"دليل بلاد فارس، المجلد I ويشمل محافظات أستراباد، شاهرود-بوستان، خراسان، وسيستان" [و‎‎٤‎٥] (٧٢٢/٩٤)

The plain of Isferaym and JahJarmis parched and avid in the extreme^ and
could under no circumstances support a large population. The soil is
however alluvial and fertile, and well repays irrigation where practicable.
This plain drains west and south' past Jah Jarm into the Kal-i-Shur, and
thence to the “ Kavir.” It is divided from Juvain on the south by a low
range of hills.
The plateau of JBujnurd itself is so enclosed by mountains and so situated
that no important road, either commercial or mili
tary, will ever pass through it. The valley of the
Atrak and of its tributary, the Garma Khans, are absolutely impracticable as
a highway through the chain of Alburz, and the routes north to the Atak,
described in a previous report, are such as would be avoided by traders or by
modern armies.
A route that may at some future time have importance passes from Bustan
through Jah Jarm and Isferaym, in the south of the chief ship, to Mashhad;
and the old trade route to Gurgan, also before described, traverses the plain
of Isferayin and the plateau of Shaughan.
The mass of the population of Bujnurd are, as above noted, Kurds of the
Shahdillu tribe, who inhabit chiefly Bujnurd itself
Population. an d the frontier villages of Simalghan and Mana.
The town of Bujnurd has 1,200 houses chiefly of Shahdillu ; but there are
also a few families of Zaferanlu, political refugees, and of Tajiks and Turks
driven by the famine from other districts. On the plateau and in the hill
skirts are also thirteen villages, almost entirely of Shahdillu Kurds, with a
population of 1,200 households.
The valley of Mana has 10 villages and hamlets, with 300 households of
Shahdillu and a few families of Turks.
The Simalghan plateau has 12 villages, with an aggregate of 400
houses of Shahdillu and Geraili Turks.
Up to a comparatively recent date there were also in this portion of the
chiefship a number of nomads of the Goklan tribe; but the acquisition of
Kara-Killa in such close proximity by the Akhal Tekke forced them to
descend to the Gurgan plain, where they still remain in political connection
with the Ilkhani of Bujnurd, who collects their revenue on the part of the
Government of Astarabad.
The Shaughan plain, with the hill skirts about it, has five villages and a
number of hamlets or “kalas” with about 400 houses. Jah Jarm, which
must formerly have been a place of some importance, is now in the last
stage of decay. A miserable village of 400 houses only remains amid the
ruins of what must have been at least a considerable town under Arab rule.
There are also three small hamlets, Jwar, Durra, and Gurma, making a
total of about 800 houses. The people are entirely “ A jam” or Persian,
which is strange, as the name of the town and all the ruins visible are cer
tainly Arab, and there is in the neighbouring district of Bustan a large
mixture of Arab blood. _
In Isferayin there are two principal villages, Sangkhas or Chardeh (300
houses), consisting of the hamlets Jafarabad (40), Khuda Shah (40), Jur-
hat (70), Sangkhas (150), and Mianabad (100) ; in all 400 families, chiefly
of Persian origin.
There are besides eight or ten hamlets with 100 to 150 houses, and theie
are settled in Mianabad about 1,000 families of the llazaia tiibe biought