THE DORSCH LIBRARY.
®m
The private Library of Edward Dorsch, M. D., of
Monroe, Michigan, presented to the University of Michi-
gan by his widow, May, 1888, in accordance with a wish
expressed by him.

II
L

Map U' accompany Cchmel MaUescns Herat

V Jna
HERAT: iz&z.
THE GRANARY AND GARDEN OF
CENTRAL ASIA.
WITH AN INDEX AND A MAP.
BY
ft <'
COLONEL a!rB.r' MALLESON, O.S.I.,
AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF THE INDIAN MUTINY,"
ETC., ETC., ETC.
"You stand aloof from us, but you will be unable to continue this course;
our country is good, and it is without a head; and, like a beautiful widow, it
voluntarily avows her attachment to you, and you cannot refuse to accept her
as a wife."—A Kandalidri to Sir Alexander Burnes.
LONDON:
W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13 WATEKLOO PLACE.
PUBLISHERS TO THE INDIA OFFICE.
1880.
All rights reserved,
LONDON:
PRINTED BT W. H, ALLEN AND CO., 13 WATERLOO PLACE.
TO
My Dear Ashmead-Bartlett,
The Patriotic Association, formed to aid in upholding
the honour and the interests of England without distinction
of party, was founded by you, and has been brought to its
present pitch of prosperity and influence chiefly by your
genius, your energy, and your indomitable resolution. More
than that. At a great crisis of the fortunes of England, when
the Russian forces were pressing upon Constantinople, it was
you who knew how to clothe in noble language the thoughts
which lay dormant in the heart of every lover of his country;
you, who to an immense assemblage of your countrymen painted
in glowing words the dangers which must result from a policy
of inaction, and who, appealing thus to the people, drew from
them a response, which, at a vital period of its existence,
materially strengthened the Government of their choice.
How active and how indefatigable, whilst unobtrusive,
have been your efforts in every direction in the same great
cause during the past three years is known only to those who,
sharing your sentiments, have likewise shared your labours.
To you, then, as representing the opinions of the millions
of our countrymen who place the greatness and interests of
their country above all private considerations, I fitly inscribe a
book the main purpose of which is to point to the action
necessary for the maintenance of our great Eastern Empire.
That Empire—if I may apply to it the beautiful expression
of the Master of polished oratory of the present century—
that Empire was cradled in its infancy by the genius of a Clive.
May it be crowned in its culminating glory by the patriotic
and far-sighted policy of a Beaconsfield!
I remain,
My dear Ashmead-Bartlett,
Yours very sincerely,
G. B. MALLESOK
27, West Cromwell Road,
15th January 1880.
V
PREFACE.
The authorities to which I am chiefly indebted for
the materials of which this book is formed, are,
Bitter's "Erdkunde "; d'Herbelot's "Bibliotheque
Orientale"; Quartremere's "Notice sur le Matla-
Assaadein ou Madjma - Albahrei'n "; Ouseley's
"Oriental Geography"; Fraser's "Journey to Kho-
r&san"; Burnes's 6 6 Travels to Bokhara"; Burnes's
"Kabul"; Ferishta's History; the u Asiatic
Journal"; the "Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal"; Conolly's "Journal"; extracts from the
journals of Christie, Pottinger, and Forster;
Abbott's "Journey to Khiva"; Ferrier's "Caravan
Journeys"; the "Memoirs of Babar"; Erskine's
"History of Babar and Humayun"; MacGregor's
"Journey through Khorasan "; "Proceedings of the
vi
PREFACE.
Royal Geographical Society"; the appendices to
Thornton's G-azetteer of the Panjab; and Vamb£ry's
"Travels in Central Asia."
I take this opportunity, likewise, to express my
acknowledgments to my friend Mr. Pincott for his
learned assistance in tracing the derivation of
Oriental names; and my grateful thanks to Mr.
Justen, the able representative of Messrs. Dulau
and Co., for the clear indications as to the sources
of information regarding Herat which he was kind
enough to give me.
a. b. m.
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Page 25, line 7, from foot, for hundred thousands, read hundreds of thousands.
HERAT:
TH15 GRANARY AND GARDEN
OF
CENTRAL ASIA.
CHAPTER I.
ARGUMENT.
Singe the period when, at the close of the year 1877,
the drawing together of the bonds between Russia
and the Amir Shir All rendered necessary the armed
intervention of the British in Afghanistan, the atten-
tion of the public has been fixed very much upon the
events which have been progressing in that country.
Again have Kandahar and Grhazni, Kabul and Jallal-
abad, Khaibar and Kiirm, Grandamak and Jagdalak,
become household words. Again have the Sikh and
the Pathan, the Giirkah and the Rohilla, vied in
valorous action with their British comrades. Again
1
2
ARGUMENT.
have the discipline and the courage of the two
armies, well directed by skilful leaders, triumphed
over numbers, over difficult country, over fanaticism,
over treachery. In spite of difficulties, the mere
description of which gives but little idea of their for-
midable nature, the policy of the Government has
triumphed, and the greater part of Afghanistan lies at
the feet of Her Majesty the Queen.
I have said that the mere perusal of an account of
the difficulties which our skilled generals and our gal-
lant soldiers have surmounted, gives but a faint idea
of their nature and their extent. I may add that the
consideration of those difficulties is necessary to the
right understanding and the due appreciation of
the policy, at a very difficult crisis, of Her Majesty's
Government. Our troops have forced passes which
were deemed impregnable, they have stormed heights
which their enemies considered inaccessible, they have
gained positions which were regarded as being en-
tirely beyond the range even of their prowess. But
whilst we admit to the full the credit, the enormous
credit, devolving upon our generals and our soldiers
for thus "conquering the impossible," we are bound
to take into consideration not only the qualities for
ARGUMENT.
3
fight, but the qualities for direction and command,
possessed by the enemy whom they expelled from
those formidable positions. Herein lies a question of
far greater importance than might at the outset be
imagined. Granted that the positions referred to
were impregnable if thoroughly well defended, these
two questions arise. Were the untutored Afghans
capable of offering a successful defence? Would
Afghans tutored by Russian officers have been capable
of offering a successful defence? To the first ques-
tion the answer must be in the negative. Brave
when attacked in front, the Afghans have invariably
given way when threatened on their flank or on their
rear. Their chiefs have no scientific knowledge of
the art of war. Untaught, and by nature ungifted,
they have never shown themselves able to take the
best advantage of a defensive position. It may, then,
be laid down, as an axiom which cannot be challenged,
that the untutored Afghans were not capable of
making a successful defence of their positions against
British troops.
But the second question must be replied to in a
different sense. The Afghans possess the headlong
courage of the mountaineers of all countries. Eus-
1 *
4
ARGUMENT.
sian officers would have supplied their want of tac-
tical and scientific knowledge. We may then safely
affirm that had time been allowed for the cementing
of the growing alliance between Russia and Afghan-
istan, the Afghan soldiers would have been led by
Russian officers, the passes leading towards Kabul
would have been rendered absolutely impregnable by
Russian engineers. Under those circumstances no
effort made by England to recover by force of arms
her lost influence in Afghanistan could possibly have
succeeded.
How near we were to a condition of affairs which
must ultimately have proved fatal to the hold of the
British upon India, the world may perhaps never
know. But the world knows already that a Russian
envoy was in Kabul supplanting British influence in
that city; that for some years previously a Russian
scientific mission had had its head-quarters in Herat,
and that the members of that scientific mission had
surveyed a great part of Khorasan and Afghan Turk-
is t&n, noting in each locality its capabilities for the
provision of troops, the disposition of the local force,
the climate, the soil, the distance from the nearest
town, the supplies already stored, and the guns and
ARGUMENT.
5
ammunition available on the spot. The members of
this scientific mission had, in addition, impressed upon
the minds of the people of those localities that Rus-
sia was preparing for her spring, and that within a
very few years that spring would be made.
It cannot be doubted that but for the conclusion of
the Treaty of Berlin that spring would have been
made in 1877. Russia had made all her preparations
to reply in Afghanistan to the vigorous action which,
in Europe, had snatched Constantinople from her
grasp. Her secret manoeuvres were about to be sup-
ported by open co-operation. But both of these
schemes were baffled; that of open co-operation by
the Treaty of Berlin; the secret manoeuvres by the
British invasion of Afghanistan. The one of these
acts of high policy would have been incomplete with-
out the other.
The Treaty of Berlin stopped, indeed, the march of
the Russian columns from Samarkand and Ferghana,
but it did not stop Russian intrigues in Kabul. Those
who have had experience of the wonderful manipu-
lating power of Russian agents, of the adroitness
with which they transform themselves from the posi-
tion of lookers-on to that of masters of the situation,
6
ARGUMENT.
will not be surprised to learn that in a very short space
of time the Russian embassy in Kabul had become the
ruling power in Kabul. Reinforced as it was being
perpetually, under one pretext or another, by men of
aptitude and experience, and supported by the credit,
greatly exaggerated, gained by Russia from her victo-
ries in Asia Minor, it is no matter of speculation it is
a certainty, that, had Afghanistan been left unassailed,
the Russian embassy would, by its members, have for-
tified all the passes leading to the interior of the
country, and have rendered them impregnable to an
army so small in numbers as that which invaded
Afghanistan in 1877-78.
The knowledge that Russia was thus preparing,
indirectly, the action which, in its more direct form,
had been baffled by the Treaty of Berlin, was alone
sufficient, I will not simply say to justify, but to
necessitate, the invasion of Afghanistan by the Bri-
tish. To have remained quiescent then, would have
been equivalent to the act of a man who, without
either remonstrance or opposition, permits a well-
known burglar to take possession, before his very
eyes, of the keys of his strong-box!
At the present moment, I have said, the greater
ARGUMENT.
7
part of Afghanistan lies at the feet of Her Majesty
the Queen. Her forces hold Kabul, Kandahar, and
Jallalabad; they will soon hold Grhazni as well. The
possession of these four centres will doubtless be
sufficient for the time to overawe the turbulent
mountaineers who have so long devastated the
country. But it will not settle the Afghan ques-
tion. To settle that question now, as, if we are to
retain India, it will have ultimately to be settled, it
will be necessary to take a wider view of the sub-
ject and to act upon that view.
The first point that seems to press itself upon the
consideration is the relation between Afghanistan
and the Afghans. I have found a very general im-
pression prevailing in certain circles that the Afghans
stand towards Afghanistan, including the territories of
Herat, Afghan Turkistan, and Badakskan in the same
relation which the English occupy with respect to
England. There could not be a greater fallacy. It
would be far more correct, indeed it would be approxi-
mately correct, to affirm that the normal relations of
the Afghans to Afghanistan are precisely similar to
the relations which the Highlanders of the first half
of the eighteenth century bore towards the whole of
8
ARGUMENT,
Scotland. The Afghans in fact are the Highlanders
of Afghanistan. They are nothing more. Not only
have the Afghans not built a single city in Afghan-
istan, but they have not occupied a single city with-
out impairing its resources, pillaging its people,
injuring its trade, damaging its public buildings, and
diminishing its importance. Kabul and Ghazni, Kan-
dahar and Herat, have had their gala days of pros-
perity and splendour, but those days are associated
with people other than the Afghans and with rulers
other than the Ghilzis and the Duranis. While the
four next descendants of Babar reigned in India,
Kabul was a flourishing and important commercial
centre. Its inhabitants then were not Afghans. The
Afghans were rude mountain tribes living by plunder
and by pillage. The prosperous days of Ghazni are
associated with the name of Mahmiid and his suc-
cessors. Mahmiid was a Turk, his followers who
inhabited Grhazni were Turks. The Afghans then,
too, were the robbers of the mountain. The dynasty
of Mahmud had reigned for a century and a half in
Afghanistan, with Ghazni as the capital, when it was
expelled by the mountaineers of Ghor. The first act
of these Afghans was emblematical of their whole
ARGUMENT.
9
subsequent career as a people. Entering Ghazni, they
gave to the flames, to slaughter, and to devastation,
the city which had been beautified by Mahniiid and
his successors. They not only destroyed the monu-
ments of the Ghaznivide kings—they effaced every
trace of them—three tombs only excepted. For seven
days the massacre continued, and then it culminated
in the murder by the Afghan leader of the most
venerable and learned men in the place. Kandahar
flourished under the mild rule first of the descendants
of Babar and subsequently of Persia till the beginning
of the eighteenth century. The Ghilzi Afghans then
seized and made a kingdom of it, and, emerging from
it, momentarily subdued Persia. With the exception
of the eleven years during which the city belonged to
Nadir Shah, Kandahar has subsequently remained
Afghan. But it has known no more the prosperity
it enjoyed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
when the city owned a master who would protect,
and the Afghans were still robbers of the mountains.
But the city in which Afghan influence has been
most detrimental to all that renders life valuable—to
all, even, that hinders life from becoming a burden—
is Herat. For three or four hundred years the valley
10
ARGUMENT.
and city of Herat were the granary and garden of
Central Asia. In that valley and within the walls of
that city the desolating presence of the Afghan was
in those days never felt. The inhabitants, of mixed
Persian and Turki blood, were industrious, inventive,
energetic, and pains-taking. The fertile valley of the
Herirud produced supplies far more than sufficient for
their simple wants. Their city lay on the intersecting
point of the roads which communicated with the
markets of Europe, of India, of Bokhara, and of
Persia. Under these circumstances Herat soon
became the most important commercial city in Central
Asia. The effects of that commercial prosperity
speedily manifested themselves. Her streets became
adorned with palaces, with markets, with acqueducts,
the remains of which even now excite wonder and
admiration. The courts of her ruling princes became
centres to which the intellectual aristocracy of Cen-
tral Asia resorted—all who were famous in poesy, in
science, in astronomy, in architectural acquirements.
Her fame was sung by poets and recorded by his-
torians. Nor was the prosperity confined to the city
alone. It spread into the valleys to the north and
to the west. To this day the valley of the Mur~
ARGUMENT.
11
ghat), even as far as Merv, is strewn with ruins of
castles and villas which attested the prosperity of the
parent city. Nor was that prosperity transient. Con-
querors indeed came, and besieged—occasionally they
even stormed—the city. But those conquerors were
not Afghans. They did not carry in their hands a
withering and perpetual desolation. After coming to
conquer they remained to repair. And so inherent
were the advantages possessed by the city, that after
each new conquest she rose again almost immediately
from her ashes, and recovered her former prosperity.
Not even the jealousy of Persia and the stimulus
given by her kings to Mashad could seriously impair
■that prosperity. Herat still remained the commercial
Queen of Central Asia. She remained the commer-
cial Queen of Central Asia till the year 1717.
In 1717 Herat experienced for the first time the
horrors of conquest by the Afghans, and the still more
prolonged misery of Afghan rule. The nature of that
rule has been described in words that burn, by an
eye-witness, the illustrious Hungarian, Arminius Vam-
bery. How the Afghan conqueror swaggers in the
streets, armed to the teeth, disdaining work, but
ready at any time to murder and to plunder; how
12
ARGUMENT.
the Afghan governor lays on imported and ex-
ported articles duties all but prohibitory, thus stifling
the trade which is the life-blood of the place; how
the very caravans which, before the Afghan period,
traversed the neighbouring valleys and passes in
safety, are now plundered within Herati territory,
often with the connivance of the Afghan governor;
how the people, ground down by taxes, by plunder,
by oppression in its most loathsome forms, turn their
longing eyes to England to rid them of their insolent
oppressor—all these things, and more, are told in full
detail by Vamb^ry. Many of them are referred to in
the body of this book. Talk of Bulgarian atrocities!
They sink to nothing when compared with the daily,
hourly atrocities perpetrated by the Afghans upon
the Heratis. In this case, too, the atrocities, extend
even to the land. The eloquent words of the Pro-
phet might with absolute truth be addressed to the
unfortunate inhabitants: "Your country is desolate,
your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers
devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as over-
thrown by strangers.55
That which is true now, which was witnessed by
Vambery in 1863, has been true since 1717. Since
ARGUMENT.
13
that period to the present day, Herat has suffered
oppression but little varied and always continuing.
Yet, Herat survives. She survives because her
splendid situation as the centre point where all the
commercial roads of Central Asia unite, as the Queen
of a valley not to be surpassed in fertility, still makes
her existence necessary. She survives, notwithstand-
ing the exodus of many of her best artisans to
Mashacl—a consequence of Afghan misrule; not-
withstanding the terrible exactions to which she is
constantly subjected. But she survives a wreck of
her former self. Her palaces are in ruins, her markets
are but a shadow of what they once were, her children
crouch before the insolent Afghan.
But she survives. The vital spark still burns,—
dimly indeed, but it burns. It would require but
little to fan it into a flame. The first necessity is the
removal of the oppressor who, for more than a cen-
tury and a half, has so shamefully abused his position.
Take away the Afghan, and replace him by whom-
ever you may; replace him by a real and a powerful
protector, by the Russian or the Englishman, and
Herat will speedily recover more than her former
prosperity. Her situation guarantees such a result.
14
ARGUMENT.
Commerce must return to her when the obstructions
to the course of commerce shall be removed; when
the free use of the advantages so bountifully be-
stowed upon her by nature shall be secured to her.
•Yes, remove the oppressor, give Herat a govern-
ment which will insure safety to life and property,
equality before the law, and security against an in-
vader, and commerce must return to her. In the
train of commerce will follow a prosperity exceeding
that which, in the fourteenth century, made Herat
the Queen of eastern cities. The nation which by
its overlordship shall secure to Herat such benefits,
will obtain for itself the markets of Central Asia.
People talk, without knowledge and without thought,
of the expense which will be entailed on England by
the occupation of Afghanistan. It is true that the
occupation of mountainous districts of Afghanistan,
not including Herat, will entail a large expenditure,
but the occupation of the entire country, inclusive of
Herat, is a very different matter. The possession of
the valleys of the Herirud and the Murghab is the
possession of a gold mine. In a few years Herat
would prove the milch-cow of Northern India.
The question, then, presents itself—upon whom
ARGUMENT.
15
will that possession devolve? It may, I think, be
taken for granted that the Afghan rule in Herat is
approaching its term. The union of the several
Afghan clans, separated from each other by here-
ditary feuds, may already be reckoned a thing of the
past. The Afghans formed a kingdom in Afghan-
istan on the death of Nadir Shah in 1749, only be-
cause the disappearance of that conqueror left each
part of the vast empire he had bound together with-
out a head. In the turmoil that followed, an Abdali
chief who possessed genius made out of the rude
mountaineers a nation. That nation no longer
exists. The history of Afghanistan during the pre-
sent century has been the history of contests for
supremacy of the chiefs of Afghan tribes. At the pre-
sent moment anarchy reigns supreme amongst them.
The union of a kingdom which includes the foreign
provinces of Herat, of Afghan Turkistan, and of
Badakhshan, difficult to be maintained when the tribes
were dominated by one man, has now become abso-
lutely impossible. But one push from without is
needed to shake off the Afghan yoke.
There are three powers by one of whom that push
will most certainly be made,—Persia, Russia, and
16
ARGUMENT.
England. The temporising party in this country—
the party which always seeks to put off the evil day,
which would place upon the shoulders of posterity a
burden which they have neither the courage nor the
high spirit to bear—the temporising party already
advocates the transfer of Herat to Persia. Granted,
for a moment, that Persia were to continue a free
agent, deaf to the arguments, and defiant of the
power, of her northern enemy, such a transfer must
still be regarded as alike impolitic and impossible. It
would be like transferring Venice to Austria—to
Austria already the possessor of Trieste. More than
two centuries ago Persia built up Mashad as a rival
to Herat just as Austria during the greater part of
the first moiety of the present century patronised
Trieste at the expense of Venice. The misery en-
tailed upon Herat during the last century and a half
by the occupation of her by the Afghans has already
forced many of the most skilled artisans to migrate
to Mashad. Would Persia now neglect Mashad to
foster Herat? The thought is not to be entertained.
Then again—can Persia remain for ever indifferent
to the blandishments or the arms of Russia? No one
will assert it. At the present moment Russia is pre-
ARGUMENT.
17
paring a formidable armament to move on Merv.
The modern Merv is little more than a geographical
expression. The huts in the vicinity of the ruined
castle which once was Merv offer in themselves no
temptation to an invader. But those huts are the
stepping-stones to the Persian frontier town of Sar-
rakhs—a most important position—and to Herat. In
the coming struggle for supremacy in the most fertile
portions of Central Asia it will be impossible for
Persia to remain neutral. She will fall under the
influence of that one of the rival powers which shall
show the greatest daring. Should Russia succeed in
annexing the country of the Turkmans of Merv, whilst
England still lingers at or behind Kandahar, her in-
fluence in Persia will become predominant, and in that
case a Herat guarded by Persia would soon become
in all respects Russian.
The idea, then, of forming of the valley of the Heri-
rud a neutral zone between Russia and England, of
which Persia should be the guardian, must be sum-
marily dismissed. There remains, then, the question
of a Russian occupation. It is a question which will
not wait long for an answer. Already General Kauf-
mann is preparing the army which will cross the Oxus
2
18
ARGUMENT.
at Charjui, and march thence on Merv, there to co-
operate with the other army which Tergukasoff is about
to lead from the vicinity of the Caspian. The reader
will find in the seventh chapter of this book complete
details of the country which intervenes between Char-
jui and Merv. He will see that the route presents no
difficulties which a determined and practised general,
such as Kaufmann has proved himself to be, will not
be able to overcome. Supposing that the march be
accomplished, what will the united armies do at Merv?
Merv, I repeat, is little more than a geographical
expression. But an army encamped there would
command the high road to Sarrakhs, distant only
some fifty miles, and the two routes to Herat, distant
respectively two hundred and twenty and two hundred
and forty miles. I repeat, then, that if the Eussian
expedition to Merv, now preparing, prove successful,
the question of the occupation of Herat by Russia
will at once become a question which might at any
moment be answered.
Let us suppose the reply favourable to Russia—
what, then, will be the consequence? Russia will then
possess the outlying bulwark from which all the con-
querors from the north, one alone excepted, have issued
ARGUMENT.
19
to over-run India. It was from Herat that Alexander
the Great started for the Indus. Mahmud of Grhazni
and Muhammad Grhori were possessors of Herat when
they dashed upon India. Chinghiz Khan and Taimur
both forced their way through the same portal. Babar,
the founder of the Moghol dynasty, was indeed an
exception. He started for his conquest from Kabul.
But at the time of his invasion Khorasan was becom-
ing the prey of warriors who were too much engaged
at home to dream of striking for India. His descen-
dants in India suffered because they were not strong
enough to prevent the occupation of both Kandahar
and Herat by Persia. Nadir Shah conquered Herat
before he besieged Kandahar, and poured his armies
thence upon India. Upon his death Ahmad Shah
Dur&ni seized Herat, and very shortly afterwards
successfully invaded Hindustan.
It is easy to understand why a Russian Herat—that
is a Herat possessed by a powerful and ambitious
power always enlarging its borders—must ever be
a standing menace to Hindustan. The fruitful and
fertile valley of the Herirud furnishes a new base in
which an army can be thoroughly equipped and
whence it can march south-westward. In that valley
2 *
20
ARGUMENT.
all the munitions of war are produced or can be
manufactured. The willow and the poplar flourish,
mines of lead and of iron abound. Russia would re-
quire to bring nothing across long, sterile, and sandy
deserts. The iron and the lead are there; the salt-
petre is there; the charcoal is there; the corn, the
wine, and the oil are there; the horses are there;
and in a very short time she could drill the hardy
population into such a state of efficiency as would
enable them to vie even with the Sikhs of the Pan jab
and the Pathans of the frontier. But that is not
all. Secure in a fertile country which provided all
the supplies requisite for her army, possessed, by the
occupation of Her&t, of the markets of Central Asia—
—a magnificent trade from which England would
thus for ever be excluded—Russia could afford to wait
whilst she put in practice in the native courts and the
bazaars of Hindustan those devices in which she is a
proficient, and which she has worked so successfully
in Bulgaria, in Servia, and in Roumelia. Thence-
forward there would be no peace for the people of
India. The English in that country would live under
a continual fear of the intrigue which corrupts native
soldiers, which wins over their native allies, which
ARGUMENT.
21
makes every man doubtful of the morrow. Can a
worse position for English interests be imagined?
The English empire of Hindustan would resemble a
tenanted mansion, the keys of the doors of which
were held by robbers daily engaged in attempting to
corrupt the servants on the basement. Could there
be, I repeat, a position more impossible to be en-
dured?
So much for the occupation of Herat by Russia.
To England it would mean—in one sentence—the loss
of India. Yet this is the question which the people
of England have now to face and to answer.
How will they answer it? Whilst they are slowly
coming to a determination, let me place before them a
few facts. Russia, arrived at the rude huts which
represent Merv, would be Russia in the valley of the
Murghab, leading by a perfectly feasible road, about
two hundred and forty miles in length, to Herat.
Russia at Merv would also be Russia commanding the
well-worn caravan route via Sarrakhs to Herat, about
two hundred and twenty miles long. Descriptions
of both these routes will be found in the seventh
chapter. Russia at Merv whilst England is still at
Kandahar—if she be even at Kandahar !—would be
22
ARGUMENT.
Russia nearer than England by more than one hun-
dred and fifty miles to the great prize of Central Asia,
with two roads available for her armies. If England
wait, then, to assert her suzerainty over Herat till
Russia shall have reached Merv, the opportunity of
permanently securing her frontier will have passed
away for ever.
But, the reader may ask, what will Herat be to our
Indian possessions? Herat would be more than an
impregnable bulwark to those possessions. In a very
few years she would become once again the com-
mercial capital of Central Asia. Again would her
markets be thronged, as of yore, by merchants from
every corner of the eastern world. The course of the
Central Asian trade has in no respect altered since
Herat was the granary and the garden of Central
Asia. The caravans tread the roads now on which
they travelled then. The remarkable circumstance
that, in spite of the oppression and robbery she has
had to endure during the last century and a half, the
glimmer of her former commercial greatness remains
unquenched in Herat, attests the vitality of her
position. In the fourth chapter of this book I have
entered in fuller detail into the question of her
ARGUMENT.
23
abundant resources. These combine with her position
to assure to her, if she be but decently governed, an
eternal and an ever-augmenting prosperity.
Why, then, should England hesitate? As, for the
moment, the de facto heir of the Afghan govern-
ment she has displaced, Herat and the adjacent ter-
ritories of Afghan Turkistan and Badakhshan de-
volve on her by right of succession. Let her be
careful to enter without delay into possession.
Policy, justice, humanity, the very safety of our
Indian empire, demand the movement. No people
implore it more eagerly than the Heratis. "It needs
only some attack," wrote Vambery in 1863, "no
matter by whom, to be made upon Herat, for the
Herati to be the first to take up arms against
the Afghans. ... I find no exaggeration in the
opinion that they long most for the intervention of
the English, whose feelings of humanity and justice
have led the inhabitants to forget the great differ-
ences in religion and nationality." Yes—and let it
never be forgotten—there is no time for hesitation.
If England go not speedily to Herat she will
hear of the occupation of that place by Russia. I
have shown what that will mean for England and
24
ARGUMENT.
for British India. It was to stave off a far less
formidable danger—the occupation of Herat by Persia
—that Lord Palmerston waged the first Afghan war
of 1838 and the Persian war of 1856. Will England
be more blind to her interests now than she was on
those memorable occasions? I will not believe it.
