84 H. G. Raverty — Tibbat three hundred and sixty-jive years ago. [No. 2, 
this wise, that the IQiutan people erected it in ancient times. Beyond 
this bridge of Tibbat Khaqan, there is a mountain range, that, when 
people begin to ascend it, it will take their breath away \dam-i-marda¬ 
man ba-girad. The name of this malady it will be observed, is dam-girl 
from Persian dam, ‘breath’, and girl, ‘taking’, ‘seizing’, etc., from the 
verb ‘ giriftan ’ to seize, etc.], so that they cannot breathe, and their 
tongues become heavy, and many persons die thereof. The people of 
Tibbat call this range the Koh-i-Zahr, or Poison Range. When people 
proceed to Kashghar from thence [Tibbat], they go by a direct route 
between two ranges of mountains to the east [sic. in MS.'], and pass 
over it, and reach a tract of country which they call Uz-kand, This 
tract is forty farsahhs in extent, and half of it is mountain, and the 
other half is very rough and furrowed. 
The chronicler, Abu Ja‘far, Muhammadu-t-tabari, who wrote about 
the same time as the writer just quoted, relates, that Shamir, 
surnamed Zu-l-janalj, a nephew of Tubba‘u-l-asghar, the Hamm king 
of Yaman, invaded China. It came about in this wise, that the ruler of 
Hind sent his ambassador to Shamir with presents, consisting of silken 
fabrics, frankincense, musk, and other rarities. Shamir inquired if all 
these precious things were the produce of Hind, and was told that most 
of them came from Cin, a country the ‘Arabs had not before heard of. 
Shamir was so stimulated from the account given to him of Cin, 
that he resolved to undertake an expedition into that country. Some 
other writers, like ‘Ubaidu-l-lah, just quoted, say, that Shamir was com¬ 
manded to undertake this expedition by one of the kings of Yaman, 
whom the others say was Tubba‘u-l-asghar, but he lived many years 
subsequent to Shamir. The Hamm prince is said to have led an army 
under one hundred standards, and under each standard were one 
thousand men, across the Jil^un from the territory of Balkh, and from 
thence to the frontiers of Hind, 1 where he himself remained while he 
despatched part of his forces against Cin. This force having been 
defeated by the Cinis, Shamir resolved to proceed in person with the 
rest of his army, and he set out through the country of Turkistan, 
skirting the territory of Tibbat, in which he left a force of 32,000 men 
as a reserve. Shamir succeeded in Cin, and returned from thence 
The name of this mountain still exists, but, in Walker’s map of Turkistan it 
appears as the name of a halting place, under the name of “ Karangotak,” about 
one hundred and three miles south of Khutan, and the bridge over the Akash 
river was immediately north of it. The narrow route, and the bridge appears to be 
the same as noticed above. 
I The Tabaqdt-i-Nasiri says he went by way of Kabul to the frontiers of 
Hind. 
