"الجغرافيا الشرقية لابن حوقل، رحّالة عربي من القرن العاشر" [‎٢‎٣‎٣] (٣٨٨/٢٨٦)

( 233 )
The province of Maweralnahr is one of the most flourishing
and productive within the regions of Islam or Mahommedanism.
The inhabitants are people of probity and virtue, averse from
evil, and fond of peace. Such is the fertility and abundance of
this country, that if the other regions were afflicted by a scarcity
or famine, the stock laid up on the preceding year in Mawer
alnahr would afford ample provision for them all. Every kind of
fruit and meat abounds there; and the water is most delicious.
The cattle are excellent: the sheep from Turkestan,
Ghaznein, and Samarcand, are highly esteemed in all places.
Maweralnahr affords raw silk, wool, and hair, in great quan
tities. Its mines yield silver, and tin or lead abundantly;
and they are better than the other mines, except those of silver
at Penjhir; but Maweralnahr affords the best copper
and quicksilver, and other similar productions of mines; and the
mines of sal ammoniac (used in tinning or soldering) in
all Khorasan, are there*. Like the paper made at Samarcand,
there is hot any to be found elsewhere. So abundant are the
fruits or OoLw Soghd, and Astersheineh, and
Ferghanah, and Chaje (or Shash), that they are given to
the cattle as food. Musk is brought from CXO' Tihhet, and sent
to all parts. Fox-skins, sable, and ermine skins, are all to be
found at the bazars of Maweralnahr.
'* I have translated this passage literally,
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