(f. Inhabitants of Kābul.)
There are many differing tribes in the Kābul country; in its dales and plains are Turks and clansmen754 and ‘Arabs; in its town and in many villages, Sārts; out in the districts and also in villages are the Pashāī, Parājī, Tājīk, Bīrkī and Afghān tribes. In the western mountains are the Hazāra and Nikdīrī tribes, some of whom speak the Mughūlī tongue. In the north-eastern mountains are the places of the Kāfirs, such as Kitūr (Gawār?) and Gibrik. To the south are the places of the Afghān tribes.
Eleven or twelve tongues are spoken in Kābul, – ‘Arabī, Persian, Turkī, Mughūlī, Hindī, Afghānī, Pashāī, Parājī, Gibrī, Bīrkī and Lamghānī. If there be another country with so many differing tribes and such a diversity of tongues, it is not known.
(e. Sub-divisions of the Kābul country.)
The [Kābul] country has fourteen tūmāns.755
Bajaur, Sawād and Hash-nagar may at one time have been dependencies of Kābul, but they now have no resemblance to cultivated countries (wilāyāt), some lying desolate because of the Afghāns, others being now subject to them.
In the east of the country of Kābul is the Lamghānāt, 5 tūmāns and 2 bulūks of cultivated lands.756 The largest of these is Nīngnahār, sometimes written Nagarahār in the histories.757 Its dārogha’s residence is in Adīnapūr,758 some 13 yīghāch east of Kābul by a very bad and tiresome road, going in three or four places over small hill-passes, and in three or four others, through narrows.759 So long as there was no cultivation along it, the Khirilchī and other Afghān thieves used to make it their beat, but it has become safe760 since I had it peopled at Qarā-tū,761 below Qūrūq-sāī. The hot and cold climates are separated on this road by the pass of Bādām-chashma (Almond-spring); on its Kābul side snow falls, none at Qūrūq-sāī, towards the Lamghānāt.762 After descending this pass, another world comes into view, other trees, other plants (or grasses), other animals, and other manners and customs of men. Nīngnahār is nine torrents (tūqūz-rūd).763 It grows good crops of rice and corn, excellent and abundant oranges, citrons and pomegranates. In 914 AH. (1508-9 AD.) I laid out the Four-gardens, known as the Bāgh-i-wafā (Garden-of-fidelity), on a rising-ground, facing south and having the Sūrkh-rūd between it and Fort Adīnapūr.764 There oranges, citrons and pomegranates grow in abundance. The year I defeated Pahār Khān and took Lāhor and Dipālpūr,765 I had plantains (bananas) brought and planted there; they did very well. The year before I had had sugar-cane planted there; it also did well; some of it was sent to Bukhārā and Badakhshān.766 The garden lies high, has running-water close at hand, and a mild winter climate. In the middle of it, a one-mill stream flows constantly past the little hill on which are the four garden-plots. In the south-west part of it there is a reservoir, 10 by 10,767 round which are orange-trees and a few pomegranates, the whole encircled by a trefoil-meadow. This is the best part of the garden, a most beautiful sight when the oranges take colour. Truly that garden is admirably situated!
The Safed-koh runs along the south of Nīngnahār, dividing it from Bangash; no riding-road crosses it; nine torrents (tūqūz-rūd) issue from it.768 It is called Safed-koh769 because its snow never lessens; none falls in the lower parts of its valleys, a half-day’s journey from the snow-line. Many places along it have an excellent climate; its waters are cold and need no ice.
The Sūrkh-rūd flows along the south of Adīnapūr. The fort stands on a height having a straight fall to the river of some 130 ft. (40-50 qārī) and isolated from the mountain behind it on the north; it is very strongly placed. That mountain runs between Nīngnahār and Lamghān770; on its head snow falls when it snows in Kābul, so Lamghānīs know when it has snowed in the town.
In going from Kābul into the Lamghānāt,771– if people come by Qūrūq-sāī, one road goes on through the Dīrī-pass, crosses the Bārān-water at Būlān, and so on into the Lamghānāt, – another goes through Qarā-tū, below Qūrūq-sāī, crosses the Bārān-water at Aūlūgh-nūr (Great-rock?), and goes into Lamghān by the pass of Bād-i-pīch.772 If however people come by Nijr-aū, they traverse Badr-aū (Tag-aū), and Qarā-nakariq (?), and go on through the pass of Bād-i-pīch.
Although Nīngnahār is one of the five tūmāns of the Lamghān tūmān the name Lamghānāt applies strictly only to the three (mentioned below).
One of the three is the ‘Alī-shang tūmān, to the north of which are fastness-mountains, connecting with Hindū-kush and inhabited by Kāfirs only. What of Kāfiristān lies nearest to ‘Alī-shang, is Mīl out of which its torrent issues. The tomb of Lord Lām,773 father of his Reverence the prophet Nuḥ (Noah), is in this tūmān. In some histories he is called Lamak and Lamakān. Some people are observed often to change kāf for ghain (k for gh); it would seem to be on this account that the country is called Lamghān.
The second is Alangār. The part of Kāfiristān nearest to it is Gawār (Kawār), out of which its torrent issues (the Gau or Kau). This torrent joins that of ‘Alī-shang and flows with it into the Bārān-water, below Mandrāwar, which is the third tūmān of the Lamghānāt.
Of the two bulūks of Lamghān one is the Nūr-valley.774 This is a place (yīr) without a second775; its fort is on a beak (tūmshūq) of rock in the mouth of the valley, and has a torrent on each side; its rice is grown on steep terraces, and it can be traversed by one road only.776 It has the orange, citron and other fruits of hot climates in abundance, a few dates even. Trees cover the banks of both the torrents below the fort; many are amlūk, the fruit of which some Turks call qarā-yīmīsh;777 here they are many, but none have been seen elsewhere. The valley grows grapes also, all trained on trees.778 Its wines are those of Lamghān that have reputation. Two sorts of grapes are grown, the arah-tāshī and the sūhān-tāshī;