"بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي من إعداد السيد المحترم جورج ناثانييل كورزون، عضو البرلمان." [‎١‎٨‎٢] (٧١٤/٢١٧)

PERSIA
above all in the juxtaposition of their extended borders with
those of two foreign Powers, neither of whom can be considered
Origin as other than hostile—namely, Russia and Afghanistan—
Khorasan that tlie Khorasan Question finds its birth ; and it is upon
Question a consideration of these manifold elements that any at
tempt either to comprehend or to solve it must primarily be based.
The greater part of the western and southern limits of Khorasan,
not being border districts, but abutting upon other Persian pro
Astrabad vinces, and being either inhabited by Persians or not
province inhabited at all, play no part in the problem of frontier
policy. This may be said to commence with the Astrabad province,
occupying the neck of land between the Astrabad Bay, in the
south-east corner of the Caspian, and the district of Shahrud,
and also a stretch of fertile soil between the Gurgan and Atrek
rivers as far east as the oGth parallel of longitude. 1 Its capital and
only city is Astrabad, with a population of 8,000, which is the resi
dence of the Governor. Its port is Bunder-i-Gez, thirty miles distant,
on the bay before named. The Governor was till recently Amir Khan
Serdar, the Saif-el-Mulk, a young man. who is the brother of one of
the Shah's wives. He was said to possess every quality that should
disqualify him for the discharge of such an office, and to have been
merely sent to Astrabad in order to get rid of him at Teheran. He
has since either been superseded or has resigned. The forces of the
Astrabad province are nominally 3,800, of whom a garrison of 300
is stationed at the fortified post of Ak Kaleh (White Fortress), eight
miles from the capital, on the Gurgan; 2,900 were lately in camp
at the same place ; and the rest are scattered in different directions,
or are not under arms at all; one-fourth of the total nominal
strengthbeingavery moderate deduction forabsentees. The province
of Astrabad, though distinct from Khorasan and not responsible to
the Governor-General, cannot be omitted from any discussion of
the politics of the larger area, for the reason that it commands the
western approaches thereto from the rest of Persia and Teheran,
and that it is directly concerned in the solution of three distinct
questions, each affecting Khorasan in the closest degree, though
only touching it from without. These are the questions of the
Something more will be said of the Astrabad province, its character, resources,-
climate, and capital, in a chapter on the Northern Provinces of Persia, to which
I refer my readers. Here it is only treated in its bearing upon the political or
frontier problem.