The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
torrent,[358] indeed it is like a large river, cut off from the Kohik
Water. All the gardens and suburbs and some of the _tūmāns_ of Samarkand
are cultivated by it. By the Kohik Water a stretch of from 30 to 40
_yīghāch_,[359] by road, is made habitable and cultivated, as far as
Bukhārā and Qarā-kūl. Large as the river is, it is not too large for
its dwellings and its culture; during three or four months of the
[Sidenote: Fol. 45b.] year, indeed, its waters do not reach
Bukhārā.[360] Grapes, melons, apples and pomegranates, all fruits
indeed, are good in Samarkand; two are famous, its apple and its
_ṣāḥibī_ (grape).[361] Its winter is mightily cold; snow falls but not
so much as in Kābul; in the heats its climate is good but not so good as
Kābul's.
In the town and suburbs of Samarkand are many fine buildings and gardens
of Tīmur Beg and Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā.[362]
In the citadel,[363] Tīmūr Beg erected a very fine building, the great
four-storeyed kiosque, known as the Gūk Sarāī.[364] In the walled-town,
again, near the Iron Gate, he built a Friday Mosque[365] of stone
(_sangīn_); on this worked many stone-cutters, brought from Hindūstān.
Round its frontal arch is inscribed in letters large enough to be read
two miles away, the Qu'rān verse, _Wa az yerfa` Ibrāhīm al Qawā`id alī
akhara_.[366] This also is a very fine building. Again, he laid out two
gardens, on the east of the town, one, the more distant, the
Bāgh-i-bulandī,[367] the other and nearer, the Bāgh-i-dilkushā.[368]
From Dilkushā to the Turquoise Gate, he planted an Avenue of White
Poplar,[369] and in the garden itself erected a great kiosque, painted
inside [Sidenote: Fol. 46.] with pictures of his battles in Hindūstān.
He made another garden, known as the Naqsh-i-jahān (World's Picture), on
the skirt of Kohik, above the Qarā-sū or, as people also call it, the
Āb-i-raḥmat (Water-of-mercy) of Kān-i-gil.[370] It had gone to ruin when
I saw it, nothing remaining of it except its name. His also are the
Bāgh-i-chanār,[371] near the walls and below the town on the south,[372]
also the Bāgh-i-shamāl (North Garden) and the Bāgh-i-bihisht (Garden of
Paradise). His own tomb and those of his descendants who have ruled in
Samarkand, are in a College, built at the exit (_chāqār_) of the
walled-town, by Muḥammad Sulṯān Mīrzā, the son of Tīmūr Beg's son,
Jahāngīr Mīrzā.[373]
Amongst Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā's buildings inside the town are a College and a
monastery (_Khānqāh_). The dome of the monastery is very large, few so
large are shown in the world. Near these two buildings, he constructed
an excellent Hot Bath (_ḥammām_) known as the Mīrzā's Bath; he had the
pavements in this made of all sorts of stone (? mosaic); such another
bath is not known in Khurāsān or in Samarkand.[374] [Sidenote: Fol.
46b.] Again;—to the south of the College is his mosque, known as the
Masjid-i-maqaṯa` (Carved Mosque) because its ceiling and its walls are
all covered with _islīmī_[375] and Chinese pictures formed of segments
of wood.[376] There is great discrepancy between the _qibla_ of this
mosque and that of the College; that of the mosque seems to have been
fixed by astronomical observation.
Another of Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā's fine buildings is an observatory, that is,
an instrument for writing Astronomical Tables.[377] This stands three
storeys high, on the skirt of the Kohik upland. By its means the Mīrzā
worked out the Kūrkānī Tables, now used all over the world. Less work is
done with any others. Before these were made, people used the Aīl-khānī
Tables, put together at Marāgha, by Khwāja Naṣīr _Tūsī_,[378] in the
time of Hulākū Khān. Hulākū Khān it is, people call _Aīl-khānī_.[379]
(_Author's note._) Not more than seven or eight observatories
seem to have been constructed in the world. Māmūm Khalīfa[380]
(Caliph) made one with which the _Mamūmī_ Tables were written.
