James Baillie Fraser - Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan (1821)

James Baillie Fraser (1783 – 1856) was a Scottish travel writer and artist who had travelled widely across India, Iran and Ottoman Empire, drawing picaresque watercolours. Born in Scotland, he began to travel after turning sixteen years old. After Guiana and West Indies, Fraser visited India in 1813 and stayed for five years. In 1821 he decided to return to Britain travelling across Iran and Ottoman Empire.  During this journey he sketched and kept a diary that was published as "Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan in the Years 1821 and 1822" in London in 1825. During his trip across the Khurasan region of Iran, he came across a small village of Abbasabad (coordinates - 36.360796, 56.387723) was populated by the descendants of the Georgians resettled by Shah Abbas of Iran in the 1610s.

The village of Abbassabad presents an interesting object to the traveller ; its origin was singular, and the destinies of its inhabitants are as singularly deplorable. Upon the high road connecting two capitals of great resort, there existed a great space, barren and desert by nature, always endangered, and often rendered impassable to travelers by the incursions of the fierce Toorkomans [Turkmen] of the north so that communication between them was at times totally interrupted. 

Khurasan in North eastern Iran.
Icon shows the location of Abbasabad
(courtesy of Google Maps) 

In this dangerous and desolate track no one would voluntarily settle; yet a connecting point was obviously required, and the want was felt by every sovereign of the country, whether powerful or weak. It was Shah Abbas the first who provided for this inconvenience in a way highly characteristic of that sovereign's policy : he transplanted one hundred Georgian families from their rich native soil, to wither on the barren salt marshes of Khorasan, with as little remorse or consideration as he would have changed the horse he rode, or the clothes he wore. He, however, provided for their safety, and even for their maintenance; and, on the whole, made their situation as comfortable as the nature of it would admit. He built them a fort, as well as a large and fine caravanserai, in a spot where, while they remain upon their guard, no attempt of their enemies can harm them; he assigned them fixed wages, and supplied the wants they could not provide for by agriculture; an employment from which they must be debarred, as well from the barren nature of their soil, as from the exposure to attack which it would involve. The fort is situated on a little earthy hillock, not far from, but not commanded by, the

The environs of Abbasabad
(courtesy of Google Maps)

neighboring hills; and it overlooks the caravan serai, which is built on the slope just below it, forming a sort of outer court connected with it; a fine rill of fresh water runs from below the fort, through the court of the caravanserai, supplying that necessary of life in a way that no enemy can interrupt. The caravanserai itself is a substantial and spacious building, having about fifty good chambers in the interior area, with stabling and cover for many hundreds of cattle, and niches in the thick walls for their keepers and other travelers: it had solid gates, to bar the entrance of a foe, but they have been three times burned, and had not been replaced since the last time; the fort, however, so completely commands the area, that except by surprise no considerable harm could be effected. At the distance of one third of a mile there are the ruins of an old fort, and village, destroyed long ago in some of the troubles of the land, which now serve but as a lurking place for the robbers who come hither to plunder. 

Ruins of Shah Abbas' caravanserai at Abbasabad
(courtesy of Google Maps)

The sufferings of this Georgian colony since their transportation hither have been very severe; the greater part have lost either their lives or liberties, at one time or other by the incursions of the Toorkomans, and at present there are not in the little mud fort more than two hundred souls great and small, of which thirty or forty are men; and of those who are grown up, there is not one who has not been taken prisoner two, three, or more times, and either made their escape, or been ransomed back. I saw several who had thus escaped, and others who had at this time relatives in the hands of their enemies ; one youth had seen both his brothers killed two years before ; the father of another had gone only three days before to Muzeenoon, for corn and straw, and had not been since heard of The Toorkomans, they said, were continually about their village, and the fountains of fresh water near it, in more or less force. The wages and supplies granted to them in former reigns [17th century] have been stopped in this [19th century]; they occasionally receive thirty khurwars of grain, which is all they have to live upon, except what they earn at the risk of their lives and liberties, by the supply of caravans ; all the articles they furnish, as corn, straw, flour, etc. being brought from Muzeenoon: fire-wood alone they gather in the neighbourhood. 

