Darreh Gaz and the
Deregez Atock
Darreh Gaz (Deregez)
is north of the Kopet Dagh
in Iran. Before
the fall of Merv to the Russians Deregez was an
important teke (Tekke) city.
From The Merv Oasis By Edmund
O'Donovan
The Deregez, which may yet assume considerable
importance, in view of the establishment of the Russians
on its borders, is an irregular oval plain, running
northwest and south-east, bounded on the side adjoining
the other Persian provinces by a considerable mountain
range, — the Allah Akbar, or Hazar Masjid, and
separated from the Attock and level Turkmen
country by a low chain of hills. A strip of the plain
beyond these hills was, at the time of my visit, subject
to the Governor of Deregez, the Turkmen
having accepted the Persian authority, but the boundaries
of this district known as the ‘Attock,’ or
Skirt, were somewhat varying. The length of the plain
within the mountain chains is about seventy miles, and
the width varies from twenty to thirty. A range of
hills divides the plain in the direction of its length. A
gorge, known as ‘Of the Forty Girls,’ gives a
passage through this range, and the town of Muhammedabad,
the capital of the province, stands about three miles
from the northern end of this gorge. Another gorge, with
terribly steep sides, affords a narrow passage along its
bottom from Deregez to the Kuchan valley. This road is
impracticable for wheeled carriages of any kind, and it
is with difficulty that even horses traverse it; still,
it is the only means of communication between the
provinces. Its entrance is guarded by a fort; but, though
the valley itself is dotted with watch towers, the
‘Pass of the Forty Girls ‘has no such
protection at its entrance. Turkmen
‘chappos, or plundering expeditions, often slip
through it, and even get round by the southern end of
Deregez into the less guarded provinces beyond the
mountains. The original Muhammedabad stood close to the
entrance of the gorge, and must have been an effectual
bar to such raids, but at present only the ruins of its
fort and ramparts remain.
In Persia, probably owing to some superstition, a town
once abandoned is never re-peopled. Should war, famine,
or plague, cause the population of a place to desert
their homes — and such events are common in the East
— they prefer, when the pressure of the calamity has
been removed, to build a new town somewhere in the
neighborhood rather than to re-erect abodes upon the
depopulated site. South-east of Deregez lies the district
of Kelat-i-Nadri, beyond which is Sarakhs — all
three being border provinces, and subject, nominally at
least, to the jurisdiction of the Prince Governor of Meshed,
whose power extends over all Khorasan. The Merv Oasis
By Edmund O'Donovan
"The population of the Deregez is of
Turkish origin, imported to these districts as military
colonists by successive sovereigns of Persia. They hold
the ground by feudal tenure, and beyond a present of
about six thousand tomans (two thousand four hundred
pounds) made annually to the Prince Governor of Meshed
"O'Donovan Merv Oasas Page 31
|