!['Seistan' [‎64v] (128/782)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003bc/Mss Eur F111_352_0142.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'Seistan' [‎64v] (128/782)")
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.
His eldest son, Mir Masum, was Governor of Seistan, upon my arrival there,
and some account of him may be of interest.
Appointed at the age of perhaps is, the actual power has been mainly in
the hands of his mother’s family whose head is Seyid Khan, of the Narin tribe
of Baluchis.
This was resented by the other chiefs, who repeatedly complained to the
Hashmat-ul-Mulk whereupon the latter decided to send down another son
Mohamed Reza Khan, in charge of his mother’s brother, Abdul VVahab Beg.
The new Governor reached Seistan in January 1898 , and asked to have the
fort handed over, but Mir Masum’s party had no idea of yielding and, conse
quently, an illness was feigned as an excuse for delay, with the result that matters
dragged on, in an indecisive fashion for two months, there being two rulers in
Seistan. Mir Masum’s party, however, kept possession of the fort, while the
Shaukat-ul-Mulk was only too delighted to intrigue with the officers of the re
giment that is drawn from Kain, against his brother, so that the new comer’s
party was distinctly the weakest.
Abdul VVahab, to end the matter, tried to seize the fort, but, upon a conflict
commencing, his own partisans forsook him, and he was obliged to surrender,
w hen he swore that he would espouse Mir Masum’s cause, and it w r as finally
agreed that he should proceed to Meshed and there win over the Governor-
General.
Net altogether unnaturally before this arrangement v^as carried out, Abdul
VVahab became an object of mistrust and, at a full meeting, it was decided to
murder him, the unfortunate man being shot in broad daylight by a slave of
Mir Masum.
Mortally w r ounded, he took refuge in the Deputy Governor’s house, where
the assasin was only persuaded not to fire again, by the victim’s assurance that he
would die within the hour.-
1 ! TlurcJerer t ^ en . r0( ^ e w ith a friend to Birjand, where the Amir
andsomely rewarded him ; however, in time, finding his presence embarrassing
e was sent off to Quetta with, I believe, a letter of recommendation to the
Agent to the Governor-General.
After these events, Mohamed Reza Khan w'as allowed to escape and so the
curtain fell on the first act of this singularly cold blooded and premeditated
murder.
o h Tj 1 * 6 s position at Tabbas is so insecure, as he has ousted
hereditary family that he was unable to proceed to Seistan in person, and in
consequence, at the time of my arrival, some nine months after the murder, Mir
Masum was nominally Governor, albiet Purdil Khan, Sarbandi, was in comDliance
and 1 thelr’adherents !' 6 Hashmat - ul ' Mulk - en g a g ed expelling the Narin Baluchis
Mir Masum delayed his departure, until the month of March when he re-
!“'y P A r ° ce ft d ‘° L Tad bas. His father, upon seeing him, said ‘‘Masum
f urt her’imticefwas'taken' offii in ?" 6 take " ^ ^ ^ my hand '” after whic ’ h n °
However, two of his chief servants and advisers were seized and severe!v
M^risX^rng^evefylrdntl 15 " t0 ^ Shaukat - U ‘-
~ £ f^nfuTontsfaL^delthtfat
ts extraordinarily ignorant and conceited : he is also not at all vigorous or Shv
but perhaps the climate of Seistan is accountable for that. S thy ’
.11 iXS' “■ “ ”"r “»">»l»
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' [64v] (128/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721602.0x000083> [accessed 25 June 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