BALUCHISTAN  , a

province of Persia consisting of the western part of Baluchistan (q.v.) in a wider sense . Persian Baluchistan has an area of about 6o,000 sq. m., and lying along the nor- therm shore of the Arabian Sea, is bounded E. by British and independent Baluchistan, N. by Seistan and the central Persian desert, and W. by Kerman . The country has little water and only a small part of it is under cultivation, the remainder being composed of arid, waterless plains, deserts—some stony, others with moving sands—barren hills and mountains . The principal rivers are the Mashkid and that of Bampur which flow away from the sea and are lost in depressions called hamuns . The rivers which flow into the sea are unimportant and dry during the greater part of the year . Persian Baluchistan forms an administrative division of the province of Kerman and is sub-divided into the following twenty districts:—(r) Bampur; (2) Serhad; (3) Dizek; (4) Jalk; (5) Sib; (6) Irafshan; (7) Magas; (8) Serbaz; (9) Lashar; (To) Champ; (II) Fannuj; (12) Bazman; (13) Aptar; (14) Daman; (15) Aprandagan; (16) Asfehgeh; (17) Surmij; (18) Meskutan; (19) Pushteh; (20) Makran, the country of the Ichthyophagi, with the sub-districts Kasrkand, Geh, Bint, Dasht, Kucheh and Bahu . The total population of Baluchistan is under 200,000 . The province was practically independent until the occupation of Bampur by Persian troops in 1849, and over some of the extreme eastern districts Persian supremacy was not recognized until 1872 .