* 
 
 
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 OF TIIE 
 
 j T h e o 1 
 
 ogical Seminary. 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Case 
 
 Division .*L)_ Qi 5- J. . 
 
 Shelf 
 
 C cc'.ior. • H ^3 Q 
 
 Book 
 
 


 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
CENTRAL ASIA: 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE ARYAN TO THE COSSACK. 
 
 BY , 
 
 / 
 
 JAMES AIUTTON, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 ‘ A HUNDRED YEARS AGO,’ 4 MISSIONARY LIFE IN JT HE SOUTHERN SEAS,’ 
 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 TINSLEY BROTHERS, S, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND. 
 
 1875. 
 
 [AU Rights reserved.] 
 
JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GENERAL OUTLINE. 
 
 The Aralo-Caspian Sea — General Outlines of Central Asia — The Aral Sea 
 — The Ust Urt — The Chink — Historical Allusions — Sir Henry Raw- 
 linson’s Theory — Ancient Course of the Oxus — The Amou of the Pre- 
 sent Day — The Jaxartes, or Syr — The Caspian Sea 
 
 CHAPTER U. 
 
 EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 Early Inhabitants — Scythians — Under Darius and Xerxes — Mount Imaus 
 — Margiana — Bactria — Sogdiana — Alexander’s Campaigns — Sikun- 
 der Zulkarnain — The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom — The Parthians — The 
 Scytho-Chinese Domination — The Sassanides— Ardesheer, Hormuz, 
 
 Feroze, Kobad, Nousheerwan, Khosroo Purvez, Yezdijerd— Arab Con- 
 quest — Justinian and Dizabulus — Embassy of Zemarchus . . . . 22 — 45 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Mawaralnahr in the 10th century — Bokhara — Samarkand — Khwarezm — 
 
 The Ghuz — Ibn Mohaihal’s Travels — The Samanides — The Ghuznee- 
 vides — The Seljook Dynasty — Alp Arslan — Malek Shah — Sanjar — 
 Kingdom of Khwarezm — Conquest of Mawaralnahr by the Moghuls 
 — Jelal-ood-deen . , . . . . . . . . 46 — 66 
 
 PAGR 
 
 1—21 
 
 CHAPTER TV. 
 
 THE MOGHULS. 
 
 Origin of the Moghuls — Chinghiz Khan — Conquest of Northern China — 
 Massacre of Tatar Envoys at Otrar — Reduction of Otrar — Defeat and 
 Flight of Mohammed Shah — Capture of Bokhara — Capture of Samar- 
 kand, Termedh, Balkh, Talikhan, Merv, Nishapoor, Herat, and Ur- 
 ghunj — -Death of Chinghiz — His Yasakor Code — Batou Khan’s Irrup- 
 tion into Europe — The Moghul Empire — Papal Missions to the Great 
 Khan — Reply of Kuyouk Khan — Mangou Khan’s Rebuke — Mission of 
 William de Rubruquis — Tatar Customs — The Moghul Court at Kara- 
 koram . . . . . . . . . . , . 
 
 67—95 
 
IV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE TATARS. 
 
 PAGiC 
 
 King Haiton I. of Armenia — Correspondence between Moghul and Chris- 
 tian Princes — Letters of Edward II. to the King of the Tatars — Let- 
 ter from Prester John to Alexius Comnenus — Various Accounts of 
 Prester John — Nestorius — Revival of Mohammedauism — Birth of 
 Timour — His Early Life and Adventures — Raised to the Throne — 
 
 His Conquests — Sheeahs and Soonees — The Twelve Imams — Defeat 
 of Bayazid — Return of Timour to Samarkand . . . . 96 — 119 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TIMOUE-LUNG. 
 
 Marriage of Jehangheer — Embassy of Clavijo — Kesh — Festivities at 
 Samarkand — Timour’s Magnificence — Hard Drinking — Dress of the 
 Khanum — Badakhshan — Balas Rubies — Lapis Lazuli — Samarkand — 
 
 Laws and Regulations — Clavijo’s Journey across the Desert — Death 
 of Timour .. .. .. .. .. 120 — 111 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MOHAMMED BABES : ANTHONY JENKINSON. 
 
 Baber — Ferghana — Baber’s Father and Uncle — Capture of Samarkand — 
 Reverse of Fortune — A Moghul Custom — Baber defeated by Sheibani 
 Beg — The Kafirs, Eimauks, and Hazarelis — Baber recovers Samar- 
 kand — Expelled by the Oozbegs — Conquers Hindostan — The Oozbegs 
 — Ismael the Souffavean — The Sheibanides — Anthony Jenkinson — 
 Urgliunj — Attacked by Robbers — Bokhara — The King — Trade — Re- 
 turn to Moscow . . . . . . . . . . 145 — 16T 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY : NADIR SHAH. 
 
 Bernier and the Tatar Ambassadors at the Court of Arungzeb — A Tatar 
 Heroine — Route from Kashmeer to Kashgar — Travels of Benedict 
 Goes and other Missionaries — AbouT-Ghazee Khan — Khiva and 
 Bokhara in the Seventeenth Century — Nadir Shah — English Tra- 
 vellers— Trade — Decadence of Persia . . . . . . 168 — 188 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 Commencement of Anglo-Russian Trade — Queen Elizabeth’s Letter to 
 Shah Tahmasp — Christopher llurrough — Expedition of Prince Beck- 
 ovich — Cherkassky — John Elton — Captain Woodroofe — Jonas Han way 
 — Count Voinovich — Relations of Russia with Khiva — Mouravief’s 
 Mission — General Perofski’s Expedition — Russia and England in 
 Central Asia — Major Abbott’s Mission — His Experiences of Khiva — 
 Undertakes a diplomatic Mission to St Petersburg — His Adventures 
 in the Desert . . . . . . . . . . 189 — 224 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 V 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 KHIVA. 
 
 PACE 
 
 Khiva : Historical Notice — Natural Productions — The Saxaul — Popula- 
 tion— The Capital City — The Khan and his Wives— Executions— 
 
 Persian Captives — Caravan Routes — Urghunj, Old and New — Ilaznr 
 Asp — Kungrad— Captain Conolly’s Journey from Astrabad to Herat 
 — Maimers and Customs of the Toorkomaus — Merv . . . . 225 — 252 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 BOKHARA. 
 
 Bokhara — Frontiers — Area — Population — The Oozbegs and their Pecu- 
 liarities — The Tajeeks — Other Races — Russian Slaves — The Kohik, 
 or Zarafshan — Valley of Shuhr-i-Subz — Natural Productions — Manu- 
 factures — Trade — M. de Negri's Mission — Journey from Orenburg to 
 Bokhara — The Khan — System of Administration — Manners and Cus- 
 toms-Revenues — Military Forces . . . . • • 253 — 2S2 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BOKHARA — RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 Bokhara — History — Aspect — The Ark — Public Buildings — Hindoos — 
 
 Jews — Climate — Russian Slaves — Samarkand — Russian Occupation 
 — Karshee — Khoja-Saleh — Shuhr- Islam — Charjui — Karakul — Shuhr- 
 i-Subz — Hissar — Historical Sketch of Bokhara — Executions of Stod- 
 dart, Conolly, and Wyburd — Nusser Oollah Khan — Mozuffar-ood- 
 deen Khan — Advance of the Russians— Prince Gortchakofs Circular 
 — Battle of Yirdjar — Fall of Khojend — Capture of Samarkand — Mis- 
 sion from Bokhara to St Petersburg — Capture of Kulja — The Rus- 
 sian Frontier Line . . . . . . . . . . 283 — 314 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CHINESE TAT ARY. 
 
 Floods of Migration from the North-East — Zungaria, or Semi-Palatinsk 
 — Fort Vernoe — The Process of Annexation — Internecine Strife be- 
 tween the Bogus and Sara-Bogus Tribes — Habits and Customs of the 
 Kirghiz — Attack upon a Caravan — Issyk-kul — Semirechinsk — The 
 Ili — Almalik — The Trans-Naryn District — Khanat of Khokan — Chief 
 Towns — Ush — Russian Toorkestan — Otrar .. .. 315 — 339 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 EASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 * Little Bucharia ’ — Rivers — Mountains — The Gobi — The Yak — Popula- 
 tion — The Kirghiz — The Tunganis — Houses — Costume,' — Manners — 
 
 Horses — Ughlak — Coinage — Mr Robert Shaw — Lieutenant Hayward 
 — Sanj u — Karghalik — Posgam — Yarkund — Y anghi ssar — Kashgar — 
 Mohammed Yakoob Beg — Aksu — Ush-Turfan — Kliotan — Mr John- 
 son . . . . . . . . . . . . 340 — 370 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE AMEER OF KASHGAR. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Historical Sketch of Altj'shuhr — Walee Khan Toura — Mohammed Ya- 
 koob Beg — Tungani Rebellion — Heroic Suicide of the Amban — Fall 
 of Kashgar — Yakoob Beg defeats the Tunganis — Receives title of 
 Atalik Ghazee — Treacherous Seizure of Khotan — Reduction of Tash 
 Kurghan — Official Relations with Russia — Mr Forsyth’s first Mission 
 — Baron Von Kaulbars’ Mission — Exports and Imports — Progress of 
 Russian Influence — Aga Mehdie Raphael — Routes to India — Ladakh 
 — Mr Forsyth’s second Mission — Lord Clarendon’s Neutral Zone 371 — 394 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 BADAKSHAN. 
 
