![‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎281v] (569/722)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0002d7/Mss Eur F112_376_0575.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎281v] (569/722)")
‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [281v] (569/722)
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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516
Artillery [R.T.).
11. The nominal strength of the Persian artillery is twenty-two battalions,
with 8,000 men and 3,500 horses. The actual force is twenty battalions, with
5,200 men and 1,700 horses, of which only about 200 are at present
trained.
There is no organisation in batteries or regiments. All the material is
kept in the large towns, principally Tihran and Tabriz. The horses
belong to a separate department, which is under the orders of a person, who
has nothing whatever to do with the artillery.
Persia has upwards of 1,000 guns of different calibre. About 500 are
in Tihran and 200 in Tabriz. The largest is a 60-pounder made in Isfa
han. Some 48-pounders and two 36-pounders have also been constructed;
but these are all worn out. The heaviest 2 -uns that could actually be brought
into action are 24-pounders ; but of these they have only got four. The
other heavy guns are 18, 16, 14, and 12 pounders, all smoothbores and
made after different models, English, Austrian, and Russian. There are
a certain number of howitzers, 42, 24, and 18 pounders. The heaviest
mortar is a 12-inch; the ordinary mortars are 24-pounders. The
fieldguns consist of 9 and 6 pounders and 12-pounder howitzers. The
mountain guns are 2 and 3 pounders and 6-pounder howitzers.
Besides this material, Persia has some rifled artillery. An old Belgian
4-pounder has served as a model for most of the rifled guns cast in Persia.
There are eighteen 6-pounders constructed ten years ago, of which only three
are in good order; also forty-eight 4-pounders, Belgian model, of which
thirty-three are unserviceable, and eighteen 6-pounders, of a calibre slightly
different from Belgian. These have not been tried ; but they are badly cast,
and required a special sort of ammunition, which has not yet been
made.
Eighteen Austrian, Uchatius, of nine centimetres calibre form the best
part of the Persian artillery ; and fifty-six 2-pounders, which have been rifled,
have proved to be excellent mountain guns ; but the small quantity of shells
made has been used up, and new shells have not yet been made.
The three Austrian batteries are complete, and can take the field at any
moment. The rest of the artillery material is so deficient and neglected,
that it would be difficult to send out six other batteries. It would require
at least six months* hard labour to fit out the whole of the artillery in
Tihran, and more than a year to equip that in the provinces.
There is a company of 90 men of permanently embodied camel artillery,
called zamburakchis [Smith).
Colonel Smith, r.e., thinks that the actual personnel of the artillery
does not exceed 2,500, of whom hardly more than half are ever embodied at
one time.
Captain de Loessoe considers that Mr. Tkomson*s report is an accurate
one.
12. The only engineer troops are the company of sappers (about 100
^ . men) belonging to the so-called corps, organised four
years ago by the detachment of Austrian officers
[vide para. 16).
Transport, commissariat. Of suck troops there are none.
hospital corps, &c.
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’ [281v] (569/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690763.0x0000aa> [accessed 7 February 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