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‘Military report on Persia. Vol IV, part I. Persian Baluchistan, Kerman and Bandar Abbas.’ [32v] (73/166)
The record is made up of 81 folios. It was created in 1923. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
60
CHAPTER HI.
E thkogbapht.
General Only a putsott study of Persian history is reciiiired to
Chm«t«Tigties. ;realise lamentable lack, or at any rate feeblfenees, of the
popular spirit, and also the fact that Persia is not merely
a house divided against itself, but a rickety structure, kept
together by external pressure, and which every kind of
domestic discussion tends to reaid in pieces. Wild semi-
nomadic tribes, in every part of the kingdom, are ready
at any moment to disown allegiance to the Central Govern
ment, and can be restrained only by force and fear. The
Mullahs of the Shiah religion are reactionary and dread
anything that may weaken their prerogatives or dispel
the superstition of the masses ; they, therefore, deprecate
the spread of civic rights and liberties to their bond slaves.
The governing and upper classes are all reactionaries and
royalists. They are steeped in corruption, and have
battened for centuries on such ill-gotten gains as an
iniquitious system of Government allows them to squeeze
out of the masses. The Persians are an emotional people,
quick to seize upon a new idea or doctrine and their subtle,
active brains render them peculiarly susceptible to the
influence of any kind of sentimental or abstract teaching ;
hence a Persian crowd is easily manipulated by a
demagogue. So it follows that a few enthusiasts of the
younger generation, who have imbibed western ideas of
freedom and constitutional rights, experience little
difficulty in exciting an enthusiasm of popular feeling, at
least momentary and spasmodic. Thus during the nationa
list movement, at one time a fanatical populace was
clamouring for a constitution and abolition of hoary
wrongs, and at another was acquiescing, almost without a
murmur, in the cannonading of its national assembly or
the arrival of foreign troops to restore order. Charao-
teristics such as these are insufficient to bring about a suc
cessful revolution, but afford a magnificent field for the
machinations of agitators and adventurers. The success
of the constitutional movement was thus largely due to
the adroit use of such inflammable material by a few bold
leaders (mostly foreigners), who supplied the necessary
About this item
- Content
Military report on Persia (volume IV, part I, covering Persian Baluchistan, Kermān and Bandar Abbas [Bandar-e ʻAbbās]), dated 1922, and published by the Central Government Press at Simla in 1923. The report’s chapters cover:
- History , including: Persia’s recent political history; a recent history of Persian Baluchistan, and military operations in Persia Baluchistan, notably the operations at Dizak in 1901-02, operations against maritime arms trafficking in 1909, an expedition against Makrān in 1911 to check arms trafficking, and operations against the Dāmānīs in East Persia in 1916, to protect British interests in Persia; b) a brief history of Kermān; and c) a brief history of Bandar-e ʻAbbās.
- Geography for Persian Baluchistan; Kermān; and Bandar-e ʻAbbās, with headings for boundaries, administrative districts, and the principal villages for each region, as well as sections on rivers, lakes, mountains, harbours and deserts as appropriate. The section on Bandar-e ʻAbbās includes a description of buildings, water supply, camping grounds, roads and local industry. There are also descriptions of the principal islands off the Persian Baluchistan coast: Qishm [Qeshm], Henjam [Hengam] and Hormuz.
- Ethnography , including: general characteristics; notes for intelligence officers; sections on the population and tribes of Persian Baluchistan, Kermān Bandar-e ʻAbbās.
- Climate and Health , including details of medical facilities.
- Resources , including: transport (camels, mules, donkeys, horse and oxen); and supplies, chiefly of agricultural crops, by region and village.
- Military , including: British garrisons and South Persia Rifles; the Persian Army; the fighting strength of the Persian tribes, organised by region and village; military notes on Persian Baluchistan, including the arms traffic in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
- Communications , including: the railway line between Mirjāwā [Mīrjāveh] and Duzdāp, its facilities (water, rolling stock, telegraph), and risks of damage to the line; other proposed lines between Bandar-e ʻAbbās and Kermān, and Gwadar and Kermān; cable, wireless, telephone lines, and visual signalling stations.
- Political , including an outline of administration in Persian Baluchistan, Kermān and Bandar-e ʻAbbās, and information on currency, weights and measures.
Appendix A is a list of the nomadic tribes of the Kermān province, listed by district and the number of families in each tribe. Appendix B is a list of the annual subsidies paid to chiefs in Persian Baluchistan by the Indo-European Telegraph Department, for the protection of lines passing through their district. Appendix C is a table of resources (livestock, agricultural produce), with figures indicating the requirements for local consumption in each district. Appendix D is a distribution statement of the Sarhad Levy Corps as of 1 July 1922.
The maps and plans include: a map of Persian Baluchistan (folio 78); a map of Kerman and its environs (folio 77); a diagram of the Mīrjāveh station yard (folio 74); a diagram of Duzdāp station yard (folio 76); a sketch map showing signalling and heliograph posts between Chahbar and Geh (folio 75); and a sketch map showing communications between Kerman and Saidabad (folio 79).
- Extent and format
- 81 folios
- Arrangement
The volume is arranged into eight chapters (labelled I-VIII), followed by four appendices (A-D), and finishing with six maps and plans, as set out on the volume’s contents page (f. 2). Each chapter is arranged by a series of headings and subheadings. The volume also has an alphabetically arranged index (ff. 65-71). The contents and index pages use the report’s pagination system.
- Physical characteristics
Pagination: The report has a printed pagination sequence. Page numbers appear at the top and centre of each page.
Foliation: There is a foliation sequence, which is circled in pencil, in the top-right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. of each folio. It begins on the first folio with text, on number 1, and ends on the last of the various maps and plans that are inserted at the back of the volume, on number 79. Total number of folios: 79. Total including covers and flysheets: 81. Note that the foliation sequence on the maps and plans does not follow the order that the maps and plans are listed on the volume’s contents page (f.2). The plan of Bandar Abbās, listed on the report contents page, is missing from the volume.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/20/C201/1
- Title
- ‘Military report on Persia. Vol IV, part I. Persian Baluchistan, Kerman and Bandar Abbas.’
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, i-r:i-v, 1r:71v, 74r:79v, 72r:72v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence