The Gates of India: Being an Historical NarrativeHoldich, Thomas Hungerford, Sir
History
The Gates of India: Being an Historical Narrative
Holdich, Thomas Hungerford, Sir
Afghanistan -- Description and travel; Balochistan (Pakistan) -- Description and travel
On the right bank of the river, Bessos was given up by traitors in his
camp and was sent south to "Zariaspa" to await his doom. Zariaspa is
identified with Balkh by some authorities, but the name is probably a
variant on Adraspa which almost certainly was Andarab. Andarab was the
fertile and promising district into which Alexander descended from the
slopes of the Hindu Kush, by whichever route (Kaoshan or Panjshir) he
crossed those mountains. Directly on the route between Andarab and
Balkh is a minor province called Baglan, and a little less than
half-way (after crossing a local pass of no great significance called
Kotal Murgh) is a village or township, nowadays called Zardaspan,
which is sufficiently like Zariaspa to suggest an identity which is at
least plausible though it may be deceptive. But it is the fact that
the town of Baraki which lies farther on the same route is on the
outskirts of Baglan; and in this connection a reference to the theory
put forward by Dr. Bellew in his _Ethnography of Afghanistan_
(_Asiatic Quarterly_, October 1891) is at least interesting. He points
out that the captive Greeks who were transported in the sixth century
B.C. by Darius Hystaspes from the Lybian Barké to Baktrian territory
were still occupying a village called Barké in the time of Herodotus.
A century later again during the Macedonian campaign, Kyrenes, or
Kyreneans, existed in that region according to Arrian, and it is
difficult to account for them in that part of Asia unless they were
the descendants of those same exiles from Barké, a colony of Kyrene
whom Darius originally transported to Baktria. They were in possession
of the Kaoshan Pass too, and might have rendered very effective aid to
Alexander during his passage across the mountains. Another body of
Greek colonists are recorded to have been settled in this same part of
Baktria by Xerxes after his flight from Greece, namely, the
Brankhidai, whose original settlement appears to have been in Andarab.
As we shall see later, people from Greece or from Grecian colonies
undoubtedly drifted across Asia to Northern Afghanistan in even
earlier times than those of the Persian Empire. There can, indeed, be
very little doubt that Ariaspa, or Andarab, was an important position
for the Greeks to occupy from its strategic value as commanding the
most practicable of the Hindu Kush passes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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