ASIA.

Khorassan.

with Kha

Khiva.

Bokhara.

country of the Parthians previous to its extension by conquest; and we may gather from the words of CHAP. IV. Justin and Strabo, that this was nothing more than mountains the mountainous tract between Hyrcania, Mar- north of giana, Aria, and the desert of Chorasmia,' answering on the modern map to the mountains in the north of Khorassan, which form a continuation of the Elburz range. Chorasmia may be taken for Chorasmia the deserts of Khiva or Kharesm, which form the resm or south-western quarter of Independent Tartary. Sog- Sogdia with dia, or Sogdiana, included the country still called Sogd or Sogd, or Samarcand, but perhaps better known as Bokhara, or the south-eastern quarter of Independent Tartary, between the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes. Lastly, Aria comprised nearly all Khorassan and Aria with western Afghanistan, and still preserves its name in and western the modern Herat. The Arians and Medes were Afghanoriginally the same race, as Herodotus tells us that Arians and the Medes anciently bore the name of Arians.2 Either this union was dissolved by the dynasty of the Medes, or the Persians considered it expedient to weaken a people so powerful by forming them into separate satrapies. The passage from Media into Caspian this territory was through the Caspian Gates, a strong and narrow strait lying between the two countries, and so called because it led through the Caspian mountains, now called Elburz, down to the sea. Western Aria is a waste so impregnated with Salt desert. salt that it has received the name of the Salt Desert.

1 This has been ably pointed out by Rennell, from whom we now extract the principal authorities for the original seats of the Parthians. Justin says that the Parthians were Scythian exiles who possessed themselves of the places between Hyrcania, the Dahae, Arii, Spartans, and Margianians. (Lib. xli. c. 1.) For Spartans read Aparytae. (Herod. iii. 91.) Strabo (p. 511) places Parthia between Margiana and Aria; and in p. 514 says, that being originally of no great extent, it was increased in after-times by the addition of Camisene, Chorene, and other districts (formerly belonging to Media) as far as the Caspian Gates. In p. 509 he says that the river Ochus flows near Parthia. Pliny (vi. 25) places Parthia between Media and Aria, Carmania and Hyrcania; and as he extends Hyrcania eastward to Margiana, it is certain that his Parthia agrees with that of Ptolemy. Moreover he says that Hecatompylos, the capital of Parthia, lies in the middle of it. Rennell, Geog. of Herod. vol. i.

2 vii. 62.

Khorassan

istan.

Medes the

same race.

Gates.

ASIA.

Remark

described by

of the Aces.

A remarkable account is to be found in Herodotus CHAP. IV. of a large plain in the vicinity of the present satrapy and the nations included in the fourteenth, which able plain seems to refer to Sehestan. He describes this plain Herodotus. as shut in by mountains, and situated in the neighbourhood of the Chorasmians, Hyrcanians, Parthians, Sarangees, and Thamanaeans. It originally belonged to the Chorasmians, but of course, after the establishment of the Persian empire, it fell under the Contained sway of the Great King. In ancient times a large the sources river named the Aces rose in this plain, and flowing through five ravines in the mountain barrier, irrigated the lands of the surrounding nations already Turned into mentioned. After the Persian conquest, the king dammed in the river by fixing sluice-gates in the ravines, and thus turned the plain into a sca. This act of tyranny threw the people into the greatest distress. The rains only fell in the winter; and during the summer, when the millet and sesame were put in the ground, and the land stood in the greatest need of water, there was none to be had. Accordingly both men and women would travel all the way to Persia, and make a great outcry before the royal palace; and Herodotus was informed that the Persian king exacted large sums of money in addition to the tribute, before he would consent to

a lake by

the king of Persia.

open the gates.1 This story seems in perfect keeping with other accounts which have been preserved of Asiatic despotism, though to Rennell the relation Difficulties appeared improbable. It is difficult however to rein the geo- concile the geographical description with the actual Herodotus's state of the country. The country of Sehestan is a confusion hollow tract, surrounded by mountains and watered Helmund by the river Helmund, and it includes the lake and Oxus. Zurrah," into which the Helmund discharges itself.

graphy:

apparent

between the

1 iii. 117.