 Badakhshan — Historical Sketch — Inhabitants — Hindoo-Koosh — The Ha- 
 zarehs — Sykan — Slaves — Aibek — Khulm, or Tashkurghan — Mazar 
 Balkh — Kunduz — Oozbegs — Khana-a-abad — Talikhau — Fyzabad — 
 
 Jerm — Manners and Customs — Wakhan — Kooroot — Ish-Kashm — 
 Kundut — Kirghiz Encampment . . . . . . 395 — 417 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 PAMEER. 
 
 Darwaz — Roshan — Shignan — Vardoj Valley — Kafirs or Siahpoosh — Chit- 
 ral — Lieutenant Hayward on the Massacres committed in Yassin by 
 the Dogras — -His Death — Gilgit — Chilas — Baltistan — Pameer — 
 
 Hiouen Tsang — Marco Polo — Colonel Yule — Ovis Poli — Batu-i-Du- 
 niali — Lake Victoria — Four Confluents of the Oxus, or Arnou — The 
 great Geographical Swindle . . . . . . . . 418 — 441 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE KHIVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 Colonel Markosof’s Reconnaissance in 1872 — Diplomatic Correspondence 
 — Advance of General Golof’s Corps — A Grand Duke under Felt — 
 Friendliness of the Bokharians — Skirmish with Toorkomans — Re- 
 pulse of the Khivans — Passage of the Amou — Occupation of Hazar- 
 nsp — Fall of Khiva — General Verefkin’s March — Colonel Lomakin’s 
 March — Colonel Markosofs Disaster — Submission of the Khan — 
 
 Peace — Distribution of Honours — Sir Henry Lawrence on a Russian 
 Invasion of India— Sir Thomas Munro on our Treatment of the Na- 
 tives — Conclusion . . . , . , . . 442 — 472 
 
CHIEF AUTHORITIES CONSULTED FOR THE PURPOSES 
 OF THIS COMPILATION. 
 
 The Life anti Actions of Alexander the Great. By the Rev. John Williams. 1829. 
 
 The Histone of Qvintos Curcius. conteyning the Actes of the greate Alexander, trans- 
 lated out of Latino into Englishe, by John Brende. 1553. 
 
 A History of Greece ; from the earliest period to the close of the generation contem- 
 porary with Alexander the Great. By George Grote. 1862. 
 
 The History of Herodotus. By the Rev. Geo. Rawlinson, M.A. 1858. 
 
 Rollin’s Ancient History. Edited by Jas. Bell. 1828. 
 
 The Geography of Strabo. Translated by H. C. Hamilton and W. Falconer. 1854. 
 
 A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Edited by Wm. Smith, L.L.D. 1852. 
 
 The Oriental Geography of Ebn Ilaukal. an Arabian Traveller of the 10th century. 
 Translated by Sir William Ouseley, Knt., L.L.D. 1800. 
 
 The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian. Edited by Col. Hv. Yule, C.B. 1871. 
 
 Le Livre de Marco Polo. Redige en Franqais par Rustician de Pise. Publie par 
 M. G. Pauthier. 1865. 
 
 The Travels of Marco Polo. Edited by Hugh Murray, F.R.S.E. 1844. 
 
 Cathay and the Way Thither. By Col. Hv. Yule, C.B. 1866. 
 
 The Voyages and Travels of Master Anthony Jenkiuson from Russia to Boghar, or 
 Bokhara, in 1557. Pinkerton’s Collection, vol. ix. 1811. 
 
 The Voyage of Master Anthony Jcnkinson, made front the citie of Mosco in Russia to 
 the citie of Boghar in Bactria, in the year 1558 ; written by himselfe to the Mer- 
 chants of London of the Muscouie companie. Hakluyt. 
 
 The Journal of Friar Wm. de Rubruquis, a French man of the order of the minorite 
 friers, unto the East parts of the worlde. An. Dom. 1253. Hakluyt. 
 
 Memoire sur la Partie Meridionale de l’Asie Centrale. Par N. de Ixhanikof. 1861. 
 
 A Journey from Bengal to England, by Geo. Foster, in 1783-84. Pinkerton. 
 
 Journey to the North of India, overland from England, through Russia, Persia, and 
 Afghanistan. By Lieut. Arthur Conolly. 1834. 
 
 Voyage d’Orenbourg a Boukhara, fait en 1820: redige par M. le Baron G. de 
 Meyendorf, et revu par M. le Chevalier A. Jaubert. 1826. 
 
 An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and 
 India. By the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone. 1839. 
 
 Ladak, Physical, Statistical, and Historical. By Alex. Cunningham, Major, B.E. 1854. 
 
 The Ancient Geography of India. By Major-General Alex. Cunningham. 1871. 
 
 An Historical Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea. By Jonas Han- 
 way, Merchant. 1754. 
 
 Narrative of the Embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo to the Court of Timour at 
 Samarcand.. a.t>. 1403-6. Translated by Clements R. Markham, F.R.G. S. 1859. 
 
 Histoire Genealogique des Tatars, traduite du Manuscript Tartare d’Abulgasi — Bay- 
 adur-Chan. 1726. 
 
 Visits to High Tartary, Yarkund, and Kashgar. By Robert Shaw, British Com- 
 missioner in Ladak. 1871. 
 
 Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Punjab ; in Ladakh and 
 Cashmere ; in Peshiawur, Kabul, Kunduz, and Bokhara. By 51 r Wm. Moor- 
 
Vlll 
 
 CHIEF AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. 
 
 croft and Mr George Trebeck, from 1819 to 1825. Edited bv II. II. Wilson, 
 M. A. 1811. 
 
 Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara in tlxe years 1843-45. By the Rev. Jos. Wolff, 
 D.D. 1852. 
 
 Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan, Toorkistan, and Biloueb. 
 By J. P. Ferrier, Adjutant-General of the Persian Army. Translated by Capt. 
 Wm Jesse. 1856. 
 
 Voyage en Turcomanie et d Khiva, fait en 1819 et 1820; par M. N. Mouraviev. 
 Traduit par M. G. Lecomte de I.aveau. 1823. 
 
 Narrative of a Journey from Herat to Khiva, Moscow, and St Petcrsburgh. By 
 Major James Abbott. 1856. 
 
 History of Bokhara. By Arminius Vambery. 1873. 
 
 A Journey to the Source of the River Oxus. By Capt. John Wood, Indian Navy. 
 With an Essay by Col. Hy. Yule, C.B. 1872. 
 
 Chronological Retrospect, or Memoirs of the Principal Events of Mohammedan His- 
 tory. By Major D. Price. 1811. 
 
 The History of Persia, from the most Early Period to the Present Time. By Major- 
 General Sir J. Malcolm, G.C.B. 1829. 
 
 The Life of Baber, Emperor of Hindostan. Translated by Dr I.eydcn and W. Ers- 
 kine. 1844. 
 
 Bernier’s Voyage to the East Indies. Pinkerton, vol. viii. 
 
 Memoires sur les Contrces Occidentales, traduits du Sanscrit on Chinois en Tan 648, 
 par Hiouen Tsang, et du Chinois en Franqais par M. Stanislas Julien. 1858. 
 
 'The Russians in Central Asia. Translated from the Russian by John and Robert 
 Michell. 1865. 
 
 Bokhara: its Amir and its People. Translated from the Russian of M. N. de Khan- 
 ikof, by the Baron Clement A. de Bode. 1845. 
 
 Travels into Bokhara, &c. By Lieut. A. Burnes, F. R. S. 1834. 
 
 Travels in Central Asia. By A. Vambery. 1864. 
 
 Sketches of Central Asia. By A. Vambery. 1868. 
 
 The Delta and Mouths of the Amu Daria or Oxus. By Admiral A. Boutakof of the 
 Russian .Navy. Translated by Jno. Michell. Roy. Geog. Soc. Journ. xxxvii. 
 
 First Ascent of the Tian Shan or Celestial Mountains, and Visit to the Upper Course 
 of the Jaxartes or Syr Daria, in 1857. By P. P. Semenof. Translated by John 
 Michell. Roy. Geog. Soc. Journ. xxxi. 
 
 W. II. Johnson’s Report on his Journey to Ilchi, capital of Kliotan in Chinese Tar- 
 tary. Roy. Geog. Soc. Journ. xxxvii. 
 
 The Jaxartes or Syr Daria; from Russian Sources. By Robt. Michell, F.R.G.S. 
 Roy. Geog. Soc. Journ. xxxviii. 
 
 A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels. Printed for Thos. Astley. 1747. 
 
 Journey from Leh to Yarkand and Kashgar, and Exploration of the Sources of the 
 Yarkand River. By G. W. Hayward. Roy. Geog. Soc. Journ. xl. 
 
 Timour’s Memoirs. Translated by Capt. C. Stewart. 
 
 An Expedition to the Trans-Naryn Country in 1867. By Baron P. R. Osten Sacken. 
 Translated by E. Delmar Morgan, F.R.G.S. Roy. Geog. Soc. Journ. xl. 
 
 Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 
 
 Layard’s Nineveh. 
 
 Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews. Odean Highways, &c. &c. &c. 
 
CENTRAL ASIA: 
 
 FROM 
 
 TIIE ABYAN TO THE COSSACK. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GENERAL OUTLINE. 
 
