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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.
3
of
Sardar
Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division.
Saiyid Khan, and it is not to he wondered at that this border Chief
tain connected as he was with Seistan should prefer again changing his alle
giance from the Afghan Amir to that of his nephew ruling in Seistan, rather
than being sent against his wishes to a distant part of Afghanistan by order of
Amir Abdur Kahman.
. collusion, therefore, with the Sartip Mir Mausum and his sister,
Sardar
Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division.
Saiyid Khan crossed over from the Afghan side of the Helmand and was
received with open arms by his sister and nephew. Many of the old hereditary
villages of the Naroi tribe were conferred on him by the Sartip, and he with
his sister exercised considerable control over the affairs of Seistan.
When the news of the desertion of
Sardar
Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division.
Saiyid Khan reached Kabul,
the Amir Abdur Rahman sent for Darvesh Khan and Muhammad Ali Khan,
and told them that, owing to the conduct of
Sardar
Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division.
Saiyid Khan, they would
have to leave the country. The two Sardars were transported to the Indian
frontier at Peshawar, from where they eventually made their way through Quetta
to Seistan.
Darvesh Khan at the time of his expulsion from Afghanistan held a very
high place in the estimation of the Amir, who had arranged to give him a
daughter of the ruling family as a wife, and to make him a General in the
Afghan army.
On their arrival in Seistan the two Naroi Sardars presented themselves
before the Sartip Mir Mausum Khan, and claimed the same privileges and
honours as had been awarded to
Sardar
Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division.
Saiyid Khan. This the Sartip refused
to grant them, and they left for Tabas to press their claims before the Hashmat-
ul-Mulk. At Tabas they were not well received, the Amir Hashmat-ul-Mulk
refusing like the Sartip to recognise their claims to any lands in Seistan.
Darvesh Khan and Muhammad Ali Khan, therefore, left for Tehran to lay
their case before the Shah. The Shah granted them a
firman
A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’).
and conferred
on them certain lands in Seistan. On presenting this
firman
A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’).
to the Amir
Hashmat-ul-Mulk at Tabas, he refused to recognise it in any way, and dismissed
Darvesh Khan and Muhammad Ali. Darvesh Khan, the more leading spirit
of the two Sardars, again started for Meshed, to report this independent action
of the Hashmat-ul-Mulk to the Wali there. The Hashmat-ul-Mulk, fearing
perhaps the consequences of his action, and it is said at the instigation of
Abdul Wahab, his Nazir, issued an order, in a fit of drunkenness, that
Darvesh Khan should be waylaid on the way and murdered. Through the
treachery of his servants, Darvesh Khan, who had only reached the first or
second march from Tabas was induced to return, being assured that the Hashmat-
ul-Mulk had relented and would now give him land and honour in Seistan.
He returned only to meet his death at the hands of the assassins sent by the
Hashmat-ul-Mulk, who were Khat Khuda Pakir, now Khat Khuda at Dodai,
near Nasratabad, and Khat Khuda Ibrahim, since dead, together with some
Serbaz. After this discreditable action, his arms and some jewels were brought
to the Hashmat-ul-Mulk who was, it is said, greatly disturbed by the event,
never realising what orders he had issued in his fits of drunkenness, but the
death of this Naroi
Sardar
Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division.
must always remain as a stain on the character of
the Hashmat-ul-Mulk.
"When the news of the murder of Darvesh Khan reached Seistan, Abbas
Khan, son of Darvesh Khan, and
Sardar
Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division.
Saiyid Khan, his cousin, at once left
for Meshed in order to explain the whole circumstances to the Wali of that
place.
The Hashmat-ul-Mulk was sent for to Meshed to account for his actions,
and was much threatened by the Persian authorities from Tehran. At one
time an attempt was made on his life, and he had to seek refuge in the Persian
“
bast
(Per.) A Persian custom allowing an individual to seek asylum at a designated location.
”. It was said that he would be removed from the rule of Seistan and
Tabas, and otherwise punished. In the end Persian corruption prevailed over
the sentiment of a punishment suitable to the crime, and on payment of heavy
bribes all round, the Hashmat-ul-Mulk returned to rule over Tabas and Seistan.
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' [105r] (209/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721604.0x00000c> [accessed 24 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