"دليل بلاد فارس، المجلد I ويشمل محافظات أستراباد، شاهرود-بوستان، خراسان، وسيستان" [و‎‎٢‎٠‎٢] (٧٢٢/٤١٠)

Divisions .—The great divisions of Persia are—
1. Azerbaijan.
2. Gilan.
3. Mazandaran.
4. Astarabad.
5. Khurasan.
6. Yazd.
7. Karman.
8. Laristan.
9. Pars.
10. Khuzistan.
11. Isfahan.
12. Naln.
13. Tihran.
14. Khamsah
15. Malair. |
16. Ardalan. J
17. Karmanshab.
18. Luristan.
The following is an account of the physical geography of Persia by Major
St. John :—
Physical Geography.
Modern Persia occupies the western and larger half of the great
elevated plateau, rising between the valleys of the Indus and the Tigris.
This plateau, generally termed the Iranian, may he described in relation to.
the general mountain system of the old world as a section and southern
spur of that great dividing range, which forms the backbone of the
Europeo-Asiatic continent. On the west the highlands of Armenia unite
the Iranian plateau with the mountains of Asia Minor; and on the east the
Paropamisus and the Hindu Kush connect it with the Himalayas and the
highlands of Tibet. Between the two it is bounded on the north by the
vast desert steppes of South Russia, Khiva, and Bukhara, with the inter
vening depression which forms the Caspian Sea.
The Caucasus range and the highlands between it and Azerbaijan
present no features sufficiently distinctive to entitle the geographer to sepa
rate them from the Iranian plateau, from which they are divided by no
well-marked physical boundary. The opposite sides of the valley of the
Araxes a mere mountain torrent on a large scale, which foims the political
frontier, are alike in character. The same may be said of the valley of the
Kur; and the great Caucasian range itself is but a prolongation of the
Kurdn and Kopet range, the undoubted northern scarp of the Iranian
plateau, east of the Caspian. At best the Caucasian provinces of Russia
are but’an excrescence of the great elevated mass to the south-east; differ
ing from it only in characteristics produced by the more bounteous rainfall,
which has scooped out the valleys to a greater depth.
On the south-west, the valley of the Tigris, with its continuation
the Persian Oulf; on the south, the Arabian Sea; and the Indus
valley on the east, form the other limits of the Iranian plateau, which covers
in round numbers somewhat over a million square miles. Its average height
above the sea may be about four thousand feet varying from eight thousand
or hio’her in certain of the outer valleys to not more than five hundred in
the most depressed portions of the centre. This greater elevation towards
the edo-e gives an indication of the true basin-like character of the plateau.
Less than one-half its surface drains outward to the ocean, or to the
Caspian and Aral lakes. The river Kur rises upwards of 300 miles as
the crow flies, and the Kizil-Uzan or Safid Rud over 200 miles, from the
nearest shore of the Caspian, into which they flow. But with these excep
tions no river on the Iranian plateau has a course more than 150 miles in a