Burnes, Alexander: Travels into Bokhara: containing the narrative of a voyage on the Indus from the sea to Lahore, ... and an account of a journey from India to Cabool, Tartary and Persia ; performed by order of the supreme government of India, in the years 1831, 32, and 33 (Band 3) (London, 1835)

CHAP. VII.

toorkmania, or the country of the
toorkmuns.

In speaking of the Toorkmuns and their country,
I shall adopt the term of Toorkmania, since it de-
scribes that people under a generic name which is
not altogether unknown in Europe, and not likely
to lead into mistakes. Toorkmania, then, is that
country lying south of the Oxus or Toorkistan,
stretching from Balkh to the shores of the Caspian,
and filling up the space between that sea and the
Aral. On the south it is bounded by hills, the
continuation of Hindoo Koosh, and the Paropamisus
of the ancients. A line drawn from Balkh to As-
trabad on the Caspian — which two places are
nearly in the same parallel of latitude — will se-
parate the country of the Toorkmuns from that of
the Afghans and Persians. On the south-eastern
shore of the Caspian, where Toorkmania adjoins
Persia, the country is mountainous, and watered by
the rivers of Goorgan and Attruk, which fall into
that sea. In all other places it is a flat and sandy
desert, scantily supplied with water. The streams
that flow from the mountains are speedily absorbed
by the sand, and never force their passage to the
Oxus. The greatest of these is the Moorghab or