Y4RKAND (Chinese name Soche Fu)

This article appears in Volume V28, Page 905 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: WIL-YAK

Y4RKAND (Chinese name Soche Fu) , the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

town of the principal oasis of Chinese Turkestan, on the Yarkand-Darya, in 38 25' N., 77 16' E., and 3900 ft. above sea-level. The settlements of the Yarkand oasis occupy the S.W. corner of
E. Turkestan, and are scattered along the numerous rivers which issue from the steep slopes of the Pamir in the W., and the Karakoram and Kuen-Lun Mountains in the S. The oasis of Kashgar limits it in the N., and a

tract

TRACT (from Lat. tractare, to treat of a matter, through Provencal tractat and Ital. trattato)

of desert separates it from the oasis of

Khotan

KHOTAN (locally ILcm)

in the S.E. The Yarkand-Darya and its numerous tributaries, which are fed by the glaciers of the mountain regions, as also many rivers which are now lost in the steppe or amidst the irrigated fields, bring abundance of water to the desert; one of them is called Zarafshan (" gold-strewing "), as much on account of the fertility it brings as of its auriferous sands. Numberless irrigation canals carry the water to the fields, which occupy a broad zone of loess skirting the base of the mountains. In the spurs of the mountains there are rich pasturages, where goats, yaks, camels, sheep and cattle are reared. The oasis of Yarkand is regarded as the richest of E. Turkestan, and its population probably numbers about 200,000 inhabitants. Wheat, barley,

rice

, beans and various oil-yielding plants are grown, and melons, grapes, apples and other fruits. The

cotton

tree and the mulberry are cultivated in the warmer parts of the oasis. Gold, lead and precious stones are found in the mountains, though only the first-named is worked. Yarkand is renowned for its leather-

ware

WARE

and saddlery. Carpets and silk fabrics,

cotton

and woollen goods are manufactured. The population consists of Persians, who now speak Turkish, and of Turkish Sarts.
The town of Yarkand, which has a population of about roo,000 (5000 houses in the city, and as many in Yanghishar and the suburbs), is situated on the river of the same name, five days' journey S.E. from Kashgar. It is surrounded by a thick earthen

wall

WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, Mid. Eng. wal, wane, adapted from Lat. vallum, rampart; the
original
- ORIGINAL
O. Eng. word for a wall was wag or tenth)
WALL, RICHARD (1694-1778)

, nearly 4 M. long, with towers in the Chinese style of architecture, and is well watered by canals. The square fortress of Yanghishar, which was built by the Chinese, stands within 400 yds. of the walls of the town. This is one of the three strong places in Chinese Turkestan. The ten mosques and madrasas of Yarkandl although poorer than those of Bokhara or Samarkand, enjoy wide renown in the Moslem world. There is a brisk trade, especially in horses, cotton, leather-

ware

WARE

and all kinds of imported manufactured goods.
Yarkand is surrounded by a number of smaller towns, the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

of which areYanghi-hissar, which has about 600 houses, Tashkurgan on the Pamirs, Posgam (1600 houses), Kargalyk, at the junction of the routes leading to Ladakh and

Khotan

KHOTAN (locally ILcm)

(2000 houses), Sanju (2000), Tagarchi, Kartchum, Besh-taryk (1800) and Guma (3000).
Yarkand was very imperfectly known until the second half of the 19th century. Marco Polo visited it between 1271 and 1275, and Goes in 1603; but the continuous wars (see TURKESTAN) prevented Europeans from frequenting it, so that until 1863 the information borrowed from medieval travellers and from Chinese sources, with that supplied by the pundit Mir Isset Ullah in 1812, was all that was known about the Yarkand region. The first European who reached it in the 19th century was Adolph Schlagintweit, who passed by Yarkand in August 1857, but was killed a few days later at Kashgar. The pundit Mohammed Hamid vi, iced it
in 1863 and determined its geographical position and altitude. Later information is due to Robert Shaw and G. W. Hayward, who stayed at Yarkand in 1869, and to Sir Douglas Forsyth, who first visited it in 187o. Three years later he visited it again with an expedition which had Gordon, Bellew, Chapman, Trotter, Biddulph and Stoliczka as members, and afterwards published a detailed report upon the scientific results of the mission. In 1886, after a remarkable journey through E. Turkestan, A. D. Carey reached Yarkand and spent the winter there. It was again visited by Dr Lansdell in 1888, and by Dr Aurel Stein in 1906. The Swedish

Protestant

PROTESTANT

missionaries whose headquarters are at Kashgar maintain a medical mission at Yarkand.

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