 THE ARALO-CASPIAN SEA — GENERAL OUTLINES OF CENTRAL ASIA — THE ARAL 
 SEA — THE UST URT — THE CHINK — HISTORICAL ALLUSIONS — SIR HENRY 
 RAWLIXSON’S THEORY — ANCIENT COURSE OF THE ONUS — THE AJIOU OF 
 THE PRESENT DAY — THE JAXARTES, OR SYR— THE CASPIAN SEA. 
 
 According to the late Sir Roderick Murchison, — no mean 
 authority on questions relating to geognosy, — at a time long 
 antecedent to the creation of man, the vast region, familiarly 
 known to the present generation as Central Asia, was covered 
 by a sea that washed the foot of a mountain range, which, at a 
 later period, constituted the boundary lines of Afghanistan and 
 the Chinese Empire. This pre-historic sea was spread over an 
 area computed at 8000 square marine leagues, and extended 
 from the Hindoo Koosh to the European shores of the Black 
 Sea and the Sea of Asof. To this huge depression on the sur- 
 face of the globe Sir Roderick proposed — in compliment to Hum- 
 boldt the originator of the theory — to give the name of the 
 Aralo-Caspian Sea, whose denizens appear to have had a purely 
 local range, and to have been clearly distinguishable from the 
 molluscs and other marine animals inhabiting the outer ocean. 
 
 l 
 
2 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 At some unknown point in the latest tertiary era the barren 
 plateau between the Caspian and the Aral Seas is believed to 
 have been thrown up by subterranean agencies, followed, at a 
 greater or less interval, by the upheaval of the much fabled 
 range of the Caucasus, the Kaf of Eastern romance and the 
 abode of that marvellous bird the Simurgh, the foe of the 
 Deevs and the friend of man. As no traces, however, have 
 been discovered of the junction of the Euxine with the Caspian, 
 this theory must, to a certain extent, be regarded as rather 
 speculative than scientific, though good grounds may exist for 
 ascribing to volcanic phenomena the separation of the Caspian 
 and the Aral Seas, and the upheaval of the dry lands recently 
 comprising the Khanats of Khwarezm or Khiva, and Bokhara. 
 It is certain that the fossiliferous limestone forming the basis 
 of the steppes contains the identical molluscs, — the cockle, the 
 mussel, and the spirorbis — which, according to General Abbott, 
 still exist in the waters of those two inland seas. Nor is it less 
 indisputable that the surface of the Aral is upwards of a hun- 
 dred feet higher than that of the Caspian, the elevation of the 
 rugged intervening plateau, known as the Ust Urt, averaging 
 GOO feet above the level of the ocean. 
 
 For our present purpose it may suffice to define Central 
 Asia as the much varied region bounded on the west by the 
 Caspian ; on the south-west by the Persian Province of Khoras- 
 san ; on the south by Afghanistan, Kashmeer, and Little Tibet ; 
 on the east by the Chinese Empire ; on the north by the river 
 Irtish ; and on the north-west by the Ural river. The general 
 aspect of this immense tract is fairly, if roughly, described by a 
 writer in Pinkerton’s Collection : ‘ Between Great Tartary on the 
 north, and Tibet, India, and Persia on the south, there runs a 
 long tract of land, extending from the Great Kobi, or desert on 
 the north-west part of China, westward as far as the Caspian Sea. 
 This country is situated in a sandy desert with which it is 
 
GENERAL OUTLINE. 
 
 3 
 
 surrounded ; or, rather, is itself a vast sandy desert, interspersed 
 with mountains and fruitful plains, well inhabited, and watered 
 with rivers. Nature seems to have divided this region into 
 three large parts, by the names of the countries of Karesm, 
 Great Bucharia, and Little Bucharia.’ 
 
 Towards the north-west, enclosed between barren rocks and 
 arid steppes, the basin of the Aral Sea — the Blue Sea of the 
 Russians — occupies a space 3G0 miles in length from north to 
 south, by 240 miles in extreme breadth from east to west : 
 equivalent to an area of 86,400 square miles. On the east 
 and north this expanse of brackish water is surrounded by clay 
 plains ridged by hillocks of loose drifting sand, while on the 
 west it is divided from the Caspian by the Ust Urt, a rocky, 
 unculturable waste, 240 miles in length by 160 miles in breadth, 
 and rising almost precipitously from the sea, but sloping gradu- 
 ally to the westward. It is, in fact, a continuation of the great 
 steppe possessed by the Kirghiz Kuzzaks, and more particularly 
 belongs to the Lesser Horde. At its south-eastern extremity 
 it terminates abruptly in a bold escarpment some 500 feet in 
 height, at the foot of which a level plain spreads out to an 
 enormous distance. From this point the high land turns 
 sharply to the west-north-west, and the angle thus formed is 
 called by the Kirghiz, The Chink. 
 
 The southern portion of the sea is extremely shallow, and 
 swarms with small islands, whose inhabitants live chiefly upon 
 fish, and are described as skilful boatmen venturing upon the 
 use of sails, while the Kirghiz are content to ply the oar. The 
 Aibugir Lake, or Gulf, at the south-western extremity of the 
 Aral, was overgrown with canes when visited by M. Kiihlewein 
 in 1858, although it received the Laudan, an important branch 
 of the Amou. This gulf is stated to be eighty miles long by 
 twenty miles broad, and appears to have been dried up at the 
 time of the late Russian expedition, through the diversion of 
 
4 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 the Laudan by the Khivese for purposes of irrigation. It is 
 only near the mouth of the Amou that the water of the Aral 
 is drinkable, being elsewhere exceedingly brackish. Carp and 
 a small sturgeon are caught in considerable quantities. 
 
 To the Arab geographers the Aral was only known as the 
 Sea of Khwarezm, by which name and that of the Sea of 
 Urghunj it is still called by the people of the Khanat. Accord- 
 ing to Generals Mouravief and Romanof, Aral Denghiz, the 
 Kirghiz appellation, signifies the Sea of Islands, while others 
 maintain that its proper signification is the Sea of Eagles. It 
 was first surveyed by Admiral Alexis Boutakof, by whom also 
 the first steamship that ever churned these waters was launched 
 and navigated. Moved more by an abstract love of science than 
 by patriotic considerations, the Royal Geographical Society, in 
 1867, presented their Founder’s Medal to that gallant officer, 
 whose extension of geographical knowledge has been since 
 otherwise appreciated and utilized by his own government. 
 
 Although on a level with the Euxine, the Aral, as already 
 remarked, is more than one hundred feet above the surface of 
 the Caspian, and the Toorkomans maintain that at Kara 
 Goombuz the waters from the one sea may be heard flowing to 
 the other, under-ground. If it be true that such sounds are at 
 times audible, they arc probably caused by subterranean drainage 
 from the Amou, some portion of whose waters may follow under- 
 ground their old course towards the Caspian. The loorkomans 
 who dwell on the shores of the Kara Bhugaz Bay account for 
 the remarkable current into that gulf, by the theory that the 
 overflow of the Caspian thcnco escapes by a covert channel 
 communicating with the Aral, the comparative elevation of the 
 two seas being a point quite beyond their comprehension. 
 
 As a scientific fact it may be stated that there is no outlet 
 for the redundant waters of cither, and that the adjacent lands 
 arc saved from flooding by evaporation alono. M ere it not for 
 
GENERAL OUTLINE. 
 
 5 
 
 this powerful agent of nature, the depth of the Aral, if General 
 Abbott’s estimate may be credited, would he annually increased 
 twenty-six inches by the influx of the Amou and the Syr, and 
 to at least an equal extent through the snow and rain that fall 
 on its surface or drain into it from the steppes. Although of 
 considerable depth in the centre, the Aral is not above two or 
 three feet deep near the southern and eastern shores, so that its 
 waters become speedily heated under the fierce rays of the sun 
 of Khiva. There is, besides, good reason to believe that the 
 volume of the Amou has sensibly diminished within quite 
 recent times, through the desiccation of many of its affluents. 
 These again have gradually dried up through the decrease of 
 the glaciers in the high mountains, observed by M. Semenof, 
 and through the neglect of their channels due to the diminution 
 of the agricultural population by incessant strife and bloodshed. 
 It is in this manner that eminent geographer accounts for the 
 drying up of the branch of the Amou which formerly turned 
 off to the south-west and fell into the Caspian, for he holds to 
 the opinion that even at that time the main channel of the 
 river proceeded in a northerly direction to the Aral.* 
 
 * The late Colonel Romanof wlio was on the personal staff of the Grand-Duke 
 Nicholas Constantinovitch during the recent campaign, made some very per- 
 tinent remarks on this subject in one of his interesting letters headed ‘On 
 the way to Khiva ! ’ 
 
 ‘ The station of Katty Kul,’ he says, ‘ was founded near a sweet-water lake, 
 which is now completely dried up, and the supply of water is obtained from a 
 well eight versts from the station. The transformation of sweet water into 
 salt, and the desiccation of the latter, are very remarkable and constantly re- 
 curring phenomena in all the steppes of Central Asia. Within the memory 
 of many the water in the rivers Irghiz, Turgai, Sarysu, and others was fresh, 
 but now it has a bitter salt taste. The site for the recently-constructed fort of 
 Lower Emba was chosen on Lake Masshe, chiefly because its water was fresh. 
 When the fortress was built the lake became salt, so that now the garrison 
 have to procure their supply of water from wells in which the water is brackish. 
 The gradual, but very perceptible, diminution of the lakes and other water- 
 basins of Central Asia, arising from the excessive dryness of the climate, is 
 
6 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 The historians of Alexander the Great make no mention of 
 the Aral, nor does any allusion to it occur in the pages of any 
 classical writer until early in the second part of the fourth 
 century of the Christian era, when Ammianus Marcellinus 
 speaks of two rivers that rushed down headlong from the 
 mountains, and, descending into the plains, commingled their 
 waters and formed the Oxia Palus. In Dr Smith’s Dictionary 
 of Greek and Roman Geography, however, it is suggested that 
 the Oxia Palus is identical with the Karakul Lake, which is 
 now the termination of the Kohik, or river of Samarkand. 
 Both Herodotus and Strabo appear to have had some knowledge 
 of a series of lagoons watered by the overflowing of the Jaxartes, 
 which was supposed by most early writers to empty itself into 
 the Caspian some 80 parasangs from the mouth of the Oxus. 
 The Aral, when first recognized as something more than a region 
 of pools and swamps, was regarded as the extreme eastern 
 portion of the Caspian, which was thought to communicate, by 
 a long narrow strait, with the Northern Ocean. 
 
