Bamiyan and•Bahlac are constantly confounded by Persian authors, ho call the first Balk-Bamiyan, and the second Balk-Bohh6ri. These authors suppose it to have existed before the flood ; but the Budd.. haists maintain that it was founded by a most religi ous man named Shama, (the same with the patriarch Shem,) and that his posterity lived there for many generations. They add, that Balk-Bamiyan was ori ginally Abraham's place of abode ; that patriarch, ac cording to scripture, and the sacred books of the Hindus, having removed with his father to distant countries in the west. Diodorus Siculus informs us, that it existed before the time of Ninus ; but he, like the Persian writers, has mistaken this city for Bahlac. By the natives, BAmiyan and the adjacent countries are regarded as the abode of the progenitors of the human race. Here, too, the first heroes of Persian story lived and performed innumerable exploits ; here their holy instructors first delivered their precepts ; and here was the scite of the first temples that were ever reared.
Bamiyan fell into the hands of the Musulmans at a very early period of their history. At one time it was governed by kings ; but this dynasty, after con tinuing but a few years, terminated in 1215. Gul ghuleli, the royal residence, called then the palace of Bamian, was destroyed by Zengis Khan, , whose resentment against the inhabitants was so violent, that he massacred them without distinction of age or sex, and even vented his fury against the brutes and trees. The natives of that country gave it then the name of Gulghulch, signifying, " cries of woe." As it would have been ominous to rebuild it, they erected in its stead a fort, on a hill to the north of Bamians, which still bears the name of Imperial Fort. This
castle also was destroyed by Zingis the Ushak, in 1628, and has never since been rebuilt.
The district of B6iniYan is now barren, and with out a single tree ; yet the sacred books of the Hin dus, and of the Bauddhists, positively affirm, that of old it was fertile. There is a tradition, too, that at one period it was so overstocked with inhabitants, that trees, underwood, grass, and plants, were all completely destroyed. The vegetable soil, thus de prived of cultivation, was, in the course of ages, washed away by the rains ; and indeed the soil in the valley is extremely rich, and the whole district, as it now is, a most delightful spot. The vine, and almost all the fruit trees we have in Europe, grow spontaneously and to high perfection in the country to the eastward of Bamiyan, as far as the river Indus. The natives, when they find a vine or any fruit tree in the forests, clear away all the wood about it, and dig the ground, which brings the fruit to perfect maturity. Bamiyan seems to be the Drastoca of Ptolemy, that name be ing derived from the Sanscrit Drashatca, which sig nifies the " stone city :" for before that time towns were nothing more than a mere assemblage of huts. The distance and bearing of Drastoca from Cabura, or Orthospana, leaves DO doubt that it was the same city as Mmiyan. For the whole of our information concerning this city, we are indebted to Captain Francis Milford's ingenious Observations on Mount Caucasus, in the 6th volume of the Asiatic Researches, p. 4.62, &c. (14)