KHORASAN may be regarded as comprising the whole of Persian territory lying between the Caspian and the Afghan border near Herat. On the north it is bounded by the Aral Caspian desert, from which it is now separated by the long narrow strip of Akhal Tekke Turkoman territory occupied by Russia ; on the south it is severed from the rest of Persia by the Great Salt Desert ; on the east a strip of savage, though fertile country, overrun by Turkomans, separates it from Afghanistan ; and on the west the decrepit province of Astrabad, already half-Russianized, connects it with the Caspian portion of the Iranic empire. Its length is about 500 miles, its breadth 400, and its superficial area about 200,000 square miles. MacGregor's calculation that the population of Khorasan is about a million and a quarter may be light. Perhaps it would not be a very erron eous calculation to fix the entire population of the region lying between the Caspian and Herat at two millions, consisting of scraps of various races, and all as much inflamed against the Persian as they are favourably disposed to Russian rule. The tribes are numerous, Arab, Baluch, Beyat, Chulai, Karai, Khurshahi, Lek, Jalayer, Mardi, Nekhi, and Timuri. The country is essentially mountainous ; and of the rivers, the Atrek is the only one that does not waste its waters upon the desert. The fertility of the province has long passed into a proverb, and no travellers exalt it more strongly than the Russians. Previous to the fall of Geok Tepe, General Skobeleff made a reconnaissance into the country to the south of the Kopet Dagh, which used to belong to Khorasan, but of late years fell under the sway of the Tekke Turkomans. This district is by no means the most favoured portion of Khorasan, according to Petroosevitch and Baron Bode. General Annenkoff, however, who was on Skobeleff's staff at the time, writes in 'the most enthusiastic strains of the district, praising it for its forests, its vines, and its magnificent pastures.
Khorasan contains many fruitful plains, some lofty ridges of mountains, and several wide tracts of desert. It is, except in its most fertile districts, but partially supplied with water ; and from local position has, perhaps, been more exposed to pre datory invasions than any country in the universe. Its boundaries have greatly varied with the alter ing power of its rulers, and even at present sur rounding nations use the name differently. The emperor Baber tells us, in his Commentaries, that in his time the people of India applied the term Khorasan to all the regions west of the Indus.
Whenever Persia was distracted by internal factions, or had to sustain foreign attack, the tribes of Tartary crossed the Oxus and spread themselves over Khorasan. It was this province which the valour of Rustum bad to defend against the continual inroads of Afrasaib. The Seljuk chiefs invaded it longbefore their rule was extended over the other parts of the empire to which it belongs. It suffered greatly from the ravages of Chengiz and of Timur ; and during the reigns of the first Suffavean kings, the Uzbaks, who had conquered the country of Bokhara, made annual attacks upon its fields and cities. The genius of
Abbas the Great checked these ruinous inroads, and Nadir made this race of plundering Tartars tremble for their own possessions. But the death of that conqueror left his native province more exposed than ever to hostile invasion ; for while his descendants, spite of the vast inheritance which lie had bequeathed them, exercised a mock sovereignty over the city of Mashed, several military chiefs, taking advantage of the distracted state of the empire, seized upon the different forts of Khorasan, and, aided by the confusion of the times, succeeded in establishing a number of small principalities, over which they exercised an almost regal sway, making war or concluding peace with their petty neighbours as it suited their interest, and sometimes defying, and at others paying homage and tribute to, the powerful monarchs by whom they were surrounded. Mashed, the capital of the Persian division of Khorasan, is situated about two farsang from the ruins of the ancient city of Tous, and is celebrated for a very superb sepulchre, in which repose the relics of Imam Raza, and those of the khalif Harun-ur-Rashid. Khorasan is peopled by many races ; its warlike inhabitants boast their descent from Arabian, Kurd, Turkish, and Afghan tribes, who came into the province at different periods to subdue or to defend it ; but neither their having so long in habited the same soil, nor a sense of common danger, has softened those inveterate prejudices, or abated that rooted hatred, with which these races regard each other ; and it had been the policy of the monarchs of Persia to increase divisions, which enable them to keep in subjection a country whose inhabitants, if united by any feeling that resembled patriotism, would have been dangerous ; for the men of Khorasan, from the robustness of their frame, and from their being continually inured to war, are proverbially brave ; and Nadir Shah used to term this fine province the sword of Persia' The Kayn Arabs have long enjoyed the reputation of being the hardiest and the bravest of the infantry of being rasan. A part of the district of Kayn borders on the desert of Seistan, while it is bounded in another quarter by the territories of the Afghans.
Khorasan is the name by which the Afghans, Baluch, and Brahui designate the region known to Europeans as Afghanistan and Baluchistan. It is a softened pronunciation of Khoresthan, or coun try of the sun or the place of light, in other words and thus corresponding to the German Morgen land, the east, the orient, as being the eastern most province of the ancient empire of Cyrus and Darius. The Afghans, however, now distinguish their own land as Pukhtun Khwa or Pathan country, and Watan Khwa or native country. The ancient Khorasan stretched far into Chinese Tar tary, and was occupied by several colonies. It had the Indus on the east, the desert of Yeza on the west, the river Amu Darya (Oxus) on the north, and the Arabian Sea on,the south.—Mark ham's Embassy; Kinneir's Memoir; Malcolm' Persia; Khanikoff sur l'Eihnographie de to Perse; 11 faeGregor ; Bellew.