CHAPTER XXIX.

OF THE PROVINCE OF BADASHAN.

Badashan is a Province inhabited by people who worship Mahommet, and

have a peculiar language. It forms a very great kingdom, and the

royalty is hereditary. All those of the royal blood are descended

from King Alexander and the daughter of King Darius, who was Lord of

the vast Empire of Persia. And all these kings call themselves in the

Saracen tongue ZULCARNIAIN, which is as much as to say _Alexander_; and

this out of regard for Alexander the Great.{1}

It is in this province that those fine and valuable gems the Balas

Rubies are found. They are got in certain rocks among the mountains,

and in the search for them the people dig great caves underground, just

as is done by miners for silver. There is but one special mountain that

produces them, and it is called SYGHINAN. The stones are dug on the

king’s account, and no one else dares dig in that mountain on pain of

forfeiture of life as well as goods; nor may any one carry the stones

out of the kingdom. But the king amasses them all, and sends them to

other kings when he has tribute to render, or when he desires to offer

a friendly present; and such only as he pleases he causes to be sold.

Thus he acts in order to keep the Balas at a high value; for if he were

to allow everybody to dig, they would extract so many that the world

would be glutted with them, and they would cease to bear any value.

Hence it is that he allows so few to be taken out, and is so strict in

the matter.{2}

There is also in the same country another mountain, in which azure

is found; ’tis the finest in the world, and is got in a vein like

silver. There are also other mountains which contain a great amount

of silver ore, so that the country is a very rich one; but it is also

(it must be said) a very cold one.{3} It produces numbers of excellent

horses, remarkable for their speed. They are not shod at all, although

constantly used in mountainous country, and on very bad roads. [They go

at a great pace even down steep descents, where other horses neither

would nor could do the like. And Messer Marco was told that not long

ago they possessed in that province a breed of horses from the strain

of Alexander’s horse Bucephalus, all of which had from their birth a

particular mark on the forehead. This breed was entirely in the hands

of an uncle of the king’s; and in consequence of his refusing to let

the king have any of them, the latter put him to death. The widow then,

in despite, destroyed the whole breed, and it is now extinct.{4}]

The mountains of this country also supply Saker falcons of excellent

flight, and plenty of Lanners likewise. Beasts and birds for the chase

there are in great abundance. Good wheat is grown, and also barley

without husk. They have no olive oil, but make oil from sesamé, and

also from walnuts.{5}

[In the mountains there are vast numbers of sheep—400, 500, or 600 in a

single flock, and all of them wild; and though many of them are taken,

they never seem to get aught the scarcer.{6}

Those mountains are so lofty that ’tis a hard day’s work, from morning

till evening, to get to the top of them. On getting up, you find an

extensive plain, with great abundance of grass and trees, and copious

springs of pure water running down through rocks and ravines. In those

brooks are found trout and many other fish of dainty kinds; and the

air in those regions is so pure, and residence there so healthful,

that when the men who dwell below in the towns, and in the valleys

and plains, find themselves attacked by any kind of fever or other

ailment that may hap, they lose no time in going to the hills; and

after abiding there two or three days, they quite recover their health

through the excellence of that air. And Messer Marco said he had proved

this by experience: for when in those parts he had been ill for about a

year, but as soon as he was advised to visit that mountain, he did so

and got well at once.{7}]

[Illustration: Ancient Silver Patera of debased Greek art, formerly in

the possession of the Princes of Badakhshan, now in the India Museum.]

In this kingdom there are many strait and perilous passes, so difficult

to force that the people have no fear of invasion. Their towns and

villages also are on lofty hills, and in very strong positions.{8}

They are excellent archers, and much given to the chase; indeed, most

of them are dependent for clothing on the skins of beasts, for stuffs

are very dear among them. The great ladies, however, are arrayed in

stuffs, and I will tell you the style of their dress! They all wear

drawers made of cotton cloth, and into the making of these some will

put 60, 80, or even 100 ells of stuff. This they do to make themselves

look large in the hips, for the men of those parts think that to be a

great beauty in a woman.{9}

NOTE 1.—“The population of Badakhshan Proper is composed of Tajiks,

Turks, and Arabs, who are all Sunnis, following the orthodox

doctrines of the Mahomedan law, and speak Persian and Turki, whilst

the people of the more mountainous tracts are Tajiks of the Shiá

creed, having separate provincial dialects or languages of their

own, the inhabitants of the principal places combining therewith

a knowledge of Persian. Thus, the _Shighnáni_ [sometimes called

_Shighni_] is spoken in Shignán and Roshán, the _Ishkáshami_ in

Ishkásham, the _Wakhi_ in Wakhán, the _Sanglichì_ in Sanglich and

Zebák, and the _Minjáni_ in Minján. All these dialects materially

differ from each other.” (_Pand. Manphul._) It may be considered

almost certain that Badakhshan Proper also had a peculiar dialect

in Polo’s time. Mr. Shaw speaks of the strong resemblance to

_Kashmírís_ of the Badakhshán people whom he had seen.

