The Nāṣirī Generations 261.1.8

261.1.8

Neither Baihaki nor our author, who constantly give names of places and routes, especially the former, as from Hirat to Balkh, and Ghaznin to Balkh, ever once mentions such a place as Walian, which, as I have already remarked, is a mistake of some copyist for Walishtan, but both of them mention Walwalij—The only places mentioned in the Masalik wa Mamalik and in Ibn-Haukal in any way approaching the words under discussion, in the parts indicated, are Zawalin—and Walin—with the—j—left out in the latter, and which places neither Baihaki nor our author mention, and they are undoubted errors for Walwalij. See note 3, page 288. There is a Walshian in Col. J. T. Walker’s last map, but no reliance can be placed on our maps for correctness of names—especially in Oriental names—names in the map of a country—which ninety, if not ninety-nine, times out of every hundred, are inserted on oral evidence alone, but, for historical accuracy, should be written first in the language of the country and people, and then inserted in the map. Walshian of Col. Walker is, however, just 90 miles N. of Bamian and 180 N. of Ghaznin, and is not mentioned in any oriental History or Geography, that I am aware of.