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Innermost Asia : vol.2 |
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The obstacles here presented by nature to communication along the river adequately explain the
close dependence of Ghārān upon Badakhshān, which is indicated both by local tradition and by
the physical appearance and Persian speech of the people. The very scanty population which
Ghārān could maintain on such limited patches of cultivable land as are to be found mainly at the
mouths of narrow side valleys,⁹ was governed by the Mīrs of Badakhshān until the Afghān annexa-
tion in the time of Amīr Shēr 'Alī.
Communication with Badakhshān is made comparatively easy for a great part of the year by Easy access
the fact that side valleys descending to the left bank both at Barshōr and Āndāj give access to the to Badakh-
Yaghurda plateau on the watershed towards the Wardōj. Across this, paths practicable for laden shān.
animals during the summer and autumn lead to the Sarghilān valley and thus to Bahārak, the old
capital of Badakhshān, in a couple of marches. A route of similarly easy nature ascends the side
valley in which the Shiwa lake finds its outlet to the Oxus opposite Darmārak, and from the rich
pastures surrounding the lake leads over the Arghancha pass to Faizābād, the present chief town
of Badakhshān. The descriptions I heard of these fine pastures to be found on the range which
overlooks from the west the Ghārān and Shughnān portions of the Oxus valley made it easy
for me to realize the attractions that they must have offered during successive periods to such
originally nomadic rulers of Badakhshān as the Yüeh-chih, White Huns, and Western Turks.¹⁰
No detailed account need be attempted here of the three marches which carried me through Ruby mines
the whole length of Ghārān to Shughnān. The difficulties that the ground here presented before of Ghārān.
the bridle-path was made have been fully described by Captain Olufsen.¹¹ They could be appreciated
at the many points where the new roadway has been blasted from the rocks or carried on galleries
(rafak) high above the river along otherwise impracticable cliffs. One of these was encountered
close below the hamlet of Barshōr (Fig. 415), where we halted for the night of September 11th at
an elevation of about 7,600 feet. It was on the second march, which brought us to Andarāb, that
I first noticed, from the hamlet of Vodhgh downwards, cultivation high up on the slopes carried
on by rain and snow-fall only, evidence of a climate distinctly moister than that of Wakhān. On
the way to Andarāb we passed the pits situated above the hamlet of Sīst where rubies, or spinels
resembling them, used to be mined by forced labour under the rule of the Mīrs of Badakhshān.
The fame of their produce was far-spread in the Middle Ages, and Marco Polo does not fail to
mention 'those fine and valuable gems the Balas Rubies' and correctly to indicate their place
of origin.¹²
Section III.—IN THE VALLEYS OF SHUGHNĀN
It was below Andarāb, at about 7,200 feet above the sea, our last stage before entering Arrival at
Shughnān, that the worst of the obstacles to communication along the Panj were encountered. Khāruk.
In consequence of these impediments, such local traffic as there was before the opening of the
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