One word with reference to possible military
criticism on the movement. It may be said, in fact
I have heard it said by men who have not sufficiently
studied the nature of the country and the history of
the past, that it would be dangerous to hold a post
three hundred and sixty-nine miles in advance of
Kandahar, as it would be possible for a hostile army
to penetrate between the two positions and to isolate
the garrison of Herat. To this I reply that the
danger is purely imaginary. Herat is in very deed
the gate of India. The line between her and Kan-
dahar is protected on the east by impassable moun-
tains, on the west by deserts which no army could
traverse. Those deserts never have been traversed
by an army which had not previously taken Herat.
And it would be easy to make Herat impregnable.
Such is the Argument of this book. I submit it with
all humility to the consideration of my countrymen.
ARGUMENT.
25
It has been written, I may assure them, in the most
perfect good faith, and with but one aim—to show the
necessity of at once securing the magnificent inherit-
ance won for us by our ancestors. Above all, I dare
affirm that it has not been written in the interests of
a party. In common with very many of my country-
men who have spent their lives in the service of their
country abroad, I have but one rule of politics. That
rule is to support, by every legitimate means, the men
—by whatever name they may call themselves—who
will, before anything else, maintain in every part of the
world the honour and the interests of our country.
That honour and those interests are dearer to us than
life itself, and we are prepared to undergo any trouble
and any discomfort to support those who will main-
tain them.
It is because I believe, because thousands of the
gentlemen of England and hundred thousands of the
working-men of England believe, that that honour and
those interests are threatened by the advance of Russia
upon Merv, and would be seriously jeopardised by
any hesitation on the part of England to occupy
Herat, that I have compiled from the sources avail-
able to me a history of the principality of which
26
ARGUMENT.
that city is the capital, and a record of the routes
leading from it to Kandahar, to Mashad, to Merv, to
Charjui, to Kabul, and to important centres in Afghan
Turkistan. I am not without hope that the perusal
of the narrative, showing as it does 'the important
part played by Herat before the period of the
Afghan tyranny, may evoke in all minds a deter-
mination that the granary and garden of Central
Asia shall never fall into the possession of the
enemies of England. Herat is the Gate of India.
It is absolutely necessary that the possessors of
that splendid estate should hold the gate leading
into it.
THE NEW FRONTIER.
27
CHAPTER n.
THE NEW FRONTIER.
"The Hindu Rush," writes Mr. Boulger in his
admirable and exhaustive work on Central Asia,*
"with a line of fortresses from Herat to the capital
of Badakhsh&n, would be a perfect frontier " to our
Indian possessions, "strong in every essential de-
manded by military strategy. The number of troops
required would not be large—less than those needed
to defend the Hindu Kush alone. Fifteen thousand
men at Herat, five thousand at Faizabad, and two
thousand at Maimane, Shiborgan, and Takhtapul—
not Balkh—and Khulm, would be all that would be
* "Kussia and England in Central Asia," vol. i. page 130.
28
THE NEW FBONTIEE.
required, and only a third of these, ten thousand
men, need be British." I find amongst the thought-
ful politicians and soldiers who have devoted to the
study of the question of the new Indian frontier the
same care and attention I have paid to it myself, a
general agreement with the principle thus laid down
by Mr. Boulger. I accept it, then, as the principle
which will eventually commend itself to the statesmen
with whom will rest the final settlement of the fron-
tier question. But although amongst the class I
have referred to the definitions I have indicated find
acceptance, this is the case only because its members
have given to the subject the most careful consider-
ation. They have studied it with the light of the
experience of bygone ages on the one side, and
with the reports of experts on the other. To the
general public the same opportunity has not been
offered. To them Herat and Faizabad and Maimane
and Balkh necessarily represent names and nothing
but names. Their position on the map, the geo-
graphical features of the country of which they
are the chief towns, the nature of their populations,
their military importance, the distances from our
present frontier and from each other, are but little
THE NEW FRONTIER.
29
known. Nor does a reference to a gazetteer or the
study of an ordinary map much relieve them. The
existing gazetteers are on that subject almost a
blank, and until very recently the maps of Central
Asia tended, as a rule, only to confuse. To supply,
then, a want which is felt, and the existence of
which, like every other form of ignorance, strengthens
the hands of the anti-national party which, for some
years past, has been playing in these islands the game
of Russia, I propose to devote a few pages to a de-
scription of the country, which, known in past ages as
the granary and garden of Central Asia, will soon, I
hope, become the glacis of the fortress of Hindustan.
Mr. James Fraser, a gentleman who explored Kho-
rasan in 1821-22, and who published three years later
an account of his travels, thus describes that country.
"Situated," he wrote, "on the borders of the two
great divisions of the Asiatic world, Iran and Turan,*
* In general terms, Persia and Turkistan; or, to state it more
accurately, the countries divided by the Oxus. "Since the time of
Feridun," writes d'Herbelot (1776), "the provinces which, in the
present day, form the kingdom of Persia, bear the name of Iran,
whilst those beyond the Oxus are always called Turan. In the
30
THE NEW FRONTIER.
and occupying a portion of both, Khorasan was con-
tinually a subject of dispute between the monarchs
of each, and sometimes fell wholly into the power of
the one, sometimes of the other. Whether in the
more limited sense of its name, as a province, or in
the more enlarged acceptation, as a state of no mean
importance, it was the scene of mighty operations;
and many of the greatest atrocities and severest
conquests Asia ever witnessed, were committed in its
cities, and took place upon its plains."
This description in no way exaggerates the impor-
tance of this border land. The people who inhabited
it were in all respects worthy of their country. They
were brave, hardy, and enterprising. If in the
mountains of Khorasan the rulers of Persia have
found the firmest bulwarks against the Turanians, in
the inhabitants they have found their bravest warriors.
Western Khorasan is, in fact, the Parthia of the
Romans, the home of the warriors who first lowered
the pride of the Eoman legions. It was leading the
descendants of these men that Nadir Shah, himself a
treaties made between the Persians and the Turks, the Oxus
has always been accepted as the line of demarcation between
Iran and Turan."
THE NEW FRONTIER.
31
Khorasam, conquered Afghanistan and over-ran the
Panjab and northern India. The position of the pro-
vince and the capabilities of its people impressed
themselves so strongly on the mind of that conqueror
that he styled Khorasan "the Sword of Persia."
"Whoever/5 he is reported to have said, "holds in
his hand that sword, possessing the brain-capacity to
wield it aright, is lord alike of Iran and of Turan."
N&dir Shah exemplified the truth of the aphorism.
The limits of the country known as Khorasan have
varied with time and circumstances. Mr. Fraser,
however, taking into account its natural lines and the
political considerations affecting them, thus assigns
the boundaries of the country.
"A line," he writes, "swerving but little from
the meridian, and marked in its greatest extents by
deserts, skirting the districts of Ispahan and Kashan,
and meeting the Elburz mountains near Deh Nimak,*
will divide Khorasan from Irak on the west. If this
line from its northern extremity be continued in an
easterly direction nearly to the meridian of Jahjarm,
and thence crossing the mountains in a northerly
* About 52° 10' long., 35° 20' lat.
32
course to the plains of Gurgaon at their feet, it will
enter the desert on the eastern side of the Caspian
Sea and touch the steppe of Khwarizm. It is not
easy, nor is it of much importance, to decide in what
part of the great desert that occupies the whole
space between the feet of the Blburz range and the
Oxus, the northern limits of Khorasan should be
placed; politically speaking, it does not at present
extend beyond the feet of these mountains To the
eastward it may properly be allowed to include the
districts of Sarrakhs, Hazarah and Balai Murghab,
and a line running between these and the dependen-
cies of Balkh, in a direction nearly south, including
the districts of Her&t and touching Sistan, would
circumscribe Khorasan on the east; Kerman and part
of Fars upon the south complete the boundaries."
It will be seen, from this carefully considered de-
marcation, that Khoras&n proper contains one only of
the cities indicated by Mr. Boulger, and accepted by
thoughtful critics, as the places which should be occu-
pied in order to gain a really safe frontier for Hin-
dustan. This is the city of Herat. Of the remaining
five, four, Maimane, Shiborgan, Takhtapul, and
Khxilm, are in Afgh&n Turkistan; the fifth, Faiz-
THE NEW FRONTIER.
33
abad, is in Badakkshan. The six cities indicated
thus constitute the strong places of the countries of
eastern Khorasan, Afghan Turkestan, and Badakh-
shan—countries bearing a strong resemblance to each
other in their natural features and in the habits and
dispositions of their people. For many years past
they have been united under, and have been devas-
tated by, the same foreign conqueror. Alike they
yearn for the rule of a master who will protect and
cherish them. Their countries form the natural glacis
of the great range of mountains which covers Hindu-
stan. The Oxus forms the natural boundary of their
cities and their plains. In these cities and in these
plains, sheltered by the British aegis, they would
flourish, a happy and contented people.
It is to these countries, dismissing from considera-
tion the western part of Khorasan, to which I now
invite attention. Their capitals, their people, the
nature and the products of their soil,—their past his-
tory, their present condition, the possibilities before
them,—these will, so far as is possible, be discussed
in this volume. And if the discussion tend to en-
lighten the minds of the many regarding the condition
of countries, the well-being of which is of the deepest
3
34
THE NEW FRONTIER.
moment to England; if it remove the hesitations of
some, the doubts of others, the prejudices of a few,
and the enforced ignorance of many, then assuredly
my labours will not have been in vain.
35
CHAPTER III.
HEBAT.
"Kfioba'sa'n," runs the Eastern proverb, "is the
oyster-shell of the world, and Herat is its pearl."
This once splendid city is situated 34° 26' N"., 62° 8'
E., two thousand six hundred and fifty feet above the
sea, in the valley of the river Heririid, which runs
below it. The Heririid rises in the mountains of
Hazarah, not far from the village of Robat Tarwan.
Under the name of Jangal-ab, it flows in a south-
westerly direction to a point below Daolatyar, a
village on the direct road between Herat and
Bamian. At this point it is joined by another branch,
the Sir Tingalab, which rises likewise in the Haz-
arah ranges, though at a point somewhat more to
3 *
36
HUB AT.
the south-east than the upper branch. From the
point of junction, the united rivers, taking the name
of Herirud, follow an almost direct westerly course
south of the Parapomisan range and pass south of
Herat. Some fifty miles beyond that city the Heri-
rud takes a turn to the north-west and then to the
north, receiving many waters in its course, and pass-
ing Sarrakhs just to the west of it. Not far from
this place it loses the name of Herirud and assumes
that of Taj and. Under this name it flows north-
westward, till it is finally lost in the sand and swamps
of the great Turkman desert.
At the point already indicated, where the Herirud
receives the waters of the Sir Tangal-ab, the river
traverses a broad valley, which it adorns and fer-
tilises. All along this valley channels from the river
spread over its broad surface, converting deserts into
cornfields and waste land into fruit gardens. Its
water is singularly bright and pure. Running swiftly,
it never fails. The supply has ever been equal to the
demand, even in the days when Herat was the most
famous city of Central Asia, possessing alike the
most brilliant court and the most splendid commercial
mart in the eastern world.
HERAT.
37
The city of Herat is the principal city in this
valley. According to Conolly, whose account of it
is most graphic, the city is situated "at four miles
distance from hills on the north, and twelve from
those which run south of it. The space between
the hills is one beautiful extent of little fortified vil-
lages, gardens, vineyards, and corn-fields, and this
rich scene is brightened by many small streams of
shining water, which cut the plain in all directions.
A dam is thrown across the Herirud, and its waters,
being turned into many canals, are so conducted
over the vale of Herat that every part of it is
watered. Varieties of the most delicious fruits are
grown in the valley, and they are sold cheaper even
than at Mashad; the necessaries of life are plentiful
and cheap, and the bread and water of Her&t are
a proverb for their excellence. I really never, in
England even, tasted more delicious water than
that of the Herirud: it is 4 as clear as tears,5 and,
the natives say, only equalled by the waters
of Kashmir, which make those who drink them
beautiful."
Herat can boast of very great antiquity. It is
mentioned by very early writers. Ibn Haukal, who
38
BEBAT.
lived in tlie tenth century,* gives a glowing descrip-
tion of its citadel, its buildings, its gardens,- and
speaks even of a church of the Christians, probably
the Nestorians. Edrisi,f who lived nearly two hun-
dred years later, but who apparently never visited
the city, wrote of it in terms not less glowing.
Abulfeda, who lived at Herat during the fourteenth
century, adds but little to previous information. But
the accounts of all these writers tend to prove how
famous was the city and how magnificent were its
buildings.
Ibn Batuta, who Visited the city about the same
time, 1340, wrote of it as the most important city
in Khorasan; "a province," he added, "which in
Herat and Nishapiir possesses two most flourishing
* Ibn Haukal was the author of a valuable work on Oriental
geography, published in 976. To qualify himself for writing this
work he spent twenty-eight years in travelling through the Maho-
niedan countries of the world. The work referred to was trans-
lated from the Persian and published in an abridged form by
Ouseley, in 1800.
f Edrisi was a famous Arabian geographer. He was bom in
1099 and died in 1164. He was a great traveller, and published
many works on the geography of the Eastern world, all of which
have been translated, with commentaries, into French.
HERAT.
39
cities with fertile lands depending upon them, and
two which had been so, but which lay in ruins,
Balkh and Merv."
These writers testify to the great prosperity of
Herat during the four hundred years of which they
successively wrote. The buildings which half a cen-
tury ago still remained speak of its pristine splendour.
"We ascended," wrote Conolly in 1831, "by one hun-
dred and forty steps to the top of the highest minaret,
and thence looked down upon the city, and the rich
gardens and vineyards round and beyond it—a scene
so varied and beautiful, that I can imagine nothing
like it, except perhaps in Italy." Some idea of the
magnificence of the buildings and the extent of the
city may be derived from the perusal of the fol-
lowing extract from the memoirs of the Emperor
Babar, who visited the city in 1506, and who
learned there to realise some of the joys of exist-
ence. His visit, be it borne in mind, took place
after the city had suffered from the ravages of
Chingiz Khan and of Taimur. "During the twenty
days that I stayed in Heri,"* wrote Babar, "I
* An ancient name of Herat. Vide Leyden's "Memoirs of
Baber," page 207.
40
HERAT.
every day rode out to visit some new place that
I had not seen before. My guide and proveditor
in these visits was Tiisuf Ali Grokultask, who always
got ready a sort of collation, in some suitable place
where we stopped. In the course of these twenty
days I saw perhaps everything worthy of notice ex-
cept the Khanekah (or convent) of Sultan Husen
Mirza. I saw the bleaching-ground, the garden of
All Shir Beg, the paper mills, the Takht Astaneh
(or royal throne); the bridge of Kah; the Kah-
dastan, the Bagh-i-Nazar-gah; the Niamat-abad;
the Khiaban, or public pleasure walks; the Khatirat
of Sultan Ahmad Mirza; the Takht*-i-Safar, or Safar
Palace; the Takht - i - Nawai; the Takkt-i-Barkir;
the Takht-i-Haji Beg; and the Takhts of Shekh
Baha-udm Umar, and Shekh Zain-udm; the mauso-
leum and tomb of Mulana Abdul-rahman Jam;
the Ninazgah-i-Miikktar, or place of prayer; the fish-
pond; the Sak-i-Suliman; Balm erf, which was origin-
ally called Abul Walid; the Imam Takhr; the Bagh-
i-Khiaban; the colleges and tombs of the Mirza;
# The word taJcJit signifies "palace."
HERAT.
41
the college of Guher-shad Begam, her tomb, and her
grand mosque; the Bagh-i-Zaghan (or Raven Gar-
den); the Bagh-i-nou (or New Garden); the Bagh-
i-Zobeideh (or Zobeideh's Garden); the Aksarai, or
White Palace, built by Sultan Abusaid Mirza, which
is situated close by the Irak gate; Puran and
Sufeh-i-Sirandazar (the Warrior's Seat); Chirgh
Alanik and Mr Wahid; the Bridge of Malan; the
Kkwajeh Tak (Kkwajeh's Porch), and Bagh-i-
Sufed (White Garden); the Tarab-Khana (Pleasure
House); the Bagh-i-Jahanara; the Kioshk and Makavi
Khaneh (or Mansion of Enjoyment); the Sosni-Khana
(or Lily Palace); the Doazdeh Burj, or twelve towers;
the great reservoir on the north of the Jahanara;
the four edifices on its four sides; the five gates
of the town walls, the King's Gate, the Irak Gate,
the Firozabad Gate, the Khush Gate, and the Kipchak
Gate; the King's Bazar; the Charsu or great Public
Market; the college of Shekh-ul-Islam; the Grand
Mosque of the Kings; the Bagh-i-Shahar, or City
Garden; the College of the Badia-i-zaman Mirza,
which is built on the banks of the River Anjil; AH
Shir B6g's dwelling-house, which they call Unsia
(or Palace of Ease); his tomb and great mosque;
42
HERAT.
his college and convent, his baths and hospital; all
these I saw in the short space I had to spare."
Wearisome as the repetition of names may be found,
I know no other description which brings so vividly
to the mind the splendour of Herat as Herat was
before it had been plundered and desolated by the
Afghans.
The origin of Herat can be traced far into anti-
quity. To the ancients the province of which it is
the capital was known as Aria and Ariana.* The
name was, in the course of time, gradually changed
to Heri—a name which still survives in the river
* The town of Herat has several names in Persian. It is called
Hiri, Hird, Hiriva, and Hired; the dialect of the country, and a
native thereof, are both called Hiravi; and anything belonging
to the district is styled Hiriva. All these words take their origin
from the sound Mr or liar, akin to the Bengali word ar-ya, "a
husbandman," and the Sanskrit ar-ya, " the Hindu " _par excellence,
or agriculturist as opposed to the nomad. Ar means "to plough,"
and is the same as the old English verb "to ere" (Lat. errare,
to err, to go), and it was the source not only of the word A'rya
as applied to the Hindus, but of Ir-an, the name of Persia itself,
and of Aria the district of Herat, which must thus have received
its very name on account of its abundant fertility and agricultural
resources.
HUE AT.
43
flowing to the south of it, Herirud, the river of
Heri—and later to Herat. It is mentioned by the
earliest writers, and has often served as a residence
of the greatest conquerors of the Bast. Tradition
has brought here Nebuchadnezzar and Seinirarais.
The Persian historians assert, with a remarkable
unanimity, that Alexander the Great gave it its
earliest name of Artakoana. Arrian writes of it as
Artakoana or Artakana, the royal city of the in-
habitants of Aria. There can be no doubt, at any
rate, that the city of the time of the Macedonians
was the gate through which Alexander the Great
passed to the conquest of India.
It is difficult to trace the history of Herat between
the era of the conquest of India by Alexander
(327 B.C.) and the devastation of the city by Chin-
giz Khan (1221-22). But if I pass over this period
of fifteen hundred and fifty years more lightly
than I could wish, I shall be able to dwell with
more detail on the Herat of the middle ages—the
Herat which commanded all the trade of Asia—to
indicate the causes which led to its decline, and to
show how, its place having been unappropriated by
any other city, it is possible now to restore to it
HERAT.
its pristine splendour, to make it once again the
granary and garden of Central Asia.
According to Ferishta* Khorasan with its capital
Herat was conquered in 651 a.d. by Abdulla bin
Amir, Governor of Basrah, for the Caliph Othman.
It was then that the faith of Islam was spread
throughout the border-land of Iran and Tiiran.
In the course of a few years Khorasan and the
country beyond the Oxus devolved upon the princes
of the house of Samani, whose capital was Bo-
khara. Towards the end of the tenth century, how-
however, Khorasan, severed from Turanian Asia,
formed part of the country which procured its inde-
pendence under Sabaktaghin, father of the renowned
Mahmiid of Grhazni.
What Herat was at this period I have already
described.! The city was already famous for the
magnificence of its buildings. The districts around
it were even then proverbial for their fertility.
Already Herat had become a commercial centre of
* Briggs's "Ferishta," vol. i. page 3.
f Page 38, the testimony of Ibn Haukal.
HUB AT.
45
no ordinary attraction. In spite of the fact that
the times were unsettled, that the border-land be-
tween Iran and Turan was frequently the battle-
ground for empire, this prosperity never wavered.
There was a magic in the situation—the centre
where the roads from Bokhara, from Persia, from
India converged — in its fertile and well-watered
valley, that preserved Herat, even in the ordinary
times of a troublous era, from devastation and
plunder.
Not, however, that the fair city remained un-
molested in the hands of the Ghaznivides. Whilst
the most renowned of that race, the famous Mah-
mud, was engaged in his raids against India, there
arose in Transoxiana a family whose fame was
destined to equal that of his own. Tbogrul Beg—
the son of Mikail, the son of Seljuk—the founder
of the Seljuk dynasty, was born in Transoxiana in
the beginning of the eleventh century. In the early
portion of the second half of that century he crossed
the Oxus with his followers, known in history as
the Seljuki Turks, and, defeating the army of Masaod,
son of Mahmud of Grhazni, possessed himself of
the city of Nishapur. Recognised as king in that
46
HERAT.
city and in the districts dependent upon it, lie re-
solved to extend his sway over all Khorasan. With
this view he despatched (a.h. 429, a.d. 1038) his
brother Griafar Beg to Herat. Herat was conquered.
Merv, assailed by Thogrdl Beg in person, yielded
to his might, and in a very short time the remainder
of the province acknowledged him as Sultan. Thog-
rul Beg, consigning Herat to the care of one of his
uncles, made Merv the capital of the province.
"Having established there his royal residence,"
writes the historian, "he gave new laws to all the
country of Khorasan, by which all the disorders and
injustice which had been perpetrated there for a
long time were repressed."*
The conquest of Herat and the occupation of
Khorasan by the Seljuks gave a permanent cha-
racter to the population alike of the city and the
province. The indigenous inhabitants would seem
to have been Persians. The settlement in large
numbers of the Seljuks who came with Thogrul
Beg caused the first graft of a new blood on the
* D'Herbelot.
HERAT.
47
original stock. The Moghols who subsequently came
with Chingiz Khan and the Turko-Tartars who
followed Taimur still further affected the strain.
The result has been the collective name of Char
Aimak, and the subdivision of the people into the
Jemshidi, Firuzkuhi, and Taimani or Taimuri.*
The nephew and successor of Thogrul Beg, the
renowned Alp Arslan—the prince of whom d'Herbelot
records that he had seen at the foot of his throne
two hundred princes or sons of princes paying him
their court—retained Khorasan and Herat during
his reign. He died at Mervf a.h. 465, a.d. 1072.
Khorasan continued under Seljuk rule during the
reigns of Malik Shah, son of Alp-Arslan (who died
a.d. 1092); of Barkiarok, son of Malik Shah (who
died a.d. 1104); of his brother, Graiathudm (who
died a.d. 1117); and of his brother, a very famous
prince, Sangiar, who died, after a glorious reign of
* Vambery's " Travels," page 273.
t On his tomb was placed an epitaph, of which the following is
a translation: "You, all of you, who have seen the greatness of
Alp-Arslan, mounting up to the shies, come to Merv, and you
will see him mingled with the dust."
48
HE BAT.
forty years, in a.d. 1158. Mahniud, a son of the
sister of Sangiar, reigned, according to the historian
Khondemir, five years in Khorasan after his uncle's
death. At the expiration of this term one of the
great lords of the country revolted against him,
defeated him, and deprived him of his eye-sight.
The result of this successful rebellion was the sever-
ance of Khorasan from the Seljuk dynasty. The
larger portion of the province, including Herat, fell
under the dominion of the Sultans of Khwarizm
(Khiva); the remainder was occupied by the rebels.
Within a few years, however, the several parts were
united under the rule of Muhammad Khan, King of
Khwarizm, a.d. 1199. For a moment, indeed, (a.d.
1207,) Herat fell into the possession of the united
forces of Mahmud, the titular successor of the last of
the Grhorian dynasty, and of Kutb-ud-dm, the founder
of the slave dynasty of Hindustan; but, attempting
to penetrate thence into the country now known as
Afghan Turkistan, the two princes were defeated by
Muhammad Khan, and dispossessed of all their con-
quests. From that moment till the appearance of
Chingiz Khan the rule of the Sultan of Khwarizm
in Herat was unquestioned.
EE BAT.
49
The faint outline of the history of Herat, suf-
ficient, perhaps, for the purposes of this narrative,
is thus brought up to the year 1219. Throughout
this period the prosperity of the province had been
increasing. In that year it seemed assured The
records of the period assert that there were then in
the city twelve thousand retail shops; six thousand
public baths, caravansaries, and water-mills; three
hundred and fifty schools and monastic institutions;
a hundred and forty-four thousand occupied houses;
and that the city was yearly visited by caravans
from all parts of Asia.
This prosperity received its first terrible blow from
Chingiz Khan. This conqueror, the leader of the
Mongols or Moghols, having first asserted his autho-
rity over his own people, marched at their head to
devastate Asia. In the course of a few years he
established his supremacy over the vast country
bordered in the east by China, in the north and
the west by the Volga and the Caspian. Proclaimed
the Great Khan of the Tartars, he, at the beginning
of the year 1219, had conquered Western China,
and had penetrated as far as Pekin.
He then turned his arms against the kingdom of
4
50
HERAT.
which Herat formed a component part, and of which
Muhammad Khan was the ruler. That kingdom,
including, besides Herat, Bokhara, Samarkand, Kho-
kand, Kashgar, Persia, Afghanistan, and Biliichistan
as far as the Indus, fell before the invader. Every
conquered city felt the fury of his warriors. Ac-
cording to the Khorasani historian, Khondemir,* a
native of Herat, that city suffered by the two
stormings of Chingiz Khan a loss of a million and
a half of men. For there were two stormings
of Her&t. The city was taken and plundered by
the army of Chingiz Khan in 1219. It was retaken
by Jalaludm, son of Muhammad Khan, in 1221.
It was stormed a second time by the troops of Chingiz
KMn in 1222.
But Chingiz KMn was a passing scourge. Twenty-
nine years after the second storming of Herat, he and
his successors had disappeared, and from that time
* The work of this historian, who flourished in the fifteenth
century, bears a Persian title, the signification of which is, "A
work which contains all the most certain and most exact details
contained in authentic and accepted histories." The work traces
the order of events from the creation of the world to the year
1471.
HERAT.
51
(1251) until the invasion of Tairniir—better known
in Europe as Tamerlane—(1381), the granary and
garden of Central Asia enjoyed under the fostering
care of native rulers—the Grhorian dynasty—un-
chequered prosperity. Once more was the city
populated; again did palaces reappear and markets
reopen. Again did the city become renowned for
its splendour, for its wealth and for its luxury. In
the course of these hundred and thirty years the
royal palaces became adorned with costly treasures;
the workers in gold and silver ornaments sent their
fame throughout Central Asia; the city walls were
rebuilt, and the city gates ornamented with splendid
carvings, fringed with the polished steel of the
country. Again did Herat become the wonder of
the eastern world. In that world the proverb then
was universal, "Which is the most splendid city in
the world? If you answer truly you must say
Her&t!"
But at the end of those hundred and thirty years,
years of peace, prosperity, and splendour, the destroyer
once more appeared. The destroyer was Tamerlane.
