!['Seistan' [‎28v] (56/782)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003bc/Mss Eur F111_352_0068.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'Seistan' [‎28v] (56/782)")
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.
there cotton, wheat, wool and skins. The principal article of export to
Ashkahad is cotton, for which the Armenian traders pay advances to cultiva
tors.^ If the advances are not repaid in cotton at the time of harvest the
cultivators are compelled by the Governor either to repay the advances in cash
with interest, or to give a fresh bond to supply cotton during the next season.
The Naiyir-ul*Dowleh himself has a large landed property in the Nishabur
district in which wheat and cotton is harvested, which he sells to the Armenians,
and this is the reason that he takes the part of the Armenians against the people
of Nishabur. It is said that the soil of the Nishabur district is well suited for
cotton growing, which pays better than cereals and therefore the villagers are
now taking to cotton growing in preference to wheat. For some years past
cotton cultivation has largely increased in the Nishabur district. Besides the
Armenians there are a few \ ezdi traders who import tea, indigo, spices, drugs
from India via Bombay, Bandar Abbas, Yezd and Turbat-i-Haidari and export
opium to China by the same route. Opium is also grown in large quantities in
the Nishabur district.
I inspected the caravan-sarai of Shah Abbas close to my camp. It was
very strongly built. Visitors could stay there as long as they pleased rent free
and it was consequently full. The present town wall has four gates called Ark’
Bagh, Irak and Meshed. I also visited the Imamzada and Muhammad Mahruk
t\ icre is the grave of the poet Umar Khayum. This Imamzada is said to have
been extremely old and to have been rebuilt in the time of Sultan Hussain about
rfOO years ago. It lies m a garden about a mile from the present town. The
Naiyir-ul-Dowleh told me that old Nishabur had once been there. Enterin" I
oun myself at the entrance of a terraced garden, containing a tiled dome°at
the end of a short vista. The tiling was being repaired by the Naiyir-ul-Dowleh
with tiles brought from Meshed. The central arch has smaller arches on
each side. M hen facing the facade the left arch contains a ruined tomb the
grave of the famous Umar Khayum.
^ Iie Naiyir-ul-Dowleh said that there had been an engraved stone, but it
had been removed. When returning the visits I received I entered a covered
bazar. Ihe Naiyir-ul-Howleh is a pleasant man of about 60, slight, rather small
ando pol,shed manners. He had accompanied the Shah on hfs journeys. He
said the cultivation of Nishabur had been much on the increase of late years
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Khurramabad
Faizabad
Kushinjan
Bujabad
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10
60
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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
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'Seistan' [28v] (56/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721602.0x00003b> [accessed 3 July 2026]
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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