 Sir Henry Rawlinson rejects Humboldt’s theory — adopted 
 by Sir R. Murchison — of the Aralo-Caspian Sea that once filled 
 the entire concavity of Turan, extending to the Black Sea, the 
 Northern Ocean, and the Balkash Lake. Briefly, Sir Henry 
 maintains that from n. c. 600 to a. r>. 500, that is, for a period 
 of 1100 years, both the Oxus and the Jaxartes emptied them- 
 selves into the Caspian, and that the Aral did not then exist as 
 an inland sea. Even so late as a. i>. 570, when Zomarchus, the 
 Byzantine envoy, was returning to the west from the encamp- 
 ment of the Khakhan at the foot of the Ak-tagh, or "White 
 
 an undoubted fact, and can be proved by the division of the large Lake of 
 Alakul into three smaller basins, the separation of Lake Chelkar-Tenghiz, 
 which reoeives the water of the Irghiz, f. oin the bay of the Aral Sea, Sary- 
 Chcganak, with which it was at one time united, and many other instauccs of 
 a similar kind which have occurred in the steppe.’ 
 
GENERAL OUTLINE. 
 
 7 
 
 Mountains, to the north of Samarkand, the Aral was only 
 entitled to the appellation of a reedy marsh, though some thirty 
 years afterwards the Oxus may have ceased to fill its western 
 branch, and have kept to its direct northern channel. About 
 that time the Sea of Kardar, or south-western portion of the 
 Aibugir Lake, which had hitherto been fed by the Urghunj 
 branch, became dried up, and exposed to view the ruins of a 
 treasure city submerged in a remote age. According to Persian 
 traditions these ruins were successfully excavated and rifled for 
 a period of twelve years, and are placed by General Abbott, 
 under the name of Berrasin Gelmaz, in a small island, though 
 Admiral Boutakof fixes the locality of ‘ Barsa Kilmesh ’ in a 
 salt marsh a little to the west of the Aibugir Lake. 
 
 For the next 600 years the Aral is described by the Arab 
 geographers in terms that might be applied to it at the present 
 day, though between the ninth and twelfth centuries three suc- 
 cessive capital cities, situated at the apex of the Delta, were 
 destroyed by sudden floods. The course of the river, too, was 
 constantly shifting, according to the greater or smaller quantity 
 of water diverted from the main channel for purposes of 
 irrigation. In a. d. 1221, — Sir Henry continues, — Octai or 
 Okkadai Khan, the son of Chinghiz Khan, when besieging 
 Urghunj, broke down the dam that regulated the flow of the 
 waters, and directed the full force of the stream against the 
 walls of the town, which, being built of clay, were speedily 
 undermined and swept away ; about three years later the Oxus 
 again forced its way to the Caspian, and the desiccation of the 
 Aral commenced at the same time. 
 
 The elder Poli travelled from the Volga to Bokhara about 
 1260 a. d., by a route which must have taken them across the 
 Aral, but that sea is not once mentioned by Marco Polo. 
 Again, in 1330, Hamdullah Mustowfi describes the Amou as 
 flowing from Hazarasp, a town about 40 miles south-east of the 
 
8 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 modern town of Khiva, by the Muslim Pass and Kurlawa to 
 Akricheh on the Caspian, near the mouth of the Attrek, — traces 
 of which course were seen by General Abbott in 1840. The 
 same geographer remarks that, owing to the divergence of the 
 Amou in the previous century, the level of the Caspian was 
 sensibly raised, and that the post of Aboskun at the mouth of 
 the Attrek was consequently overwhelmed. During the whole 
 of the 14th century the entire volume of the Amou was poured 
 into the Caspian, while the Jaxartes, or Syr, lost itself in the 
 sands of the desert, but early in the loth century an anonymous 
 writer, whom Sir Henry Kawlinson suspects to have been Shah 
 Kokh’s minister, — and whose manuscript he obtained at Herat, 
 — speaks of the Aral as being dried up, through the drainage 
 into the Caspian of the waters of the Jyhoon and Syhoon, the 
 names given by Mohammedan geographers and historians to 
 the Oxus and Jaxartes. 
 
 So far back as the middle of the 13th century the Franciscan 
 Friar, 'William de Kubruquis, states that the Jaxartes, after 
 creating numerous swamps, was lost in the desert, and about the 
 3 r ear 1340 Pegoletti advises travellers bound for Tatary to 
 leave Urghunj to their right, and to strike straight across from 
 Saraichilc on the Yaik, or Ural river, to Otrar on the Jaxartes, 
 a route that would traverse the bed of the Aral : nor does that 
 sea appear in the Catalan map of 1375. In short, the existence 
 of the Aral Sea depends upon its two great tributaries, the 
 Amou and the Syr. When the former is deflected, the bed of 
 the sea contracts, and the Syr, being no longer able to force its 
 way to the receding shores, becomes absorbed in reedy marshes. 
 
 There can bo no doubt that in ancient times tho main 
 branch of the Oxus disembogued itself into tho Caspian, for both 
 Strabo and Pliny tell us how the merchandise of India was 
 conveyed across the mountains to a stream that flowed into t lie 
 Oxus, how it descended that river to the Ilyrcanian or Caspian 
 
GENERAL OUTLINE. 
 
 9 
 
 Sea, how it was taken across to the mouth of the Cyrus, — now 
 the Kur, — which it ascended until it could be carried across to 
 the Pliasis, — the modern Rion, — down which it dropped till it 
 reached the Euxine, whence it was transported to the various 
 countries of Europe. In those days the Oxus was known as the 
 river that divided Bactria from Sogdiana, and it plays a con- 
 spicuous part in the campaigns of Alexander the Great, whose 
 troops, in pursuit of Bessus, crossed it on inflated skins stuffed 
 with straw. The name is an obvious Greek corruption of 
 Wakhsh, a small state lying between the Karategeen range and 
 the petty principality of Darwaz. By the Mohammedan * 
 invaders it was called simply Al-Nalir, or The River, and the 
 country to the eastward Mawaralnahr — the Maverulnere of the 
 ‘ Arabian Nights/ — signifying Transamnia, corresponding to 
 the modern Transoxiana. Their writers, however, adopting the 
 fable that the Garden of Eden was placed at the head of the 
 Badakhshan valley, and imagining that the sources of the 
 Jaxartes were near those of the Oxus, confounded these rivers 
 with the Mosaic Gihon and Pison, and corrupted those names 
 respectively into Jyhoon and Syhoon. To the Oozbegs the 
 Oxus is known as the Darya-i-Amou, or the River of Amou, 
 while the Khivese, according to General Mouravief, call it the 
 Amin Darya, and the Persians, if Mr Bell be a sufficiently good 
 authority, the Ab-telah, or "Water of Gold, in allusion to its 
 auriferous sands. 
 
 Ibn Haukal, who wrote in the 10th century, speaks of the 
 J yhoon as flowing into the Sea of Khwarezm — the Aral — which 
 was in no way affected by the rivers it received into its basin, 
 the redundant waters being carried off to the Sea of Khozr by 
 a secret communication. He adds that in the lower, or northern, 
 part of its course it was covered every winter with such thick 
 
 * Hiouen Tsang gives Potsou as the Chinese equivalent, while in the old 
 Zoroastrian books it appears as the Veh-rood, and in Sanscrit as Yauksou. 
 
10 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 strong ice that loaded carts were driven across from one bank 
 to the other. At the commencement of the 15th century the 
 Portuguese ambassador, Puy Gonzalez de Clavijo, alludes with 
 reverence to the Yiadme, as he calls it, and describes it as one 
 of the rivers that descended from Paradise. It attains, he says, 
 a league in width, and traverses a flat country with great and 
 wonderful force, until, at last, it reaches its goal in the Sea of 
 Baku — one of the many names of the Caspian. Its muddy 
 waters, he continues, are lowest in the winter season, when its 
 sources in the mountains are congealed, hut in April the melt- 
 ing snows begin to fill its broad, deep bed, and for the next 
 four months it is a noble river. 
 
