The two districts of Khutlān and Karatigīn, which stretch along the Belūt-tāgh mountains, are more inaccessible and less known than most of the others. The name of Khutl, or Khutlān, does not appear to be known at the present day; but it was applied in the time of Bābur, and as far back as the age of Ibn Haukal, to the country lying between the upper branch of the Amu, called Harat, or Panj, which divided it from Badakhshān on the south; the Wakhshāb or Surkhrūd, which separated it from Cheghāniān or Hissār on the west; the hill country of Karatigīn on the north; and the Belūt-tāgh on the east. Khutlān is broken in all quarters by hills. Its few valleys are said to be narrow, and overhung with lofty mountains. The glens of Shighnān and Derwāz, which lie near the source of the Panj, are fertile. The country of Wakhsh, which is always joined with Khutlān by the earlier geographers, probably extended between Khutlān and Karatigīn, or may have included Karatigīn itself. Its name is still to be found not only in the uncertain district of Wakhīka, but in the country of Wakhān, the Vochan of Marco Polo, which lies above Badakhshān, near the source of the Panj, close upon Pushtekhar. The name Wakhshāb, anciently given to the river which divided Cheghāniān from Khutlān, is said, by Ibn Haukal, to be derived from that of the country of Wakhsh, where it originates. It ran by Weishgird, the ancient capital of the country, and joined the Amu above Kobādiān. On this river was the Pul-e-sangīn, or Stone-bridge, so often mentioned in the history of Taimūr Beg. While some circumstances seem to point to the river which joins the Amu above Kobādiān, opposite to Kunduz, others certainly accord much better with the Surkh-āb, or the river of Karatigīn, which has a course of upwards of 160 miles before it falls into the Amu. The Wakhi language still remains in many districts in the hills of Badakhshān and Khutlān; and it is not improbable that the Wakhi or Wakhshi race were the most ancient inhabitants of this hilly region. Many of the rivers that flow into the Amu in the earlier part of its course descend from the hill-country of Khutlān. It is said to have been the seat of a splendid dynasty, before the Musulman conquest; and Abulfida* mentions the magnificent palaces of its kings. In Bābur’s time it was generally subject to Hissār.