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138 GHAZNI. 1,31
Note.
Al-Ba?rah, the great commercial port of Baghdad and Mesopotamia, lay on the Arabian
side of the estuary of Al-Bajrah, in other words the Blind Tigris, and was about twelve miles, as
the crow flies, from its bank. Mukaddasi (lOa century) says the town measured three miles
across in its greatest width. The modern village of Zubayr now occupies the site of old Basra. B
The city was founded in 638 A. D. in the reign of Omar. The city of Uhullah (the Apologos of
the Greeks) was on the Tigris at the mouth of the canal of UbuUah (Nahr-al-Ubullah) which put
it in communication with Basra. See Le Strange, J. E. A. S., 1895, 304, and Land of the.
Eastern Caliphate, 44.
Marco Polo {I, 64) speaks of the «great city of Bastra, surrounded by woods, in which 10
grow the best dates in the worlda. Ibn Batuta, II, 9 and IV, 376 speaks of the great abundance
of dates at Basra. He says that a honey, called sayalan (^)Lyui), was made at Basra from dates.
Ch6u K'u-fei does not mention Basra, nor does any other Chinese author known to us
either prior to our author or subsequently.
32. 15
GHAZNI {?).
Ki-tz'ihni (± m Ji)-
The Ki>t^'i-ni country is reached from Ma-lo-pa in about an hundred and
twenty stages. The country lies to the north-west, and is exceptionally cold, the
winter's snow not melting until the spring. «This country is surrounded by high 20
mountains, and the city (or wall |^)
is cut out in (the rocks of the) mountains.
It is about two hundred U square and is surrounded by water. It has some
two hundred mosques. The officials and the people all go to the mosques to
pray, which they call c¥u-mm (^ |j^), (Note: some write it shu ^).
«The people are, for the most part, well off, and live in houses five or 25
six storeys high. There is a great deal of camel and horse breeding)). «The
people eat cakes, meat, and ju-lo {'^l g§), but little fish and rice»; they also
make use of a mixture of cow's milk and water as an habitual beverage'.
The king's arms reach down to below his knees. He has an hundred
chargers, every one full six feet high, also some dozen head of mules, three 30
(sic) feet high, which, on excursions, he rides alternately with the horses. His
bow pulls several piculs, so that five or seven ordinary men cannot string it.
When he is on horseback, he carries an iron mace weighing full fifty catties.
The Ta-shi and all the people of the West fear him^ «The products of the
soil are gold, silver, ym-no cloth, gold brocade, camel's hair stuffs in all 36
colours (3l "^ ,|i; ^ J^), engraved opaque glass {^ ^ 1^ J^), liquid
storax, wu-ming-i (^ ig ^) and mo-so stones» ()^ ^ ^Y-