![‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎283v] (573/722)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0002d7/Mss Eur F112_376_0579.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎283v] (573/722)")
‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [283v] (573/722)
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.
“besides whom the regiment has—
1
vakil
Elected representative or attorney, acting in legal matters such as contracting marriage, inheritance, or business; a high-ranking legal official; could also refer to a custodian or administrator.
bashi (sergeant-major).
5
vakil
Elected representative or attorney, acting in legal matters such as contracting marriage, inheritance, or business; a high-ranking legal official; could also refer to a custodian or administrator.
baidak (colour-sergeants).
1 mushrif
1 tahvildar
1 sarishtadar
1 tambour major.
' clerks.
23. The rates of pay are as follows {vide Mr. Thomson's Report,
Pay. June 1880) :
Sartip, 800 tumans per annum and upward
Sarbang, 500 tumans per annum
Yawar, 150 tumans per annum
Sultan 60 tumans per annum
bfaib-i-awal, 30 tumans per annum
Naib-i-diiwam, 20 tumans per annum
about
£ s.
... 300 0
... 180 0
... 53 0
... 22 0
... 11 0
... 7 10
24. The infantry soldier receives 7 tumans a year as pay and 6 krans a
month as ‘ jirah/ or subsistence money in lieu of rations. Total, 14 tumans
2 krans (5/. 14s.) per annum. Besides this, which he gets from the gov
ernment, he has the ‘ khan ah war i/ as above described, averaging about 10
tumans (31. 10s.) a year. The soldier, therefore, receives altogether about 91.
a year, which, if paid regularly and without peculation by the officers, is
fairly good pay when compared with the rates of wages, price of bread,
&c., in the country. The jirah is paid monthly with tolerable regularity.
The pay is issued very irregularly. It is supposed to be due quarterly.
Officers receive the same jirah as the men ; and those of and above the rank
of sultan get forage besides.— (Vide Mr. Thomson's Report, June 1880.)
25. Artillerymen get double the pay of infantry soldiers ; but the same
jirah and khanahwari.
26. The sawars, or horsemen, of the irregular cavalry provide their own
horses, arms, and clothing (they have no uniform) ; and get 30 tumans a
year as pay, besides jirah and forage, the latter consisting of 1 man (7 lbs.)
barley and 2 mans (14 lbs.) straw.
27. Soldiers often supplement their pay by working as labourers, butchers,
money-changers, &c., paying their officers a certain amount for the privi
lege of doing so.
28. The annual charge for the army to the government, i.e., exclusive
of khanahwari, is 1,750,000 tumans, or about 585,000/., in cash, and 81,000
kharwars of corn, worth, say, 160,000 tumans, or 55,000/.
29. The infantry and artillery soldiers while serving get two
Clotliino-. suits of uniform and two pairs of shoes a year..
Greatcoats are rarely issued, and only on special
occasions. The uniforms are now mostly made after the Austrian
pattern introduced by the Austrian officers. The material is very poor.
This, however, is of comparatively little consequence, as the men use
their uniforms merely as outer coverings over their own clothes. There
is, of course, great peculation in the matter of clothing ; and it may safely
he said that more than half the money paid for it goes into the pockets
of the sartips and war office officials. The two regiments of Cossacks
are well dressed, in exact imitation of the Cossacks of the Caucasus.
•30. The barracks are mere caravansarais—rows of empty rooms
Barracks. without windows—opening towards the central court
yards. The soldiers, following in this respect the
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’ [283v] (573/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690763.0x0000ae> [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