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
ANCIENT TRAVELLERS.
I2
Il y a trois routes qui y conduisent: celle de Corassane est tres difficile; en sorte que le transport des balots de marchandises & autres fardeaux ne se pouvant faire par là sur le dos des bêtes de charges, les Habitans accoutumés a ce travail les portent sur leurs dos pendant plusieurs journées , jusques a un lieu où l'on peut les charger sur un cheval.
La route des Indes est de la même difficulté.
Celle de Tobbot ou Thebet est plus facile; mais durant plusieurs journées on trouve quantité d'herbes venimeuses qui empoisonnent les chevaux des passans.
Ainsi Dieu a donné des défenses naturelles a ce Pays, qui exemptent les hommes d'avoir besoin ni d'armes, ni d'Armées.'
Sherefeddin, as all other Mohammedan writers, when speaking of Tobbot or
Thebet or even Tibet, always means Ladak.
One of the generals of Timur, MIRZA ISKENDER, invaded Kashgar, Yarkand and Khotan, and of this enterprise the Zafer -nameh of Sherefeddin has some inte-
resting particulars to tell:
De Cotan à Cachgar il y a quinze journées de chemin, & de Cachgar à Samarcande il y en a vingt-cinq. Il y a à Cotan deux Rivieres, Oranccach & Caracach dont les pierres sont de jaspe, que l'on porte de là aux autres Pays: ces deux Rivieres ont leur source dans la montagne de Carangoutac .... Il (Mirza Iskender) partit ensuite de Cotan, & se rendit à Carangoutac , montagne fort haute & escarpée. Les Habitans de Cotan & des environs se refugient dans cette montagne dans les temps de guerre, & lorsqu'ils craignent quelque insulte. Après que le Mirza se flit instruit à fond de l'état & de la force inaccessible de Carangoutac, il ne jugea pas à propos d'y hazarder ses troupes ....2
From this passage it seems to be obvious that Sherefeddin gives the name of Karangu - tagh to the whole region of the Kwen-lun System from which the Yurunkash and Kara-kash take their origin. His words are, however, not to be taken literally. For he probably did not know where the sources of the rivers were situated, and he, therefore, probably only speaks of the northern ranges of the Kwen-lun System. Regarding the relation between the Karangu-tagh and Kwen-lun, BRETSCHNEIDER
has a somewhat surprising view, saying of the latter:
The western part of it on our maps, bears the name of Karakorum mountains, south and south-east of Khotan. The Zafer-nameh terms these mountains Karangutak.
I may observe that on modern maps of these regions I find a place of this name marked more than fifty English miles south of the city of Khotan, on the river Yurung kash or Karang kash, which flows to Khotan. It is also the name of a mountain district there.3
It is of course wrong to identify the western Kwen-lun with the Kara-korum. On the other hand, Bretschneider is, no doubt, right in saying that the Zafer-nameh calls those parts of the Kwen-lun that are situated south and S. W. of Khotan, the Karangu-tagh. The little village of this name is situated some 72 miles south of Khotan. Of course it would be quite wrong to suppose that the Karangu-tagh had
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1 Petis de la Croix: Histoire de Timur-Bec .... Ecrite en Persan par Cherefeddin Ali natif d'Yezd. Tome III, Delf. MDCCXXIII, p. 15, 162.
2 Op. cit., Tome III, p. 219.
3 Mediaeval Researches, Vol. II, London 191o, p. 249, not. 1043.
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