![‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎279v] (565/722)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0002d7/Mss Eur F112_376_0571.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎279v] (565/722)")
‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [279v] (565/722)
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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512
Paragraph 5 of the memorandum is inexact. The lashkarnavis has either
odven wilfully wrong information, or else he has counted merely the strength
of the regiments when sent to Tihran for garrison duty. He has left out
several regiments, which only rarely come to Tihran. The total number of
men enrolled and drilled (as far as Persian drill goes) may be taken at
53 000, and the number of organised battalions at 70.
' 6 Por the actual numbers present with the colours of each embodied
reo-iment at least 10 percent., or thereabouts, should be deducted from the
above figures on account of men who have bribed their officers for per
mission to stay at home. _ , r ,
7 The regiments contained m the first ot the above lists, and not in the
second, have either never been embodied at all, or so many years have elapsed
since their last embodiment, that they may be considered as nonexistent.
Cavalry *
8. It is specially difficult to arrive at a correct estimate of the number
of irregular cavalry. Even the term irregular, applied as it is in India and
elsewhere to perfectly organised troops, conveys a false impression, the Persian
irregular cavalry being mere levies of armed horsemen without instruction
or organisation of any kind. Of late years, however, a few regiments of
semi-regular cavalry have been established and more or less drilled. Of
these, the best are the two regiments organised on the model of the Russian
Cossacks, and drilled by Russian Cossack officers. Besides these, there is
a reo-iment styled f Nasir/ towards the cost of which the amount of the salary
of the late Sipah Salar (18,000 tumans per annum) has been appropriated.
There are two other regiments called ‘Mansur' and ‘ Nasrat/ a small regi
ment of Kurd-u- Turk, and another of the Zil-us-Sultanat's,--all more or less
drilled. The numbers of these troops are approximately as follows
Nominal.
Actual.
2 regiments of Cossacks, 350 each
1 regiment of Nasir
1 regiment of Mansur
1 regiment of Nasrat
1 regiment of Kiird-u-Turk
1 regiment of Zil-us-Sultanat’s
...
700
1,000
1,000
800
300
300
700
600
600
500
200
300
Total
...
?4,500
?3,300
9. Besides the above, there are the Sawar-i-Mahajirf (some 800 horse
men in all) belonging to the Lankoran districts ceded to Russia, who serve
permanently in small detachments in different parts of the country. I hey,
however, as well as the irregular levies of armed horsemen referred to above,
should perhaps more appropriately be styled mounted gens d'armes than
cavalry. In ordinary times they act solely as police for supporting the
authority of the governors, keeping down highway robbery, enforcing the
collection of revenue, &c. In war time no doubt a large number might be
* The best part of Colonel Smith’s memorandum is that which deals with the cavalry ; hut he
has made no allusion to the tribal levies, which, under certain circumstances, might bring the
Persian cavalry up to 50,000 men or more.
f ‘ Mahajir ’ means ‘ one who abandons or quits his own country.’
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’ [279v] (565/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690763.0x0000a6> [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