Journal of the Royal United
Service Institution
VOL. XIX. 1875. No. LXXX.
LECTURE.
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moved "into the desert" at the point last
specified, the general line of road may be fairly
supposed.
Abbott, as we have shown, took the direct road, the road
of the Khans of Khiva on their Merv expeditions.
Shakespeare took the road by the Oxus. He tells us there
are two; that called the " Rah-i- "Takht,"
or road of the throne, a common Oriental appellation of a
flat- topped hill ; and the " Rah-i-Cheshmah,"
or road of the spring or fountain. He chose the former,
and by it he reached the Oxus in seven days from the last
crossing of the Murghab, and Khiva in seven days more
from the time of coming up to the Oxus. The first section
of the march, one of 165 miles, was a trying one, from
heat and want of water; and the guides were perplexed in
discovering wells and traffic tracks. Nor was the water,
when obtained, always drinkable. The so-called desert was
apparently made up of constantly recurring sand hills and
more abrupt mounds, with a lower surface swept over by
shifting sand, and studded with dwarf bushes and wild
vegetation. Bones of camels, and other signs of past toil
and travel, scattered here and there, give little
pleasurable relief to the eye of the new comer; but are
sometimes useful as indicating a looked-for route. The Oxus
was described as a magnificent stream, with rather high
banks, and the distance from bank to bank at the point
first reached, was estimated at three miles. The body of
the water was carried in a serpentine course, now on one
side, now on the other of the wide bed, leaving large
portions of dry ground covered with luxuriant jungle. Its
breadth varied from 300 to 500 yards. The second section
of the march to Khiva was about 15 miles longer than the
first. For 100 miles the route was chiefly along the bank
of the Oxus: one diversion was into its very bed. The
remainder was more to the westward, and in the heart of
the Khivan country, its villages, and cultivation. The
first village noted, since leaving Merv and the Murghab,
was at eight miles before Fitnak, which, together with
Hazarasp, is mentioned by Vambery. and is generally found
on maps of Khiva.
The Oxus is now called the Syr Darya
Mr. Taylour Thomson does not, that I am aware, say that
he followed Shakespeare's footsteps from the Murghab to
the Oxus; but he must have done so very nearly. He
proceeds from Merv direct to the far- famed river; makes
his distance thereto correspond closely with
Shakespeare's, when clear of the Murghab ; and though
Shakespeare says nothing of the four intervening wells of
Kishman, Yak-keper, Yandakli, and Sirtlanli, nor of
Kabakli, perhaps questionably rendered the
"pumpkin-ground;" he describes the
Takht-i-Suleiman, or throne of Solomon, " about 86
miles before reaching the Oxus which "Takht" is
clearly the same as the so-designated sand hill of his
predecessor. Shakespeare says,” the Turkmen
believe that Solomon “paid it a visit," and
calculates the distance thence to the Oxus to be 40
miles. The 4J miles in excess of the other account may be
readily believed to comprehend a slight deviation of road
or inaccuracy in rough computation.
Mr. Thomson writes: " At Deveh Boiun the
cultivation begins, and “the road, leaving the
river, branches off to the left to the town of”
Hazarasp: but it is only on reaching this latter place
that the highly;
| JBOC Notes: |
 Takht-i-Suleiman,
or throne of Solomon
|
"Shakespeare says nothing of the four
intervening wells of Kishman, Yak-keper,
Yandakli, and Sirtlanli, nor of Kabakli, perhaps
questionably rendered the
"pumpkin-ground;" he describes the
Takht-i-Suleiman, or throne of Solomon, "
about 86 miles before reaching the Oxus ; "
which "Takht" is clearly the same as
the so-designated sand hill of his
predecessor." The Takht-i-Suleiman,
or throne of Solomon is a popular image in
the lore of the Moslem countries. Solomon of the
Koran is different than Solomon o the Bible. For
instance in the Bible there is no mention of
genies.
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