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FARGHANA
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poet Asiru-d-dln is known as Akhsikltl. After Andijan no township inFarghana is larger than Akhsl. It is nine ylghach1 by road to the west of Andijan. 'Umar Shaikh Mlrza made it his capital.2 The Saihun River flows below its walled town (qurghan). This stands above a great ravifle {buland jar) and it has deep ravines ('umiq jarlar) in place of a rtioat. When 'Umar Shaikh Mlrza made it his capital, he once or twice cut other ravines from the outer ones. In all Fargnana no 'ort 1S so strong as Akhsl. *Its suburbs extend some two miles further Fol. s. than the walled town.* People seem to have made of Akhsl the saying (misal), " Where is the village ? Wt>ere are the trees ?" (Dih kuja ? Dirakhtan kuja ?) Its melons &re excellent; they call one kind Mir Tlmurl; whether in the wOrld there is another to equal it is not known. The melons of Bokhara are famous; when I took Samarkand,. I had some brought from there and some from Akhsl; they were cut up at an entertainment and nothing from Bukhara compared with those from Akhsl. The fowling and hunting of Akhsl are very good indeed; aq klyik abound in the waste on the Akhsl side of tne Saihun; in the jungle on the Andijan side bughtl-maral,3 pheasant and hare are had, all in very good condition. Again there is Kasan, rather a small township to the north | of Akhsl. From Kasan'the Akhsl water corr>es in the same way , as the Andijan water comes from Aush. lCasan has excellent J air and beautiful little gardens (baghcha). AS these gardens all \ lie along the bed of the torrent (sa't) people call them the " fine | front of the coat.?'4 Between Kasanis and Aflshls there is rivalry about the beauty and climate of their townships.
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MSS. (the Elph. MS. here has a lacuna) the Zajar-na^a (Bib- Ind- < 44) and Ibn Haukal (Ouseley p. 270) ; and of those writing the word wlth the *'* mutallasa (i.e. as Akhsikis), Yaqiit's Diet, i, 162, Reinaud's Abu'1-feda I. ii, 225-6, Uminsky (p. 5) departing from his source, and ifi- Cat. (Ethe) No. 1029. It may be observed that Ibn Haukal (Ouseley p. 28°) writes Banakas for Banakat. For Aglru'd-dln Akhslklti, see Rieu ii, 563 ; Daulat Shah (Browne) p. 121 and Ethe I.O. Cat. No. 1029.
> Measured on the French military map of 1004, this may be 80 kil i.e. 50 miles.
2 Concerning several difficult passages in the rest °* Babur's account of Akhsl, see Appendix A.
3 The W.-i-B. here translates bughii-niarSl by gazaW* and the same word is entered, under-line, in the Hai: MS. Cf. f. 36 and note and f. 4 and note.
4 postjn pesh b:r:h. This obscure Persian phrase &as been taken in the . following ways :
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