"دليل بلاد فارس. مجلد I" [و‎‎٧‎٢] (٨٢٠/١٤٨)

Timuri .—The Timuri claim to be descended from Mir Saiyid Kasim
also known as Mir Saiyid Kalal, who was the descendant of Imam Jaiar
Sadik, the sixth in descent from ’AIL
His descendants remained about Herat, and became very powerful ;
especially one Haji Khan. In his time the Timuti were settled chiefly
in Badghls, north of Herat, between the Murghab and Hari Rud. A
large portion of the tribe moved over from Badghis, and occupied Khaf
and its district, which was'then Afghan. Amir Qalich Khan, Haji Khan s
son, rose to great influence in Herat, quarrelled with Mir Hasan Khan,
the Vazir of Shah Mahmud, and killed him ; seized the citadel of Herat,
and declared himself a partizan of Shah Zaman, against Shah Mahmud. Ho
gave up the citadel to Shah Zaman, and withdrew himself and the rest of
his tribe to Khaf ; having gone to Tehran and visited Fath ’Ali Shah,
he declared himself a Persian subject. The Timuri also occupied a large
portion of the Sabzawar district of Afghanistan and remained there.
They are very Arab-looking in features, though larger and coarser-mad©
men. Their language is Persian at present.
About 2,000 families of Timuri are said to be still in the Herat, Sabza
war and Farah districts of Afghanistan.
The Timuri in Khorasan number about 6,000 families at present. They
are scattered in the Meshed, Jam, Bakharz Khaf, Zurabad and SaraBha
districts, and are under Mir ’Ali MardanKhan, a direct descendant of Saiyid
Mir Kalal. .
Mir ’Ali Mardan Khan was first appointed Sarhang (Lieutenant-Colonef),
but has gradually been promoted to be Sardar (General of the Ist^ class)-
He was granted the title of Nusrat-ul-Mulk by the late ISasir-ud-Din Shah
on the occasion of the latter’s first visit to Khorasan in the year 1867, for
valuable services rendered by him to the Persian Government during the
Turkoman raids on the Khorasan frontier.
He was Governor of Persian Sarakhs in 1884, and has been Deputy
Governor-General of Khorasan and Sistan several times^ He was
appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Shah’s forces in Khorasan at tho
beginning of the year 1895. In September 1895 he was treacherously seized
by the Shihab-ul-Mulk (now Asaf-ud-Dauleh), the then Governor-General
of Khorasa i. and confined in a village 30 miles from Meshed. ^
As Governor of the districts adjoining the Herat frontier (Jam, Bakhara
and Khaf), which he ruled for a long time, the Nusrat-ul-Mulk was most
useful to the British Agency in Khorasan. He was always a friend ot the
English and his fall was a blow to British interests in Khorasan.
On the matter being brought to the notice of the^ late Nasir-ud-Dm-
Shah, His Majesty found great fault with the Shihab-ul-Mulk lor his
proceedings and censured him in severe terms, while the Shihab-ul-Mulk
endeavoured to exculpate himself by heaping false charges aeamst the
Nusrat-ul-Mulk. . , ,-i
The districts governed by the Nusrat-ul-Mulk not only conta ned the
bulk of his tribe, but were those in which British interests chiefly centred
because they bordered on Afghan territory. It was in his capacity as
Governor of these districts that the Nusrat-ul-Mulk proved himself so
valuable a friend to the British. Government, and, what is remarkable lor a
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