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

reservoir at the Mazár Khoja Baglán, 30 miles to the west of the town, where it is filled from
streams coming down from the hills. The settlements to the south of Káyrágh are watered
from the Sháhnáz which is lost on the desert to the east; and those on the north border of the
division by the Kosán river which joins the Káshghar stream.

The limits of Yangi Hissár are Ak Rabát on the south, and Yapchang on the north;
Egizyár Karawul, or outpost to the Chishtágh mountain on the west, and Ordám Pádshah, or
Kúm Shahidán on the east. The general character of the country is arid desert, with here and
there small saline pools, or more extensive reedy wastes; and everywhere the soil is highly
charged with salts which cover the ground with a white efflorescence even under growing
crops. On the southern half of the division is a wide waste of this saline soil. It is covered
with salt worts and a coarse reedy grass, and is so soft and spongy that cattle cannot traverse
it off the beaten track.

Within the above limits, the population is reckoned at 8,000 houses, of which 2,000 con-
stitute the city and its immediate suburbs. The rest are thus distributed. Along the south
tract—Kizili 200 houses, Chamalung 200, Kudúk, Tamyari, and Kosh Gumbaz 150, Topoluk
400, Kilpichim, Kálpín, and Toghochi 250, Egizyar 300, Tishiján, Sugat, and Piliz 100,
Domshún, Yangíyar, and Ditír 100, and Kíng Kúl 600—total 2,300 houses. Along
the middle tract—Konosák, Altúnchí, and Kásh Arik 200 houses, Tawiz 200, Karágho 100,
Atimchágh and Campá 100, Shimlá 150, Mángshin 200, Khoja Arik 300, Syghán 300,
and Arába 250—total 1,800 houses. Along the north track—Oktay and Cholpangarik 100
houses, Cháharshamba Bázár and Sáylik 250, Altúnlúk 250, Súgholúk 250, Tonglúk 250,
Súnolúk 200, Yapchang 250, and other small settlements as Hazrat Begum, Ordam Pádshah,
Kári Atám, &c., 400—total 1,900 houses. Total population of the division 56,000 souls.

The Yangi Hissár settlements are entirely agricultural. The city is a small town of about
600 houses composed of dilapidated tenements and decayed fortifications, and its people and
surroundings wear an air of poverty, neglect, and decadence; yet the suburbs are flourishing
gardens and cornfields. On the plain a few hundred yards to the north of the town is the
Yangishahr, a strong fort with high turreted walls and a deep ditch. And between the two
are the barracks of the garrison and their families, small fortified enclosures with crenelated
walls.

In the time of the Chinese this was, as it is still, an important military post, and there
are now more Chinese converts here than in any other part of the country, except at Káshghar
itself. The Amír has a garrison of 500 men here, who are mostly quartered outside the fort,
which is the depository of his treasure and the residence of some State prisoners and refugees.
Amongst the latter Hydar Tora, son of Amír Muzaffaruddín of Bukhárá, who has been kept
here under strict supervision for some years as a guest living on the bounty of Yákúb Beg.

Yángi Hissár is an interesting place historically as the scene of the grand struggle for
mastery between Budhism and Islám; and though the former was overthrown, it was not without
a heavy price paid by the victors in their best blood, as has been mentioned in the History. The
place abounds in the tombs and sacred shrines of the early champions of the Faith, and a
few miles to the west of the town, at Chúchám Padshah, is a vast cemetery consecrated to the
dust of ten thousand warrior martyrs to the cause. It is a desolate waste spread far and wide
over a dreary wilderness of sand hills and hollows, and even now its sepulchral odours and deep
solitude impress the visitor with the magnitude of the contest and the fierceness of the fight.
In this struggle—which it appears lasted for a quarter of a century before Budhism was stamped
out by the conquest of its most flourishing seat at Khutan—several little fortified cities in this
division were reduced to ruins. The largest of these, Ordám Padshah = "My King's palace,"
is now only known by name, for the site of its existence has for eight centuries been buried
under the shifting sands; where still stands the shrine of Ali Arslán Khán and his 300 fellow
martyrs, surrounded by a billowy sea of sand dunes which, as the venerable custodian solemnly
informed us, "have hitherto, out of respect to the sacred resting place of the holy martyrs,
passed on in their course giving the hallowed spot a wide berth; and please God they will
always do so to all eternity."