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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.
M
(Secret.)
Diary of Colonel A. H. McMahon, C.S.L, C.I.E., British Com
missioner, Seistan Arbitration Commission, for the
period ending the 16th December 1903.
Qth December 1903, Camp Milok. —No news of importance.
10^ December t Camp Milok. —This Mission left Quetta 11 months ago
to-day.
During the past two days visits have been paid on Colonel Minchin and
Captain Winter by the Karguzar and Yamin-i-Nizam, and these visits have
been duly returned. To-day the Akhundzada came, at my request, from Kila-
i-Kang, and paid me a visit, with Musa Khan of Herat and others, at which
Colonel Minchin and Captain Winter were present. Besides making the
acquaintance of these Persian and Afghan officials, these visits have given
Colonel Minchin and Captain Winter an opportunity, in a private capacity, of
learning the formalities and etiquette which the custom of this country
demands on such occasions.
The Akhundzada had no news to give, and no reply has yet arrived from
Kabul to his letter forwarding my award. He is now daily expecting a letter.
YUh December, Camp Milok. —Colonel Minchin and Captains Winter and
Watson left us to-day for Nasratabad, en route to Meshed. The British officers
of the Mission rode with them as far as Zahidan, where we gave them a
farewell breakfast in the ruins of that wonderful old city. It was destroyed
by Timur Lang, who derived his epithet of Lang, “ the lame ”, from a wound
received in Seistan. In revenge for his wound he massacred the whole
population. Even now the ruins are one mass of broken human bones
covering a large area. We had made several unsuccessful previous attempts
to find complete skulls, but to-day were lucky enough to find two well
preserved specimens which are being sent to England.
After bidding farewell to Colonel Minchin and his party, I rode to visit
the Mil-i-Kasimabad, some miles to the north of Zahidan. The Mil is one of
the most interesting relics of past times that we have found in Seistan. It is a
tall, circular, and very graceful masonry pillar, with a broad inscription in Cufic
characters round the top, or rather what is now the top. It looks as though
the pillar had once been higher, with probably a projecting gallery round the
top and another inscription above the present one. The present top is 76 feet
above the ground. The pillar is beautifully built of small square burnt bricks,
and has a spiral staircase, now unusable, up the inside of it. Attempts have
evidently been made in past times, but with little success, to destroy it, for the
inscription has evidently been well battered with missiles and a large breach
made, some way up, in its side. What brute violence has failed to do in the
past is now being rapidly effected by the Seistanis of to-day, who have
dangerously undermined the base, in order to extract bricks for their miserable
huts. The Mil is worth careful preservation, and I propose to obtain the
Hashmat-ul-Mulk’s consent to my repairing the base, and thus ensuring the
safety of this interesting old landmark of the past. To expect a Persian, not
withstanding his knowledge of, and pride in, ancient Persian legends, especially
those of Seistan, to put out a finger to preserve his ancient ruins is hopeless.
Only to-day I saw a Persian digging away at the base of the wall of the old
citadel of Zahidan, extracting great, big square bricks for some wretched
shanty or other.
Vlth December, Camp Milok. —Some short while ago I despatched a well-
equipped party accompanied by Afghans to the Dasht-i-Margo to search for the
bodies of our poor Surveyor Khan Bahadur Sheikh Mohi-ud-din and his men, who
died last June, and bring them in for proper burial. I was led to believe that
the bodies would be found intact, because one of our Ghilzai camel Jemadars
went off without my knowledge some two months ago to look for the body of
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' [147r] (293/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721604.0x000060> [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