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“In 1680 a London penny post was started and soon taken over by the government; penny posts were established in large provincial towns in the later 18th cent.”
[1]
“For those who could not make it to the metropolis, from at least the mid-seventeenth century on an increasingly efficient postal service enabled them to receive news and stay connected via correspondence with those who were there.”
[2]
“By the mid-1650s there were regular stage services between London and Exeter to the west, Chester to the north-west, and York and Newcastle to the north. Important routes would begin, and, and cross other routes at large inns. These provided not only accommodation but food, drink, entertainment, postal services, stabling, and a place where businessmen, such as drovers who brought cattle to market or corn factors who transported grain, could make deals.”
[3]
[1]: (Cannon and Crowcroft 2015: 2643) Cannon, John and Crowcroft, Robert. 2015. The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2PEE2ZJ5 [2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 171) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U [3]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 362) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U |
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No general postal service until the Cursus Publicus, established by Augustus during the Principate.
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Unlikely literacy was high enough for general postal service to be necessary.
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No literacy so there would have been nobody to use a general postal service, if such had existed.
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Shuar communities transmitted messages through ceremonial and war drums (see above). They did not use professional couriers or postal services.
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"With the collapse of the Mongol Empire by the mid-fourteenth century, the jam [postroad] system also broke down in China, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Russia."
[1]
[1]: (Shim 2022, no page number) Shim, H. 2022. The Jam System: The Mongol Institution for Communication and Transportation. In May and Hope (eds) The Mongol World. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/K2ZP2CKP/library |
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Little literacy so there would have been nobody to use a general postal service, if such had existed.
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Hmong villages also transmitted messages through ad hoc dispatches and the use of the drum tower: ’Whenever there is an emergency that requires a public meeting, the drum tower keeper, also known as messenger (or footman, who receives as remuneration from the village 1,000 catties of grain a year), would climb up the wooden pillar to beat the drum at the top, crying loudly at the same time. The tempo and the number of the beats vary according to a fixed set of rules. The “tum, tum” beats can be heard within a radius of many li. The first drum beat signifies a call for a meeting for some important affair, and upon hearing it, the villagers would abandon their work to listen attentively. The second drum beat is an urgent call to gather together at the drum tower, and the third drum beat is a signal for the meeting to start. Ordinarily, after the third beat each family would have without fail a representative at the drum tower.’
[1]
’If a certain village has a most serious affair, such as banditry, the meeting would then be different from that stated above. The Tung-chia call this meeting “Ch’uan-k’uan” /summoning for conditions/, which means to summon all elders from various villages to discuss conditions. The meeting place is still at the drum tower. The procedure of “Ch’uan-k’uan” consists of the dispatch of a piece of wood (known in the Tung-chia language as ch’a) about one foot long and as large as a staff, on which is written the name of the elder to be summoned and the nature of the business. Those qualified for summoning are all village leaders who can direct the villagers.’
[2]
Only Chinese towns had postal offices: ’Like Kweiyang, the hsien city of Lung-li was in an open plain, but a narrow one. The space between the mountains was sufficient for a walled town of one long street between the east and west gates and one or two on either side. There were fields outside the city walls. Its normal population was between three and four thousand, augmented during the war by the coming of some “companies” for the installation and repair of charcoal burners in motor lorries and the distillation of grain alcohol for fuel, an Army officers’ training school, and the engineers’ corps of the railway being built through the town from Kwangsi to Kweiyang. To it the people of the surrounding contryside, including at least three groups of Miao and the Chung-chia, went to market. It was also the seat of the hsien government and contained a middle school, postal and telegraph offices, and a cooperative bank, with all of which the non-Chinese, as well as the Chinese, had some dealings. A few of the more well-to-do families sent one of their boys to the middle school. Cases which could not be settled in the village or by the lien pao official, who was also a Chinese, were of necessity brought to the hsien court, as well as cases which involved both Miao and Chinese.’
[3]
Mickey’s comments imply that there were no postal stations in Hmong villages.
[1]: Che-lin, Wu, Chen Kuo-chün, and Lien-en Tsao 1942. “Studies Of Miao-I Societies In Kweichow”, 108 [2]: Che-lin, Wu, Chen Kuo-chün, and Lien-en Tsao 1942. “Studies Of Miao-I Societies In Kweichow", 109 [3]: Mickey, Margaret Portia 1947. “Cowrie Shell Miao Of Kweichow”, 40b |
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Unlikely literacy high enough for a general postal service to be necessary.
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Little or no literacy so there would have been nobody to use a general postal service, if such had existed.
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The postal system was only used for official business and possibly also by elite individuals for private affairs. (Joe will check).
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Postal relays were for exclusive royal and administrative use until 1603 CE when relays opened to the public. Starting in Paris 1760 CE mail began to be delivered to homes.
[1]
A general service did not exist in the year 1600 CE
[1]: (http://www.ladressemuseedelaposte.fr/La-Poste-en-quelques-dates) |
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The sources mention postal savings schemes estabished during the White Rajah period, but no general postal service: ’In 1885 the Rajah felt it necessary to issue an Order requiring that all loans from Ibans to Chinese be registered with the Government, to protect the Ibans from defaulters. In 1902, a year when the price of gutta percha reached an alltime high, the Resident of the Third Division registered sixty such loans amounting to over $10,000. The total sum of money which the shopkeepers of Kapit owed to the still far from pacified upper Rejang Ibans at the same period was double that figure. Over the years, transactions of this kind became entirely customary, so much so that when the Third Rajah inaugurated a postal savings scheme in 1926, an official report complained of the competition encountered in bidding for Iban business: “...the temptation to Dayaks to ‘invest’ their savings with Chinese at a high rate of interest is at present too great to allow them to take the safer course of investing at 3%.”’
[1]
General postal services are a very recent introduction: ’With urban migration, and mail service making possible postal remittances, an increasing number of parents have no adult child residing in the BILEK with them.’
[2]
But Gomes mentions Saribas Ibans writing and receiving letters: ’A Dyak schoolmaster, who had taught in Banting for many years, afterwards worked as the Government clerk [Page 108] at Betong in Saribas. He told me that he was struck by the number of Dyak men and women in Saribas who could write, and how they often wrote letters to their friends who were away, and received letters from them.’
[3]
It is unclear from his description how these were transported. Expert feedback is needed. We are unsure as to when mail services were made available.
[1]: Pringle, Robert Maxwell 1968. “Ibans Of Sarawak Under Brooke Rule, 1841-1941”, 496 [2]: Vinson H. Sutlive, Jr. and John Beierle: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Iban [3]: Gomes, Edwin H. 1911. “Seventeen Years Among The Sea Dyaks Of Borneo: A Record Of Intimate Association With The Natives Of The Bornean Jungles”, 107 |
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"Although the Mongol postal service was a government operation, merchants and others also made use of it." However this practice was ended by Möngke (r.1251-1260 CE) who "gave clear orders that the couriers had to stay on their prescribed routes and execute their orders exactly."
