From the Indus to the Tigris

by H. W. Bellew

The great extent of these ruins, which cover an area of about six miles by eight, leads to the suspicion that they are not the remains of one and the same city existing in its entirety throughout their extent, but rather the out-growths of successive cities rising on the ruins of their predecessors upon the same spot. We were unable, however, to trace any differences in the appearances of the several groups to bear out such a suspicion. On the contrary, they so exactly resemble each other that any one group may be taken as representative of the others. In this view these ruins do certainly represent a most flourishing period in the history of this country.

The ruins of Pesháwarán resemble in point of architecture those of Záhidán and Calá Fata, but differ from those of Kaikobád, which are evidently of much older date, though amongst them are found some structures dating from the Arab period.

On crossing the Naizár we passed out of Sistan, or the district known by that name, in the restricted application of the term current at the present day. Its limits have been already mentioned, and I may here state that it is about sixty miles broad from north to south, and about one hundred long from east to west. Within this area the general aspect of the country is a wide undulating plain of a light sandy soil, singularly bare of trees, except on the borders of the two lagoons, which are fringed with forests of the tamarisk, whilst the swamp connecting them is crowded with a dense growth of tall reeds.

Surrounded as it is by desert wastes, this district of Sistan presents a very populous and highly cultivated area. Its territory is divided between four distinct tribes, who are now under the rule of the Persian possessors of the country since their occupation of it seven years ago. Previous to 1865, when this district formed an integral portion of the Afghan kingdom, these several tribes were constantly warring against each other, and encroaching upon the lands of the weaker party.

The tribes above alluded to are the Sistani, Sárbandi, Shahrki, and Baloch. They are distributed very unequally over about sixty villages, averaging 250 houses each, and their dates of settlement in the country also differ very considerably.

The most ancient inhabitants, and apparently the original possessors of the country, are included in the Sistani tribe, which at the present day consists of aboriginals and representatives of various tribes, who have been thrown together and incorporated here by successive waves of conquest and revolution during many centuries. Much obscurity hangs over the original Sistani; but their ruling family have long been known, under the appellation of Kayáni, as the hereditary princes of the country, and are supposed to trace their descent to the ancient kings of the period when the seat of government of the Persian empire was in Sistan. Tradition is at variance on this point, as I was informed by an intelligent native of the country. According to the commonly accepted account, the Kayáni family are the lineal descendants of Kaikobád, the founder of the Kayáni dynasty in the romantic age of Zál and his son Rustam, of whose birth and principal exploits Sistan was the theatre. Other accounts assign their descent to Yácúb bin Leth, the potter of Sistan, who, turning the times to his own advantage, usurped the government of Sistan, and in 868 A.D. founded the Sufári dynasty, which was finally extinguished in the person of Kulif, when Mahmúd of Ghazni conquered the country towards the close of the tenth century. Be this as it may, the Kayánis were the dominant family in Sistan up to the commencement of the present century, and their chiefs figure prominently in the history of Khorassan during the first half of the preceding century, memorable for the decline and fall of the Persian empire of the Suffairs, the invasion and devastation of their country by the Afghans under Mír Mahmúd, the son of Mír Wais, Ghilzai, and the rise of the conqueror, Nadír Sháh, whose death in 1747 was followed by a redistribution of the map of Central Asia between the Cajars in Persia, the Uzbaks in Bukhára, and the Afghans in Khorassan.

It was during the revolution attending the revolt of the Ghilzais and Abdalis, and the establishment of Kandahar as an independent principality, under their leader Mír Wais, Ghilzai, in 1810, that the Kayáni chiefs of Sistan, who had heretofore held their lands and titles under firmans from the Persian kings, first threw off their allegiance to the throne of Persia. During the successive invasions of Persia through Sistan in 1720-21, under Mír Mahmúd, the son and successor of Mír Wais, the Kayáni chief Malik Asadullah was the independent ruler of Sistan, and he accorded the invading Afghans an unopposed passage through his territory.

About this period a cousin of the Sistan chief above named, one Malik Mahmúd, profiting by the confusion of the times, issued from his desert-girt home, and quickly seized the adjoining district of Khorassan. Having secured Gháyn and Tabbas and Herat, the successful adventurer next captured Mashhad and subdued Nishabor and Sabzwár, at the very time that his Afghan namesake and rival was prosecuting his successes against the Persian capital.

The unprecedented success of the Afghans now roused the jealousy of the Kayáni, who, fearful of their ascendancy, hurried to Ispahán to support his lawful sovereign against the invader. His loyalty, however, was not proof against the ready concessions of the Afghan; and Malik Mahmúd being acknowledged by Mír Mahmúd in the independent possession of his conquests, hastened back to Mashhad and assumed the crown and title of the Kayáni. His enjoyment of the purple was neither long continued nor peaceful; for he was presently opposed by the rising soldier Nadír Culi, and, after successive contests, was finally captured by him and executed, together with a younger brother named Muhammad Ali, at Nishabor in 1727. On this, Nadír reinstated the former chief, Malik Asadullah, in the government of Sistan, and with him sent back Mahmúd’s family and belongings to their homes.

Asadullah shortly after died, and was succeeded by his son Malik Husen. He soon followed the example of his neighbours, and revolted. Nadír then appointed his own nephew, Ali Culi, governor of Sistan, and he proceeded with a strong force to subdue the refractory chief. On his approach, Malik Husen and his brothers, Fath Ali and Lutf Ali, took refuge in the island-fort of Koh Khojah, and there held out against Nadír’s troops for several years. They were finally conciliated, and took service under Nadír, but not until their country had been devastated, and their own power thoroughly broken by the importation from Persia of the Sárbandi and Shahrki tribes as feudal colonists.