![‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎275v] (557/722)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0002d7/Mss Eur F112_376_0563.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎275v] (557/722)")
‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [275v] (557/722)
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.
Infantry.—76 regiments, or battalions, of which—
20 contain 1,000 men each.
1 „ 9C0
63 „ 800
1 „ 400
1 „ 250 „
A company consists of 1 captain, 2 subalterns, and 100 men.
Nominally, the army consists of 10 divisions, of 2 brigades each ; but
in reality no brigades exist.
A general of division is called amfr-i-tuman, or chief of 10,000.
General of bri<rade is called armr-i-panj, or chief of 5,000.
"When a district furnishes a regiment, its taxes are reduced.
In consequence of this policy, the northern and western provinces supply
nearly all the regiments.
Regiments are raised by conscription, details being left in the hands of
their colonels.
Draft begins with the rich, who purchase exemption, and then proceeds
till poverty forces the victim into the ranks.
Price paid by general and held officers for promotion is two years’, and
by company officers one year’s pay.
All of the Persian cavalry is irregular and unorganised. In case of a
popular war, it is supposed that the tribes could fur-
' aw ' ,iy ' nish from 60,000 to 7U,0U0. In the contrary case, it
is doubtful if they could furnish 20,000.
The typical horse is short, compactly yet gracefully built, and well
adapted for cavalry service. The saddle is high and long, inflexible, and
equally cruel to man and beast.
Artillery—consists of 20 battalions of 250 men each; but there are no
organised batteries, nor trains.
In the arsenals of Tihran and Tabriz a supply of muskets is kept on
hand, consisting of 10,000 chassepots, 40,000 taba-
tieres, and from 20,000 to 60,000 arms of other
Arms and material.
descriptions.
Twenty mountain guns, breech-loading, for mules, ordered by Persian
government from Vienna ; also 500 rounds per gun. 10,000 rifles of Wendel
pattern also ordered—on their way out. 2,000 rifled carbines, with 500,000
rounds, also ordered in Russia.
The tabatiere is a worthless, transformed muzzle-loader, captured by the
Germans in 1870, and sold to the Shah when in Europe at 21 francs each.
The ammunition for it is likewise worthless.
The artillery material consists of about 500 smoothbore and 60 rifled guns,
all of brass. The latter were rifled in Persia, on the Belgian system. The
number of guns of all kinds stored in the various government arsenals of
Persia has been stated at over 1,000 ; but there are only 200 mounted and in
a fairly serviceable condition. Of these, 50 could be bored and turned out of
the arsenal at Tihran within a few days’ notice.
Ammunition is kept in hand for the smoothbore arms; but none has yet
been provided for the rifles.
Powder is manufactured at a mill near Tihran.
A supply of about 20,000 uniforms, of the Zouave style, is generally
Clothing and camp- kept on hand. That required for immediate use,
equipage. as for the garrison of Tihran, is kept in depots, with
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’ [275v] (557/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690763.0x00009e> [accessed 28 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