国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
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Southern Tibet : vol.1 | |
南チベット : vol.1 |
v
SEIFI AND HIS HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF INDIA, ETC.
75
In Shah Jahangir's time the expression Tibet seems chiefly to have included
Baltistan and Ladak. Himalaya was simply called »the mountains of Jammu and
Kangra» ;' Kangra was the name of the fort of Nagrakot, and in Europe the Hima-
laya was called »the mountains of Nagrakot».
The last extract on Tibet, from a Mohammedan text worth mentioning, I find
in SCHEFER's translation of Bokhari's History of Central Asia, 1740-1818. Its
author is SEIFI, and the title of his work History of the Kings of India, Sind, Khita,
Khotan etc. He places Tibet between Kashmir, Hindustan, the countries of the
Kalmaks and the province of Kashgar, though the latter countries are separated
from Tibet by a desert of several days' journey; by this he probably means the
road over the Kara-korum pass, of which another Mohammedan, MIR ISSET ULLAH,
gave a very good description in 1812. Tibet is described, by Seifi, as a vast and
flourishing country, the several princes of which are in continual war against each
other. The country is full of steep mountains covered with forests, and it is ac-
cessible only through narrow gorges. There is any amount of gold. The Tibetans
are very small and dressed in black from head to foot. 2
Herewith we have brought the knowledge of the great Arabian geographers
and other Mohammedans regarding Tibet down to a time in which the Europeans
had already begun to become masters of Hindustan. The extracts given above, all
from the time of Suleiman the Merchant have shown us how very little the Moham-
medan writers knew even of northern India and the Himalaya during centuries
previous to the foundation of the Empire of the Great Mogul. As to Tibet, its name
was known, but concerning its situation and its geography this country remained
practically a terra incognita.
I ELLIOT'S History. Vol. VI, p. 382.
2 Histoire de l'Asie Centrale (1740-18 18). Par Mir ABDOUL KERIM BOUKHARY, publ. par
CHARLES SCHEFER, Paris 1876, p. 292 et seq.
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