The Nāṣirī Generations 256.4.3

256.4.3

In the Geographical Magazine, for December, 1875, p. 378, Mr. Howorth makes a very “bold guess” indeed “that Kayalik is no other than Go-balig [sic] i. e. Beautiful City” and so—as he states above that “Balasagun,” which is “a wholly indefinite name,” and “only means city,” is “Gu-Balik”—Bilasaghun and Kayalik must, consequently, be one and the same place, while, on the very same page, Kayalik, the existence of which is undoubted, long before the Kara-Khita-is were heard of in that part, is supposed to be “a city or town of their foundation.” In the map to his book, “The Mongols Proper,” however, “Bilasaghun” and “Kabalik (Kayalik)” are some 500 miles apart! On that same page it is also said that Kayalik is no doubt compounded of the well known Turkish particle baligh or town, but in the J. R. As. Soc., vol. viii., part ii., p. 275, he writes: “The site of Balasaghun has been much debated. It was the capital of the ancient Turkish Khans of Turkistan. It merely means city.” Again, in the J. R. As. Soc., p. 277, we have: “Another important town of the Kara Khitaes was Kayalik or Kabalik .... which name is not improbably a corruption of Kobalik or Kabalik,” and, “the present Russian station of Kopal” is supposed to be its site.