![‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎283r] (572/722)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0002d7/Mss Eur F112_376_0578.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎283r] (572/722)")
‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [283r] (572/722)
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.
tribe or village supplies its quota. This distribution, however, is a purely
arbitiaiy one, there being no fixed proportion between the number of soldiers
and that of inhabitants. Some districts are heavily taxed in this respect, and
others lightly or not at all. It is generally left to the villagers themselves to
choose the leciuits. I he men of a village divide themselves or are divided into
so many sets or sections as there are soldiers in the village quota. Each sec
tion then chooses its lecruit, with whom it enters into an agreement to pay him
01 his family so much per mensem while he is serving with the colours. This
local payment (which .has nothing to do with the pay given by government)
is called khanahwari, or home pay, and varies according to the wealth of the
village fiom 3 to 20 tumans (1^. 2s. to 7/.) per annum, the average being
about 8 or 10 tumans, say ol. 10s. The amount is a matter of private
arrangement. In some degree, therefore, the actual soldiers are volunteers.
Once chosen and accepted, the soldier serves for an indefinite period until
death, or discharge on account of unfitness.
IS. The officers (regarding whom no conditions of education or efficiencv
are exacted) are also local people, their appointment and promotion being
practically in the hands of the sartip, or chief of the regiment, who
usually dispenses his patronage by sale.
19. The regiment consists of eight companies, and has usually the follow
ing complement of officers :—
1 sartip (usually translated ‘ general,’ but more nearly corresponding with ‘colonel ’).
1 sarhang (lieutenant-colonel).
2 yawars (majors.)
1 adjudan (adjutant).
8 sultans (captains).
8 naib-i-awal (1st lieutenants).
8 naib-i-diiwam (2nd lieutenants).
8 begzadah (ensigns).
20. As the regimental officers are generally without technical knowledge,
the instruction of the embodied regiments is left entirely in the hands of
drill instructors, of whom there are at present four officers and three
non-commissioned officers of Austrian infantry; one officer and one non
commissioned officer of Austrian artillery; two Italian infantry officers;
four officers and six non-commissioned officers of Russian Cossacks; and
about 60 young Persian officers trained by the recent Austrian detachment.
All the Europeans, and most of the Persians, are employed in Tihran; and
the remainder of the Persians with the other garrisons, Tabriz, Isfahan,
Karmanshah, &c.
21. For drill purposes the regiment is divided into four c gurnhans/ or divi
sions, each commanded by an instructor (muallfm) ; while another instruc
tor has charge of the whole. These f gurnhans 3 (division in the old French
sense of the word) are not necessarily double companies, but are merely
fourths of the battalion on parade. The system of drill does not in any
way correspond with the administrative division of the regiment in com
panies ; and the regimental officers have little or nothing to do with it.
Nou-commissioned officers. 22. Each company has—■
1 valdl-i-awal (senior sergeant).
2 vakfl-i-duwam (sergeants).
4 sarjuga (corporals).
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’ [283r] (572/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690763.0x0000ad> [accessed 28 November 2024]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- 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