'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎33r] (70/820)

AST—ATA
53
Ast!n—
A small village in the Isfarain district of Khorasan on the road from
Mianabad to Sankhas, about a mile to the west of the ruins of a fort called
Gabr Hisar or Kafirkaleh.—(C. E. Yate.)
ASTI StJ—
A little river in Shahrud-Bostam on which Astarabad is situated. The
river runs into the Kara Su.— {MacGregor.)
ATAK—
A village in north-eastern Khorasan, 1 mile south-east of Meshed.—
{MacGregor.)
ATAK, DAMAN-I-KtH, KUPEH-I-DAGH, or KURIN DAGH—
The Atak is the name applied to the mountains stretching from Kizil
Arvat on the north-west, to Sarakhs on the south-east (which forms the
north-east frontier of Persia), as also to the long, narrow tract of country on
their outer side, the skirt or fringe of the mountain. Thus Kariz,
Askhabad, and Gavars are equally included in the Atak with Darreh Gaz
and Kalat districts, within the ridge which forms the boundary line.
The Atak includes, therefore, the Akhal oasis ; and the Tekke Turkoman
tribe are the chief inhabitants from end to end. The climate of the Atak
is good and healthy, and the mountain sides have considerable forests in
places.
The Ataks of Kalat and Darreh Gaz are fully described under the article
Darreh Gaz. The Atak was formerly Persian territory, but this is no longer
the case. In 1884, after occupying the villages of Persian subjects lying on
the northern bank of the river Atrak, and the villages and pasture grounds
situated north of Bujnurd and Kuchan, Russia asked the Shah to appoint
a Commission to fix the boundary line. Sulaiman Khan Sahib-i-Ikhtiar
and General Raza Khan were sent to the northern frontier, and here
they were joined by Colonel Karvoff from St. Petersburg. Work was
commenced from Gurgan near Astarabad. The Persian Commissioners to
their horror found that in addition to the pasture grounds, etc., which they
had already occupied, the Russians had now advanced their boundary to
the north bank of the most southern tributaries of the Atak, and were thus
occupying all the small, fertile basins inhabited by Persians subjects from
time immemorial. Again, starting farther east towards the hilly country,
they found that the Russian officials had annexed not less than half the
entire hill range lying north of Bujnurd and Kuchan. They represented this
matter to the Shah, but were ordered to leave the Russian officials to do
whatever they liked. Thus Colonel Karvoff fixed his boundary pillars just
where he chose, taking over a tract of fertile country containing many
large villages, viz., Nakhar, Kali Kaleh, Garmab, Galgun and Kalta-Chinar.
Those Persian subjects who were Shi’ahs emigrated en masse, and thus
thousands of people were rendered homeless. Further, without asking or
consulting the Persian Commissioners, the Tsar’s Government occupied the
following villages lying north of Darreh Gaz and Kalat-i-Nadirl Unao,
Gavars, Baba Durmaz, Karan, Khusru, Khisran, Hisala Sukhti, Agla,