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'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME II' [‎103v] (211/706)

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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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194
GlLAN
It is evident that the arrangement and collection of stated assess
ment among people, who lead a life so irregular must be a duty of great
difficulty to the officers of the Government, and much must therefore be
left to the chiefs, who retain for themselves as much as they possibly can.
; They, in their turn, are squeezed from time to time by Government, and thus
i matters are equalised, though not in a very regular or sytematic manner.”
The fisheries are let to a contractor; at the time of Lord Curzon’s visit
they were leased to a Russian for £18,500 a year.
The customs were formerly let to a contractor, but now they are worked
by the Belgians, who have taken over the working of all the Persian cus-
( toms, and probably the state is a gainer from this arrangement, in Gilan,
as well as elsewhere.
. in spite of the state of neglect it is kept in, is one of Persia’s
richest provinces. Its inhabitants appear to possess a great deal of
wealth. Among the highest classes there are large fortunes, and traders'
with from 2,000 to 5,000 tumdns capital are very numerous.
The branch of the Imperial Bank of Persia is the only British institution
in Rasht, and up to the end of 1900 was the only banking establishment.
The rate of exchange at the beginning of 1901 was 51^ krans to a pound
sterling.
Communications. —Rasht with its harbour of Enzali is the centre of
all the communications of the province. For maritime communications
from Enzali, see article on that port. The only really decent road in the
country is the road from Enzali to Rasht and thence on to Kazvln; this
road has been made by a company nominally Persian, but in reality Rus
sian, financed by the Moscow Poliakoff. The company received a con
cession for 99 years and the road was opened in August 1900. The Rus
sian traveller Rittich, 1901, describes it as being a well-made road, but states
that the arrangements are not good, horses, carriages, etc., bad, and that
it does not pay, as the Persians prefer to take their pack animals by the
old paths and passes and so escape the road tolls. In May 1912 a Russian
automobile section, consisting of 4 motor lorries and one light car, travers
ed the road Lnzall to Kazvln, carrying supplies, ammunition and passengers.
The light car travelled as far as Tehran, in spite of the difficulties of the road.
The following is a description of the road that used to exist from Enzali
to Rasht:—
The road uo PIr-i-Bazar, the village where goods for Enzali are shipped
from Rasht, extends for five miles through one continuous series of sloughs
and bogs in deep jungle; and, having never been regularly made, each
carrier leads his beasts as he best can, taking a new track when former
ones have become impassable. No weather ever puts more than a tem
porary stop to the traffic along this wretched path, which is entirely car
ried on by means of ponies, a certain number of which are continually
employed in it, and carry their heavy loads to the journey’s end, although
after a shower they sink to their girths at each step.”
All the roads in G.dan, up till recently, were in the worst state of repair,
especially those round Rasht; they seem to have been allowed to get into
tins state with the purpose of keeping out invasion. However, the Sipahdar-

About this item

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' [‎103v] (211/706), 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_100034644543.0x00000c> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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