To the east of Kunduz, 15 miles distant, is Khanabad, the proposed centre of one of the suggested new provinces. It is situated on the right bank of the Farkhan branch of the Kunduz river. The population is dependent on traffic from Cis-Oxus areas, although in recent years considerable local trade has sprung up. The town is surrounded by high walls and lies on the brow of hills which overlook the Kunduz region; it contains some 1500 households. In summer-time a far larger estimate could be returned as its numbers fluctuate. A position of some military strength has been made, and the fort, which is comparatively new, possesses strong mud walls, 18 feet in height. The Farkhan river, abreast of Khanabad, divides into two channels: the western channel is 3 feet deep and 15 yards wide; the stream possesses a rate of 5 miles an hour. The eastern channel is 60 yards wide and flows immediately below the walls of the town.
Tashkurgan, a cheerless group of villages enclosed by a mud wall, is the great trade mart of Afghan-Turkestan and a distributing point for the merchandise which caravans bring there from India and Bokhara. The wall, which is 3 miles in circumference, is pierced by wooden gates, and the houses of the villages number between 15,000 and 20,000. The population is subject to fluctuation. It falls as low as 15,000 in the winter season, rising with great rapidity so soon as the opening of the passes permits the resumption of trade relations with China, Russian Turkestan and India. Each house is protected by an 8-foot high mud wall, which imparts a dreary and monotonous appearance to the streets. The houses are built of clay and sun-dried bricks, with one storey and a domed roof. As a rule, they stand amid a profusion of fruit-trees; and, in the approach from the west, the town is lost in a maze of fruit-gardens. The streets are straight and only of moderate breadth; they intersect each other at right angles and down the centre of each there is an irrigating channel. A branch of the Doaba river, increased by many rivulets, runs through the town, but it is absorbed by the soil soon after it has passed Old Khulm.
Bazaars are held every Monday and Thursday and, in addition to the produce of Bokhara and India, there is a considerable market in live-stock: horses, mules, cows, sheep, goats and asses being assembled in their respective quarters for sale. Cotton goods, cloth and silk-stuffs from India; tanned leather, raw cotton, hides, fuel from Turkestan; grapes, raisins, pistacia nuts, pomegranates, dried plums from the country-side; rock salt, Russian boots, indigenous dyes—as the pomegranate bark and madder—and indigo imported from India, are exposed, together with chogas from Chitral and raw wool from Badakshan. Printed chintzes, quilts and turbans are also brought from Russian Turkestan; and coarse saddlery from Kabul is much in request. One section of the bazaar is set aside for the sale of melons, which are raised in great quantities in the neighbourhood.
The population is typical of a frontier region, and a sprinkling of natives from every quarter of Central Asia may be found there. The Hindus act as money-lenders and bankers, exacting an exorbitant usury; and other natives of India keep the drug stores and the dye shops. The vendors of dried fruits are mostly from Kabul. The trade with Yarkand is in the hands of Andijani merchants, who acquire the sheep and furs of the Oxus territory in exchange, at Yarkand, for tea, which is disposed of in Turkestan.
Fifty miles to the west of Khulm there is the beginning of what once was the territory of Balkh, which draws its water from 18 canals fed from the Balkh river. To-day the scene of the Mother of Cities reflects nothing but decay. The bazaar, simply a covered street with a few shops in it, runs through the village. The combined population of the district does not exceed 2000, including a small colony of Hindus and about 70 Jews. Both these classes are shop-keepers and each is subject to a capitation tax. The caste of the Hindus is shown by the usual painted marks upon the forehead and the Jews wear a black sheepskin cap. The climate of Balkh is very insalubrious, but the heat is temperate. In June the thermometer does not rise above 80°, while July is the hottest month of the year. The crops do not ripen until July, which makes the harvest fifty days later than Peshawar. The region is unusually fertile. Indeed, the fruit of Balkh is most famous, and the apricots grow to the size of apples. The soil is of a greyish colour, like pipe-clay and very rich. Within the Balkh region water is distributed by means of aqueducts leading from the Balkh river. The area of cultivation is not sufficient to exhaust the capacity of these canals, their constant overflow accounting for the extreme unhealthiness of the place. Aside from this peculiarity, the country is not naturally marshy. The district lies some 1800 feet above the level of the sea, about 6 miles from the hills on a gentle slope, which sinks towards the Oxus. The waters of the Balkh river do not at the present day reach the Oxus, the stream being consumed in the Balkh plain.
