!['Seistan' [‎21r] (41/782)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003bc/Mss Eur F111_352_0053.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'Seistan' [‎21r] (41/782)")
The record is made up of 1 file (388 folios). It was created in 17 Jan 1899-4 Apr 1904. 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. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
1
No. 98-A., dated Mpshed, the 10th June 1899.
From Lieutenant-Colonel H. M. Tbmplb, A^ent to the Governor-General of
India, and Her Britannic Majesty's Consul-General for Khorussan and
Seistan,
^ 0 d he Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department.
I have the honour to forward my camp diary from Kachan to Meshed,
via Bujnurd. If printed, I would beg that four copies may be forwarded.
Diary of a March from Kachan to Bujnurd.
23rd Jpril Kuchan to Usuabad, 3 farsakhs, about 11 miles.
Us u a bad is also called Yusalabad. Kurdi is the language of the common
people, and the names of places are changed from the Persian.
The night and early morning were cold. After leaving the town of Kuchan
the road turns up the valley to the west. The valley is from 5 to 10 miles
broad. Several villages lie on either hand. There is much cultivation, chiefly
wheat. The road is an unmetalled track, but carriages of the kind in vogue in
Ashkabad (Victorias) can be driven along it. The valley is well water eel, and
many artificial water courses are crossed by the track. At a distance of about
9 miles, old Kuchan is reached, and about 2 miles further on lies Usuabad. It
is a small village of about 50 huts watered by a spring and kanats. My guide
was the same Nur Muhammad who had accompanied Colonel Yate.
Old Kuchan was destroyed by three destructive earthquakes. One took
place about 15 years ago. A second severe shock took place in 1893.
On the 17th January 1895, an earthquake occurred, which completely
destroyed the town. As exaggerated accounts of the amount of damage which
had been done were rife, Khan Bahadur Maula Bakhsh was sent °to make
enquiries on the spot. Great mortality took place in the baths and narrow
bazars. The public buildings were either destroyed or damaged.
The dome of the shrine of Sultan Husein of the family of the Imamzada
of Meshed fell. The custom house and post office were both destroyed. The
houses of the Shuja-ul-Dowlah, the Karguzar, the telegraph Sartip, the Beglar
Begi, and several other minor officials all fell ; while the shops were alf in
ruins. There had been over 1,100 shops in the town before the earthquake of
1893, a large proportion of which had been destroyed, and rebuilt only to be
thrown down again. Prior to 1893 old Kuchan was said to have had about
4,000 houses, with a population of about 20,000 persons. After that earthquake
the number was reduced to about 2,000 houses. A careful estimate made at the
time on the spot showed that about 700 lives were probably lost in the earth
quake. Common report (probably exaggerated) did then, and does now, place
the figure at several thousands. Earthquakes are rife in this valley, Kuchan
having been damaged or destroyed several times. So much so that the Persian
Government had ordered the removal of the town to another site an order
which was frustrated by interested persons. The house of the chief had been
specially constructed of wood to resist shocks, but to no purpose. It fell with
the rest. Great distress was caused by the people being rendered houseless in the
depth of winter, the town becoming, to quote from the report made at the time,
“ a mass of ruins. ” The earthquake was thus described :—“ A sound resembling
the discharge of cannon is heard in the distance. After which the earth shakes
for several minutes at a time The new town is built on a site at a hitherto
safe distance. When I visited old Kuchan I found that the buildings and
bazar described by Lord Curzon in “ Persia,” Volume I, had vanished, the
damaged remnants of the shrine being the hightest building visible. All that
remains of the more substantial buildings are masses of masonry lying about as
About this item
- Content
The file contains papers relating to Seistan [Sistan] and Persia [Iran].