The Legend of the Alexandrian pedigree of the Kings of Badakhshan

is spoken of by Baber, and by earlier Eastern authors. This

pedigree is, or was, claimed also by the chiefs of Karátegín,

Darwáz, Roshán, Shighnán, Wakhán, Chitrál, Gilgít, Swát, and

Khapolor in Bálti. Some samples of those genealogies may be seen in

that strange document called “Gardiner’s Travels.”

In Badakhshan Proper the story seems now to have died out. Indeed,

though Wood mentions one of the modern family of Mírs as vaunting

this descent, these are in fact _Sáhibzádahs_ of Samarkand, who

were invited to the country about the middle of the 17th century,

and were in no way connected with the old kings.

The traditional claims to Alexandrian descent were probably due to

a genuine memory of the Græco-Bactrian kingdom, and might have had

an origin analogous to the Sultan’s claim to be “Caesar of Rome”;

for the real ancestry of the oldest dynasties on the Oxus was to

be sought rather among the Tochari and Ephthalites than among the

Greeks whom they superseded.

The cut on p. 159 presents an interesting memorial of the real

relation of Bactria to Greece, as well as of the pretence of the

Badakhshan princes to Grecian descent. This silver patera was sold

by the family of the Mírs, when captives, to the Minister of the

Uzbek chief of Kunduz, and by him to Dr. Percival Lord in 1838. It

is now in the India Museum. On the bottom is punched a word or two

in Pehlvi, and there is also a word incised in Syriac or Uighúr.

It is curious that a _pair_ of paterae were acquired by Dr. Lord

under the circumstances stated. The other, similar in material and

form, but apparently somewhat larger, is distinctly Sassanian,

representing a king spearing a lion.

_Zu-’lḳarnain_, “the Two-Horned,” is an Arabic epithet of

Alexander, with which legends have been connected, but which

probably arose from the horned portraits on his coins. [Capus,

_l.c._ p. 121, says, “Iskandr Zoulcarneïn or Alexander _le Cornu_,

horns being the emblem of strength.”—H. C.] The term appears in

Chaucer (_Troil. and Cress._ III. 931) in the sense of _non plus_:—

“I am, till God me better minde send,

At _dulcarnon_, right at my wittes end.”

And it is said to have still colloquial existence in that sense in

some corners of England. This use is said to have arisen from the

Arabic application of the term (_Bicorne_) to the 47th Proposition

of Euclid. (_Baber_, 13; _N. et E._ XIV. 490; _N. An. des V._ xxvi.

296; _Burnes_, III. 186 _seqq._; _Wood_, 155, 244; _J. A. S. B._

XXII. 300; _Ayeen Akbery_, II. 185; see _N. and Q._ 1st Series,

vol. v.)

NOTE 2.—I have adopted in the text for the name of the country that

one of the several forms in the G. Text which comes nearest to the

correct name, viz. _Badascian_. But _Balacian_ also appears both in

that and in Pauthier’s text. This represents _Balakhshán_, a form

also sometimes used in the East. Hayton has _Balaxcen_, Clavijo

_Balaxia_, the Catalan Map _Baldassia_. From the form _Balakhsh_

the Balas Ruby got its name. As Ibn Batuta says: “The Mountains of

Badakhshan have given their name to the Badakhshi Ruby, vulgarly

called _Al Balaksh_.” Albertus Magnus says the _Balagius_ is the

female of the Carbuncle or Ruby Proper, “and some say it is his

house, and hath thereby got the name, quasi _Palatium_ Carbunculi!”

The Balais or Balas Ruby is, like the Spinel, a kind inferior to

the real Ruby of Ava. The author of the _Masálak al Absár_ says the

finest Balas ever seen in the Arab countries was one presented to

Malek ’Adil Ketboga, at Damascus; it was of a triangular form and

weighed 50 drachms. The prices of _Balasci_ in Europe in that age

may be found in Pegolotti, but the needful problems are hard to

solve.

“No sapphire in Inde, no Rubie rich of price,

There lacked than, nor Emeraud so grene,

_Balès_, Turkès, ne thing to my device.”

(_Chaucer, ‘Court of Love.’_)

“L’altra letizia, che m’era già nota,

Preclara cosa mi si fece in vista,

Qual fin _balascio_ in che lo Sol percuoto.”

(_Paradiso_, ix. 67.)

Some account of the Balakhsh from Oriental sources will be found in

_J. As._ sér V. tom. xi. 109.

(_I. B._ III. 59, 394; _Alb. Mag. de Mineralibus; Pegol._ p. 307;

_N. et E._ XIII. i. 246.)

[“The Mohammedan authors of the Mongol period mention Badakhshan

several times in connection with the political and military events

of that period. Guchluk, the ‘gurkhan of Karakhitai,’ was slain

in Badakhshan in 1218 (_d’Ohsson_, I. 272). In 1221, the Mongols

invaded the country (_l.c._ I. 272). On the same page, d’Ohsson

translates a short account of Badakhshan by Yakut (✛1229), stating

that this mountainous country is famed for its precious stones, and

especially rubies, called _Balakhsh_.” (Bretschneider, _Med. Res._

II. p. 66.)—H. C.]

The account of the royal monopoly in working the mines, etc., has

continued accurate down to our own day. When Murad Beg of Kunduz

conquered Badakhshan some forty years ago, in disgust at the small

produce of the mines, he abandoned working them, and sold nearly

all the population of the place into slavery! They continue still

unworked, unless clandestinely. In 1866 the reigning Mír had one

of them opened at the request of Pandit Manphul, but without much

result.

The locality of the mines is on the right bank of the Oxus, in the

district of Ish Káshm and on the borders of SHIGNAN, the _Syghinan_

of the text. (_P. Manph.; Wood_, 206; _N. Ann. des. V._ xxvi. 300.)

[The ruby mines are really in the Gháran country, which extends

along both banks of the Oxus. Barshar is one of the deserted

villages; the boundary between Gháran and Shignán is the Kuguz

Parin (in Shighai dialect means “holes in the rock”); the Persian

equivalent is “Rafak-i-Somakh.” (Cf. Captain Trotter, _Forsyth’s

Mission_, p. 277.)—H. C.]

NOTE 3.—The mines of _Lájwurd_ (whence _l’Azur_ and _Lazuli_)

have been, like the Ruby mines, celebrated for ages. They lie in

the Upper Valley of the Kokcha, called Korán, within the Tract

called _Yamgán_, of which the popular etymology is _Hamah-Kán_, or

“All-Mines,” and were visited by Wood in 1838. The produce now is

said to be of very inferior quality, and in quantity from 30 to 60

_poods_ (36 lbs each) annually. The best quality sells at Bokhara

at 30 to 60 tillas, or 12_l._ to 24_l._ the pood (_Manphul_).

Surely it is ominous when a British agent writing of Badakhshan

products finds it natural to express weights in Russian poods!

The Yamgán Tract also contains mines of iron, lead, alum,

salammoniac, sulphur, ochre, and copper. The last are not worked.

But I do not learn of any silver mines nearer than those of Paryán

in the Valley of Panjshir, south of the crest of the Hindu-Kúsh,

much worked in the early Middle Ages. (See _Cathay_, p. 595.)

NOTE 4.—The Kataghan breed of horses from Badakhshan and Kunduz

has still a high reputation. They do not often reach India, as the

breed is a favourite one among the Afghan chiefs, and the horses

are likely to be appropriated in transit. (_Lumsden, Mission to

Kandahar_, p. 20.)

[The Kirghiz between the Yangi Hissar River and Sirikol are the

only people using the horse generally in the plough, oxen being

employed in the plains, and yaks in Sirikol. (Lieutenant-Colonel

Gordon, p. 222, _Forsyth’s Mission_.)—H. C.]

What Polo heard of the Bucephalid strain was perhaps but another

form of a story told by the Chinese, many centuries earlier, when

speaking of this same region. A certain cave was frequented by a

wonderful stallion of supernatural origin. Hither the people yearly

brought their mares, and a famous breed was derived from the foals.

(_Rém. N. Mél. As._ I. 245.)

NOTE 5.—The huskless barley of the text is thus mentioned by

Burnes in the vicinity of the Hindu-Kúsh: “They rear a barley in

this elevated country which has no husk, and grows like wheat; but

it is barley.” It is not properly _huskless_, but when ripe it

bursts the husk and remains so loosely attached as to be dislodged

from it by a slight shake. It is grown abundantly in Ladak and

the adjoining Hill States. Moorcroft details six varieties of

it cultivated there. The kind mentioned by Marco and Burnes is

probably that named by Royle _Hordeum Ægiceras_, and which has

been sent to England under the name of Tartarian Wheat, though it

is a genuine barley. _Naked barley_ is mentioned by Galen as grown

in Cappadocia; and Matthioli speaks of it as grown in France in his

day (middle of 16th century). It is also known to the Arabs, for

they have a name for it—_Sult_. (_Burnes_, III. 205; _Moorc._ II.