[1]
[1]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk |
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Postal stations and services were introduced under Russian rule. During the Russian period, Sakha leaders participated in the growing postal system: ’Yakut oral histories begin well before first contact with Russians in the seventeenth century. For example, OLONKHO (epics) date at least to the tenth century, a period of interethnic mixing, tensions, and upheaval that may have been a formative period in defining Yakut tribal affiliations. Ethnographic and archaeological data suggest that the ancestors of the Yakut, identified in some theories with the Kuriakon people, lived in an area near Lake Baikal and may have been part of the Uighur state bordering China. By the fourteenth century, Yakut ancestors migrated north, perhaps in small refugee groups, with herds of horses and cattle. After arrival in the Lena valley, they fought and intermarried with the native Evenk and Yukagir nomads. Thus, both peaceful and belligerent relations with northern Siberians, Chinese, Mongols, and Turkic peoples preceded Russian hegemony. When the first parties of Cossacks arrived at the Lena River in the 1620s, Yakut received them with hospitality and wariness. Several skirmishes and revolts followed, led at first by the legendary Yakut hero Tygyn. By 1642 the Lena valley was under tribute to the czar; peace was won only after a long siege of a formidable Yakut fortress. By 1700 the fort settlement of Yakutsk (founded 1632) was a bustling Russian administrative, commercial, and religious center and a launching point for further exploration into Kamchatka and Chukotka. Some Yakut moved northeast into territories they had previously not dominated, further assimilating the Evenk and Yukagir. Most Yakut, however, remained in the central meadowlands, sometimes assimilating Russians. Yakut leaders cooperated with Russian commanders and governors, becoming active in trade, fur-tax collection, transport, and the postal system. Fighting among Yakut communities decreased, although horse rustling and occasional anti-Russian violence continued. For example, a Yakut Robin Hood named Manchari led a band that stole from the rich (usually Russians) to give to the poor (usually Yakut) in the nineteenth century. Russian Orthodox priests spread through Yakutia, but their followers were mainly in the major towns. By 1900 a literate Yakut intelligentsia, influenced both by Russian merchants and political exiles, formed a party called the Yakut Union. Yakut revolutionaries such as Oiunskii and Ammosov led the Revolution and civil war in Yakutia, along with Bolsheviks such as the Georgian Ordzhonikidze.’
[1]
[1]: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yakut |
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This refers to a postal service that not only serves the ruler’s needs, but carries mail for private citizens.
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No general postal service until the Cursus Publicus, established by Augustus during the Principate.
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No general postal service until the Cursus Publicus, established by Augustus during the Principate.
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No general postal service until the Cursus Publicus, established by Augustus during the Principate.
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need to check whether postal station network was used only by government officials
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Administrative and trade communication was widespread, but their is no evidence of private communication channels.
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This refers to a postal service that not only serves the ruler’s needs, but carries mail for private citizens.
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Probably absent, only mentioned for the Mongolian Empire.
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literacy not widespread enough to make a general postal service for the public necessary.
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Schwimmer’s material suggests a very late introduction of postal services: ’For the rest, the skills acquired by Orokaiva over the last 15 years are largely concerned not directly with village development but rather with an increase of understanding of the world outside. While before the war, only a small minority had school education, the Anglican Mission spread its operations to several new stations, including Sasembata, after the war. After the eruption, the scope of education was again greatly extended and it could be said that the eruption marked the beginning of universal school education in the majority of Orokaiva villages. The Sasembata station began to draw virtually the entire child population of the surrounding villages, and most students now follow a five or six year course. While this development had been planned ever since the war, it may be significant that regular school attendance of all the villages in the district was experienced for the first time at Ilimo, where a school was conducted for the whole evacuee child population, and adult classes as well. It is the objective of present school programmes, as far as I can see, to make the population literate and the increase of literacy is a major aspect of acculturation over the period. Literacy has certainly progressed to a point where letters written in Orokaiva to any family in Sivepe can be read and understood with the help of at least a junior member of the family; and can be replied to. While I could see no evidence that people have acquired mathematical knowledge of any sophistication, I was struck by a strong quantitative orientation. In the Orokaiva language, there are no numerals higher than 2; hence, it is the invariable practise to use English numerals when speaking the Orokaiva language. The numerals are, in fact, among the main English linquistic features that have been borrowed. They are used with remarkable frequency; the number of coffee trees, the value in pounds of trade goods included in a bride price, the calculation of money prices, even the number of brothers or men who together played some role in a mythological tale (a distinctly contemporary touch, this)-all these phenomena show that “numbers” have become an integral part of Orokaiva culture. The Orokaiva use the English word “number” for a variety of quantitative concepts, including price. Finally, one must regard as an aspect of acculturation, the introduction of many [Page 80] concepts drawn from the scene of world affairs. While among the Orokaiva, I heard talk about Vietnam, Indonesia, Africa, India. The political orientation displayed was a mild kind of nationalism, and a sense of closeness to newly independent non-white states. But the information, derived from radio broadcasts and speeches by councillors, introduced an acculturative kind of perspective. Its dissemination is being actively encouraged by the Australian authorities.’
[1]
[1]: Schwimmer, Eric G. 1969. “Cultural Consequences Of A Volcanic Eruption Experienced By The Mount Lamington Orokaiva”, 79 |
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There are no archaeological remains which can be interpreted as postal stations at Mehrgarh, and are therefore presumed absent.
[1]
No evidence for social structure that could have organized a postal system nor one what would have required one.
[1]: Jarrige, J. F. (2008). Mehrgarh neolithic. Pragdhara, 18, 135-154. |
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State was not providing either postal stations or a general postal service.
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Little literacy so there would have been nobody to use a general postal service, if such had existed.
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The Ministry of War operated the courier system with military labor. The Ministry of War produced a guide, Network of Routes Connecting the Realm (Hyanyu tongue). This cheaply printed handbook, first published in 1394 CE, lists all courier routes in the country along with the 1,706 station serving them. Use of the system required a pass that specified the route and the mode of transport.
[1]
[1]: (Brook, 2010, p.31) |
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"The creation of a system of relay postal stations has been credited to Chinngis Khan, but was most effectively employed by Chinngis Khan’s successor Ogodei. Ogodei did not invent the system that goes back nearly two thousand years. Athough the Tuoba rulers of what is now northern China had a similar system in the fourth and fifth centuries, it appears to have been implemented already by the Honno, the first steppe empire in history, an empire contemporary with the Roman Empire and ruled by a Turkic tribe."
[1]
If the Northern Wei ran a nomadic style postal relay station then it may suggest that the general postal service of earlier Chinese civilization had been lost and the service was government only.
[1]: (Avery 2003, 40) |
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Little literacy so there would have been nobody to use a general postal service, if such had existed.
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We have information on newspapers published by missionaries, but have found little about the colonial postal system.
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Absent in Timurid times.
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need to check whether postal station network was used only by government officials
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unlikely literacy widespread enough for a general postal service to be necessary.
