![‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎203v] (413/722)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0002d7/Mss Eur F112_376_0419.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎203v] (413/722)")
‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [203v] (413/722)
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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face is furrowed "into deep valleys by the constant and heavy showers, which
have clothed them in forests of almost tropical luxuriance ; while the
southern generally presents a single abrupt scarp, rising above long gravel
slopes, unchannelled by anything worthy the name of a river, and bare of
any vegetation rising to the dignity of a tree. At the most moderate
estimate the rainfall of Gilan and Mazandaran may be taken as five times
that of the adjoining districts across the ridges to the south.
In other parts, however, we find the water-parting considerably below
the level of the summits further inland ; and here the interior has a more
plenteous rainfall than the coast. This is particularly the casein south
eastern Persia, where the Khurasan, Sarhad, and Dizak hills, far exceeding
in altitude the ranges to the south, attract to themselves the major portion
of the scanty supply of moisture borne inland from the sea.
Again, the rainfall differs very much in different parts of the country,
under apparently similar conditions as regards mountains and distance
from the sea; the east and south being far drier than the north and west,
while the dampest parts of the Tigris valley have not half the rainfall
of the southern and south-eastern shores of the Caspian.
north-west or south-east. The first cause is the position of the Black Sea
and Mediterranean on the north-west, and of the Arabian Sea on the
south-east. The second is the bearing of the axes of the great mountain
chains, which lie mainly in the same direction north-west and south-east,
and thus tend to guide the currents of air in a uniform course. The
south-west, moreover, is not felt, except as moderating the temperature of
the Makran coast, inside a line from Ras-al-Hadd, south of Maskat, to
Karachi.
The effect of the sun on the great Iranian plateau is to produce a
heated stratum of air ; which, when it rises, is succeeded by a current from
Naturally the latter is the colder, and therefore, as might be expected,
north-west winds are most prevalent. But in southern Persia and the gulf
it often occurs that the two currents meet, and that a north-westetly
gale is raging at Bushahr, while a south-easter is blowing at Bandar
Abbas. This latter wind is the rain-bearer throughout the greater part of
Persia, the exception being the north-west, where occasional rain-clouds
from the Black Sea and the Caspian find their way across the Kurdish
mountains or the Alburz. It is true that it often rains even on che gulf
during a north-wester; but only when this has followed a succession of
south-easterly gales, the moisture borne by which is returned from the
opposite quarter.
In the absence of statistics extending over even a single year (and an
average of fifteen years at least would, I think, be requisite), it is impossi
ble to give more than an opinion as to the amount of rainfall in Persia.
But I believe I am well within the mark in stating that no part of the
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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’ [203v] (413/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690763.0x00000e> [accessed 22 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
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence