two very

This city ftands on the banks of the Iäxartes, over which there is a large and elegant bridge in this part. 4. FARAB, or FARIAB, otherwife called Otrár, the birth-place of learned men, the great philofopher and musician Al Fariabi, and an able grammarian, known to us by the name of Al Fouberi, or, The Jeweller, who compiled a voluminous dictionary of the Arabick language, entitled Seháh, in which the principal words are illuftrated by chofen paffages from the old Arabian poets *. There is nothing very remarkable in the other cities of Turkeftán, as Ilák, Toncát, and the reft: they fland between the ninety-ninth and hundred and first degrees of longitude, and are between forty-one and forty-three from the Equator. The province of KHOTOLAN deferves, indeed, to be more particularly mentioned; it lies between Tartary, Badakhshan, and the ter

* This laborious fcholar loft his senses through an excefs of learning, and was killed by a fall in a mad attempt to By with a pair of waxen wings. The title of his work Sebab fignifies purity, and alfo health; which gave

occafion to a ridiculous miftake of a French Orientalift, who tranflated the life of Tamerlane, from the Arabick: the hiftorian, speaking of the death of a certain Arab, fays be died like the author of Scháh, that is, by a full from the to of his house, which the Frenchman, not knowing the allufion, translates, he died in perfect health.

ritory of Balkh; its chief city, which has also a confiderable district around it, is named VAKHSH; and the whole country is reprefented as fruitful, pleafant, watered by feveral rivulets, and even rich in golden ore, which the ftreams often bring down the mountains mingled with their fand.

At the extremity of Turkeftán, are the countries of KHATA and KHOTEN, which border on China, and, in this century, were governed by an independent King, who fent an ambassador to Nader Shah. The city of Khoten has a large territory round it of the fame name, which is famous for producing very fine musk, equal to that of Tibet. A Perfian poet, quoted by Golius in one of his manuscripts*, alludes to the mufk of this country in the following paffage: When thy charming letter was brought to me, I faid; "Is it the zephyr that breathes from "the gardens, or is the sky burning wood of "aloes on the cenfer of the fun? or is a ca"ravan of mufk coming from Khoten?" To

* See the Bibliothéque Orientale, p. 999. where, by fome accident, the original of the third verfe is omitted.

+ In Perfian,

مكتوب جانغزاي تو آمد بسوي من گفتم مگر صبا از چمن رسید

understand these verses, we must know, that the Afiaticks have a custom of perfuming their letters, which they tie up in little bags of fattin or damask. The city of CASHGAR also, with its territory, belongs, according to fome writers, to Khatá; as well as KHANBALEK, which the Eaftern Geographers place actually in the Chinese Empire; this is not the Cambalu of our travellers, which is properly called Cabalig, and ftands forty-four degrees from the Line, and an hundred and three from the Canaries. CARACUM is likewise a city of Khatá, and is fituated in a large plain covered with black fand, from which it derives its All this extensive Empire was conquered in the thirteenth century by Tamugin or Genghiz, who penetrated even into China, which his fucceffor Octaï almost wholly fubdued, and took the city of Nấm Kim, or Nang King, where the Chinese prince Altún burned himself and all his family, that he might not fall into the hands of the Moguls.

name,

یا آسمان بهجمر خورشید عود سوخت یا کاروان مشک زراه ختن رسید

CHAP. III.

The Indian Empire.

THE celebrated Empire of India is called by the Perfians Hind, or HINDUSTAN*, The Country of the Hindus: it is bounded on the weft and fouth by the Ocean, on the north by Candabár and Turán, on the east by Chîn or China; for fo the Afiaticks call the Peninfula beyond the Ganges, which comprises the kingdoms of Tipra, Afám, Aracan, and Siam. The country of Hind is divided into three parts; 1. Guzerat, or DECAN, including most of the fouthern provinces, and, among them, the city and territory of SUMENAT, where Sadi, as he tells us in his Bostán, had an adventure with the worshippers of an ivory image, whofe artful contrivance he detected at the hazard of his life. 2. MALABAR, or, The country of the Malais, which includes what the Arabians call Beladelfulful, or, The land of Pepper, and is terminated on the fouth by the cape of Comron, famous for pro

ducing the best aloe-wood, a favourite perfume of the Afiaticks: to the fouth-west of this promontory are the numerous iflands, which we call Maldives, and the Arabs Rabibát, and a little to the fouth-eaft, the famed Serandib or Seilán, which produces fo many precious perfumes, jewels, and fpices. M. d'Herbelot remarks, that the Eastern Geographers fay nothing of the cinnamon, with which Serandib abounds, and, as they call that spice the wood of China, he imagines, with fome appearance of probability, that it was transplanted to Seilán by the Chinefe, who, as it is currently reported, had once a great connection with the natives of that ifland. Farther eastward are the islands of Samander, or Sumatra, Rámi, or Lameri, which may, perhaps, be Java, though, by the accounts of it, one would take it for the fame with Samander, and then Albinoman will be Java, Jálús, the Moluccas, and Mehrage, or Soborma, Borneo; to which ifle the Eafterns feem to confine their knowledge of Afiatick Geography *; for what they call the ifle of Anam, is no other than the fouthern part of the peninfula, which the ancients named The golden Cherfonnefe; and

They pretend, that a city called Fámcût is fituated at the extremity of our Hemifphere.