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"The most remarkable improvement in transport involved the postal relay system. China had had postal stations and relays at least since the Han dynasty, but the Mongolian rulers vastly extended the system. The postal stations were designed for the transmission and delivery of official mail, but they were also available to traveling officials, military men, and foreign state guests, aided in the transport of foreign and domestic tribute, and facilitated trade. They were not intended as hostels for merchants, but they came to be used as such and were vital links in the networks of foreign and domestic commerce."
[1]
[1]: (Rossabi, M. 1994. The reign of Khubilai khan. In Franke, H. and D. Twitchett (eds) The Cambridge History of China, volume 6: Alien Regimes and Border States, 710-1368 pp. 414-489. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. P. 450) |
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Shuar communities transmitted messages through ceremonial and war drums (see above). They did not use professional couriers or postal services.
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The postal system was only used for official business and possibly also by elite individuals for private affairs. (Joe will check).
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[1]
a ’hamami’ was a "despatcher of carrier pigeons and letters from one town to another" in Iraq, Egypt and Syria: 9th, 10th 11th CE.
[2]
[1]: Silverstein, Adam J. Postal systems in the pre-modern Islamic world p. 77-78, [2]: (Shatzmiller 1993, 140) Shatzmiller, Maya. 1994. Labour in the Medieval Islamic World. E. J. BRILL. Leiden. |
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Gladwin’s comments are somewhat unclear when it comes to the establishment of postal systems: ’Prior to the introduction and spread of writing other devices had to be used, many of which are in use in some form today but have taken second place to the letter. The chance encounter, or a message carried by a go-between, were of course useful; as the houses were then widely scattered through the interior of the island, instead of being concentrated as they are today along the shore, the opportunities for meeting in momentary privacy along a path were far greater.’
[1]
The eHRAF material on the Chuuks islands is not coded for ’mail’.
[1]: Gladwin, Thomas, and Seymour Bernard Sarason 1953. “Truk: Man In Paradise”, 104 |
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"The Safavid government maintained a postal system, mainly to relay messages and government orders. The couriers gradually came to be known as čāpār. The system of relay stations no longer existed, however."
[1]
[1]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk |
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While colonial settlers and mission-educated natives printed and distributed newspapers, this does not seem to be true of the general population. ’One of the first newspapers of the country to attract attention was the West African Herald, which was edited by the gifted and lamented Charles Bannerman, of Accra, lawyer, wit, and publicist. It appears this remarkable man had no press, and he took the extraordinary pains of first composing his articles, and then making out several copies of a given issue in his own handwriting. There are some copies of the West African Herald in the editor’s handwriting extant. Other able writers, hailing from the Eastern Province, of the period and after, were Edmund Bannerman, younger brother of Charles, and the late Robert Hansen, known among his friends in his day as the “Hermit.” I had the pleasure of meeting this gentleman in 1893 when I was sub-editing the Gold Coast Chronicle at Accra’
[1]
Native elites employed couriers rather than a general postal service (see above).
[1]: Hayford, J. E. Casely (Joseph Ephraim Casely) 1970. “Gold Coast Native Institutions With Thoughts Upon A Healthy Imperial Policy For The Gold Coast And Ashanti”, 175 |
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inferred from discussion of sources of development/introduction in later periods
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During the colonial period, some journals were distributed among small educated neo-elites, but not to the general population: ‘Most of the writings before 1940 had religious intonation though secular form of literature began in 1924. Before this, there were only two journals in Garo language-one was the A’chikni Ripeng or “Friend of the Garos”, a powerful organ of the American Baptist Mission started in 1879. Since the journal was meant for propagation of plans and policies of the American Baptist Mission, articles dealing with one’s freedom of thought and expression were not accepted and published in it. The other journal, which was brought out in October, 1912 by three local leaders, namely Jobang D. Marak, Modhunath G. Momin and Alexander Macdonald Bassamoit, was Phringphrang or “Morning Star”. This journal, which was supposed to be secular in nature, was not very much different from the A’chikni Ripeng as most of the articles there, were connected with religion. The journal had its last publication in December, 1914 after which there were no more secular journals.’
[1]
This suggests that neither couriers nor institutions resembling a postal service were present prior to colonization.
[1]: Shira, Lindrid D. 1995. “Renaissance In Garo Literature”, 176 |
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Journals were distributed among small educated neo-elites, but not to the general population: ‘Most of the writings before 1940 had religious intonation though secular form of literature began in 1924. Before this, there were only two journals in Garo language-one was the A’chikni Ripeng or “Friend of the Garos”, a powerful organ of the American Baptist Mission started in 1879. Since the journal was meant for propagation of plans and policies of the American Baptist Mission, articles dealing with one’s freedom of thought and expression were not accepted and published in it. The other journal, which was brought out in October, 1912 by three local leaders, namely Jobang D. Marak, Modhunath G. Momin and Alexander Macdonald Bassamoit, was Phringphrang or “Morning Star”. This journal, which was supposed to be secular in nature, was not very much different from the A’chikni Ripeng as most of the articles there, were connected with religion. The journal had its last publication in December, 1914 after which there were no more secular journals.’
[1]
[1]: Shira, Lindrid D. 1995. “Renaissance In Garo Literature”, 176 |
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Inferred from rudimentary nature of the state.
[1]
[1]: Burjor Avari, India: The Ancient Past: a History of the Indian Sub-continent from c. 7000 BC to AD 1200 (London: Routledge, 2007), p.73; Upinder Singh, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century (New Delhi: Pearson Education, 2008),p.201. |
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The postal system was used mainly for military and economic purposes, but was expanded towards the end of the empire through British colonial influences.
[1]
[1]: Chitra, Joshi. 2012. Dak Roads, Dak Runners, and the Reordering of Communication Networks.Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis. 57, pp. 169-189. |
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"the Sumerian civilisation which flourished before 3500 BC. This was an advanced civilisation building cities and supporting the people with irrigation systems, a legal system, administration, and even a postal service. Writing developed and counting was based on a sexagesimal system, that is to say base 60."
[1]
-- could this postal service be used by individuals outside the temple complex?
[1]: J J O’Connor, J J. Robertson, E F. December 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html |
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This should be bracketed. The Spain-Italy route was, in theory, intended for royal and diplomatic correspondence alone, but private citizens could probably use it occasionally, hence the bracket.
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No general postal service until the Cursus Publicus, established by Augustus during the Principate.
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Administrative and trade communication was widespread, but their is no evidence of private communication channels.
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Administrative and trade communication was widespread, but their is no evidence of private communication channels. ’Though Khmer territory is not considered extremely fertile by global stan- dards, the low population density has almost always allowed for the production of a large rice surplus throughout the country. This abil- ity of all regions to produce their own food and the general uniformity of resources throughout the country led to a situation of minimal trade relations within the kingdom itself. Internal in- frastructure such as roads, bridges, and canals was never attended to, and there was little need for ordinary Khmers from different regions to communicate with one another. Instead all interactions moved up and down the social hi- erarchy. Externally Khmer royalty purchased gold, silk, porcelain, lacquerware, umbrellas, and other luxury goods from China and India, in turn trading beeswax, bird feathers, rhinoc- eros horn, and other tropical forest products.’
