with India by sea. In describing Tamerlane's empire of Samarcand, the Ming historians say it is 'the Ki-pin of Han (B.C. 200–A.D. 200) and the Ts'ao of Sui (A.D. 581–618).' But, as Tamerlane takes his name of 'Timur-lenk,' or 'the Lame,' from his wound at the conquest of Candahar in 1398, and as his son's empire at Herat is plainly described too, it is evident what the Chinese meant. Moreover Timur's grandson Pir Mohammed included Cabul, Ghazni, and Candahar in his provinces, if we are to accept Deguignes's statements, repeated by Bretschneider. K'êh-shih-mi-r and Kêh-shih-mi are mentioned casually amongst the tribute-senders to the Ming emperors, but certainly there is no further Chinese information of a trustworthy nature.
I take Ki-pin to be the Cophes or Cophene of Arrian, Strabo, Pliny, &c. The character Ki is used by the Chinese travelling monks for spelling the words Kanishka and Kanudj, which fact finally decides its potential capacity as the short vague Hindoo kă. As to the second character, it only occurs as a final in the name of one other country; that is the combination Sz-pin, which I identify with Mommsen's Sophene, on the Upper Euphrates—exactly the same syllables in 'power.' So far as I know Ctesiphon[1] lower down the Euphrates is the only rival to Sophene hitherto proposed; but (apart from the unaccounted for 'Kte'), si-phon and so-phen have manifestly no more than equal primâ facie claims to be sz-pin. Again, there was no other considerable country south of the Hindoo Kush besides Ki-pin known to the Chinese of 2,000 years ago; and it is plain that the situation they assign throughout the course of ages to this land in relation to India, Gandhâra, Udyâna, Balti, &c., corresponds perfectly to the traditional site of the Greek and Roman Cophes and Cophene of Alexander's generals, whose personal observation was after all the main evidence utilised by Arrian, Pliny, &c. If we remember that 'Cabul' is even now pronounced 'Cawbl,' with the accent on Caw and that the Chinese syllables used have (by the living tests indicated above) the value Kaw-bu—with the accent invariably on the first syllable—we need have no hesitation in accepting the Kao-fu[2] conquered from Ki-pin by the Indo-Scythians as Cabul (the Cabura of Ptolemy) conquered from the Sakya princes of Cophene by Kanishka. As to U-yih-shan-li (still possessing the living 'power' of O-ik-san-li), this must be the Alexandreia of Ptolemy—which Pliny and Stephanus seem to have called Cophen too—at or near Candahar.
E. H. Parker.
