nearly parallel to the ligris and the sea-
coast, and without a single protrusion inland. It should be noticed here
that there is no certainty as to whether an outlet exists from the Bampur
plain to the sea, by which the water of the Bampur river might escape in
extraordinary floods. INative evidence on the subject differs j and the
country south-west of Bampur has not yet been visited by a Luropean.
It is possible, therefore, that the line of the water-parting should be con
tinued eastward a little north of the twenty-eighth parallel, as far as the
Helmand watershed.
A narrow strip of land not more than thirty to fifty miles wide along
the southern coast of the Caspian drains into that sea. On the west it
About this item
- Content
This volume is Volume I of the four-volume Gazetteer of Persia (1886 edition). It was compiled for political and military reference by Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Metcalfe MacGregor, Assistant Quarter Master General, in 1871, and brought up to 31 July 1885 by the Intelligence Branch, Quarter Master General’s Department in India. It was printed by the Government Central Branch Press, Simla, India in 1886.
The areas of Persia [Iran] covered are Astarabad, Shahrud-Bustan, Khurasan [Khorāsān], and Sistan. The boundaries of the areas covered by Volume I are as follows: the Afghan border from the River Helmand to Sarakhs in the east; and from there a line north-west to Askhabad, due west to the Atrak, which it follows to the Caspian Sea; then along the sea coast to Ashurada Island; then in a straight line to Shahrud; and from the latter south-east to Tabas hill, Sihkuha, and the Helmand, from where the river first meets the south-east border of Sistan.
The gazetteer includes entries on human settlements and buildings (forts, hamlets, villages, towns, provinces, and districts); communications (passes, roads, bridges, canals, and halting places); tribes and religious sects; and physical features (rivers, streams, springs, wells, fords, valleys, mountains, hills, plains, and bays). Entries include information on history, geography, buildings, population, ethnography, resources, trade, agriculture, and climate.
Information sources are provided at the end of each gazetteer entry, in the form of an author or source’s surname, italicised and bracketed.
The volume includes the following illustrations: ‘VIEW OF AK-DARBAND.’ [Mss Eur F112/376, f 12v]; ‘PLAN OF AK-KALA.’ [Mss Eur F112/376, f 14]; ‘ROUGH SKETCH OF ASTARÁBÁD, FROM AN EYE-SKETCH BY LT.-COL. BERESFORD LOVETT, R. E., 1881.’ [Mss Eur F112/376, f 24]; ‘ROUGH PLAN OF BASHRÚGAH’ [Mss Eur F112/376, f 40v]; ‘ROUGH PLAN OF BÚJNÚRD’ [Mss Eur F112/376, f 48]; and ‘BUJNURD, FROM THE S. W.’ [Mss Eur F112/376, f 49v].
It also includes the following inserted papers (folios 51 to 60): a memorandum from the Office of the Quartermaster General in India, Intelligence Branch to Lord Curzon, dated 6 December 1895, forwarding for his information ‘Corrections to Volume I of the Gazetteer of Persia’, consisting of articles on the Nishapur district of the province of Khorasan, and the Shelag river.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (384 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume is arranged as follows from the front to the rear: title page; preface; list of authorities consulted; and entries listed in alphabetical order.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 388, these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
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- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [202v] (411/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690763.0x00000c> [accessed 23 March 2025]
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- Reference
- Mss Eur F112/376
- Title
- ‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’
- Pages
- front, back, head, tail, spine, edge, front-i, 2r:12r, 13r:13v, 15r:23v, 25r:40r, 41r:47v, 49r, 50r:195v, 196ar:196av, 196r:357v, back-i
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- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
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- Open Government Licence