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‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎205v] (417/722)

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. .

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364
Basman, and his maps wrong in making but one. Further west we traced
KhanikofPs great central range west of Yazd, as far south as lat. 27° 30' •
and found the other minor ridges between Karman and Shiraz to lie in the
same uniform direction—a parallelism I had previously found to occur in
the ranges on all the roads between Bushahr and Shiraz, and that city and
Isfahan.
On returning to England, the new data obtained by ourselves and M.
Khanikoff have enabled me to interpolate with them the observations of
older travellers, to which, from want of solid base to work upon, justice
had not been done by geographers. Thus the travels of Christie and
Truilhier between Tabas and Yazd, and of Keith Abbott* between Yazd
and Karman, conclusively demonstrated the existence of three parallel
ranges between the two former towns, and of a lofty and fertile plateau
(Kuh-Banan) east of the road between the two latter, in a situation
marked on the maps as part of the Karman desert.
The ranges on the coasts of the Caspian and of the Arabian Sea and
the neighbouring part of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. are thus wellnigh conclusively
shown to form the only important exceptions to the general rule of a north
west and south-easterly direction to the ridges. It seems far from improb
able that the same phenomenon will be found to be repeated in the neigh
bouring peninsula of Arabia, when that country is opened to fuller scientific
exploration.
I he general elevation of the mountains of Persia is far greater than
has been generally supposed. Idle volcanic peak of Damavand, whose
fires are still slumbering, marked upon our maps as 14,700 feet above
the sea, has been fixed by the Russian Caspian Survey at 18,600 feet.
Mount Savalan in Azarbaijan is declared by the same authorities to be
14,000 feet in height. I found the Kuh Hazar, south of Karman, to
exceed the latter altitude; and the summits of the neighbouring Jamal-
Baris range are not inferior. But I believe the highest continuous range
in Persia to be the Kuh Dinar—an unvisited chain of mountains in Ears
(the southern peak is marked on our maps as “ Daena, 11,000 ?”). These
are visible from the sea near Bushahr—a distance of 130 miles over ridges
known to be 10,000 feet in altitude. I myself have seen them from the
hills near Yazdikhast in August, presenting an appearance, both as to out
line and extent, not unlike the Bernese Alps, and hardly inferior in extent
or snow-covered surface. As the snow-line at that season is certainly not
below 14,000 feet, I am inclined to estimate the average height of the
Dinar peaks at 17,000 to 18,000 feet above the sea. Many other summits
in Armenia, Kurdistan, and Luristan never totally lose their snow, and can,
therefore, be little less than 15,000 feet. The peaks in the water-parting
of the Alburz do not exceed 13,000 feet; but when these were snowless in
the summer of 1871,1 observed a snowclad ridge north of the watershed
about the western frontier of Mazandaran. In central and eastern Persia
* ^ a matter of regret that this most painstaking and conscientious of non-scientific travellers
has not survived to see justice done to his labours. No general map that I know of contains the
result of Ins travels in Persia (published in the Journal of the Geographical Society), which re
mained unnoticed by geographers till their value was pointed out by Colonel Yule in his Marco
Polo. V\ ithout pretending to aught but a most rudimentary knowledge of suiweying, Mr. Abbott,
m addition to a great amount of political and topographical information, kept a careful road-book
by compass and watch through twelve hundred miles of travel over a country then quite unex-
P !°™ an 1 < \ but , little of whicl1 has tL ' en since seen by a European. Having myself followed part
or x lr. Abbott s route, and having plotted the whole of the remainder from the astronomically
xed points since laid down, I can bear testimony to the skill and perseverance with which he
carried out Ins self-imposed task. Had his labours been properly utilised by map-makers, many of
the gross errors which still disfigure maps of Persia would long ago have disappeared.

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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‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎205v] (417/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690763.0x000012> [accessed 24 February 2025]

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