‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [296v] (599/722)
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.
546
appointed the son of the Khan to the headship f the trihe, in the room
of his father.
After these successes, Abbas Mirza determined to march against Sarakhs.
This city was in the hands'of the Salor Turku mans. It is considered by
the Persians to be one of the four chief cities of Khurasan. Its situation
in the desert, between Mashhad and Mary, renders its possession a matter
of necessity to an invader from either side, whethei Usbak or Persian; and
accordingly, as Persia had been wholly unable. to advance so far to the
eastward since the days of Nadir Shah, the possession of Sarakhs had
Ing been a point of dispute between the Khan of Khiva and the Amir of
Bukhara. The S;dor tribe, who held the city, had not been in the habit
of making marauding incursions into Persia for the purpose of plunder
and capturing slaves; but they were charged by Abbas Mfrza with supply
ing arms to other Turkoman tribes, and of receiving Persian prisoners in
return, whom they either retained as slaves, or sold in Khiva and Bukhara.
The chief of the tribe was named Adina Khan. When Abbas Mirza
advanced against the place, there were three thousand captive Shiahs
within the city. Abbas Mirza at once summoned the city to surrender,
and Adina Khan proceeded to his camp, and offered to release the Persian
captives on receiving back some Turkuman hostages, who had been previ
ously sent to Persia. Abbas Mirza, however, placed Adina Khan in
confinement, and opened fire upon the city. 'The Turkumans within the
walls placed their Shiah captives in such a p sition, that they were exposed
to the full effects of the firing, and Abbas Mirza accordingly suspended
the cannonade. Subsequently the prince received a petition from the Shiah
captives in Sarakhs, imploring deliverance from a captivity in which they
were compelled to hear the Shiah faith blasphemed, and to see their wives
violated. Abbas Mirza then sent Adina Khan into the city with an ulti
matum, that, unless Sarakhs was surrendered without conditions, and
within an hour, he would storm the place. The hour elapsed, and the
order was issued for an assault, to be followed by a general massacre. The
Salors fought desperately, but were at length overpowered, and a fearful
carnage ensued. At last the soldiers abandoned the work of slaughter for
that of plunder, and are said to have obtained great spoil. The Shiah
captives were set at liberty, and permitted to wreak their vengeance upon
the slave-dealers; and a hundred and fifty slave-masters were literally tom
to pieces by their infuriated servants. The walls of Sarakhs were then
levelled with the ground. Subsequently the chief of the Kara tribe, the
last refractory leader in Khurasan, submitted to the authority of the Shah.
“After these successes, Abbas Mfrza returned to Mashhad. The bom
bastic intention of extending the Persian empire to the river Oxus had not
been realised, and the prince had not even penetrated as far as Marv.
The conquest, however, was effected on paper. Five thousand prisoners of
the tribe of Salor still remained in his camp, and the Khan of Khiva offered
fifty thousand tumans as ransom. Abbas Mfrza accepted the terms, on the
condition that he also received a paper comprising four stipulations :—
“1st ,—That Persian merchants proceeding to Central Asia should be
• conducted as far as the Oxus by guards of the Salor tribe, who
should be responsible for their safe-conduct.
“2nd .—That the Salor tribe should prevent the tribes of Tekke and
Sarik from invading Khurasan, or, at any rate, give timely notice
of such incursions to the nearest Persian authorities.
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’ [296v] (599/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690763.0x0000c8> [accessed 24 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