Gathering in his own hands the guiding-reins of
the Tiirki tribes of Central Asia, this able warrior
4 *
52
HERAT.
setting out from Samarkand, burst suddenly, in
1381, upon Herat. He delivered tlie splendid city
to destruction and pillage. The costly ornaments
of the royal palace, the abundant supplies in the
treasury, the throne, the golden crown, the ornaments
of gold and silver, the precious stones, were all
carried off by the conqueror; the city walls were
cast down; the city gates were taken to Kesh—the
birth-place of Taimur. An enormous contribution
was levied on the inhabitants. Their luxurious
houses, adorned within with Kachan porcelain, were
indeed allowed to stand, but many of the most
learned doctors and sages of the place were trans-
ported across the Oxus. The humiliation of the city
seemed "complete.*
* That Taimur should have allowed Herat to be sacked and
plundered is a stain upon his name. The city offered no resistance.
D'Herbelot expressly states that the governor of the city, finding
himself incapable of offering a successful resistance, went to
meet him, and paid him homage. The fact of the pillage is
incontestable. It is affirmed not only by D'Herbelot, but by the
Persian historians of the period. (Vide "Bitter, Die Erdkunde,
Achter Theil.) It must not be supposed from this that Taimur
was a mere destroyer. In a careful summary of his character and
career he is thus judged by Erskine: "Whatever Taimur's
descent, his high elevation was due to his own transcendant
HUE AT.
53
It was not so, however. Taimur was a states-
man as well as a warrior. He recognised Lat once
the value of the central position he had gained
in the capital of Khorasan. From that country
he conquered Persia. Through the gate of Herat
his armies marched to Kandahar and to Delhi. So
sensible was he of its importance, that the third
year after Herat had been all but demolished, he sent
thither his son Miran Shah to reoccupy it. Many
of the damages caused by the siege were then re-
paired. The palaces were redecorated, the character
of the city as the commercial capital of Central Asia
was restored; only the walls were not rebuilt. But
so speedily did the city rise from its ashes, that in
1389 we find the same Miran Shah, who in the
interval had led the armies of Taimur into various
parts of Asia, and who had then but recently been
talents. His first contests, like those of Chingiz Khan, had for
their object to gain the direction of his own tribe, which, after
many vicissitudes of fortune, he attained; and following up his
success, after long and painful exertions he became the undisputed
ruler of all Mawerannaher" (Trans-Oxiana) "and had the glory
of restoring to peace and prosperity its various provinces which
had long been a prey to anarchy . . . He left at his death
one of the greatest empires the world ever saw."
54
HERAT.
sent to repress a revolt in the city of Tus, near
the modern Nishapiir, determining to rest for a month
at Herat, " to divert himself" on his way to his
father's court at Samarkand.
About eight years later, 1396-7, Taimur conferred
the government of the provinces of Khorasan, Sistan,
and Mazandarari, upon his fourth son, the Mirza
Shah-Rokh. Again was manifested the great value
attached to Herat. "As soon," writes d'Herbelot,
"as this Prince was given this government, which
he held almost in sovereignty, he selected the royal
city of Herat for his general residence." He resided
there up to the time of his father's death in 1405,*
when the rich heritage of Transoxiana and of Turk-
istan devolved upon him.
But once more did Herat vindicate her claims
to be the Queen of eastern cities. Transoxiana
boasted of many royal residences. Samarkand had
been the seat of government of Taimur, the capital
of his vast dominions. But Shah-Rokh saw in Herat
a city whence he could hold fast Transoxiana, whilst
* Taimur died in the year of the Hegira 807. Erskine renders
this date a.d. 1405.
HERAT.
55
keeping in his own firm grip the key of the countries
to the west, to the east, and to the south of him.
He therefore sent his son Ulugh Beg as his lieu-
tenant to Samarkand, whilst he himself kept royal
court at Herat. Virtually Herat thus became the
capital of the whole of Central Asia.
This was the period of the greatest prosperity of
the royal city. Shah-Rokk has left a name which still
lives in Oriental history. He rendered himself
famous, not less for his military talents than for
his justice, his piety, and his generosity. His reign
of forty-three years is a long record of actions
honourable to him, alike as a man and as a ruler.
He had done much for Herat in the lifetime of his
father, but after Taimur's death he restored the for-
tifications, rebuilt and redecorated the gates, paying
for the redecorations from his private funds.
The life of Shah-Rokh has been narrated by the
Herati historian Abdulrazzak. His work has been
translated into English, and a compendium and
review of it are to be found in successive numbers of
the "Journal Asiatique" for 1836. To give in this
book all the details of a long reign would be foreign
to my purpose. It will suffice to state that under
56
HERAT.
Shah-Rokh Herat attained a prosperity greater even
than that which it had enjoyed before the sacking of
the city by Taimur. So favoured, indeed, is the city
in its situation, in a fertile and fruitful valley, com-
manding the point on which all the commercial routes
of Central Asia converge, that it needs only good and
beneficent administration to enable it to attain to and
to sustain the very highest degree of prosperity. The
history of the past eight hundred years has shown
that long-continued and permanent misgovernment
can alone neutralise the natural advantages possessed
by Herat; and that, crushed as she may be by these,
she possesses the elasticity which enables her to
rebound at once when the pressure is removed.
To give the reader some idea of the magnificence of
the city of Herat at this period, I cite from M.
Quatremere's translation of a portion of the work
of Abdulrazzak,* the following account of the pre-
parations made for the royal festivities on the occa-
sion of performing the rites of circumcision on Mirza
Baisangar and Muhammad Djonglii Bahadur, the two
* "Notice sur l'ouvrage qui a pour titre: a Matla Assadein ou
Madjnia Albahrein." Paris: 1843.
HERAT.
57
sons of the Emperor Shah-Rokh. "In the royal
garden were erected tents, which had from eighty to
a hundred poles, scarlet pavilions, and tents made of
silk. In these tents were thrones of gold and silver,
encircled by garlands of rubies and pearls. From
the carpets issued vapours of amber, whilst the
durbar tent was perfumed with the soothing odour
of musk. Bazaars and shops, richly ornamented,
recalled the beauty of the garden of Irem. Cupolas,
fascinating to the eye, elegantly decorated, seemed
like caskets filled with precious stones, or constella-
tions of numberless stars. Cupbearers, on silver pe-
destals, with hands as white as crystal, smiling lips,
and holding golden cups, gave everywhere the signal
of pleasure. Singers sang to melodious tunes the
songs formerly heard at the court of Sassanidge.
Skilful musicians, touching deftly the lute and the
lyre, ravished the reason of the listeners. In each
tent was a magnificent reception room. The diver-
sions were prolonged for many days without in-
terruption. The Emperor was prodigal to all, to
those of low as well as to those of high rank, of
his generosity and munificence. This august fete
was celebrated in the city of Herat, the capital
58
HERAT.
of the kingdom, in the last days of the month of
Rebi."
This great prince died a.h. 851, equivalent to a.d.
1447. He was succeeded by his son Ulugh Beg, who
for thirty-eight years had ruled as his father's lieu-
tenant in Transoxiana. Ulugh Beg was forced,
however, to fight for Herat. His nephew, Alia
uldaolat, son of the Mirza Baisangar who was one
of the heroes of the fete I have described, seized
that city and the districts of which it is the capital,
and tried to hold it. Ulugh Beg defeated him, how-
ever, near Balai Murghab. He was not so fortunate
a few months later in a contest with his own son,
Abdul Latif, who, rebelling and fighting against him,
took him prisoner near Balkh, and caused him to be
put to death. Ulugh Beg had reigned, since his
father's death, two years and nine months. He was
a great prince, a lover of the sciences, especially of
astronomy. The importance of Herat was in no way
impaired during his reign.
His successor in Transoxiana, Abdul Latif, sur-
vived him only six months. He was killed by his
own soldiers. His cousin, Abdullah, followed, but
reigned only one year, when he was dispossessed by
HERAT.
59
Abusaid, grandson of Miran Shah, son of Taimiir.
During these years, following the death of Ulugh Beg,
Babar, grandson of Shah-Rokh through Baisangar
Mirza, had reigned peaceably in Herat. Babar died
in 1456. Then the Abusaid above alluded to, who
had already annexed Kashgar, Kerman, and Miiltan
to his empire, and who had long coveted Herat,
occupied that city. He held it till the year a.h. 872,
equivalent to a.d. 1468-9, when making an expe-
dition into Irak,* he was surprised, defeated, and
slain by the Turkman chief, Hassan Beg. His death,
known in history as 64 the calamity of Irak," was
the signal for the break-up of the empire which
Taimur had founded.
For the moment Herat fell into the possession of
the son of Abiisaid, Mirza Sultan Mahmud. Mahmiid
had been present at the battle in which his father had
fallen, and had fled from the field after the defeat. He
now came to Herat. His abode there was not, how-
ever, of long duration. Sultan Husen, son of Man-
sur, great-grandson of Taimiir, who had more or
* The greater Media of the ancients.
60
HERAT.
less successfully opposed Abusaid during his lifetime,
marched into Khorasan, conquered it, and established
his seat of government at Herat.
Again, for the first time since the death of Shah
Rokh, did Herat enjoy a firm and settled govern-
ment. The reign of Sultan Husen Mirza, beginning
in 1470, covered thirty-five years of unexampled
prosperity. Husen Mirza would have been accounted
a great man in any age. To a love of the higher
branches of science he added a profound knowledge
of the art of governing, and he was animated by an
earnest desire for the welfare of his people. Under
his rule Herat became the most magnificent city in
the east; Khorasan the most cultivated and the most
fertile kingdom in Central Asia. The accumulating
wealth of the province poured into Herat. Wealth
attracted men of learning, men of science, men of
literature. Under such auspices culture rapidly de-
veloped. The fame of the city spread throughout
the east. Its central position attracted merchants
from all lands. The natural resources of the pro-
vince were developed in an extraordinary manner.
Khorasan became the milch cow of Central Asia,
Herat her magnificent capital.
EBB AT.
61
Shah Husen Mirza died in 1505. The prosperity
of his country had excited the envy of the neigh-
bouring princes and people, and his sons, amiable
and agreeable though they were, had been born in
the purple. But the times were threatening. An
Uzbek chief, lineally descended from Chingiz Khan,
Sheibani Khan, better known in history as Shahi Beg,
chief of the Turk! Uzbeks, and who, after a life of
adventure, had conquered a great part of Transoxiana
and the kingdom of Khiva, was at the time threaten-
ing the gate of India. The sons of Shah Husen
Mirza, reared in the purple, were not the men to
meet a dangerous crisis, and it happened that to the
danger of invasion was at this moment added the
greater danger of a disputed succession.
The eldest son of Shah Husen Mirza was Badi-
al-zaman Mirza; the son of his favourite wife was
called Mozaffar Husen Mirza. It was between these
two that the contention for the succession arose.
In the presence, however, of a common danger, that
of invasion, they had the good sense to enter into a
compromise, and to agree to a joint sovereignty.
It was just after this arrangement had been con-
cluded that the renowned Babar, the founder of the
62
HERAT.
Moghol Empire in India, came to Herat on a visit.
Babar was distantly related to the princes. He was
fifth in descent on his father's side from Taimur,
and twelfth on his mother's side from Chingiz Khan.
At this time he was King of Kabul and Ghazm.
Previously to his death Shah Husen Mirza had in-
vited him to visit Herat, and Babar was on his
way thither, and had reached Kahmerd,* when he
heard of the death of the Shah.
Babar remained at Kahmerd till the dissensions
to which I have alluded were appeased. He then
continued his journey, joined the two princes on
the banks of the Murghab, and became their guest
in camp, and subsequently in Herat.
Of his visit Babar has left a long and interesting
account in his memoirs. He detected at once the
utter unfitness of his hosts for the arts of war and of
government. "Although very accomplished at the
* It is interesting to trace the course followed by Babar from
Kabul to Herat. He took the route of Ghorband and Shibrtu.
From Ushtar-Shahr he proceeded to Zohak and Gumbazak, de-
scending by Saighan and the Denclan Shikn Pass to Kahmerd.
The more southerly route he took on his return is described in the
last chapter of this book.—Vide " Erskine," vol. i., page 239.
EJEJEAT.
63
social board/' he wrote, "or in the arrangement of
a party of pleasure, and although they had a pleasing
talent for conversation and society, they possessed
no knowledge whatever of the conduct of a cam-
paign or of warlike operations, and were perfect
strangers to whatever related to the arrangements
of a battle or the dangers and spirit of a soldier's
life." In fact, though every consideration required
that a forward move should be made in the direc-
tion of Balkh to repel the Uzbeks, no such move
was made. Babar not only counselled it, but offered
to lead it. But doubt and hesitation ruled the
councils of the princes, and they waited till it was
too late.
The princes then endeavoured to induce Babar to
return with them to Herat. He was unwilling to
be so long absent from Kabul, but in the end he
consented. "I could not say No," he writes, "in
the face of the Mirzas, and consented to remain.
One reason that influenced me was that so many
kings had come to urge my stay; a second, that
in the whole habitable world there was not such
another city as Hen (Herat)." He stayed a month
at Herat and tasted of its pleasures. But, if he
64
HERAT,
learned there to drink wine, he saw there, by the
example of the princes, how over-indulgence in it
was apt to render unfit for affairs those who par-
took of it too freely. He foresaw that the princes,
his hosts, who did so, would not be able to retain
for long the inheritance of their father.
In forming this judgment Babar displayed his
customary acumen. He started on his return journey
to Kabul in the height of winter. No sooner had
that winter been succeeded by the early spring than
Shahi Beg' entered Khorasan. The two kings who
had feted Babar moved from Herat and took up a
position at Baba Khaki. Here they remained for
some time, a prey to the divided counsels which were
the necessary consequences of divided authority.
Whilst they were still disputing, Shahi Beg, ad-
vancing on the line on which General Kaufmann
will march from the Oxus, made a flank march and
seized Sarrakhs, then, as now, an important position,
and on the direct caravan road to the capital. The
move was fatal to the two kings. They appreciated
the enormous consequences to Herat of the possession
by their enemy of a place so important, in a strategical
point of view, as Sarrakhs. They at once broke up
HERAT.
65
their army and abandoned Herat. That capital city
fell at once into the possession of Shahi Beg. The
dynasty of Taimur thus succumbed in Khorasan with-
out striking a blow.
Shahi Beg retained his conquest only four years.
Those years were spent by him in completing the
subjugation of Khorasan, in besieging and taking
Kandahar, in waging a not altogether successful
campaign against the Kaizak Uzbeks, and in an
unprofitable expedition against the Hazaras. But
in the fourth year he himself was threatened by
Ishmail, Shah of Persia.
Ishmail, founder of the Safvi dynasty of Persia,
was one of the most renowned characters of Oriental
history. "He was endowed," writes d'Herbelot, "with
a courage unparalleled. In the greatest dangers he
was intrepid, terrible and formidable to his enemies.
He enforced military discipline with severity, and
was so ambitious that he was in the habit of saying,
c One God for the Heavens and one Monarch for the
Earth.5" Such was the prince who, having esta-
blished himself in Persia and in part of Arabia, now
threatened the ruler of Khorasan with a formidable
army.
5
66
HERAT.
Threatening, and receiving no submission, Ishmail
acted. He invaded Khorasan and marched on Mashad.
Shahi Beg, leaving a small force to defend Herat,
directed his remaining troops to concentrate at Merv.
There, on the 2nd December 1510, he encountered the
Persian army. It was the contest for empire between
the Uzbek and the Kazzalbash. The Kazzalbash
won. Shahi Beg was completely defeated and slain.
"Immediately after this decisive battle," writes
Erskine, "the Uzbeks retired in every direction
from Khorasan. Shah Ishmail soon after repaired
to Herat, where he spent the winter. His first care
was to introduce the observances of the Shiah sect
into his new dominions; and, as he was met by a
bigotry and firmness equal to his own, he did not
accomplish that object without a severe and cruel
persecution, in the course of which the blood of many
men eminent for their piety and their virtues flowed,
and many distinguished names were added to the list
of martyrs for the pure Sunni faith."*
With the conquest of Herat by Persia the greater
glory of the city departed. The Persian monarch
* Erskine's "Life of Baber," vol. i. page 305.
HIE EAT.
67
transferred the government seat of Khorasan first to
Tus—a city now fallen into decay, seventeen miles
from the modern Mashad—and subsequently to Ma-
shad. To foster the prosperity of this last-named town
the efforts of the court of the Safvis were strenuously
devoted. Situated in a fertile valley, varying in
extent from twelve to thirty miles, Mashad seemed
to offer almost every advantage required by a capital.
A river runs to the north and north-east of the town,
which is, on the whole, well built and well arranged.
It failed, however, in one most essential point. Lying
two hundred and twenty-eight miles westward of
Herat, it was removed by that distance from the point
where all the commercial roads of the East, one only
excepted, converged. The defect was fatal. An officer
of the Engineers in India, to whom the marking out
of a certain line of railway had been entrusted, took
the line at a distance of some four to eight miles from
the principal towns on the route. When remon-
strated with, he remarked that it did not signify,
as the to eras would come to the railway. He was
wrong; the towns did not come to the railway.
The princes of the Safvi dynasty acted on the prin-
ciple which guided the decision of the engineer,
5 *
68
HERAT.
They beautified and subsidised Mashad, whilst they
utterly neglected Her&t, believing that by so acting
the trade would abandon Herat and come to Mashad.
But the eternal law which decrees that commerce
shall find the quickest and cheapest route, and,
finding, shall adhere to it until another route, quicker
and cheaper, shall be found; which, when the route
by the Cape of Good Hope was discovered, aban-
doned the time-honoured markets of Venice; which,
now that the route by the Suez Canal has been made
practicable, is seeking, and if we English do not
keep our eyes open, will find, to our detriment, a
cheaper and a shorter route to the markets of the
world;—that law foiled the plans of the Safvis.
Mashad, though petted as Trieste was petted by
the Austrians when they held that city and Venice,
did not supersede Herat. But, nevertheless, Herat
suffered. The city, once so splendid, once the capital
of a kingdom, was neglected and oppressed. It is
true that Shah Ishmail, after he had incorporated
Khorasan with Persia, twice visited the city. His
first visit, and the wretched persecutions of which it
became the consequence, I have already noticed. He
resided there a second time in 1511, after he had ex-
HERAT.
69
pelled the Uzbeks from Khwarizm (the kingdom of
Khiva). But the death of Ishmail in 1523, and the
succession of a boy prince, Shah Tahmasp, revived
the hopes of the Uzbeks. They raised an army the
same year, and laid siege to Herat.
This was the first of the long sieges which the city
sustained. It was defended by the governor of the
province, Durmish Khan Shamlu, with extraordinary
courage. Every attack was foiled, and after many
attempts to gain the city, made during a period of
seven months, the Uzbeks were forced to beat a
retreat.
But the retreat provided but a respite for Herat.
The following year death carried off not only the
brave governor I have mentioned, but the governor
of Mashad likewise, and Khorasan was left with-
out a head. The Uzbeks took advantage of this
double disaster to renew their invasion. Crossing
the Oxus at Oharjui, they marched on and captured
Merv and Sarrakhs; they then attacked Mashad.
Mashad fell after a desperate resistance.*" Tiis,
* "Erskine," page 457; but Babar says, in his "Memoirs,"
that " Mashhad, having no means of defence, submitted,"
70
HERAT.
which Mashad had even then supplanted, was next
attacked. After a siege of eight months Tits capi-
tulated on terms. In spite of the terms, however,
all the men in the place were massacred and the
women carried away captive.*
In consequence of events in other quarters calling
away the attention of the Uzbek leader, Herat was
for the moment spared the horrors of a siege. Only,
however, for the moment. In 1527 the Uzbeks laid
siege to it. The city was defended by Husen Khan
Shamlu, a man bold, daring, and fertile in resources.
During seven months he repulsed every assault.
Provisions then began to fail. To feed his garrison,
and thus to prolong the defence, he forced the in-
habitants to yield up their supplies. Even then he
was reduced to the last extremity, when Shah Tah-
masp, defeating the Uzbeks at Damghan, and ad-
vancing rapidly on Mashad to cut off the retreat
of the army besieging Herat, forced its leader to
raise the siege. A few weeks later, 26th September
1523, Shah Tahmasp encountered and completely de-
feated the Uzbeks at Jam, a town nearly midway
* Babar's " Memoirs," page 343.
BERAT.
71
between Mashad and Herat. The battle was one of
the best contested of the age, and is referred to with
justifiable pride by Persian historians as illustrative
of the manner in which Persian troops, well drilled
and well led, can and will fight.*
The year following, the Uzbeks, recovering from
their defeat, once more invaded Khorasan and
took Mashad. They then moved on Herat. Herat
withstood them for seven months, and then, hope-
less of succour, capitulated. But the triumph of
the Uzbeks was short-lived. The following year,
however, (1530), Shah Tahmasp advanced with an
army, and recovered the whole of Khorasan. But
Herat was again attacked by the Uzbeks, and again
relieved by Shah Tahmasp towards the end of the
same year. Shah Tahmasp wintered in the neigh-
bourhood, and for the two following years the city
enjoyed peace.
# The Persian army numbered only forty thousand men; but
they were veterans trained to service in the Ottoman wars. They
possessed a fine artillery, two thousand trained artillerymen, and
six thousand matchloclonen. The Uzbeks, according to the
lowest calculations, numbered one hundred and five thousand
men.—Vide " Erskine," vol. i. pages 490-91.
72
HERAT.
But events happened, then, which exposed Herat
to a danger greater than any it had encountered
since the days of Taimur. It had enjoyed the two
years of tranquillity of which I have spoken, under
the rule of Sam Mirza, son of Shah Tahmasp. This
prince, irritated by the slaughter, by order of his
father, of the Shamlu tribe of which his two
governors, when he was a child, had been members
and his present minister actually was a member,
determined to conquer Kandahar, and to erect it,
with Herat, into an independent principality.
Sam Mirza accordingly marched on and besieged
Kandahar. The siege had lasted eight months, when
K&mran Mirza, son of Babar, advanced to the relief
of the town and defeated the Persian prince, who fled
with difficulty to Tabbas.
The departure of Sam Mirza on this expedition
had left Khorasan exposed to the Uzbeks. They
seized their opportunity, and in the middle of 1536
laid siege to Herat.
Herat had but a small garrison. The officer who
commanded it endeavoured to enlist the townspeople
in its defence. They were not unwilling, but the
severities of the commander soon disgusted them
HERAT.
73
with military service, and they began to yearn for
the end,—even, it is said, to intrigue with the Uzbeks.
But for five months the siege continued. The city
had been unprovided for such a contingency, and the
inhabitants suffered all the miseries of war and
famine. At length, three hundred Uzbeks having
gained entrance by night into a bastion, it is said
by treachery, the city was taken. All the horrors
of a storm followed. The garrison fled to the citadel,
which, however, was a few days later yielded to the
Uzbeks, under terms which were violated.
Four months later, 1537, Shah Tahmasp recovered
Herat, the Uzbeks retreating on his advance. Their
retreat was a final one. Never again was Herat
molested by the Uzbeks, and during the period of
more than a century and a half that followed, the
city enjoyed peace, and was able, by the unrivalled
advantages of its position, to sustain on more than
equal terms the growing commercial opposition of
Mashad.
Some idea of the quick revival of the prosperity
of Herat may be gathered from the visit paid to it
in 1544, seven years only after the final departure
of the Uzbeks, by the Emperor Humdyun, then a
74
HERAT.
fugitive from India, and repulsed from Afghanistan
by his brother Kamran. Humayun had been hospit-
ably received in Sistan by the Persian governor, and
had been invited by him to proceed to Irak and the
Persian Court. The reputation of Herat for splen-
dour and magnificence so attracted the royal fugitive
that he asked for and obtained permission to take
that city and Mashhad on his way. The glories of
this visit are recorded at length in the Akbarnama.
As Humayun approached Herat, the entire population
of the city poured out, and covered the hills and
plains, the trees and house-tops, as he passed along.
He was received with the magnificent courtesy such
as a royal prince, not a fugitive, might have looked
for. He was lodged in the royal palace. A magnifi-
cent entertainment was provided for him iu the
Jahanara gardens. The eldest son of the Shah paid
him royal honours. Nothing was wanting to the
dignity and grandeur of the reception.
Humayun stayed a month at Herat. Notwith-
standing its sieges and its misfortunes since the
time of the visit paid to it by Babar, just after the
death of Shah Husen Mirza, it was still one of the
finest cities in the east. So Humayun found it. The
HERAT.
75
impressions made upon him during his stay there
were neither effaced nor weakened by the later
glories of his reign.
From this date to the year 1715 Herat shared the
fortunes of the Persian monarchy. Administered by
a Persian governor, with the sole object of advanc-
ing the interests of Persia, often to the detriment of
its own, the city was neglected and its prosperity
declined. During this period, Mashad, on the other
hand, made rapid strides. The illustrious monarch,
Shah Abbas the Great, who ruled for forty-six years—
from 1582 to 1628—devoted himself to push the
fortunes of the new capital of Khorasan. His
policy Avas a policy of sentiment. He had made
the city of Ispahan the capital of his dominions,
and had adorned it with magnificent and useful
buildings. The population of the city more than
doubled during his reign. From Ispahan to Ma-
shad the distance is nearly two hundred para-
sangs, or nearly eight hundred miles. Mashad
had a great attraction for the King on account
of its containing the tomb of the saintly Imam All
Reza, and he visited it frequently. On one occasion
he walked the entire distance, followed by the chief
76
HERAT.
officers of his court. It can easily be conceived
how his love for the city led him to make it worthy
of the place it held in his affections. He beautified
it as he had beautified Ispahan. He endeavoured by
all means to make it the commercial capital of his
empire. The money he spent upon it attracted
capitalists and merchants. The trade route to China
passed through its streets. But Mashad never became
a centre. Mashad never entirely superseded the neg-
lected Herat. The palaces in that city might remain
unoccupied, but the caravansarais continued full to
repletion. Merchants from all parts of the world
still met in her great Charsu, and the manufactures
of the East and of the West were still exchanged
within her gates.
Abbas the Great died. From the date of his death
in 1628 till the accession of the last of his dynasty,
Sultan Husen, in 1694, the history of Herat is a
blank. The policy of exalting Mashad continued, to
the detriment of the beauty, but without materially
affecting the credit, of the real commercial capital.
But with the accession of Sultan Husen began a new
era—the era of dismemberment for Persia, and no
long time elapsed before Herat, with all the sen-
HERAT.
77
sitiveness peculiar to commerce, felt the consequences
of his relaxed rule.
Dwelling in the Hazara country, vassals of Persia,
and immediately subject to the governor of Herat,
were the Afghans of the Abdali tribe. Up to the
beginning of the eighteenth century these rude
mountaineers were content to be vassals and nothing
more than vassals. To humour them Shah Abbas
the Great had consented that they should be ruled
over by the chief of their own tribe, subject to the
supervision of the governor of Herat. But this wise
rule had been departed from by the successors of
Abbas the Great. Persian lords, favourites of the
Court, were often sent to control the chiefs; and
the corrupt action of these men tended to excite
angry feelings in men who, till then, had never
thought of rebellion.
