"دليل بلاد فارس. مجلد I" [ظ‎‎٥‎٥] (٨٢٠/١١٥)

with the force at the Salar’s disposal, while his treasury had been depleted
by the numerous demands made on it since his father's death, and
would certainly be unequal to paying a ransom, if this was otherwise
practicable. (It does not seem to have occurred to the Persian Govern
ment what an extraordinary confession of weakness and incapacity the
suggestion of ransom coming from them amounts to.)
The question oE whether or no the Chief was guilty of complicity in the
raid is one that it would be impossible to answer without a c .reful sifting
of the evidence on both sides. Many people believe that he was at any
rate cognisant of the raid. It is ev n affirmed by some that the Yamuts
were led by certain Turkomans settled in the Simalqan valley. Others
scout the idea of the Chief’s personal knowledge of the raid, but say that
his sawars at the frontier posts must have connived at the escape of the
raiders. An old man of the Kuchan district, who apparently had no in
terest in the matter, said it was impossible for a Slu’ah to send his co
religionists into captivity among Sunnis, or for a Kurd to abet the
capture of Kurds by Turkomans.
The question of the Chief’s guilt or innocence, however, does not present
itself to the Persian mind as one of any practical importance. It is suffi
cient that he has been accused, for everyone, from the Shah to the Ma’mur,
who conveys his orders, to seize the opportunity of squeezing him.
It is not unlikely that the Central Government also sees in the occurrence
a pretext for carrying out, in the case of Bujnurd, what seems to have
become their settled policy—the abolition of hereditary Chieftains. This,
however, may be postponed till the Salar has exhausted his treasury and
private means in the hope of keeping his State.
In the meantime, the captives are in the hands of the Yamuts, and as
the process of squeezing the Bujnurd Chief is more in accordance wilh
Persian tastes than meddling with well-armed Turkomans, they seem likely
to remain there.
The geographical position of the Chiefship would seem to mark Russia
as the Power to whom the Salar would more naturally look for help than
ourselves, but he seemed to mistrust Russian motives. Though he frankly
admitted that he was on friendly terms with the Russian authorities at
Gumbad-i-Kabus, he evidently resented very keenly their interference with
his cultivation on the Atrak, and he was under the firm impression that
the power of the Yamuts was chiefly due to the superior weapons which
they have been allowed to obtain from Russian territory, and to the
protection afforded to them by that Power.
Water Dispute with Russians .—Colonel Yate visited the northern
part of Bujnurd in 1897, he mentioned the village Kharaqi, on the bank of
the Atrak, as having been recently populated. He remarked on the number
of old water channels showing former cultivation, and added that if the
fear of the Yamuts was removed, there was no reason why these tracts
should not be cultivated again, “ unless, indeed, Russia stepped in and
prohibited further cultivation on the plea of there not being sufficient
water for her Turkoman subjects lower down.”
This is, in fact, what has happened. Cultivation was extended round
Pishkaleh, Mamgaglu, and Gazabad till 1899, when Russian Cossacks