OF A PROVINCE CALLED COTAN.
Cotan is a province lying between north-east and east, and is eight
days’ journey in length. The people are subject to the Great Kaan,{1}
and are all worshippers of Mahommet.{2} There are numerous towns and
villages in the country, but Cotan, the capital, is the most noble of
all, and gives its name to the kingdom. Everything is to be had there
in plenty, including abundance of cotton, [with flax, hemp, wheat,
wine, and the like]. The people have vineyards and gardens and estates.
They live by commerce and manufactures, and are no soldiers.{3}
NOTE 1.—[The Buddhist Government of Khotan was destroyed by Boghra
Khân (about 980–990); it was temporarily restored by the Buddhist
Kutchluk Khân, chief of the Naïmans, who came from the banks of
the Ili, destroyed the Mahomedan dynasty of Boghra Khân (1209), but
was in his turn subjugated by Chinghiz Khan.
The only Christian monument discovered in Khotan is a bronze cross
brought back by Grenard (III. pp. 134–135); see also Devéria,
_Notes d’Epigraphie Mongole_, p. 80.—H. C.]
NOTE 2.—“_Aourent Mahommet_”. Though this is Marco’s usual formula
to define Mahomedans, we can scarcely suppose that he meant it
literally. But in other cases it was _very_ literally interpreted.
Thus in _Baudouin de Sebourc_, the Dame de Pontieu, a passionate
lady who renounces her faith before Saladin, says:—
“‘Et je renoië Dieu, et le pooir qu’il a;
Et Marie, sa Mère, qu’on dist qui le porta;
_Mahom voel aourer_, aportez-le-moi chà!’
* * * * Li Soudans commanda
_Qu’on aportast Mahom; et celle l’aoura_.” (I. p. 72.)
The same romance brings in the story of the Stone of Samarkand,
adapted from ch. xxxiv., and accounts for its sanctity in Saracen
eyes because it had long formed a pedestal for Mahound!
And this notion gave rise to the use of _Mawmet_ for an idol in
general; whilst from the _Mahommerie_ or place of Islamite worship
the name of _mummery_ came to be applied to idolatrous or unmeaning
rituals; both very unjust etymologies. Thus of mosques in _Richard
Cœur-de-Lion_:
“Kyrkes they made of Crystene Lawe,
And her _Mawmettes_ lete downe drawe.” (_Weber_, II. 228.)
So Correa calls a golden idol, which was taken by Da Gama in a ship
of Calicut, “an image of Mahomed” (372). Don Quixote too, who ought
to have known better, cites with admiration the feat of Rinaldo in
carrying off, in spite of forty Moors, a golden image of Mahomed.
NOTE 3.—800 _li_ (160 miles) east of _Chokiuka_ or Yarkand, Hiuen
Tsang comes to _Kiustanna_ (Kustána) or KHOTAN. “The country
chiefly consists of plains covered with stones and sand. The
remainder, however, is favourable to agriculture, and produces
everything abundantly. From this country are got woollen carpets,
fine felts, well woven taffetas, white and black jade.” Chinese
authors of the 10th century speak of the abundant grapes and
excellent wine of Khotan.
Chinese annals of the 7th and 8th centuries tell us that the people
of Khotan had chronicles of their own, a glimpse of a lost branch
of history. Their writing, laws, and literature were modelled upon
those of India.
Ilchi, the modern capital, was visited by Mr. Johnson, of the
Indian Survey, in 1865. The country, after the revolt against the
Chinese in 1863, came first under the rule of Habíb-ullah, an aged
chief calling himself _Khán Bádshah_ of Khotan; and since the
treacherous seizure and murder of Habíb-ullah by Ya’kub Beg of
Kashgar in January 1867, it has formed a part of the kingdom of the
latter.
Mr. Johnson says: “The chief grains of the country are Indian corn,
wheat, barley of two kinds, _bájra, jowár_ (two kinds of _holcus_),
buckwheat and rice, all of which are superior to the Indian grains,
and are of a very fine quality.... The country is certainly
superior to India, and in every respect equal to Kashmir, over
which it has the advantage of being less humid, and consequently
better suited to the growth of fruits. _Olives_ (?), pears, apples,
peaches, apricots, mulberries, grapes, currants, and melons, all
exceedingly large in size and of a delicious flavour, are produced
in great variety and abundance.... Cotton of valuable quality, and
raw silk, are produced in very large quantities.”
[Khotan is the chief place of Turkestan for cotton manufactures;
its _khàm_ is to be found everywhere. This name, which means raw in
Persian, is given to a stuff made with cotton thread, which has not
undergone any preparation; they manufacture also two other cotton
stuffs: _alatcha_ with blue and red stripes, and _tchekmen_, very
thick and coarse, used to make dresses and sacks; if _khàm_ is
better at Khotan, _alatcha_ and _tchekmen_ are superior at Kashgar.