A shameful act of a shameless man brought, in
1717, matters to a crisis. The Persian Governor of
Herat, Muhammad Zuman Khan, offered to Azad-
ulla Khan, son of the chief of the Abdalis, one of
those insults which can only be atoned by blood.
The father, horrible to say, was privy to the insult.
It stirred Azadulla Khan to fury. He slew his father,
78
HERAT.
and then marching at the head of the warriors of his
tribe, by whom he had been proclaimed chief, at-
tacked, defeated, and killed Muhammad Zuman
Khan in the Zamindawar; then pushing on for
Herat, seized it, and declared it independent of
Persia!
Thus it was that the great commercial centre of
the East fell into the possession of the rude Afghans.
It was just as if the kilted Highlanders who had
followed Prince Charlie to Derby in 1745 had pushed
on, occupied London, arid declared their determination
to rule the capital thenceforth after the fashion of
the mountain! The effect on Herat has been the
more disastrous inasmuch as the occupation has been
permanent. The heavy hand of the rude and un-
cultivated boor has pressed, for more than a century
and a half, upon the more refined races which peopled
the beautiful city. And with what result? Hear
Vamb^ry, who visited Herat in 1863. "It needs
only some attack, no matter by whom, to be made
upon Herat for the Herat! to be the first to take up
arms against the Afghans!" They are, of their own
action, taking up arms against the Afghans now!
Before I endeavour to show how it is that Herat
HERAT.
79
has not absolutely succumbed under the desolating
sway of the Afghan foreigner, I shall describe in a
few words the modus operandi of that sway. I shall,
in the first instance, quote Perrier, a writer quick to
see the good points of an Asiatic people, and not
without sympathy for certain sides of the Afghan
character. "In Afghanis tan/' writes Ferrier, includ-
ing in that title Herat and the other provinces
ruled by the successors of Ahmad Shah Durani,
"the ideas and objects of the government and the
governed are wholly different; there each man thinks
only of destruction and disorganisation; it is, who
shall labour least, or who shall enrich himself the
most, and by the most culpable means. The deposit-
aries of power, instead of leading those under them in
the right path, instead of giving them, by their own
conduct, a good example, and ameliorating the con-
dition of the people, load them with exactions, and
enrich themselves at their cost. This system of
spoliation and embezzlement is practised by func-
tionaries of every class."
The remarks which follow apply rather to the
masses of Afghans than to the indigenous popula-
tion of cities, such as Herat, which the Afghans
80
HERAT.
hold by right of conquest. How the policy is ap-
plied to Herat is told by Varnbery. "Instead of
seeking to heal the wounds they (the Afghans) have
inflicted, their miserable policy seems now to aim at
reducing the whole province still further to beggary."
Speaking of the affection felt by the Herati's for
Major d'Arcy Todd, Vambery writes further on:
"The Herati saw, during the government of Major
Todd, more earnestness and self-sacrifice with respect
to the ransoming of slaves than they had ever even
heard of before on the part of a ruler. Their native
governments had habituated them to be plundered and
murdered, not spared or rewarded."
But nothing affords a greater proof of the mis-
government of the province than the exactions and
restrictions placed upon trade. Every man, from the
governor down to the meanest official, plunders the
arriving caravan. "The Afghan functionary," writes
Vambery, alluding to the custom-house official, "threw
into the shade all the inhumanity and barbarity of
similar officers in Central Asia." The details follow.
Poor wretches, who had been plundered sufficiently
before, were compelled, on reaching Herat, to yield
up their very asses to be sold!
HERAT.
81
But, it may be asked, what is it which has enabled
Herat to maintain her commercial position during a
century and a half of foreign oppression such as that
which I have described? It was not alone the
character of the people. The Turko-Persian race
which constitutes the bulk of the population have,
indeed, lost everything under the Afghan scourge,
except their dexterity and their patience. Confiding
in the glorious position of which their oppressors
could not deprive them, they have been content to
wait. But it was, in the main, that position which
has saved Herat. During those long years the
caravans traversed Persia and Mashad; Bokhara,
Merv, and Murghab; Shikarpur and Kandahar; all
to centre in Herat. The people clung to then* call-
ings, and though bowed down by taxes and by
plunder, still maintained the old lines of traffic,
confident that it needed only the smallest encourage-
ment to enable those lines to resume their former
importance, and hoping always that prosperous times
would return.
It was not from misgovernment only that Her&t
has suffered during this terrible period of more than
a hundred and sixty years. In 1731 the city was
6
82
HUB AT.
besieged by Nadir Shah, on whom, in gratitude for
the expulsion of the Afghans from Persia, Shah
Tahmasp had bestowed four of the finest provinces
of his kingdom, one of these being Khorasan. Nadir
pushed the siege of Herat with his accustomed energy,
and soon forced it to surrender. The capture of
Herat enabled the conqueror to march on Kandahar
and subsequently on India. On the death of Nadir
Shah in 1749, the Afghan chief of the Abdali tribe,
Ahmad Khan, afterwards known as Ahmad Shah
Durani, took the city by storm. Since that time it
has been the scene of many desperate struggles for
supremacy on the part of Afghan pretenders ; twice—
in 1838 and in 1855—has it been besieged by a Per-
sian army. Nine years after the last siege it suc-
cumbed to the Amir Dost Muhammad. Since that
period the city has had to contend only against the
tyranny of Afghan misrule.
Of two of the three sieges referred to a slight de-
scription seems necessary, as showing how the posi-
tion of Herat enables it to make a determined stand
even against a formidable enemy. The reader who
has so far accompanied me will have observed that
none of the sieges sustained by Herat were of short
HERAT.
83
duration. In the middle ages the city resisted the
greatest conquerors of the day for periods of seven
and more months. When in comparative decay it
baffled Nadir Shah for four months, and about a
century later it offered, under the inspiring lead of
a British officer, a successful resistance to the army
of Persia, led by the king of that country, influenced
by Russian advisers, and strengthened by a regiment
composed mainly of Russians, commanded by Russian
officers.
The first Persian siege of Herat began on the 23rd
November 1837. It lasted till the 9th September
1838. During that time several assaults were de-
livered. So great was the superiority in numbers
and in materiel of the besiegers that each of those
assaults ought to have succeeded. "It is my firm
belief," wrote the Englishman who was the soul of
the defence, the gallant Eldred Pottinger, "that
Muhammad Shah might have carried the city by as-
sault the very first day he reached Herat, and that
even when the garrison gained confidence, and were
flushed with the success of their sorties, he might
have, by a proper use of the reserves at his dis-
posal, taken the place in twenty-four hours.'9
6 *
84
HERAT.
Of all the assaults, that made on the 24th June
more nearly than any other obtained success. At
four points the attack was repulsed; on the fifth it
had, but for one man, succeeded. In the glowing pages
of the historian* of the first war in Afghanistan the
reader who cares to know what it is possible for one
brave man to accomplish, will find recorded how it
was that one Englishman was able to inspire with a
portion of his own dauntless nature the Afghans who,
but for him, would have resigned the city to the
enemy. Tt was so throughout the siege, even to the
very last day. Never was the influence of England
more conspicuous than when, on the 9th September,
the baffled Shah mounted his horse to return to
Tehran.f
The second siege of Herat by Persia began in the
* Kaye's "History of the War in Afghanistan," Fourth Edition,
vol. i. pages 211 to 300.
t " There was one true soldier in Herat, whose energies never
failed him; and History delights to record the fact that that
one true soldier, young and inexperienced as he was, with no
knowledge of active warfare that he had not derived from books,
rescued Herat from the grasp of the Persian monarch, and
baffled the intrigues of his great northern abettor."—Kaye's
"History of the Afghan War."
HERAT.
85
autumn of 1855 and ended in the spring of 1856 by
the surrender of the city to the besiegers. This time
there was no Pottinger in the place; the supply of
provisions was scanty; and the inhabitants had so
great a detestation of their Afghan masters that they
welcomed the Persians. But the action of England
in the Persian Gulf in 1855-56 forced Persia to let go
her hold and to restore Herat to the Afghan. The
city, though under Afghan sway, remained distinct
from the ruler of Kabul till 1863, when it was taken
by the Amir Dost Muhammad. Since that year it
has been governed by lieutenants of the successors
of that prince.
Such, in brief outline, is the political history of
Herat. A glance at the record will show the reader
that from time immemorial the city was regarded as
an outlying bulwark, the possession of which was
necessary prior to attempting the conquest of India;
the holding of which by India, or by quasi-vassal
powers dependent on India, would render impossible
an invasion of that country. It was so considered
by Alexander, by Mahmud and his successors, by
Chingiz Khan, by Taimur, by Nadir Shah, by Ahmad
Shah, and by Muhammad Shah, the Persian prince
86
HERAT.
who attacked it in 1837. In the cases of all but the
last, the possession of Herat led to the conquest of
India; in the case of the last, the successful defence
of that city rendered invasion impossible.
The hasty reader may object—what can the pos-
session of one single city signify? A question of this
nature touches the real point of the argument. Herat is
called the gate of India, because through it, and through
it alone, the valleys can be entered which lead to the
only vulnerable part of India. Those valleys, running
iiearly north and south, are protected to the east by
inaccessible ranges, to the west by impracticable
deserts. No invading army would dare to attempt to
traverse the great salt desert, and the desert imme-
diately south of it, the Dasht-i-Naubad, whilst a
British army held Herat. As long as that army
should hold Herat, so long would an invasion of India
be impossible. In his masterly lecture at the Royal
United Service Institution in November, 1878,
General Hamley laid down the broad principle that
if England were to hold the western line of communi-
cation with India, that by Herat and Kandahar, she
need not trouble herself much about the eastern or
Kabul line. On the same occasion, Sir Henry Eaw-
HEBAT.
87
linson declared, in reply to a question put to him by
Lord Elcho, that rather than allow the occupation of
Herat by Russia, he would venture the whole might
of British India. That high authority saw clearly,
what I have feebly endeavoured to demonstrate in
these pages, that the possession of Herat by Russia
means the possession of the one line by which India
can be invaded; that the possession of Herat by
England means the annihilation of all the Russian
hopes of an invasion of India. To place the matter
in as clear a light as possible, I will take a homely
illustration. Let the reader imagine—that which is
actually true at the moment—that Kandahar is the
frontier British station; that between Her&t and
Kandahar is a long lane, so protected on both sides
that the man who may wish to traverse any part of
it to Kandahar must enter by Herat. Is it not
obvious that the power which shall hold Herat will
completely dominate the lane? It is this which
makes the possession of Herat by England a matter
of vital consequence.
Another fact illustrates the enormous value of
Herat. Place an army there, and nothing need
be brought to it from Europe. Within the limits
88 HERAT.
of the Herati territory all the great roads leading on
India converge. The mines of the Herati district
supply lead, iron, and sulphur; the surface of many
parts of the country is laden with saltpetre; the willow
and the poplar, which make the best charcoal, abound;
the fields produce in abundance corn, and wine,
and oil. From the population, attracted to its new
rulers by good government, splendid soldiers might
be obtained, Its conquest would be the first step to
the enlistment of that splendid Turkman cavalry
which, for ages, has been the terror of Persia, and
which has recently displayed its prowess by repulsing
the advance of Russia.
Such are the military advantages presented by
Herat to the power that shall occupy it. Should that
power be an enemy, Herat would be to him an eye
to see and an- arm to strike. An eye to pry into
every native court of Hindustan, to watch the dis-
contents and the broodings of the rulers, the heart-
burnings of their subordinates. From watching and
noting to fermenting and stirring up there is but one
short step. Every court, every bazaar, in India,
would note the presence on the frontier, in a posi-
tion not only unassailable, but becoming every day
HERAT.
89
more and more capable of assailing, of a first-class
power, the secret enemy of England, and professing
the most unselfish anxiety to relieve them in their
distress. An arm to strike—because a few years of
intelligent rule would render the valley of the Herirud
capable of supporting and equipping an army strong
enough even to invade India.
In a third sense, likewise, the possession of Herat
by an enemy would be not less dangerous to England.
The roads converging on it, already alluded to, are
traversed by caravans to which no other route is
available. We may be sure that the city which suc-
cessfully resisted the rivalry of Mashad when Mashad
was backed by all the influence of the Shahs of Persia,
will take a still higher position when supported by
the might either of England or of Russia. The Eu-
ropean power whose influence shall be paramount in
Herat will gain the markets of Central Asia. More
even than that. The possession of Herat by Russia
means the exclusion of England from the markets of
Central Asia. What those markets are I shall
consider in the next chapter.
90
TEE GRANARY
CHAPTER IV.
HERAT:
THE GRANARY AND GARDEN OF CENTRAL ASIA.
What are the markets of Central Asia? They are
the markets which, of all countries in the world,
England is best able to supply. The people of those
countries have plenty of raw material. Khor&san pro-
duces wool, but she cannot use it. Cotton goods she
has not; leather she possesses only in small quantities.
The articles which form the staple of the shipments
to India are all needed in Central Asia. Civilisa-
tion is never wholly dead in a country in which it
once has flourished, and it must ever be remembered
that the country of which Her&t is the centre gave,
four hundred years ago, the law in civilisation to all
the countries in its vicinity. Herat was then as far
AND GARDEN.
91
in advance of Dehli as Calcutta is now of Herat. But
the influences which have made of the little village
of Ohattanatti the capital of India can restore to
Herat more than its former greatness.
The actual products of the Herat valley are assa-
faetida, saffron, pistacchio-nuts, fruits of all sorts,
gum-mastic, manna, wheat, barley, and other descrip-
tions of corn. "The population of the province
must now be great," wrote Conolly in 1831, "and
were this fertile country settled and equitably go-
verned, there would be scarcely bounds to the pro-
duce." The grapes he describes as particularly lus-
cious. "The cultivators of this 'happy valley,5"
he records in the same chapter,* "enumerate, if I
remember right, seventeen different sorts of grapes
which they grow;—the marble and the raisin grape,
that which is translucent and without seeds, the
golden grape of Kas-vine, and the small red grape
of Badakhshan, with other temptingly named varieties
of this delicious fruit. The vines are planted in the
trenches, and trained over a sloping bank of earth, on
which they are suffered to ripen."
* Conolly's "Travels to the North of India," vol. ii. page 5.
92
THE GRANARY
Horses abound in this part of Khorasan and are
exported annually in large numbers. They are, if
small, yet hardy, enduring, and with plenty of bone.
Perrier pronounces them to be "splendid animals,
probably the finest and most capable of enduring
fatigue in Central Asia." Cattle of all kinds, sheep,
and goats abound. Wild asses swarm in the plains.
The skins of the sheep and lambs form a large article
of commerce. Brought into the city, they are made
up into caps and cloaks, and returned so made up
into the districts. The cowhides are not so plentiful.
"There were, if I remember right," writes Conolly,
"more than one hundred and fifty shoemakers' shops
in the city, but they were unable to supply the de-
mands from the province, and many camel-loads of
ready-made slippers were brought from Kandahar,
where they are manufactured in great quantities. The
leather comes from Hindustan."
Another of the staple articles of manufacture in
Herat is the carpet. The Herati carpet is famed
above all others for the brilliancy and permanency of
its colours. These carpets are made in all sizes and
at all prices from one pound sterling to a hundred
pounds. The trade, which owing to the unsettled
AND GARDEN.
93
state of affairs on the frontier, has declined of late
years, could easily be revived. Conolly pronounced
the best pieces he saw to equal the Turkey carpets,
and their price to be moderate.
Silk is abundant in the valley. It is reeled from
the cocoon, then dyed, twisted, and woven. Most of
it, writes Captain Marsh, who visited the city in
1872, is sent to Mashad and Kabul, in the shape of
yarn. The silk stuffs are much esteemed.
The hills in the vicinity yield lead, iron, and silver.
The mines have been worked up to the present time
in the most perfunctory manner. Shah Kamran, who
ruled over Herat during the second quarter of the
present century, was so sensible of the enormous
advantages which might be derived from properly
working the lead and iron mines, that he urgently
requested Dr. Gerard, who visited Herat in 1832, to
return, with the permission of his Government, for
that express purpose. The scimitars and cutlery
made from the ore already obtained from the surface
are famous throughout Central Asia, and are greatly
valued.
The existence of the silver mines rests on the
authority of Ibn Haukal and Edrisi. These writers
94
TEE GRANARY
place the " Silver Mountain,'5 as it is called by the
former, on the road to Sarrakhs, near Kan and
Kawakir. Edrisi states that the working of the
mine had been abandoned on account of its great
depth, and by reason also of the scarcity of firewood
in the vicinity.
Fraser, who visited Herat in 1824, whilst giving
in detail the several articles of produce to which T
have referred, adds that from the information he had
collected there and in Persia, it had been proved that
in spite of the revolutions which had desolated the
country, Herat still continued to prosper. "Indeed,"
he adds, "every one agreed in assuring me that no
place in Persia, except Ispahan, could at all compare
with it in size or population."
The cause of this permanence of prosperity is the
same, according to this experienced traveller, as that
which I have endeavoured to trace in these pages.
It will bear repetition. "Herat," adds Fraser,*
"owes its prosperity to the great commerce it enjoys,
being the only channel of communication between
* "A Journey into Khorasan," hj James B. Fraser. London:
1825,
AND GARDEN.
95
the east and the west of Asia; all the trade and pro-
duce of Kabul, Kashmir, and India, on the one side,
and of Bokhara, Persia, Arabia, Turkey, and even
Europe, on the other, must pass through this city,
and, consequently, the richest productions of all these
countries centre and are exchanged in its bazaars."
This prosperity suffered greatly under the in-
satiable avarice of the Afghan. Mohun Lai, a
Dehli munshi, who accompanied Dr. Gerard in
1832, and who enjoyed opportunities often denied
to a European, wrote in that year: "since Kamran's
dynasty the commerce of Herat has fallen to nothing.
The caravans are plundered, as we ourselves were
witness of. The resident merchants are fined in a
large sum of money upon any foolish pretext of the
Government." Yet so elastic is the position, that
with the cessation of the tyrannical rule, prosperity
has at once revived. On Kamran's death, his vizier,
Ydr Muhammad, who had murdered him, succeeded,
after a short interval, to the throne. It became the
cue of this usurper to win the Her&tis. He won
them by securing their commerce. "The town of
Herat," says Ferrier, writing of this period, "de-
stroyed by the siege of 1838, rose by degrees from
96
THE GRANARY
its rains, thanks to the gold that the English had so
profusely scattered around them; Yar Muhammad
continued the improvements, and applied prompt
remedies to the evils under which the population
still suffered. He especially encouraged agriculture
and commerce, placed a very light duty upon the
sale of corn and the necessaries of life, and further
relieved the poorer classes by setting them to work
to rebuild the fortifications of the town.
Finally, he completely checked the pillage that had
been carried on, not only in the principality, but
even up to the gates of Herat." Naturally, trade
revived as if by magic. A little later, however, civil
war broke out, prohibitive duties were reimposed,
and the caravans were again plundered.
I proceed now to give a brief description of Herat
as it now is.
The latest English traveller who has actually
visited Herat is Captain Marsh, who proceeded
thither from Mashacl in 1872. Captain Marsh thus
describes the outer city. "The walls," he writes,*
* "A Eide through Islam," by Captain Marsh. Tinsley
Brothers: 1877.
AND GARDEN.
97
"have been so often knocked down and rebuilt, that
the present ones are built on the top of a high mound
of vast thickness, the accumulated debris of a hun-
dred generations. The ditch is very deep and broad,
and can be filled with water from the river at a
short notice. There are five gates, all of which are
level with the country outside, consequently much
lower than the actual walls. The ark" (citadel)
"stands out very prominently; and on the outer
slope of the mound, between the ditch and the walls,
are two covered ways, or faitssebraye, one command-
ing the other; and, lastly,—the walls themselves are
well flanked by large bastions—a place of vast
strength when commanded by a resolute garrison.
The circumference of the city is about a farsak"
(nearly four miles), " the interior nearly a mile square.
It is commanded by two elevations about eight
hundred to one thousand yards distant, Mosulla and
Thaleberghy; but from neither can the interior of
the city be actually seen, they being only on a level
with the walls. Both these elevations are covered
with ruins and remnants of forts, and the former
with the magnificent ruins of the mosque and tomb
of Sultan Husen Mirza, one of the House of Taimur,
7
98
TEE GRANARY
of the fifteenth, century, the elegant miliars of which
I saw long before I arrived at this city, and said to
have been partially destroyed by Chingiz Khan."
As an adjunct, in one sense even as a contrast,
read the following picturesque description by Vam-
bery (1863). "We entered," writes the observant
Hungarian,* "by the gate Dervaze Arak. The
houses which we passed, the advanced works, the
very gate, looked like a heap of rubbish. Near the
latter, in the inside of the city, is the Ark (citadel),
having, from its elevation, served as a mark for the
Afghan artillery; it lies there blasted and half demo-
lished. The doors and windows have been stripped
of their woodwork, for during the siege the inha-
bitants suffered most from a scarcity of fuel. In the
bare openings of the walls are perched here and there
a few wretched-looking Afghans or Hindus—worthy
guards of such a ruin. Bach step we advance we see
greater indications of devastation. Entire quarters
of the town remain solitary and abandoned. The
bazaar, that is to say, the arched part of it, where
* "Travels in Central Asia/' by Arminius Vamb^ry." Lon-
don: 1864. Murray.
AND GARDEN.
99
the quadrangle of the bazaar is united by its dome,
and which, has witnessed and resisted so many sieges
—alone remains, and affords, in spite of its new
population, dating only three months ago,* a really
interesting sample of Oriental life—a blending of the
characteristics of India, Persia, and Central Asia,
better defined than even in the bazaar of Bokhara.
It is only from the karavansarai Hadji Resul to that
of No that a throng, rightly so called, exists; and
although the distance is small, the eye is bewildered
by the diversity of races—Afghans, Indians, Tartars,
Turkmans, Persians, and Jews. The Afghan parades
about, either in his national costume, consisting of a
long shirt, drawers, and dirty linen clothes, or in his
military undress; and here his favourite garment is
the red English coat, from which, even in sleep, he
will not part. He throws it on over his shirt, whilst
he sets on his head the picturesque Indo-Afghan
turban. Others again, and these are the beau monde,
are wont to assume a half-Persian costume. Weapons
are borne by all. Rarely does any one, whether civil
* When Herat had been captured by the Amir Dost Muham-
mad.
7 *
100
TEE GRANARY
or military, enter the bazaar without his sword and
shield. To be quite a la rnode, one must carry about
quite an arsenal, consisting of two pistols, a sword,
poignard, hand jar, gun, and shield. With the wild
martial-looking Afghan we ean only compare the
Turkman-like Jamshidi. The wretchedly dressed
Herati, the naked Hazari, the Taimiiri of the vici-
nity, are overlooked when the Afghan is present.
He encounters around nothing but abject humility;
but never was a ruler or conqueror so detested as
is the Afghan by the Herati. The bazaar itself,
dating from Herat's epoch of splendour, the reign
of the Sultan Husen Mirza, and consequently about
four hundred years old, deserved still, even in its
ruins, the epithet beautiful." The description con-
tinues, but for more of it 1 must refer the reader to
the fascinating volume.
Of the interior of the city it is unnecessary to
say more. What it has been I have already
recorded. What it may become under good govern-
ment must be clear to all who have followed me so
far. Every European who has seen Herat and its
magnificent valley has borne witness to its splendid
capabilities. To the testimony of Forster, Fraser,
AND GARDEN.
101
Christie, Conolly, Grerrard, Mohun Lai, Ferrier, and
Vambery, may now be added the latest of all—that of
Captain Marsh. "Herat/' wrote that officer in 1873,
"is situated in a broad valley, four miles from the
hills to the north, and about twelve to the hills
south of it. The large valley is watered by canals
from the Heririid, which is dammed up by a bund
thrown across it, a few miles above the city. One
of the many watercourses enters the city, others
water the whole plain, which, if the country were
quiet, would be one large sheet of cultivation. As
the land is fertile and the climate good, a few years
would turn all this desert into a garden !" *
One word about the revenue. On this point it is
impossible to give an accurate estimate. The one
fact that many of the richest districts are held
by chiefs on condition of military service, and
the other, that since 1750—the year of the inaugura-
tion of the Afghan rule—there has been protection
of life and property neither for the agriculturist nor
# I must refer the reader who desires a more particular account
of Herat and of what it suffered from its several sieges, to
Ferrier's "Caravan Journeys."
102
THE GRANARY
the trader, prevent the possibility of making a
reliable calculation. In a word, the Afghans have
squeezed the land till the cultivators have been
ruined. All writers, however, agree in stating that
were the country settled and equitably governed,
there would be no bounds to its produce. Judging
from this evidence, and calculating, on the estimate
furnished by Oonolly, it is not too much to affirm
that a few years of English administration would
suffice to place Herat and its districts in the posi-
tion with respect to Afghanistan which the province
of Bengal occupies with respect to Northern India.
That is, Herat would pay all the expenses of the
occupation of Afghanistan and still yield something
more to the treasury. But this is the least of the
benefits its occupation would accomplish. The
indirect wealth which would accrue to England
by the possession of the key to the markets of
Central Asia is not to be calculated.
But it is not to the cupidity of the British manu-
facturer that I would appeal. There is something
more important even than the commercial interests
of a country. These people in their agony implore
the protection of England. More than forty years
AND GARDEN.
103
ago the Heratis besought the British Resident, Major
D'Arcy Tod, to obtain for their city the protection
of England. Forty years ago England rejected
the offer thus made to her. What have been the
consequences? Read them in the pages of the
patriotic Hungarian who visited Herat nearly thirty
years after that refusal. "The city/' wrote Armi-
nius Vambery in 1864, "had a most gloomy, troubled
aspect; the dread of their savage conqueror" (the
Afghan) "was painted on the features of its inhabi-
tants. The incidents of the last siege, its capture
and plundering, formed the constant subject of con-
versation." Then follows the account of the barba-
rities perpetrated by the conqueror. Vambery thus
continues: "Whoever is acquainted with the cove-
tousness of the filthy grasping Afghan may picture
to himself how he would behave in plundering a city.
The besiegers levied contributions upon the city
during a day, upon the country around during months.
. . . It is a pity that, instead of seeking to heal
the wounds which they" (the Afghans) "have in-
flicted, their miserable policy seems now to aim at
reducing the whole province still further to beggary;
so that in a country, where undoubtedly they are
104
THE GRANARY
called upon to play an important part, they have
rendered themselves objects of detestation ; for the
inhabitants would at once again plunge into a hope-
less contest rather than ever again acknowledge the
supremacy of the Afghans." Again: "As it is,"
continues M. Vambery, "fear alone keeps things
together. It needs only some attack, no matter by
whom to be made upon Herat, for the Herati to be
the first to take up arms against the Afghans. Nor
does this observation apply to the Shiite inhabitants
alone, whose sympathies are, of course, in favour of
Persia, but even to those of the Sunnite persuasion,
who would certainly prefer the Kizzilbash to their
present oppressors; but I find no exaggeration in the
opinion that they long most for the intervention of
the English, whose feelings of humanity and justice
have led the inhabitants to forget the great differences
in religion and nationality. The Herati saw, during
the government of Major Todd, more earnestness and
self-sacrifice with respect to the ransoming of slaves
than they had ever even heard of before on the part
of a ruler. Their native governments had habituated
them to be plundered and murdered, not spared or
rewarded."
AND GARDEN.
105
It is impossible to gainsay this opinion, shared in,
as it is, by every Englishman who has travelled in
Khorasan. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon
that in that province, and in its capital, Herat, the
Afghans are greater foreigners than would be the
Anglo-Indian administrators and soldiers. Not only
has the Afghan nothing in common with the Herati,
but he is absolutely alien in blood. Now there is a
connection in blood between the Herati and the Mu-
hammadan of Northern India. The men who followed
Babar and Humayun had in their veins the same
strain of Turki blood which circulates in the Herati.
Their descendants and the Khorasanis generally trace
on one side a common ancestry. Nor is the affinity
confined to blood alone. Whilst the Afghan is a
plunderer and murderer by profession, detesting
labour, given to the worst kinds of debauchery, the
northern Indian and the Herati are industrious, enter-
prising, inventive, and lovers of art. To allow such
men to be governed by brutal tyrants who crush their
industries and strangle their commerce, is a sin alike
against humanity and civilisation. The occupation
of Herat by England would not only revive the
commercial system which, three centuries ago, made
106
THE GRANARY AND GARDEN
of that city and its environs the granary and the
garden of Central Asia—it would free from the
withering grasp of an inferior race the descendants
of the men who cherished learning, art, and science
in Khorasan at a time when even Europe was but
just emerging from the comparative barbarism of the
middle ages.
Since Vambery wrote political matters have ad-
vanced. The Heratis have now, of their own accord,
taken up arms against the Afghan oppressor. They
see that England is at last in earnest. They have
shown that they deserve to be free by themselves
striking the blow. But their city still suffers in the
hands of their enemy. With arms to combat that
enemy in their hands, they still turn with longing eyes
and earnest prayers to England. Surely England will
not be deaf to the appeal!
107
CHAPTER V.
KANDAHAR TO HERAT.
In this and the following chapters I propose to
give, in such detail as I have been able to collect
from the reports of those who have traversed the
country, an account of the roads connecting Herat
with Kandahar to the south; with Mashad to the
west; with Sarrakhs, Merv, and Charjui to the north;
with Mamaine, Andkho, Shiborgan, Takhtapul (near
Balkh), Khiilm, and Faizabad to the north-east. I
shall then connect Khulm with Kabul, and the latter
with Herat. The present chapter will be devoted to
the road between Kandahar and Herat.
There are three important posts on the principal
road between Kandahar and Herat—Sabzwar, Farrah,
108
KANDAHAR
and Girishk. The distance by this road is three hun-
dred and sixty-nine miles.
From Kandahar to Girishk the distance barely ex-
ceeds seventy-five miles.
The first march is to Kokaran—seven miles. The
first three miles of road pass through the enclosed
gardens and suburbs of the city. The road crosses
the several canals drawn from the Argandab for irri-
gating the Kandahar valley. At Kokaran water is
abundant, the encamping-ground is well adapted for
a large force, and forage can be supplied in sufficient
quantities.
To Sanjari—five miles. The bed of the Argandab
is crossed. The river, in the month of June, ave-
rages about two feet and a quarter in depth, and
the passage of it is easy. There is a ford about
three-quarters of a mile lower down by which it
would be advisable to cross heavy guns. Beyond
the river.one or two artificial watercourses have to
be crossed. The road is stony in some places, but
generally good. There is excellent encamping-ground
at Sanjari ; water is plentiful, and forage is sufficient.
To Hauz-i-Maddad Khan—fourteen miles. An ex-
cellent road across a broad, hard, level plain. A
TO HERAT.
109
canal runs parallel to the road the whole of the
march. The ground for encampment is good; water
is plentiful near the camp; forage for camels is
abundant; grass is scarce near the camp, but plenti-
ful a few miles to the south of it. There are several
villages in the neighbourhood; as well as flocks of
sheep and goats.
Khiisk-i-Nakkiid—fifteen miles and three-quarters.
A hard, level, gravel road without obstacle or diffi-
culty. At Khushk-i-Nakhud water is plentiful, from
two artificial watercourses ] the encamping-ground is
good; fodder for camels is plentiful; but grass, in
the immediate vicinity of the camp, is scarce.
To Khak-i-Chapan—nine miles and three-quarters.
The road generally good and level, though here and
there the sand lies deep. The encamping-ground,
though somewhat irregular, could easily be occupied
by a large force. There is a sufficient, though not
over-abundant supply of water. Forage of all sorts
is less plentiful. There are, however, villages and
cultivation two or three miles south of the encamping-
ground, as well as large flocks of sheep.
To Girishk—not quite twenty-four miles. The road
to the left bank of the Helmand, about twenty-two
110
KANDAHAR
miles and a half, is generally good and hard, the first
part slightly undulating, with one or two sandy
patches. There is a well about midway, but the
water procurable from it is insufficient for more
than a few travellers. On the left bank of the river
is an excellent encamping-ground, with abundance of
water and an ample supply of forage of all sorts.
The Heltnand is a difficult river to cross. In June
its depth is about three feet nine inches; its width
in the widest branch is seventy yards. The current
runs at the rate of three miles an hour. There is a
ferry which it is sometimes necessary to use. At
Gririshk the encamping-ground is sufficient, though
here' and there broken. Water and supplies of all
sorts are abundant.
What Gririshk once was may be gathered from the
traditions of the time of Zaman Shah. Even then
people used to say that "the Helmand flowed through
a garden." Now, though arable land abounds, there
is but little cultivation. In fact, with the exception
of the land immediately on the bank of the river,
there is none. Afghan oppression has made itself
felt even here!
The fort, though much dilapidated, commands a
TO HERAT.
Ill
good view of the surrounding country. It is not,
however, capable of defence against artillery.
From Gririshk to Farrah the distance, by the route
adopted by Ferrier and Marsh, is a hundred and
twenty miles. There is a route by Shorab and
Hasan Grilan, shorter by twenty miles, but of this
I have been unable to find any accurate record.
Gririshk to Zirak—twenty miles. The first six miles
stony and undulating, the beds of several torrents
crossing the line. The road then becomes level and
easy till the fort of Saadat, eighteen miles from
Gririshk, is reached. Saadat, once a rather strong,
but, when Captain Marsh saw it in 1873, a deserted
and ruined hill fort, has a plentiful supply of water.
The road then becomes again undulating and con-
tinues so until close to Zirak. Zirak is a small village
situated at the foot of the mountains on the right
of the road to Herat and opposite Maknmdabad, de-
scribed by Captain Marsh as a small village in a
hollow watered by an artificial watercourse. At
Zirak water is good and abundant, and forage for
camels and horses is plentiful.
To Dushakh—twelve miles and a half. The road
hard and level. Water at the village of Siir, about
112
KANDAHAR
"half way. The encamping-ground at Dushakh is
good) and forage for camels and horses is abundant.
To Biabanak—three miles and a half. Road level,
across a tolerably hard plain. There is an artificial
canal at Biabanak providing plenty of water. Grass
and fodder are abundant.
To Washir—twenty-four miles. About four miles
from Biabanak the road enters a range of hills with
a gradual ascent to nine hundred feet, presenting no
great difficulties. From this point to Washir the
road winds among declivities, and follows the bed
of watercourses, passing over much difficult ground.
For the last nine miles the road runs down a valley,
with a gentle slope. It is hard and good till within
two miles of Washir, when it becomes undulating and
stony. Many villages and gardens, watered by arti-
ficial canals, are passed in this descent. Ferrier made
the journey by halting during the heat of the day at
Biabanak and then pushing on across the range,
twenty miles, to Painak, but with no advantage over
the route here laid down. At Washir supplies of
all sorts, including water, are abundant.
To the Kashrud river—fourteen miles. The road
stony and uneven, the last four miles being along a
TO HERAT.
113
dry watercourse. The descent into the bed of the
Kashriid steep and bad. It is, however, practicable
for artillery. The river supplies excellent water.
Forage for camels abounds, but grass is less plentiful.
To Haji Ibrahim!—fourteen miles. The fording of
the Kashriid is at certain seasons impossible, in con-
sequence of the impetuosity of the torrent. In the
hot season, however, the depth of the water does not
exceed eighteen inches. After crossing the river the
road pursues a tortuous course among hills for about
three miles; it then crosses a dreary steppe till it
reaches H&ji Ibr&himi. Ferrier states that between
Haji Ibrahimi and Kashrud there is not a drop of
water. Water and forage are both procurable at the
former place.
Haji Ibrahimi to Siah-ab—Ferrier calls this place
Shiaguz—distance ten miles. Siah-ab is the point
whence a direct road, avoiding alike Farrah and
Sabzawar, runs via Giraneh to Herat. It is an
encamping-ground where water and forage are alike
available.
Siah-ab to Kharmalik—twenty-two miles. The
first and last part of this stage leads the traveller
through plains, fields, and marshes. The inter-
8
114
KANDAHAR
mediate part is intersected by stony mountains,
steeply scarped at the sides. Kharmalik, writes
Captain Marsh, "is situated in a small grassy hollow.
A few date-palms and cattle, in the immediate
neighbourhood of a few mean huts and wall-sur-
rounded tower, are all it possesses." Water and
forage are procurable here.
Kharmalik to Farrah—twenty miles. The road
leads across a desolate plain; then, over a low pass,
enters a stony valley. Numerous ruins near the
road indicate that the district was once well popu-
lated. The plain is totally devoid of drinking-water.
"The appearance of Farrah a short way off,"
writes Captain Marsh, "is imposing. Its high em-
battled and bastioned walls, its broad, well-kept ditch,
and fine large gate and drawbridge give it the air of
wealth and ease. But what a delusion is this! On
entering the city I was surprised to see its fallen
state. The size of the interior is, perhaps, the third
of Herat; but it does possess twenty huts, and
those all in ruins. Where is the city of Parrah?
Nowhere."
Parrah owes its destruction to the Persians and the
Afghans. In 1837 the Persians besieged and laid it
TO HERAT.
115
waste because it belonged to Afghanistan. In 1852
the Barakzye Afghans completed its destruction be-
cause it was dependent npon the Saduzye Afghan
rulers of Herat. What Farrah was before the first
of these events Conolly bore testimony in 1832.
After speaking of it as a town possessing two thou-
sand houses, he adds: "The land is fertile and
much grain is cultivated, as the shepherds for many
miles are supplied witli it from hence. . . . The
Furrah-rud" (river of Furrah) "is in spring a wide
and deep river, and there is always sufficient water
for much cultivation." Ten years previously Mr.
Fraser had described it as "a city as large as Msh-
apur, situated in a valley among hills with about
twenty villages and many gardens."
I have stated that from Siah-ab runs the direct
road to Herat via Griraneh, avoiding Farrah and Sabz-
war. It is worthy of consideration whether this route
might not be ultimately made the main line of com-
munication. It is shorter; and a force stationed at
Griraneh would command alike Farrah and Sabzwar.
Ferrier, after alluding to the strength of the fort as it
was five-and-thirty years ago, thus writes regarding
the position. "The position is important. It com-
8 *
116
KANDAHAR
mands the passage of the river and the defiles in
the mountains of the south. A small force quartered
there might maintain its authority in.the districts of
Sabzwar, Farrah, Laush, Bakwa, Gulistan, Gour, and
Sakkar, Giraneh being the central point round which
converge these localities—information," he emphati-
cally adds, "for the English and the Russians!" May
the English first profit by the hint!
I may add that the road from Giraneh to Herat
runs by Ab-i-Kurmah and Shah Jahan, and joins the
Sabzw&r road at Kash Jabran, a few miles above
Sabzwar itself. The distances may be thus com-
puted from Ferrier's journal. From Kash Jabran
to Shah Jahan about nine hours caravan journey,
or about twenty miles; from Shah Jahan to Giraneh
fifty-six miles. The country during the greater part
of the way is described by Ferrier as well wooded
and abounding in game, notwithstanding an almost
entire deficiency of water.
I return now to the route by Farrah and Sabzwar.
The distance between those two places is eighty miles.
"There are/' writes Captain Marsh, "no villages—a
vast jumble of valleys and hills, with small plains, in-
habited only by a nomadic people. Each place has
TO KB EAT.
117
its name, but if the traveller finds tents at tlie same
place twice he is lucky." Captain Marsh accomplished
the journey in three days, by Khush, Kilamiisha, and
Darwazai. At each of these places he found water.
Indeed, after the first twenty-five miles, the traveller
follows, with a few deviations, the valley of the Riid-
i-Adrashkan. Regarding this river Ferrier observes
that an army marching from Herat in the summer
months should follow its course, as the commander
would then be free from anxiety regarding the
supply of water for his men and cattle.* The hint
should not be forgotten by an army which should
march to Herat.
Sabzwar is eighty miles from Herat. It lies at
the extremity of a large oblong plain, ten or twelve
miles in circumference. The fort, prettily situated, is
not formidable. The country around it is well culti-
vated, and abounds in flocks and herds. Water and
* The Eiid-i-Adrashkan takes its rise near Oneh, to the east of
Herat, and debouches in the plains of the Adrashkan district
whence its first name. It subsequently assumes the names of the
districts through which it flows until it takes finally the name—
which in ancient times it bore throughout its course—of Harut-
rud, and loses itself in the Sistan lake.
118
KANDAHAR
supplies are abundant. A Hindu, who visited it in
1823, compared it for fertility witli the best parts of
Hindustan.
The road between Sabzwar and Herat needs no
special description. It is good and level and pass-
able for wheeled carriages of all descriptions. Sup-
plies of all kinds are abundant.
The following are the stages—easily, if considered
advisable, to be divided :—
Sabzwar to Kash Jabrai. -twenty-one miles. Mid-
way is a water reservoir, now in ruins. At Kash
Jabran the direct road to Kandahar branches off,
taking the route by Griraneh.
To Adrashkan—eleven miles, about a mile on the
Sabzwar side of the river of the same name.
To Shah Beg or Bad—twenty-three miles. Five
miles after crossing the Rucl-i-Adrashkan the traveller
reaches the Bud-i-Graz, a rapid stream, fifteen or
twenty yards broad, whose waters flow into the
Adrashkan a little to the west of the village of that
name. Six miles further the ruined caravansarai of
Mir Allah is reached. It is surrounded by cultivation,
and a fine stream of water runs under its walls. Six
and a half miles further, again, the traveller passes a
TO KEBAT.
119
spring of sweet water on the left of the road. The
dwarf reed, which provides sufficient fodder for
horses, is here abundant; but the food of man has
to be carried. Water is plentiful at Shah Beg.
To Mir Daiid—twelve miles. The traveller de-
scends from Shah Beg. The descent is regular and
gradual. The country is now uninhabited and uncul-
tivated. Red and grey partridges abound. There is
an artificial arrangement for the supply of water at
Mir Daud, but under Afghan rule it has been but
little cared for.
To Herat—eighteen miles. A good view of the
city is obtainable from the last-named station. The
traveller proceeds by a good road, ten miles, to Rozeh
Bagh, a royal garden—in olden days planted with
Scotch firs of great size and beauty. Little more
than four miles further on, the Herirud is reached.
The breadth of the river at this point is about one
hundred and fifty yards. Its bed is here hollowed
out, and its waters run in fifteen separate channels,
twelve feet wide and very deep, enclosed between two
embankments formed of the earth taken out for the
excavations. To the south of the river is a fine piece
of pasture-land formerly thickly studded with gardens
120
KANDAHAR TO HERAT.
and villages. The ruins of houses, acqueducts, and
other industrial monuments between this point and
the city give the traveller an idea of what Herat used
to be in her palmy days—of what she may yet once
more become should England accept the offer which
the Heratis earnestly press upon her.
121
CHAPTER VI.
MASHAD TO HEEAT.
I peooeed now to examine the routes and the nature
of the country between Mashad and Herat. The in-
formation given by Mr. Fraser on this subject in the
appendix to his valuable work has been practically
superseded by the experience of later travellers. Of
these I select as my guides Captain Marsh and Colonel
MacGregor, who traversed the country, severally, in
1872 and 1875. The routes adopted were not alto-
gether the same, but the points of divergence will be
indicated. The distance by Captain Marsh's route
may be calculated at about two hundred and twenty-
four miles.
The first march from Mashad takes the traveller to
Sangbast—a distance of about twenty-four miles.
122
MASHAD
Sangbast is described by Captain Marsh as an old
village and caravansarai, walled, formerly occupied by
a colony of Afghans, but now in ruins. Colonel Mac-
Gregor,* who travelled in the opposite direction—
from the vicinity of Herat to Mashad—thus describes
the country between that place and Sangbast. u Next
day I marched into Mashad over the same sort of
country" (low, undulating hills) "as far as Torokh,
a village of five hundred houses, walled, and with a
great deal of cultivation, protected by numerous
Turkman towers. The range to the right of the
road, which is called Koh-i-Sar-i-Jam, ends quite
abruptly; there is a break of some distance before
the Mihrab range commences. There is no doubt,
however, that the latter is a continuation of the
former, as between Sharifabad and Nishapur is a
low ridge, which drains on one side to the Ali-i-
Mashad, and on the other to the Nishapur valley;
and the Mihrab range takes this main range on to
the hills of the Atrak. "f Colonel MacGregor gives a
* "Journey through Khorasan in 1874," by Colonel C. M.
MacGregor, C.S.I., O.B. London: Allen and Co. 1879.
f The word Atrak is the plural form of the word " Turk": the
river Atrak is, thus, "the river of the Turkmans."
TO BE BAT.
123
far more glowing description of Sangbast than does
Captain Marsh. It is the first and only village he
had seen in Persia which was regularly laid out. The
supply of water to it is plentiful, and is capable of
being largely increased.
The second march leads to the village of Farimiin,
about twenty-two miles. Colonel MacGregor thus
describes the route, starting, be it remembered, from
Farimun.
"The road from Farimiin to Sangbast with the
exception of a couple of miles at the beginning"
(beginning from Farimun), "is all over a waste of
low, undulating hills which bound the valley of Jam
to the west, and are the link connecting the Jam range
with that of the Koh Graghar range on the north."
"The tract," he adds, "is considered very dangerous,
as the Turkmans are enabled to come in through
the Koh-i-Chihl Sang range (which runs parallel
with that of the Goghar, and is everywhere practic-
able) from the direction of Sarrakhs. The Persians
have got a line of look-out towers placed on com-
manding sites all along the north flank of this road,
and these would no doubt prove useful under efficient
arrangements, but they are, as a rule, left without any
124
MASEAD
look-out men, very much like a light-house without a
light. About half way we passed a ruined village
called Faizabad, which, four years ago, the Turkmans
had surprised when most of the men were out, and
had carried off every soul—about one hundred—out
of it."
From this point to Kahriz the roads of the two
travellers diverged, Captain Marsh taking the more
northern route by Abdulabad, Colonel MacGrregor the
more southern by Shahr-i-nao. I shall first follow
Captain Marsh.
That officer's third march took him to Bardu, an
insignificant place about five miles short of Abdul-
abad—the distance from Fariimin about twenty miles.
The road he describes as bad and stony, with small
hills on both sides, behind which it is easy for the
Turkmans to lie in ambush. Bight miles from
Farimun he passed through the village of Kallandar-
abad, which had then but recently been plundered.
Captain Marsh's fourth march was to Mahmud-
abad, a distance of twenty-six miles. He speaks in
high terms of the cultivation he met with on the
way. "Here," he writes, "I saw rich green fields,
crops of barley and wheat, just cut, also lucern grass
TO HERAT.
125
for winter fodder." He adds that the soil is ex-
tremely fertile, "producing wheat once and barley
twice a year."
In his fifth march Captain Marsh reached Turbat-
i-Jami, about eighteen miles. He speaks of the
country as becoming more open, and of the popula-
tion as becoming less Persian and more Afghan in
dress and appearance. Five miles from this place, at
the town of Jam, was fought, in 1528, the decisive
battle between Shah Tahmasp and the Uzbeks.*
Captain Marsh's sixth march was to Kahriz—
thirty-two miles. He describes the country as
"nearly flat; though the soil is good it is a wilder-
ness, thirty-six miles without a tree or a habitation."
Kahriz is a small fortified village near the Persian
frontier.
Having brought Captain Marsh to Kahriz by the
upper, I must conduct Colonel MacGregor thither by
the lower, road. I left him, it will be recollected, at
Farimun.
Colonel MacGregor's third march was Himmat-
abad (distance not recorded, but probably twenty-
* Vide page 71.
126
MASHAD
eight miles). It was when making this journey—in
the reverse direction—that the Colonel was attacked
by Turkmans. Of the country he formed a very
high opinion. "There is abundance of water," he
writes, "and as the soil is good there is no reason
why these hills should not support a considerable
population if there were any. The climate, too, on
this range is quite lovely; the sun, though hot, is
not too powerful to prevent a man remaining out in
it, and working all but, say, four hours in the middle
of the day. For this reason I am of opinion that
Europeans could easily colonise this and similar parts
of Persia."
Colonel MacGregor's fourth march was to Shahr-i-
nao, twelve miles. His account of the tract he tra-
versed is not less favourable than the preceding.
He speaks of the road as leading "now through cul-
tivation, now through the most splendid pasture-land
I have seen in Persia." Shahr-i-uao he describes as
"having a great deal of cultivation and very nume-
rous gardens for so small a population, and, as there
is plenty of good water, cultivation might be increased
to any extent almost."
The next halting-place on the Colonel's route
TO HE EAT.
127
was Masliaddi Reza, two villages not far from the
Khauf range,—distance not recorded, but about
twenty-two miles. The road from these villages
to Shahr-i-nao ascends "imperceptibly to a low
ridge, which runs out from the Khauf range, and
divides the drainage of Kahriz from that of Mohsin-
abad. This is crossed just before getting to Shahr-
i-nao, which is in a little basin." Of the two villages
he records that they are about a mile apart, but
connected by cultivation, of which, as well as of water
—which conies from Kahriz—there is abundance."
The sixth march connected these two villages with
Kahriz, about twenty-four miles, "a small place,"
writes MacGrregor, "of about one hundred houses,
most of which are inside the fort, though there are
some outside near a serai. The fort is a strong
place, and might make a decent resistance. The
village is celebrated for its melons, but in order
that the community may not enjoy too much bliss,
it is also known as about the most exposed place
on the frontier."
At Kahriz the roads taken by the two travellers
joined. The next march was to Kohsan, the frontier
fort of the province of Her&t, distance twenty-eight
128
MASEAD
miles. Kohsan is now in rains, but in Colonel
MacGregor's opinion ifc could easily be improved
"so as to make it worthy of the frontier post of a
warlike nation." Of the results of the fertility of
its soil, the same author writes with enthusiasm.
"Conducted into a most delightful garden, I bi-
vouacked under the shade of some fine plane trees,
by a tank of delicious clear water. After a good
bath in the latter, it was a great luxury to lie back
on one's bed, and devour, for nothing, bunch after
bunch of glorious grapes, that at home would have
ruined me." MacGregor makes special mention like-
wise of the fine gardens and vineyards, and of the
numerous windmills near Kohsan. To reach this
place the Herirud has to be crossed about two miles
from it, and the traveller finds himself, at last, in the
glorious Herat valley.
From Kohsan Captain Marsh proceeded to Herat in
three stages. The first—a short one of about twelve
miles—to Sabash, "a little, mean, dirty fort, barely
habitable"; the second to Shakhwan—about thirty-
two miles. Captain Marsh thus describes the road :—
"The road goes along the high grounds at some dis-
tance from the river; gravel soil and a vast plain with
EE EAT.
129
distant hills on both sides. We passed the fort of
Rozanak, and saw Ghorian in the distance, a large
village, about a farsak" (four miles) a off, on the left
bank of the river; the revenue of this village is six
thousand tomauns,* and it supports four hundred
sowars as militia, who hold 'free' lands or Teool, on
condition of military service. At Rozanak we stopped
to see some curiously-made windmills, erected on one
of the bastions of the village. The windy season, they
say, blows from the north, and comes regularly; so
windmills are more common here than water mills.
They worked horizontally, and had six arms, on
which were hung mats as sails. . . . An old
Shah Abbas's caravanserai in ruins was passed, then
over a bad water-covered road, being a network of
canals from the river to Shakhwan. a large group of
three villages and forts."
The next day Captain Marsh rode into Herat.
The distance by direct road is twenty-four miles, but
* This must refer to the village alone; for Fraser writes:
"The town and district of G-horian yield fifty thousand tomauns
to the Grovernment of Herat." A Herati toniaun is worth twenty
rupees.
9
130
MASEAD TO HERAT.
to avoid the wet cultivation near the river, Captain
Marsh made a detour of eight miles, crossing the
Julgha or plain of Her&t, "a sandy loam which bears
good crops by irrigation."
I return now to Colonel MacGregor. From Kohsan
the route of that officer lay to Ghorian; from Gho-
rian, through Zandehg&n to Deh-i-Minar; and from
the latter place to Kargan, five miles from Her&t. A
better division of this route would be Ghorian, Zan-
dehgan, and Herat itself. Colonel MacGregor gives
in his interesting work a graphic description of the
personal difficulties which beset him in his march
from Kargan to Kohsan, and of the soldierly manner
in which he overcame them. With the country he
was favourably impressed. "This glorious valley,"
said he to himself, 66 is it to be English or Russian?"
181
CHAPTER VII.
HERAT TO SARRAKHS, MERV, AND OHARJTJI.
1 now proceed to detail the information I have been
able to collect regarding the route from Herat to
Merv, via Sarrakhs; then the alternative route by
the Murghab valley; and lastly, the route from Merv
to Charjui, the ferry on the Oxus.
The caravan route from Herat to Merv takes the
traveller along the Mashad road traversed by Cap-
tain Marsh as far as Kohsan—sixty-eight miles.*
From Kohsan to Sarrakhs the distance is eighty-
four miles. For the description of the road I am
* Vide page 128.
132
HERAT
indebted to Colonel MacGregor.* Kohsan to Chasma
Saoz—twenty-four miles. The road, which is good,
traverses a plain on the left bank of the Herirud.
Supplies of all sorts are here abundant. Chasma
Saoz to Pul-i-Khatan —twenty-eight miles. The
road crosses the Kotal Istakhanchil pass and then
traverses hills, crossing to the right bank not far
from Pul-i-Khatan. Though not good, it is practic-
able for guns. There is no village, but forage is
abundant. Not far from this the Herirud separates
into two branches, the northernmost of which takes
the name of Taj and.
Pul-i-Khatan to Sarrakhs—thirty-two miles. Road
level. At eight miles the village of Naozabad is
reached; sixteen miles further Kala Daolatabad.
The road proceeds to Sarrakhs along the left bank
of the Taj and river.
Sarrakhs is described by Colonel MacGregor. The
soil he speaks of as being of a light sandy nature,
but as there is abundance of water at a depth of
* "Journey through Khorassan," Appendix, vol. ii. The dis-
tances in this and other works are reckoned in farsangs or
farsaks—i.e. parasangs. A parasang is generally something short
of four English miles; but I have followed Fraser in reckoning it
as the exact equivalent of that distance.
4
TO MERV.
333
about twenty feet, it would, he thinks, be capable of
producing large crops. The place he pronounces to
be admirably situated for drawing to it all the trade
between Turkistan on the north and Khorasan on
the south. "It has," he adds, "every advantage of
soil and water and climate that would be necessary
for these purposes."
