Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/259

Rh ANTIQUITIES.] AFGHANISTAN 241 him; since then some small additional aid in money and arms has been sent, but no periodical subsidy. Sher Ali Khan now reigns over all Afghanistan and Afghan Turkestan, whilst Badakhshan is tributary to him. In the latter part of 1872 a correspondence which had gone on between the Governments of Russia and England resulted in a declaration by the former that Afghanistan was beyond the field of Russian influence; &quot;whilst the Oxus, from its source in Lake Sirikol to the western limit of Balkh, was recognised as the frontier of Afghan dominion. ANTIQUITIES. We can afford space for only the briefest indication on this subject. The basin of the Kabul river especially abounds in remains of the period when Buddhism flourished, beginning with the Inscribed Rock of Shah- bazgarhi, or Kapur-di-giri, in the Peshawar plain, which bears one of the replic/te of the famous edicts of Asoka (not later than B.C. 250). In the Koh-Daman, north of Kabul, are the sites of several ancient cities, the greatest of which, called Beghram, has furnished coins in scores of thousands, and has been supposed to represent Alexander s Nicoea. Nearer Kabul, and especially on the hills some miles south of the city, are numerous topes. In the valley of Jalalabad are many remains of the same character. In the Peshawar plain and on the adjoining heights are numerous ancient cities and walled villages, in many cases presenting ruins of much interest, besides the remains of topes, monasteries, cave temples, &c. ; and frequently sculp tures have been found on those sites, exhibiting evident traces of the influence of Greek art. The Mahaban moun tain, near the Indus, which has been plausibly identified with the Aornos of the Greeks, and the hills more imme diately compassing the Peshawar valley, abound in the ruins of very ancient fortresses. At Talash, on the Panjkora river, are extensive ruins of massive fortifications; and in Swat there are said to be remains of several ancient cities. In the valley of the Tarnak are the ruins of a great city (Ulan Robat), supposed to be ancient Arachosia. About Girishk, on the Helmand, are extensive mounds and other traces of buildings; and the remains of several great cities exist in the plain of Seistan, as at Pulki, Peshawaran, and Lakh, relics of ancient Drangiana, as yet unexaniined. An ancient stone vessel, preserved in a mosque at Kandahar, is almost certainly the same that was treasured at Peshawar in the 5th century as the begging-pot of Sakya-Muni. Of the city of Ghazni, the vast capital of Mahmud and his race, no substantial relics survive, except the tomb of Mahmud and two remarkable brick minarets. To the vast and fruitful harvest of coins that has been gathered in Afghanistan and the adjoining regions, we can here but make an allusion. (Elphinstone s Caubool; various papers in J. As. Soc. Bengal; Ferrier s Journeys, and Hist, of the Afghans; Bellew s Journal, Report on the Yusufzais, and Notes on Flora of Afgh. ; James s Report on Peshaivar District; Raverty s Afghan Grammar; Panjab Trade Report; Baber s Memoirs; Kaye s History ; papers by Major Lums- den, and by Lieut. -Col. C. M. Macgregor, &c. The para graph on the Animal Kingdom has been revised by Prof Henry Giglioli of Florence.) (u. Y.) AFGHAN TURKESTAN is a convenient name applied of late years to those provinces in the basin of the Oxus which are subject to the Amir of Kabul. BADAKHSHAN and its dependencies, now tributary to the Amir, are some times included under the name, but will not be so included here. The whole of the Afghan dominions consist of AFGHANISTAN as defined under that heading, AFGHAN TURKESTAN, and BADAKHSHAN with its dependencies. The territories included here will be, beginning from the east, the khanates or principalities of Kunduz, Khulm, Balkh with Akcha; and the western khanates of Sir-i-pul, Shibrghan, Andkhui, and Maimana, sometimes classed together as the ChiMrVildyat, or &quot;Four Domains;&quot; and besides these, such part of the Hazara tribes as lie north of the Hindu Kush and its prolongation, defined in the article AFGHANISTAN. The tract thus includes the whole southern moiety of the Oxus basin, from the frontier of Badakhshan on the east to the upper Murghab river on the west. The Oxus itself forms the northern boundary, from the confluence of the Kokcha or river of Badakhshan, in 69| E. long., to Khoja Salih ferry, in 65 E. long, nearly. Here the boundary quits the river and skirts the Turkman desert to the point where the Murghab issues upon it. Along the whole southern boundary we have a tract of lofty mountain country. Thus, in the east, above Kunduz, we have the Hindu Kush rising far into the region of perpetual snow, and with passes ranging from 12,000 to 13,000 feet and upwards. Above Khulm and Balkh is the prolongation of Hindu Kush, called Koh-i-baba, in which the elevation of the cols or passes seems to be nearly as high, though the general height of the crest is lower. The mountains then fork in three branches westward, viz., Koh-i-Sidh, &quot; The Black Mountain,&quot; to the south of the Herat river; Koh-i-Safed, &quot; The White Mountain,&quot; between the Herat river and the Murghab, and a third ridge north of the latter river. The second branch (Safed-Koh) has been assumed in the article AFGHANISTAN as the boundary of that region. We know almost nothing of these mountains, except from the journey of Ferrier, who crossed all three watersheds in four days of July 1845. He describes the middle range as very lofty, with a good deal of snow on the pass; the southern range not so high, the northern one not nearly so high. RIVERS. We shall first describe the rivers of this region in succession. For the Oxus itself, see that article. Beginning from the eastward, its first tributary within our limits is the river of Kunduz, known also as the river of Aksarai, the Surkhab, and what not. As the principal source of this river we may regard the stream of Bamian, fed close under the Koh-i-Baba by a variety of torrents which join from the pass of Akrobat and other gorges of the Hazara country, adjoining that famous site (8496 feet above sea level). The names of some of these seem to preserve a tradition of the ancient population ; such, are the &quot;Cutlers Vale,&quot; &quot;the Smiths Vale,&quot; the &quot; Valley of Eye-paint.&quot; At the eastern end of the valley the Bamian stream receives another of nearly equal bulk, descending from the pass of Hajjigak, the most important crossing of the mountains between Kabul and the Oxus, and from which the road descends upon Bamian, and thence by Saighan, Khurram, and Haibak, to Khulm, in the Oxus valley. On the volcanic rock which parts the streams stand extensive ruins, the name of which, Zohak, connects them with the most ancient legends of Persian history. From this the river turns nearly north, passing the country of the Sheikh Alls, one of the most famous Hazara clans, and closely skirting the great range of Hindu Kush. About 40 miles N.N.E. of Zohak it receives from the left two confluents, of size probably almost equal to its own the rivers of Saighan and of Kamard, both rising to the westward of Bamian, and crossing the highway from Bamian to Khulm. Hereabouts the river seems t(, take the name of Surkhab. The first considerable confluent on the right is the Andarab river, draining the valley of that name, and joining at Doshi, about 85 miles in a direct line N.E. of Zohak. About Ghori, still a place of some note, the valley widens out greatly, and becomes in places swampy, with expanses of tall grass, a character which it thenceforth retains. The river is, or has been, bridged at Thomri, a few miles beyond Ghori, a work ascribed to Aurangzib. It then receives from the right the Baghlan river, coming from Nariii and the hills of Khost. The only remaining confluent is the important one which joins immediately below the town of Kunduz, sometimes called the Khanabad river, sometimes by the names of its ch:x jontributnrics, the Fnrokhar and Baiicri. I. Si