From the Indus to the Tigris

by H. W. Bellew

Away to the south, on the open plain, is another similar country-house, the summer residence of Mír Alam, the son. It stands in the midst of an ornamental garden, and commands a wide view of the surrounding country. At about a mile from Birjand we were met by an isticbál party, and conducted to our camp, pitched outside the town under the walls of the palace of the governor. The party was headed by a little boy, Hydar Culi, the youngest son of the chief of Gháyn. He was preceded en règle by two led horses, and attended by eight horsemen. Though only eight years old, he rode a high horse both positively and figuratively with the composure and savoir faire of one of mature years. His eldest brother, Sarbang Ali Akbar, who, during his father’s absence in Sistan, manages the government of the province, excused his absence on the plea of ill-health. We halted here three days.

In our march this day we have descended about 1200 feet, the elevation of Birjand being 4880 feet, and that of Múd 6100 feet above the sea. There is a sensible difference in the climate, the air here being delightfully pure, mild, and light, and the sun’s rays agreeably warm. The nights, however, are yet cold, and keen gusty winds circle about the lower part of the valley, which forms a wide basin in the hills. The summer here is described as a temperate and salubrious season, and the winter mild in comparison with the more elevated regions of the district. Snow lies on the ground from one to two months, and during the past winter, which has been a severer one than any for the last fifteen years, fell in unusual quantity.

Birjand, the modern capital of the district of Gháyn or Cayn, is an open town of about two thousand houses, and is protected by a fort on some rising ground on the west side. On the south side is the palace of the governor, enclosed by fortified walls, and on some detached mounds to the north are three or four towers in a state of decay. The town has a very neat and prosperous look, and its people appear to have altogether escaped the pressure of the famine that has prevailed over other parts of the country. We saw no beggars here, and the mass of the people were remarkably well dressed, and seemed comfortably off. The population is estimated at twelve thousand, which is, I think, considerably over the real number.

Birjand is the centre of a considerable trade with Kandahar and Herat on one side, and Kirmán, Yazd, and Tehran on the other. It is also the seat of the carpet manufactures, for which this district has been celebrated from of old. These carpets are called cálín, and are of very superior workmanship and of beautiful designs, in which the colours are blended with wonderful harmony and incomparable good effect. The best kinds fetch very high prices, and are all bespoke by agents for the nobles and chiefs of the country. The colours are of such delicate shades, and the patterns are so elaborate and tasteful, and the nap is so exquisitely smooth and soft, that the carpets are only fit for use in the divans of oriental houses, where shoes are left without the threshold. The best kinds are manufactured in the villages around, and those turned out from the looms of Duroshkt Nozád, enjoy a pre-eminent reputation for excellence.

The Gháyn district consists of nine bulúk or divisions, each of which contains from twenty to thirty villages and a great number of mazrá or hamlets. The bulúk are Nih, Zerkoh, Khusp, Nárjún (includes Sarbesha and Birjand), Sunnikhána, Alghór or Arghol, Gháyn, Nímbulúk and Shahwá. The population of the district was formerly reckoned at thirty thousand families, but what with losses by death and emigration during the famine, it does not now contain half that number.

The natural products of the country are very varied. The low-lying plains of Khusp produce wheat, barley, millet, beans and pulses, excellent melons, and all the common vegetables, such as carrots, turnips, beetroot, &c. Cotton, and tobacco are also grown, and fruit gardens and vineyards also flourish. In the higher plains of Birjand and Gháyn, saffron is extensively cultivated, and the silkworm is reared with success. Here too are found large barberry plantations, and almost all the orchard fruits common in Europe. At higher elevations in the little glens amongst the hills are extensive vineyards and fruit gardens, whilst rhubarb grows wild on the hill, and asafœtida on the plains almost everywhere.

The industrial products are carpets, woollen materials called kurk, pashmína, and pattú, silk raw and manufactured, and felts called namad. These with dried fruits, asafœtida, and wool are all exported in greater or less quantity. In return are imported corn from Sistan, kirmiz (scarlet dye) from Bukhára by Herat, indigo from India by Kandahar, sugar refined at Yazd from the Indian raw sugar, postín or fur coats (mostly sheepskin) from Herat, rice, spices, tobacco, and European hardware from Tehran, as also calicoes, prints and broadcloths.

The Gháyn district is an elevated mountain region, separating the waste area of western Afghanistan from the wide tract of similar and more perfect desert on the adjoining border of Persia. Towards the north-west it is continuous through the highlands of Tún and Tabbas with the rest of the mountain system of Persian Khorassan, as represented by the highlands of Záwah on the one hand and Turshíz on the other. Between its hill ranges it supports a number of wide plateaux and fertile valleys, that mostly trend from north-west to south-east, and range in elevation from four thousand to seven thousand feet above the sea.

To the south it is separated from Kirwan and Sistan by the Dashtí Lút, or “Desert of Lot.” To the east the Dashtí Náummed, or “desert of despair,” intervenes between it and the districts of Hokát and Farráh. On the west it is separated from Yazd and Káshán by a vast salt desert called Daryáe Kabír, or “the great ocean,” or simply kavír or kabír. Towards the north, at Yúnasi, a narrow arm of this salt desert cuts the mountain chain from west to east, and spreads out into the desert of Kháf, where it joins the Dashtí Náummed on the south and the deserts of Herat and Sarrakhs on the north.

The inhabitants of Gháynát, which is the name by which the district is known, are of various races and tribes, classed under the collective appellations of Arab and Ajam, or those of Arab descent and those of foreign descent. The former appear to have been settled here since the time of the Arab conquest, and have for several centuries furnished the ruling chiefs of the country. The present chief belongs to this tribe, and the rule of the country has descended in his family since the establishment of the Saffavi dynasty. Formerly the residence of the family was at Gháyn, but in the time of Nadír, the chief, Mír ’Ali, transferred his headquarters to Birjand. He was succeeded in the rule by his son Mír Alam, and he by his son Mír Asadullah, both of whom were subjects of the Durrani kings. On the break-up of this dynasty, Mír Asadullah became independent to all intents, and as such took his part in the political struggles between the Cajar and Afghan for supremacy on this contested frontier, that characterise its history since the commencement of the present century.