"دليل بلاد فارس، المجلد I ويشمل محافظات أستراباد، شاهرود-بوستان، خراسان، وسيستان" [و‎‎٣‎٢‎٤] (٧٢٢/٦٥٤)

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by the great snowclad mountains of Sujakhel and Bakbarz. To the north
east the plain is said to be continuous with the Marv desert.— {Bellew,
Napier.)
SARK-AN—Lat. tT 7' 0", Long. 58° 29' 0"; Elev.
A large village in Khurasan, 7 miles from Kuchan and | a mile north of
the road to Mashhad. It contains 80 to 100 houses.— {Napier.)
SARMAJKAND— Lat. , Long. ; Elev.
A village of Khurasan, 2 miles south of Mashhad.— {MacGregor.)
SARMAZDIH —Lat. , Long. ; Elev.
A village in Khurasan, 11 miles from Sultanabad (Turshfz), on the road to
Shahrud.—( Tag lor.)
SARMLNDASHT— Lat. , Long. ; Elev.
A village in the Mahawalat subdivision of the Turbat-i-Haidan district of
Khurasan.— {Bclleiv.)
SARPtJSlllDA* —Lat. , Long. ; Elev. '.
A village in Khurasan, 8 miles from Zafarani, on the road to Sabzawar
from Mashhad. The sandy soil is here cut, scooped, and honeycombed by
the wind in a manner similar to that to be seen in some parts of Sistan.
There is a good caravansarai here.— {Bellew, Goldsmid.)
SARSHfiLA— Lat. , Long.^ ^ ; Elev.
A wide, deep gully bounding the Sistan province on the west. The whole
south-west border is traversed by it from north to south. It drains the over-
how of the Hamun to the Zawah depression or hollow. Between the
Helmand and the Sarshela in the west is the wide plain of Sistan. The
Sarshela encamping-ground is 42 miles south-west of Sihkuha on the road
to Karman.-— {Bellew, Lumsden.)
SARUK—
Stewart savs that, besides the Chahar Aimak nomads, there are nomads in the
Herat province, who are not considered Aimaks. First, the Saruk Turkumans
of Panjdih. They are settled on the Murghab about a group of villages
known as Panjdih, and along the course of the Murghab to the Afghan
frontier ; but there is a more or less uninhabited space between the independ
ent Saruk settled at Yulatan and the Panjdih Saruk, who are Afghan
subjects. The Saruk of Yulatan have thrown in their lot more or less with
the Tekke Turkumans; but the Panjdih Saruk are not friendly with the
Tekke, and having been driven out by them from their lands lower
down the Murghab, they have settled in Afghan territory, and acknowledge
themselves to°be Afghan subjects. They cultivate the lands and graze
their flocks up the course of the Murghab as far as Maruchak. They
do pay something to the Afghan governors of Herat; but the amount to be
exacted very much depends on the state of Afghanistan. The Panjdih
Saruk have always acknowledged that they occupy Afghan land and
are liable to pay revenue. The governors of Herat may at times have been
too weak to exact it ; but while Abdul Kudus Khan was governor, he sent a
man, with a few horsemen, to Panjdih to be governor of the Afghan
Saruk country ; and this was done at the request of the Saruk. .
Napier says of them they were once a powerful tribe, numbering
15,000 tents, and holding possession of both b arakhs and Mary. Their
* The “ Hidden Head.”
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