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| 0371 |
Ancient Khotan : vol.1 |
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on the Upper Oxus well up to the middle of the eighth century. Embassies from Tabaristān
to the imperial court are recorded as late as the years 744, 746, and 754 A.D., about which
time the Chinese lost Western Turkestān to the Arabs. The exact description which the Annals
give of the geographical position of Tabaristān, their distinct reference to the title Ispahbud
(rendered quite correctly by 'hereditary commander-in-chief of the east for Persia'), and their
mention of Tabaristān's struggle against the Arabs, are all clear indications of the closeness of
these political relations. It is evident that by the latter a connexion of commerce must also
have been encouraged, for which the Oxus valley and Khotan was the natural and most direct
route. There is little hope of our ever obtaining light as to the incidents and conditions
which brought the writer or the recipient of this Judaeo-Persian epistle to Khotan. But even
without such information this fragmentary paper may claim to be considered one of the most
interesting relics from Dandān-Uiliq; for it is a direct witness to those relations with distant
Irān which so much in the Buddhist art of the site presupposes, and at the same time, strangely
enough, it is the earliest document in modern Persian which has come to light as yet.
The second relic from Dandān-Uiliq, which reached me at Rawak, the small piece of Chinese
stucco inscribed with Chinese characters and apparently cut out from a plaster-covered wall, inscription
does not call for so full a notice. Owing to the extremely friable condition of the stucco it on stucco.
broke into several pieces before it reached London, but the few characters that were legible
when it was first brought to me have escaped further injury. According to Dr. S. W. Bushell,
who was kind enough to examine the inscription, 'it has every appearance from the hand-
writing of being a genuine relic of the T'ang dynasty'. The writing was arranged in three
columns, each about 5 inches high and originally holding about eight characters, but owing to
the painted surface having peeled off over the greater part Dr. Bushell 'could only decipher
the first three characters and the upper two of the second column; these are Fo ti-tzŭ 佛 弟 子
"The Disciple of Buddha", and Kuan-shih 觀 世, sufficient to indicate a memorial of the
dedication of an image of Avalokiteśvara (Kuan-shih-yin). The occasion would have been
given lower down, as wei 為 "on account of", occurs there where all else is gone.'
SECTION III.—KERIYA, NIYA, AND IMĀM JA'FAR SĀDIQ
The examination of the scanty remains at Rawak had completed the task for which I had March to
set out just a month previously from Khotan. So on the morning of January 6 I dismissed Keriya
Ahmad Merghen with the last batch of the Tawakkel labourers, and set out with a much river.
reduced caravan for the Keriya river. About two miles to the south-east of my Rawak camp we
passed a strip of ground about half a mile broad, where broken pottery, fragments of glass, and
the usual 'Tati' débris cropped up on the bare patches of loess between the dunes. Turdi
called the place Tört-Uiliq 'the four Houses', but had never come across any structural
remains on it. Beyond, all traces of ancient habitation ceased, and soon I passed also the last
of the shrivelled dead trees, here a clump of wild poplars (Toghrak s), with the sight of which
I had become so familiar during these weeks. I had originally intended to steer due east,
in order to strike the nearest point of the river, but the rising height of the dunes and the
impossibility of getting at water obliged me after the first day to seek the route south-eastwards
which the camels had previously followed. Even thus the two remaining marches led over
truly forbidding ground. The individual sand-dunes were all between 30 and 50 ft. high, while
the successive great ridges of sand or 'Dawāns', of which some seven had to be crossed,
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724
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