National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

at its very foot. The interruption caused by the rivers Karausun and Ulanusun,
the Black and the Red Water, does not agree with reality. Strahlenberg has prac-
tically discovered the existence of Tian-shan, though it seems very unlikely that he
ever proceeded so far south personally. Of this fact ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
says: ›Strahlenberg has the merit to be the first who has represented the Tian-shan
as a special, independent range, without knowing the volcanic activity of the same.›¹

Humboldt is less fortunate in his criticism of Strahlenberg's nomenclature.
I cannot help quoting two or three passages by Humboldt in his own words. He
says: ›Strahlenberg hat den Thian-shan auf der Karte, welche seinem . . . Werke
. . . beigegeben ist, unter dem unrichtigen Namen Musart so dargestellt, dass er ziem-
lich leicht erkannt werden kann; er nennt den Bolor Mustag und setzt dabei noch
olim Paropamisus, was auf eine S.—N.-Kette sehr schlecht passt. Die Benennungen
Musart und Mustag sind Corruptionen des tartarischen Wortes Muz-tagh.›² In con-
nection with Strahlenberg's merit of representing the Tian-shan on his map Hum-
boldt says: ›Er giebt ihm den sehr unbestimmten Namen Mousart: der, weil der
Bolor mit dem allgemeinen, nichts individualisirenden, nur Schnee andeutenden Namen
Mustag belegt wurde, noch ein Jahrhundert lang zu einer irrigen Darstellung und
albernen, sprachwidrigen Nomenclatur der Gebirgsreihen nördlich vom Himalaya An-
lass gegeben hat, Meridian- und Parallel Ketten mit einander verwechselnd.› ³

What Humboldt says of such a name as Mustag is quite right; it gives rise
to misunderstandings and should disappear from the maps. In our own days one
sees from time to time the Western Kara-korum called Mustag from the pass of the
same name. I used to call the easternmost range of the Pamir Mus-tag,⁴ though
Colonel Burrard prefers the name Kashgar Range, a proposal I most willingly
accept.⁵

Strahlenberg's Musart, on the other hand, is no corruption, as Humboldt be-
lieves. He says the correct word is Moussour tagh or Moussar tagh of which Musart
should be the corruption. On the last edition of Stieler's Hand-Atlas, No. 62, the
name is spelt exactly in the same way as on Strahlenberg's map 183 years ago,
namely Musart. The only mistake, very excusable indeed, which Strahlenberg com-
mitted in this case was to transfer a name, which belongs only to a very important
pass situated just east of Khan-tengri, to the whole system, the Chinese name of which
was unknown to the Swedish officer. Another mistake was to believe that Tian-
shan consisted of only one single range, but this was also Humboldt's opinion,⁶