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'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME II' [‎100v] (205/706)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (349 folios). It was created in 1914. 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. .

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188
GlLiN
the beginning of June to the end of September the flat country is reputed
to be almost uninhabitable by Europeans or other strangers to the climate.
The neighbouring mountains, however, offer a salubrious refuge during this
period, but a person is there in complete seclusion and cut off from intercourse
with the neighbourhood by the distance and badness of the roads. During
the unhealthy months the inhabitants always sleep on raised platforms —a
sure sign of a damp, malarious climate. Fraser mentions a very malignant
and inveterate cutaneous disorder, which prevailed not only among the
lower, but also among the better classes, which he attributes to dirt and a
total want of any remedial measures. Another very common disease is a sort
of joint evil, by which the patient suffers the loss of his toes and fingers one
after another as in joint leprosy. Fraser, however, did not consider it the
same for the countenance has not the swelled and leprous appearance of
.that malady. It is leprosy according Dr. Frame. (Rabino, 1911.) Other
cutaneous disorders, as ring worm, ulcers, etc., are also very common.
Gmelin mentions the small-pox as frequently visiting Gilan. It is said to
be brought on by, or generally consequent upon, a particular wind, which
blows from the south, and it remains epidemic for from six to twelve
months, after which its virulence relaxes and it gradually disappears. A
dreadful plague visited the country in 1830 and carried off a large number
of its inhabitants.
Position of the Peasantry — Labour.
The price of the peasant’s labour is in the most cases one-half of the
produce, be it rice or silk. Under this arrangement, called “Manasifi, ”
the peasantry, who work upon the estates of silk proprietors have to furnish
the seed or silk worms’ eggs, but in rice plantations the seed is provided by
the landlords.
Another system is that of £< Ijareh ” by which the landlord lets his
mulberry or rice plantation to the peasant, receiving from the latter in
lieu of rent a share in the produce of his labour.
In the former instance, the landlord’s share is three-fourths ; in the
latter, one-third of the produce. In all circumstances, the labourer lives
in his cottage rent free. He is at liberty to cut as much wood as he
choses from the surrounding forest, part of which he uses for fuel, selling
the remainder.
But, although the peasantry enjoy certain advantages in this province,
to which they are strangers in other parts of Persia, their position is far
from being a flourishing one.
The unequal distribution of the fiscal burdens, as illustrated in the
mode employed for levying the mdlidt (which will be treated of later
on) affords an incentive to the landlords to deal unfairly with the peasant.
In other words he frequently takes “ the lion s share ” of the produce,
instead of abiding by the terms of his contract, and the peasant is left to
shift for himself.
The law in despotic Musalman States affords no effectual remedy for
abuses of this kind; here, as in the other parts of Persia, might is right,
and a bribe administered in the proper quarter will always ensure success
to the donor.

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Content

The item is Volume II of the four-volume Gazetteer of Persia (1914 edition).

The volume comprises the north-western portion of Persia, bounded on the west by the Turco-Persian frontier; on the north by the Russo-Persian frontier and Caspian Sea; on the east by a line joining Barfarush, Damghan, and Yazd; and on the south by a line joining Yazd, Isfahan, and Khanikin.

The gazetteer includes entries on human settlements (towns, villages, provinces, and districts); communications (roads, bridges, halting places, caravan camping places, springs, and cisterns); tribes and religious sects; and physical features (rivers, streams, valleys, mountains and passes). Entries include information on history, geography, climate, population, ethnography, resources, trade, and agriculture.

Information sources are provided at the end of each gazetteer entry, in the form of an author or source’s surname, italicised and bracketed.

A Note (folio 4) makes reference to a map at the end of the volume; this is not present, but an identical map may be found in IOR/L/MIL/17/15/4/1 (folio 636) and IOR/L/MIL/17/15/4/2 (folio 491).

Printed at the Government of India Monotype Press, Simla, 1914.

Extent and format
1 volume (349 folios)
Arrangement

The volume contains a list of authorities (folio 6) and a glossary (folios 343-349).

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at inside back cover with 351; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Pagination: the volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME II' [‎100v] (205/706), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/15/3/1, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100034644543.0x000006> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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