Sistan and Baluchestan

“ I could not help feeling very sorry for the poor devils, for the way justice is administered in Sistan, as in most parts of Persia, is not particularly attractive. The tendons of the hands or feet are cut even for small offences, hot irons are thrust into the criminal's limbs, and other such trifling punishments are inflicted if sufficient money is not forthcoming from the accused or their relations to buy them out. ”

“ Gódor “the hollow” (Persian, god = lap or hollow) , &c. Other suggestive words, the names of villages in Sistan, are Bolay, Warmál, Banjár, Iskil, Khadang, Kechyán, Laff, Kimak, Shitak, Pulkí, Jazínak, Tiflak, Ishkinak, Sadkí, &c. Many villages are named after their founders, and generally they are found to occupy the sites of more ancient towns. These modern names in many cases serve to fix the dates of the new settlements or the restoration of old ruins. ”

“ Mules and horses are reared, and there are several flourishing industries, such as carpet-making, metal work, leather tanneries, gold and silver work, and silk and wool fabrics.
To the east we have Khorassan and Sistan, a great wheat-growing country with some good pastures, and also producing opium, sugar-cane, dates and cotton. In summer the northerly winds sweeping over the desert are unbearable, and the winter is intensely cold. In the northern part of Khorassan snow falls during the coldest months, but in Sistan the winter is temperate. ”

“ 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. ”

“ On the Persian territory the Vice-Consul in Sistan has erected small shelters, which, although necessarily not quite so luxurious as those under the direct control of the British authorities, are yet quite good enough for any one to spend a a night in. We have thus a complete belt of rest-houses extending from Quetta to Sher-i-Nasrya in Sistan.
Every effort has been made to improve the water supply upon the road, and new wells are constantly being sunk. True, the water, all along the route, is not of the best, but one does not generally expect to find delicious sweet spring water in a desert. ”

“ Each division of the region has a desert of its own. That of Persia has been before mentioned as stretching north and south across the eastern portion of that country. The desert of Afghanistan extends east and west across the western half of its southern border, from the highlands of Calát to the mountains of Sarhadd, south of [14] Sistan. It is called the Regi Sistan or Regi Balochistan—the sands of Sistan or Balochistan—and extends from the Mushti range of mountains on the south up to the plain of Kandahar on the north, where it ends in a high coast of desert cliffs. ”

“ It appears as if they had all been dismantled on purpose to prevent the people from entertaining any thought of revolt, and to [346] deprive them of the temptation to rebellion that such handy strongholds might give rise to.
During our stay here a party of a hundred horsemen, under ’Abdul Husen Khán, grandson of the celebrated Karai chief Ishák Khán, arrived here from Mashhad as escort for our party. With them came a messenger to Sistan, bearing a jewelled sword and letters of commendation from the Sháh for Mír ’Alam Khán, the governor of that newly acquired province. ”

“ Major Brazier-Creagh was sent to Sistan on a special mission; as has already been said, and Captain F. C. Webb-Ware, C. I. E., Political Assistant at Chagai, visited the place every year at the end of his annual trip along the new route in North Beluchistan from Quetta to Robat, the most Eastern station of the route prior to entering Persian territory. Major Sykes visited Sistan in 1896 in connection with the Perso-Beluch Boundary Commission and again in 1899, when he travelled here from Kerman by the easier southern route via Bam. ”

“ During last year fifty-three persons, we were told, had died of starvation, and the village has further lost thirty families who have emigrated to Sistan.
From Ghíbk we marched eighteen miles, and camped at Sihdih. Our route was generally north by west, up the course of a drainage gully, winding amongst hills, and passing from dell to dell up to a watershed formed by a spur from the Sághí range on our right. It runs east and west, and is about 6750 feet above the sea. The hills are of disintegrated trap overlaid by a soft friable slate, the surface of which has crumbled into a marly soil. ”

“ The rest of the Sistan tribe were formerly the serfs or subjects of the Kayáni, and they now hold the same position under the other dominant tribes of the country. They are styled generally dihcán, or peasant, and comprise representatives of various tribes, such as Tátárs, Mughals, Turks, Uzbaks, Kurds, Tajiks, converted Gabars, and Persians. They are principally employed in agriculture, cattle-herding, fishing and fowling, and the various handicrafts, and are a very poor and simple people. ”

“ From Ghazni westward, all along the valleys of the Tarnak and the Helmand, down to the basin of Sistan, the whole country is covered with the ruins of former cities, obliterated canals, and deserted cultivation—all assigned to the devastation of the Tartars under Changhiz and Tymúr in the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The country has never recovered the havoc created by these curses of the human race. Since the destruction of the Arab rule overthrown by them, the country has known no stable government, and has been a stranger to peace, order, and prosperity alike. ”

“ Hence he returned some years later to Sistan in beggared circumstances, and died in obscurity, leaving a son named Nasír Khán, and his son Azím Khán is now in the service of the Persian governor of the country. Malik Jaláluddín had a brother named Hamza Khán. He left three sons—namely, Abbas now residing in Jalálabad, Gulzár in Bahrámabad, and Malik Khán in some other village. These are the representatives of the ancient Kayáni family, and, viewing their present condition, one may truly exclaim, “How the great have fallen!” ”

“ Sistan is in a state of rapid transition, and it is doubtful whether the position of the three or four Europeans on duty there is one of perfect safety. The natives are so far undoubtedly and absolutely favourable to British influence in preference to Russian, a state of affairs mainly due to the personal tact of Majors Trench and Benn rather than to instructions from home, but great caution should be exercised in the future if this prestige, now at its highest point, is to be maintained. ”

