"دليل بلاد فارس، المجلد I ويشمل محافظات أستراباد، شاهرود-بوستان، خراسان، وسيستان" [ظ‎‎٣‎٧] (٧٢٢/٧٩)

54
a village here with a few hundred palm trees. It contains 60 houses.—
(MacGregor.)
BA1DAR —Lat. , Lo\g. ; Elev.
A village at the foot of the Muminabad range of hills in the Narjun sub-
division of the district of Kain, Khurasan.—
BAIBA.GrU Lat. 5 Long. ; xjLev.
A village in Daraghaz north of Muhammadabad.—
BAIRAM-ULtJN — Lat. 37° 44' 0", -Long. 55° 2' 0"; Elev.
(Intelligence Department, War Office). _ ^ ^ . , r 7 .
A ford over the Atrak river, about £0 miles below Cdiat-i-Atrak.— (
gence Department, Jf ar Off re.)
]3AJ Lat. 32° 5L O''; Long. 59° 18' O''; Elev. (St. John).
A flourishing w T alled village of Khurasan, 7 miles east of Birjand, on the
road to Bui Khaf It contains 300 houses, and its inhabitants are Persians.—
(Stewart, Ferrier.)
BAKHABZ-Lat. , Long. ; Elev.
A sub-district in Khurasan. It is bounded on the north by the Kal-i-
Manar ridge, west by the snowy Bakharz range, east by the Kuh-i-Bins
or Yaktan-Kuh, which divides it from Jam, and on the south by a long
slope which comes out from the Korab-Kuh to the Hari-Bud, including
Kakriz. The lower portion of this district is simply a barren stony waste
gtopiag like a glacier down from the hills , but above Shahr-i-Kau in the
plain, and in the hills about Kal-iAIanar, there is a very fine tract of
country, which only requires labour to make it very productive; as the soil is
good, and there is abundance of water.
The principal village of Bakharz is Shahr-i-Nau; which, unlike most
Persian villages, has been laid out with some attempt at regularity.
The population of Bakharz, numbering about 15,000 souls, is entirely
Tajik or Persian, except 500 families of Hazaras. The presence of these
Hazaras is accounted for by the fact that Bakharz belonged to Afghanistan
down to the reign of Fateh Ali Shah. In 1825 the then governor, having
quarrelled with the Persian Government, transferred himself and all his
people to Herat, whence the above-mentioned 500 families were brought back
in 1857 bv Sultan Murad Marza Hossain-i-Sultaneh, when he had to give
up Herat" to the Afghans. Since that time the population has been small,
but the people have in a great measure returned to their native villages.
The numerous abandoned villages and ruined karez, or underground
canals, show how much more populous this country was formerly than it is
now. It is a fertile land and could support a large population. The soil in
spring is for the most part covered with fine green sward. Yusaf Khan,
Hazara, the late governor, was deprived of the government in 1881. He
lived at Mohsinabad, 3,000 tumans being given him to build a fort. It is
not a strong place ; but the Hazaras are brave men, and the presence of 5(JO
families so near the border is a great check on Turkman raids, \usaf Khan,
though a brave and dashing border chief, had a bad character; and he and Ins
Hazaras are credited, with some truth, with all the murders and robberies
that take place in the neighbourhood. He has been replaced by a creature
of the Mutashar-ul-Mulk; and the new governor lives at Shahr-i-Nau, which
is less exposed to Turkman raids. In Bakharz the feeling is very anti-
English and pro-Russian.