Nasírabad, under the Persian rule, has been established as the capital of Sistan. It is the residence of Mír Alam Khán, chief of Ghazn, who has been appointed the Persian governor, with the title of Hashmat-ul-Mulk, and is the headquarters of the Persian authority in this country. Its garrison is stated at eight hundred sarbáz or Persian infantry, two hundred horse, and eight guns. The town or shahr (city), as it is here called, is merely the original village of Nasírabad enclosed within fortified walls surrounded by a ditch. They have evidently been very recently constructed, and are meant more for show than for real defence. Adjoining the north-west corner of the town, but distinct from it, is the citadel, which is a strongly-built mud structure, with eight turret bastions on each face, and a covered way between the ditch and glacis. The curtains between the bastions are high, loopholed, and crenated.
Near the north-west angle of the citadel, on the verge of the ditch, and at no distance from our camp, is one of these windmills so common in and so peculiar to this country. It was evidently out of repair, and the mournful creaking of its flanges, as they were revolved by the midnight breeze, effectually deprived us of sleep during the hours of darkness. This sort of windmill, or ásyáe báb, as it is called, is scientifically though very roughly constructed, in adaptation to the prevalent wind in this region.
It consists of two parallel mud walls, running north and south; one of these, usually the eastern wall, is curved round so as to nearly close the northern face, leaving only a gap three or four feet wide between it and the opposite wall; the southern face, on the contrary, is left completely open. In the centre, on the ground between these walls, are placed the millstones; the upper one working on a pivot fixed in the centre of the lower one by means of an upright pole fixed in its upper surface, and playing above through a hole in a great beam that rests transversely on the tops of the side walls. This upright pole or mast is furnished with wings or paddles, made of light frames of wood fixed perpendicularly, and along their outer halves covered with bands of reed matting or wickerwork, which form flanges to catch the wind and turn the mill. The following horizontal and vertical sections will illustrate the plan of these mills.
Horizontal Section.
Vertical Section.
The wind enters at A, marked in the horizontal section, and turning the flange opposite, brings round the next, and so on, and escapes at the wide southern opening. In some parts of the country these mills are adapted to work horizontally for the raising of water, but we did not see any of these.
The weather had been cloudy throughout the day, and at night a cold north-west wind set in, and the thermometer sunk from 78° Fah. at three P.M. to 40° Fah. at daybreak. The elevation of Nasírabad is about 1520 feet above the sea.