[1]
[1]: (West 397) |
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Administrative and trade communication was widespread, but their is no evidence of private communication channels.
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literacy not widespread enough to make a general postal service for the public necessary.
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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There is no evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for a postal system during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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There are no archaeological remains which can be interpreted as postal stations at Mehrgarh, and are therefore presumed absent.
[1]
No evidence for social structure that could have organized a postal system nor one what would have required one.
[1]: Jarrige, J. F. (2008). Mehrgarh neolithic. Pragdhara, 18, 135-154. |
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There are no archaeological remains which can be interpreted as postal stations at Mehrgarh, and are therefore presumed absent.
[1]
No evidence for social structure that could have organized a postal system nor one what would have required one.
[1]: Jarrige, J. F. (2008). Mehrgarh neolithic. Pragdhara, 18, 135-154. |
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The following suggests that, even if a postal system had existed in previous centuries (something for which there is no evidence), it most likely would have disappeared by this time. "The Indus civilization flourished for around five hundred to seven hundred years, and in the early second millennium it disintegrated. This collapse was marked by the disappearance of the features that had distinguished the Indus civilization from its predecessors: writing, city dwelling, some kind of central control, international trade, occupational specialization, and widely distributed standardized artifacts."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2008, 91-92) Jane McIntosh. 2008. The Ancient Indus Civilization. Oxford; Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio. |
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No evidence for writing or other record-keeping devices.
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There was not a general postal service during this time.
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There was no postal service during this period. “The state also developed communications such as railways, the telegraph (made available to the public from 1850), and postal service (the first Austrian post- age stamps date from 1850).”
[1]
[1]: (Agnew 2004: 127) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI |
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Reasonable to infer that this was retained from previous polities.
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“From schooling to military service to welfare benefits to postal ser vices, the responsibilities of the state increased… When we add to this the massive state- funded expansion of the railway, telegraph, and postal systems (in 1848 there had been ten telegraph stations in Austria, by 1913 there were 7,282), we can see how the state became a more immediate and present actor in people’s lives.”
[1]
[1]: (Judson 2016: 335-336) Judson, Pieter M. 2016. The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge, USA; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BN5TQZBW |
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Postal service improved by the government from 1662 to 1735
[1]
However, it was not until 1896 that the Great Qing Imperial Post Office was established, providing the first ever national postal service for the general public, which allowed for greater contact with the rest of the world.
[2]
[1]: (Ma et al. 2016, p. 307) [2]: (Tsai 2015, p.895-896) |
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"The inland mail service of the Thai Government in its state up to the middle of the XIX century must be looked at as originating with the administrative reforms carried out by King Trailok (1448-1488), who created five civil ministries. One of these particularly cared for the transportation of government letters."
[1]
However, it was probably quite a simple service: the Court had no communications outside the country until King Mongkut started a voluminous correspondence with European countries, and an internal mail only started in Bangkok in 1881
[2]
.
[1]: (Lindenberg 1944, p.78) [2]: (http://www.sandafayre.com/stampatlas/thailandsiam.html) |
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a ’hamami’ was a "despatcher of carrier pigeons and letters from one town to another" in Iraq, Egypt and Syria: 9th, 10th 11th CE.
[1]
. “In the tenth century a commercial network came to exist alongside this state-run system, or at least its emergence is documented for the tenth century and especially for the Fatimid period, when merchants came to play an organized role in transmitting messages…Subsumed under this discussion is an examination of the postal systems in the parallel dynasties such as the tenth- and eleventh-century Fatimids in Egypt—who raised the use of pigeons to a whole new level”
[2]
.
[1]: (Shatzmiller 1993, 140) Shatzmiller, Maya. 1994. Labour in the Medieval Islamic World. E. J. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Matthee 2011, 366) Matthee, Rudi., 2011. Review of Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World. Journal of World History 22(2). https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2S554ZK2/item-list |
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The postal system was used mainly for military and economic purposes, but was expanded towards the end of the empire through British colonial influences.
[1]
[1]: Chitra, Joshi. 2012. Dak Roads, Dak Runners, and the Reordering of Communication Networks.Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis. 57, pp. 169-189. |
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From poem by Ouyang Xiu (1059 CE): "In cold seasons, cassia seeds will drop in the empty mountains. Postal deliveries will never stop, moving at the speed of flight, So don’t begrudge sending new poems regularly back and forth."
[1]
[1]: (Hawes 2012, 71) Hawes, Colin S C. 2012. Social Circulation of Poetry in the Mid-Northern Song, The: Emotional Energy and Literati Self-Cultivation. SUNY Press. |
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[1]
1896 the General Post office set up in the Qing Dynasty constituting the first national postal service in China.
[2]
[1]: (http://baike.baidu.com/view/775845.htm) [2]: (Daoyang Guo et al. 2011, 63) |
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A postal service had been established in the previous period: A regular postal service was set up between Valencia and Madrid in the early sixteenth century, with riders guaranteeing to cover a minimum of ten leagues a day, and, if they were paid extra, up to twenty leagues (112 kilometres), which seems to have been regarded as a kind of physical limit. By the early seventeenth century the ordinary mail left Madrid on Sunday and arranged to get to Valencia by Wednesday. The king’s business could be dispatched a little faster.”(Casey 2002: 14) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT
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"Only rarely were private individuals allowed to make use of the post (Bayhaqī, ed. Schwally, p. 429)."
[1]
a ’hamami’ was a "despatcher of carrier pigeons and letters from one town to another" in Iraq, Egypt and Syria: 9th, 10th 11th CE.
[2]
[1]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk [2]: (Shatzmiller 1993, 140) Shatzmiller, Maya. 1994. Labour in the Medieval Islamic World. E. J. BRILL. Leiden. |
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"As long-distance trade grew, so, too, did the institutions supporting it. Investment patterns, for example. shifted from mostly land based in the late eighth century to a variety of commercial applications, including ships, horses, and shops in the ninth century. A private express courier service augmented the official Abbasid courier system." (Gutelius 2015, 2)
[1]
[1]: (Pomeranz, K., Northrup, C.C., Bentley, J.H., Topik, S., Eckes Jr, A.E. and Manning, P., 2015. Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present: From Ancient Times to the Present. Routledge.) |
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“The “modernity” of the capital, while exemplary in its scale and expense, paled with the cost of public works in the regions; railroads crisscrossed the country by the 1880s, electrical and telephone utilities by the 1890s, and vast bonds were issued to finance new state and municipal buildings, schools, and trams… Increased urbanization and mobility along the 18,000 kilometers of railway (as well as a vast telegraph system, new roads, seaports, telephone networks, and reliable postal delivery) complemented existing transportation networks like mule trains (Connolly 1997).”