 In 1558, Anthony Jenkinson, the shrewd and adventurous 
 representative of the London 1 Muscovy Company/ mentions, 
 that on the 5th October he * struck ’ a gulf of the Caspian — 
 though it is far more likely to have been the Aibugir Gulf of 
 the Sea of Aral — where the water was fresh and sweet. ‘ Note/ 
 he continues, * that in times past there did fal into this gulf 
 the great river Oxus, which hath his springs in the mountains 
 of Paroponisus in India, and now cometh not so far, but falleth 
 into another river called Ardock, which runneth toward the 
 North, and consumeth himself in the groundc, passing under- 
 grounde above 500 miles, and then issueth out againe, and 
 falleth into lake of Kitkay/ A little further on he attributes 
 the desiccation of the Oxus to the numerous canals of irrigation 
 it had to supply, and complains that ‘ the water that servetk all 
 the countrey is drawen by ditches out of the river Oxus, unto 
 the great destruction of the said river, for which cause it falleth 
 not into the Caspian Sea as it hath done in times past, and in 
 short time all the land is like to be destroied, and to become a 
 wilderness for want of water when the river of Oxus shall fade/ 
 Six or seven weeks later, he says, he crossed the great and rapid 
 river Ardock, a branch of the Oxus, running 1000 miles to the 
 
GENERAL OUTLINE. 
 
 11 
 
 northward, — for half of that distance passing under-ground, 
 then issuing from beneath the earth’s surface and terminating 
 in ‘ the Lake of Kitay.’ 
 
 It is not a little singular that Jenkinson should make no 
 allusion to the Aral as the recipient of the river he calls the 
 Ardock, which could be no other than the main channel of 
 the Oxus, and which some later writers designate as the Khesel 
 or Kizil, that is, the Red River. In Pinkerton’s Collection the 
 Khesel is said to take its rise in the mountains to the north- 
 east of Sogdiana, and to fall into the Aral 50 or GO miles after 
 receiving the Amou. The writer has here evidently confounded 
 the source of the Amou with that of the S} r r, but he goes on to 
 explain how the Khesel, which formerly fell into the Caspian 
 at St Peter’s Bay, was in 1719 diverted from that channel by 
 the Tatars, in the hope of destroying by thirst the expedition 
 commanded by the gallant but ill-fated Prince Beckovitch. 
 The Dutch Orientalist Bentinck, in his notes to the ‘ Ilistoire 
 Genealogique des Tatares ’ — published in 1720 — describes the 
 Oxus as bifurcating about 40 leagues from its embouchure ; the 
 left arm turning off to the Caspian, while the right arm, which 
 80 years previously flowed under the walls of IJrghunj, then fell 
 into the Kizil, to the ruin of that once flourishing city, and so 
 passed on to the Aral. Jenkinson’s confusion is no doubt 
 attributable to his own ignorance of Persian and Toorkee, and 
 consequent dependence on the intelligence and good faith of his 
 interpreter. 
 
 That the Oxus did at one time, perhaps at several times, 
 empty itself into the Caspian is a fact that cannot be disputed. 
 The unfortunate Conolly proceeded for some distance up the 
 deserted bed, whose width he estimated at 2000 paces, and 
 General, then Captain Mouravief, met with verdure, reeds, and 
 pools, along the deep broad channel excavated by the mighty 
 river, which seems to have finally divided into two branches 
 
12 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 inclosing the present peninsula of Dardji. According to the 
 latter writer the Syr formerly effected a junction with the 
 Amou, but an earthquake, which is said by the Khivese to have 
 happened in the 14th century, separated the two rivers and 
 gave them each the course they now hold. This earthquake is 
 a very questionable event, though it is mentioned also by Baron 
 Meyendorf as an item of Khivese faith, hut he adds that others 
 assert that the south-western channel was dammed up in 1670 
 to check the ravages of the Kuzzaks. 
 
 About the middle of the 18th century Captain TVbodroofe, 
 while engaged in surveying the Caspian, under Captain Elton’s 
 orders, by desire of Nadir Shah, was informed that ‘ it is now a 
 hundred years since the Oxus emptied itself into the upper end 
 of this (Balkan) Bay/ and he adds that, the river drj’ing up in 
 many places through the intense summer heat, the Toorkomans 
 had imagined that by closing the mouth they would retain the 
 water in the channel. The result, however, proved contrary to 
 their expectations, for the river, having no longer any current 
 to clear away the sand that was continually being blown into 
 it, became choked and gradually silted up altogether. This 
 version is adopted also by M. Khanikof, who mentions, in 
 addition, the construction of a second dam to the eastward of 
 Kunya or Kdhne UTgliunj, which effectually turned the Amou 
 to the north. 
 
 General Abbott’s theory is probably as near the truth as 
 need be desired. The natural course of the Oxus, he says, 
 would be to the Aral, but at some remote period it must have 
 encountered an obstacle that deflected its waters through the 
 easier country lying to the westward. At the same time it 
 never ceased battering the barrier which opposed its proper 
 course, until at length a breach was effected, when it rushed 
 straight onwards to the Aral. General Abbott is further ot 
 opinion that many centuries ago the Syr and the Amou met a 
 
GENERAL OUTLINE. 
 
 13 
 
 little to the north of Urghunj, and that while a small portion 
 of the out-pourings of the former river found its way to the 
 Aral swamp, the main volume rolled on with its sister stream 
 to the Caspian. By degrees, however, the Syr worked out 
 a straight channel for itself to the north-west, while the Amou, 
 relieved from the shock that sent it off to the south-west, also 
 excavated a way to the northward, and thus in the end both 
 rivers separately disembogued themselves into the Aral, as in 
 ancient times they had conjointly deposited their waters in the 
 bed of the Caspian. The old channel of the Amou is still the 
 natural drain of the Kara-koum desert, so that, as already 
 observed, it may not be impossible that the sound of subter- 
 ranean waters may be heal’d at Kara Goombuz. 
 
 The Oxus, or the Amou, takes its rise in the Pameer Steppe, 
 the loftiest table-land in the world, and known to the people of 
 Central Asia as the Bam-i-Dunya, or the flat, or terraced, roof 
 of the world. The northern branch, issuing from Lake Sir-i- 
 Kul, has been generally accepted as the father of the stream, 
 though the southern branch issuing from the Pameer Kul 
 appears to be somewhat the longer of the two. The northern 
 branch passes by the specific name of the Panja, and on quitting 
 the lake is barely ankle deep, though 15 feet wide, and running 
 at the rate of 3| miles per hour over a smooth bed. It tends 
 at first in a south-west direction as far as Hissar, where it effects 
 a junction with the Bara Sarhad, the southern branch that 
 flows from the Pameer Kul. From this point it pursues a 
 westerly course to Ishkashm, where it turns suddenly to the 
 north, inclosing in the angle thus formed the once celebrated 
 ruby mines of Badakhshan. Bending north- west-by-north, and 
 then towards the south, it forms nearly a semi-circle, receiving 
 three affluents — the Shakh-dara, the Bartang, and the Surk-ab, 
 or Red River — until it reaches the point where it is joined by 
 the Kokcha, nearly due west from the mouth of the Shakh- 
 
14 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 dara. It then proceeds to the westward to the ferry of Khoja 
 Saleh, where it turns to the north-west-by-west to about the 
 40th degree of latitude, after which it flows nearly due north 
 and falls into the Sea of Aral through many mouths. 
 
 The entire length of this historic river may be roughly com- 
 puted at 1200 miles. From the head of the Delta, which is 
 about 50 miles from its embouchure, the Amou is navigable to 
 Kunduz, a distance of 750 miles. According to Sir Alexander 
 Burnes, the channel is straight and singularly devoid of rocks, 
 rapids, and whirlpools, and rarely impeded even by sand-banks. 
 The depth varies from 6 to 20 feet, with an average current of 
 3 j miles an hour. It is, however, subject to floods from melting 
 snows, when the water becomes of a reddish hue and is laden 
 with silt, that is finally deposited in the Aral. Above the 
 junction of the Kokcha, and below the town of Khiva, the 
 Amou is frozen every year, and in severe winters even while 
 traversing the desert. 
 
 The fertilizing influence of this noble stream does not at 
 present extend further than a mile from its banks, until it 
 reaches the Khanat of Khiva, after which a somewhat broader 
 belt is brought under cultivation. In 1832 there were not 
 above 200 boats throughout the entire course of the river from 
 Kunduz to the sea. These boats are described as measuring 50 
 feet in length with a beam of 18 feet, and capable of a burden 
 of 20 tons or of conveying 150 troops or passengers. They 
 are the same at both ends,, flat-bottomed, about four feet deep, 
 and drawing only twelve inches of water. Their construction 
 is extremely rude. They are built of squared logs of a dwarf 
 jungle-tree, fastened together with iron clamps. Though clumsy, 
 they are strong and durable, and both Tirnour and Nadir Shah 
 succeeded in making with them bridges, over which their vast 
 hosts passed in safety. 
 
 ‘ The Oxus/ observes Sir Alexander Burnes, ‘ presents many 
 
GENERAL OUTLINE. 
 
 15 
 
 fair prospects, since it holds the most direct course, and con- * 
 nects, with the exception of a narrow desert, the nations of 
 Europe with the remoter regions of Central Asia.’ These lines 
 were written in the pre-railway era, and in any case evince 
 more enthusiasm than foresight. From Badakhshanto Pitniak, 
 a border town of Kliwarezm, — a distance of 540 miles, — there is 
 not a single place of aDy importance within sight of the river. 
 The settled population shuns the sultry valley, and it is only at 
 ferries and the intersections of caravan routes that even villages 
 are to be met with. * AVhen we also consider,’ remarks M. 
 Yeniukof, * that the shores of the Sea of Aral are so barren as 
 to have defied all the attempts hitherto made of founding even a 
 small settlement on them; that the Aral itself is separated 
 from Russia by intervening steppes 530 miles broad; and lastly, 
 seeing the utter impossibility of modifying the character of the 
 Nomad marauders, we shall be justified in asserting that even in 
 the remote future the Oxus can only be a secondary channel for 
 the advance of industry and civilization.’ 
 
