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CHAPTER II.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF KÁSHGHAR.*

Names of the Region.—The country now most commonly called Kashghar or Kasligharia has at different periods of its history been known under different names. By the early historians of the Arab conquest the country, which in the time of the ancient Persian sovereignty was known as Ttiran or Mulki Tartar, was generally denominate 1 Turkistan, and its different natural divisions were distinguished by appropriate appellations.

Amongst these the province now represented by Kashghar was called—to distinguish it from the proper Bukhara in the corresponding basin to the west—Kichik Bukhara or "Little Bukhara," and it is described under this name by Juweni, the author of the Jahcinkushc ; though it appears that at the time of the Arab conquest it was generally spoken of either simply as Turkistan or " the country of the Turk," or, to distinguish it from the Turkistan proper—the northern portion of the region populated by that widely extended race—as Bilad-us-Shirk or " the eastern cities ;" and by Rashiduddin, the Wazir of Ghazan Khan and author of the TdrIkk Ilashidi, it is called Mashrik Turkistan or " Eastern Turkistan."

The Moghol invasion, without entirely displacing these names, gave it another—that of Mogholistan or " the country of the Moghol"—and it was generally known by this name during the period of the rule of the Chaghtay Khans. In the time of the later Princes of that dynasty, however, the name of Kashghar, their capital, came into use to designate the plain country south of the Alatagh in contradistinction to Mogholistan proper, which was applied in a more restricted sense to the home of the nomad Moghol on the elevated plateaux of that mountain range and in the valleys at its northern base. And this name of Kashghar has ever since been the one most commonly used to represent the great basin of the Tarim River, though other names have been applied to it in whole or in part by foreigners. Thus by the Chinese conquerors—under whose rule it was included in the great western frontier province of Ida—it is called Tianshan Nan Lu or " the way south of Tianshan," and by modern European authors Chinese Turkistan.

Finally, by its western neighbours of the present day—by Khokand and Bukhara—it has since the period of the Chinese conquest been called Alty Shahr or " the six cities," and Yatty Shahr or "the seven cities ;" terms which apply properly only to the western half of the country, in which are situated -the six or seven cities to which the Chinese Emperor had conceded certain privileges of trade and local government on behalf of the Khokand State. And it is by these last names that the province is generally alluded to by the Russians.

As has been mentioned in the preceding history of this region, it was in the time of Changiz—when he divided his empire amongst his sons—allotted under the name of Mogholistan, together with the countries of Turkistan and Mawaranahar on the west and Kara Khitay in the east, to his son Chaghtay. All these countries collectively have been styled "the middle Tartar Kingdom" as distinct from the northern and western Tartar Kingdoms which were the portions of his other sons. This Mogholistan—according to the Tarikki Rashicil of Mirza Hydar—was in the time of Chaghtay also denominated Manglay Sala or "Front Province" or "direction of sunrise." And its limits are given as from Shash or k12and on the west to Jalish on the east, and from Isigh Kol on the north to SarVIT Uighur on the south.

At the same time the limits of Kashghar, according to the same authority, were Shash and the Bolor mountains on the west ; the country beyond Turf an to the borders of the Kalmak territory on the east ; Artosh on the north ; and Khutan on the south. These limits, with the exception of the extension to Shash itself, hold good to the present day ; for the Shash territory extends eastward to Atbashi on the Upper Narin where Artosh begins.

* The portions of sections relating to horses, page 71; marriage, page 85 ; birth and onwards, page 86 ; women, page 89; death, page 92; punishments inflicted in Eastern Turkestan, page 100; and Chinese punishments, page 101, are by Captain Chapman—the rest by Dr. Bellew.