the Jewish population of this place as 8,000, and assumes,
without any justification, that Khiva is here referred to.
He also substitutes Oxus for Gozan. In the Middle Ages the
Oxus was known under the name of Jayhun or Gihon (Gen. ii.
13). The name of the city according to our text is Ghaznah,
which eight hundred years ago was the capital of
Afghanistan. Ibn Batuta says it was ten stages from Kandahar
on the way to Herat. Le Strange (p. 348) writes as follows:
"Ghaznah became famous in history at the beginning of the
eleventh century as the capital of the great Mahmud of
Ghaznah, who at one time was master both of India on the
east and Bagdad on the west." Istakhri says: "No city of
this countryside was richer in merchants and merchandise,
for it was as the port of India." The river Gozan, on which
we are told Ghaznah lies, must appear to the reader to be
ubiquitous. On p. 33 we find the Habor of Kurdistan is its
affluent; on p. 55 it is at Dabaristan; on p. 59 in
Khorasan. There is a simple solution of the difficulty. In
each of the localities Benjamin was told that the river was
called Gozan; for in the Mongolian language "Usun" is the
name for water or river. Thus "Kisil-Usun" means "Red
River." The addition of a "g" before a "u" or "w" is quite a
common feature in language; it occurs, for instance, in the
Romance and Keltic languages.]

[Footnote 166: The British Museum text has: "And he put them
in Halah and in Habor and the mountains of Gozan and the
mountains of the Medes." Having regard to the passages 2
Kings xix. 12 and Isaiah xxxvii. 12, Noeldeke maintains that
there was a tract of land watered by the river Gozan, known
as Gozanitis, which Scripture refers to. See _J. Q.R._,
vol. I, p. 186.

Naisabur is a city near Meshed, and close to high mountains
which are a continuation of the Elburz mountain range.

We draw attention to the cautious manner in which Benjamin
speaks here and elsewhere when alluding to the whereabouts
of any of the ten tribes. The tradition is widespread that
independent Jewish tribes were to be found in Khorasan until
recent times. Mr. E.N. Adler was told that in an Armenian
monastery near Kutais, ancient records are preserved which
conclusively prove that the Jews were paramount in certai