The latest
historical mention of the name that I have found is in Abdurrazzak's
History of Shah Rukh, under the year H. 807 (1404). (See Jour. As. 3d.
s. vol. ii. 355.) But a note by Colonel Pelly informs me that the name
Shabankara is still applied (1) to the district round the towns of Runiz
and Gauristan near Bandar Abbas; (2) to a village near Maiman, in the old
country of the tribe; (3) to a tribe and district of Dashtistan, 38
farsakhs west of Shiraz.
With reference to the form in the text, Soncara, I may notice that in
two passages of the Masalak-ul-Absar, translated by Quatremere, the name
occurs as Shankarah. (Q. R. pp. 380, 440 seqq.; N. et E. XIII.;
Ilch. I. 71 and passim; Ouseley's Travels, II. 158 seqq.)
VIII. TUN-O-KAIN, the eastern Kuhistan or Hill country of Persia, of which
Tun and Kain are chief cities. The practice of indicating a locality by
combining two names in this way is common in the East. Elsewhere in this
book we find Ariora-Keshemur and Kes-macoran (Kij-Makran). Upper Sind
is often called in India by the Sepoys Rori-Bakkar, from two adjoining
places on the Indus; whilst in former days, Lower Sind was often called
Diul-Sind. Karra-Manikpur, Uch-Multan, Kunduz-Baghlan are other
examples.
The exact expression Tun-o-Kain for the province here in question is
used by Baber, and evidently also by some of Hammer's authorities.
(Baber, pp. 201, 204; see Ilch. II. 190; I. 95, 104, and Hist. de
l'Ordre des Assassins, p. 245.)
[We learn from (Sir) C. Macgregor's (1875) Journey through Khorasan (I.
p. 127) that the same territory including Ghain or Kain is now called by
the analogous name of Tabas-o-Tun. Tun and Kain (Ghain) are both described
in their modern state, by Macgregor. (Ibid. pp. 147 and 161.) - H. C.]
Note that the identification of Suolstan is due to Quatremere (see N.
et E. XIII. i. circa p. 332); that of Soncara to Defremery (J. As.
ser. IV. tom. xi. p. 441); and that of Tunocain to Malte-Brun. (N. Ann.
des V. xviii. p. 261.) I may add that the Lurs, the Shuls, and the
Shabankaras are the subjects of three successive sections in the
Masalak-al-Absar of Shihabuddin Dimishki, a work which reflects much of
Polo's geography. (See N. et E. XIII. i. 330-333; Curzon, Persia, II.
pp. 248 and 251.)
NOTE 2. - The horses exported to India, of which we shall hear more
hereafter, were probably the same class of "Gulf Arabs" that are now
carried thither. But the Turkman horses of Persia are also very valuable,
especially for endurance. Kinneir speaks of one accomplishing 900 miles in
eleven days, and Ferrier states a still more extraordinary feat from his
own knowledge.
