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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
592 JOURNEY OF BENEDICT GOES
NOTE I. (SEE PAGE 540.)1
THE PASSES OF THE HINDU KUSH.
Wood, in his Journey to the Oxus,2 names only four such passes. Three of these are reached from Kabul through the valley of Koh-Daman north of that city, and diverge from each other near Charekar ; viz., the Pass of PANJSHIR or KHAWAK, the Pass of PARWAN, and the Pass of GHORBAND; but each of these in fact represents a group of several routes over the mountains. The fourth that he mentions is the Pass of HAJJIYAK,3lying much further west, passing by Bamian, and usually, in modern times at least, approached from Kabul by the road running west from that city by Rustam Khail, south of the offshoots of the Indian Caucasus called the Pugman Range and Kohistan of Kabul.
If we turn to Sultan Baber we find the number of Passes raised to seven. Those which he names are three leading out of the Panjshir Valley, viz. (1) KHAWAK, (2) T 1L, (3) BAZARAK ; then (4) the Pass of PARWAN; and three described as in Ghorband, viz. (5) YANGI YuLI or the " New Road," (6) KIPCHAK, and (7) SHIBRTU.4
As Ritter understands this list it does not include the Hajjiyak at all. But we know that the Shibrtu route, which Baber says was the only one passable in winter, lies some twenty-five or thirty miles west of Bamian, and I have little doubt that the Kipchak of Baber is the Hajjiyak, which, leading by what was in old times the great and flourishing city of Bamian, must always have been a main line across the mountain barrier ; and it is scarcely conceivable that Baber should have omitted it in his list. That both Kipchak and Shibrtu are mentioned by the king among the passes reached from Ghorband, is, I suppose, to be accounted for by the fact that a transverse route does pass along the whole length of the Ghorband Valley to the foot of the Hajjiyak Pass, whilst there is also a lateral communication from Bamian to Shibrtu.
The account in the Ayin Akbari is remarkable, as it seems partly copied from Baber and partly modified. This also mentions seven passes, viz. (1) Hawak (read Khawak), (2) Tool (Tûl), (3) Bajaruck (Bazarak), (4) not named, but probably Parwan ; (5) " by the Hill of Kipchak, and this also is somewhat easy to pass. The sixth (6) is by the Hill of Sheertoo (read
1 See also the map facing page 529.
Journey to the source of the River Oxus, 1841, p. 186. s Called also Hajikak and Hajigak.
4 Leyden and Erskine's Baber, p. 133 seq.
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