'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎114r] (234/820)

GUK—GUK
211
V'
GftK KUTAL—
A pass in the district of Kalat, in Khorasan, 2 miles from ihe gate of
Archangan, in the natural fortress of Kalat-i-Nadirh— (MacGregor.)
GUKLAN—
A Turkoman tribe inhabiting a tract north of Khorasan. Their country
formerly extended on the Gurgan from near Astarabad eastwards to the
district of Bujnurd, the limits being from Guli Dagh on the west to Gum-
bad-i-Kabus on the east, and from the Kai valley to the river Gurgan, 75
miles. But at present the Guklan occupy a comparatively sma 1 l tract
of country at the head of the Gurgan river, stretching from Yas Tappeh on the
southern bank of the Gurgan river, on the west to the source of the Gurgan
at Yalali Chashmeh and to the Dehaneh-i-Gurgan at Yangaran, on the east,
or roughly speaking, from about longitude 55° to 56°, while, as a matter of
fact, there are only two or three oba all told on the northern bank of the
Gurgan, below the junction of its northern affluent, the Sar-i-Su, atGukcha,
and those are close to the river.
The Qarniva valley which runs into the Kara Balkhan valley from the north,
is in fact, the most northern settlement of the Guklan. It is inhabited by
the Shaikh Khwaja section, who are all Saiyids and number some 250 families.
There is no continuous Guklan territory extending to and beyond the
Atrak. The watershed of the Gurgan limits the Guklan territory lo the
north and north-west, and none of the latter dare cross into the valley
of the Atrak. Up to the year 1804, the Yamuts occupied the country
along the Atrak as far east as Chinaran, a district to the south of the
Atrak, some distance above Chat, on the stream which is called Chinaran
Su. The country between the upper valleys of th,e Gurgan and the river
Atrak above Chat is now said to be entirely uninhabited, and there are
no Guklans there. The Guklans at Kara Kala and Chandir in Russian
territory are thus entirely separated from their tribesmen in Gurgan, just
as much as those in Khiva are.
The Guklans are of rather a different type to the other Turkomans.
Some are rather white and others are of an unhealthy sort of colour, but
all seem to have more beard than either Tekke or Sarik. They are fairly
well mounted, as a rule, and wear sheepskin hats rather flatter and
larger than the usual run. They strike one as rather cadaverous-look
ing men at first sight and as not particularly manly. They have taken
largely of late to opium-smoking. Even the women now smoke. Like
all Turkomans the Guklans have neither trees, gardens, water, nor fields
anywhere near their settlements, the kibitka (black tents) being simply
stuck down in the middle of the bare, dry plain, the only difference bet
ween the Guklans and other Turkomans being that the former seem to have
a partiality for putting their kibitka in straight rows, which the other
have not. The women have to fetch the water up from the nearest
supply, whatever the distance.
• The Guklans are cultivators pure and simple, and are not nomadic in
their habits. They live in kibitka, but seldom change the site of their
oba, and the consequence is that their settlements are filthily dirty. The
interior of their kibitka is dirty too, and they have none of the cleanliness
2 D 2