2 This lake consists of a body of brackish water about 160 miles in circumference. In the centre is a hill upon which is built the fort of Rustam. Its shores are overgrown to a considerable distance with rushes and reeds, interspersed with pools of standing water. The banks of the Helmund are well cultivated and fruitful, and the country possesses a fine rich soil, which is irrigated by the river. This fertile land however nowhere exceeds two miles in breadth, and the great valley of

ASIA.

This lake however and the neighbouring country is an immense distance from Chorasmia and Hyrcania. CHAP. IV. Most probably Herodotus has confused the Helmund with the Oxus, and this would account for his apparent contradictory description.'

CASPIAN

have XV. EAST the PROVINCES

XV. The EAST CASPIAN PROVINCES seem to formed the fifteenth satrapy, and comprised Sacae or Amyrgians, and the Caspii, and paid 250 comprising

talents.2

3

Sacae and

Caspii.

Persian

cos

Sacae to be

thian tribe

Sacae was a name applied by the Persians to all Sacae, the Scythians, but those who marched in the army of name for Xerxes, and who we may presume were those in- Scythians: cluded in the present satrapy, were called Scythian tume. Amyrgians. They wore stiff hats with pointed crowns and loose trousers; and they carried bows peculiar to their country, daggers, and battle-axes called sagares. A modern geographer considers Amyrgian that the name of Sacae was not originally that of a considered nation, but probably pertained to religion and cul- as a Sey ture; and that hostile tribes who gradually extended conquered to the Tanais, and practised common rites and bore by Persia. the common name of Sacae, were separately called the stock of the Geloni, Budini, Sauromatac, and others. From the description in Herodotus we may therefore deduce, that a tribe of the Sacae called Amyrgians were subdued by Persia, and thus satisfied her pride. Their seats were probably between Situated bethe upper courses of the Oxus and Jaxartes, to the oxusand north of Sogdia. In the time of Alexander the Jaxartes. Great immense hordes of these Scythians traversed Sogdia, ready at all times either to seize a booty, or on the approach of superior forces to fly back to their native steppes and deserts."

the Helmund therefore presents that remarkable contrast which in the East is the result of the presence or absence of water. Elphinstone's Cabul, vol. ii., and Capt. Christie in Pottinger's Travels, p. 407, both quoted by Col. Chesney.

Herodotus distinctly says (iii. 117) that he derived his information from hearsay.

2 iii. 93.

3 vii. 64.

4 Ritter, quoted by Baehr in his note on iii. 93.

5 Arrian, quoted by Heeren, Asiat. Nat. vol. i.

Arrian makes a

broad distinction between the Sogdians living in cities and the wander

tween the

ASIA.

Caspii north of the ancient mouth

The Caspians in this satrapy have been a great CHAP. IV. difficulty to commentators. Caspii have already been mentioned in the eleventh satrapy, in the district along the south and south-eastern shores of the of the Oxus. Caspian Sea; and efforts have therefore been made to substitute a different reading.' But no authority can be quoted from the manuscripts for such deviations from the text, and we still prefer to read Caspii; not indeed confusing them with those to the south of the Caspian, from whom they were separated by the ancient course of the Oxus,' but

ing hordes of Scythians. In the same way the Bucharians are still distinct in their character and habits from the Usbeck Tartars.

1 Reizius would read Caspeiri, relying upon the authority of Stephen of Byzantium, who cites from the third book of Herodotus, Caspeiron, a city of the Persians bordering on India. Rennell and Larcher would read Casii, or the inhabitants of the country called Casia by Ptolemy, which lies to the north-east of Sogdia or Samarcand, and answers to the modern Kashgar. Maltebrun refers us to the inhabitants of the Indian Caucasus or Hindoo Koosh, in the neighbourhood of the city of Caspatyrus, which we shall presently see was identical with the city of Cabul. Cf. Baehr, note on Herod. iii. 93.