[1]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 68) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7 |
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"The Near East is no stranger to land-based empires, and empires have never been able to survive without the ability of rulers to com- municate regularly and speedily with the remotest provinces of their lands. The usual method of communication employed by imperial rulers is often referred to as a ‘postal system’. By the time the caliphs created their own postal-system, called al-Barìd, they were able to draw on the centuries, if not millennia, of postal experience imprinted on the lands they ruled. [...] Noth’s general conclusion is that any literary sources that refer to the Barìd must be no earlier than c. 700. Although I agree with Noth’s cautious approach to the literary sources and respect his uncompromising reliance on documentary evidence, in this case he is over a century and a half off the mark: a South Arabian inscription from c. 542 makes reference to two couriers bearing news of the breaching of the Ma’rib Dam, the term for these couriers being represented by the consonants BRDN"
[1]
[1]: (Silverstein, 153, 156) Silverstein, A. Documentary Evidence for the Early History of the Barìd. In SIJPESTEIJN, P. M. and L. Sundelin (eds) PAPYROLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF EARLY ISLAMIC EGYPT pp. 153-162. Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8BIFF7D2/library |
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"In Persia the postal service appears to have originated in the Achaemenid period. ... There were way stations where the couriers could rest and where fresh horses could be obtained. ... Under the Sasanians a similar postal system appears to have been in operation; in a peace treaty concluded with Byzantium in a.d. 561 one clause stipulated that envoys should be supplied with mounts at the postal stations maintained by both empires."
[1]
The barid of the Islamic era thought to have been based on earlier system of postal stations.
[1]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk |
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claims of state-organized communication service by many kingdoms already in the Warring States period; infer that it was continued and expanded by the Qin Empire and adapted by the Han as well.
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“In the Civil Code, compilation of which was provided for by the legislature of 1856 and which was enacted in the legislative session of 1858-59, the earlier postal laws (of 1846, 1851, and 1854) were revised, expanded, and codified as sections 397-415 of the Code. Here, for the first time in the laws, we read of ‘a post-office system for the Hawaiian Kingdom,’ which was to be superintended by a ‘Postmaster-General,’’ who was ‘ex officio Postmaster of Honolulu.’ Section 406 gave the interisland postage rates mentioned above, and the foreign postage rates were prescribed in section 403. The law as a whole furnished the basis for a postal system adapted to the conditions existing in the Hawaiian kingdom.”
[1]
“In addition, Hawai’i also entered a multilateral treaty when it joined the Universal Postal Union, the first global international organization, in 1885.”
[2]
[1]: (Kuykendall 1938: 32) Kuykendall, Ralph Simpson. 1938. The Hawaiian Kingdom. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii. http://archive.org/details/hawaiiankingdom0002kuyk. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/QJ4Z7AAB [2]: (Gonschor 2019: 37) Gonschor, Lorenz. 2019. A Power in the World: The Hawaiian Kingdom in Oceania. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FB64GREZ |
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There had been a postal service in England from 1660. In 1821 steam-driven ships began to deliver mail across the British Empire.
[1]
This reference concerns possessions in South Africa: "...by horses and, in the ’twenties, by postcarts: a weekly postal service was set up in 1834. In 1852 there was a daily service from Cape Town to Paarl and Stellenbosh, thrice weekly to Grahamstown and twice weekly to the Karoo. The postcart also conveyed passengers. Following the issue of the famous three-cornered Capes in 1853, a penny post was established in limited areas in 1860 and four years later it was possible to extend it to the whole Colony. But, despite better roads, the ox-waggon remained the commercial vehicle and was still in use a century later."
[2]
[1]: ( Royal Mail. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/QI4L8AA2. [2]: (? 1963, 795) ? in Eric A Walker. ed. 1963. The Cambridge History of the British Empire. Volume III. South Africa, Rhodesia and The High Commission Territories. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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Following the October Revolution of 1917, postal services in the Soviet Union underwent important development, particularly in the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, where the number of post offices eventually increased to 30 to 40 times that of the 1913 figure. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, state enterprises and individual customers alike were served by a network of some 90,000 post offices, about three-fourths of which were located in rural areas that prior to 1917 had little or no service.
[1]
[1]: “Postal System - National Postal Systems | Britannica.” Accessed November 28, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/postal-system/National-postal-systems. Zotero link: D9ZJ8Q4U |
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The Golden Horde had a postal system (yam) based on that of the Mongol Empire which had been established in 1235.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Halperin 1987: 26. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VCPWVNM. [2]: Khakimov and Favereau 2017: 65. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/QL8H3FN8 |
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"In an effort to establish a quick postal service, Adud al-Daula concentrated on improving the roads between Baghdad and Shīrāz."
[1]
The barid "post and intelligence service that had been established by the early Abbasids, and which allowed the caliphal government to keep tabs on its most far-flung provinces ... was used by both the Buyids and the Ghaznavids".
[2]
"Under the Buyids rapid and efficient service was established first between Baghdad and Ray, then between Baghdad and Shiraz, with couriers arriving in the capital daily (Ebn Jawzī, VI, p. 341; Helāl Ṣābeʾ, p. 18; cf. Busse, p. 311)."
[3]
However, “The struggles between the different regional powers and the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad, particularly during the time of the Buyids and later in the eleventh century with the arrival of the Turks in the Middle East, meant that the barid became progressively disorganized until only an occasional postal service remained (Sauvaget, 11; Ebn Fazlollāh al-ʿOmari, 241).” [4] [1]: (Busse 1975, 283) [2]: (Peacock 2015, 200) Peacock, A C S. 2015. Edinburgh University Press Ltd. Edinburgh. [3]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk [4]: (Gazagnadou 2017, 51) Gazagnadou, D. 2017. The Iranian origin of the word ’barid’. Journal of Persianate Studies 10(1) pp. 49-56. Seshat URL https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/A2CXIP3I/library |
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“A regular postal service was set up between Valencia and Madrid in the early sixteenth century, with riders guaranteeing to cover a minimum of ten leagues a day, and if they were paid extra, up to twenty leagues (112 km).”
[1]
[1]: (Casey 2002, 14) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT |
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The following two quotes from Tarn suggest that the Greeks retained at least part of the postal system set up by the Persians.
“There remains one country yet to notice, Ferghana (Ta-yuan), which had formed part of the kingdom of Euthydemus (p. 83 and App. 10). It was the first ‘western country’ which Chang-k’ien reached after escaping from the Hiung-nu; he found a settled agricultural land like Bactria with ‘walled towns’ and ‘postal roads’” [1] “the hyparchy[…] was again subdivided into fortified posts called stathmoi—originally post stations on the main roads, the Seleucids having taken over the Persian postal system” [2] [1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 307. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/tarn/titleCreatorYear/items/SQY9X379/item-list [2]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 2. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/tarn/titleCreatorYear/items/SQY9X379/item-list |
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"In Persia the postal service appears to have originated in the Achaemenid period. ... There were way stations where the couriers could rest and where fresh horses could be obtained. ... Under the Sasanians a similar postal system appears to have been in operation; in a peace treaty concluded with Byzantium in a.d. 561 one clause stipulated that envoys should be supplied with mounts at the postal stations maintained by both empires."