Regarding its military position, the words of
Colonel MacGrregor, himself one of the most able and
distinguished officers on the general staff of the army
in India, are full of warning. There is no uncertainty
in the sound they breathe. "With regard to its
strategical importance," he writes regarding Sarrakhs,
"I think a glance at the map will show that in the
complications which must arise ere the Russo-Indian
question can be deemed settled, its future is likely to
be a stirring one. Placed at the junction of roads
from Herat and Mashad, by the Herirud and the
Ab-i-Mashad valleys respectively, and at the best
entrance to the province of Khorasan from the north,
it cannot fail to exercise a very serious influence on
the momentous issue of the above question. This
must happen, whether it fall into the hands of the
friends of England or into those of her foes.
134
HERAT
Whether Russia use Sarrakhs as a base for offensive
measures against Herat, or England use her as a
defensive outpost to defeat any such operations, that
position will be heard of again. And if my feeble
voice can effect a warning ere it is too late, let it here
be raised in these words: If England does not use
Sarrakhs for defence, Russia will use it for offence." *
Let the reader bear in mind that Sarrakhs is dis-
tant from Herat one hundred and fifty-two miles;
from Merv, certainly more than fifty, probably but
little short of seventy.
Colonel MacGregor crossed the Tajand, rode some
twelve miles from Sarrakhs in the direction of Merv,
to the edge of the desert. He was not allowed to
proceed further. That desert was traversed by Sir
Alexander Burnes (then Lieutenant Burnes, F.R.S.)
with a caravan in 1832. The caravan (of laden
camels) passed within sight of the ruined castle of
Merv (which Burnes did not examine) on the afternoon
of the 29th August, and reached Sarrakhs at sunrise
on the 22nd September. This would make it a journey
of between seventy and eighty hours. But the caravan
* The italics are Colonel MacGregor's.
TO MERV.
135
changed its route on the way, and only began the
direct track on the 31st. Coming from Charjui, the
caravan had reached and encamped upon the banks of
the Murghab on the 28th August. On the 29th it
marched twelve miles down the river, and crossed to
the left bank at Illisha. The travellers then passed
close by Merv and took the direct road, by way of
Artak, to Mashad. In consequence, however, of an
intended Turkman foray, the chiefs of the caravan
resolved to alter the route to Sarrakhs. The caravan
accordingly retraced its steps to Kanjii Kiilan, a few
miles to the north of Merv, on the direct road to Sar-
rakhs. From this place, on the left bank of the
Murghab, the route lay thirty-seven miles across the
desert to Kalurni. This route Burnes thus describes:
"The tract was entirely different from the opposite
side" (of the Murghab) "and about the middle of the
journey the desert changed into a level, hard, flat
surface, which it ever afterwards preserved. . . .
The country was destitute of water, but there are
many remains of caravansarais and cisterns that had
been built by the philanthropic Abdulla Kh&n of
Bokhara."
Kalurni is a ruin. The distance thence to Sarrakhs
136
HERAT
is thirty-three miles, of which about twenty are desert
of the same character as that already described. The
last twelve or thirteen miles bear a different character.
"As we approached Sarrakks," writes Burnes, £'we
could distinguish a gradual, though almost imper-
ceptible rise in the country. We exchanged the
shrubs that I have before described for the tamarisk
and the camel's thorn, which does not grow in the
desert."
I regret I am unable to discover an account more
in detail of the road between Sarrakhs and Merv.
That which I have given, however, shows clearly
enough that the desert between the two places offers
no invincible obstacle to the march of a well-organized
army, or, indeed, to any army led by a competent and
active general. The distance by this route I have
calculated to be two hundred and twenty-two miles,
but the calculation is probably slightly in excess of
the actual figure. At all events the distance has not
been overstated.
Before proceeding from Merv to Charjui it is neces-
sary that the alternative route from Herat to the
former, along the valley of the Murghab, should be
indicated. This route was traversed by Captain
TO MERV.
137
James Abbot in 1840, and by the late Sir Rich-
mond Shakespear in the following year.
The first march by this route leads to Parwana—
eleven miles. The road lies between close hills, of
no considerable height, and ascends the entire dis-
tance to Parwana. Around this village are hills and
high plains producing wormwood, which is browsed
by the wild antelope. There are many wells and a
little cultivation.
From Parwana Captain Abbot, whose journal I am
following,* proceeded across the mountain ridge of
Kaitu to Kushk, somewhat off the direct road. Cap-
tain Abbot writes :—" Avoiding now the more direct
and difficult passes of the mountain ridge of Kaitu,
we crossed that chain without accident, meeting
neither dwelling nor tent, excepting two ruined
hospitia in the valley, and, descending some grassy
heights, pitched at evening in a hollow, where we
found a little water. . . . One flock of sheep in
the distance, and the wild antelopes of the wilderness,
were the sole living things we saw."
* "Narrative of a Journey from Heraut to Khiva, Moscow, and
St. Petersburgh," by Captain James Abbot. Calcutta: 1841.
138
HERAT
From this hollow Captain Abbot proceeded the next
day by "a very distressing cross-country path, over
steep hills covered with grass, to the rivulet Kushk,
which we ascended to the capital of that name. The
valley here is picturesque and interesting." Of the
inhabitants—Jamshidis of Turkish descent—Captain
Abbot writes as follows :—" They are short, stout,
very dark, with decidedly Tartar features. Wherever
water and soil are found a little cultivation is main-
tained by them, but their wealth consists in flocks of
sheep and herds of horses of Turkman breed."
From Kiishk Captain Abbot marched down the
valley of the rivulet of the same name in the direc-
tion of Chaman-i-Baid. He encamped in the evening
at a point on the river, evidently between Kiishat
Siah and Kala Tapah. He thus describes the coun-
try :—"We passed down the valley of the Kushk
rivulet, averaging about half a mile in width, and
bounded on either side by sloping, grassy downs,
sprinkled with flocks of sheep and goats. Under the
low sunny cliffs and hills the Jamshidis had pitched
their black tents in considerable numbers; and in the
fields of the valley hundreds of mares and colts were
grazing. The scene was extremely pleasing. The
TO MEEV.
139
valley is highly susceptible of culture, and has once
been well tilled."
In the next march, similar scenery and similar cul-
tivation as far as Kala Tapah. Beyond Kala Tapah
"there are few black tents; but large flocks of sheep
are still met with. The shepherds come even from
Merv to this pleasant valley, bringing water and all
other necessaries on asses.'5 The march, which con-
tinued all day, concluded within two miles short of
Chaman-i-Baid.
The day following presented scenes almost similar.
"Large flocks of white sheep still sprinkled the hills
on either side, but those hills were growing more arid
and sandy as we advanced." The march concluded
at Kala-i-Maur. On the way "we met not less than
six or seven caravans of grain from Merv." At this
place the traveller enters the kingdom of Khwarizm.
From Kala-i-Maur Captain Abbot marched from
the valley of the Kiishk into that of the Murghab,
"passing the ruined vineyards and deserted fields of
a once populous and cultivated district." The Mur-
ghab and the valley traversed by it he thus describes:
"The Murghab is here a deep stream of very pure
water, about sixty feet in breadth, and flowing in a
140
HERAT
channel mined to the depth of thirty feet in the clay
soil of the valley. The banks are very precipitous,
and fringed with tamarisk and a few reeds. The valley
itself is, at Panjdeh,* about nine miles in breadth,
but narrows as we advance. Here"—at Pul-i-
Kishti, where the Kushk joins it—" it is about
three-quarters of a mile in breadth. On the east
bank are sloping sand-hills, about six hundred feet
higher than the valley. On the west is the desert, a
high, sandy plain over-run with low bushes and camel-
thorn, and extending to the mountain barrier of Per-
sia. The valley of the Murghab has once been well
cultivated, but is now, from Panjdeh to Yulatan,f
utterly deserted, owing to the late distractions of the
country."
On the fourth day after leaving Kala-i-Maur
Captain Abbot reached Yulatan, still following the
Murghab through a country similar to that already
described. There would appear, however, to be con-
siderable traffic on the road. "We met a caravan
every third mile,55 writes Captain Abbot, "laden
* Between Meruchak and A'k Tapah.
f Not marked in the map; but probably not far from Kazaldf.
TO MERV.
141
with wheat and barley from Merv." As he ap-
proached Yulatan he found the desert aspect of
the country a little broken by symptoms of recent
cultivation.
Prom this place Captain Abbot reached Merv in
one march.
Captain Abbot's description of Merv will go far to
show that it is a place which no nation would care to
conquer for its own intrinsic value; that its posses-
sion is desirable as a stepping-stone to further ad-
vance, but for no other reason. "Merv," writes
Captain Abbot, "was one of the most ancient cities
of Asia. It was situated in the plain, about twelve
miles east of the little bazaar which at present bears
its name, and was watered by a canal from the Mur-
ghab or Ab-i-Maur. . . . During the misrule
and anarchy of the last sixty years the ancient dam
of the Murghab was neglected and carried away.
The city in consequence became uninhabitable, and
was utterly abandoned. The dam is again set up,
and the lands are brought under culture, but the
ancient site continues a deserted ruin. The present
Merv is an assemblage, on the Murghab, of about one
hundred mud huts, where a considerable bazaar is
142 HERAT
held. The entire waters of the Murghab are dis-
persed over the sandy plain for the purposes of
irrigation. This profusion of water renders the soil
productive; but it has not the strength to bear any
but the poorer kinds of grain. The plain is perhaps
an area of sixty miles by forty, or two thousand
four hundred square miles, running on every side
into the desert." A little further on he adds: "I
was glacl to quit this wretched though much-vaunted
plain and enter the desert, which is a paradise in
comparison."
:~~J-have now given the two routes between Herat and
Merv, the first being the caravan route via Sarrakhs;
the second the valley of the Murghab, also for a
considerable portion of the way a caravan route. The
first, presenting no difficulties not easily to be sur-
mounted to an army, covers, as already stated, a dis-
tance certainly not exceeding, and probably some-
what short of, two hundred and twenty-two miles.
The distance of the second is not so easily calculated.
Captain Abbot, making a divergence of two days from
the direct route in order to visit Kushk, accomplished
the journey in thirteen days. Deducting the two
days, the distance, granting an average rate of travel
TO MERV.
143
of twenty-two miles, may be surmised to be at the
utmost two hundred and forty miles. This agrees
with tbe Herati estimate of the distance.
Prom Merv to Charjui the distance is one hundred
and forty-two miles. As there is no prospect that
the English would march upon Charjui, whilst a
Russian general has declared that, starting from
that place, he would engage to reach Merv in five
days, it will be convenient to make the point of de-
parture from the Oxus. Charjui lies on the left bank
of that river, and forms an important point in the
direct road from Bokhara to Herat and Persia.
Between the town and the right bank, on which is a
fort—Fort Yazty—is a most important ferry. Burnes
describes the river at this point as having a breadth
of six hundred and fifty yards, and a depth in some
places of twenty-five and twenty-nine feet. Charjui
is six miles distant from the left bank. It is, ac-
cording to Burnes, who visited it in 1831, a small
town, with a population of four thousand to five thou-
sand, pleasantly situated on the verge of culture and
desolation. A pretty fort, crowning a hillock, over-
looks the town. It is probable that since that period
the population has considerably increased.
144
CHARJUI
The description given by Burnes of the trade at
Charjui is so graphic that I make no apology for
quoting it. "I sauntered through the bazaar," he
writes, "much more amused with the people than
with the wares they were selling, which were in
every respect poor. These were knives, saddles,
and bridles, cloth and horse-cloths, of native manu-
facture; but the only articles of European fabric
were a few beads and chintz skull-caps, which latter
were purchased very readily. There were also lan-
terns, ewers, and copper pots in considerable
number; the vendors of many of these retailed
their goods on horseback, and all the purchasers
were mounted/'
Two miles from Charjui, on the road to Merv,
begins the great desert which separates Turkistan
from Persia. Burnes, marching with a caravan, made
his first halt at Karoul twenty-two miles from the
starting point.* The march for the last twenty miles
was across a vast ocean of sand—" a dreary waste of
* Karoul is correctly marked on the map attached to Pro-
fessor Vambery's "Travels in Central Asia," as the first stage
on the route called the Atch Hadji route—the shortest between
Charjui and Merv.
TO MERV.
145
sand-hills; they were quite soft, but the sand was not
dusty, and the camels slid down them with their
burdens. . . . There was no water throughout
the whole march, and no sign of inhabitants but a
ruined fort that had once served as a look-out from
the Oxus." At Karoul there was a well of brackish
water, thirty feet under ground, lined with branches
of trees.
I regret I am unable to follow Burnes further on
this route. On leaving Karoul the caravan to which
he was attached was forced to quit the direct road by
order of the Turkmans. It may suffice briefly to
state that from that place to the next well, Ishk
Robat, the distance is eighteen miles. (Here another
road by way of Balgui leads to Kara Tapah, north of
Merv.) From Ishk Robat to Robitak the distance is
sixteen miles; from Robitak to Pindi twenty miles;
from Pindi to Nizuskaki twenty miles; thence to
Khalka twenty miles; and from Khalka to Merv
twenty-six miles—seven marches, averaging a trifle
over twenty miles a day.
I have referred to a second road from Charjiii, on
the same lines as the first as far as Ishk Robat,
whence it branches westward to Balgui, and proceeds
10
146
GHABJUI
by Sir-^b and Uchgiii to Kara Tapah, a little to the
north of Merv. This route, known to the native
traders as the Rafatak route, is about ten miles
longer than the other. It is, however, perfectly-
feasible for caravans.
It was into this route, indeed, that Burnes and his
party moved from Karoul, when ordered so to do
by the Turkmans. According to Burnes, Balgui is
twenty-four miles from Karoul. It is simply a well
about four feet in diameter, thirty feet deep. The
water was good.
The desert is described by Burnes in colours far
from glowing. There was no water save at the wells,
and a few lizards, rats, and beetles, with here and
there a solitary bird, were the only inhabitants. Some
of the sand-hills attained the height of sixty feet, an
elevation at which they are bare of all vegetation.
The heat of the sand rose to one hundred and fifty
degrees; that of the atmosphere exceeded one hun-
dred degrees; and it was the steadiness of the wind
alone that made travelling possible.
It is interesting to note the pace of the caravan
under these difficult circumstances. On this point
Burnes took accurate observations, which he thus
TO MEUV.
147
records. "Oar caravan advanced at a firm and equal
pace among the sand. . . . They" (the camels)
"moved at the rate of two miles and one-eighth in
the hour (three thousand seven hundred and forty-
yards); and I have since found that the judicious
Yolney assigns the distance of three thousand six
hundred yards as the hourly journey of a camel in
the sands of Egypt and Syria."
The third march was a long one, thirty-five miles,
to Sir-ab—a well with water—which first tasted fetid,
but which exposure to the atmosphere rendered sweet.
In this march the nature of the country somewhat
changed. The great sand-hills disappeared; the
desert presented an undulating and uneven country
of sand, partially covered with shrubs.
The fourth march led to Uchgiii, or the Three Wells,
distance twenty-six miles. The water here was bitter,
but, records Burnes,* "the shepherds seem indiffe-
rent to its quality." The country, as the caravan
# Burnes does not give the actual distance; but whereas the
march to Sir-ab—the distance of which is given—occupied twenty-
four hours, and that to TJchgui only eighteen hours, it is reasonable
to conclude that the length of the latter was shorter by one-fourth
than that of the former.
10 *
148
CEAEJUI
advanced, became more fiat and free from sand,
though it still ran in alternate ridges and hollows.
The fifth march was to the banks of the Murghab,
to a place called Khwaja Abclulla, distant thirty miles.
Khwaja Abdulla is twelve miles from Ulisha, and
four or five more from Merv. The total distance by
this, the second, route, between Charjui and Merv is
about one hundred and fifty-four miles.
In every respect this route is inferior to the first
route. Not to speak of the small increase in distance,
the supplies of water are fewer and the water itself is
less palatable. Burnes considered it extremely doubt-
ful if the three arms composing an army could cross
by this road. His conclusion is based mainly on the
fact that water was both bitter and scanty, and that
there is nothing that so quickly demoralises an army
as the want of good water. He likewise lays stress
on the want of fodder for horses. He admits, how-
ever, that the road might be made practicable for
guns, by placing brushwood, which abounds, on the
sand, and that many armies have crossed it before.
The difficulties to the route made by Burnes seem
then at once to disappear. If the road could be
made practicable for guns it could be made practic-
TO ME BY.
149
able for supply-carts. There is abundant water in
the Oxus, and there are thousands of camels in the
desert. The water carried in skins, though less
palatable than fresh water, could easily be endured
for a week; and in less than a week an invading army
would be at Merv on the Murghab, with a choice of
two routes, both well supplied with water, to Herat.
It is fair to conclude, then, that the second route,
though inferior to the first, is practicable for an army.
There is, likewise, a third route, east of the first
route, and not much longer than the second. This
route, called the Yalkuju route, starts from a point
a few miles higher up the Oxus than Charjiii and runs
to Kazaldi, a post on the Murghab, below Merv.
Beyond the fact that it is practicable for caravans,
but little is known of this route.
We have thus three routes between Charjui and
Merv. An examination of the country proves that,
with sufficient preparation, the assertion of the
Russian general that he could accomplish the distance
with a sufficient force in five days, was no vain boast.
The task would be difficult, but, unless the general
were opposed in force, it could be performed. The
case, however, would be different if the Russian ad-
150
OEABJUI
vance were to be opposed by the Turkmans. In that
case it would be possible to cause it to end in disaster.
The wells are not always easy to find; the Turkmans
alone know their exact position. A long train of
baggage carts and camels would invite attack from
the swarthy horsemen of the desert; and such an
attack would so impede the hostile force as to
render a successful march on Merv in the highest
degree improbable. So far, then, the Turkmans and
the desert are the best allies of Great Britain. The
desert remains, and has remained for ages, difficult
yet feasible. But the Turkmans? The services of
the Turkmans will be at the disposal of the Euro-
pean nation which shall first occupy Herat!
The opinion I have here recorded regarding the
practicability of the route is confirmed by Ferrier.
UA Russian army," writes that traveller,* "might
thus direct its march, as it thought fit, either to
Khulm, or, withdrawing from the river on its arrival
at Charjui, reach Merv by the desert, and marching
along the fertile and populous banks of the Murghab,
# "Caravan Journeys," by J. P. JFerrier. London: 1856.
John Murray.
TO MEEV.
151
reach Herat. There would not be any obstacle of a
serious nature to stop an army on its way to the
river, and the desert between it and Merv offers no
difficulties that cannot be surmounted." Again the
question arises—Will Russia exterminate the Turk-
mans; or will England, by occupying Herat, make
of them her firmest and her best allies?
152
HERAT
CHAPTER VIII.
HERAT TO MAIMANE AND ANDKHO.
The stages from Herat to Maimene and Andkho may
be thus roughly enumerated :—
Herat to Kurrukh, four miles.
Kurrukh to Kila-Nd, twenty miles.
Kila-N6 to Bala Murghab, twenty miles.
Bala Murgh&b to Kila Veli, twenty-five miles.
Kila V61i to Chitchekta, twelve miles.
Chitchekta to Narin, twelve miles.
Narin to Kaisar, seven miles.
Kaisar to Maimane, twenty-five miles.
Maiman6 to Andkho, twenty-two miles.
The total distance is, thus, to Maiman6, one hun-
dred and twenty-five miles; to Andkho, one hundred
and forty-seven miles.
TO MAIMANTJ.
153
Eegarding the road between Herat and Kurrukh,
Vambery, who made the journey between Herat
and Andkho in 1863, thus describes the latter por-
tion of it, that nearest to Herat: "The traveller
approaching from the north will certainly be surprised
wheD, on turning round the mountain Khodja Abd-
lilla Ansari, he sees lying before him the beautiful
immense plain called Djolghei Herat, with its nume-
rous canals and scattered groups of villages." The
traveller from Herat to Maimane, crossing this
beautiful and fertile plain, and at a distance of four
miles reaches Kurrukh at the foot of one of the spurs
of the Safed Koh. The distance is so short and the
road so easy, that but for the fact that, with a diffi-
cult mountain route before an army, it is always
advisable to make a short journey the first day, it
could scarcely be called a march. That title has,
however, under the circumstances, been always con-
ferred upon it.
The distance from Kurrukh to Kila-No is twenty
miles. So great, however, are the difficulties of the
route, that the caravan with which Vambery marched
required four days to overcome them. On the first
of those days, the easiest, the ridge, at the foot
154
HERAT
of which lies Kurrukh, is crossed into the valley
between it and the Saraband mountain. In this
valley the halt is made at the village Sertcheshme.*
Thence, the second day, the traveller ascends the
Saraband, covered with eternal snows. The ascent,
after emerging from the valley, is continuous, and,
according to Vamb^ry, both difficult and dangerous.
"There are some very dangerous places," writes that
experienced traveller, "the path, passing close to the
edge of the precipice, being only a foot broad."
The summit of the mountain formed, in Vamb^ry's
case, the conclusion of the second stage. Thence,
the third day, a descent was made to the village of
Alvar; and, from that place, the fourth day, over a
mountainous country, to Kila-Nd.
The difficulty of the road consists, it will be seen,
mainly in the ascent of the Saraband. There can be
no doubt but that the track could be so improved
as to divide the time I have noted by one half.
Indeed, the track being as it is, the journey is made
by horses in two days. It must be recollected that
* "Here," writes Vambery, " springs, it is believed, a strong
stream, that, after bathing Herat on the north side, falls into the
Hen-rud."
TO MAIMANE.
155
Vambdry travelled with a caravan of camels, all of
whom, he tells us, carried greater loads than usual.
Were the road to be widened and otherwise im-
proved, the distance between Kurrukh and Kila-N6
could certainly be accomplished by artillery and in-
fantry in two days.
Kila-Nd, fifty years ago, was a flourishing town and
fortress. It is now in ruins. A few tents occupied
by Hazaras represent its former prosperity—a strik-
ing commentary on the curse of a rule which allows
every man to be free to raise his hand against his
neighbour!
From Kila-N6 to Bala Murghab the road runs by
Mogor—a small collection of huts—over the Telkh-
guzar to Pul-Taban—a ruined stone bridge built in
the time of Sultan Husen Mirza. At this point the
valleys of the Grulchin and the Murghab unite. The
traveller, following thence the Murghab, crosses
the first Darband Kotal—a narrow and difficult pass
on the summit of which are the ruins of an ancient
castle—the summer residence of the Sultan Hus6n
Mirza above referred to.*
# Vamb^ry writes: "In the time of this, the most civilised
sovereign of Central Asia, the whole of the neighbourhood was
156
HERAT
Descending from this pass the traveller crosses the
second and more imposing Darband Kotal, its summit
likewise surmounted by a ruined fortress. From this
point Bala Murghab is reached without difficulty. The
distance is computed to be about twenty miles.
Bala or Balai Murghab is a ruined fortress, the im-
portance of which in the days of Sultan Husen Mirza
was great. Numerous ruins in the interior and in the
environs, writes Vambery, indicate a bygone civilisa-
tion. To the south-west of the fortress, according to
the same writer, the valley becomes so narrow that it
merits rather the name of a defile. "Through the
midst," he continues, 66 the Murghab rolls foaming
away with the noise of thunder; it is not until it
has passed Pandjdeh, where the river becomes deeper
and more sedate, that the valley spreads itself out
and acquires a breadth of one or two miles. When
Merv existed, there must have been here, too, a toler-
able amount of civilisation." The inhabitants of this
part of the Murghab valley are called Jamshidis. Of
in a flourishing state, and many pleasure-houses are said to have
existed along the course of the Murghab." That which has been
may yet be again!
TO MAIMANK
157
Persian descent, the mixture of Turki blood has made
them Turkman in character. Under ordinary circum-
stances their thrift and industry would go far to re-
store prosperity to the lands they cultivate. But
they know well that whether they cultivate much or
cultivate little, everything beyond the exact quantity
necessary for their sustenance will be confiscated by
the rapacious Afghan.
From Bala Murghab the traveller crosses the trans-
parently clear green waters of the river of the same
name, and proceeds to Kila Yeli—also a ruined fort—
distance about twelve miles. The current of the river
is strong, but there is a ford not far from Bala
Murghab. Crossing by this, the traveller follows the
course of the river for two or three miles, and then
traverses the mountains by a rough pass, in many
places very steep and very narrow. Vambery states
that this pass is said to be the only practicable
passage leading over the mountain. Kila Yeli, once
a populous place, was surprised and plundered by
the Sarik Turkmans in 1861. It lies just beyond the
mountain range which intervenes between it and the
valley of the Murghab.
Starting from Kila Yeli, the traveller enters the
158
HERAT
valley known as the Chitchekta—one of the most
fertile valleys in Central Asia. "We passed all day/'
writes Vambery, "through magnificent meadows,
which, in spite of the advanced season of the year,
were covered with flowers and grass that came up to
our knees." The land, he tells us in another place,
"is exceedingly fertile, but it lies there, unhappily,
fallow and without an owner." Travellers by this
route are subjected to much fear from the daring of
the mountain robbers, the Sarik Turkmans and the
Firuzkuhis, who dwell on either side of the road. The
distance to Chitchekta is about twenty miles.
From Chitchekta to Narin—fifteen miles—through
an easy and fertile country. From Narin to Kaisar,
seven miles, the greater number of which lie along
fruitful but abandoned valleys. From Kaisar to Mai-
mane, sixteen miles, the entire road traversing a
mountainous country.
Until Maimane was visited by Professor Vamb6ry
in 1863, but one European, Captain Stirling, had, so
far as I have been able to ascertain, set foot within
it. Captain Stirling describes the place as a big
village. From Vambery we have a more detailed
description. "The city of Maimane," he writes,
TO MAIMANE.
159
"stands in the midst of Mis, and is only visible when
approached within a distance of a quarter of a league.
It is extremely filthy and ill-built, and consists of
one thousand five hundred mud huts, and a bazaar
built of brick, that seems about to fall." Its inhabi-
tants are Uzbeks, of whose prowess Vambery formed
a very high opinion, and there is besides a sprinkling
of Tajiks, Heratis, Jews, Hindus, and Afghans. The
trade of the place is considerable. Maimane is re-
nowned for its carpets and other stuffs, made partly
of wool and partly of camels' hair. It carries on also
a considerable trade with Persia and Bagdad in
raisins, aniseed, and pistachio nuts. Horses are
good, plentiful, and cheap. "Horses," writes Vam-
bery, "that I saw sold in Persia for thirty or forty
ducats, fetch here from fourteen to fifteen. Never
did I behold in Bokhara, Khiva, or Karshi, horses
so fine sold at prices so low."
Maimane has ever remained independent of Afghan-
istan. The Usbek inhabitants of the Khanate, num-
bering about one hundred thousand, are renowned
for their courage. Their town, however, is in no
condition to resist a scientific enemy. "The walls,
made of earth, are twelve feet high and about five
160
EE BAT
broad; the fosse is neither broad nor particularly
deep; the citadel is elevated, and situated upon a
conspicuous hill of steep ascent, but in the neigh-.
bourhood there are still higher hills, whence a battery
could in a few hours reduce it to ashes."* Naturally,
in a country where horses are so cheap, the inhabitants
are all bold and fearless horsemen.
