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

present day it is locally known as Ilchí or Ilsa, and the name is applied in a restricted sense to
the capital city in distinction to the fort or military city adjoining it. But the whole State
is known as Khutan or Alty Shahri Khutan="Six cities of Khutan" from the six towns
composing it, viz., Ilchí, Karákásh, Yúrungkásh, Chíra, Karyá or Kiryá, and Náya.

Each of these townships, to which is added a seventh called Koh-tágh or Kuránghótágh,
forms a separate government under a Beg, who is subordinate to the Hákim Beg or "Ruling
Beg" at the capital. Collectively the population of these several townships is reckoned at
18,000 houses, and they are distributed as follows.

Ilchí or Khutan, the capital, 6,000 houses. Close opposite is the Gulbágh Fort, which in
the time of the Chinese had a garrison of 2,000 men. The city is walled and stands on the
Khutan river, on both banks of which are its suburbs. Its people are mostly Turk and Tártárs
with a considerable mixture of foreign blood, principally Chinese; and amongst them are settled
many emigrants from Andiján or Khokand, together with natives of Tibet, Kashmir, and the
Punjab, and also of Kabul. There is besides a small fluctuating population of merchant
traders.

The principal manufactures of the city are silk fabrics, carpets, and a coarse cotton cloth
called khám. These, together with the other chief products of the country, viz., gold, jade-
stone, musk, raw silk, and raw cotton, form the staples of its trade and its most valuable
exports. Under the Chinese rule all these industries flourished, and attracted a large number
of merchants to the country; but, with the exception of the cotton trade, they are now all in
a very languishing state, owing, it is said, to the great number of workmen who perished in
the late massacres and wars. A trustworthy resident of the city who had witnessed the whole
revolution, from the overthrow of the Chinese to the establishment of the Amír, informed me
that the whole country was now completely impoverished, and that it had lost nearly half of
its male population. His account of the state of trade was much thus—"The jade trade,
which formerly supported several thousand families in its collection and manufacture, had now
entirely disappeared. So the gold mines, which under the Chinese employed whole settlements,
are now deserted, excepting only one or two which are worked as a close monopoly by the
Amír. The carpet trade has similarly declined, and the rare productions of gold wire, silk, and
wool combined, which under the Chinese found eager competitors, are now never seen, for there
is nobody left to buy them. The cotton industry is the only one that flourishes, for we must
all wear clothes, and the khám (a sort of buckram) which the weavers turn out is so cheap and
durable that everybody buys it. The silk is good enough, though not to compare with that of
Andiján; but where ten men wore it before hardly one can afford to do so now."

Karákásh. This is a settlement of 1,000 houses on the lower course of the river of that
name, scattered in clusters of three or four homesteads together. In this district there are
both jade and gold mines, and the people have lots of horses and cattle.

Yúrungkásh, 1,000 houses. It comprises several settlements on the Khutan River between
the city and the mountains. At Jiyá, which is a collection of 150 homesteads on the sandy
plain, about 4 tash from the mountains, a good deal of silk is produced; and at Kúmbát and
Táshmalik, two small villages in the hills about 4 tash from Yúrungkásh, there are jade quarries
and gold diggings.

Kuránghótágh, 1,500 houses. This district comprises several glens on the upper course of
the Khutan River up to its sources on the Kang Dawán, and is contiguous to the northward
with Yúrungkásh. Its principal settlements are Chorash, Chamand, Ambár, Chukár, Achyán,
Soktyán, and Zabirá or Mazár Chár Imám. They are all in separate glens, and Chorash is the
residence of the Beg. From Chamand to Kang Dawán is a day's journey to the south-west
with no habitation. Gold is washed in streams from the mountain, but only in summer. In
this direction too is Chákil; it is four days' journey from Ilchi, and the boundary of its
territory, for there is no road beyond it as the mountains here join those of Karákoram and
Sásir. This is a very wild district, and as the name implies the glens are narrow, deep, and
dark.

Chíra, 4,000 houses. This is a market town, and has many populous settlements along the
river of the same name. The soil is sandy but productive, and most of the silk of the country