lUDAKHSHAX. 



BADAKHSHAN. 



-.,1 



terrible conflict, in which the low of the British in killed and wounded 

 mounted to nearly 5000 men. The city was sacked for two days 

 and night*, the Duke and his officers in vain endeavouring to check 

 the atrocities of the infuriated soldiers. 



(Ford's Hand- Boat of Spain ; Muctoi, Diccionario de EtpaXa ; 

 Napier's Ilutory of Ou PeninnUar War, xvi 5.) 



BADAKHSHA'N, a country of Central Asia, now subject to the 

 Ctbek chief of Kunduz, U situated between 69 and 73 E. long., 

 M* and 38* K. Int. It is bounded a by Kaffiristan and Chitrnl, 

 from which it is separated by the Hindu-Koosh; W. by Kunduc, 

 from which it it divided by a high flat-topped range erased by the 

 pass of Lattaband ; K. by Bokhara ; and E. by the table-land of Pauiir. 

 The surface presents a few plains of considerable extent in the west 

 and central district*, but by far the greater part of it is covered 

 with mountains which are offsets partly from the Hindu-Koosh on 

 the south, and partly from the Bolor-Tagh which forms the frontier 

 towards China on the east. The whole country belongs to the basin 

 of the Oxus, and has a general inclination westward. The priin i|.:J 

 valleys are those of the Oxus and its feeder the Kokcha ; besides 

 these there are numerous glens, ravines, and chasms, traversed by 

 streams of the purest water. The soil in the lower plains and 

 valleys is in general very fertile ; but the mountains are for the most 

 part bare, rocky, and treeless, - yielding little eke than summer 

 pasture. In some instances they are buttressed by swelling hills 

 alike fitted for agricultural or pastoral purposes, in general however 

 the slopes are abrupt ; they are however made productive in parts by 

 terrace cultivation. The mountain chains of Badakhshan are formed 

 of the older rocks, but they are largely traversed by immense masses 

 of very impure limestone, in which deposits of lapis-lazuli ore found. 

 The highest central range is that of Khoja-Mohomed, which runs 

 north-westward from the Hindu-Koosh to the left bank of the Oxus ; 

 it is pierced by the Kokcha above Fyzabad. The highest points of 

 this range reach a height of about TOGO feet above the sea, and 

 between 8000 and 4000 feet above the plain*. In the east and south 

 the mountains are much higher, and avalanches are of fi 

 occurrence in winter. In summer the country present* everywhere 

 beautiful and picturesque scenery. 



The inhabitants of Badakhshan are Tajiks; their language is 

 Persian; and they are Mohammedans of the Shiah sect Their 

 number U greatly reduced since their subjection by Murad Beg, the 

 Uzbek chief of Kunduz, in 1825. The Uzbeks of Kunduz are 

 Sunnite Mohammedans, and they either exterminated by the sword 

 or swept away to the slave-market of Bokhara all the Bodakhshies of 

 the plains and lower district* who did not conform to their own 

 religious notions. Hence many districts are now very scantily 

 inhabited : the Vale of Meshid to the west of Fyzabad, the former 

 capital of the country, was formerly extremely populous, but when 

 traversed by Lieutenant Wood it did not contain 100 families. 

 With the exception of Jcrm, the present capital, there are scarcely 

 any towns or villages in the country. Relations to the number of 

 six or eight families live in hamlets consisting of aa many dwelling 

 houses built on the glen or hill side near a rivulet, and the whole 

 surrounded by an outer wall Along the stream are planted some 

 walnut and mulberry-trees, and in the bottom of the valley are the 

 scanty corn lands of the little community. The houses are formed 

 of dry stone walls divided into compartment* and covered with a flat 

 roof, with a hole in the middle to let out the smoke ; the compart- 

 ments in which the stock is kept are sunk two feet under ground. 

 The walls are plastered inside and out with mud. In many of the 

 valleys the population, scanty as it is, is too great for the limited 

 extent of their com lands. The hill-men always go armed, the 

 lowlanders rarely ; but in every house are to be found old matchlocks, 

 in the management of which the Badakhshies are very expert. 