 It is not improbable indeed that the Amou will lose much 
 of its importance now that Central Asia has practically passed 
 into the hands of Russia. So far as the trade with India is 
 concerned, a long overland route can never hope to vie with the 
 direct communication between Bombay and Odessa opened up 
 through the Suez Canal, while the Afghan market is rather of 
 political than commercial significance. Russian enterprise is 
 far more likely to find for itself a profitable field in the com- 
 mand it has acquired of the old caravan route from the Caspian 
 Sea to China, and it is only in the event of an actual collision 
 between the British Government and that of St Petersburg that 
 the valley of the Oxus may be expected again to be in men’s 
 mouths familiar as a household word. Eor some centuries past 
 it has ceased to be an object of interest to any European public, 
 but for all that, to quote Mr Matthew Arnold, 
 
16 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 *. . The majestic river floated on, 
 
 Out of the mist and hum of the low land, 
 
 Into the frosty starlight, and there moved. 
 
 Rejoicing, through the hush’d Chorasmian waste. 
 
 Under the solitary moon : he flow’d 
 Right for the Polar Star, past Orgunje, 
 
 Brimming, and bright, and large : there sands begin 
 To hem his watery march, and dam his streams. 
 
 And split his currents ; that for many a league 
 The shorn and parcell’d Oxus strains along 
 Through beds of sand and matted rushy isles — 
 
 Oxus, forgetting the bright speed he had 
 In his high mountain cradle in Pamere, 
 
 A foil’d circuitous wanderer : till at last, 
 
 The long’d-for dash of waves is heard, and wide 
 His luminous home of waters opens, bright 
 And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bathed stars 
 Emerge, and shine upon the Aral Sea.’ 
 
 The ‘ dash of waters ’ must he taken as a poetical licence, for 
 the Aral at the mouth of the Amou is but a shallow, isle- 
 bespangled mere. According to Admiral Boutakof, who care- 
 fully surveyed the Oxus Delta as well as the Sea of Aral, the 
 river first bifurcates between Kipchak and Khoja-ili, and shortly 
 afterwards divides into several branches, or rather into a net- 
 work of lagoons. * The centre part of this portion of the basin 
 forms a sort of depression into which the waters of all the 
 branches, excepting the westernmost, empty themselves in a 
 scries of lakes, overgrown more or less with reeds ; out of these 
 they again flow off in separate channels, discharging themselves 
 into the Sea of Aral.’ 
 
 The Delta lies between the two main branches, the Laudan 
 to the westward, and the Kuvan Jarma to the eastward, other- 
 wise called Kuk or Blue River, and lower down the Yangy-Su, 
 or New River. The Laudan where it creeps into the Aibugir 
 Lake is not above 18 inches deep, flowing with a feeble current 
 through a thick growth of reeds, and with so firm a bottom 
 
GENERAL OUTLINE. 
 
 17 
 
 that a caravan of 1500 camels has walked across without diffi- 
 culty. To check the inroads of the Yomut or Yamood Toorko- 
 mans, the Khivese erected a fort near Bent, and constructed a 
 dam across the upper portion of the stream, which has been more 
 than once destroyed by their implacable tormentors. 
 
 The extreme eastern branch, again, fills the lakes Dankara 
 and Tampvne-Ayage and then, as the Yangy-su, flows into 
 the Tushe-bas bight of the Aral, opposite Ermolof Island. 
 The Yangy-su is pronounced by the Kirghiz as Jangy-su, and 
 is consequently sometimes confounded with the Jan-i-Darya, a 
 branch of the Syr that loses itself in the sands. In 1848-19, 
 this was the principal outlet of the Amou, so that the water at 
 Ermolof Island, more than nine miles distant, was quite fresh, 
 whereas ten years later the water close in shore had become uu- 
 drinkably salt owing to the drying up of the Yangy-su. 
 
 Of the intermediate streams the most important are the 
 Ulkun Darya and the Taldyk, but even these are not three feet 
 deep in July, and are of course still shallower before the melting 
 of the snows at the end of March. The frequent changes in the 
 course of these various branches were exemplified by the sub- 
 merged fields and artificial watercourses which Admiral Bouta- 
 kof observed over the side of his boat, while traversing several 
 small lakes. For at least 50 miles from its mouth the Amou is 
 wholly unfit for navigation, but by closing some of the minor 
 channels the Russians expect to deepen the Ulkun Darya suffi- 
 ciently to keep open a constant communication with the town 
 of Kungrad. 
 
 Though in every other respect inferior to the Amou, the 
 Syr Darya — the Syhoon of the Arab geographers — is likely to 
 exercise a more direct influence in civilizing Central Asia after 
 the Russian standard. In classical times this river was known 
 as the Jaxartes, mistaken, in wilfulness or ignorance, by Alex- 
 ander’s flatterers for the Tanais or Don. Pliny declares that 
 
 ■i 
 
18 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 its Scythian name was the Silis, while in Bell’s Notes to 
 Rollin’s Ancient History it is asserted that Jaxartes is a corrup- 
 tion of Ik Sert, or the Great Paver, and that the Sarts were the 
 people who originally dwelt on the banks of the Sort, and were 
 identical with the Abii — from ah, a river, — who sent envoys to 
 Alexander the Great on his reaching the Jaxartes. These Abii 
 are, of course, not to be confounded with Homer’s Thracian 
 Abii, who lived upon mares’ milk and were famed for their love 
 of justice. The Chinese equivalent seems to have been Ye, 
 while the modern appellation signifies the Yellow River. 
 
 The town of Cyreschata, or Cyropolis, was constructed by 
 Cyrus the Great on the left bank of the Jaxartes, which formed 
 the northern boundary of his empire. Imprudently crossing 
 the river and invading the country of the Massagetac, he lost 
 his army and his life at the hands of their warlike Queen, 
 Toinyris. The same great monarch is said to have built six 
 other cities along the course of the Jaxartes, all of which were 
 destroyod by Alexander, who founded in their place Alexandreia 
 Ultima, probably near the site of the modern Khojend. Ancient 
 writers, as already remarked, made the Jaxartes fall into the 
 Caspian, which it may possibly have done after uniting its 
 waters with those of the Oxus. Strabo, however, deflects one 
 embouchure to a point about 80 parasangs distant from that of 
 the Oxus, and sends all the other channels to the Northern 
 Ocean. 
 
 The Syr Darya properly begins at the confluence of the 
 Naryn and the Gulishan not far from the town of Namangan. 
 The former rises ont he southern face of the Kirghiz Ala-tagh, 
 and, winding through six degrees of longitude, rushes impetu- 
 ously through the Ferghana valley, swollen by many tributaries. 
 The Gulishan, again, issues from the Chatyr Ivul, and is inferior 
 to the Naryn both in length and in volume. Their united 
 streams, under the name of the Syr Darya, flow a little to the 
 
GENERAL OUTLINE. 
 
 19 
 
 soutli of west until reaching Koshtecrmen below Khojend, 
 where they turn off suddenly to the northward as far as llazret. 
 From this point to Yany Kurgan the Syr runs in a north- 
 westerly direction, and thence holds on to the westward until it 
 discharges itself’ into the Aral near the north-eastern extremity 
 of that sea. 
 
 During the latter part of its course the Syr Darya receives 
 no tributaries, and its volume is sensibly diminished in crossing 
 the desert. Its total length from the source of the Naryn is 
 estimated at 1200 miles. Below Baildyr Tungai, which is 538 
 miles above Fort Perofski, the Syr is a noble river, from 300 to 
 800 yards in width and varying in depth from 18 to 30 feet. 
 It flows between steep clay banks which are often flooded at 
 certain seasons of the year, while its current is computed at 
 from 3 to 4 jennies per hour, according to the period of the day, 
 — for it runs with the gi-eatest strength between ten and eleven 
 in the morning, when it decreases in velocity till two in the 
 afternoon, about which time it recovers its former force and 
 rapidity. The steamers which descend at the rate of six to ten 
 miles in the hour are content to mount the stream at one-third 
 of that speed. 
 
 At no great distance from its mouth the Syr spreads out 
 into a marshy brackish delta, not above four feet deep in mid- 
 channel and diminishing to a width of 360 feet in the main 
 stx-eam. On both sides a vast plain of grass, or rushes, stretches 
 out far and wide. In 1863 Admiral Boutakof ascended the 
 river as high as Baildyr Tungai, and two years later steamers 
 ascended even to Kamangan. That gallant Admiral is said to 
 have surveyed and mapped the Syr for one thousand miles from 
 its embouchure. 
 
 According to Captain Meyer the course of the river is 
 persistently shifting more and more to the northward, owing to 
 the slow but continuous rising of the land to the south. 
 
