#mashhad

Imam Reza Shrine/ Mashhad/ Iran

Bouzarjomehr Company, Mashhad, Iran,

مَا نَابَنِي الضَّيمُ إِلا زُرْتُ مَرْقَدَهُ

‏يَا لَيْتَني مِنْهُ في الجُدْرَانِ مَا نُقِشَا

Huiren of Aiwuhan

The Aiwuhan are a Hui tribe from the extreme west. It takes three months to reach there traveling southwest from Badakhshan. Their lands include the three large towns of Kabul (Habu’er), Mechet (Mashate), and Kandahar. The khan, Ahmad Shah (Aihamotesha), lives in the town of Kandahar. Aiwuhan is surrounded by mountains on four sides. It is full of rich soil. Its people customarily engage in raising crops. Those who dwell under its jurisdiction build their own houses and live spread out from each other. They do not keep a record of the number of households or register the population. When they go to war they use shotguns, knives, and long lances, but not bows and arrows. Among the Hui tribes they are considered powerful and prosperous. Recently they again annexed a neighboring tribe, Hindustan. The tribe is growing bigger and stronger.

In the twelfth month of the twenty-seventh year of the Qianlong emperor's reign (1762), admiring and esteeming the emperor’s powerful and benevolent rule, Ahmad Shah sent the envoy Hezhuomi’erhan with tribute horses. Their letter to the emperor was respectfully written on gold paper and it had to undergo a series of four translations before it could be submitted.

The people are tall and stout. They wrap their heads with colorful silk and wear coarse, long-collared upper garments with brocade-rimmed, openfronted overcoats. Tribeswomen also wrap their heads with colorful silk, which they ornament with pearl accessories. Their earrings consist of long strands of pearls that hang all the way down to their shoulders. They wear upper garments with brocade trim. They are diligent at weaving and spinning. The region produces good horses. All four horses of their tribute are seven chi tall and eight chi long.”