1895.] H. G. Raverty— Tibbat three hundred and sixty-five years ago . 121 
hang down like the hair of women. There are a number of these 
animals met with on this route; and in Tibbat they are domesticated in 
great numbers, and draw loads like as do buffaloes. The flesh and 
milk of these animals are very delicious. The writer of this, the 
humble Mir ‘Abdu-l-karim, Bukhari, proceeded twice into Kash-mir ; 
once, when in his sixteenth year, from Hirat, by Qandahar, Kabul, 
Peshawar, and Muzaffar-abad, and returned by this very route through 
Tibbat. On the other occasion, he proceeded from the territory of 
Bukhara [and] from Simi-pulad [Semipolatinsk], which is the termina¬ 
tion of the Masqo 1 [Moscow—Russian] territory in that direction, and 
by llah, Aq-su, Kashghar, Yar-kand, and Tibbat, to Kash-mir, in 
1224 H. (1809A.D.), and returned from thence by the same route. On 
the way through Tibbat a calf of the quids was found asleep, and 
I killed it with a pistol; and the flesh was delicious. Those who go 
into Tibbat to purchase the tibbat , that is the pashm [wool] of the 
goats, which pashm is used in the manufacture of shdls in Kash-mir, 
bring back zedoary ( curcuma zedoaria) from thence along with them. 
“ The particulars respecting Tibbat are, that it is a very mountainous 
tract of country, lying between the countries of Khita and Hindustan. 
It is very long in extent from west to east, but much less in breadth, 
while its elevation is so great that its mountains throw their heads to 
the sky, and its routes are as hard as the hearts of misers. It is three 
months’ journey [from the part of Tibbat referred to] to what they 
tails ; not that the Pashas were furnished with caudal appendages themselves, but 
their H igh s or standards. 
In Rajab, 602 H., February, 1206 A.D., when the title of the Cingiz, or Great 
Khan was assigned to Timur-ci, at the quriltde, or general assembly, held on that 
occasion, he set up a white tiigh or standard, consisting of nine degrees, or tails, 
indicated by as many tails of the ghajz gau or bos grunniens ; and he was seated on a 
high throne with a diadem on his head. Nine is the particularly venerated number 
among the Mughals, that being the number of the first nine chiefs of their i-mdq 
before the general massacre of the Mughal people by the Tattar i-mdq. See 
Tabaqdt-i-Nasiri, page 881. 
1 The author in mentioning Ruslah and Ruslan (Russians) says, in one place 
in his work, respecting the distance intervening between their territory and Urganj 
and Bukhara at that time—just eighty-five years ago — that, “ the difficulties by the 
way, the scarcity of water, firewood, and provisions, and the cold and snow of 
winter, and excessive heat of summer, are such, that the Ruslan, in consequence, 
have no desire or inclination in that direction [in which he, like many others, was 
much mistaken], the Almighty God, having, of His Mercy, placed thereby between 
the people of Islam and the Yajuj-like Ruslan [referring to Yajuj Majuj—Gog and 
Magog], an Alexandrian barrier, otherwise those parts possessed neither the power 
nor the energy to withstand the armies of those infidels.” 
At the period in question the Russians were otherwise engaged. 
J. i. 16 
