Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1 / Page 51 (Color Image)

0051	Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1

CHAPTER II.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF KÁSHGHAR.*

*Names of the Region.*—The country now most commonly called Káshghar or Káshgharia 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 Túrán or Mulki Tártar, was generally denominate l Turkistán, and its different natural divisions were distinguished by appropriate appellations.

Amongst these the province now represented by Káshghár was called—to distinguish it from the proper Bukhárá in the corresponding basin to the west—Kichik Bukhárá or "Little Bukhárá," and it is described under this name by Juwení, the author of the *Jahánkushá*; though it appears that at the time of the Arab conquest it was generally spoken of either simply as Turkistán or "the country of the Turk," or, to distinguish it from the Turkistán proper—the northern portion of the region populated by that widely extended race—as Bilád-us-Shirk or "the eastern cities;" and by Rashíduddin, the Wazír of Ghazán Khan and author of the *Táríkh Rashídí*, it is called Mashrik Turkistán or "Eastern Turkistán."

The Moghol invasion, without entirely displacing these names, gave it another—that of Mogholistán or "the country of the Moghol"—and it was generally known by this name during the period of the rule of the Chaghtáy Khans. In the time of the later Princes of that dynasty, however, the name of Káshghar, their capital, came into use to designate the plain country south of the Alátágh in contradistinction to Mogholistán 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 Káshghar has ever since been the one most commonly used to represent the great basin of the Tárim 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 Ila—it is called Tianshan Nan Lu or "the way south of Tianshan," and by modern European authors Chinese Turkistán.

Finally, by its western neighbours of the present day—by Khokand and Bukhárá—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 Changíz—when he divided his empire amongst his sons—allotted under the name of Mogholistan, together with the countries of Turkistán and Máwaránahar on the west and Kará Khitáy in the east, to his son Chaghtáy. 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 Mogholistán—according to the *Táríkhi Rashídí* of Mirzá Hydar—was in the time of Chaghtáy also denominated Mangláy Súba or "Front Province" or "direction of sunrise." And its limits are given as from Shásh or Táshkand on the west to Jálish on the east, and from Ísigh Kol on the north to Sárigh Uighur on the south.

At the same time the limits of Káshghar, according to the same authority, were Shash and the Bolor mountains on the west; the country beyond Túrfán to the borders of the Kalmák territory on the east; Artosh on the north; and Khutan on the south. These limits, with the exception of the extension to Shásh itself, hold good to the present day; for the Shásh territory extends eastward to Atbáshí on the Upper Nárin where Artosh begins.

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

Citation Information

OCR Text

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