Hindu Kush

The Hindu Kush, also known as the Indian Caucasus, is an 800-kilometre-long (500 mi) mountain range that stretches near the Afghan-Pakistan border, from central Afghanistan to northern Pakistan.

Quotes

• But as a troop of pedlars, from Cabool,
  Cross underneath the Indian Caucasus,
  That vast sky-neighbouring mountain of milk snow;
  Winding so high, that, as they mount, they pass
  Long flocks of travelling birds dead on the snow,
  Chok’d by the air, and scarce can they themselves
  Slake their parch’d throats with sugar’d mulberries—
  In single file they move, and stop their breath,
  For fear they should dislodge the o’erhanging snows—
  So the pale Persians held their breath with fear.
  • Matthew Arnold, from Sohrab and Rustum (1853)

• After this I proceeded to the city of Barwan, in the road to which is a high mountain, covered with snow and exceedingly cold; they call it the Hindu Kush, that is Hindu-slayer, because most of the slaves brought thither from India die on account of the intenseness of the cold.
  • Ibn Battuta, Chapter XIII, Rihla – Khorasan: Ibn Battuta; as translated by Samuel Lee (1829)

• It is entirely likely that the name Hindu Kush came about as a sarcastic twist on the older name Hindu Koh, viz. on the occasion of an actual mass-killing.
  • Koenraad Elst, The Argumentative Hindu (2012), Chapter 13