20 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Throughout the steppe beds of ancient rivers may be traced, 
 while semi-fossilized oceanic molluscs occur in masses, showing 
 that the Aral itself has largely receded from its former limits. 
 Sometimes it happens that a tribe dams up a channel to injure 
 an unfriendly neighbour or rival, and straightway all cultiva- 
 tion ceases, and fields and meadows become an arid waste. Not 
 many years since the main channel of the Syr was the Kuvan 
 Darya, which now stops short in a marshy lake near Khoja 
 Niaz, a hundred miles from the Aral. The present main stream 
 is excessively tortuoxxs between Fort Perofski and Fort 2, and 
 the water has sunk so low that it is navigable for rather less 
 than three months in the year, for vessels drawing three feet 
 of water. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that the earlier Greek writers 
 regarded the Caspian Sea as a Gulf of the Northern Ocean. 
 Ptolemy, however, observes : ‘ The Ilyrcanian Sea, called also 
 the Caspian, is everywhere shut in by the land, so as to be just 
 the converse of an island encompassed by the water.’ By Ibn 
 Haukal it is named the Sea of Khozr, while to the Muscovites 
 it was originally known as the Sea of Kwalis, that being the 
 name they applied to the tribes dwelling near its shores. In 
 the 14th and 15th centuries it was called the Sea of Baku, 
 from the chief port on the western coast, while Abu’l-Ghazee 
 Khan alludes to it in the 17th century by its Persian appellation 
 of the Sea of Kulsura. It was first navigated by Patroclus, the 
 Admiral of Seleucus and Autiochus. The historical associ- 
 ations connected with this sea will, however, be described in a 
 subsequent chapter. 
 
 The water appeared to General Abbott as being ver}’ salt, 
 but not bitter, and as clear as crystal. The sea lies in a basin 
 of fossiliferous limestone, the eastern shores being low and 
 swampy, but at the north-eastern extremity precipitous cliffs 
 rise almost out of the water to the height of 700 feet. There 
 
GENERAL OUTLINE. 
 
 (V I 
 
 are no tides, but, as Jonas Ilanway remarks, ‘a prodigious 
 current and confused sea ’ often result from a sudden change of 
 the wind after it has been blowing for some time from the 
 northward. 
 
 The Caspian Sea is about 640 miles in length from north to 
 south, and from 100 to 200 miles broad. In the centre it is 
 deep, but shallow at the sides, and, although it receives the 
 waters of eighty-four streams in addition to the stupendous 
 discharge of the Volga, it has no outlet, and preserves its level 
 solely by evaporation. Conjointly with the Aral, it drains an 
 area 2000 miles in length from the sources of the Volga to 
 those of the Syr, and 1800 miles in breadth from the head- 
 streams of the Koanna in North Hussia, to those of the Sefid 
 Rood in Koordistan. 
 
 The smaller rivers, the lakes, the mountains, and the deserts 
 of Central Asia, will each be described in connection with the 
 countries or provinces to which they respectively belong. 
 
22 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 EARLY INHABITANTS— SCYTHIANS — UNDER DARIUS AND XERXF.S — MOUNT 
 IMAUS — MARGIANA — BACTRIA — SOGDIANA — ALEXANDER'S CAMPAIGNS — 
 SIKUNDER ZULKARNAIN — THE GRECO-BACTRIAN KINGDOM — THE PAR- 
 TIIIANS — THE SCYTHO-CHINESE DOMINATION — THE SASSANIDES — ARDE- 
 SHEER, HORMUZ, FEROZE, KOBAD, NOUSHEERWAN, KHOSROO PURVEZ, 
 YEZDIJERD — ARAB CONQUEST — JUSTINIAN AND DIZABULCS — EMBASSY 
 OF ZEMARCHUS. 
 
 In Canon Rawlinson’s edition of Herodotus, excellent reasons 
 are given for regarding Armenia as the cradle of the Aryan race. 
 At some very remote period three kindred streams of migration 
 are supposed to have issued, perhaps contemporaneously, from 
 their common source, and to have flowed, one to the northward 
 across the Caucasus, a second in a westerly direction across Asia 
 Minor into Europe, while the third turned to the south-east and 
 stopped only at the Indus. After a time this last-mentioned 
 branch became straitened for space, and, in the 15th century be- 
 fore the Christian era, divided into two floods of emigration and 
 conquest, the one gradually spreading over Hindostan, and driv- 
 ing the Turanian aborigines into the mountains, while the other 
 crossed the Hindoo Koosh and subjected or expelled the Scythian 
 or Turanian races known as Sogdians, Bactrians, Arians (of 
 Herat), Ilyrcanians, Arachosians, and people of Ilagiana and 
 Media Atropatcne, the Modem Azerbijan : here, too, the ab- 
 original inhabitants fleeing into the mountains and deserts. 
 
 Turanian dialects prevailed from the Caucasus to the Indian 
 Ocean, from the Mediterranean to the Ganges, and perhaps 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 23 
 
 throughout the whole of Asia. Even now they are spoken ‘ by 
 all the various races which wander over the vast steppes of 
 Northern Asia ancl Eastern Europe ; by the hill tribes of India, 
 and by many nat ions of the Eastern Archipelago.’ This Turanian 
 or Scythic element was still strong in the time of ITerodotus. 
 To that stock belonged the Sacse, the Parthians, the Asiatic 
 Ethiopians, the Colchians, the Sapeiri, the Tibareni, and the 
 Mosclii. Closely allied, too, were the Armenians, the Cappado- 
 cians, the Susianians, and the Chaldmans of Babylon. The race, 
 however, is now extinct. ‘In vain we look for their descendants 
 at the present day. * * The Seyths have disappeared from the 
 earth. Like the American Aztecs, whom tliej r resembled in some 
 degree, they have been swept away by the current of immigra- 
 tion, and, except in the mounds which cover their land, and in the 
 pages of the historian or the ethnologist, not a trace remains to 
 tell of their past existence,’ — though some writers have too 
 hastily confounded the Scythians with the Mongolians, attribut- 
 ing a like origin to both. 
 
 The empire of Darius Ilystaspes — the Gushtasp of Firdousi 
 — was divided into 20 satrapies, of which the Fifteenth com- 
 prised the Sacac and the Caspians, whose joint tribute amounted 
 to 250 talents per annum, while to the Sixteenth belonged the 
 Parthians, the Chorasmians, the Sogdians, and the Herat Arians, 
 whose annual tribute was 300 talents. The army of Xerxes — • 
 the Isfundear of Firdousi — was largely recruited from the war- 
 like peoples of Central Asia. ‘ The Bactrians went to the war 
 wearing a head-dress very like the Median, but armed with 
 bows of cane, after the custom of their country, and with short 
 spears. The Sac®, or Seyths, were clad in trousers, and had 
 on their heads tall stiff caps rising to a point. They bore the 
 bow of their country and the dagger ; besides which they carried 
 the battle-axe, or sagaris. They were, in truth, Amyrgian 
 Scythians (from the confines of India), but the Persians call 
 
24 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 them Sacte since that is the name they give to all the Scythians. 
 The Bactrians and the Sacae had for leader Ilystaspcs, the son 
 of Darius and of Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus. The Arians 
 (of Herat) carried Median hows, but in other respects were 
 equipped like the Bactrians. The Parthians and Chorasmians, 
 with the Sogdians, the Gandarians, and the Dadica?, had the 
 Bactrian equipment in all respects. The Caspians were clad in 
 cloaks of skin, and carried the cane bow of their country, and 
 the scymitar.’ The Bactrians and the Caspians furnished also 
 horsemen, armed like the foot-soldiers. 
 
 From Canon Rawlinson’s foot-notes we learn that the Ilyr- 
 canians, an Arian race, probably inhabited the lovely and well- 
 wooded valley of Astrabad, watered by the river now known 
 as the Gurgan. The Caspian, as mentioned in the preceding 
 chapter, was called the Ilyrcanian Sea by the historians of 
 Alexander, and in the Zendavesta this district appears under 
 the name of Vehrkana, the Urkanieh of the 13th century. The 
 Parthians dwelt between the Hyrcanians and the Sarangians, 
 along the southern flank of the Elburz mountains, now called 
 Atak, or ‘ The Skirt.’ The country is at present almost a 
 desert, but covered with extensive ruins, attesting its ancient 
 cultivation. The Parthians were of Scythian origin, and escaped 
 destruction by the Aryans no doubt through the natural diffi- 
 culties of their position. The Chorasmians, again, were an 
 Aryan people, inhabiting the oasis of Khwarezm, or Khiva, — 
 the Khairizas of the Zendavesta. In Alexander’s time they 
 seem to have been independent, and to have been governed by 
 a native ruler, named by the Greeks Pharasmenes, who dis- 
 patched a friendly embassy to the ‘ Macedonian madman.’ The 
 Sogdians also came from the Aryan stock. Their country, the 
 Cugdha of the Zendavesta and known to Mohammedan writers 
 as tho Yale of Soghd, extended from the Jaxartcs to the Oxus, 
 and southward to Bactria. Their capital city Murueanda will 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 
 hereafter be mentioned in connection with Alexander. The 
 Apeun of ITerodotus occupied the rich valley of the Ileri- 
 Rood, which is designated Ilariva in the inscriptions of 
 Darius. 
 
 In the Greek legends of the Assyrian era, no nation is more 
 favourably distinguished than that of the Bactrians, whose 
 apocryphal king Oxyartes is described as valiantly holding his 
 own against Kinus, though finally compelled to yield to the 
 superior arms and fortune of Semiramis. It is certain that the 
 Ar}-ans settled in this province at a very early period, and it 
 is not impossible that Bactra may have been the capital of 
 Persia at a time anterior to the reign of Kei Khosroo, or Cyrus 
 the Great, who experienced considerable difficulty in reducing 
 the Bactrians beneath his sway. In the Hindoo legends of 
 the 3rd and 4th centuries before the Christian era, they appear 
 as the Bahlikas, afterwards easily corrupted into Balkh, the 
 modern representative of Bactra. 
 