“ The type of Sistan residence can be seen in the two hovels to the right of the observer in this photograph. The two hoods on the highest point of the dome are two typical ventilators. To the left the large doorways are mere shops, with a kind of narrow verandah on which the purchasers squat when buying goods. The main street is very narrow and has a small platform almost all along its sides, on which the natives sit smoking their kalians or conversing. ”

“ The climate of Sistan is very healthy generally, and the Halmund water delicious—by some it is said to be an actual tonic—but the hot winds of the summer and the salt sand cause severe injury to the eyes. Cataract is a most common complaint, even in comparatively young persons. ”

“ The plundering habits of these Baloch, and their constant hostilities with the neighbouring Afghan nomads, led to the abandonment of the Garmsel route from Kandahar to Sistan, and the country soon became a den of thieves, and the refuge of outlaws of all the surrounding provinces, who attached themselves to the Baloch chief as mercenaries and dependants. ”

“ We passed these, and camped on a bit of hard, flat, wind-swept, and bare ground, a few hundred yards farther on. At a few miles across the plain to the eastward are the extensive ruins of Záhidán. They extend as far as the eye can reach towards the north-east, and are said to be continuous with those of Doshák, about nine miles from the Helmand.
These ruins, with those of Pulkí, Nádálí, and Pesháwarán, are the most extensive in Sistan, and mark the sites of populous cities, the like of which are not to be found at this present day in all this region between the Indus and the Tigris. ”

“ All the rivers and rivulets from the eastward and southward flow to the stream of the Helmand, whilst those of Sabzwár and Ghor flow in separate streams, all to meet in the Sistan basin. So it is in the Afghanistan half of the region; and a similar system, though on a much less extensive scale, is found to hold in the Persian half. Thus all the streams between the Alwand range of Hamadán on the west, and the Alburz on the north-east, converge to the south-east corner of the Persian tableland, where they expand themselves on the surface of the great salt desert north of Kirmán. ”

“ As time ran on, the boy, the son of the king, grew up and fell to cutting the way [142] with the highwaymen, and they used to carry him with them, whenever they went banditing. They sallied forth one day upon a caravan in the land of Sistan, and there were in that caravan strong men and valiant, and with them a mighty store of merchandise. Now they had heard that in that land banditti abounded: so they gathered themselves together and gat ready their weapons and sent out spies, who returned and gave them news of the plunderers. ”

“ In Balochistan, these plateaux rise in steps one above the other between the hills up to the tableland of Calát. North of this they fall in steps to the Kandahar plain, which itself sinks towards the south-west to the Sistan basin. In Persia they rise in a similar gradation from the shores of the Persian Gulf and basin of the Tigris up to the tablelands of the interior, where they sink again gradually to the lowest part of the salt desert in the south-east portion of the country. ”

“ Ample proof that the plain was inhabited still remains in the ruins of Godar-i-Chah, situated at the western limit of the Zirreh salt deposits, Chah-i-Mardan, where a ruined fort and a Ziarat are said to exist, Gumbaz-i-Chah, and others. All these places are now deserted and are being fast buried by the sand. They are mostly along the Shela (river) banks, and the natives of Sistan say that they have heard from their ancestors that when the Shela did flow freely its water was quite drinkable. ”

“ Mahommed Azim Khan Brothers, of Lahore, have also opened a shop in Sistan, and so has Mahommed Hayab, agent for Shek Fars Mahommed, the biggest British firm in Meshed. It is probable that in the near future a number of other Indian firms may be induced to open branches in Sistan and Khorassan; but, if they are to avoid disappointment, they should remember that the Sistan market is merely a retail one, and there is very little wholesale trade to be transacted so far. In time to come no doubt a wholesale trade will eventually be developed. ”

“ It would be a very great addition to the British Consulate, now that so many Beluch and Afghans, all under British protection, travel through Sistan, if a British caravanserai could be built in which they, their goods and their camels, might enjoy comparative safety. The expense of putting it up would be very small, and it would avoid the constant friction which is bound to exist at present in a country where honesty is not the chief forte of the lower people, and where quarrels are ever rampant. ”

“ Sir Charles McGregor, Goldsmid, Bellew, Major MacMahon, Napier, and one or two others who have visited the country north of the Zirreh, can fully testify to the amazing remains of former prosperity in Sistan and south-west Afghanistan.
Sir Charles McGregor gives an amusing receipt for those who wish to know what the water at Godar-i-Chah is like without having the trouble of going there. "Take the first nasty-looking water you can find. ”

“ The honest, the well-to-do man, they reason, has nothing whatever to fear from anybody, and if a man chooses to be a criminal, he must take the consequences of it. The more severe the punishment the less crime there will be in the country. Persian law prevents crime.
In a province like Sistan, where the people are not quite up-to-date as in other parts of Persia, naturally, ways which to us may seem very cruel have to be applied by the Amir to impress the people. ”

“ Hokát being the Arabic plural of hok, and applying to the district of which it was the capital, just as Gháynát applies to the territory of which Gháyn is the capital. The latter, more than two centuries later, when marching against Kandahar, destroyed all the principal forts on his route from Farráh through Sistan and Garmsel up to Búst; and from this period, about 1737, up to the present time, this country has remained in much the same state of ruin that it was left by Nadír. ”

“ On the way there was little to be seen for the first four miles until we reached the village of Bunjar, the biggest trading village in Sistan and the residence of the Iman Jumeh, the next holiest man to the head priest of Sher-i-Nasrya. This village and neighbourhood supply Sher-i-Nasrya entirely with wood and very largely with food. There are many stunted trees about, all curved southwards by the wind, and much cultivated land, the ground being intersected by numerous natural and artificial water channels. ”