[1]
The barid of the Islamic era thought to have been based on earlier system of postal stations.
[1]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk |
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Postal relays were for exclusive royal and administrative use until 1603 CE when relays opened to the public. Starting in Paris 1760 CE mail began to be delivered to homes.
[1]
[1]: (http://www.ladressemuseedelaposte.fr/La-Poste-en-quelques-dates) |
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This reference concerns possessions in South Africa: "...by horses and, in the ’twenties, by postcarts: a weekly postal service was set up in 1834. In 1852 there was a daily service from Cape Town to Paarl and Stellenbosh, thrice weekly to Grahamstown and twice weekly to the Karoo. The postcart also conveyed passengers. Following the issue of the famous three-cornered Capes in 1853, a penny post was established in limited areas in 1860 and four years later it was possible to extend it to the whole Colony. But, despite better roads, the ox-waggon remained the commercial vehicle and was still in use a century later."
[1]
[1]: (? 1963, 795) ? in Eric A Walker. ed. 1963. The Cambridge History of the British Empire. Volume III. South Africa, Rhodesia and The High Commission Territories. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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“During the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries, Venice’s postal couriers provided the only regular, reliable mail service between the Ottoman Empire and Europe, and as a result they carried a majority of all commercial, diplomatic and personal correspondence to and from Constantinople.”
[1]
“Dal 1200 al 1740 il servizio postale da Costantinopoli a Cattaro, con corrieri a cavallo e di qui a Venzia con barche armate, è largamente usato in tempo di pace anche da mercanti e diplomatici occidentali accreditati alla Porta e dopo l’intervallo 1740-1787, quando la stessa Repubblica preferisce appoggiarsi al più veloce servizio austriaco via Vienna, viene ripreso con l’unica variante dell’itinerario, che ora tocca Zara e Ancona” [2] Translation: “From 1200 to 1740 the postal service from Constantinople to Cattaro, with couriers on horseback and from there to Venice with armed boats, was widely used in peacetime also by Western merchants and diplomats accredited to the Porte. After a pause in 1740-1787, when the Republic itself preferred to rely on the faster Austrian service via Vienna, it resumed with a slight alteration to the itinerary, which now touched Zara and Ancona". [1]: (Preto 2010, 602) Preto. P. 2010. I servizi segreti di Venezia. Spionaggio e controspionaggio ai tempi della Serenissima. Il Saggiatore. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/X2J9U6U9/library [2]: (Dursteler 2009, 295) Dursteler, E. R. 2009. POWER AND INFORMATION: THE VENETIAN POSTAL SYSTEM IN THE EARLY MODERN EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN. IN Ramada Curto, Dursteler, Kirschner and Trivellato (eds) From Florence to the Mediterranean: Studies in Honor of Anthony Molho pp. 601-623. Olshki. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/dursteler/titleCreatorYear/items/S4N55M4Z/item-list |
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Inferred from the fact that the Abbasids (that is, the Ziyadids’ predecessors) likely established a postal system across their empire:
"Second, and perhaps more importantly, is al-’Umarì’s statement that from the fall of the Umayyads until the reign of Hàrùn al- Rashìd there was no regular Barìd service at the disposal of the Abbasid caliphs. There are no fewer than eight documents that disprove his assumption. Before discussing them, it is worth mentioning that there are literary references to the Barìd being used under the early Abbasid caliphs, and the thought that—despite the rich heritage of imperial communications systems in the Near East—the Abbasids spent the first four decades of their reign without a Barìd is plainly counter-intuitive. But, in essence, what we have here is a tension between a number of literary sources, and it is only from the existing documentary evidence that these tensions can be alleviated. Of the eight Barìd-related fragments, six are from Egypt and two are from Central Asia." [1] [1]: (Silverstein, 157) Silverstein, A. Documentary Evidence for the Early History of the Barìd. In SIJPESTEIJN, P. M. and L. Sundelin (eds) PAPYROLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF EARLY ISLAMIC EGYPT pp. 153-162. Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8BIFF7D2/library |
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During the Russian period, Sakha leaders participated in the growing postal system: ’Yakut oral histories begin well before first contact with Russians in the seventeenth century. For example, OLONKHO (epics) date at least to the tenth century, a period of interethnic mixing, tensions, and upheaval that may have been a formative period in defining Yakut tribal affiliations. Ethnographic and archaeological data suggest that the ancestors of the Yakut, identified in some theories with the Kuriakon people, lived in an area near Lake Baikal and may have been part of the Uighur state bordering China. By the fourteenth century, Yakut ancestors migrated north, perhaps in small refugee groups, with herds of horses and cattle. After arrival in the Lena valley, they fought and intermarried with the native Evenk and Yukagir nomads. Thus, both peaceful and belligerent relations with northern Siberians, Chinese, Mongols, and Turkic peoples preceded Russian hegemony. When the first parties of Cossacks arrived at the Lena River in the 1620s, Yakut received them with hospitality and wariness. Several skirmishes and revolts followed, led at first by the legendary Yakut hero Tygyn. By 1642 the Lena valley was under tribute to the czar; peace was won only after a long siege of a formidable Yakut fortress. By 1700 the fort settlement of Yakutsk (founded 1632) was a bustling Russian administrative, commercial, and religious center and a launching point for further exploration into Kamchatka and Chukotka. Some Yakut moved northeast into territories they had previously not dominated, further assimilating the Evenk and Yukagir. Most Yakut, however, remained in the central meadowlands, sometimes assimilating Russians. Yakut leaders cooperated with Russian commanders and governors, becoming active in trade, fur-tax collection, transport, and the postal system. Fighting among Yakut communities decreased, although horse rustling and occasional anti-Russian violence continued. For example, a Yakut Robin Hood named Manchari led a band that stole from the rich (usually Russians) to give to the poor (usually Yakut) in the nineteenth century. Russian Orthodox priests spread through Yakutia, but their followers were mainly in the major towns. By 1900 a literate Yakut intelligentsia, influenced both by Russian merchants and political exiles, formed a party called the Yakut Union. Yakut revolutionaries such as Oiunskii and Ammosov led the Revolution and civil war in Yakutia, along with Bolsheviks such as the Georgian Ordzhonikidze.’
[1]
Sieroszewski mentions post horses and post roads: ’The most ancient of the yassak are apparently the post-horses. Even in the order given to the clerk Kurdiukov in 1685 we find a mention that the yassak gatherers should not misuse this obligation: do not take away the good horses from the Yakut too much, and give them, the natives, your own poor horses in return for their good ones. This was apparently done often and the news of it even reached Moscow. In view of this it was ordered to take in the service of the Great Sovereigns... bulls and horses; whatever kind they give you, to ride on it. Besides this guides and coachmen were needed. Gmelin used Yakut oarsmen during his entire journey of 1732, from the boundary of the Yakutsk Oblast. Some Yakut families were transplanted to the Olekminsk, Okhotsk, Ayan, Verkhoyansk, and Kolymsk post roads to maintain the post-horses.’
