The Story of a Road: Construction and maintenance of Mashhad-Ashgabat Road (1886-1925)

Discusses the importance of the construction and maintenance of the Mashhad-Ashghabad road in the latest years of Qajars (bet. 1887 – 1924). . Method and Research Design: this article has been written relying on the archival sources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Malik National Museum of Iran. The method of the research is based on the historical description and analyzing. 

Method and Research Design:

Archival records held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Malek National Museum of Iran congather data.

 Findings and Conclusions:

The efforts of Abolqasem Malak-a-Tojjar, the consentionnaire, empowered by the support of a group of Iranian and Russian merchants, some statesmen, and the Russian embassy in Tehran facilitated the construction of the road. However, greviance by a group of landowners on sides of the road, as well as the opposition of some Mashhad merchants led to the slowdown of project. In addition, the lack of road construction equipment, financial shortcomings, and the redirectiond of the road, contributed to the further slowdon. In the short term, the delay caused dinanaccial losses for some. In the long term however, when operational, merchants of Khorasan benefited largly from the road.