From the Indus to the Tigris

by H. W. Bellew

Such, in brief, is a history of the several tribes now occupying Sistan. Their rival interests, and their constant struggles for ascendancy one over the other, sufficiently account for the anarchy and confusion that have characterised the normal condition of this country during the past century, or, in other words, since the death of Sháh Ahmad, Durrani. The decline of the government, commencing in the reign of his successor, Sháh Tymúr, and ending in its overthrow in the succeeding reign of Sháh Zamán, and the subsequent transference of the rule from the Saddozais to the Bárakzais in the time of Sháh Mahmúd, was not without its influence on the political condition of Sistan; and we find that the province, which was incorporated as an integral part of the empire established by the founder of the Durrani monarchy, gradually, on the decline of the paramount power, lapsed from its allegiance, and, perforce of the local circumstances at the time determining, became divided into more or less independent chiefships, which, for the furtherance of their individual interests, attached themselves as dependencies of the nearest provincial governments, of Kandahar on the one side and Herat on the other. And such continued to be the political relations of the country until the Persian occupation of Herat in 1856. After the ensuing Persian war, and the evacuation of Herat territory by the Persians, the Sistan chiefs continued more or less under the influence of Persian intrigue, a course in which they were encouraged by M. Khanikoff’s mission in the spring of 1859; and the result of their dealings with the Persian court, as already detailed, ended in their invasion and annexation of the country in 1865.

Of the ancient history of Sistan we have no connected record. Such notices of the country as are met with in the pages of various authors are very few, scant in detail, and separated by wide intervals of time. Malcolm’s “History of Persia” contains a full account of the early Persian dynasties, and the country of Sistan, or Zabulistan, as it was also called, is frequently mentioned as the theatre of their military exploits.

For the Persians the country has a peculiar interest, as being the birthplace and home of their legendary hero, the renowned Rustam, son of Zál, the fifth in descent from the Persian Jamshed by a princess of Sistan. Zál, says the authority above quoted, married Rúdábah, daughter of Mehráb, king of Kabul, and of the race of Zohák. Their offspring, Rustam, was cut out of her side when stupefied by drugs, according to the secret imparted to Zál by the Griffin of Elburz. The romance of this hero’s life is as varied as it is improbable, and affords an untiring theme of delight to the Persian story-teller and his auditors. His fame is the subject of song in every village, and there is hardly a hill in the country that does not possess a spot sanctified by tradition as the scene of some of his many exploits and feats against dragons, demons, or genii, and other such figures of fancy.

Later mention of this country is found in the pages of the historians of Alexander’s Asiatic conquests, under the name of Drangia, so designated from its principal river, the Drangius, now called Helmand or Hermand, whose course Alexander followed in his progress eastward, probably through the Garmsel. On the return march of the Macedonian army from India in 325 B.C., this country was traversed by the force under the command of Craterus.

The Rev. J. Williams, in his “Life of Alexander the Great,” following the account by Arrian, states that whilst Alexander himself took the route parallel to the littoral, and the fleet voyaging under command of Nearchus, which led across the desert of Gedrosia, the modern Makrán, to Carmania or Kirmán, Craterus had already proceeded “with the elephants, the heavy baggage, the feeble, the old, and the wounded, and with three brigades of the phalanx,” towards the same destination, through the fertile countries of the Arachosi and Drangæ.

In this march it is probable that Craterus followed the ancient caravan route between India and Persia, which led from Dehra Gházi Khán on the Indus, to Kirmán and the Persian Gulf by the Tal Chhotiyálí road to Peshín and Kandahar, and thence by the valley of the Helmand to Sistan, and onwards by the Nihbandán road to Kirmán. At this period the country must have been in a much more flourishing and populous condition than it is now.

The rule of the Greek satraps was followed, 226 A.D., by the dynasty of the house of Sassan, which commenced with the reign of Ardshir Bábakán. Under the Shapori sovereigns of this family, Sistan appears to have been a flourishing seat of the Zoroastrians, since most of the coins now found in the country belong to this period.

The Sassan dynasty fell before the rising power of the Arabs, and ended with the death of Yezdijird, the last sovereign of that house, who, fleeing to Sistan before the conquering Arabs, ultimately escaped to Marv, where he was murdered, 651 A.D., by a miller with whom he had taken refuge. During the two centuries of Arab rule, Sistan appears to have attained to the highest state of prosperity, and to have enjoyed a stable and just government, as is evidenced by the character and vast extent of the ruins pertaining to that period.

About the middle of the ninth century the Arab rule in Sistan was replaced by that of the Sufári dynasty, of native origin. According to Malcolm, to whose excellent History I am indebted for most of my information on this interesting country, the founder of this dynasty, Yácúb bin Leth or Lais, belonged to a family of potters of Sistan. In youth he abandoned the peaceful calling of his ancestors for the more exciting life of a robber, and in 851 A.D. took service with one Sálih bin Nasr, who had usurped the government of Sistan. Proving a man of parts, he was appointed by Sálih’s successor, Dirham bin Nasr, to the command of his army, and soon made use of his position to usurp the government for himself, establishing his capital at Doshák. In 868 he added Herat, Kirmán, and Shiraz to his possessions, and a couple of years later extended them to Kabul in one direction, and Nishabor in the other. He was succeeded by his brother, Amir bin Leth, who was made prisoner by the Tátár Ismáil Sámání, and sent to Baghdad, where he was executed in 901. With him fell the Sufári dynasty, but his descendants continued to hold Sistan till it was taken from Kulif, the last prince of the Leth family, by Mahmúd of Ghazni, towards the close of the century.

In Mahmúd’s time, Sistan, as described by Ibn Haukal, was a most flourishing country, and the lower course of the Helmand as far as Búst presented an uninterrupted succession of populous cities, whilst the country as far as Zirrah was intersected by numerous great canals that rendered the land proverbially fertile. At this period, too, Sistan was noted for the existence of a gold-mine, which, after yielding a rich store of the precious metal for many years, was suddenly swallowed up and its site obliterated by an earthquake. Tradition points to no particular spot as the locality of this mine, and at this distance of time, with our scant knowledge of the country, it is useless to speculate on the subject, particularly if we bear in mind the fact that the limits of Sistan in the time of Mahmúd, were far more extensive than they are at the present day.