Batalmūs (Ptolemy) constructed another. Another was made, in
Hindūstān, in the time of Rājā Vikramāditya _Hīndū_, in Ujjain
and Dhar, that is, the Mālwa country, now known as Māndū. The
Hindūs of Hindūstān use the Tables of this Observatory. They
were put together 1,584 years ago.[381] [Sidenote: Fol. 47.]
Compared with others, they are somewhat defective.
Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā again, made the garden known as the Bāgh-i-maidān
(Garden of the Plain), on the skirt of the Kohik upland. In the middle
of it he erected a fine building they call Chihil Sitūn (Forty Pillars).
On both storeys are pillars, all of stone (_tāshdīn_).[382] Four
turrets, like minarets, stand on its four corner-towers, the way up into
them being through the towers. Everywhere there are stone pillars, some
fluted, some twisted, some many-sided. On the four sides of the upper
storey are open galleries enclosing a four-doored hall (_chār-dara_);
their pillars also are all of stone. The raised floor of the building is
all paved with stone.
He made a smaller garden, out beyond Chihil Sitūn and towards Kohik,
also having a building in it. In the open gallery of this building he
placed a great stone throne, some 14 or 15 yards (_qārī_) long, some 8
yards wide and perhaps 1 yard high. They brought a stone so large by a
very long road.[383] There is a crack in the middle of it which people
say must have come after it was brought here. In the same [Sidenote:
Fol. 47b.] garden he also built a four-doored hall, know as the
Chīnī-khāna (Porcelain House) because its _īzāra_[384] are all of
porcelain; he sent to China for the porcelain used in it. Inside the
walls again, is an old building of his, known as the Masjid-i-laqlaqa
(Mosque of the Echo). If anyone stamps on the ground under the middle of
the dome of this mosque, the sound echoes back from the whole dome; it
is a curious matter of which none know the secret.
In the time also of Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā the great and lesser begs laid out
many gardens, large and small.[385] For beauty, and air, and view, few
will have equalled Darwesh Muḥammad Tarkhān's Chār-bāgh (Four
Gardens).[386] It lies overlooking the whole of Qulba Meadow, on the
slope below the Bāgh-i-maidān. Moreover it is arranged symmetrically,
terrace above terrace, and is planted with beautiful _nārwān_[387] and
cypresses and white poplar. A most agreeable sojourning place, its one
defect is the want of a large stream.
Samarkand is a wonderfully beautified town. One of its specialities,
perhaps found in few other places,[388] is that the different trades are
not mixed up together in it but each has its own _bāzār_, a good sort of
plan. Its bakers and its cooks are good. The best paper in the world is
made there; the water for the paper-mortars[389] all comes from
Kān-i-gil,[390] a meadow on the banks of the Qarā-sū (Blackwater) or
Āb-i-raḥmat (Water of Mercy). [Sidenote: Fol. 48.] Another article of
Samarkand trade, carried to all sides and quarters, is cramoisy velvet.
Excellent meadows lie round Samarkand. One is the famous Kān-i-gil, some
2 miles east and a little north of the town. The Qarā-sū or Āb-i-raḥmat
flows through it, a stream (with driving power) for perhaps seven or
eight mills. Some say the original name of the meadow must have been
Kān-i-ābgīr (Mine of Quagmire) because the river is bordered by
quagmire, but the histories all write Kān-i-gil (Mine of clay). It is an
excellent meadow. The Samarkand sulṯans always made it their
reserve,[391] going out to camp in it each year for a month or two.
Higher up (on the river) than Kān-i-gil and to the s.e. of it is a
meadow some 4 miles east of the town, known as Khān Yūrtī (Khān's
Camping-ground). The Qarā-sū flows through this meadow before entering
Kān-i-gil. When it comes to Khān Yūrtī it curves back so far that it
encloses, with a very narrow outlet, enough ground for a camp. Having
noticed these advantages, we camped there for a time during [Sidenote:
Fol. 48b.] the siege of Samarkand.[392]
Another meadow is the Būdana Qūrūgh (Quail Reserve), lying between
Dil-kushā and the town. Another is the Kūl-i-maghāk (Meadow of the deep
pool) at some 4 miles from the town. This also is a round[393] meadow.
