Rabi, or The Vernal Recreation * : to thefe cities Abulfeda adds FARABR, a small town clofe to the Qxus, near which the river is fordable.

BADAKHSHAN and TOKHARESTANT, the countries of the ancient Maffageta, lie towards the fource of the Gihún or Oxus, and are feparated from, Turán by the district of Khotlán, and the town of Vakhfh, which stands in a pleasant and fruitful territory. There is a city also named Badakhshán, near which are fome mines, where the balafs rubies are commonly found. We have a collection of poems by a native of this country, who is commonly called Badaksbi; one of his couplets is quoted by M. d'Herbelot, in which he compares the life of man to an hourglafs, that is always alternately high and low ‡. On the south of Badakhfhán is the province and city of CANDAHAR §, situated in the

ربيع الابرار In Arabick * بدخشان و طخارستان +

1 The Perfian couplet is

این فلک همچو شیشه ساعتست ساعتي زير وساعتي زبرست

قندهار g In Perfian

mountains, which the Greeks called Paropamifus.

ALGEZIRAH, or the Peninfula, for so the Arabians call the province of Mefopotamia, lies, as its Greek name imports, between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, or, as the Easterns call them, Degelab, and Forát. This extenfive country is divided into four Diár, or cantons, which took their names from as many Arabian tribes, who formerly fettled in them; that of Becr is best known to our Geographers. The principal cities of Mefopotamia are, 1. ROHA, called by our writers. Edeffa, which was taken by the Crusaders, and afterwards recovered by the Perfians from Baldwin, King of Jerufalem. 2. HARRAN, which the Romans called Carrha, where Craffus and his army were defeated. 3. RACCA, not Aracta, as it is written in the maps, the birth-place of the aftronomer Batáni, a very accurate obferver of the heavens. NASSIBIN, the Nifibe of the Ancients, which has been a fubject of perpetual contention between the Perfian and Roman Emperors: and, 5. MUSEL, near which it is fuppofed, that Niniveh was anciently built it was the native city of an excellent musician, thence named Mufeli, who, by the power of his melody, is faid to have reconciled the

4.

Calif Al Rashid to the fair Maridah, his mistress, at whose behaviour he had taken fome offence.

CHAP. II.

The Tartarian Kingdoms.

THE large and beautiful kingdom, which lies between the Gibún and Sibún, or the ancient Oxus and Täxartes, is called by the Persians TURAN *,by the Arabians, Mawarannabar † or, The province beyond the river, and by the Greeks Sogdiana, from the pleasant valley of Sogd, which fhall presently be described: they might have called it Mefopotamia, if that name had not been before applied to another country. It has Badakhshan on the east, and on the north, the vast regions of Turkestan or Scythia, which reach to the confines of the Rufian and Chinefe Empires. The valley or plain of SOGD‡, paffes among the Afia

توران

+ In Arabick

ما ورا النهر

In Perfian iw

ticks for one of the most delightful spots in the world; it is an hundred and twenty miles in length, and fixty in breadth, and a large river, named Caï, rolls through it, which branches into a thousand clear ftreams, that water the gardens and cultivated lands, with which the whole plain is covered. In the midst of this vale ftands the city of SAMARCAND, which was very rich and flourishing in the fourteenth century: the territory is now poffeffed by the Uzbeks, a warlike nation, who took it from the defcendants of Tamerlane. That Conqueror was born at CASH, a pleasant city, about a day's journey from Samarcand. In fhort, Sogdiana lies in the fame climate with Italy and Provence, and has the advantage of a fky perpetually clear, the cooleft rivers, and the most excellent fruits. The other famous cities of Tranfoaiana are, 1. BOKHARA, through which the Ruffian merchants used to pafs in their journeys to China; it was in this century the feat of a fovereign prince, whom Mirza Makadi calls king of Bokhára, by which he means the whole territory of Sogdiana. NAKHSHEB, where a celebrated author was born, who wrote in Persian a book called The Tales of a Parrot, not unlike the Decamerone of Boccace. 3. ZAMIN, where the

2.

fineft manna of all Afia is gathered. 4. OSRUSNAH, furrounded by a district, that has four hundred ftrong caftles in it. 5. FARGANA, the birth-place of a great aftronomer, ufually called Alfargáni, who flourished in the ninth century. The mountains near Fargána abound in turkis-stones, as well as in rich mines of gold and filver.

The vaft Empire, which lies beyond the Iäxartes, between the dominions of the Czar and the Emperor of China, is called by the Afiaticks, who fpeak correctly, TURKESTAN*, or, The country of the Oriental Turks, an ancient and martial people, who, under the names of Getes, Moguls, and Tartars, have, at different times, poured in great numbers into the more western and southern kingdoms. The principal cities of Turkestán are, 1. BALASAGUN, which was once its Capital. 2. SHASH, which gives its name to a river that flows from the Sibún, and joins another called Faráb. 3. SHAHROKHIA, built by Tamerlane upon the birth of his fon, whom he called Shahrokh, or, Check with the rook, because he was playing at chess, and had just beaten his adversary by that ftroke, when he received news of the prince's birth.

ترکستان *