From the Indus to the Tigris

by H. W. Bellew

During the period that Aleahyár Khán, Asafuddaula, was governor of Khorassan on the part of Persia, the Cajar king, finding his designs against Herat frustrated by the action of the British Government, resolved on accomplishing piecemeal what he was prevented from effecting by a coup de main; and his governor of Khorassan, during the thirteen years of his rule at Mashhad, brought under subjection all that portion of the province lying to the north of the latitude of Herat, viz., the districts of Turbatain, Turshíz, and Tabbas, as the fruits of his successive campaigns on this border. Asafuddaula twice marched a force for the subjugation of Gháyn, and each time unsuccessfully. On the first occasion, in 1835, shortly after his installation in the government of the province, the chief, Mír Asadullah, retired to Sistan, and, as an Afghan subject dependent on Herat, sought the aid of its ruler. The Prince Kamrán sent his wazír, Yár Muhammad, with a contingent of Herat troops to the aid of the fugitive chief. And these, joined by the Sistan army under Muhammad Razá, Sárbandi, defeated the Persians at Nih, and restored Mír Asadullah to his rule in Gháyn as a dependent of Herat. On the second occasion, a couple of years later, Mír Asadullah, on the approach of the Persian troops under Muhammad ’Ali, son of Asafuddaula, abandoning his province, repaired to Herat for aid in its recovery. Yár Muhammad furnished a contingent of Herat troops, who defeated the Persians in a battle fought at Sih Calá, and reinstated Asadullah in the government of Gháyn. In the succeeding siege of Herat, however, Gháyn was annexed to Persia, and the chief, Mír Asadullah, and his son, Mír Alam, the present chief, were taken prisoners to Mashhad. On the retreat of the Persian army from Herat, and the restoration of peace on this border, they were restored to Gháyn as Persian subjects; and the father dying shortly afterwards, was succeeded in the government by his son Mír Alam, who during his stay at Mashhad and Tehran was reconciled to the change of masters by conciliatory treatment and very advantageous terms of allegiance. Mír Alam, who is now Persian governor of Sistan, with the title of Hashmat-ul-Mulk, is a very popular governor here, and has the character of being an energetic and liberal-minded man. He pays no revenue direct to the Persian Government, but is held responsible for the maintenance of the royal troops employed in his province, and, further, sends an annual tribute to the Sháh. In other respects he is pretty much of an independent chief in his own limits.

He has taken advantage of the troubled state of politics in Afghanistan ever since the British occupation of the country, not only to extend his possessions up to their natural limits, but to cross the Perso-Afghan border, and take possession of Sistan on behalf of the Sháh of Persia. Up to the death of Yár Muhammad in 1851, all the border districts of Gháyn, including Sunnikhána and Nárjún as far as Bojd, were held as dependencies of Herat, and Afghan revenue collectors were posted in the frontier villages, such as Gizík and Bojd, on the part of Yár Muhammad. On the death of that ruler, and during the succeeding changes and struggles that led to the occupation of Herat by the Persians in 1856, these border districts fell away from the control of the Herat Government, and lapsed to their rightful lord, the chief of Gháyn. The transgression of the border into Sistan was effected at a later period, during the anarchy that convulsed Afghanistan on the death of the Amir Dost Muhammad, and the accession of his son, Sher ’Ali, to the throne.

Mír Alam is now the most influential and wealthy chief on the Khorassan frontier of Persia. His power and independent action, it is said, have rendered him an object of jealousy and suspicion to the prince-governor of Mashhad, who is also governor of the whole province of Khorassan; and neither conceals his hatred and distrust of the other. The Gháyn chief, however, is strong in his position, and the policy he is carrying out gains him the support of the court of Tehran. He has three sons, namely, ’Ali Akbar, aged eighteen years, who, with the title of Sarhang, resides at Birjand, and carries on the government during his father’s absence in Sistan; Mír Ismáil, aged fourteen years, who is now on a pilgrimage to Karbalá; and Hydar Culi, the little boy who officiated in the honours of our reception at Birjand.

The other tribes included under the term Ajam are mostly Persians, with a few scattered families of Turks, Kurds, Mughals and Balochs. They constitute the rural population, and are employed in agriculture and the tending of cattle. Physically they are a fine people, with light complexions and hardy features.

CHAPTER X.

2d April.—Marched from Birjand to Ghíbk or Ghínk, eighteen miles. The weather, which during our stay at Birjand had been delightfully mild and balmy, now changed and became bleak and stormy. During the night, a strong east wind blew in eddying gusts that threatened the stability of our tents. In the forenoon it changed to the west, and towards sunset veered round to the north, and closed the evening with a storm and heavy rain.

We had been promised a relay of camels at this place, and up to the last were deceived by false assurances of their being ready at the time appointed for our departure. But as they were not produced at the time agreed, and we had seen enough to shake our faith in the ready promises of their immediate arrival, it was decided that we should leave our large tents and heavy baggage here, to be brought on after us so soon as the promised camels should be provided, and proceed ourselves with the small tents and mule carriage, according to the original intention.

At noon, therefore, we set out in light marching order, and after passing clear of the town, crossed a wide ravine that courses through it towards the west, and entered on a wide plateau that gently slopes up towards the east, in which direction it is continuous with the Sarbesha valley. Our route across this was in a north-easterly direction by a beaten track skirting the base of a high ridge of mountains that close the plateau towards the west. At about eight miles we rose over some low mounds of fissile slate covered with red marl that project on to the plateau, and beyond them, crossing the deep boulder-strewn ravine of Ishkambár, followed the highroad between the villages of Bújdí on the right and Ishkambár on the left, and passing a roadside ábambár, at a couple of miles farther on reached the hamlet of Mahiabad, near the entrance of a deep gorge in the hills, and halted awhile to let the baggage get on ahead.

The rise from Birjand to this, though gradual, is considerable—850 feet as indicated by the aneroid—and from its elevation we got a good view of the Bagrán range of hills to the south, and the great tableland that forms the prospect on its north, in which direction it is bounded by the Múminabad range of hills, that separate it from the Sunnikhána and Alghór districts. This extensive tableland descends considerably towards the west, and is divided unequally into the valley of Múd and plateau of Sarbesha by a low ridge of rocks that run from east to west. The drainage of the whole surface is conveyed by the Fakhrábád ravine through the town of Birjand down to the Khusp river, which is lost in the great desert of the west. We crossed this ravine on leaving camp, and saw that it received the Múd and Ishkambár ravines as tributaries.