Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎290r] (582/1814)

^ aspects of n
[ Ul ^ertook to ^
1 of the forme,,
;7“ r P «U 6 «, !
ld the East. Physt
,v inces, to whick i Q
, it bears the clo sest
Mderan is so li kel
? from the East, or
roni Teheran that
ppropriate in thi8
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inin or Gate of the
living there, is said
3est authority upon
r Yezidibnlfeklub,
and general of the
nit 720 a.d . 2 Its
urse it was levelled
n in 1384 a.d. In
irters of the Kajar
nt (1836), Journal of a
), Journal of the R.G.S.,
es, pp. 416-451; Sir H.
Nonrelles Annales des
Sketches on the Caspian
,rt iv.; N. de KhanikofE
'oceedivgs of the R G.S.,
ate, vol. ii.; M. Gnilliny
Melgunof (1868), Dm
nzen Persians) Colonel
Zeitsehrift der Ges. M
875 ; Captain Puscbin
881-1882), Proceedings
aort, No. 36, 1882. .
( l 743_1744), Historical
ds on the South of W
s/nan Shores, caps-^
ii pp. 50-59; (Sir) C.
in 163 • B- O’Donovan
Stt (1881), ^
Viv on®
a 0 f Suleim aI1
bn-Messlnb,
THE NOETHERN PROVINCES
357
Tribe, one branch of whom was settled here, and at the fort of
Ak Kaleh on the Gurgan ; and one of whose chieftains raised the
standard of revolt against Nadir Shah and seized the town in
January 1744, while Han way happened to be residing there,
innocently bent upon the quixotic task of conducting a large
trading caravan to Meshed, and attracting to the English net the
commerce of Central Asia. Nadir Shah took summary venge
ance upon the rebels, and ordered the Kajar stronghold of Kaleh
Khundan in the city to be razed to the ground. The subsequent
rise and ascendancy of the Kajar tribe brought Astrabad into a
piominence that it had not before enjoyed; but in this century the
members of that tribe have been dispersed in positions of mark
throughout the country; whilst Astrabad has acquired another
and moie sinister importance as the armed outpost ag’ainst
Turkoman attack. Of this desultory guerilla warfare I have
before spoken. Its significance has usually been thought sufficient
to justify a Royal Governor at Astrabad, and the province has
suffered in proportion.
^ The town is at once one of the most picturesque and ragged in
Pei sia. The circuit of its mud walls, flanked with round towers
and defended by what was once a deep ditch, is about
miles ; through which four gates admit to the interior.
But walls, towers, and ditch are in a state of like decay;
the forest has encroached almost to the outskirts of the city, and
a jungle of brambles and briars, the favourite haunt of the wild
boar, fills the moat and assails the ramparts. Nor does the city
occupy the whole of the interior space; for here, too, are deserted
and overgrown patches more frequented by wild animals than by
man. Nevertheless, the town is most picturesquely situated; the
wooded slopes of the Elburz descending almost to its gates; and
the outlook from its walls extending over a thick forest for twenty
miles to where, on the west, the Caspian glitters on the horizon ;
and on the other, or north-eastern side to the Gurgan or Wolf
River , 1 and the sandy flats of the Turkomans desert. More
picturesque, however, than its own surroundings is the town itself.
Its thatched or red-tiled houses, with roof of high pitch and wide
projecting eaves, the tiles being laid on reeds supported on rafters.
It was from the Gurgan that the ancient Hyrcania was named ; the roots hyrc
and gwg being identical in old Aryan. Hyrcania comprised the Gurgan plain as
tar as the Atrek, Astrabad, and the greater part of Mazanderan.
Present
appear
ance
B ■