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sahri there, Within the borders of Wakkhan is a village known as Sahr to
which it is related. The bijadhi extracted from the mines of Shaknaniyah comes out of the proximity of the mountains on which the town of Hablik is situated. It takes two days to traverse the distance between Sbaknan and Hablik, It takes seven days to reach Kadkad which is the capital of the king of Balwal, and is in the direction of the plains of Kashmir and to the north of Urdistan. Al-Kindl says bijadhi is found in ruby mines. A jewel cutter and
polisher testifies to this statement of Al-Kindi, who states that bijadhi augurs the discovery of ruby just as sharistah prefaces the discovery of cornelian. The occurrence of bijadhi might establish the presence of ruby, although it is not necessary that this may be so. An 'Alawid of this area has claimed that he recovered the Rummanian ruby from bijadhi pieces. They were very small and each piece
weighed one daniq. I saw a segment of bijadhi in the treasury of Yamin al-Dawlah. It
was found among the jewels brought from the temples of Nahurah. It was like a gravel that is made smooth by the impact of water. But it was oblong and planer. Inclined towards redness, it was very transparent. Its weight must have been between twenty and twenty-three dirhams. I never held it in my hand to examine it closely. I have not examined the comparative weights of bijadhi andghubari
rubies. Perhaps they have the same proportion that we have mentioned in the case of ruby. Poet Sanawbari says: Wine drips during the Khurdad 67 as if it is the dripping of the blood
of the immolated. Wine in the jewelled chalice presents the sight of
the water in which the bijadhi stone has been melted.
Mansur Qadi Harawi says: Others view a moon in the year that makes the whole year pleasant
to them, but such is not my destiny. Thine eyelids have drawn my
heart. Even the bijadhi stone cannot draw so much grass.
The following verses are also by him: When thou watchest the moon, it sinks and when it rises again, it is
overcome by eclipse, Even the bijadhi stone cannot draw grass to itself as thy eyes have
drawn my heart away. So are his verses given below: When thou didst see the fourteenth-day moon, it became permeated
with eclipse. Bijadhi cannot draw a blade of grass towards it in the way thy eyes
. have forced me towards thee. We will not mention stories that are unworthy of mention. In Al-Kindi's book, Kharjun has also been described among stones similar to it. It re- |
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