The file includes printed copies of despatches from the Agent to the Governor-General of India and HM Consul-General for Khorasan and Seistan (Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Martindale Temple), to the Secretary to the Government of India Foreign Department, with enclosed despatches from Captain Percy Molesworth Sykes to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (the Marquis of Salisbury). Skyes’s despatches regard matters including: Seistan; trade routes into South-East Persia; the boundary between Persia and Afghanistan, in relation to the River Helmund [Helmand] changing its course (in despatch No. 5, which includes four sketch maps, folios 12, 13, 14 and 15); Sykes’s journey to Birjand (in despatch No. 7, which includes a sketch map on folio 20); the ruling family of Kain, which also governed Seistan, Tabbas and Tun; Sykes’s journey from Seistan to Kerman [Kirman] (in despatch No. 11, which includes a sketch map); and the direct Kerman-Quetta caravan trade that Sykes was trying to establish.
The file also includes copies of the following papers:
- A despatch from Temple to the Secretary to the Government of India Foreign Department, enclosing a letter from Temple to Sir Henry Mortimer Durand (HM Minister, Tehran), with copies of enclosures, regarding the establishment of a Seistan and Kain consulate
- A letter from Charles Edward Pitman, Director General of Telegraphs, to the Secretary to the Government of India Public Works Department, enclosing a copy of a ‘Report on the Preliminary Survey of the Route for a Telegraph Line from Quetta to the Persian Frontier’ by H A Armstrong, Assistant Superintendent, Indian Telegraph Department, which includes six photographs of views along the route [Mss Eur F111/352, f 52; Mss Eur F111/352, f 53; Mss Eur F111/352, f 54; Mss Eur F111/352, f 55; Mss Eur F111/352, f 56; and Mss Eur F111/352, f 57], and a map showing the proposed route of the telegraph line [Mss Eur F111/352, f 59]
- Letters from Hugh Shakespear Barnes, Agent to the Governor-General in Baluchistan, to the Secretary to the Government of India Foreign Department, enclosing copies of the diary of the Political Assistant, Chagai, for the weeks ending 16 February, 28 February, and 8 March 1900
- Diary No. 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 of Major-General George Frederick Chenevix-Trench, HM Consul for Seistan (Diary No. 6 includes a sketch map, folio 86)
- A copy of a ‘Report on Reconnaissances Made while Attached to the Seistan Arbitration Commission’ by W A Johns, Deputy Consulting Engineer for Railways, Bombay
- A copy of the report ‘Notes on Persian Seistan’, compiled by Captain Edward Abadie Plunkett, and issued by the Government of India Intelligence Branch, Quarter-Master General’s Department
- Two copies of map signed by Plunkett titled ‘Persian Seistan-Cultivated Area’ [Mss Eur F111/352, f 270]
- A booklet entitled ‘Notes on the Leading Notables, Officials, Merchants, and Clergy of Khorasan, Seistan, Kain, and Kerman.’
- Printed copies of letters from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India (Lord George Francis Hamilton), relating to the maintenance of British interests in Persia, dated 4 September 1899 and 7 November 1901 (the former with an enclosure of a minute by the Viceroy on Seistan).
- Extent and format
- 1 file (388 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers 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 390; 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. The file contains one foliation anomaly, f 301A
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
Use and share this item
- Share this item
'Seistan' [21r] (41/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721602.0x00002c> [accessed 18 April 2024]
https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100069721602.0x00002c
Copy and paste the code below into your web page where you would like to embed the image.
<meta charset="utf-8"><a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100069721602.0x00002c">'Seistan' [‎21r] (41/782)</a> <a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100069721602.0x00002c"> <img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003bc/Mss Eur F111_352_0053.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
This record has a IIIF manifest available as follows. If you have a compatible viewer you can drag the icon to load it.https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003bc/manifestOpen in Universal viewerOpen in Mirador viewerMore options for embedding images
Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F111/352
- Title
- 'Seistan'
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:51v, 58r:58v, 60r:112r, 113r:125v, 147r:218r, 218r, 219r:269v, 271r:301v, 301Ar, 301Av, 302r:388v, 389v:390r, 389r, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence