As To The Rate At Which Mongols Were
Accustomed To Travel On 'Dak,' Cf.
Yule, Marco Polo, I., pp.
434 seq."
XXXII., pp. 170, 171. "The people [of Badashan] are Mahommetans, and
valiant in war.... They [the people of Vokhan] are gallant soldiers."
In Afghan Wakhan, Sir Aurel Stein writes:
"On we cantered at the head of quite a respectable cavalcade to where, on
the sandy plain opposite to the main hamlet of Sarhad, two companies of
foot with a squad of cavalry, close on two hundred men in all, were drawn
up as a guard of honour. Hardy and well set up most of them looked, giving
the impression of thoroughly serviceable human material, in spite of a
manifestly defective drill and the motley appearance of dress and
equipment.
"They belonged, so the Colonel explained to me afterwards, to a sort of
militia drafted from the local population of the Badakhshan valleys and
Wakhan into the regiments permanently echeloned as frontier guards along
the Russian border on the Oxus. Apart from the officers, the proportion of
true Pathans among them was slight. Yet I could well believe from all I
saw and heard, that, properly led and provided for, these sturdy Iranian
hillmen might give a good account of themselves. Did not Marco Polo speak
of the people of 'Badashan' as 'valiant in war' and of the men of 'Vokhan'
as gallant soldiers?" (Ruins of Desert Cathay, I., p. 66.)
XXXII., pp. 170 seq.
In Chap. III., pp. 64-66, of his Serindia, Sir Aurel Stein has the
following on Marco Polo's account of Wakhan: -
"After Wu-k'ung's narrative of his journey the Chinese sources of
information about the Pamirs and the adjoining regions run dry for nearly
a thousand years. But that the routes leading across them from Wakhan
retained their importance also in Muhammedan times is attested by the
greatest mediaeval travellers, Marco Polo. I have already, in Ancient
Khotan [pp. 41 seq.], discussed the portion of his itinerary which
deals with the journey across the Pamirs to 'the kingdom of Cascar' or
Kashgar, and it only remains here to note briefly what he tells us of the
route by which he approached them from Badakhshan: 'In leaving Badashan
you ride twelve days between east and north-east, ascending a river that
runs through land belonging to a brother of the Prince of Badashan, and
containing a good many towns and villages and scattered habitations. The
people are Mahommetans, and valiant in war. At the end of those twelve
days you come to a province of no great size, extending indeed no more
than three days' journey in any direction, and this is called VOKHAN. The
people worship Mahommet, and they have a peculiar language. They are
gallant soldiers, and they have a chief whom they call NONE, which is as
much as to say Count, and they are liegemen to the Prince of Badashan.'
[Polo, I., pp. 170-171.]
"Sir Henry Yule was certainly right in assuming that 'the river along
which Marco travels from Badakhshan is no doubt the upper stream of the
Oxus, locally known as the Panja.... It is true that the river is reached
from Badakhshan Proper by ascending another river (the Vardoj) and
crossing the 'Pass of Ishkashm, but in the brief style of our narrative we
must expect such condensation.' [Polo, I., pp. 172-3.] Marco's great
commentator was guided by equally true judgment when he recognized in the
indications of this passage the same system of government that prevailed
in the Oxus valleys until modern times. Under it the most of the hill
tracts dependent from Badakhshan, including Ishkashim and Wakhan, were
ruled not direct by the Mir, but by relations of his or hereditary chiefs
who held their districts on a feudal tenure. The twelve days' journey
which Marco records between Badashan and 'Vokhan' are, I think, easily
accounted for if it is assumed that the distance from capital to capital
is meant; for twelve marches are still allowed for as the distance from
Baharak, the old Badakhshan capital on the Vardoj, to Kila Panja.
"That the latter was in Marco's days, as at present, the chief place of
Wakhan is indicated also by his narrative of the next stage of his
journey. 'And when you leave this little country, and ride three days
north-east, always among mountains, you get to such a height that 'tis
said to be the highest place in the world! And when you have got to this
height you find [a great lake between two mountains, and out of it] a fine
river running through a plain.... The plain is called PAMIER.' The bearing
and descriptive details here given point clearly to the plain of the Great
Pamir and Victoria Lake, its characteristic feature. About sixty-two miles
are reckoned from Langar-kisht, the last village on the northern branch of
the Ab-i-Panja and some six miles above Kila Panja, to Mazar-tapa where
the plain of the Great Pamir may be said to begin, and this distance
agrees remarkably well with the three marches mentioned by Marco.
"His description of Wakhan as 'a province of no great size, extending
indeed no more than three days' journey in any direction' suggests that a
portion of the valley must then have formed part of the chiefship of
Ishkashim or Zebak over which we may suppose 'the brother of the Prince of
Badashan' to have ruled. Such fluctuations in the extent of Wakhan
territory are remembered also in modern times. Thus Colonel Trotter, who
visited Wakhan with a section of the Yarkand Mission in 1874, distinctly
notes that 'Wakhan formerly contained three "sads" or hundreds, i.e.,
districts, containing 100 houses each' (viz. Sad-i-Sar-hadd, Sad Sipang,
Sad Khandut). To these Sad Ishtragh, the tract extending from Digargand to
Ishkashim, is declared to have been added in recent times, having formerly
been an independent principality. It only remains to note that Marco was
right, too, in his reference to the peculiar language of Wakhan; for
Wakhi - which is spoken not only by the people of Wakhan but also by the
numerous Wakhi colonists spread through Mastuj, Hunza Sarikol, and even
further east in the mountains - is a separate language belonging to the
well-defined group of Galcha tongues which itself forms the chief extant
branch of Eastern Iranian."
XXXII., pp.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 319 of 360
Words from 327397 to 328470
of 370046