[2]
[1]: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yakut [2]: Sieroszewski, Wacław 1993. “Yakut: An Experiment In Ethnographic Research”, 795 |
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"The inland mail service of the Thai Government in its state up to the middle of the XIX century must be looked at as originating with the administrative reforms carried out by King Trailok (1448-1488), who created five civil ministries. One of these particularly cared for the transportation of government letters."
[1]
However, it was probably quite a simple service: the Court had no communications outside the country until King Mongkut started a voluminous correspondence with European countries, and an internal mail only started in Bangkok in 1881
[2]
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[1]: (Lindenberg 1944, p.78) [2]: (http://www.sandafayre.com/stampatlas/thailandsiam.html) |
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“Postal workers and elementary school teachers came to symbolize the empire for the general public, since they represented it in the most common daily life interactions, even in the most out of the way rural settings. As one historian wrote of the Hungarian postal system, it “was the state institution that doubtless created the greatest familiarity among ordinary people.”
[1]
[1]: (Judson 2016: 337) Judson, Pieter M. 2016. The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge, USA; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BN5TQZBW |
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Did the Circus Publicus still carry public post?
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First Post Offices: The first post offices were established in major cities: Moscow (1711), Riga (around 1712), and Saint Petersburg (1714). Postal agencies also appeared in many cities. Between 1712 and 1716, a military field post service was created to serve the army.
Expansion in the 18th Century: New postal routes were increasingly established from the first quarter of the 18th century. However, establishing regular postal connections, even with major cities, took decades. It was only by a decree in 1740 that postal offices appeared in all the main provincial and district cities. [1] [1]: Pazin, R. V., et al. Istorii︠a︡ Rossii: Uchebnik: 10-11 Klassy: S Drevneĭshikh Vremen Do Kont︠s︡a XVII Veka. Legion-M, 2019. Zotero link: Y4CZGWJY |
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claims of state-organized communication service by many kingdoms already in the Warring States period; infer that it was continued and expanded by the Qin Empire and adapted by the Han as well.
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Postal system mentioned in the following quote.
“Most of the dated caravanserais are from the period before the disturbances of the year 659/1261. One group clusters around the Phrygian hills near the source of the Sangarios, between modern Afyonkarahisar and Seyitgazi, and two more survive in the Maeander region, near the town of Denizli. Unfortunately, the inscriptions from the northern set of caravanserais have not survived, although that at Deve Han near Seyitgazi was apparently constructed in 1207–1208, and Egret Han perhaps in 1260. Slightly further from the frontier lies an earlier caravanserai, the Çardak Han, built in 627/1230. As we shall see, there is also literary evidence of other caravanserais in the area that have not survived. The caravanserais, traditionally thought to have been used as rest places for itinerant caravans, suggest cross-border trade, linking the western peripheries of the Seljuk state and the Nicaean Empire to the major economic centres in central Anatolia, Konya and Kayseri, and to Seljuk emporia on the Mediterranean. However, there are few such buildings on the Nicaean side of the border, and it has been suggested that commerce was just one function of caravanserais. They also projected and symbolised the power of the Seljuk state and its officials who built them, and served a variety of purposes to facilitate state administration, among them accommodation for itinerant officials or even sultans, as part of the postal and intelligence system, and supporting tax collection and military manoeuvres.” [1] [1]: (Peacock 2014, 278) A.C.S. Peacock (2014) The Seljuk Sultanate of Rūm and the Turkmen of the Byzantine frontier, 1206–1279*, Al-Masāq, 26:3, 267-287, DOI: 10.1080/09503110.2014.956476. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/DE43VD2V/library |
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Not mentioned by sources.
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General postal service have not been mentioned in the sources consulted.
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There has been no information on a postal system in the sources consulted.
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Unknown whether this was accessible to private individuals as a general postal service. The Umayyad had a department of the state running the post office, called the Barid. The system was based on a group of mounted couriers and a large network of inns and stables connecting the capitol of Damascus to other cities, covering an distance of 4,000 miles from Algiers to Kabul.
[1]
[2]
"The Muslim conquerors adopted many ancient institutions, including the postal system, which they called barīd. Although there is some controversy over whether it was primarily the Byzantine or Sasanid model that was followed (see, e.g. EI2, s.v. Barīd; Camb. Hist. Iran III/1, p. 564), it is probable that elements of both were taken over (Mez, p. 466). In the eastern part of the empire at least, ancient Persian practices and terminology seem to have prevailed."
[3]
For a detailed portrayal of Postal systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic world, see Adam J. Silverstein’s work on the subject.
[4]
[1]: (Alcock, Bodel and Talbert, eds. 2012, 7-41) [2]: (Gosch, Stephen, and Stearns 2007, 112-115) [3]: (Floor 1990) Floor, Willem. 1990. ČĀPĀR. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk [4]: (Silverstein 2007 7-41) |
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No information found in sources so far.
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[1]
Lettered communication between central bureaucracy and the satrapies.
[2]
however unsure if this was available to private individuals "The Archaemenids introduced the world’s first postal service, and it was said the network of relay horses could deliver mail to the furthest corner of the empire within 15 days."
[3]
[1]: (Farazmand 2002) [3]: (Burke 2010, 30) Burke, A. 2010. Iran. Lonely Planet. |
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This has not been mentioned in the sources consulted.
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The following is described, however unclear if used by private individuals: "In Persia the postal service appears to have originated in the Achaemenid period. ... There were way stations where the couriers could rest and where fresh horses could be obtained. ... Under the Sasanians a similar postal system appears to have been in operation; in a peace treaty concluded with Byzantium in a.d. 561 one clause stipulated that envoys should be supplied with mounts at the postal stations maintained by both empires.(Blockley, p. 212, clause 3; Camb. Hist. Iran III/1, p. 574; cf. Christensen, p. 129)"
[1]
[1]: (Floor, Willem. 1990. Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. IV, Fasc. 7, pp. 764-768. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk) |
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a ’hamami’ was a "despatcher of carrier pigeons and letters from one town to another" in Iraq, Egypt and Syria: 9th, 10th 11th CE.
[1]
Expert input needed on whether this was accessible to private individuals
[1]: (Shatzmiller 1993, 140) Shatzmiller, Maya. 1994. Labour in the Medieval Islamic World. E. J. BRILL. Leiden. |
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A postal service has not been mentioned in the sources consulted.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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"Such was the importance accorded government business that if any envoy riding a tiring mount came upon other riders with fresher horses, these were required on pain of death to dismount and hand over their animals to the messenger and his entourage."
[1]
[1]: (Marozzi 2004, 103) Marozzi, J. 2004. Tamerlane. HarperCollinsPublishers. London. |
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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Ibn Battuta described a kind of postal service for the Delhi Sultanate, but it seems this service may have solely served the rulers.
