![‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎236r] (478/722)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0002d7/Mss Eur F112_376_0484.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎236r] (478/722)")
‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [236r] (478/722)
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
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
and suffers greatly from scarcity of coin. This would be in general a proof
of poverty of production, and would indicate an excess of imports over
exports. The duty nominally paid by foreign merchants is 5 per cent.
ad valorem. Native merchants pay octroi duties all along the line. Prac
tically everything depends on management, or, more plainly speaking, in
fluence of all kinds by money, personal and political pressure.
Avenues op Trade.
These may be divided into the northern, in which Russia is chiefly
Effect of the late interested, and the southern, which more properlv
war in diverting trade belong to England. The principal effect of the recent
O e ersian Gu t. waVj followed by the plague in the northern provinces,
has been to divert the northern commerce to the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
, where much
of it still lingers. The local traffic of the south appears also to have
increased in the last few years {see Route 6). But should Russia remove the
protective transit duties and restrictions which she still so unaccountably
maintains in the north, much of the southern trade, unless fostered by
English enterprise, will undoubtedly be diverted. This will be made more
clear as we take the principal routes in detail.
Commercial Routes.
There are nine principal routes by which Persia communicates with
foreign countries.
Route 1—vid Tabriz and Tiflis with Russia by land, and from Tiflis to
„ , .. „ , „ Poti, and thence to Russia and the rest of Europe, bv
tlie projected railway. sea -—i he railway from Poti to Tiflis is completed;
but from Tiflis to Tabriz and the interior of Persia goods
proceed by caravan. This trade will, at first, be greatly developed by the
transfer to the Russians of the harbour of Batum; but when the railway to
Baku,* and thence to Rasht, is completed, a large portion of the through
trade will desert Tabriz. The old route is now, and the new one will also
be, completely under the control of the Russians. The exits being in their
hands, their tariffs can close or open them at will.
Route 2—via Tabriz, Bayazid, Erzerum, and Trebizond.—-Till lately, it is
said, this route, in spite of its greater length, has held its own with the
established Tabriz merchants, owing to the Persian trader’s dislike of the
vexatious duties and restrictions which the Russians still persist in retaining.
The treaty of Berlin, however, restored Bayazid to the
exposed 106 t0 Turks ; and those who prefer the Turkish route are free to
come and go. But the Russians may induce the Turks to
charge heavy transit duties on Turkish roads—a course likely to find favour
with a needy country ; and they may combine this with an abolition of their
own tariff and regulations. As soon as either of these things happen, if
the Turkish roads are allowed to remain in their present condition, Euro
pean goods will have little chance of competing with Russian products in
northern Persia; and for the carrying trade of Persian goods the
Erzerum-Tabriz route will ultimately be almost entirely superseded by Route
* The railway is completed to Baku ; but no further.
54
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.
- Written in
- 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’ [236r] (478/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690763.0x00004f> [accessed 24 November 2024]
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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