346 THE PULSE OF ASIA
and a subsequent standstill." The mosque is sixteen feet above Brückner's zero.
In spite of Shah Rukh, one is inclined to doubt whether the whole stream of both the Oxus and the Jaxartes ever entered the Caspian, leaving the Aral to dry up entirely.
At any rate, only fifty years later, in 1470 A. D., Said Abdul Hassan says that " the river Amu, the great Jihun [Oxus, is the river which debouches in the Caspian Sea; it is also the Kharesm Jihun which goes to Baheira Kharesm [the Sea of Aral]." Abdul-Ghazi, prince of Urgenj, or ancient Khiva, writing about 1632 A. D., gives a detailed account of certain changes in the Oxus : " In A. H. 880 [A. D. 1475], communication between Urgenj and the country of Abul-Khan [the Ust-Urt plateau] was very frequent ; because the river Amu [Oxus], after having passed under the walls of Urgenj, directed itself [along the Uz-boi channel] toward the eastern portion of the mountain of Abul-Khan, then toward the south following the base of the mountain, then toward the west. The river passed near Oghurja and finally discharged its waters into the sea of Mazanderan [the Caspian]." Again, he says that " [in A. D. 1575] thirty years before his birth, the Amu at Kara-Uighur-Tokai detached an arm [on the right], which passed the city of Tuk, and threw itself into the sea of Syr [Aral]. It was by this accident that the country of Urgenj has become a desert for lack of water. . . . The place of the embouchure of the [new] river received the name Aral six months after the death of Essen [A. D. 1622]."
From the information given by Abul-Ghazi, it is not clear whether the branch of the Oxus which in 1575 was diverted
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