IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Southern Tibet : vol.7 |
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Citation Information
STRAHLENBERG AND OTHERS.
7
74
identical with a part of the Ts'ung-ling of the Chinese and with the Kashgar Range of Burrard, the western called M. Belur alias Bulut, i. e. Montes Tenebrosi. In the north, about west of Ierken (Yarkand), the name Belur M. is once more written across both ranges. A little farther north they join to one range, called M. Terek Daban. Both Amu-daria and Sir-daria are drawn as taking their origin from the west side of this western range. Between the two meridional ranges is a plain called Planities Pamer alias Arschmaki. The latter name is not found in Strahlen-berg's text, and I cannot make out its meaning. South of the Planities Pamer is Mus Tagk alias Imaus Mons. The name Mus Tagk is entered on the map just between Pamer and Caschemir, and one, therefore, feels very much tempted to identify it with the Kara-korum. But the »alias Imaus Mons» seems to complicate this interpretation, as Imaus ordinarily is Himalaya, and Strahlenberg has explained in his text that the Turki word mus is the same as (I) m (a) us. He says:
Eben aber also ist es auch mit dem Nahmen Imaus, welches die Tatern in ihrer Sprache Imaustag auch Imussahr nennen, denn Mus oder Maus heisset bey ihnen Eiss, vor welches sie den vocal I in der Aussprache setzen, Tag aber bemercket Gebürge, welches also das Eiss- and Schnee-Gebürge andeutet; Daher denn diese corrumpierte Benennung Imaus entstanden.'
On Strahlenberg's map the Imaus Mons is the range from which the Indus and Ganges take their origin. South of this range there are other, more detached mountains, which, indeed, have to be identified with the Himalaya, for at their southern base we find Atock and Nagracut, and between them and the Imaus Mons is Caschemir. The more regularly defined range Imaus Mons is bordering Regnum Chotena and Provincia Karia (Keriya) on the south, and ought, therefore, to be identified with the Kwen-lun. As now the Himalaya is indicated south of this Range, Strahlenberg's Imaus Mons cannot be identified with the Himalaya, but is indeed meant to be the Kwen-lun.2 The Mus Tagk Range, which constitutes the immediate western continuation of the Imaus and is situated south of the Pamer and north of Caschemir, and has M. Hendukesch as its direct western continuation, may, therefore, in reality be identified with at least the northern part of the Kara-korum System. As shown above, the name Mus Tag had been entered on maps a few years before Strahlenberg published his work. But on Strahlenberg's map we are able for the first time to prove that a part of the Kara-korum System has been represented.
A few passages of Strahlenberg's text may be worthy of quotation. In the beginning of his work he says that he has noticed that Curtius, Plinius and other
I Philipp Johann von Strahlenberg : Das Nord- und Ostliche Theil von Europa und Asia . • Stockholm 173o, p. 326 and 49. His Imussahr is the Turki Musart.
2 In this respect I have made a mistake on p. 25o, Vol. I, where I regard his Imaus Mons as being identical with the Himalaya.
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