The Kotcka is formed by streams that spring from the main crest 

 of the Hindu-Koosh on the borders of Kaffiristan and Chitral, and 

 flows northward through a narrow valley or glen screened by high 

 naked mountains, and in a bed from 60 to 80 feet below the surface 

 of the valley. Below Senna where there is a ford the Kokcha, when 

 crowed by Lieutenant Wood in December, was 43 yards wide, 2J feet 

 deep, and iU velocity was 41 mile* per hour. Hero its bod was 

 60 feet below the valley, and IU banks were composed of masses of 

 conglomerate, resting on thin horizontal layers of sandstone. Further 

 down near Jcrm, the present capital of Badakhsban, the bed of the 

 river i* so narrow that a man can leap across the stream, which run* 

 between rooky walls full 70 feet above the water; at Jcnn itaelf 

 the valley of the Kokcha is about a mile wide. A few miles below 

 Jcrm the river U joined on the right bank by the Wardodj, and then 

 weeping round to westward it pierces the Khoja-Mohamed Mountain.". 

 In the neighbourhood of Fyzabad the former capital of Badakhshan, 

 nw in ruin*, it enters a grassy plain in which it still flows in a deep 

 rocky trench-like bed, and enters the Oxus on the left bank near 

 the western boundary of lUM^rhAm The bed of the river is every- 

 where so deep, that even on the melting of the mows there is no 

 fear of inundation. The Kokcha like every other tributary of the 

 Oxus is fertile in gold. 



The mountains that inclose the Kokcha to the south of Jerm are 

 "I of mica-aUte richly impregnated with iron-ore ; here also 

 and antimony are occasionally found. The Badakhshl 



smelt iron with more success than most people of the east, but 

 from want of capital and wood for fuel, and still more from the 

 want of a settled government, there is little or no progress made. 

 With the articles they make, such fJi iron pote, they trade with their 

 Chinese neighbours and the Kaffirs. Still higher up the valley of 

 the Kokcha are the famous Lad j word or Lapis-Lazuli mines, the 

 entrance to which is in the face of the mountains on the right bank 

 about 1500 feet above the river. The mountains here are composed 

 of black and white limestone, unstratified and plentifully veined. To 

 detach the lapis-lazuli a fire U lit over the rock containing it, and 

 when the stone becomes sufficiently heated, cold water is dashed upon 

 it, and the rock is thus fractured. These mines were not worked by 

 the Kunduz chief at the time of Lieutenant Wood'n \i-it. 



The Wardodj, the principal feeder of tho Kokcha, rises in the east 

 of Biidakhslwu, in the plain of Iskaahm (10,900 feet above the sea, and 

 about 5 miles wide). At first it flows towards the south, past the 

 village of Zebak, consisting of only 50 houses), and yet the largest place 

 in Badakhshan next to Jerm ; below Zebak to its junction with tin' 

 Kokcha it runs through a narrow valley screened by mountains from 

 2000 to 4000 feet above the stream. The volley of the Wardodj U 

 exposed for six mouths in the year to a cold wind called Bad-i-Wakhan, 

 or Wind-of-Wakhan, which pierces tho very bones of travellers. 

 Walnut and some stone-fruit trees flourish in the valley ; also red 

 willow and white poplar, which serve for fuel ; beans will not grow ; 

 wheat is the common grain. East of the junction of the two rivers in 

 the mountains near the hamlet of Khyrabad are the iron mines of 

 Arganjika. In the valley of the Wardodj, as well as in that of the 

 Kokchai are numerous landslips of enormous magnitude and other 

 evidences of earthquakes. Near Zebak are large deposits of sulphur. 

 It is needless to add that in an alpine country like thu there are 

 numerous springs, cataracts, and waterfalls. 



