Indian Antiquary Vol 03

SR No.: 032495
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 420
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 257

AUGUST, 1874.]
REVIEW
233
REVIEW. A JOURNEY to the SOURCE OF THE RIVER Oxus, by the rule over these regions often changed hands. Captain John Wood, I.N. New Edition, edited by his
Under Shah Rukh, in 1411, Mirza Ibrahim Sulson. With an Essay on the Geography of the Valley of the Oro, by Col. Henry Yule, C.B. (London:
tán, who was in charge of Bálkh, suppressed an J. Murray).
attempt of Beháuddin of Badakhshan to establish At a time when so much attention is directed
his independence of the house of Taimur, and gave the to Central Asit, it was to be expected that the
kingdom to Shah Mahmud, Beháuddin's brother. record of Captain Wood's Journey-80 accurate, An envoy from the king of Badakhshan was also clear, manly and cheerful-would be republished,
sent with the embassy from Shâh Rukh to the and we are glad to welcome-with the reprint,
court of Pekin in 1419.1 The rise of the Uzbek already in its second edition--the admirable rulo in Turkestán dates from the early years of essay of Colonel Yule. Wood was the first, as the 16th century. "The Uzbeks were no one Col. Yule remarks, "to trace the Oxus to one of race, but an aggregation of fragments from nearly its chief sources; the first European in modern all the great tribes, Turk, Mongol, and what not, times-first and last as yet, seven and thirty that had figured among the hosts of Chinghiz and years after his journey-to stand on the table- Batu ; and the names of many of these tribes are land of Pamir; and it is still on his book and still preserved in the list of the numerous clans survey that we have to rely for the backbone of into which the Uzbeks are divided." Shaibâni, our Oxus geography." And yet, as he adds, "it their great chief, conquered all the country beis strange to find, years after Wood's explicit tween the two great rivers, with Kunduz, Balkh, statements as to the elevated plain of Pamir, Khwarizm, and Khorasan. About 1508 Baber's doubts expressed as to its existence, just as if consin Wais, commonly styled Khân Mirza, suc(to say nothing of Marco Polo) Wood's journey
ceeded in establishing himself at the Fort of Zafar had never been made; or his narrative, from every
on the Kokcha. On his death in 1520 Baber line of which truth shines, had never been pub
bestowed it on Humayun, who ruled it till 1529. lished. Even in M. Fedchenko's recent letters
Somewhat later B&ber gave the rule to Suliman, describing his successful visit to the Alai steppe the son of Khân Mirza, who transmitted the he speaks of his own firm belief in the real exist- kingdom to his descendants. "The existing dy. ence of the high plain of Pamir as if it were quite nasty of Badakhshan," says Col. Yale, "was a exceptional."
family of Sahibzddahs (one of the holy families of The preliminary Essay is Historical as well as Islam), and was established not long after the Geographical, and from the earliest times traces middle of the 17th century. Faizabad became briefly but succinctly the history of the regions their capital in the first half of last century. Till on the upper waters of the Oxus-the Al-Nahr then their residence was at Jauzgun, a place menof earlier Muhammadan history.connected as it tioned by no traveller that I know of; it was is with the Græco-Baktrian monarchy and the perhaps the city in the plain of Bahárak, alluded Yuêchi, Tochari, Kushans, Haithalab, and other to as the former capital by Pandit. Manphul (Jour. tribes that in succeeding centuries poured into R. Geog. Soc. vol. XLII. p. 443, note). S About the district; the spread of Buddhism, Christianity, 1765, Shah Wali Khân, the Wazir of Ahmad Shah the intervention of the Chinese, the Muham- Abdali of Kabul, invaded the country, and some madan conquest, and the Mongol invasion marked years later the king Sultan Shah was put to death by terrible massacres. At Bamian, for instance, by the Kataghans of Kunduz. "In the early part a favourite grandson of Chinghiz Khan's was of the present century, Kokan Beg, a Kataghan killed by an arrow, und "Chinghiz, in his wrath, Uzbek adventurer, again ravaged the country, and when the city fell, ordered not merely that all its misery came to a climax in 1829, when Murad lifo abould be extinguished, but that all property Beg, Khan of Kunduz, again overran Badakhshould be annihilated, and no booty taken. The Bban."1) city received from the Mongols the name of Mar- From the history, the Essayist goes on to notice Baligh, The City of Woe.' But it was the end the travellers who have visited the country from of Bamian, which has never since been a city, the earliest to the latest times. Then comes the though its caves and its colossal idols remain." * Apocrypha of Central Asian Geography,' as Col.
In 1272-3 Marco Polo visited Badakhshan, and Yule happily styles it. We quote the following affords some interesting particulars regarding account of it:the province. Under the successors of Taimur "About ten years ago it was announced to
• See Jour. Roy. Geog. Soc. vol. XXI. p. 65. Notices et Extraits, vol. XIV.pt. i. pp. 292, 294. I Not. et Ext. vol. XIV. pt. i. p. 887 segg. Ind. Ant. vol. IL p. 75.
See Ocean Highways, Feb. 1874, p. 475. || Ibid.