They complain bitterly of their lot, and would fain leave the place, but this is extremely difficult ; for none are permitted to depart, and if any one be caught attempting to run away, he is brought back and severely beaten for it. It is still more difficult for a family to leave such a place, particularly as an officer of government continually resides there. One of the people with whom I conversed described the misery of their situation very feelingly, and even strikingly. "Set down as we are," said he, " in the midst of a wilderness, with a boundless salt desert on one side, on the others hills of brown rock or grey earth perfectly unprolific, the change of seasons passes almost unknown to us." "I know not winter," continued he, " from spring or summer, but by the complaints of my children, and the cold it brings ; the wretched patch of corn you see beneath the walls seldom comes to maturity ; if enemies do not destroy it, friends do. We have a single fig-tree near yonder hill, which in kindly seasons yields much fruit, but the Toorkomans gather it oftener than we do, and there is not another tree of any sort near us; we have attempted to rear shoots in that garden, but to no end; they have always been violently destroyed. We dare not keep any sheep ; each of us may possess one or two goats, and perhaps an ass : horses and camels no one dreams of; it would only be rearing them for the Toorkomans. We are always on the alert against these cruel enemies, yet are we constantly suffering in our families, having fathers, wives, sons, or daughters, carried off, and never heard of more. As for me, I have been three times in their power, twice I escaped, and was ransomed the third time at a ruinous price : most of my kindred have gone the same way ; but what are we to do? We cannot run away, for should we be caught our punishment is dreadful, and if we escape, our fault is visited upon our families, and fear of the consequences to them makes us submit to every thing." 

The range of this poor creature's ideas, with regard to the rest of the world, was circumscribed like his personal liberty : he believed that there existed few places so magnificent as the caravanserai of his native village. " Have you," said he, " any thing like this in the "desert places of your country ?" When I told him that with us no such things were required ; that there were no Toorkomans, no robbers of men ; that each man there reaped that which he sowed, in peace and security, that there was no need of arms, nor did any body walk with guns, swords, or daggers ; that no such things as wars or rebellion had for a long time been known among us ; "Is that indeed the case ?" exclaimed the poor fellow with earnestness, " Oh the take me with you to that land." 

It is said that the Toorkomans do not now a days come often into the caravanserai, though formerly that was frequently done ; not long ago, four hundred men made an attempt to surprise the fort ; they alighted at nightfall in the ruined village, where two hundred remained ; and the rest got undiscovered into the caravanserai, and hid themselves in its huge recesses, intending to wait there till morning, when the villagers for the most part all come out ; then to seize them, and rushing into the fort, to take possession of it also ; the noise attending which bustle should be a signal for the rest to come to their assistance. The plot was, however, discovered and the village saved by accident ; one of the villagers chancing to go down to the caravanserai, saw the keen eyes and wild features of a Toorkoman, with his drawn sword gleaming on him from a recess ; he challenged, and receiving no answer fired his matchlock, and alarmed the fort : the garrison turned out with the arms they possessed, and fired from the walls upon the Toorkomans, who now began to appear, and who finding their scheme frustrated, retreated precipitately, leaving three killed in the place. 

The next morning as we viewed the country around, from the eminence of the fort, we could not wonder at the despair of the miserable inhabitants who are bound to it for life: A kubbeer, or salt desert, like the bed of an evaporated sea, glittering with saline efflorescence, stretched in boundless desolation to the south and southeast, islanded by a few rugged rocks ; and all to the north and west ridges of earthy hillocks or bare rocky cliffs bounded the view without one point of verdure to rest the weary eye. We quitted this wretched place, with sincere commiseration for its inhabitants, at half past one on the 13th, keeping up the same precaution as on our last march, there being several very dangerous spots just on our road, particularly two springs of sweet water much frequented by these formidable marauders, and Mahomed Allee with myself and two or three other horsemen rode in advance, among the earthy hillocks...