Rear N.
Sides E. and W.
Beyond Khyrabad we struck the Farráh river, near the ruins of Sumúr, on its opposite bank, where it sweeps round the high desert cliffs to the south-west. We followed up the stream in an opposite direction, and passing through the ruins of Luftán, amidst which are the remains of two forts of evidently different dates, came to a wide basin formed by the talus of the river, and camped on its left bank, directly opposite the fort of Lásh, which occupies a remarkable position on the verge of a sheer cliff about four hundred and fifty feet high. It rises straight up from the river bed, and in the flood season its base is washed by the swollen stream of the Farráh river. The name is derived from the situation, for in Pushto lásh or lákh signifies a cliff or precipice.
During our stay here we visited the fort, and were very hospitably received by its chief, Sardár Ahmad Khán, Isháczai, the lord of Hokát. His family have only been settled here since the beginning of the present century. In the time of Sháh Ahmad, Durrani, an ancestor named Kamál Khán separated from the tribal chief, Madad Khán, at Kandahar, and took service as a soldier with Tymúr Mirzá at Herat. He left a son named Rahmdil, who was a man of no parts or influence; but his son, Sálih Muhammad, became the favourite and confidant of Tymúr’s son, Muhammad, and followed him in his varied fortunes for many years.
When Mahmúd succeeded to the throne of Kabul in 1810, he gave this district of Hokát in military fief to his faithful servant, on whom he had bestowed the title of Sháh Pasand Khán. At this period the district had hardly recovered from the state of desolation to which it had been reduced by the invasion of Tymúr Lang, and was merely the winter resort of Afghan nomads of the Isháczai and Núrzai tribes. The new owner quickly rebuilt the fort of Lásh on the site of its former ruins, and also founded the fortress of Júwen on the plain, three miles off, on the opposite side of the river. He also restored the ruins of Calá Koh and some other important forts.
Later, when Mahmúd’s misfortunes, crowding fast on each other, drove him from Kabul, and afterwards lost him the sovereignty in Herat, he found a refuge here with his former trusty adherent, and lived in quiet obscurity for some years, till, on the invitation of his rebellious son, Kamrán, he returned to Herat in 1829, and shortly after died there, under suspicious symptoms, called cholera.
Sálih Muhammad died, at the age of seventy years, in 1850, having taken an active part in the political revolutions that mark the history of the Herat frontier during the half century. His son Abdurrasúl died during his own lifetime, at Farráh, where he had found an asylum with the governor against the hostility of Yár Muhammad; and his son Ahmad Khán, the present Sardár, who resided at Calá Koh, succeeded his grandfather in the chiefship; and after Yár Muhammad’s death, in the following year, moved his headquarters to Lásh, his brother, Samad Khán, holding the fortress of Júwen.
Lásh is a strongly situated little fort, and commands an extensive view of the surrounding country, and a more desolate prospect it is difficult to imagine. On either side are vast arid deserts abutting upon the valley of the Farráh river and the Hokát basin in high cliffs of bare clay, whilst the low lands between, as far south as the eye can reach, present a dreary waste of ruined towns, dilapidated forts, and obliterated water-courses. The only objects varying the monotony of the dismal scene are the hills closing the view towards the north.