From Maimane the traveller follows the course of
the stream called the A'ndkho for fourteen miles to a
village about three miles on the Maimane side of
Yakatat. For the first two miles there are consider-
able ascents. These then become gradually less until
the spongy marshes of Batkak are reached. Without
being dangerous, these marshes are fatiguing to beasts
of burden. They, however, are soon passed. From
the point already indicated, three miles on the Mai-
mane side of Yakatat, the road presents no difficulty.
Andkho is, like Merv, a relic of the past. Yet
that past is not very distant. Less than half a century
ago it was a very flourishing town with a population
of fifty thousand souls. It carried on then an im-
portant traffic with Persia in the sheepskins known as
# Vambeiy.
TO ANDKHOL
161
the Astrakhan. It possessed camels, too, of a very
remarkable breed called Ner, distinguished by abun-
dant hair streaming down from the neck and breast,
a slim, slender figure, and extraordinary strength.
Now, the inhabitants number only fifteen thousand,
and the habitable houses do not exceed two thousand.
The trade in sheepskins has diminished, the rare
breed of camels is fast disappearing. How has this
change been wrought? By the same cause which has
turned a garden into a desert in all the lands south of
the Oxus; by the hand of the pitiless, destroying
Afghan. In 1840 the Afghan army, under Yar
Muhammad Khan, besieged A'ndkhoi, which then be-
longed to Bokhara. The sieo^e lasted four months.
At the end of that period the city was taken by storm,
plundered, and made a heap of ruins. The greater
part of the inhabitants who could not flee fell before
the swords of the merciless Afghan. The same
merciless conqueror still governs and still desolates
A'ndkhoi.*
* For the information contained in this chapter I have been
niainly indebted to Vanibery (" Travels in Central Asia
11
162
HERAT
CHAPTER IX.
ANDKHOI TO SHIBORGAN, BALKH, TAKHTAPUL, KHTJLM,
AND FAIZABAD.
From A'ndkhoi to Shiborgan the distance is about
twenty miles.* The road crosses an extremely rich
and fertile country, resembling an immense garden.
Shiborgan is a considerable town, boasting a popu-
lation of twelve thousand souls, the majority of
whom are Uzbeks. It has a citadel, but no other
fortifications. It is surrounded by good gardens
and excellent cultivation. The climate is salubrious,
but the water-supply is precarious. This supply,
* Ferrier calls the distance five parasangs.
TO SHIBORGAN.
163
writes Monsieur Ferrier, who visited the place in
1846, "comes from the mountains in the Khanate of
Sirpiil; and as there are frequent disputes between
the tribes inhabiting it and those living in this town"
(Shiborgan) "a complete interruption of the supply-
is often threatened." In other respects Ferrier pro-
nounces Shiboro-an to be one of the finest towns in
o
Turkistan south of the Oxus. The inhabitants are
renowned for their courage.
From Shiborgan in the road to Balkh the first
halting-station is A'khcheh; the distance about twenty
miles. The road still continues across the magnificent
plain above alluded to, presenting the entire way an
animated and picturesque scene. A'khcheh is a small
walled town of seven or eight thousand souls, pro-
tected by a citadel. The inhabitants are Uzbeks—a
brave and warlike race. Thence to Mailik the road
runs—likewise a distance of twenty miles—across a
marshy plain, full of reeds and trees. The position
of Mailik is important. It occupies a point at which
meet the roads to the south, to the west, to the north-
west, and to the east. Ferrier states that this position
has made it the resort of spies of the princes of Af-
ghanistan and of Turkistan. The place derives addi-
11 *
164
HERAT
tional interest from the fact that it is built on the
ruins of a large Bactrian town.
Mailik to Balkh—twenty-eight miles. The road
crosses a plain closed in on the left by very high
mountains, from which streams of water flow. When
Ferrier made the journey these streams had broken up
the road almost continuously, and sometimes formed
marshes of mud, from which the horses of himself
and his companions had the greatest difficulty to
extricate themselves.
Owing to circumstances, which he details at length,
but which it seems unnecessary to record here,
Ferrier, to his great regret, did not enter Balkh. He
writes, however, with rapture and commiseration of
its splendid position. "The lovely and advantageous
position of the Mother of Cities, in the midst of a
rich plain, though favourable to any agricultural or
commercial undertaking, has rendered it liable to the
sad misfortune of being a constant bone of conten-
tion between the Amirs of Khulm and Bokhara,
whose ruthless armies almost annually dispute the
suzerainty of the place."
Another writer, Sir Alexander Burnes, visited Balkh
at a somewhat early date. He gives a description the
TO BALKH.
165
reverse of glowing of the fallen city. "Its ruins ex-
tend for a circuit of about twenty miles, but present
no symptoms of magnificence; they consist of fallen
mosques and decayed tombs which have been built of
sun-dried brick; nor are any of these ruins of an age
prior to Muhammadanism." It is extraordinary that
other ruins should be wanting, considering the great
antiquity of the city. Firdusi speaks of it as the
capital of the Persian empire in the time of Kaiomurs,
the founder of the Paishdadian dj'nasty. Arrian
writes of the residence in the city of Alexander the
Great, and of his leaving there an army of fourteen
thousand men, when he marched southward. Gibbon
refers to Balkh as having been the city in which, in
the third century of the Christian era, Artaxerxes
had his authority confirmed by the assembled vassal
chiefs. But little is known of its history till the
ninth century. In the year 869 we hear of
Balkh having been conquered by the famous
Yakub-ben-Lais. On the downfall of the house of
Ben Lais, the city and province fell to the family of
Samani.
Ibn Haukal speaks of Balkh in the year 1004 as
being one of the four capitals of Khorasan—Herat,
166
HERAT
Merv, and Nishapur being the other three. At that
time Balkh was the ruling queen of sixteen provinces,
having eight cities dependent upon her. The city,
distant twelve miles from the mountains, was sur-
rounded by an earthern wall with six gates; it pos-
sessed also a citadel, and was rich in mosques.
Through it flowed the river Rud-i-Haas, turning in
its course ten mills and fertilising the lands of the
villages and districts in the vicinity. Round the city
lay magnificent gardens and orchards, producing
every kind of fruit, dates alone excepted. Bclrisi, who
wrote more than a century and a half later, confirms
this account, and adds: "The city has now become
the capital of the Turks; the head-quarters of their
troops; the residence of their princes, their judges,
their administrators; it possesses flourishing suburbs,
a considerable population, many industries, and a
large mosque surrounded by bazaars; it is full of
merchandise, and busy with traffic." He goes on
to sing the praises of the colleges for arts and
sciences, and the colleges for students; to describe
the wealth of the merchants, and the consideration
they enjoyed; also the number of men of distinction
within the walls. This flourishing condition he at-
TO BALKH.
167
tributes to the fact that Balkh is a central point where
the trade lines meet.
The prosperity so glowingly described by Edrisi
received a death-blow from the ruthless Ohinghiz
Khan in 1220. Although the inhabitants, on hearing
of the approach of the conqueror, despatched a depu-
tation laden with the richest presents to pacify him,
he would not listen to then1 entreaties, but caused
the population to be butchered in cold blood. Balkh
never recovered from bhe blow. A hundred and
twenty years later, a.d. 1340, Ibn Batuta found the
city still in ruins. Nearly thirty years later it was
taken by Taimiir. Though Balkh was subsequently
recognised by that prince as the capital of a province,
its prosperity did not return. Under the Moghol
rule in India, it formed an outlying province of the
empire founded by Babar. Humayun and Kamran
fought for its possession, and somewhat later Au-
rangzib resided within its walls as representative
of his father, Shah Jahan. On the break up of
the Moghol empire, Balkh again underwent the
horrors of an assault, at the hands of Reza Kuli,
son of Nadir Shah. After the death of that con-
queror, Balkh fell into the possession of the Afghanb
168
HERAT
and remained for about eighty years under their
blighting rule. It was then conquered by the King
of Bokhara, when once more it became a battle-
ground. Finally, however, the Afghan prevailed, and
the city still endures the oppression which the Afghan
alone is capable of inflicting. When Burnes visited
the place in 1832, he found that the population did
not exceed two thousand, and that these were mostly
natives of Kabul and a few Arabs.*
Burnes gives an unfavourable account of the salu-
brity of Balkh. He attributes its uohealthiness partly
to its water, "which is so mixed up with earth and
clay as to resemble a puddle after rain," and partly
to the fact that all old cities and ruins are more or
less unhealthy. "It is not probable," he pertinently
adds, "that so many kings and princes would have
patronised a site always unfavourable to the health of
man; and Balkh itself is not situated in a country
naturally marshy, but on a gentle slope which sinks
towards the Oxus, about one thousand eight hundred
* These Arabs are the descendants of the Arabs who colonised
Khorasan and Balkh in the seventh century.
TO TAKETAPUL.
169
feet above the level of the sea." The soil is very rich
and very productive.
A road connects Balkh with the ferry of Chuska-
guzar* on the Oxus, at a distance of about thirty
miles, over a route, practicable, though intersected
near Balkh by watercourses.
Takhtapul is the new Balkh. It lies nearly three
miles to the east of the old city, possessing all the
advantages of the site, and free from the drawbacks
to which Burnes referred. It has, as yet, no history;
but should England occupy all Afghanistan, it is a
position her troops will be called upon to garrison.
A direct road, joining the road from Balkh, connects
Takhtapul with the Chuska-guzar ferry on the Oxus.
Between Balkh and Takhtapul the land is well cul-
tivated.
Leaving Takhtapul, the traveller, after a ride of
about five miles across a cultivated plane, intersected
by watercourses, reaches Muzar, a walled village
containing two hundred houses. When Ferrier passed
it there were in the neighbourhood tents of thou-
* This ferry is not marked on the map accompanying this volume.
It lies about twenty-live miles to the west of the ferry of Termez.
170
HERAT
sands of Uzbeks and Aimaks. The Afghan garrison
occupied a village of wooden huts outside the
walls.
The next station is Khulm, thirty miles distant
across an arid plain. "On the road between Muzar
and this place," writes Ferrier, cc are some clay hills,
amongst which anciently stood the village and cara-
vansarai of Abclou. Both are now uninhabited and
in ruins." Burnes had previously written of the
road as barren and dreary, and of Abdou as being
the resort of robbers from every quarter.
Khulm is a very important place. The distance be-
tween it and the Oxus scarcely exceeds twenty miles.
"It stands on the plain," writes Ferrier, "and con-
sists of four or five villages, now become quarters
of the town, united with each other by gardens;
there are bazaars, caravansarais, baths, and the
population may amount to fifteen thousand inhabi-
tants." The district of which it is the capital is ex-
tensive. It contained, when visited by Ferrier, seven
hundred thousand souls, mostly of the Tajik race,
and produced an annual revenue of twenty-four thou-
sand pounds in gold and fifty thousand pounds in
cereals. Its influence on the states around it is, ac-
TO KHULM.
171
cording to the same writer, not inferior to the influence
exercised by Kabul, Herat, and Bokhara.
Burnes speaks favourably of Khulm; of its beau-
tiful gardens, its apricots, its cherries, and its mul-
berries; of the noble view it commands towards the
north. From Khulm the country slopes down to
the Oxus, but the rivulet, .which bears the name of
the town, is consumed for the purposes of irrigation
before it reaches that noble river. The soil has great
capabilities, the development of which requires but a
few years of peace and security.
From Khulm to Kunduz the distance is just over
seventy miles. For the first forty-five the traveller
journeys along "a dreary road, over two low passes
among hills, not enlivened by a single tree, nor blessed
with a drop of fresh water."* Twelve miles from
Kiinduz fields and orchards are reached, and from
this point to the town the country is agreeable and
even interesting. The town, according to the graphic
description of Burnes, " is situated in a valley, sur-
* Burnes. It is necessary, however, to record that at the present
time there are three stations with abundant water at equal distances
between Khulm and Kunduz,
172
HERAT
rounded on all sides by hills except the north, where
the Oxus flows at a distance of about forty miles.
It is watered by two rivers, which join north of the
town. The climate is so insalubrious that there is a
proverb among the people, which runs as follows :—
c If you wish to die, go to Kiinduz.' The greater
part of the valley is so marshy that the roads are con-
structed on piles of wood, and run through the
rankest weeds; yet wheat and barley are produced,
as also rice, in the places which are not entirely in-
undated. The heat is described as intolerable, yet
snow lies for three months in the year. Kiinduz has
at one time been a large town, but its population does
not now (1832) exceed one thousand five hundred
souls; and no person makes it a residence who can
live in any other place, though it be the market town
of the neighbourhood. The chief never visits it but
in winter. It has a fort surrounded by a ditch, which
is a place of strength; the walls are constructed of
sun-dried brick; and such is the heat that they
crumble under the sun's rays and require constant
repair. The great mountains of Hindu Kiish lie in
sight, south of Kunduz, covered with snow. The
neighbouring hills are low, creeping ridges, covered
TO FAIZABAD.
173
with grass and flowers, but destitute of trees or
brushwood. A little further up the valley the climate
becomes more genial; and the people speak in rap-
tures of the groves and rivulets, the fruits and flowers,
of Badakhshan."
Pursuing the journey eastward to Faizabad, the
traveller rides fifteen miles to Khanuabad, a village
situated on the brow of the hills above the fens of
Kundiiz, and enlivened by a rivulet which runs
briskly past a fort, shaded by trees of the richest
verdure. Burnes, who thus describes the place,
writes of the heat as being great, but Dr. Lord
(1838) speaks of the air as being purer than that
of Kundiiz. The road between the two places is of
the marshy character referred to in the description of
Kundiiz.
Khanuabad to Talikan—twenty-four miles. The
road is apparently good, as Dr. Lord accomplished it
without difficulty in 1838. Burnes, who did not,
however, visit it, speaks of the climate as being plea-
sant, and the soil rich and prolific.
From Talikan the road leads by Ak-buKk, Kila-
Afghan, Mashad, Taishkan, and Argil to Faizabad,
crossing the Lataband range (four thousand nine
174
HERAT
hundred and twenty feet) between Talikan and A'k-
bulak; the A'gur mountains between Kila Afghan
and Taishkan; the Junas (six thousand feet) between
the latter place and A rgit; and ascending thence to
Faizabad on the river Kokcha. I have been unable
to obtain a detailed account of the nature of the
country and of the distances. Every report regard-
ing those more eastern districts testifies to their
beauty, to their fertility, to their wonderful capa-
bilities. "They have," wrote Burnes, "none of the
defects of climate which are peculiar to Kiinduz,
and both natives and foreigners speak in rapture
of the vales of Badakshan, its rivulets, romantic
scenes and glens, its fruits, flowers, and nightingales."
Regarding Faizabad and the district it represents, the
same author writes: "This once celebrated country
is now almost without inhabitants; it was over-run
by the chief of Kunduz about twelve years ago" (in
1820): cc its ruler has been dethroned, and his sub-
stitute exists as a mere pageant; its peasants have
been driven out of the country, and a rabble of law-
less soldiery is now quartered in the different pro-
vinces. It also suffered from an earthquake in
January 1832, which destroyed many villages and a
TO FAIZABAD.
175
great part of the population." The same writer in-
forms us that the natives of the province are Tajiks;
that they are very fond of society, and much given to
hospitality, bread being never sold in the country.
Their language is the Persian, and they still adhere
to the simple manners and customs which obtained
north of the Hindu Kush before the invasion of the
Tartars. Such is the people which now groans under
the ruthless tyranny of a barbarous race alien to
them in blood, in customs, even in religion—for the
Badakhshanis are mostly Shiahs—the tyranny of the
cruel, the rapacious, the merciless Afghan!
176
KABUL
CHAPTER X.
KABUL TO KHULM.
Although in the two preceding chapters I have indi-
cated the direct road from Herat to the most eastern
point of the proposed military frontier, it must not be
supposed that it would be necessary for our soldiers
to adopt that route.' For the troops who may be
stationed in Badakhshan there are direct routes from
Kabul. One of these I propose now very briefly to
indicate.
There is what is called a high road between Kabul
and Khulm; the total distance is approximately two
hundred and twenty-eight miles.
* The first stage leads to Argandi, twelve miles.
* This account of the route is based mainly on the paper read
by Lieutenant-general Kaje at the Eojal Geographical Society.—
TO KETJLM.
177
The first nine miles run through the beautiful Kabul
valley. Turning off, then, at the village of Kila Kazi,
the traveller, inclining to the right, reaches the village
of Argandi, situated at the foot of the Paghman
range. It is an ascent of eleven hundred and
twenty feet from Kabul, the altitude of Argandi
reaching seven thousand six hundred and twenty-
eight feet.
Argandi to Rustam Khail—eight miles. From Ar-
gandi a narrow gorge with stony bed leads by a steep
ascent to a plateau surmounting the spur. The road
continues o^er this plateau in a westerly direction
for two miles and then descends to Rustam Khail in
the valley of the Kabul river. Here the valley has
a width of about a mile, is well cultivated, and
abounds with villages and orchards.
Rustam Khail to Jalraiz—ten miles. The traveller
continues along the valley, which, however, narrows
as Jalraiz is approached.
Jalraiz to Sir-i-Chashma—ten miles. The road
Vide Proceedings for April 1879. General Kaye made the journey
as far as Bamian in 1840 with horse artillery, cavalry, and in-
fantry.
12
178
KABUL
along this march is often confined by the spurs of
the Paghman to the narrow stream.
Sir-i-Chashma to the TJnah pass, distance thirteen
miles and a half. To the foot of the pass the road
mounts the hill side, till an elevation of ten thousand
feet is reached. Thence to the summit—an ascent of
one thousand four hundred feet—the traveller meets a
succession of short ascents and descents.
The summit of the TJnah pass to Kharzar—fourteen
miles. The Helmand river is forded about two miles
from the summit of the pass, and the traveller enters
the defile of the Siah Sang—narrow, with a rough
stony bed, and a meandering stream, which has to be
crossed more than twenty times before a small mud
fort, called Siah Kila, distant six miles and a half
from the Helmand, is reached. Thence, marching
along the defile, at a distance of six miles, the fort of
Kharzar, on elevated table-land above the valley, is
reached.
Kharzar to the valley of Mian-i-Irak—fifteen miles
and a half. Five and a half miles from Kharzar the
fort of the pass of Irak Kotul is reached. The ascent
to an altitude of thirteen thousand feet is not difficult.
The road from the further base of the pass continues
TO KHULM.
179
in a narrow valley to Mian-i-Irak. Here the ground
is open and well cultivated. The hills which surround
it are of no great altitude.
Mian-i-Irak to the foot of the Kalu pass—ten miles.
A march across the pass of Hajigak, twelve thousand
four hundred feet above the sea. The ascent gradual
and easy, but the descent steep and long. The Kalu
valley is studded with mud forts, but is tolerably
well cultivated with wheat and barley. Boulders of
granite are of frequent occurrence.
The foot of the Kalu pass to Kila Topchi—eight
miles. The Kalu range, forming part of the prin-
cipal chain of the Hindu Kush, thirteen thousand four
hundred feet above the sea, is crossed. The length
of the ascent is about two miles; that of the descent
nearly four miles. Kila Topchi is about two miles
beyond.
Kila Topchi to Bamian—eleven miles. The road
lies along a narrow, cultivated valley till the Bamidn
river is reached. The course of the river is then
followed to Bamian.
Bamian to A'k-Robat—fifteen miles. Open country
as far as the Surkh Durwazai—some five or six miles
from Bamian. The road here enters a narrow defile
12 *
180
KABUL
enclosed by red cliffs of no great altitude. For about
five miles it continues along the banks of a stream,
then mounts by a tolerably easy road the hill-side on
the right. For some miles thence it crosses an
undulating table-land, until it finally descends into
the valley of Ak-Robat, a small basin among the
hills.
Ak-Robat to Saighan—twenty-two miles. A con-
tinuous descent, crossing at the fourteenth mile-stone
the well-cultivated valley of Shatii. The fortress of
Sir-Sang is perched on an insulated rock at the en-
trance of the Saighan valley—twenty-two miles from
Ak-Robat.
Saighan to Bajgah—twenty-one miles, by the Nal-
i-Farash pass. A very difficult and steep ascent, yet
found practicable for guns in 1840.
From Bajgah the road crosses the Kara Kotal
to Riii—distance (approximate) twenty-eight miles.
General Kaye writes about the Kara Kotal: "This"
pass "was reconnoitred in May, and found to be
one of great difficulty, the ascent over huge layers
of rock, quite impracticable for artillery on wheels."
Rui to Kuram, across the Chambak pass—thirteen
miles. I have been unable to ascertain any parti-
TO KHULM.
181
culars about this road, but it has been traversed by-
British troops.
Kuram to Haibak—twenty miles. Terrier thus de-
scribes the road. "Across steep mountains, in a
dark ravine, between high rocks, some hundreds of
yards in elevation. The road is execrable, covered
with rounded stones and broken up by water and
brushwood. Occasionally the gorge widened, and we
saw orchards and gardens around small villages, of
which I was told the climate was exceedingly good,
and favourable to the cultivation of fruit." Haibak
was the extreme point to which our troops penetrated
during the first Afghan war. A party of Captain
Hopkins's regiment, detached from Bamian, held
Saighan and Haibak for some months, and thus
threatened Khulm, where Dost Muhammad had then
his head-quarters.*
The distance from Haibak to Khulm is about thirty
miles over a fertile and well-cultivated country.
It would not enter into the purpose of this volume
to describe in full detail all the passes between Kabul
and the country beyond the Hindu Kush. The
* Per rier's "Caravan Journeys," note.
182
KABUL
curiosity of the reader to inquire further may per-
haps be stimulated by the testimony regarding them
given by one who, writing from his own experience,
had the highest claim to speak with authority—the
Emperor Babar. "Between Balkh, Kunduz, and
Badakkshan, on the one side, and Kabul on the
other," wrote that illustrious conqueror, "is inter-
posed the mountain of Hindu-Kush, the passes over
which are seven in number. Three of these are by
Panjshir, the uppermost" (most eastward) u of which
is Khawak; lower down is that of Thai, and still
lower that of Bazarak. Of these three passes, the
best is that of Thai, but the way is somewhat longer.
The most direct pass is that of Bazarak. Both of
these passes lead over to Sir-Ab. . . . Another
route is that of Parwan. Between Parwan and the
high mountain, there are seven minor passes, which
they call Haftbachhah—the seven younglings. As
you come from the Andarab side, the two roads unite
below the main pass, and lead down on Parwan by
way of the seven younglings. This is a very diffi-
cult road. There are besides three roads in Ghor-
band. That which is nearest to Parwan is the pass
of Yangi-yuli (the new road), which descends by
TO EEULM.
183
Grwalian and Khinjan. Another route is that of
Kipchak" (Char-darya) "which leads by the junc-
tion of the rivers of Surkhab and Andarab. This is
a good pass. Another route is by the pass of Shibr-
tu. During the summer, when the waters are up,
you can go by this pass only by taking the route
of Bamian and Saighan, but in the winter season
they travel by way of Abdereh."
Mr. Clements Markham, in his learned paper pub-
lished in the proceedings of the Royal Geographical
Society for February 1879, thus classifies the known
passes over the Hindu Kush.
From the Chitral valley: the Baroghil (twelve
thousand feet); the Ishtirak; the Agram; the
Nuksan (seventeen thousand); the Khartaza;
and the Dora (sixteen thousand five hundred).
From the Panjshir valley: the Anjuman; the
Khawak (thirteen thousand feet); the Thai; the
Zarya;—joining on the northern descent: the
Yatumak; the Umraz; the Shwa; the Bazarak,
connecting on the northern descent: and the
Shatpal.
From the Parwan valley: the Bajgah, and the
Sar Ulang (twelve thousand feet).
184
KABUL TO KHULM.
From the Ghorband valley: the Kushan
(fifteen thousand feet); the Gwalian; the Gwaz-
yar; the Chardarya; the Grhalalaj; the Farin-
jal; and the Shibr.
A description of these passes is given in the
paper referred to.
185
CHAPTER XL
HERAT TO KABUL.
But little is known of the direct road connecting
Herat with Kabul, but that little is calculated to
show that in the summer it would present little
difficulty to the march of an army. The first at-
tempt, of which any detail has reached us, to march
an army from Herat to Kabul, was made by Babar in
1506. An account of this attempt has been written
by the emperor himself. The route he selected
lad by way of Badkis, Langar-Mir-Grhaias, Chakcha-
ran, Chiraghdan—close to the junction of the two
branches of the Herirud—Anjukan and Khawal-
Koti, across the Zirin pass; thence by Yek-Aulang
to Bamian. The route from Bamian we have tra-
versed in the preceding chapter.
186
HERAT
It was scarcely possible to choose a more direct
route, and there is every reason to believe that
had it been attempted in a favourable season, it
could have been accomplished. In fact, it has
been repeatedly accomplished on horseback. But
Babar selected the winter to make the experiment.
He set out with his army on the 24th December,
after the snow had begun to fall. He marched first
to the neighbourhood north-east of Herat, "halting,"
he writes, 46 a day or two at every station." The exact
situation of Badkis I have been unable to ascertain,
but it probably lay at the foot of the great mountain
range to the north of the Herirud. It was evidently
a well-sheltered place, for Babar, who left Herat in
spite of the solicitations of his hosts, made the going
into winter-quarters at Badkis the pretext of his
move. Thence he marched by the route I have in-
dicated to Ohakcharan, the snow falling every day.
The further he advanced, the deeper was the snow.
At Ohakcharan it reached above the horses' knees;
two or three days after leaving that place, it reached
above the stirrups. After passing Ckiraghdan—marked
on the map near the junction of the two streams which
form the Herirud—not only was the snow extremely
TO KABUL.
187
deep, but it had effaced all traces of the road. Babar
halted whilst he sent out parties to try and discover
any of the mountaineers who might be wintering in
the valley or sheltered grounds. All their efforts,
however, were unsuccessful. At the end of three
days they returned, not having encountered a single
inhabitant. All had left for their homes in the lower
ground.
Still Babar persevered. "For about a week," he
writes, " we continued pressing down the snow, with-
out being able to advance more than two or three miles.
I myself assisted in depressing the snow. . . .
Every step we sank up to the middle or the breast,
but still we went on trampling it down." In this way,
and literally dragging the horses through the snow,
his troops at length reached Khawal-Koti—a cave—
at the foot of the Zirm pass. "That day," he writes,
"the storm of wind was dreadful. The snow fell in
such quantities, we all expected to meet death toge-
ther." But the night passed, and next morning the
storm and tempest ceased. He then pushed on in
the same manner as before, reached the summit of the
pass, and then began to descend. Night came on before
the valley had been reached, and Babar and his fol-
188
HERAT
lowers were ignorant of the way. But still they pressed
on, crossing crevasses and ravines over which the
snow had hardened, till at last they reached Yek
Aulang in safety.
Yek Aulang lies about thirty miles south-west of
Bamian. There Babar and his men obtained food,
clothing, and warmth. One day only they stayed to
enjoy these luxuries, and then resumed their march.
But the difficulties had been surmounted. They had
indeed thirty miles of hill country to traverse, but the
level was lower and the climate warmer, and in a few
days they reached Bamian in safety. Thence they pro •
ceeded to the vicinity of Kabul by the Shibrtu pass.
