Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

4 .6
Furthermore, judging by a sketch by N.A. Karazin from 1888, the type of oars
used on ships and rafts in the Khiva Khanate was similar to the type of oars used in
early medieval Sogdia. All of this suggests that the design of the kime is derived from
the type of vessel depicted in the wall paintings of Afrasiab. It is this type of vessel,
unlike the first two mentioned above, that is of local origin.
Rafts and inflatable skins have probably been in use on the rivers of Transoxiana,
both for crossings and longer voyages, since ancient times, and more specifically,
individual, inflatable floats or burdyuks, made from the skins of a variety of animals, were
also in use. The earliest evidence of their use dates from 330–329 BC, when Alexander
the Great’s army crossed the Oxus, probably in the region of Kalif or Chushka-Guzar.
According to Arrian, when Alexander reached the river, he realised that the crossing
was impossible because at this point the river was 6 stadia wide (almost 1.2 km), very
deep, and with a current so strong that it pulled out stakes driven into the riverbed.
He ordered the hides used as tent covers to be gathered, packed with dry grass
and carefully sewn up to keep out the water. Using these, Alexander’s army crossed
the Oxus in five days (Arrian III, 29, 2).
Such inflatable skins were widely used for crossing the Amu Darya, especially in
its upper reaches, even in later times.
In addition to individual floats, rafts using inflatable skins, often of cowhide, were
also made. Two inflatable skins were used with parallel poles placed across them,
fastened together with rope. This produced a raft capable of carrying at least four
people, or perhaps even more. A similar method for river crossings was described by
the Arab traveller Ahmad ibn Fadlan in the early 10th century.
Sketches by Karazin from 1885 suggest that more conventional rafts, without
skins and made of beams placed in longitudinal and transverse rows, were widely
used on the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. The rafts would have been steered by oarsmen
with long oars standing at the front and back of the raft. The capacity of these rafts
was variable – some could carry several people and cargo in addition to the oarsmen,
others could only take one passenger with their possessions. In the Middle Ages,
Termez was the largest river port on the Amu Darya – or Jayhun, as it was known in
Arabic. The 10th-century geographers Istakhri and Ibn Hawqal noted that the city
of Termez served as a port for the Jayhun. According to al-Muqaddasi, writing at the
end of the 10th century, Tirmidh (Termez) was the largest city on the Jayhun and
had docking facilities for ships on both sides of the river. To describe the ships and
boats, al-Muqaddasi uses the Arabic word as-sufan, which translates as ‘vessel, ship’
and not ‘boat’, suggesting that vessels on the river were of different sizes and designs.
M.E. Masson suggested that boatmen – keshtabanan – lived in the southern part of
Termez closer to the embankment, and later, in the 15th century, west of the citadel.
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