148 _seqq._; _Galen, de Aliment. Facult._ Lat. ed. 13; _Matthioli_,

Ven. 1585, p. 420; _Eng. Cyc._, art. Hordeum.)

Sesamé is mentioned by P. Manphul as one of the products of

Badakhshan; linseed is another, which is also used for oil.

Walnut-trees abound, but neither he nor Wood mention the oil.

We know that walnut oil is largely manufactured in Kashmir.

(_Moorcroft_, II. 148.)

[See on Saker and Lanner Falcons (_F. Sakar_, Briss.; _F.

lanarius_, Schlegel) the valuable paper by Edouard Blanc, _Sur

l’utilisation des Oiseaux de proie en Asie centrale_ in _Rev. des

Sciences natur. appliquées_, 20th June, 1895.

“Hawking is the favourite sport of Central Asian Lords,” says

G. Capus. (_A travers le royaume de Tamerlan_, p. 132. See pp.

132–134.)

The Mirza says (_l.c._ p. 157) that the mountains of Wakhán “are

only noted for producing a breed of hawks or falcons which the

hardy Wâkhânis manage to catch among the cliffs. These hawks are

much esteemed by the chiefs of Badakhshan, Bokhara, etc. They

are celebrated for their swiftness, and known by their white

colour.”—H. C.]

NOTE 6.—These wild sheep are probably the kind called _Kachkár_,

mentioned by Baber, and described by Mr. Blyth in his Monograph

of Wild Sheep, under the name of _Ovis Vignei_. It is extensively

diffused over all the ramifications of Hindu-Kúsh, and westward

perhaps to the Persian Elburz. “It is gregarious,” says Wood,

“congregating in herds of _several hundreds_.” In a later chapter

Polo speaks of a wild sheep apparently different and greater. (See

_J. A. S. B._, X. 858 _seqq._)

NOTE 7.—This pleasant passage is only in Ramusio, but it would be

heresy to doubt its genuine character. Marco’s recollection of the

delight of convalescence in such a climate seems to lend an unusual

enthusiasm and felicity to his description of the scenery. Such a

region as he speaks of is probably the cool Plateau of Shewá, of

which we are told as extending about 25 miles eastward from near

Faizabad, and forming one of the finest pastures in Badakhshan. It

contains a large lake called by the frequent name Sar-i-Kol. No

European traveller in modern times (unless Mr. Gardner) has been on

those glorious table-lands. Burnes says that at Kunduz both natives

and foreigners spoke rapturously of the vales of Badakhshan, its

rivulets, romantic scenes and glens, its fruits, flowers, and

nightingales. Wood is reticent on scenery, naturally, since nearly

all his journey was made in winter. When approaching Faizabad on

his return from the Upper Oxus, however, he says: “On entering the

beautiful lawn at the gorge of its valley I was enchanted at the

quiet loveliness of the scene. Up to this time, from the day we

left Talikan, we had been moving in snow; but now it had nearly

vanished from the valley, and the fine sward was enamelled with

crocuses, daffodils, and snowdrops.” (_P. Manphul; Burnes_, III.

176; _Wood_, 252.)

NOTE 8.—Yet scarcely any country in the world has suffered so

terribly and repeatedly from invasion. “Enduring decay probably

commenced with the wars of Chinghiz, for many an instance in

Eastern history shows the permanent effect of such devastations....

Century after century saw only progress in decay. Even to our own

time the progress of depopulation and deterioration has continued.”

In 1759, two of the Khojas of Kashgar, escaping from the dominant

Chinese, took refuge in Badakhshan; one died of his wounds, the

other was treacherously slain by Sultan Shah, who then ruled the

country. The holy man is said in his dying moments to have invoked

curses on Badakhshan, and prayed that it might be three times

depopulated; a malediction which found ample accomplishment. The

misery of the country came to a climax about 1830, when the Uzbek

chief of Kunduz, Murad Beg Kataghan, swept away the bulk of the

inhabitants, and set them down to die in the marshy plains of

Kunduz. (_Cathay_, p. 542; _Faiz Bakhsh_, etc.)

NOTE 9.—This “bombasticall dissimulation of their garments,” as

the author of _Anthropometamorphosis_ calls such a fashion, is

no longer affected by the ladies of Badakhshan. But a friend in

the Panjab observes that it still survives _there_. “There are

ladies’ trousers here which might almost justify Marco’s very

liberal estimate of the quantity of stuff required to make them;”

and among the Afghan ladies, Dr. Bellew says, the silken trousers

almost surpass crinoline in amplitude. It is curious to find the

same characteristic attaching to female figures on coins of ancient

kings of these regions, such as Agathocles and Pantaleon. (The last

name is appropriate!)