From this account it is clear that the road itself
presents no difficulties which could not easily be sur-
mounted. Even under all the disadvantage of snow
lying up to the waist, the Zirin pass was ascended and
its descent partly accomplished during the light of a
short winter day; and that pass, probably not ex-
ceeding a few hundred feet, constituted the main diffi-
culty of the road between Herat and Bamian.
The Munshi, Mohan Lai, who visited Herat with
Dr. Gerard in 1832, gives a decided opinion in favour
of the practicability of the road. He quotes, like-
TO KABUL.
189
wise, two examples of the easy accomplishment of the
journey. "From Herat to Kabul/' be writes,* ct the
route is beautifully covered with villages, the produce
of which can feed a considerable army. It is twenty
days' journey without crossing any hill." He then
states that Shah Zaman, shortly after his accession to
the throne, marched from Herat to Kabul, accompa-
nied by a large body of horsemen, in ten or eleven
days; and that at a later period, Shah Muhammad
and Kamran accomplished the distance, after having
been defeated by Dost Muhammad, in thirteen days.
It is certain that the journey presents no real diffi-
culties, and that it would be easy to make a road
which should be feasible for guns at all but the
most inclement season of the year.
"Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," January 1834.
191
INDEX.
Abbas the Great, Shah, fosters
Mashad to the detriment of
Herat, 75.
Abbot, Captain James, traverses
the road from Herat to Merv
by the Murghab, 137; de-
scription of route taken by,
137-142.
Adrashkan, town near a river of
the same name on the road
from Kandahar to Herat,
118.
Afghanistan, the invasion of,
necessitated by the secret in-
trigues of Russia, 6.
Afghans, the, powers of re-
sistance of, if led by Russian
officers, 3; relation between,
and Afghanistan, 7; are
nothing more than robbers
and plunderers of the moun-
tains, 8 ; treatment of Ghazm
by, 9; misery wrought by, on
Herat and the Herat is, 12;
the kingdom of, has disap-
peared, 15; the Abdali, wrest
Herat from Persia, 77; testi-
mony of Vambery to the
hatred of the Hera'ti's to, 78;
testimony of Ferrier to the
mal-ad ministration of, 79;
miserable internal policy of,
80; Yarnbery's description of,
in Herat, 99, 103; are more
alien to the Heratfs than the
Hindustanis, 105; rapine and
spoliation by, 161, 168, 175.
Alp Arslan, rules in Herat, 47
and note.
Andkho, route from Herat to,
182; description of, 160;
ruined by the Afghans, 161;
road from, to Shiborgan and
Balkh, 162.
Arrian, testimony of, to the
presence of Alexander the
Great at Balkh, 165.
Babar, founder of the Moghol
dynasty, visits the "lions " of
Herat, 41; account by, of his
visit to Herat, 62 ; detects the
little stability of the reigning
dynasty, 63; returns to Ka-
bul, 64; description by, of the
passes across the Hindii
Kush, 182; march of, from
Herat to Kabul, 185-188.
Badakhshan, climate, soil, popu-
lation, and condition of, 174.
Balkh, road to, from Herat
via Maimane, 152-164; de-
scription of, 164; historical
sketch of, 165; sanitary state
of, 168; road from, to the
Oxus, and to Takhtapul, 169.
192
INDEX.
Bamian, 179.
Batuta, Ibn, testimony of, to
the early prosperity of Herat,
38; to the destruction caused
in Balkh by Chingiz Khan,
167.
Berlin, treaty of, baffles the
secret manoeuvres of Russia, 5.
Boulger, Mr., definition of the
new frontier by, 27.
Burnes, Sir Alexander, makes a
caravan journey from Char-
jui to the Murghab, 143;
description by, of route taken
by, 144; of the desert and
its inhabitants, 146; of the
pace of camels in the desert,
147; description by, of Balkh,
165; of Kiinduz, 172; of
of Talikan, 173; of Faizabad
and Badakhshan, 174.
Caravans, number of, met by
Captain Abbot between Herat
and Merv, 140.
Charjui, description of, 143;
trade at, 144; routes between,
and Merv, 143 - 149; road
feasible for an army if un-
opposed, 150.
Chingiz Khan, early career of,
49; armies of, twice storm
Herat, 50; deals a death-blow
to Balkh, 167.
Chitchekta, fertility of the val-
ley of, 158.
Chuska-guzar, ferry on the Oxus
leading to Balkh, 169.
Edrisi, testimony of, to the early
prosperity of Herat, 38; to
the prosperity of Balkh before
its destruction by Chingiz
Khan, 166.
England, consequence of the
annexation of Herat by, 22;
intervention of, implored by
the Heratfs, 23; cannot
afford to hesitate, 23 ; honour
and interests of, threatened
by Russian advance on Merv,
25; jeopardised by delay to
occupy Herat, 25; necessity
for, to secure the gate to
India, 26.
Faizabad, road to, from Kun-
duz, 173; testimony of Burnes
to the importance of, 174.
Farrah, road from Kandahar to,
108-115; former and pre-
sent condition of, 115; road
from, to Sabzwar, 116.
Ferrier, Monsieur, testimony of,
regarding Afghan administra-
tion, 79; regarding the im-
portance of Giraneh, 116;
regarding the military im-
portance of the Rdd-i-Adrash-
kan route, 117; regards the
route from Charjui to Merv
practicable, 150; description
by, of Balkh, 164; of Khulin,
170.
Firdusf, reference of, to Balkh,
165.
Fraser, James, Mr., definition
of Khorasan by, 29; what
Farrah was when visited by,
115.
Frontier, the new, defined, 27.
Ghazm, not an Afghan city, ex-
cept in the sense of its having
been devastated by the Af-
ghans, 8.
Giafar Beg, Seljiiki, conquers
Herat, 46.
Gibbon, reference made by, to
Balkh, 167.
Giraneh, route by, between
Kandahar and Herat, 115;
special capabilities of, 116.
Girishk, 109,
INDEX.
193
Haibak, the most advanced post j
reached in the first Afghan
war, 181.
Haukal, Ibn, testimony of, to
the early prosperity of Herat,
37; to that of Balkh, 166.
Herat, prosperity of, before the
Afghans entered it, 10; how
treated by former conquerors,
11; how by the Afghans, 12;
reason why in spite of Af-
ghan rule she survives, 13;
result of replacing the Af-
ghan by the Englishman or
the Russian, 14; one push
required to drive the Afghan
from, 15; certain cousequence
of transferring, to Persia, 16;
to Eussia, 18; conquerors
who have made, the gate to
India, 19; why, possessed by
Eussia, becomes a danger to
India, 19, 20; what the pos-
session of, would be to Eng-
land, 22; intervention of
England implored by the
natives of, 23; danger of tlie
occupation of, purely ima-
ginary, 24; description of,
by Conolly, 37; by Eastern
historians, 38; by Babar, 40;
origin of the name of, 42
and note; early history of,
43; is conquered by the Sel-
jiiks, 46; nature of the popu-
lation of, 47; names of the
members of the Seljiiki dy-
nasty reigning over, 47; falls i
under the Sultans of Khwa-
rizm, 48; state of, in 1219,
49; is twice stormed by the
armies of Chingiz Khan,
50; recovers and prospers
for one hundred and thirty
years, 51; is pillaged by Tai-
mur, 52; the damages re-
paired by Mir an Shah, 53;
is governed by Shah-Eokh,
54; vindicates her claim to
the title of Queen of Eastern
Cities, 54; enduring advan-
tages possessed by, 56; ac-
count of festivals at, 57;
falls into the possession of
Abusaid, 59; and then of
Sultan Husen Mirza, 60;
advance of the prosperity of,
60; is visited by Babar, 61;
defence of, rendered impos-
sible by the capture of Sar-
rakhs, 64; captured by Shahf
Beg, 65; and by Shah Ish-
mail, 66; persecutions in-
augurated by the latter at,
66; seat of government trans-
ferred from, to Mashad, 67;
neglect of, by the Safvis, 68;
the Uzbeks lay siege to, 69;
again, 70; again, and take,
71; is recovered by Shah
Tahmasp, 71; Sam Mirza re-
volts at, but is defeated, 72;
taken again by the Uzbeks
and recovered by Shah Tah-
masp, 73; is visited by Hu-
niayun, 74; decadence of,
under Persian rule, 75; is
wrested from Persia by the
Abdali Afghans, 77; fatal
consequences to, 78-80; the
character of the people of,
81; the position of, the main
cause of the vitality of, 81;
sieges of, since 1749, 82;
their long duration, 83; siege
of, by Muhammad Shah, 83;
saved by Eldred Pottinger,
84; taken by Persia, but re-
stored by the action of Eng-
land, 85; universal testimony
of the conquerors of India to
the importance of Herat, 85;
arguments in favour of this
view of, 86-89; markets of,
13
194
INDEX.
90-95 ; treatment of, by Shah
Kararan, and result, 95; op-
posite treatment of, by Tar
Muhammad, and result, 96;
description of, by Captain
Marsh, 96; by Vambery, 98;
testimony to the fertility of
the valley of, 101; regarding
the revenues" of, 102; route
from Kandahar to, 107-119;
view of, from the Kandahar
side, 119; route from, to
Sarrakhs, Merv, and Charjui,
131-151; route from, to Mai-
mane and Anclkko, 152; route
from, to Kabul, 185.
Herfrud, the, course of, 35;
testimony to the fertility of
the valley of, 101.
Hindu Kush, passes across the,
181.
Humayun, visit of, to Herat,
74.
Husen Mirza, Sultan, conquers
Herat, 60; high character of,
60; death of, 61; evidences
of the rule, 155 and note.
Ishmail Shah, founder of the
Safvi dynasty, 65; defeats
Shahi Beg and conquers Kho-
rasan, 66; cruelties perpe-
trated by, at Herat, 66.
Kabul, prosperity of, not asso-
ciated with the Afghans, 8;
'road from, to Khulm, 176-
184; the passes beyond, 182-
184; from Herat to, 185.
Kandahar, prosperity of, asso-
ciated with the Moghols and
Persians, not with the Af-
ghans, 9; route from, to
Herat, 107.
Kash-Jabran, point of junction
of two routes from Kandahar
to Herat, 118.
Kashrud, the, road by, from
Kandahar to Herat, 112.
Kaufmann, now under orders
to march from the Oxus on
Merv, 17; route of, to Herat,
successfully traversed by
Shahi Beg, 64.
Khorasan, defined by Mr.Fraser,
29; character of the people
of, 30; definition by Nadir
Shah of, 31; limits of, have
varied with time and circum-
stances, 31; early history of,
44.
Khulm, road from Herat to,
152-170; importance of, 170;
road from, to Kuncluz, 171;
road to, from Kabul, 176.
Kunduz, 171.
Lord, Dr., Testimony of, to the
climate of Khaniiabad and
Talikan, 173.
MacGregor, Colonel, journey of,
from the vicinity of Herat to
Mashad, 121-130; opinion of,
regarding Sarrakhs, 133.
Mailik, importance of, 163.
Maimane, route from Herat to,
152; description of, 158;
road from, to Andkho, 160.
Markham, Mr. Clements, de-
scription by, of passes be-
tween Kabul and Badakh-
shan, 183.
Marsh, Captain, description of
Herat by, 96; account of
route of, from Mashad to
Herat, 121-130.
Mashad, Ishmail Shah transfers
the seat of government from
Herat to, 67; is fostered by
Shah Abbas the Great, 75;
route from, to Herat, 121-129.
Merv, now little more than a
geographical expression, 17 j
INDEX.
]95
road from Herat to, via Sar-
rakhs, 131-134; desert be-
tween, and Sarrakhs, 135;
road from Herat to, by the
Murghab valley, 136-140;
Captain Abbot's description
of, and deduction, 141; roads
from Charj ui to, 143-149;
is the route to, from Charj iii,
practicable for an army? 149.
Miran Shah, son of Taimur, re-
pairs the damages done by
his father to Herat, 53; di-
verts himself at that place,
54.
Mohan Lai, testimony of, to the
practicability of the country
between Kabul and Herat,
188.
Muhammad Khan, King of
Khwarizm, conquers Herat,
48.
Murghab, valley of the, between
Herat and Merv, 137-142;
description of the, 156.
Nadir Shah, opinion of, of Kho-
rasan, 31; besieges and takes
Herat before invading India,
82.
Palmerston, Lord, wages two
wars rather than permit He-
rat to fall under the influence
of Russia, 24.
Persia, certain consequence of
transferring Herat to, 16;
impossibility of, in that case
resisting Russia, 17; the
question of transfer of Herat
to, dismissed, 17.
Pottinger, Eldred, gallantry of,
at Herat, 84.
Rud-i-Adrashkan, military im-
portance of the, in a march to
Herat, 117.
Russia, certain results of grant-
ing time to, for the cementing
of her alliance with Afghan-
istan, 4; the envoy of, in Ka-
bul, and the scientific mission
of, in Herat, 4; baffled by the
Treaty of Berlin, 5; and by
the invasion of Afghanistan,
6; first consequence of the
annexation of the country of
the Turkmans of Merv by,
17; question of an occupa-
tion of Herat by, discussed,
17; is now preparing two ex-
peditions against Merv, 18;
consequence of success of,
18; enormous power to in-
jure India which would ac-
crue to, by the possession of
Herat, 19, 20; involving the
loss of India, 21; advantages
which would thus accrue to,
21.
Sabzwar, road from Farrah to,
116; description of, 117;
road from, to Herat, 118.
Sam Mirza, son of Shah Tah-
masp, revolts at Herat and
besieges Kandahar, but is
defeated, 72.
Sarrakhs, is taken by Shahi
Beg, 64; capture of, renders
Herat untenable, 64; descrip-
tion of, 132; country between,
and Merv, 134.
Seljuki, the, dynasty of, in He-
rat, 45-48.
Shahi or Shaibani Beg, marches
on Herat from the Oxus and
takes Sarrakhs, 64; and He-
rat, 65; is dispossessed after
a tenure of four years by
Ishmail Shah, 66.
Shah-Rokh, Mirza, is sent by
Taimur to govern Herat, 54;
character of, and of the go-
196
INDEX.
vernment of, 55; lessons to
be drawn from the career of,
55; death of, 58.
Shamlu, brave defence of Herat
by Durmish Khan, 69; suc-
cessful resistance offered by
Husen Khan, 70; consequence
of the massacre of the tribe
of, by Shah Tahmasp, 72.
Shiborgan, road to, from A'nd-
kh6,162 ; description of, 163;
road from, to Balkh, 163.
Siah-ab, the point on the road
from Kandahar, whence a
direct road runs to Herat,
avoiding Farrah and Sabz-
war, 113.
Tahmasp, Shah, succession of, to
his father, Shah Ishmail, 68;
excites the invasion of Khora-
san, 69; defeats the Uzbeks at
Damghan, and at Jam, 70;
recovers the whole of Kho-
rasan, 71; slaughter of the
Shamlu tribe by, incites his
son to revolt, 72; again re-
covers Herat from the Uz-
beks, 73.
Tairnur, or Tamerlane, pillages
Herat, 52; vindication of the
character of, 52, note; passes
through the gate of Herat to
India, 53.
Takhtapul, description of, 169.
Talikan, favourably spoken of
by Burnes and Lord, 173.
Thogrul Beg, founder of the
Seljuk dynasty, conquers
Transoxiana, 45; sends his
brother, Giafar Be'g, to Herat,
46.
Todd, Major d'Arcy, reverence
of the Heratis for, 80.
Turbat-i-Jami, road by, from
Mashad to Herat, 125.
Turkmans, the, are, with the
desert, the best allies of the
English, 150.
Uzbeks, the, lay siege to Herat
for seven months, but in vain,
69; again invade Kkorasan
by way of Charjui, and cap-
ture Merv, Sarrakhs, Mashad,
and Tiis, 69; besiege Herat,
but are forced to raise the
siege, 70; besiege it again,
take it, but lose it to Shah
Tahmasp, 71; once more take
Herat, and finally lose it, 73;
character of the, 163.
Yambery, Arminius, testimony
of, to Afghan misrule in He-
rat, 11; to the wish of He-
ratis for English intervention,
23; opinion of, regarding the
feelings of the Heratis to-
wards the Afghans, 78; to-
wards Major d'Arcy Todd,
80; regarding the Afghan
revenue officers, 80; descrip-
tion by, of Herat, 99; of
the Afghans in Herat, 103;
journey of, from Herat to
Maimane, 153; obligations of
the Author to, 161, note.
Volney, estimate by, of the dis-
tance traversed per hour by
a camel, 147.
Zaman Shah, traditions of the
time of, regarding Girishk,
110; journey of, between
Herat and Kabul, 189.
Zirm pass, march across by
Babar, 187.
London: Printed by W. H. Allen & Co., 13 Waterloo Place,
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Wraxall's Scraps and Sketches, Gathered Together.
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Yakooh Beg (the Life of), Athalik Ghazi and Badaulet,
Ameer of Kashgar. By Demetrius Charles Boulger,
Member of the Royal Asiatic Society. 8vo. With Map and
Appendix. 16s.
Yesterday and To-Day in India.
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Young's (J. R.) Course of Mathematics.
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A SELECTION FROM
MESSRS. ALLEN'S CATALOGUE
OP BOOKS IN THE EASTERN LANGUAGES, &c.
HINDUSTANI, HINDI, &c.
f Dr. Forbes*s Works are used as Class Books in the Colleges and Schools
in India.~\
Forbes's Hindustani-English Dictionary in the Persian Character,
with the Hindi words in Nagari also; and an English Hindustani
Dictionary in the English Character; both in one volume. By Dun-
can Fokbes, LL.D. Royal 8vo. 42s.
Forbes's Hindustani Grammar, with Specimens of Writing in the
Persian and Nagari Characters, Reading Lessons, and Vocabulary.
8vo. 10s. 6d.
Forbes's Hindustani Manual, containing a Compendious Gram-
mar, Exercises for Translation, Dialogues, and Vocabulary, in the
Roman Character. New Edition, entirely revised. By J. T. Platts.
18mo. 3s. 6d.
Forbes's Bagh o Bahar, in the Persian Character, with a complete
Vocabulary. Royal 8vo. 12s 6d.
Forbes's Bagh o Bahar in English, with Explanatory Notes,
illustrative of Eastern Character. 8vo. 8s.
East wick (Edward B.) The Bagh-o-Bahar—literally translated
into English, with copious explanatory notes. Svo. 3 0s. 6d.
Forbes's Tota Kahani; or, "Tales of a Parrot," in the Persian
Character, with a complete Vocabulary. Royal 8vo. 8s.
Small's (Rev. G.) Tota Kahani; or, "Tales of a Parrot." Trans-
lated into English. 8vo. 8s.
Forbes's Baital Pachisi; or, £k Twenty-five Tales of a Demon,"
in the Nagari Character, with a complete Vocabulary. Royal 8vo. 9s.
Platts'J. T , Baital Pachisi; translated into English. Svo. 8s.
Forbes's Jkhwanu s Safa; or, "Brothers of Purity/' in the
Persian Character. Royal 8vo. 12s. 6d.
[For the higher standard for military officers* examinations.,]
Platts' Ikhwanu S Safa; translated into English. Svo. 10s. 6d.
Wm. H. Allen & Co.,
Platts' Grammar of the Urdu or Hindustani-Language. 8vo. 12s.
Forbess Oriental Penmanship; a Guide to Writing Hindustani
in the Persian Character. 4to. 8s.
Forbes's Hindustani-English and English Hindustani Dictionary,
in the English Character. Royal 8vo. 36s.
Forbes's Smaller Dictionary, Hindustani and English, in the
English Character. 12s.
Forbess Bagh o Bahar, with Vocaby., English Character. 5s.
Hindustani Selections, with a Vocabulary of the Words. By
James R. Ballantyne. Second Edition. 1845. 5s.
Singhasan Battisi. Translated into Hindi from the Sanscrit-
A New Edition. Revised, Corrected, and Accompanied with Copious
Notes. By Syed Abdoolah. Royal 8vo. 12s. 6d.
Robertson's Hindustani Vocabulary. 3s. 6d.
Eastwick's Prem Sagur. 4to. 30s.
Akhlaki Hindi, translated into Urdu, with an Introduction and
Notes. By Syed Abdoolah. Royal 8vo. 12s. 6d.
Sakuntala. Translated into Hindi from the Bengali recension
of the Sanskrit. Critically edited, with grammatical, idiomatical, and*
exegetical notes, by Feedeeic Pincott. 4to. 12s. 6d.
SANSCRIT.
Haughton's Sanscrit and Bengali Dictionary, in the Bengali
Character, with Index, serving as a reversed dictionary. 4to. 30s.
Williams's English-Sanscrit Dictionary. 4to., cloth. £3. 3s.
Williams's Sanskrit-English Dictionary. 4to. £& 14s. 6d.
Wilkin's (Sir Charles) Sanscrit Grammar. 4to. 15s.
Williams's (Monier) Sanscrit Grammar. 8vo. 15s.
Williams's (Monier) Sanscrit Manual; to which is added, a
Vocabulary, by A. E. G-ottgh. 18mo. 7s. 6d.
Gough's (A. E.) Key to the Exercises in Williams's Sanscrit
Manual. 18mo. 4s.
Williams's (Monier) Sakuntala, with Literal English Translation
of all the Metrical Passages, Schemes of the Metres, and copious
Critical and Explanatory Notes. Eojal 8vo. 21s.
Williams's (Monier) Sakuntala. Translated into English Prose
and Verse. Eourth Edition. 8s.
Williams's (Monier) Vikramorvasi. The Text. 8vo. 5s.
Cowells (E B.) Translation of the Vikramorvasi. 8vo. 3s. 6d.
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33
Thompson's (J. C.) Bhagavat Gita. Sanscrit Text. 5s.
Haughton's Menu, with English Translation. 2 vols. 4to. 24s.
Johnson's Hitopadesa, with Vocabulary. 15s.
Hitopadesa, Sanscrit, with Bengali and English Trans. 10s 6d.
Johnson's Hitopadesa, English Translation of the. Ito. 5s.
Wilson's Megha Duta, with Translation into English Verse,
Notes, Illustrations, and a Vocabulary. Royal 8vo. 6s.
PEESIAN.
Eichardson's Persian, Arabic, and English Dictionary. Edition
of 1852. By F. Johnson. 4to. £4.
Forbes's Persian Grammar, Reading Lessons, and Vocabulary.
Royal 8vo. 12s. 6d.
Ibraheem's Persian Grammar, Dialogues, &c. Royal 8vo. 12s 6d. j
Gulistan. Carefully collated with the original MS., with u full
Vocabulary. By John Platts, late Inspector of Schools, Central
Provinces, India. Royal 8vo. 12s. 6d.
Gulistan. Translated from a revised Text, with Copious Notes.
By John Platts. 8vo. 12s. 6d.
Ouseley's Anwari Soheili. 4to. 42s.
Wollaston's (Arthur N.) Translation of the Anvari Soheili.
Royal 8vo. £2 2s.
Keene's (Rev. H. G.) First Book of The Anwari Soheili. Persian
Text. 8vo. 5s.
Ouseley's (Col.) Akhlaki Mushini. Persian Text. Hvo. 5s
Keenes (Rev. H. G.) Akhlaki Mushini. Translated into English.
8vo. 3s. 6d.
Clarke's (Captain H. Wilberforce, R.E.) The Persian Manual.
A Pocket Companion.
PART I.—A concise GrRAMMAE of the Language, with Exer-
cises on its more Prominent Peculiarities, together with a Selection of
Useful Phrases, Dialogues, and Subjects for Translation into Persian.
PART II.—A Vocabulary of Useful Words, English and
Persian, showing at the same time the difference of idiom between
the two Languages. 18mo. 7s. 6d.
A Translation of Robinson Crusoe into the Persian Language.
Roman Character. Edited by T. W. H. Toluobt, Bengal Civil
Service. Cr. 8vo. 7s.
34
Wm. H. Allen & Co.,
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Haughton's Bengali, Sanscrit, and English Dictionary, adapted
for Students in either language; to which is added an Index, serving
as a reversed dictionary. 4to. 30s.
Forbess Bengali Grammar, with Phrasesand dialogues. Royal
8vo. 12s. 6d.
Forbess Bengali Reader, with a Translation and Vocabulary
Royal 8vo. 12s. 6d.
Nabo Nari. 12mo. 7s.
ARABIC.
Richardson's Arabic, Persian and English Dictionary. Edition
of 1852. By F. Johnson. 4to., cloth. £4.
Forbess Arabic Grammar, intended more especially for the use of
young men preparing for the East India Civil Service, and also for the
use of self instructing students in general. Royal 8vo., cloth. 18s.
Palmer's Arabic Grammar. 8vo. 18s.
Forbes's Arabic Reading Lessons, consisting of Easy Extracts
from the best Authors, with Vocabulary. Royal 8vo., cloth. 15s.
Matthew's Translation of the Mishkat-ul-Masabih. 2 vols in 1.
By the Rey. T. P. Hughes, Missionary to the Afghans at Peshawur.
{In the press.)
TEL00G00.
Brown's Dictionary, reversed; with a Dictionary of the Mixed
Dialects used in Teloogoo. 3 vols, in 2, royal 8vo. £5.
Campbells Dictionary. Royal 8vo. 30s.
Bromn's Reader. 8vo. U vols. 14s.
Brown's Dialogues, Teloogoo and English. 8vo. 5s. 6d.
Pancha Tantra. 8s.
Percival's English-Teloogoo Dictionary. 10s. 6d.
TAMIL.
Rottler's Dictionary, Tamil and English. 4to. 42s.
Babington's Grammar (High Dialect). 4to. 12s.
Percival's Tamil Dictionary. 2 vols. 10s. (3d.
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GUZRATTEE.
Mavor's Spelling, Guzrattee and English. 7s, 6d.
Shapuaji Edaljis Dictionary, Guzrattee and English. 21s.
MAHRATTA.
Molesworth's Dictionary, Mahratta and English. 4to. 4*2s.
Molesworth's Dictionary, English and Mahratta. 4to. 42s.
Stevenson's Grammar. 8vo., cloth. 17s. 6d.
Esop's Fables. lP.mo* 2s. 6d.
Fifth Reading Book. 7s.
MALAY.
Marsdens Grammar. 4to. £1 Is.
CHINESE.
Morrisons Dictionary. 6 vols. 4to. £10.
Marshman's —Clavis Sinica, a Chinese Grammar. 4to. t'2 *2s.
Morrisons View of China, for Philological purposes; containing a
Sketch of Chinese Chronology, G-eography, Government, Religion and
Customs, designed for those who study the Chinese language. 4to. 6s.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Reeves English-Camatica and Carnatica-English Dictionary
2 vols. (Very slightly damaged). £8.
Collett's Malayalam Reader. Svo. 12s. 6d.
Esop's Fables in Carnatica. 8vo. bound, l'is. 6d.
A Turkish Manual, comprising a Condensed Grammar with
Idiomatic Phrases, Exercises and Dialogues, and Vocabulary. By
Captain C. F. Mackenzie, late of H.M.'s Consular Service. 6s.

36
Wm. H. Allen & Co.
A CHRONOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
CHART OF INDIA,
Price, fully tinted, mounted on roller or in case, 20s.
size, about 40 in. by 50 in.
Showing, at one view, all the principal nations, governments, and empires whioh
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Tii Frame, 2 Is.
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