2 Ancient geographers describe the river Oxus as flowing, not into the Aral, as at present, but as running from east to west into the Caspian. Strabo and Pliny always suppose this to be the fact, and it is expressly asserted by Ptolemy. We are told, however, that about the year 1719, Peter the Great, having heard that gold was contained in the sands of one of the tributaries of the Oxus, sent 3000 men under Beckewitz to take possession of the surrounding countries. Meantime the suspicion of the Tartars was aroused, and they dammed up the Oxus by a strong dyke, and conducted its waters through three canals into the lake Aral. The khan then marched a large army to meet Beckewitz, but was defeated by the Russian artillery. Beckewitz subsequently attempted to turn the Oxus into its ancient channel, but his army, having separated into small parties, was cut to pieces by the Tartars.

Such is the ancient account and modern tradition, but, in opposition to the latter, we find that 700 years before the Russian expedition under Beckewitz, Ebu Haukal describes the Oxus as falling into the lake Aral. (See Ouseley's translation of Ebu Haukal's Geography, p. 239, where the Òxus is called the Jihoun, and the Aral is named the lake of Kharezm.) It is therefore impossible to believe that the Tartars, in A. D. 1719, turned the Oxus from the Caspian into the Aral. Moreover we may even doubt the general possibility of damming up so large a river in a country of sand.

The researches of recent travellers however confirm the accounts of the ancient geographers, that the Oxus did actually at one time flow into the Caspian. The dry channel has been seen at different points, and we are even told that an embankment actually exists: the problem is best solved by a consideration of the general physical geography of the country.

In ante-historical times central Asia must have been an immense sea, but a constant drying up of the waters has gradually changed a great

placing them still higher on the eastern shore of the ASIA. Caspian, and in the northern part of the desert of CHAP. IV. Khiva.

TRIA.

XII. BACTRIA formed the twelfth satrapy, and ex- XII. BACtended from the Bactrians as far as the Aeglae. It paid 360 talents.'

scription.

with Balkh

Koosh and

The province of Bactria lay between the Hindoo General deKoosh and the river Oxus, and is still known by the Identified name of Balkh.2 The descent from the great range between the of mountains is very rapid, and the lower parts of Hindoo Balkh towards the Oxus are much lower and the Oxus. hotter than the elevated regions on the south. The hills in the latter quarter are generally stony, but have many good and well-watered valleys, and they secure a supply of water to the central part of the country, which is plain and fertile. The north towards the Oxus is sandy and barren.' Bactria may also be said to include the mountainous territory to the east, which is now called Budakshan. The Bactrians were a brave and hardy race, who were reckoned amongst the best soldiers in the Persian service; and the province is still celebrated for a strong and active breed of horses, which are exported in considerable numbers.

part of this sea into a desert of sand, under which are numerous springs, generally salt and bitter, whose waters either lose themselves in the sand or are carried off by evaporation. In very remote ages, therefore, the Aral may have formed only an inland lake of the Oxus river, and that branch of the river towards the Caspian which is now dried up, was probably the outflow of the Aral. As the Aral became more shallow the mass of water no longer required this outflow, and the branch towards the Caspian gradually dried up. Water however is a precious element in a sandy region, and when the old outflow became too shallow to irrigate the land, the inhabitants threw a dam or embankment across it to prevent the Oxus from merely losing itself in the sands, and probably to turn its waters into canals of greater utility. This dam was probably the one seen by Beckewitz, and was not recently constructed, but may have existed prior to the time of Ebu Haukal. For a further account see Memoir communicated by Humboldt to Captain Moria, and ascribed to the Graf von Cancrin, printed in Morier's Memoir of the Countries about the Caspian and Aral.

1 iii. 92.

2 Balkh is probably only the name of the principal city of this region, but is generally applied by geographers to the entire tract. Elphinstone also uses it in this general sense, though he acknowledges that it is in

accurate.

3 Elphinstone, Account of Caubul, vol. ii.