Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/291

 made a short cut in recent years, I failed to see a landmark for which I was on the lookout. This is ' the ruined caravansarai ' mentioned by Fraser, ' the ruins of a caravansarai ' alluded to by Captain Clerk, or the * sarai ' marked on Holdich's map as a place that has * ruins.' ^ This spot I had formerly thought might be possibly identical with the position of ' Thara, a vil- lage of the Parthians,* where Darius was thrown into chains ; ^ but I have since become doubtful about the matter, especially after my second and third journey over the track, as has been mentioned above. ^ The only name that had any distant simi- larity with Thara, as far as I could learn from the natives, was At-Tdrl (the prefix At being the article), located half a farsakh distant from Chasht-khvaran ; but the likelihood did not com- mend itself to me, for my informants spoke of At-Tari as a modern place, though adding that there were old ruins near Chasht-khvaran. These considerations incline me the more to the view that on this particular stage Alexander pursued the lower route, via Ala.

The sun was about five hours high in the heavens before we reached the old ruined fortress of stone at Ahuan.* This small settlement (whose name is variously spelt as Ahuwan, Aghivan, Aheaiyoon, and Aheeiyon) ^ owes its designation, in the popu- lar mind at least, to the gazelles (ahudn) that are found in numbers in its vicinity. A legend accounts for their presence unmolested, and it is worth repeating : —

��1 See Fraser, Narrative, p. 308 ; * For such variants see the works Clerk, Notes in Persia, in JBGS. 31. cited above, p. 153, n. 1. I have spelt 40 ; and Holdich, Map of Persia. the name phonetically, as from the

2 See above, p. 147, and cf. Justin, plural of dhU, 'gazelle.' Ahuan, or Philipp. 11. 16. 1. In 1908 I had Ahuvan, is simply mentioned in the advanced the theory that Sarai may itineraries given by the Arab-Persian represent Thara, in an article in geographers, e.g. Ibn Kustah, ed. De Dastur Hoshang Memorial Volume, Goeje, Bihl. Geog. Arab. 8. 170 ; con- Bombay, 1911. suit also Le Strange, Eastern Caliph-

« See p. 153. ate, p. 366. see above, p. 153, n. 1.
 * For the time occupied in transit

�� �