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

towards the east; and in these take up their abode in their filth and their rags a number of
calandar and darvesh—demented ascetics and abandoned mendicants—who with their hags and
a few wretched children here lead a life of idleness and folly, the cause and effect at once of
their love of bang—veritable "dwellers amongst the tombs," impudent claimants of charity
from every passer by, and equally ready with curse or blessing as their loud appeals may
require. By the Amír's favour we were permitted to visit this sacred shrine, and were received
with marked attention and hospitality by Eshán Mahmúd Khan, the Mutawalli Báshí or
"Head Custodian," a quiet and deferential priest who had received his education at Constanti-
nople, and on parting informed us that we were the first Europeans, nay the first Christians,
who had ever set foot within the hallowed precincts.

A few hundred yards to the west of Kuhna Shahr are the ruins of the Chinese fort called
Gulbágh. It was destroyed in 1825 A.D. by Jahángír Khoja, and on the recovery of the
country by the Chinese they built the several forts or mángshin which are now called Yangi-
shahr at Yárkand, Yángi Hissár and this place.

The Yangi-shahr of Káshghar was built in 1838 when Zuhúruddín or Zoruddín was the
Hákim Beg or "Chief Governor" of the division. It stands on the plain five miles south of
the city and near the right bank of the Kizil river, and is nearly as large as the city itself.
It is of oblong shape running north and south, and is entered by a single gateway with three
portals at cross angles one within the other in the north face. The walls are lofty and massive
and topped by loopholed turrets at intervals, and on each side is a projecting bastion to protect
the curtains by flank fire. The glacis is protected by a covered way, and the whole is sur-
rounded by a deep and wide ditch which can be filled from the river; at the risk, however, of
bringing down the whole structure, for the walls are of mud and stand upon a porous sandy soil.

In the time of the Chinese it held a garrison of six thousand men, and was the residence
of the Ambán and other Khitáy officials, with a number of families and followers. It is now
the residence of the Amír whose orda occupies the site of the Ambán's palace, and the officers
of his Court who each have their residencies within the area. The other principal buildings
are the Friday Mosque or Jumá Masjid built upon the ruins of the Chinese temple, and the
harem of which the long blank line of tall walls is all that can be seen, and, coupled with the
stillness around, all that prompts conjecture as to the nature of the life within. In the middle
line of the area is a military bázár, and on each side is a row of soldiers' huts, but the bulk of
the troops are quartered under their respective commandants in separate barracks outside the
fort; and each of these is enclosed within crenelated and loopholed walls, entered through a
fortified gateway; and they are disposed within gunshot of each other between the fort and
river to the north, and on the road to Yangi Hissár on the east. Amongst those in the former
direction is another harem. A commodious enclosure said to accommodate two hundred ladies
whom "the king delights to honour."

The orda or "palace" is a succession of courts one beyond the other up to the fourth in
which are the Amír's private apartments. The third is occupied in the width of one side by
the audience hall—a spacious chamber spread with carpets and felts and provided with a fire-pit
in the centre—and in the length of one contiguous wall by a covered and raised verandah in
which on State occasions the body-guard take their seats. The opposite walls are a blank
spread of mud plaster singularly in keeping with the simplicity and absence of adornment
around, and wonderfully suited to the awful silence and studied stillness that characterize the
discipline of the court. The second court runs parallel to the third only a wall intervening.
Its short sides are occupied by a row of offices in each. One set are cook-rooms and store-rooms
for the dusturkhwan or "table cloth of ceremony" which forms so important a feature of the
social customs of this country. The other set communicate with the King's private court and
are for pages in waiting and other domestics. On the long sides of this court are verandahs
similar to that in the preceding. Each is matted and occupied along the wall by a long row
of solemn looking figures, seated with downcast eyes, motionless and silent. Each wears a
snow white turban; each has a long prong-rest gun placed on the floor in front of him; and
each has his baggy robes gathered in at the waist by a buff leather belt from which hangs a
sword and a multitude of the paraphernalia belonging to his gun. For the rest no two in the