Kamul stands on an oasis carefully cultivated by aid of reservoirs for
irrigation, and is noted in China for its rice and for some of its fruits,
especially melons and grapes. It is still a place of some consequence,
standing near the bifurcation of two great roads from China, one passing
north and the other south of the Thian Shan, and it was the site of the
Chinese Commissariat depots for the garrisons to the westward. It was lost
to the Chinese in 1867.
Kamul appears to have been the see of a Nestorian bishop. A Bishop of
Kamul is mentioned as present at the inauguration of the Catholicos Denha
in 1266. (Russians in Cent. Asia, 129; Ritter, II. 357 seqq.; Cathay,
passim; Assemani, II. 455-456.)
[Kamul is the Turkish name of the province called by the Mongols
Khamil, by the Chinese Hami; the latter name is found for the first
time in the Yuen Shi, but it is first mentioned in Chinese history in
the 1st century of our Era under the name of I-wu-lu or I-wu
(Bretschneider, Med. Res. II. p. 20); after the death of Chinghiz, it
belonged to his son Chagatai.
