"بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي من إعداد السيد المحترم جورج ناثانييل كورزون، عضو البرلمان." [‎١‎٨‎٨] (٧١٤/٢٢٣)

188
PERSIA
route for a European army marching to Meshed or Herat was un
doubtedly by Astrabad. But since then the Transcaspian situation
has been revolutionised. Russia sits securely where the Turkoman
terror formerly reigned. Meshed can be smitten from Ashkabad,
and Herat from Merv and Penjdeh, without any necessity for the
lengthy land march from the Caspian. Astrabad, therefore, as a
point of debarkation, has not the value for Russia that it formerly
had. Nor are its own resources sufficient, so far as can be ascer
tained, to support a very large army in the field, although it is
said that, in 1863, a Persian army of 30,000 men remained encamped
for eight months in the neighbourhood. Its value is now not so
much offensive as defensive. Its eye may be said to look not
eastwards, but westwards ; and its strategical importance is involved
in the second of the questions which I named above, viz. the con
trol of the Shahrud road and the position which it consequently
enables its occupant to take up against the rest of Persia and the
capital.
Astrabad is separated from Shahrud by the Shah Kuh, or main
range of the Elburz mountains, which here retain a distinct physical
The individuality before they are broken up into the manifold
ridges of northern Khorasan. The highest peak of this
section, fifteen miles south of Astrabad, attains an altitude
of 13,000 feet. Across the range there are two passes to Shahrud,
a distance by the mule track of sixty-five miles, one of which at
least, in spite of the elevation and of the nature of the country,
might be converted into an excellent military road. 1 An army
marching by either of these and seizing Shahrud, which is abso
lutely defenceless, would find itself in this position. It would, in
the first place, be surrounded by a district of considerable fertility
and abundant water supply, capable even in summer of sustaining
a large army. 2 Secondly, it would hold the point of junction of the
1 The two roads between Shahrud and Astrabad (one by the Kuzluk Pass, the
other by Ziarat) are described by Lieut. A. Conolly (1830), Overland Journey to
India, vol. i. pp. 182-184; Captain Claude Clerk (1872), Proceed,ings of the B.G.S.,
vol. xvii. pp. 193-194 ; Colonel 13. Lovett (1881), Ditto (New Series), vol. v. pp.
75-84 (1883). The road from Astrabad to Gez (27 miles) is described by E. B.
Eastwick (18G2), Journal of a Diplomate, vol. ii. pp. 45-49 ; Captain Hon. G.
Napier (1874), Journal of the li.G.S., vol. xlvi. pp. 114, 115 ; (Sir) C. MacGregor
(1875), Journey through Khorasan, vol. ii. pp. 163-166.
2 Colonel Val. Baker (6V^w^,s in the East, p. 142) said that the plain of Bostam
•(which is the district surrounding Shahrud, Bostam, three miles distant, being
the residence of the Governor) could maintain an army of 60,000 men.
Astrabad-
Shahrud
position