SEISTAN, or Segestan, an extensive country or province, formerly called Nimrose, situated to the east of Persia, between Candahar and Khorassan. It is bounded on the north and north-west by Khorassan, on the east by Candahar, and on the south and south-west by Mekran and Kerman. This country, although now reduced to a deplorable condition, once rivalled in prosperity the most flourishing provinces of the empire. It was the country of Jamsheed and Rustum, the heroes of the Shah Namch, and of Jacob Ben Leth, the conqueror of the caliph of Bagdad. The greater part of the country is flat, sandy, and uninhabited. This is partly occasioned by the wind, which blows during the hot months with such violence as to overwhelm with clouds of sand, houses, gardens, and fields. Captain Christie, who passed through the heart of Seistan in 1810, in his route from Kelat, in Beloochistan, to Herat, says, that from Nooβhky to the banks of the Heermund, the country through which he travelled was little better than a desert, intersected by sand-hills. But he travelled at no time twenty-five miles without meeting water. He did not see a single town, or even a village, in the way; and the only inhabitants of this solitary wild that he saw were a few Belooche and Patan shepherds, who lived in tents pitched in the vicinity of the springs. The country through which he passed was covered with an astonishing number of ruined towns, villages, and forts, and at one of these, Kulcauput, was a noble palace, in a tolerable state of preservation; also the ruined remains of a city, which he describes as of great extent. He also met with the ruins of another large city; and a few miles beyond it, the remains of a third. Everywhere he thus saw the traces of ruin and desolation, the fatal consequences of commotion and war. The only remnants of fertility that he met with were near the banks of the noble river Heermund, the ancient Etymander, which flows through the centre of the country, from the mountains of Huzara, beyond Caubul, to the Lake of Zerrch, which is said to be thirty furlongs in length and six in breadth. This river flows through a valley varying in breadth from one to two miles, the desert on one side rising in perpendicular cliffs; the valley, watered by the river, is covered with verdure and brushwood. The capital of the country is Dooshak, where the prince of Seistan resides. It is about eight or nine miles from the Heermund or Helmund. The modern city is small and compact, but the ruins cover a vast extent of ground. It is populous, has a good bazaar, and the inhabitants, who are dressed in the Persian manner, had a more civilized appearance than the other natives of Seistan, who are either Patan or Belooche shepherds, that lead a wandering life, and pitch their tents amidst the ruins of ancient palaces. The country in the vicinity of the capital is open, well cultivated, and produces wheat and barley in sufficient quantities to be exported to Herat. The pasturage is also good and abundant. Colonel Kinneir supposes Dooshak to be no other than the Zaranga of Ptolemy, and that the old name has been lost in the constant revolutions to which the country has been exposed for more than a century, and to which its present desolate state may in a great measure be attributed. Between this city and Ferrah, Captain Christie, to whom we owe the knowledge that we possess of this region, found the country in general desert, except in the immediate neighbourhood of the towns and villages through which he passed. Seistan is at present divided into a number of small independent states, governed by chiefs, who live in fortified villages, situated principally on the banks of the Heermund. The country to the west of this river consists of an arid waste, intersected by one or two ranges of mountains, in the midst of which, about ten days’ journey[7:20:80] from Dooshak, lies the city of Kubbees, about fifteen days’ march from Kerman and sixteen from Yezd. Couriers travel this desert from Kerman to Herat in eighteen days; but the risk of perishing is so great, that a courier demanded two hundred rupees from Mr Pottinger to carry a letter to Captain Christie. Seistan is now entirely independent of Persia, and is ruled by one of its own chiefs, who cannot raise a revenue of above 80,000 rupees, nor bring more than 3000 troops into the field.