People call it Kul-i-maghāk meadow because there is a large pool on one
side of it. Sl. `Alī Mīrzā lay here during the siege, when I was in Khān
Yūrtī. Another and smaller meadow is Qulba (Plough); it has Qulba
Village and the Kohik Water on the north, the Bāgh-i-maidān and Darwesh
Muḥammad Tarkhān's Chār-bāgh on the south, and the Kohik upland on the
west.
Samarkand has good districts and _tūmāns_. Its largest district, and one
that is its equal, is Bukhārā, 25 _yīghāch_[394] to the west. Bukhārā in
its turn, has several _tūmāns_; it is a fine town; its fruits are many
and good, its melons excellent; none in Mā warā'u'n-nahr matching them
for quality and quantity. Although the Mīr Tīmūrī melon of Akhsī[395] is
sweeter and more delicate than any Bukhārā melon, still in Bukhārā many
kinds of melon are good and plentiful. The Bukhārā plum is famous; no
other equals it. They skin it,[396] dry it and [Sidenote: Fol. 49.]
carry it from land to land with rarities (_tabarrūklār bīla_); it is an
excellent laxative medicine. Fowls and geese are much looked after
(_parwārī_) in Bukhārā. Bukhārā wine is the strongest made in Mā
warā'u'n-nahr; it was what I drank when drinking in those countries at
Samarkand.[397]
Kesh is another district of Samarkand, 9 _yīghāch_[398] by road to the
south of the town. A range called the Aītmāk Pass (_Dābān_)[399] lies
between Samarkand and Kesh; from this are taken all the stones for
building. Kesh is called also Shahr-i-sabz (Green-town) because its
barren waste (_ṣahr_) and roofs and walls become beautifully green in
spring. As it was Tīmūr Beg's birth-place, he tried hard to make it his
capital. He erected noble buildings in it. To seat his own Court, he
built a great arched hall and in this seated his Commander-begs and his
Dīwān-begs, on his right and on his left. For those attending the Court,
he built two smaller halls, and to seat petitioners to his Court, built
quite small recesses on the four sides of the Court-house.[400] Few
arches so fine can be shown in the world. It is said to be higher than
the Kisrī Arch.[401] Tīmūr Beg also built in Kesh a college and a
mausoleum, in which are the tombs of Jahāngīr Mīrzā and others of his
descendants.[402] As Kesh did not offer the same facilities as
[Sidenote: Fol. 49b.] Samarkand for becoming a town and a capital, he
at last made clear choice of Samarkand.
Another district is Qarshī, known also as Nashaf and Nakhshab.[403]
Qarshī is a Mughūl name. In the Mughūl tongue they call a _kūr-khāna_
Qarshī.[404] The name must have come in after the rule of Chīngīz Khān.
Qarshī is somewhat scantily supplied with water; in spring it is very
beautiful and its grain and melons are good. It lies 18 _yīghāch_[405]
by road south and a little inclined to west of Samarkand. In the
district a small bird, known as the _qīl-qūyīrūgh_ and resembling the
_bāghrī qarā_, is found in such countless numbers that it goes by the
name of the Qarshī birdie (_murghak_).[406]
Khozār is another district; Karmīna another, lying between Samarkand and
Bukhārā; Qarā-kūl another, 7 _yīghāch_[407] n.w. of Bukhārā and at the
furthest limit of the water.
Samarkand has good _tūmāns_. One is Soghd with its dependencies. Its
head Yār-yīlāq, its foot Bukhārā, there may be not one single _yīghāch_
of earth without its village and its cultivated lands. So famous is it
that the saying attributed to Tīmūr Beg, 'I have a garden 30 _yīghāch_
long,[408] must have been spoken of Soghd. Another _tūmān_ is Shāvdār
(var. Shādwār), an excellent one adjoining the town-suburbs. On one side
it has the range (Aītmāk Dābān), lying between Samarkand and [Sidenote: