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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.
Kundar and Houzdar are both large deserted villages on tbe track. The
latter place must have had about 1000 to 1500 houses. It was less ruined than
others I had met. The moat was still distinct and the walls of 20 to 30 feet were
still standing, even to the decoration on the top. I he entrance gate was not more
tumbled down than many I have seen in the east, to inhabited towns. . Here I
saw a wall of about 30 to 40 feet which had been the wall of the windmill of the
place, and the position of grinding stones, could still be clearly distinguished.
Many domed roofs were standing intact and the streets were still streets between
walls.
I climbed up to an upper story of one house or “ Bala khana ” which would
still have been habitable and showed signs of mural decoration and plaster.
I describe all this, as these towns, I understood, to be buried cities of great
antiquity, whereas I find them mere villages or towns deserted because the water
had been cut off from the lands round.
Their great antiquity did not strike me and although the towers were con
nected with legends of Rustam, the date of their desertion would be more interest-
. . . . , ,,, L , ing to us than the dates of their early
• I am since informed these villages have been i • * J
deserted for 235 years. history
After leaving these deserted towns the same land, the same surroundings
suddenly show signs of life, fields as far as you could see of wheat were waving
green and a deep water course showed that we were within Seistan proper and
within the reach of the Helmund waters turned westward by the Seistan bund at
Kuhak, the first place the Helmund in its course touches the existing Seistan
border.
The village of Warmal, the first village in Seistan, is exactly similar to the
deserted ones we had past, the same domes and walls, the only deference being
that it is populated and thriving.
From Warmal to Nusratabad the road passes through fields of wheat, green
in the ear when I passed ; some blocks cultivated, others allowed to lie fallow,
with the stubble of past year’s crops still standing.
Everywhere water dykes and canals and apparently such an abundance of
water that ten times the amount used must run to waste and form the great
Hamun or lakes which shut in Seistan during the summer on the north and west.
Everywhere waste of land and water.
Between Hormak and Warmal w r e had ridden 60 miles through country
extending as far as you could see on either side, only wasting for water and water
to which it had been accustomed.
I have now described the road from Quetta to Seistan. I hope I have not
done so too graphically for an official diary, and that this general description of
the road and surrounding country may be an useful addition to the already excel
lent detailed reports in existence.
To turn to things political. At Rabat, I received a letter from Abbas Ali,
the Hospital Assistant and Political
Munshi
A term used in the Middle East, Persia and South Asia to refer to a secretary, assistant or amanuensis. Munshis were employed in the British administration in the Gulf.
here, that Amir Ali Akbar Khan
Hashmat-ubMulk, had reached Nusratabad from Tabbas on the 28th March and
further, that he had said, that he found himself in somewhat of a difficult position,
for though desirous of receiving me as a consul, he had had no orders from the
Wall of Meshed (Rukn-ud-Daulah) that I had been appointed Consul. Abbas
Ali further said, that as the Russian Vice-consul was here, he feared he w T ould get
into trouble if he received me or even allowed me into his country without
orders.
I sent a short reply to Abbas Ali merely stating my programme wffiich I
requested him to show to the Hashmat-ul-Mulk.
At the same time I sent a polite letter to the Hashmat-ul-Mulk informing
him of my dates and making no reference to any orders about my appointment.
At Hormak, Abbas Ali again wrote to me that the Hashmat-ul-Mulk fearing he
2
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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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