OF THE KINGDOM OF CASCAR.
[Illustration: Head of a Native of Kashgar.]
Cascar is a region lying between north-east and east, and constituted
a kingdom in former days, but now it is subject to the Great Kaan.
The people worship Mahommet. There are a good number of towns
and villages, but the greatest and finest is Cascar itself. The
inhabitants live by trade and handicrafts; they have beautiful gardens
and vineyards, and fine estates, and grow a great deal of cotton.
From this country many merchants go forth about the world on trading
journeys. The natives are a wretched, niggardly set of people; they eat
and drink in miserable fashion. There are in the country many Nestorian
Christians, who have churches of their own. The people of the country
have a peculiar language, and the territory extends for five days’
journey.{1}
[Illustration: View of Kashgar. (From Shaw’s “Tartary.”)]
NOTE 1.—[There is no longer any difficulty in understanding how the
travellers, after crossing Pamir, should have arrived at Kashgar if
they followed the route from Táshkurgán through the Gez Defile.
The Itinerary of the Mirza from Badakhshan (Fáizabad) is the
following: Zebák, Ishkashm, on the Panja, which may be considered
the beginning of the Wakhán Valley, Panja Fort, in Wakhán, Raz
Khan, Patur, near Lunghar (commencement of Pamir Steppe), Pamir
Kul, or Barkút Yassin, 13,300 feet, Aktash, Sirikul Táshkurgán,
Shukrab, Chichik Dawan, Akul, Kotul, Chahul Station (road to
Yarkand), Kila Karawal, Aghiz Gah, Yangi-Hissar, Opechan, Yanga
Shahr, Kashgar, where he arrived on the 3rd February, 1869. (Cf.
_Report of “The Mirza’s” Exploration from Caubul to Kashgar_. By
Major T. G. Montgomerie, R.E.... (_Jour. R. Geog. Soc._ XLI. 1871,
pp. 132–192.)
Major Montgomerie (_l.c._ p. 144) says: “The alterations in the
positions of Kashgar and Yarkund in a great measure explains why
Marco Polo, in crossing from Badakhshan to Eastern Turkestan,
went first to Kashgar and then to Yarkund. With the old positions
of Yarkund and Kashgar it appeared that the natural route from
Badakhshan would have led first to Yarkund; with the new positions,
and guided by the light of the Mirza’s route, from which it is seen
that the direct route to Yarkund is not a good one, it is easy to
understand how a traveller might prefer going to Kashgar first, and
then to Yarkund. It is satisfactory to have elicited this further
proof of the general accuracy of the great traveller’s account of
his journey through Central Asia.”
The Itinerary of Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon (_Sirikol, the Pámírs
and Wakhán_, ch. vi. of _Forsyth’s Mission to Yarkund in_ 1873)
runs thus: “Left Káshgar (21st March), Yangi-Hissar, Kaskasú Pass,
descent to Chihil Gumbaz (forty Domes), where the road branches
off to Yárkand (110 miles), Torut Pass, Tangi-Tár (defile), ‘to
the foot of a great elevated slope leading to the Chichiklik Pass,
plain, and lake (14,700 feet), below the Yámbulák and Kok-Moinok
Passes, which are used later in the season on the road between
Yangi-Hissar and Sirikol, to avoid the Tangi-Tár and Shindi
defiles. As the season advances, these passes become free from
snow, while the defiles are rendered dangerous and difficult by
the rush of the melting snow torrents. From the Chichiklik plain
we proceeded down the Shindi ravine, over an extremely bad stony
road, to the Sirikol River, up the banks of which we travelled
to Táshkurgán, reaching it on the tenth day from Yangi-Hissar.
The total distance is 125 miles.’ Then Táshkurgán (ancient name
_Várshídi_): ‘the open part of the Sirikol Valley extends from
about 8 miles below Táshkurgán to apparently a very considerable
distance towards the Kunjút mountain range;’ left Táshkurgán for
Wákhan (2nd April, 1873); leave Sirikol Valley, enter the Shindán
defile, reach the Áktásh Valley, follow the Áktásh stream (called
Áksú by the Kirghiz) through the Little Pamir to the Gházkul
(Little Pamir) Lake or Barkat Yássín, from which it takes its rise,
four days from Táshkurgán. Little Pamir ‘is bounded on the south
by the continuation of the Neza Tásh range, which separates it
from the Tághdúngbásh Pámir,’ west of the lake, Langar, Sarhadd,
30 miles from Langar, and seven days from Sirikol, and Kila Panj,
twelve days from Sirikol.”—H. C.]
[I cannot admit with Professor Paquier (_l.c._ pp. 127–128) that
Marco Polo did not visit Kashgar.—Grenard (II. p. 17) makes the
remark that it took Marco Polo seventy days from Badakhshan to
Kashgar, a distance that, in the Plain of Turkestan, he shall
cross in sixteen days.—The Chinese traveller, translated by M.
Gueluy (_Desc. de la Chine occidentale_, p. 45), says that the name
Kashgar is made of _Kash_, fine colour, and _gar_, brick
house.—H. C.]
Kashgar was the capital, from 1865 to 1877, of Ya’kúb Kúshbegi, a
soldier of fortune, by descent it is said a Tajik of Shighnan, who,
when the Chinese yoke was thrown off, made a throne for himself in
Eastern Turkestan, and subjected the whole basin to his authority,
taking the title of _Atalik Gházi_.
It is not easy to see how Kashgar should have been subject to the
Great Kaan, except in the sense in which all territories under
Mongol rule owed him homage. Yarkand, Polo acknowledges to have
belonged to Kaidu, and the boundary between Kaidu’s territory and
the Kaan’s lay between Karashahr and Komul [Bk. I. ch. xli.], much
further east.
[Bretschneider, _Med. Res._ (II. p. 47), says: “Marco Polo states
with respect to the kingdom of _Cascar_ (I. 189) that it was
subject to the Great Khan, and says the same regarding _Cotan_ (I.
196), whilst _Yarcan_ (I. 195), according to Marco Polo, belonged
to Kaidu. This does not agree with Rashid’s statements about the
boundary between Kaidu’s territory and the Khan’s.”—H. C.]
Kashgar was at this time a Metropolitan See of the Nestorian
Church. (_Cathay_, etc. 275, ccxlv.)
Many strange sayings have been unduly ascribed to our traveller,
but I remember none stranger than this by Colonel Tod: “_Marco Polo
calls Cashgar, where he was in the 6th century_, the birthplace
of the Swedes”! (_Rajasthan_, I. 60.) Pétis de la Croix and Tod
between them are answerable for this nonsense. (See _The Hist. of
Genghizcan the Great_, p. 116.)
On _cotton_, see ch. xxxvi.—On Nestorians, see Kanchau.