The spectacle of ruined Balkh, which at one time extended in a circuit of 20 miles, must recall Old Merv. Formerly it was surrounded by walls, some 6½ miles in circumference. Nothing is left of these walls to-day but a mound of dried mud, worn by the weather into all manner of desolate and fantastic shapes. The whole of the northern half of the old city is one vast waste. Within the Akchah gate, three lofty arches mark the remains of the Jumma Masjid and at the cross-roads there are the foundations of the charsu. A little to the east of it there are two lofty gateways, the remains of the main city gates—the western portion of the city having been added subsequently. The southern and south-eastern portions stood upon a high mound which resembled the position of Herat; but all the remainder, with the exception of the old fort and citadel, was low and not more than 10 feet thick. The citadel, in its south-west corner, stood some 50 feet higher still. The whole was surrounded by a separate moat, rather narrow towards the city but with steeply-scarped sides.[29] This citadel must now be nothing but a mound, the weather having obliterated even the remnants found by Colonel C. E. Yate. To its north lay the fort, an empty, bare place, surrounded by high walls and ruined bastions, with no signs of habitation except the débris of a mass of low brick buildings at its southern end. It stood at a considerable height above the level of its surroundings.
Between Khulm and Balkh, 9 miles east of Balkh and 26 miles from Khulm, is Mazar-i-Sharif, situated on a canal drawn from the Balkh-ab and containing rather more than 2000 households. It is held in the greatest veneration by Mahommedans in general and especially by Shiahs, on account of the firm conviction that Hazrat Ali was buried there. The tomb consists of two lofty cupolas which were built some 480 years ago. An annual fair is held, during which old and young, the blind, the infirm, the halt and the maimed of many a distant region crowd to Mazar-i-Sharif and, encamping round its shrine, plead day and night for the saint’s interposition on their behalf. Where cures are effected, they are the result more usually of a change of air and scene; but the greater portion of the faithful return as they came, bewailing their want of belief and their sins, yet never questioning the potency of the shrine.
Mazar-i-Sharif is the summer resort of nearly the whole population of the Balkh district, as its situation is more elevated, its temperature less oppressive and its air less impure than that enjoyed by the Mother of Cities. In contrast with Balkh it is the centre of a flourishing district, where the soil is rich, returning ample compensation for any agricultural attention that it may receive. A large trade emanates from this region, as, in addition to an extensive settled population, there are considerable military establishments. The headquarters of these are located at Takht-a-Pul, where Dost Mahommed was occupied for five years in constructing a fortified cantonment, and Dehdadi. The former is protected by a broad deep moat and enclosed within double walls 30 feet in height, pierced for musketry, bearing gun towers and flanked by imposing bastions; the latter commands the road from the Oxus and lies upon the summit of a high mountain overlooking Mazar-i-Sharif from the south-west. Twelve years were spent upon the construction and equipment of this frontier stronghold, and in the days of Abdur Rahman it was defended by an assortment of guns, embracing Krupp field-pieces, naval quick-firers—such as Nordenfeldt and Hotchkiss—and a number of maxims. The works are well protected from gun-fire, and great pains have been taken to depress all epaulements to the level of the mountain face.
Beyond Balkh the territories of a number of minor khanates began. Forty miles west of Balkh there was Akcha, an Uzbeg khanate, while further west again there were the areas of the four territories of Andkhui, Shibirghan, Saripul and Maimana. The first and the last of these petty governments were the most important, the latter preserving until lately a form of independence. Each of these little states has experienced singular vicissitudes, fighting constantly among themselves, occasionally uniting against the Afghans or the Amir of Bokhara. Andkhui, particularly, has endured many reverses of fortune, since, lying upon the roads from Herat, the Turcoman country and Bokhara, it has always been subject to attack. In recent years it has enjoyed a period of peace, but even under existing conditions it has not regained its earlier prosperity. At one time the khanate contained nearly 50,000 families, 13,000 living in the town. The population is a mixture of many races—Tajiks, Uzbegs, Persians and Turcomans—whose religious convictions are divided between the Shiah and Sunni sects in almost equal proportions.
Andkhui is situated on the Sangalak river, which, rising in the Band-i-Turkestan, flows past Maimana to be lost in the desert before reaching the Oxus. The water of the river is undrinkable; but it is used extensively for purposes of irrigation, and imparts so much prosperity to the Andkhui district that a zone of cultivation extends several miles round the city. Fruit, corn, rice and live-stock are raised in great abundance; a bustling trade is conducted in black lambs’-skins with Persia, in camels with the districts beyond the Oxus, in fruit and cereal products with inter-provincial centres. The population now resident in the town has fallen from its former high figure; it is estimated that there are only 3000 families within the walls. The houses are all flat-roofed, low mud-buildings. The city walls are in ruins; the bazaar and the fort are the sole points of interest in the place. The bazaar, which is situated where four cross-roads meet, is insignificant. It lies in the centre of the town and is roofed with matting. The market days are Sundays and Thursdays; but little business at other times is transacted. Beyond the bazaar there is the fort—a high, irregularly-shaped enclosure, some 250 yards or 300 yards in diameter. It is occupied by a garrison consisting of one company from the regular regiments at Maimana, three companies of Khasadars, two guns and 100 sowars, the latter force being quartered beyond the walls on the northern face.