1 I use the term Persia, rather than Iran, throughout this paper, as the one with contemporary currency.

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9 Winichakul, Siam mapped, p. 16.

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40 IOR, GP, Duke of Argyll to Goldsmid, 9 August 1870.

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47 IOR, GP, Mayo et al. to the Duke of Argyll, 7 July 1870.

48 IOR, GP, ‘Statement of arguments in support of Persia’s sovereignty over Sistan’, 8 July 1870; IOR, GP, ‘Statement of Afghan Commission’, 1872; ‘Ketabcheh-e Tahdid-e Hadud; Sistan va Baluchistan’, Farhang-e Zamin, 28, 1990, pp. 299–307.

49 Euan Smith, ‘The Perso-Afghan mission, 1871–2’, in Eastern Persia, p. 337; IOR, GP, Goldsmid to Duke of Argyll, 30 April 1872.

50 IOR, GP, ‘Report on the province of Seistan’, 22 May 1872; National Archives, London, Foreign Office (henceforth NA, FO) 60/386, 41, H. L. Wynne, ‘The history of Seistan and Lash-Jowain’, 6 July 1870.

51 Gordon, Stewart, ‘Legitimacy and loyalty in some successor states of the eighteenth century’, in Richards, J.F., ed., Kingship and authority in South Asia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 328–30.Google Scholar

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53 NA, FO, 60/392, ‘Memorandum of the proceedings of the final meeting of the Sistan mission’, 20 August 1872.

54 Smith, ‘The Perso-Afghan mission’, p. 265; see also NA, FO, 60/392, Persian Commissioner to Goldsmid dated 8 February, Enclosure no. 17 in Goldsmid to Aitchinson, 11 March 1872.

55 Smith, ‘The Perso-Afghan mission’, p. 262.

56 NA, FO, 60/392 Smith to Goldsmid, 7 February 1872.

57 See for instance IOR, GP, St. John to Goldsmid, 14 January 1872. On the centre’s relationship with local lords and their influence on frontier politics, Mojtahed-Zadeh, Small players; Piacentini, ‘Notes’.

58 Amanat, A., ‘The downfall of Mirza Taqi Khan Amire Kabir and the problem of ministerial authority in Qajar Iran’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 23, 4, 1991, pp. 577–99.Google Scholar

59 For a description of that universe, Mojtahed-Zadeh, Small players, pp. 1–6.

60 Smith, ‘The Perso-Afghan mission’, pp. 266, 297.

61 Smith, ‘The Perso-Afghan mission’, p. 337. Compare Mojtehad-Zadeh, Small players, pp. 66–70, 122–49, 174–90.

62 See for example NA, FO, 60/393, ‘Translation of the Shah’s autograph to the Sadr Azem’, 21 October 1872; NA, FO, 60/393, ‘Translation of a letter from the Sadr Azem’, 21 October 1872.

63 NA, FO, 60/392, ‘Substance of a letter from the Nizam-el Mulk to the British legation’, 23 August 1872.

64 Mojtahed-Zadeh, Small players, pp. 174–208.

65 Smith, ‘The Perso-Afghan mission’, p. 289.

66 Pollack was given a field commission equivalent to Goldsmid for the mission.

67 Goldsmid, ‘Introduction’, p. xxxi, n. 1, quoting Alison to Mayo, 23 October 1871.

68 Smith, ‘The Perso-Afghan mission’, pp. 289–90.

69 Goldsmid, ‘Introduction’, p. xxxix.

70 See for example IOR, GP, Goldsmid to the Duke of Argyll, 30 April 1872.

71 Goldsmid, ‘Introduction’, pp. lii–liii.

72 ‘Ketabcheh’, p. 295. The British thought little of his skills. IOR, GP, Goldsmid, ‘Memorandum of a meeting held at the house of Sadr Azam at Niaviran on the evening of 7th August 1872’.

73 NA, FO, 60/386, Goldsmid to the Duke of Argyll, 12 October 1870.

74 IOR, GP, Pollock to Goldsmid, 1 March 1872.

75 IOR, GP, Goldsmid to the Duke of Argyll, 30 April, 1872; Smith, ‘The Perso-Afghan mission’, p. 326.

76 Noelle, Christine, State and tribe in nineteenth-century Afghanistan: the reign of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan, 1826–1863, London: Curzon, 1997.Google Scholar

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78 IOR, GP, Goldsmid to Aitchinson, 17 March 1872; NA, FO, 60/386, 41, Wynne, ‘The history’, 6 July 1870; Noelle, State, pp. 240–89.

79 See for instance NA, FO, 60/38, 41, Mayo et al. to Duke of Argyll, 7 July 1870; Yapp, ‘British perceptions’, p. 663.

80 IOR, GP, Goldsmid to Aitchinson, 17 March 1871. See also NA, FO, 60/385, 2, Mayo et al. to the Duke of Argyll, 2 September 1869.

81 IOR, X9972, ‘Punjab and the countries westward of the Indus’, 1809.

82 Edney, Mapping, pp. 25, 53.

83 I thank my second reader for underlining the importance of this disparity of experience.

84 IOR, GP, ‘Statement’, 8 July 1870. See also ‘Ketabcheh’, pp. 299–307.

85 ‘From the earliest date recorded in the histories of this country up to the present day, the pages of Persian history are full of the name of Sistan.’ IOR, GP, ‘Memorandum’, 7 August 1872; Goldsmid, ‘Appendix A’, p. 399.

86 Goldsmid, ‘Appendix A’, pp. 397–8, 407.

87 Ibid, p. 397. See also NA, FO, 60/392, ‘Substance’, 23 August 1872.

88 IOR, GP, ‘Statement’, 1872.

89 Hopkins, ‘The transformation’, pp. 102–5.

90 Goldsmid, ‘Appendix C’.

91 Messick, Brinkley, The calligraphic state: textual domination and history in a Muslim society, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993, p. 252.Google Scholar

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93 The Shi‘i Qizilbash formerly served as private secretaries, constituting an early government bureaucracy. IOR, SP, L/PS/5/129, Burnes to Macnaghten, 14 October 1837.

94 Hopkins, ‘The transformation’.

95 Kashani-Sabet, Frontier fictions, pp. 33–4.

96 Goldsmid, ‘Appendix A’, p. 397.

97 Ibid, pp. 404–5.

98 NA, FO, 60/386, 41, Wynne, ‘The history’, 6 July 1870.