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Ext 1133/47 'Foreign Office print: Persian Frontiers (with map)' [‎8v] (16/30)

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The record is made up of 1 file (11 folios). It was created in 31 Jan 1947 - March 1954. 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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10
in 1863 when the forceful Dost
Muhammad, the founder of the Barakzai
dynasty, captured the city a few days
before his death. Although Herat was
thenceforth mi interruptedly in Afghan
possession, the frontier between that
province and Khorasan remained unde
fined. In consequence, disputes and affrays
were numerous, and became so serious that
both Persia and Afghanistan asked for
British arbitration. The outcome was
that, in 1888, Major-General Maclean sur
veyed and defined the frontier from the
Hashtadan plain, some 60 miles to the west
of the city of Herat, to the Zulfiqar pass,
where the Afghan Persian and Soviet
Persian frontiers meet. Major-General
Maclean demarcated this stretch of fron
tier, which measures 103 miles, in 1891.
50. Sistan, like Herat, had for long been
regarded as part of Persia, since it too had
been conquered by Shah IsmaTl. In 1722,
when the Ghalzai leader Mahmud over
threw the Safavi dynasty by his capture of
Isfahan, Malik Mahmud Kayani (or
Sistani, as he was sometimes styled), the
ruler of Sistan, set himself up as an inde
pendent monarch and held sway over the
whole of Sistan and part of Khorasan.
Nadir Shah defeated Malik Mahmud in
1727 and afterwards put him to death;
Sistan was then once more incorporated in
Persia. After Nadir’s death, Sistan, like
Herat, came under the control of Ahmad
Shah, and it remained in Afghan hands
for nearly a century.
51. When Afghan authority declined
owing to dissensions in the ruling Barakzai
clan, Sistan entered upon a troubled
period, when rival chiefs strove for mastery
over the province. In 1853 Ali Khan
Sarandi, who had been for some years ruler
of Sistan, declared his allegiance to Persia.
His nephew Taj Muhammad overthrew him
in 1858, and declared himself independent;
however, in 1862, he likewise declared him
self a subject of the Shah. Three years
later Persia sent an army to occupy the \ 7
province, an act which nearly led to war ' N
between her and Afghanistan. Both
Powers, however, agreed to accept British
mediation, with the result that the
Goldsmid Mission, in 187CP72, surveyed
the areas under dispute, divided the terri
tory between the two countries and defined
the frontier between them. By this award,
Persia retained the more fertile portion of
the province, but had to give up the terri
tory which she had occupied on the right
bank of the Helmand river. In 1896 a
change in the course of that river led to
fresh boundary disputes and Great Britain
was once more called upon to adjudicate.
In consequence, the MacMahon Mission,
in 1903-05, defined and demarcated a
fresh boundary which both Persia and
Afghanistan accepted after some demur.
52. The portion of the frontier thus
settled began at the Kuh-i-Malik-i-Siyah
whence it ran north-eastwards for 80 m^|^
to the Helmand; it then turned northwards,
leaving Zabul (Nasratabad) in Persia, and
Chakansur in Afghanistan. Thirty miles
north-north-east of Zabul, the frontier
swung round almost due west and ran for
66 miles to a point just to the east of the
peak known as the Siyah Kuh, making a
total of 172 miles.
53. The position then was that, although
a strip of 103 miles of frontier in the north
and another of 172 in the south had been
fixed, a gap of 234 miles between them
remained unsettled. In 1930 and onwards
a number of disputes and minor clashes
occurred over Musa-abad, a hamlet in the
Hashtadan district close to the northern
end of this stretch of unsettled frontier.
Persia and Afghanistan again decided
upon arbitration, and this time they invited
Turkey to act. The Turkish arbitrator
was General Fahrettin (Fakhr ad-Din)
Altay. After examining the claims of the
contending parties and making a survey of
the areas involved, General Fahrettin
defined and demarcated the whole of the
234 miles of frontier between the Maclean
and MacMahon sections. He completed
his task in 1935. By his award, Persia
received the hamlet and spring of Musa-
abad, while Afghanistan obtained the
nearby winter pastures (qishlaq), where
certain nomadic Afghan tribes were wont
to spend the cold weather. Lake Namak-
sar, where the salt deposits are of some
value, was bisected by a line running from
north to south. Both Persia and Afghani
stan accepted the general’s finding, and
the demarcation of the entire frontier
between the two countries was thus
completed.
f
Y.—Frontier with Baluchistan
54. The frontier between Persian
Baluchistan and the British-protected
state of Kalat is some 500 miles in length,
of which only the portion from the great
swamp known as the Hamun-i-Mashkel to
a point near Kuhak has been demarcated.
55. Between 1730 and 1738 Nadir Shah
conquered and annexed to Persia the terri
tories of a number of Baluch chiefs and
welded them into a coherent whole under
the governorship of Muhabbat Khan
Brahoi. In 1739 Nadir added the province
of Kacchi to Muhabbat Khan s territory.
After Nadir’s assassination in 1747,

About this item

Content

This file consists of a letter, reports, notes and maps regarding Persia’s frontiers. The Research Department of the Foreign Office produced a report, dated 31 January 1947, covering each frontier in turn. Two maps are included with the report.

Extent and format
1 file (11 folios)
Arrangement

The file's contents are arranged in approximate chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 13; 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.

Written in
English in Latin script
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Ext 1133/47 'Foreign Office print: Persian Frontiers (with map)' [‎8v] (16/30), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/1201, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100059806291.0x000011> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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