"Description of the Barid [Postal Service]. The postal service in India is of two kinds. The horse-post, which they call wlag, consists of horses belonging to the Sultan [with relays] every four miles. The service of couriers on foot has within the space of each mile three relays, which they call dawa,’ the dawa being a third of a mile, and a mile itself is called by them kuruh. The manner of its organization is as follows. At every third of a mile there is an inhabited village, outside which there are three pavilions. In these sit men girded up ready to move off, each of whom has a rod two cubits long with copper bells at the top. When a courier leaves the town he takes the letter in the fingers of one hand and the rod with the bells in the other, and runs with all his might. The men in the pavilions, on hearing the sound of the bells, get ready to meet him and when he reaches them one of them takes the letter in his hand and passes on, running with all his might and shaking his rod until he reaches the next däwa, and so they continue until the letter reaches its destination. This post is quicker than the mounted post, and they often use it to transport fruits from Khuräsän which are regarded as great luxuries in India; the couriers put them on [woven baskets like] plates and carry them with great speed to the Sultan. In the same way they transport the principal crimi- nals; they place each man on a stretcher and run carrying the stretcher on their heads. Likewise they bring the Sultan’s drinking water when he resides at Dawlat Abad, carrying it from the river Kank [Ganges], to which the Hindus go on pilgrimage and which is at a distance of | forty days’ journey from there." §REF§(Ibn Battuta, tr. H.A.R. Gibb 1971, pp. 594-595) The Travels of Ibn Battuta, translated by H. A. R. Gibb. 1971. Cambridge University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GD7E8RNS/item-list |
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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Ibn Battuta described a kind of postal service for the Delhi Sultanate, but the literature consulted does not indicate whether any such system was retained in independent Sind. Moreover, it seems the Delhi Sultanate system may have solely served the rulers.
"Description of the Barid [Postal Service]. The postal service in India is of two kinds. The horse-post, which they call wlag, consists of horses belonging to the Sultan [with relays] every four miles. The service of couriers on foot has within the space of each mile three relays, which they call dawa,’ the dawa being a third of a mile, and a mile itself is called by them kuruh. The manner of its organization is as follows. At every third of a mile there is an inhabited village, outside which there are three pavilions. In these sit men girded up ready to move off, each of whom has a rod two cubits long with copper bells at the top. When a courier leaves the town he takes the letter in the fingers of one hand and the rod with the bells in the other, and runs with all his might. The men in the pavilions, on hearing the sound of the bells, get ready to meet him and when he reaches them one of them takes the letter in his hand and passes on, running with all his might and shaking his rod until he reaches the next däwa, and so they continue until the letter reaches its destination. This post is quicker than the mounted post, and they often use it to transport fruits from Khuräsän which are regarded as great luxuries in India; the couriers put them on [woven baskets like] plates and carry them with great speed to the Sultan. In the same way they transport the principal crimi- nals; they place each man on a stretcher and run carrying the stretcher on their heads. Likewise they bring the Sultan’s drinking water when he resides at Dawlat Abad, carrying it from the river Kank [Ganges], to which the Hindus go on pilgrimage and which is at a distance of | forty days’ journey from there." [1] [1]: (Ibn Battuta, tr. H.A.R. Gibb 1971, pp. 594-595) The Travels of Ibn Battuta, translated by H. A. R. Gibb. 1971. Cambridge University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GD7E8RNS/item-list |
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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A postal service seems to have existed under the Abbasids, but, judging from the literature consulted, it remains unclear whether such a system was present in Sind as well at this time.
"As long-distance trade grew, so, too, did the institutions supporting it. Investment patterns, for example. shifted from mostly land based in the late eighth century to a variety of commercial applications, including ships, horses, and shops in the ninth century. A private express courier service augmented the official Abbasid courier system." (Gutelius 2015, 2) [1] [1]: (Pomeranz, K., Northrup, C.C., Bentley, J.H., Topik, S., Eckes Jr, A.E. and Manning, P., 2015. Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present: From Ancient Times to the Present. Routledge.) |
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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The following is described for preceding and succeeding polities, however unclear if used by private individuals, or whether it was present at this particular time: "In Persia the postal service appears to have originated in the Achaemenid period. ... There were way stations where the couriers could rest and where fresh horses could be obtained. ... Under the Sasanians a similar postal system appears to have been in operation; in a peace treaty concluded with Byzantium in a.d. 561 one clause stipulated that envoys should be supplied with mounts at the postal stations maintained by both empires.(Blockley, p. 212, clause 3; Camb. Hist. Iran III/1, p. 574; cf. Christensen, p. 129)"
[1]
[1]: (Floor, Willem. 1990. Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. IV, Fasc. 7, pp. 764-768. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/capar-or-capar-turk) |
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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The following quote refers to the Mauryan period, but the literature consulted does not confirm whether or not such a system remained in place after that empire’s fragmentation: "a communication system linking the empire with tree-lined roads, public wells, rest houses, and a mail service."
[1]
[1]: (McClellan III and Dorn 2015, 164) McClellan III, James E. Dorn, Harold. 2015. Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction. JHU Press. |
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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The following quote refers to the Mauryan period, but the literature consulted does not confirm whether or not any such system existed after that empire’s fragmentation: "a communication system linking the empire with tree-lined roads, public wells, rest houses, and a mail service."
[1]
[1]: (McClellan III and Dorn 2015, 164) McClellan III, James E. Dorn, Harold. 2015. Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction. JHU Press. |
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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No persuasive evidence could be found, in the literature consulted, for the existence of a postal service of any kind in India, between the end of the Mauryan period and the fourteenth century, when Ibn Battuta visited the Delhi Sultanate and described its communication services. However, it is entirely possible that such systems existed in at least some polities, especially the larger ones.
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Unclear, based on the literature consulted.
Thomas seems to suggest that long-distance communication mainly took place via a system of watchtower, possibly augmented by carrier pigeons. "[Fortresses] seem to have functioned as part of networks of watchtowers that provided an efficient signalling and communication system, although al-Juzjani also states that pigeons were used to carry messages between the fortresses." [1] At the same time, it is possible that, following the conquest of the Ghaznavid polity, the Ghurids adopted all or some of whatever communication system may have existed in those lands. Nizami does point to the existence of an official in charge of diplomatic correspondence, which implies the existence of some kind of messaging system, though possibly one restricted to government use. "The d ̄ıwa ̄n of the chief secretary dealt with correspondence with provincial officials and with external rulers. We possess in sources such as Bayhaq ̄ı’s history and cAq ̄ıl ̄ı’s A ̄tha ̄r al-wuzara ̄’ [Famous Past Deeds of the Viziers or Past Traces of the Viziers] the texts, in florid Arabic and Persian, of several letters to the Karakhanids and the cAbbasid caliphs, including announcements of victories (fat’h-na ̄mas)." [2] [1]: (Thomas 2018, no page number) Thomas, D. C. 2018. The Ebb and Flow of the Ghūrid Empire. Sydney University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/WP4SXX74/library [2]: (Bosworth 1998: 119) Bosworth, C. E. 1998. The Ghaznavids. In Asimov (ed) History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The historical, social and economic setting, Volume 1 pp. 103-124. UNESCO. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/MVIGXRNM/library |
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