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Tashkurghan

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Tasker Howard Bliss

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or Khulm, a khanate and town of Afghan Turkestan. The khanate lies between Kunduz and Balkh. The ancient town of Khulm stood in the Oxus plain, surrounded by orchards of famous productiveness; but it was destroyed by Ahmad Shah Abdali, who founded Tashkurghan in the middle of the 18th century, and took all the inhabitants away from Khulm to populate it. Ancient Khulm is now only a mass of ruins; but Tashkurghan, lying two or three miles to the south of it, has become the great trade-mart of Afghan Turkestan and second only in importance to Mazar-i-Sharif, the military centre of the province; while it is much larger and more prosperous than the latter place. At Tashkurghan the caravans from India and Bokhara meet, and from here the merchandise is distributed all over the country. A hill fortress dominates the town and overlooks the debouchment of the road from Haibak and Kabul into the plains of the Oxus.