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
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ
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| 0340 |
Innermost Asia : vol.2 |
| 極奥アジア : vol.2 |
引用情報
OCR読み取り結果
Semi-
nomadic
Kirghiz in
lower Alai
valley.
in the year, the climatic conditions in the lower portion have provided it with a permanent popula-
tion leading a life half settled, half nomadic. The cultivation found from an elevation of about
9,000 feet downwards is carried on by Kirghiz, who graze their flocks and herds in the higher side
valleys during the summer and after descending to the main valley in the autumn keep them
during the winter months on fodder cut and stored for this purpose.⁵ Even during those months
some grazing is made possible by violent winds that blow through the main valley and help to clear
the steeper slopes of snow. Up to Yamān-karchin oats will ripen, and from Daraut-kurghān
downwards crops of wheat also are reaped, and that for the most-part without irrigation.
Facilities of
traffic along
Alai valley.
The conditions here briefly indicated must obviously have had their bearing upon the use of
the Alai valley as a line of traffic. The abundance of grazing was bound to be appreciated by
caravans, particularly by those coming from the arid valleys on the Kāshgar side. Quite as
important is the fact that places permanently occupied, and hence capable of offering shelter and
some local supplies, could be found on either side up to an elevation of about 9,000 feet ; for some
cultivation exists not only at Irkesh-tam, but also above it at a point known as Nōraning-sōwa on
the route to Taun-murun. Thus the distance on the Alai route over which habitations were not
to be found is reduced to less than 70 miles or three easy marches.⁶ The route remains open for
laden animals, including camels, during eight or nine months of the year. Even in the months
of December to February, when it is reported to be closed by deep snow, it would probably be made
practicable in the same way as the route from Irkesh-tam across the Terek pass (12,700 feet above
sea-level), provided there were sufficient traffic to tread a track through the snow and keep it clear.
Such traffic between Kāshgar and the Oxus region as was once served by the route through Kara-
tegīn and the Alai valley now no longer exists. What trade comes up Kara-tegīn at present from
the side of the Oxus proceeds towards Margilān or Andijān in Farghāna, while the trade from
Kāshgar touches the eastern end of the Alai only during April and May, when the melting snow
renders the Terek pass towards Farghāna and its railway impracticable.
Importance
of route for
trade.
But during the centuries before and after the beginning of the Christian era, when Baktra
was a chief emporium for the great silk trade passing from China to Persia and the Mediterranean,
all geographical factors combined to direct this trade to the route which leads from Kāshgar to
the Alai valley and thence down the Kizil-su or Surkh-āb towards the Oxus. Nature has favoured
the use of this route, since it crosses the watershed between the Tārīm basin and the Oxus where
it is lowest. Moreover, it has, in Kara-tegīn, a continuation singularly free from those physical
difficulties which preclude the valleys draining the Pāmīrs farther south from serving as arteries
of trade. According to the information received at Daraut-kurghān and subsequently on my way
through Kara-tegīn, the route leading mainly along or near the right bank of the Kizil-su is
practicable for laden camels and horses at all seasons right through as far as Āb-i-garm. From
there routes equally easy lead through the Hissār hills to the Oxus north of Balkh.
Route of
ancient silk
trade.
The topographical facts here noted fully support the conclusion, first indicated by Sir Henry
Yule, that the route from Baktra to the capital of the Sēres which Marinus had recorded from
information secured through the agents of 'Maës, a Macedonian also called Titianus, who was
a merchant by hereditary profession', led up through Kara-tegīn and the Alai valley. The passages
of Ptolemy ⁷ to which we owe the preservation of this very interesting classical record bearing on
the silk trade from China during the first century of our era have been the subject of much learned
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687
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697
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