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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.
NOTES ON PERSIAN SEISTAN.
H- ^7
EESOURCES.
Wheat and barley are the only products of any importance in Seistan, thr^ A
amount of other produce grown being quite
Wheat and barley. inconsiderable. I estimate the number oe
'‘ploughs” as 1 , 830 , which, allowing an average output of Kharwars 65 pef ^‘7
plough gives a total of Kharwars 118,950 or
mtunda aloutturn ' 1,784,250Indian 1 , 784,250 Indian maunds. The estimated
output of each plough, as originally reckoned
for the payment of revenue to the Persian Government, was 36 Kharwars per
plough only, but from careful enquiries I consider the outturn at the present
time to be far greater. As the Katkhudas of villages have to provide free
labour, when required, to the Local Government, calculated on the basis of the
number of ploughs belonging to their respective villages, and as also the amount
of “shirini” or “backshish” from time to time required from them in order
to retain possession of their villages varies according to the amount of cultiva
tion belonging to them, it is obviously to their advantage to make out the
number of ploughs as low as possible.
Consequently in many places, and especially in the fertile district of
Sheb-i-Ab, there are relays of men and oxen told off for each plough, and the
extent of ground cultivated is much increased, though the number of ploughs
remains the same. 1 have been informed that as much as 100 Kharwars per
plough are obtained from certain specially fertile land, and I do not think
that to reckon 65 Kharwars as tue output of each plough would be an over
estimate.
It is probable that large stores of grain would always be found in the
larger villages, and especially in Jazmak,
▼mages ° f grain in the lar8er Sehkoba, and Iskel. Euquiries have always
elicited the same reply, that there is enough
grain to feed an army in each of these three villages. The reason for the
storage of grain is probably a distrust of the local Government, with the
consequent desire to have a supply put by for a rainy day, and also to the
feeling that the water of the Halmand being in latter days indifferently
controlled, cultivation in any locality is always liable to be destroyed by either
a too great or too small supply of water.
The export of grain, north to Kain, and south to Kerman and Baluchistan,
. is estimated at 100,000 camel-loads of 5
xpor o gram. Indian maunds each, of which four-fifths
goes to Kain and one-fifth to the south.
There appears to be no reason why the present cultivated area should not
„ be largely extended. There is an ample
Possibility of increase. i p , • j- i
supply of water m ordinary years, and
besides the possibility of re-opening old canals to the south and again fertilis-
ing the ground formerly cultivated between Seistan and Koh-i-Malik Siah, it
would probably be possible, by cutting a channel to drain the water of the
Hamun southwards into the Shela river, to reclaim a great part of the area
at present liable to inundation. In many places, where I have visited the
edge of the Hamun, the ground has not appeared salt, or in any way different
trom the cultivated land close by.
There are about 1,000 horses in Seistan, which are small and wiry, but
Horses, i.ooo. unable to carry much weight.
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' [206r] (411/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721605.0x00000e> [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