'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎196] (231/714)

HI.-
PERSIA
Very soon after Barnes' visit, Abbas Mirza, the heir -apparent,
who was then prosecuting the reconquest and thorough subjugation
of Khorasan, appeared upon the scene with his army, took
Capture by -i i i i
Abbas and destroyed the place, massacred most of its inhabitants,
and carried away the rest as prisoners to Meshed ; 1 whence
they were subsequently ransomed at 4L a head by their Salor kins
men of Yuletan. Some of them are still to be found at Old Sarakhs-
and a colony exists at Zohrabad on the Persian bank, a good deal
higher up the river. But the clan has in modern times sunk into
comparative insignificance.
Some time later, it is said about the year 1850, the Persians, in
order to secure this frontier post against the merciless ravages of
N e w the Tekke Turkomans of Merv, built a huge fort, of poly-
Sarakhs gonal shape, and flanked with twenty-four towers, upon
which they mounted a number of decrepit guns, on the left or
western side of the Tejend, at a distance of about half a mile from
the river. M. de Blocqueville—the unhappy French photographer
who accompanied the famous Persian expedition to Merv in 1860,
that was cut to pieces at Koushid Khan Kaleh, and who fell into
the hands of the Turkomans and remained a prisoner in their tents
for a year and a half—passed Sarakhs on his way and described the
newly constructed fort. 2 MacGregor was the next visitor, in 1875 ;
and he both gave an account of the fort and its garrison of 700
infantry, a few cavalry, and eleven more or less serviceable guns;
and published in his book an illustration and plan. 3 Next, in 1882,
M. Lessar, the well-known Russian engineer, at that time employed
1 ' After the fall of Cochoon (Kuchan), Abbas Mirza made for Serrakhs, which
he found totally off its guard, and at once invested it. Despising and rejecting
an offer of 150,000 and then of 200,000 tomauns of ransom which w T as offered by
the inhabitants, he resolved, cost what it might, to root out this nest of man-
stealers. The place was invested, breached, stormed, and taken in little more
than a day. The town was given up to plunder, and afterwards reduced to ashes.
Many of its inhabitants were slaughtered, and 3,000 of the remainder were
carried off prisoners. The booty was enormous—incalculable—perhaps greater
than in any capture of recent times. There were literally whole sacks of gold,
and piles of rich goods of ever3 r sort and kind. It w T as a true robbers' den upon
an immense scale : the amount of specie alone has been vaguely estimated at from
300,000^. to 400,000^., and the greater part of this fell into the hands of the
soldiery.'—J. B. Eraser, A Winters Journey, &c., vol. ii. p. 29. The above, though
a no doubt exaggerated version, is interesting as being almost contemporaneous
(1834).
2 Tour du Monde, April, 1866
3 Journey through Khorasan, vol. ii. pp. 30-33.