Again there is āburnāMarghīnān; seven _yīghāch_[65] by road to the west of Andijān,—a fine township full of good things. Its apricots (_aūrūk_) and pomegranates are most excellent. One sort of pomegranate, they call the Great Seed (_Dāna-i-kalān_); its sweetness has a little of the pleasant flavour of the small apricot (_zard-alū_) and it may be thought better than the Semnān pomegranate. [Sidenote: Fol. 3b.] Another kind of apricot (_aūrūk_) they dry after stoning it and putting back the kernel;[66] they then call it _subḥānī_; it is very palatable. The hunting and fowling of Marghīnān are good; _āq kīyīk_[67] are had close by. Its people are Sārts,[68] boxers, noisy and turbulent. Most of the noted bullies (_jangralār_) of Samarkand and Bukhārā are Marghīnānīs. The author of the Hidāyat[69] was from Rashdān, one of the villages of Marghīnān.
Again there is Asfara, in the hill-country and nine _yīghāch_[70] by road south-west of Marghīnān. It has running waters, beautiful little gardens (_bāghcha_) and many fruit-trees but almonds for the most part in its orchards. Its people are all Persian-speaking[71] Sārts. In the hills some two miles (_bīrshar`ī_) to the south of the town, is a piece of rock, known as the Mirror Stone.[72] It is some 10 arm-lengths (_qārī_) long, as high as a man in parts, up to his waist in others. Everything is reflected by it as by a mirror. The Asfara district (_wilāyat_) is in four subdivisions (_balūk_) in the hill-country, one Asfara, one Warūkh, one Sūkh and one Hushyār. When Muḥammad _Shaibānī_ Khān defeated Sl. Maḥmūd Khān and Alacha Khān and took Tāshkīnt and Shāhrukhiya,[73] I went into the Sūkh and Hushyār [Sidenote: Fol. 4.] hill-country and from there, after about a year spent in great misery, I set out _(`azīmat_) for Kābul.[74]
Again there is Khujand,[75] twenty-five _yīghāch_ by road to the west of Andijān and twenty-five _yīghāch_ east of Samarkand.[76] Khujand is one of the ancient towns; of it were Shaikh Maṣlaḥat and Khwāja Kamāl.[77] Fruit grows well there; its pomegranates are renowned for their excellence; people talk of a Khujand pomegranate as they do of a Samarkand apple; just now however, Marghīnān pomegranates are much met with.[78] The walled town (_qūrghān_) of Khujand stands on high ground; the Saiḥūn River flows past it on the north at the distance, may be, of an arrow's flight.[79] To the north of both the town and the river lies a mountain range called Munūghul;[80] people say there are turquoise and other mines in it and there are many snakes. The hunting and fowling-grounds of Khujand are first-rate; _āq kīyīk_,[81] _būghū-marāl_,[82] pheasant and hare are all had in great plenty. The climate is very malarious; in autumn there is much fever;[83] people rumour it about that the very sparrows get fever and say that the cause of the malaria is the mountain range on the north (_i.e._ Munūghul).