'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎195] (230/714)

POLITICS AXI) COMMERCE OF IHIORASAN
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course as the Hen Rud, becomes the Tejencl upon being joined by
the Keshef Rud at PuH-Khatun; and, after dividing the Persian
Te'end fr0m the ^ USSlan militar y outposts at Sarakhs, flows, when
there is water in it, in a northerly direction across the
desert, where it is spanned by a bridge of the Transcaspian Rail
way at Tejend or Karibent.
There are two Sarakhs, the Old and the New Sarakhs ; and much
effusion has been caused both among travellers and politicians
The two by an imperfect appreciation of their different sites and
ara features. Old Sarakhs is on the right or eastern side of
the river, and from very remote times was the headquarters of the
Salor tribe of Turkomans, who are one of the first subdivisions of
that race ot whom we hear in history, being mentioned by Arab
historians as long ago as the seventh century. 1 The first European
in this century of whose visit to Sarakhs we read was the
missionary Wolff, who stopped several weeks here in 1831, on his
first journey to Bokhara, preaching to the Jews, of whom there
was a small colony, and the Turkomans. He passed again in
1844, on his mission of inquiry into the fate of Stoddart and
Conolly at Bokhara. In the interval Burnes had spent ten days
in disguise at Sarakhs in 1832, on the return from his great
journey, and had very narrowly escaped detection. He described
the place as a < small and weak fort almost in ruins, situated on a
hillock, with a few mud houses built by the Jews of Meshed;'
and said that^ its Turkoman occupants at that time professed a
dubious allegiance to Khiva. 2
1 Saraklis was visited by the Arab traveller, El Istakhri (miscalled by Ouseley
bn Haukal), in the tenth century. He describes it as distant six menzil (stae-es)
from Nishapur, and adds : ' Sarkhes is a city between Meru (Merv) and Nisha-
pour situated on a level, without any running water but that which comes from
rousheng (which river comes from Heri and runs on to Sarkhes, but in a season
of excessive heat the water does not run so far). It is computed that Sarkhes
is as large as Meru-al-md. It is a populous and thriving city; the air is whole
some ; the inhabitants drink well-water, and they employ horses or asses in their
mills. —The Oriental Geography of Ihn JJauhal, translated by Sir W. Ouseley
pp. 219-221. This description of the Tejend tallies exactly with that of modern
travellers. When M. Lessar first came to Sarakhs, in 1882, he reported the river
bed to be commonly dry, and from 300 yards to half a mile in width. The Moorish
pilgrim, Ibn Batutah, also came to ' Sarakhas' from Meshed circ. 1330 a.d.
1 ravels, translated by Rev. S. Lee, p. 96. For other references to Sarakhs by
early writers, vide Nasiri Khosru {Sefer Nameh, p. 6), Mukadessi {Bescriptio
vqm ii Moslendci, pp. 312, 313), and Yakut (Dictionnaire cle la Perse, pp. 307, 308),
Travels into Bohhara, vol. iii. pp. 42-56.
o 2