Central Asia comprising Bokhara, Cabool,…

First edition dated 16th June 1834, by John Arrowsmith, of this important and detailed map of Central Asia extending from modern day Iraq to India based on the explorations of Captain Sir Alexander Burnes FRS (1805-1841) the Scottish explorer, military officer and diplomat associated, nicknamed Bokhara Burnes for his role in establishing contact with and exploring Bukhara. His memoir, Travels into Bokhara, was a bestseller when it was first published in 1835 without an accompanying map.

Note this first issue of this map always has the added section on the right hand side.

At the age of sixteen, Burnes had joined the army of the East India Company and while serving in India, he learned Urdu and Persian, and obtained an appointment as an interpreter at Surat in 1822. He was transferred to Kutch in 1826 where he was based at Bhuj for three years. As assistant to the political agent, he took an interest in the history and geography of north-western India and the adjacent countries, which had not yet been thoroughly explored by the British; he then went to Afghanistan. His proposal in 1829 to undertake a journey of exploration through the valley of the Indus River was approved and in 1831 his and Henry Pottinger’s surveys of the Indus river would prepare the way for a future assault on the Sindh to clear a path towards Central Asia.

Burnes was the Great Game exponent par excellence he; “excelled at political work. His linguistic ability combined with adventurousness, boundless self-confidence, and a certain diplomatic guile earmarked him for delicate political duties” (ODNB). In 1831, following a mission to deliver five dray horses the gift of William IV to Ranjit Singh – and make a reconnaissance of the Indus – he reported to Lord Bentinck at Simla. The governor-general, much impressed by the young officer, proposed “a much grander expedition across central Asia to Bokhara and beyond”, designed to assess the extent of Russian incursions into Central Asia. In January 1832 Burnes set out from Ludhiana accompanied by Dr James Gerard, a Bengal army surgeon, and skilled surveyor in his own right; an Indian surveyor, Muhammad Ali; and a young munshi of Kashmiri descent, Mohan Lal. “The party travelled modestly, always in local dress, and variously represented themselves as Englishmen, Armenians, pilgrims, merchants – whatever the often hazardous circumstances seemed to require.” They reached Bokhara in June; thence across the Turkoman desert to Mashhad,; on to the Caspian Sea, down to Tehran, and finally back by sea to Bombay. When Burnes returned to England with his report in 1833 he was greeted as a hero, he “received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society, and enjoyed a flattering audience with William IV”. Anticipating a sensation, the publisher John Murray “… was quick to acquire Burnes’s account of his journey… [It] brought to the reader for the first time the romance, mystery and excitement of Central Asia. It was to prove an immediate best-seller, 900 copies being sold on the first day.”

Regarding the actual publication dates of the various editions of Arrowsmith’s, Atlas from which each map originated from; Francis Herbert, curator of maps at London’s Royal Geographical Society listed in, Imago Mundi, Vol. 41, pp. 98-123, the dated title pages of Arrowsmith’s The Atlas, identified to date (Aug. 2010): 1834, 1835, 1838, 1839, 1840, 1842 and 1858. Consequently the date that appears on each map is often not the date, the map was actually published.

Phillips, P. A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress. Washington 1973 : 789.
Israel, N. Imago Mundi. Amsterdam 1962 : Vol. 41 (1989), pp. 98-123. Herbert, Francis

Collections:
Stanford Library: Pub list no: 4613.000. (1844 edition)
David Rumsey Collection: List No: 4613.061 (1844)
National Library Australia: Bib ID: 6423442 (1838 edition)
State Library New South Wales: Record Identifier 74VKVELO50m3 (1840 edition)
State Library Victoria: RARETS 912 AR698A (1840 edition)
Yale University Library & Art Gallery: Call Number 88 (1842) RARETS 912 AR698A
University Library Melbourne: Call No. 912 A779 (1847 edition)
Royal Collection Trust UK: RCIN 1190939 (1858 edition)
British Library London: Maps 41.f.8 (1836, 1848, 1852, 1858 editions)
National Maritime Museum Greenwich: Call Number Oversize shelving (1842 edition)

Burnes was the Great Game exponent par excellence he; “excelled at political work. His linguistic ability combined with adventurousness, boundless self-confidence, and a certain diplomatic guile earmarked him for delicate political duties” (ODNB). In 1831, following a mission to deliver five dray horses the gift of William IV to Ranjit Singh – and make a reconnaissance of the Indus – he reported to Lord Bentinck at Simla. The governor-general, much impressed by the young officer, proposed “a much grander expedition across central Asia to Bokhara and beyond”, designed to assess the extent of Russian incursions into Central Asia. In January 1832 Burnes set out from Ludhiana accompanied by Dr James Gerard, a Bengal army surgeon, and skilled surveyor in his own right; an Indian surveyor, Muhammad Ali; and a young munshi of Kashmiri descent, Mohan Lal. “The party travelled modestly, always in local dress, and variously represented themselves as Englishmen, Armenians, pilgrims, merchants – whatever the often hazardous circumstances seemed to require.” They reached Bokhara in June; thence across the Turkoman desert to Mashhad,; on to the Caspian Sea, down to Tehran, and finally back by sea to Bombay. When Burnes returned to England with his report in 1833 he was greeted as a hero, he “received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society, and enjoyed a flattering audience with William IV”. Anticipating a sensation, the publisher John Murray “… was quick to acquire Burnes’s account of his journey… [It] brought to the reader for the first time the romance, mystery and excitement of Central Asia. It was to prove an immediate best-seller, 900 copies being sold on the first day.” (Hopkirk, Great Game, p151). The area covered is bounded by Baghdad in the west, Srinagar in the east, the Gulf of Kutch in the south, and the southern shore of the Aral Sea in the north. It also includes both the eastern and western coasts of the Arabian Gulf, on the west extending down the Battnah coast as far as Muscat, and on the east going beyond the Strait of Hormuz along the coast of Makran. Gulf locations include “Grane, or Koete or Quaide” [Kuwait], Bahrein [Bahrain], Zabara [Zubarah] now in Qatar, Abothubbee [Abu Dhabi], Debai [Dubai], Sharja [Sharjah], Aymaun [Ajman], and Ras-el-Khyma [Ras-al-Khaimah]. This map formed sheet 29 of John Arrowsmith’s London Atlas, which established his reputation as the equal of his renowned uncle Aaron, under whom he had trained. He was responsible for many of the maps that appeared in RGS publications, persuading “the society to use copper-engraving instead of the cheaper but inferior lithography; [which] was typical of his search for perfection in both the content and presentation of his maps” (ODNB). Sir Clements Markham said of him that he laboured over his maps “quite irrespective of any pecuniary profit”.