IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. CCXXXV
of BADAKHSHAN, and there it bears the name of Khari-ab.' It receives five considerable tributaries which come from the countries of KHUTL2 and WAKSH. Then it becomes a river surpassing all the rivers in the world as regards volume, depth and breadth of channel.
The Khariab receives the waters of a river- called Akhsua or hfank,3 those of Than4 or Balian, of Farglian (or Faughan), of Anjdra (or Andijûra'), of WAKHSHAB with a great number of affluents coming from the mountains of BoTnr : (it also receives) other rivers such as those of Stighanicin,5 and Kawécdidn,6 which all join in the province of the latter name and discharge into the Jihun.
" The Wakhsh-ab takes its rise in the country of the Turks; after arriving in the country of Wakhsh it loses itself under a high mountain, where it may be crossed as over a bridge. The length of its subterranean course is not known ; finally, however, it issues from the mountain, runs along the frontier of the country of Balkh and reaches Tarmedh. The bridge of which we have spoken serves as a boundary between Khutl and Wakhshj ird.
"The river having passed to Tarmedh flows on to Kilif, to Zara, to Amol, and finally discharges its waters into the Lake of Khwarizm (the Aral).
"Badakhshan is built on the west bank of the Khariab, the most considerable of the rivers that fall into the Jihun.7 They bring to Badakhshan the musk of the regions of Tibet adjoining Wakhan. Badakhshan has on its frontier Kanauj, a dependency of India.s
"The two provinces which you reach first beyond the Jihun are Khutl and Wakhsh. Although distinct and separate provinces they are under the same government. They lie between the Khariab and the Wakhshab, the first of which rivers bathes the eastern part of Khutl, and the other the country of Wakhsh, of which we have spoken.... Khutl is a province
but at my distance from the press it gives too much trouble to the printer.
1 This Khari is perhaps the Icarus of which Pliny speaks, on the authority of Varro (vi, 19).
Jaubert throughout has fa, a name that seems totally unknown hereabouts (Jil is another name for Gilan). There can be little doubt that it is misread for Khutl (sometimes called Khutldn) a province frequently mentioned as lying north of the Oxus towards Karategin. It is probably the Kotulo of Hiwen Thsang.
3 Mank is afterwards described as a dependence of Jil (Khutl).
4 Afterwards apparently written Tha'lân (beginning with the fourth Arabic letter), and I believe a misreading for Baghlcin.
5 Apparently the Kafirnihan of the maps.
6 Perhaps the Tupala,k of the maps.
7 This does not answer to the position of Fyzabad, the capital of Badakhshan, abandoned in Wood's time, but reoccupied by Mir Shah, the present chief.
s Kanauj is absurd. I suspect it should be read Mastauj.
i. 2
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