Abdul Hamid, also known as Mohamed-i-Hameed, was an Indian surveyor from the Punjab. He was employed by

Thomas George Montgomerie Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas George Montgomerie FRS (1830–1878) was a British surveyor who participated in the Great Trigonometric Survey of British India as a lieutenant in the 1850s. He was the person to label K2, the second highest mountain i ...

, as part of the Kashmir Survey project of the

Survey of India The Survey of India is India's central engineering agency in charge of mapping and surveying.Yarkand Yarkant County,, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also Shache County,, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also SASM/GNC ro ...

in East ("Chinese") Turkestan (now

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC: previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest of the country at the crossroads ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

). After reaching Yarkand, the capital of an ancient Buddhist kingdom on the southern arm of the

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

trading route, he lived there for six months making observations on the area. After he fell ill and died returning through the Karakoram mountains, William Johnson, another employee of the Survey, recovered his survey notes and sent them on to Montgomerie. Montgomerie subsequently presented a paper to the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

about Abdul Hamid's expedition, "On the Geographical Position of Yarkund and Other Places in Central Asia".

References

Year of birth missing Year of death missing Indian surveyors {{Explorer-stub