The Oxiu (called also Amoo and Jihoon) springs from the western 

 extremity of the Lake Sir-i-Kol, which is situated 15,600 feet above 

 the sea, on a part of the table-laud of Pamir, locally called Bam-i- 

 Duniah, ' Roof-of-the- World.' The western extremity of the hike U 

 in 37 27' N. lat., 73 40' E. long. The course of the OXUM is 

 westward through the Durah or valley of Sir-i-Kol. The mountain* 

 that inclose the river are not very lofty or precipitous, but broken 

 down to abrupt declivities, either by the weather or by subterranean 

 convulsions. On emerging from the Sir-i-Kol valley the river enters 

 the district of Wakhan, where it receives on the left bonk, at Langer- 

 Kish, the Sirhad, which comes from tho Bindu-Kooah and drains the 

 Mastuch- or Mastodj-Dnrah, from the head of which there is a pass 

 into Chitral across the Hindu-Koosh. The hamlet of Iwtar, a little 

 east of the junction of the two rivers, is in 37 2' N. Int. ; Longer- 

 Kish is 10,800 feet above the sea, and about 70 miles from the source 

 of the Oxus. On the right bank of the river, a little below Issar and 

 800 feet up the face of the mountain, there is a mineral spring with a 

 temperature of 116 Fahr. At the junction the mountains are 

 considerably diminished in height. From Langer-KUh tho Oxus flows 

 slowly westward through o volley varying in width from a mile to a 

 few hundred yards, in some parts grassy in others covered with red- 

 willow copses, to the neighbourhood .of Ish-Kashin, \\ In n.-.- it runs 

 north-west between two mountain ranges and separate* the districts 

 of Shagnan and Darwaz. Opposite Ish-Kaabm the Oxus is 35 yards 

 wide. To the north of Darwaz it turns westward for several miles, 

 and then south-westward through a wide plain covered with jungle to 

 a distance of 4 or 5 miles from its banks. At th western angle of 

 liodakhshan the Oxus is joined by the Kokcha just above tho village 

 of Kiloh-Chap, below which it resumes ita western course. In tin: 

 upper part of ita course the Oxus is fordable at several points ; between 

 Darwaz and Shagnan it is crossed by rude boat* ; in Darwaz it is 

 bridged, and in winter it is fordable at points both here and as far 

 down as Hazrat-Iinan in Kunduz. No vessel navigates it for com- 

 mercial purposes in the part of ita course here spoken of. Thu river 

 between Jan-Kilah and Said was forded by Lieutenant \\ ,. .1 on the 

 19th of March ; it here runs in three channels with pebbly bottoms; 

 in the eastern channel the water was nearly stagnant, the central on,- 

 was 100 yards wide and had a velocity of three miles an hour. il.. 

 western was 200 yards wide and ran at the rate of four miles an hour. 

 Kafllahs traverse the upper valley of the Oxus to Yarkand, and tho 

 route is probably a very ancient one. 



The plain of Turghi-i-Tippa, which extends from the fork of tho 

 Kokcha and the Oxus for about 80 miles along the left bunk of th<> 

 latter, is one of the best district* in Badakluhan. Low swelling hills 

 rise here and there upon it, and tho whole is covered with ru h 

 pasture, dotted with sheep, herds of horses, and droves of cattle. 

 In this plain are remains of a gigantic canal, which onoe conveyed a 

 fertilising stream acrom it from the Oxus at Jan-Kilah, 28 miles above 

 the junction. At tho southern < n<l <>f the plain near the l\..'' ir. 

 there are vestiges of an ancient city, which tho Tajiks call Barbarrah. 

 The reed jungle which widely fringes the Oxus U infested by lioim ; 

 it abounds in deer, pheasant*, and other game. 



The town of Jerm, situated on the left bank of tho Kokcha, 

 although the capital of Badakhshan, is little more than a cluster of 

 scattered hamlets containing about 1500 inhabitant*. It is defended 

 by a substantially-built fort. It is the only market-town in tin- wliolu 

 country. The governor appointed by the Kuuduz chief resides here, 



