KHORASSAN is, strictly speaking, a province of Persia. In its more extended sense, however, it comprehends [7:12:708]an extensive tract of country, of which the boundaries have been differently defined, and indeed have greatly varied. In the great revolutions which have occurred in Asia, Khorassan has been the centre of a great empire, and the seat of mighty monarchs, and more frequently the dependency of a fallen state, and the scene of invasion, rebellion, and anarchy. It was a constant subject of dispute between the independent monarchs, whose territories lay respectively on the east and on the west; and it sometimes fell into the power of one, and sometimes of the other. In these circumstances, its political boundaries were continually varying, as the fortune of war inclined to one or other of the surrounding potentates. At one time they comprehended the whole country to the mouth of the Oxus, including the steppe of Khaurezm, Balkh, and all the intervening country to the east; on the south-east, not only the cities and dependencies of Herat, but those of Subzawur, Furrah, Geeresh, and even Candahar itself; on the south it was always bounded by Kerman and Seistan; on the west it included the district of Yezed, but its salt desert was bounded in that direction by the districts of Ispahan, Cashan, and Rhe, in the vicinity of Semnaun; and beyond the Elburz Mountains, the districts of Astrabad and of Goorgaun were also considered as the dependencies of this vast territory. If Khorassan be merely considered as a province of Persia, its extent would be very inconsiderable indeed. But if, with Fraser, we take into consideration the natural features of the country, the following boundaries may be assigned. According to this traveller, a line, skirting the districts of Ispahan and Cashan, and meeting the Elburz Mountains near Dehnimmuck, will divide Khorassan from Irak on the west. This line prolonged eastward to the desert on the eastern side of the Caspian Sea, in the steppe of Khaurezm, will form its northern boundary; and we cannot positively decide, nor is exactness in this matter of great importance, in what part of the great desert that occupies the whole space between the foot of the Elburz range and the Oxus, this boundary should be placed. In a political view, it does not extend at present beyond the base of the Elburz Mountains. To the eastward it may properly be allowed to include the districts of Serrukhs, Hazarah, and Balai Moorghaub; and a line running between these and the dependencies of Balkh, in east longitude 63°, in a direction nearly south, including the district of Herat, and touching Seistan, would be the boundary of Khorassan on the east; whilst on the south it is bounded by Kerman and Fars.

The surface of this extensive country is, like other parts of Persia, much diversified by plains and mountains; a very large proportion is quite unfit for the habitation of man, and consists of arid rocks, destitute of vegetation or fresh water, and deserts either of salt-land or sand, among which may be found a few spots, like islands in the sea. The following is a more particular description, chiefly compiled from Fraser’s Narrative of a Journey into Khorassan.

The Elburz range of mountains, which is connected with the great chain of Caucasus, runs, in an easterly course, through the northern parts of Khorassan, sending forth various ramifications to the southward. From the base of these mountains a desert of barren sand, chiefly level, stretches northward to an immense extent, including the steppe of Khaurezm, and forming a part of that mighty plain which extends eastward as far as the Jaxartes and the Oxus. In this plain are found many fertile districts; but in that portion which is included in the limits now assigned to Khorassan, there is no permanent habitation, and the scanty sprinkling of population which it possesses consists of a few tribes of wandering Toorkomans. These mountains, though they present their loftiest face to the desert, still sweep down in a manner so gradual, as to enclose rich and well-watered valleys, which were formerly well peopled and cultivated, and once contained several towns, which are now in ruins, from the continued attacks of the Toorkoman plunderers. The only place of any consideration that remains is Serrukhs, 120 miles from Mushed, a very ancient town, the remains of which are now inhabited by Toorkomans and Usbecks. To the south, the Elburz Mountains send forth ramifications which penetrate the plain to the distance of from sixty to one hundred miles. Beyond this is the vast salt desert, which extends southward, with occasional fertile tracts, very nearly to the Persian Gulf. This desert varies very much in its nature in different parts. In some places the surface is dry, and even produces a few of those plants that thrive in a salt soil; in others it consists of a crackling crust of dry earth, covered with a saline efflorescence. There are extensive marshy tracts, in the lower parts of which water accumulates during the winter months, which is evaporated by the summer sun, leaving a quantity of salt in cakes, upon a bed of mud. In some places the soil is a hard-baked and perfectly barren clay; again, in certain districts, extensive plains of sand are found, which is occasionally heaped up in hillocks in the form of waves, and frequently so light as to be raised aloft by the winds in clouds, under which travellers are frequently buried, as in the Arabian deserts. The saline desert, however, according to Fraser, predominates in Khorassan. It is of a considerably higher level than the desert to the north of the Elburz Mountains; but still this traveller is of opinion that they are connected. The only fertile parts of Khorassan are where the country is penetrated by the Elburz Mountains; and in the north-east corner of Khorassan there is a long stripe of country, consisting of the lower parts of these mountains, from ten to twenty miles in breadth, which bear some inconsiderable traces of cultivation, and give shelter to a few miserable hamlets, but contain no village of any consequence. The valley of Mushed, amongst the Elburz Mountains, is of great length. It commences ten or twelve miles to the north-west of Sheerwan, extends, without interruption, for fifty miles beyond Mushed, and continues for the greater part of the way to Herat. It varies from twelve to thirty miles in breadth, and contains in its extent, besides the city of Mushed, the towns of Chinnaran, Radcan, Kabooshan or Cachoon, Sheerwan, and their dependencies, with a great extent of cultivated land. The road from Mushed to Herat must also pass through several well-peopled and well-cultivated districts. The extensive valley here spoken of contains a considerable portion of the district known by the appellation of Koordistan, being inhabited by Koordish colonies. The country which we have described above, under the title of Khorassan, may be estimated to extend between 500 and 600 miles east and west, and between 300 and 400 miles north and south.