(_Grenard_, II. pp. 191–192.)
Grenard (II. pp. 175–177), among the fruits, mentions apricots
(_ourouk_), ripe in June, and so plentiful that to keep them they
are dried up to be used like garlic against mountain sickness;
melons (_koghoun_); water-melons (_tarbouz_, the best are from
Hami); vine (_tâl_)—the best grapes (_uzum_) come from Boghâz
langar, near Keria; the best dried grapes are those from Turfan;
peaches (_shaptâlou_); pomegranates (_anár_, best from Kerghalyk),
etc.; the best apples are those of Nia and Sadju; pears are very
bad; cherries and strawberries are unknown. Grenard (II. p. 106)
also says that grapes are very good, but that Khotan wine is
detestable, and tastes like vinegar.
The Chinese traveller, translated by M. Gueluy (_Desc. de la Chine
occidentale_, p. 45), says that all the inhabitants of Khotan are
seeking for precious stones, and that melons and fruits are more
plentiful than at Yarkand.—H. C.]
Mr. Johnson reports the whole country to be rich in soil and very
much under-peopled. Ilchi, the capital, has a population of about
40,000, and is a great place for manufactures. The chief articles
produced are silks, felts, carpets (both silk and woollen), coarse
cotton cloths, and paper from the mulberry fibre. The people are
strict Mahomedans, and speak a Turki dialect. Both sexes are
good-looking, with a slightly Tartar cast of countenance. (_V. et
V. de H. T._ 278; _Rémusat, H. de la V. de Khotan_, 37, 73–84;
_Chin. Repos._ IX. 128; _J. R. G. S._ XXXVII. 6 _seqq._)
[In 1891, Dutreuil de Rhins and Grenard at the small village of
Yotkàn, about 8 miles to the west of the present Khotan, came
across what they considered the most important and probably the
most ancient city of southern Chinese Turkestan. The natives say
that Yotkàn is the site of the old Capital. (Cf. _Grenard_, III. p.
127 _et seq._ for a description and drawings of coins and objects
found at this place.)
The remains of the ancient capital of Khotan were accidentally
discovered, some thirty-five years ago, at Yotkàn, a village of
the Borazân Tract. A great mass of highly interesting finds of
ancient art pottery, engraved stones, and early Khotan coins with
Kharoṣṭhi-Chinese legends, coming from this site, have recently
been thoroughly examined in Dr. Hoernle’s Report on the “British
Collection of Central Asian Antiquities.” _Stein_.—(See _Three
further Collections of Ancient Manuscripts from Central Asia_, by
Dr. A. F. R. Hoernle ... Calcutta, 1897, 8vo.)
“The sacred sites of Buddhist Khotan which Hiuen Tsang and
Fa-hian describe, can be shown to be occupied now, almost without
exception, by Mohamedan shrines forming the object of popular
pilgrimages.” (M. A. Stein, _Archæological Work about Khotan,
Jour. R. As. Soc._, April, 1901, p. 296.)
It may be justly said that during the last few years numerous
traces of Hindu civilisation have been found in Central Asia,
extending from Khotan, through the Takla-Makan, as far as Turfan,
and perhaps further up.
Dr. Sven Hedin, in the year 1896, during his second journey through
Takla-Makan from Khotan to Shah Yar, visited the ruins between the
Khotan Daria and the Kiria Daria, where he found the remains of the
city of Takla-Makan now buried in the sands. He discovered figures
of Buddha, a piece of papyrus with unknown characters, vestiges of
habitations. This Asiatic Pompei, says the traveller, at least ten
centuries old, is anterior to the Mahomedan invasion led by Kuteïbe
Ibn-Muslim, which happened at the beginning of the 8th century. Its
inhabitants were Buddhist, and of Aryan race, probably originating
from Hindustan.—Dutreuil de Rhins and Grenard discovered in the
Kumâri grottoes, in a small hill on the right bank of the Karakash
Daria, a manuscript written on birch bark in _K_harosḥ_t_hi
characters; these grottoes of Kumâri are mentioned in Hiuen Tsang.
(II. p. 229.)
Dr. Sven Hedin followed the route Kashgar, Yangi-Hissar, Yarkand
to Khotan, in 1895. He made a stay of nine days at Ilchi, the
population of which he estimated at 5500 inhabitants (5000
Musulmans, 500 Chinese).
(See also Sven Hedin, _Die Geog. wissenschaft. Ergebnisse meiner
Reisen in Zentralasien_, 1894–1897. _Petermann’s Mitt._, Ergänz.
XXVIII. (Hft. 131), Gotha, 1900.—H. C.]