"دليل بلاد فارس. مجلد I" [ظ‎‎٨‎٤] (٨٢٠/١٧٣)

152
DAR—DAR
(6) North-west to Askhabad in Akhal Atak. Practicable for mules
and camels.
Principal villages .—These are Muhammadabad, Chapashli, and Nau-
khandan. The first stands 2 miles from the northern range of
hills, and about that distance from the stream, and is enclosed in a broad
circle of woods, vineyards, and gardens. It numbers 1,000 houses, is
clean and well built, and defended by a good wall standing on a rampart
of earth, at the base of which is a deep ditch. Both rampart and ditch
are as usual deficient in flanking defence, but the place is much stronger
than the forts of the country usually are. The walls form a rectangle of
about 400 yards by 500 yards. On the north-western side is a high
mound, the site of an ancient fire temple, from which a good view of the
interior is obtained. This village is the residence of the Khan, and the
place of refuge of the inhabitants of the small villages and hamlets for
some miles round.
Chapashli is distant 8 miles south by road from Muhammadabad,
and divided from it by a low, rocky ridge. It was nearly destroyed by the
Tekke Turkomans in 1870 ; though many houses are still in ruins, the walls
are kept in good repair, and its vineyards and gardens are extensive and
productive. It is the residence of one of the chiefs cousins, who, with
100 horsemen, watches the eastern side of the valley. The population
numbers about 400 families of Turks and Kurds.
Naukhandan is a fine village, the residence of the chief’s son. It lies
8 miles north-west of Muhammadabad on the banks of the stream,
and numbers 700 houses. Its vineyards and gardens are said to be more
productive than any in the valley.
Population .—The population is a mixed one, formed from the various
Turk and Kurd tribes of the border. According to the chief many tappeh*
ot ancient mounds exist in the district, shewing that it had been thickly
populated in ancient times, but Chingiz Khan made a clean sweep of the
country, and it has never since recovered. The remaining aboriginal Per
sian population was probably swept out of the valley by the first waves
of Turkoman conquest, and there are now no traces left of it save per
haps some high, circular mounds, which, according to local belief, were
the sites of fire temples. The only evidence of former antiquity, that
tells any intelligible tale, is a small masonry imamzddeh with a Cufic inscrip
tion, dating some 700 to 800 years back. Of the inhabitants of that
period there is only this single trace. The oldest tribe, i.e., the
tribe that has been settled longest now in the valley, is that of the Chief
of Darreh Gaz, whose ancestors migrated from Karshi on the Oxus, and
were granted the village of Chapashli. They form, however, but a
small portion ; the rest being made up of Afshars, Garilis, and Kurds
of all the tribes, living on the other side of the range, who have settled
in the valley at various times, taking the places of families slaughtered
in their homes, or carried into captivity by the Turkomans.
The people of the few villages on the south side of the Allahu Akbar
pass are Kaivanlu Kurds from Radkan, from 50 to 100 families. In the
east of the valley the villages are inhabited by Turks and Afghans ; to-
the west from Naukkandan upwards the population is entirely Kurdish*