The Memoirs of Bābur 903.2.4

903.2.4

Samarkand is a wonderfully beautified town. One of its specialities, perhaps found in few other places,[388] is that the different trades are not mixed up together in it but each has its own _bāzār_, a good sort of plan. Its bakers and its cooks are good. The best paper in the world is made there; the water for the paper-mortars[389] all comes from Kān-i-gil,[390] a meadow on the banks of the Qarā-sū (Blackwater) or Āb-i-raḥmat (Water of Mercy). [Sidenote: Fol. 48.] Another article of Samarkand trade, carried to all sides and quarters, is cramoisy velvet. Excellent meadows lie round Samarkand. One is the famous Kān-i-gil, some 2 miles east and a little north of the town. The Qarā-sū or Āb-i-raḥmat flows through it, a stream (with driving power) for perhaps seven or eight mills. Some say the original name of the meadow must have been Kān-i-ābgīr (Mine of Quagmire) because the river is bordered by quagmire, but the histories all write Kān-i-gil (Mine of clay). It is an excellent meadow. The Samarkand sulṯans always made it their reserve,[391] going out to camp in it each year for a month or two.