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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 SETS TAN.
99
Local Government, and the ™H'"j or i E arf ' |j 1 '^ 0 ™ ^ 1 ghares between the
harvest oE these ploughs .s d ‘^ u ,^ t0 “ wh i, q e the seed is furnished,
Governor, the Katkhnda, and the cnltivaro
half by the Katkhuda and balfbv Jh „ G b a l g in”, the produce
There is also another descnpti P ^ ^ divided in the same way as
that of the ordinary plough,
Ghalgin.
. i jj 4 j ipeo seed is usually sown. This, like
ie less carefully tended, ^ ] o{ f re e labour for the Government.
" Tavil ,J does not necessitate the^s PP ^ „ have a i rea dy been enumerated.
The vanous descriptions of each v \ 0X1 zh. of “Sabzbar" a tax of 25
Sabzbar. krans is usually paid to Government, but
in the case of opium and melone when grown ^enmutly jear ^to
Naaratahad, the Government share is taken m d. Th ‘ o£ ^
case usually taken from the fields by the Persian soldiers F
rations.
Kah or Bhoosa. supply two donkey loads each to the Mullah,
carpenter, blacksmith, and barber. . . . i
It has already been shown how large u^amo^the. crops ^^en^by
various people from the » to everybody concerned, from the
pay a considerable amount of smnni t0 ® „ nirmo-li of land
day on which they club together and ask the Katkhuda for a plough ot land
to the moment of the division of the harvest. ■. •
The total lack of any system of regulating the water-supply m the
Ihe total a y y distr i c t s 0 r in the different portions
Ciromnstances militating against 0 f same district, militates against the
large outturn. annual outturn. For instance, after the first
rise in the Halmsnd, the whole bnlk of the water flows west and north-west,
the snrplns water remaining after the cultivation o ® ”, p, i b[ s
fed, running to waste in the Hamun, at the same moment ‘hat the Baluchis
of Miankangi may be found watering their flocks and herds fiom wells, while
ploughing does not commence in this district, for another two month or
even later. Also all changes in appointments ,n Persia usually take place
about the time of Naoroz in March, that is when the crops are half-grown,
and the Katkhuda has not much inducement to extend the cultivation of his
village, when he is never certain of remaining in possession even until next
har Also^the system of bribery, which is in force equally for the husbandmen
who may be trying to induce the iowner of a pair of oxen to join a group
and complete the number necessary in order to obtain a plough of land from
the Katkbuda, as for the latter in order to continue in possession of his
village the ensuing year, leads to an immense amount of hagg ing, an
bargaining and consequent delay. Thus it is that ploughing and sowing is
often commenced much too late in the season. _ . - .
In short, the immense quantity of corn which is at present producea m
Seistan, is entirely due to the natural fertility of the soil and appears to grow
in spite of a system, which might have been designed expressly in order o
check its growth.
It may be imagined therefore what the produce of the whole province
anight be under a more enlightened administration.
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' [222r] (443/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721605.0x00002e> [accessed 6 July 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