 A less easy task is it to place the Sacac of Herodotus, unless 
 they lined the banks of the old channel of the Oxus. They 
 have certainly nothing in common with the Sacia of Ptolemy, 
 which rather corresponds with the provinces of Kashgar and 
 Yarkund. Of Turanian origin, they were famous for their 
 valour, and in Alexander’s time fought as allies under the 
 banner of Darius. A century later the Sacae, in conjunction 
 with kindred tribes of Tatars, overthrew the short-lived Greco- 
 Bactrian kingdom, and occupied the entire region between the 
 Aral and the Indus. They even crossed that river, but sus- 
 tained a signal repulse about b. c. 56. They were subsequently 
 conquered by the Parthians, and finally absorbed by the Sas- 
 sanides. Of the Caspians it may suffice to say that they were 
 the ancient inhabitants of the provinces now known as Ghilan 
 and Mazanderan ; while the Dadicae, it is suggested, may have 
 been the ancestors of the Tats or Tajeeks, and may have 
 
2G 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 emigrated across the Hindoo Koosh from their early settle- 
 ments beside the Gandarians. 
 
 The ancients, it may be briefly added, divided central and 
 eastern Asia into Scythia-extra-Imaum and Scythia-intra- 
 Imaum, the latter comprising Khiva, Bokhara, Khokan, Eastern 
 Toorkestan, and Badakhshan. Their idea of Mount Imaus, 
 however, was as imaginative as Baron Humboldt’s description 
 of the Bolor range, which is supposed to have been identical 
 with the former. The name is clearly derived from the Sanscrit 
 Himavat, — Lafine ‘ hiems ’ — which is still preserved in the 
 modern Himalaya. The Bolor mountains, as designed by 
 Humboldt and Carl Ritter, would form the meridianal axis of 
 Central Asia, and from their point of view is correctly enough 
 described in Dr Wm Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman 
 Geography, where the Bolor range, — assumed to be the ancient 
 Imaus, — is pronounced to be ‘ one link of a long series of ele- 
 vated ranges running, as it were, from south to north, which, 
 with axes parallel to each other, but alternating in their locali- 
 ties, extend from Cape Comorin to the Icy Sea, between the 
 G4th and 75th degrees of longitude, keeping a mean direction 
 of S.S.E. and N.N.TV.’ Since Humboldt’s theory was first 
 propounded, it has been ascertained that his Bolor Dagh is not 
 a chain of mountains, but an extremely elevated plateau, fully 
 16,000 feet above the level of the sea, intersected by ridges 
 running from east to west, with open stony plains between, 
 broken by gorges and fissures in which both wood and water 
 are found. Mount Imaus was, however, a westerly prolongation 
 of the Hindoo Koosh, or, rather, of the Himalaya. 
 
 In the latter half of the 4th century before the Christian 
 era Central Asia, as known to the Greeks, was divided into the 
 three provinces of Margiana, Bactria, and Sogdiana. The first 
 corresponds with Khorassan and the south-eastern portion of 
 the Khanat of Khiva ; the second with Badakhshan ; and tho 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 third with the Khanat of Bokhara eastward of the Amou. 
 The fertility of Margiana has been the subject of warm eulogies, 
 Strabo affirming that it was no uncommon thing to meet with 
 a vine, whose stock could hardly bo clasped by two men with 
 outstretched arms, while clusters of grapes might be gathered 
 two cubits in length. The chief town, since famous as Mcrv 
 or Merou, was called Alexandreia after its great founder, but 
 falling into decay was rebuilt by Ant ioch us Soter, and named 
 after its resforer. It stood upon the banks of the Margus, — ‘the 
 Epardus of Arrian, and now the Murghab, — and was finally 
 destroyed towards the close of the last century by Shah Moorad 
 Keg, Khan of Bokhara.* 
 
 Bactria, or Bactriana — the Ninth Satrapy under Carius 
 Ilystaspes — was a rich and populous district, bounded on the 
 south by the ruropamisus range, on the east by the Pameer 
 Steppe, on the north by the Oxus, and on the west by a desert 
 separating it from the fertile province of Margiana. The 
 Paropamisus mountains, called by Ptolemy the Paropanisus, 
 were unknown to the Greeks previous to the Asiatic conquests 
 of Alexander the Great, and were then supposed to be a con- 
 tinuation of the Taurus or the Caucasus. They appear to cor- 
 respond with the modern Hazaret branch of the Himalayas 
 and extend for 400 miles from the site of Herat to the eastward, 
 and are inferior in elevation to the chain that takes its name 
 from its highest peak, the Hindoo Koosh, being covered with 
 snow for no more than four months in the year. They are, in 
 
 * The natural beauties of this once charming district, the scene of Moore’s 
 ‘Veiled Prophet of Khorasan,’ have been fitly celebrated by that poet : — 
 
 ‘ In that delightful Province of the Sun, 
 
 The first of Persian lands be shines upon. 
 
 Where all the loveliest children of his beam, 
 
 Plow’rets and fruits, blush over every stream. 
 
 And, fairest of all streams, the Murga roves 
 Among Merou’s bright palaces and groves.’ 
 
23 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 truth, not so much a chain as a confused mass of barren and 
 rugged mountains 200 miles across from north to south at the 
 base line. The Paropamisan Alexandreia stood at the southern 
 foot of the Bamian Pass, and was intended to secure an un- 
 molested passage into Bactria. In addition to its northern 
 boundarj’, the Oxus, this district was fertilized by five tribu- 
 taries of that noble river, and by the Bactrus, now the Dahash, 
 descending from the Paropamisus and passing under the walls 
 of Bactra — the Zariaspa of Strabo and Pliny — but better known 
 by its modern appellation of Balkh.* The country generally is 
 so graphically described by Quintus Curtius that no apology 
 need be offered for transcribing John Brende’s quaint transla- 
 tion of the passage : — 
 
 ‘ The nature of the soyle of whiche countrey is divers and 
 of sundrye kindes. Some place is plentifull of woode and vines, 
 and aboundaunte of pleasaunte fruite, the grounde fatte, well 
 watei'ed, and full of springes. Those partes which be most 
 temperate are sowed with corne, and the rest be reserved for 
 fedyng of beastes. But the greater part of the countrey is 
 couered ouer with baraine sandes and withered up for want of 
 moisture, nourishing neither man, nor bringinge forth fruite. 
 But with certaiue wiudes that come from the sea of Ponte (the 
 Caspian), the sand in the plaiues is blowen together in heapes, 
 which seme a farre of like great hilles, wherby the accustomed 
 wayes be damned, so that no signe of them can appcre. Ther- 
 fore such as do passe those plaiues use to observe the starves in 
 the night as thei do that sayle the seas, and by the course of 
 them direct their journey. The nightcs for the more parte be 
 brighter than the daycs, whcrfore in the daye time the countrey 
 is wild and unpassible, when they can neither finde any tracte 
 
 * Bactria is said to be a corruption of Bukhtiar, an old Persian word signi- 
 fying ‘ The East,’ just as the meaning of Kborassau is ‘The Region of the 
 Sun.’ 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 29 
 
 nor wave to go in, nor niarke or eigne wherby to passe, the 
 starres beying hidden by the rniste. If the same winde chaunce 
 to come durying the time that men be passying, it overwhelm- 
 eth them with sande. Where the countrey is temperate, it 
 bringeth forth great plenty both of men and horse, so that the 
 Bactrians may make 30,000 horsemen.’ 
 
 Sir Alexander Burnes bears testimony to the perfect fidelity 
 of this picture even at the present day, especially as regards 
 the desert to the north-west and the mode of travelling therein. 
 In addition to Bactra or Zariaspa, mention is made of a town 
 called Darapsa, Adraspa, or Drapsaca, the first place taken 
 by Alexander after crossing the mountains. ‘ The Bactrians,’ 
 says Archdeacon Williams, ‘ held a middle place between the 
 Persians and Scythians, partaking more of the polished man- 
 ners of the former than of the rudeness of the latter.’ They 
 were, nevertheless, accused of throwing out the bodies of their 
 dying relatives into the streets to be devoured by dogs, thence 
 called ‘entombers,’ or ‘ buriers of the dead’ — a practice that 
 was abolished by Alexander. Professor Wilson, however, was 
 disposed to trace this legend to the Zoroastrian custom of ex- 
 posing dead bodies in the Towers of Silence, to the ordinary 
 process of decomposition accelerated by the foul birds of prey. 
 
 In Grecian dramatic poetry this region was the scene of the 
 wanderings of Bacchus. The pages of historic romance tell 
 how Ninus sat down before Bactra with an immense army, 
 and only succeeded when reinforced by Semiramis. In the 
 reign of Sardanapalus the Bactrians broke out into a formidable 
 revolt, but in that of Arbaces they largely contributed to the 
 reduction of Nineveh. Against the great Cyrus they waged 
 equal war, until his union with the daughter of Astyages, when 
 they freely tendered their submission. In the army of Xerxes, 
 as we have seen, they were arrayed beside the Sacae and the 
 Caspii, and are represented as wearing a sort of Median head- 
 
30 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 dress, and as being armed with bows and arrows, and short 
 spears. Their cavalry were at all times highly esteemed, and 
 honourably distinguished themselves in the last days of the 
 Persian Empire. 
 
 The Sogdiani, like the Bactrians, were accused of handing 
 over to canine ‘ entombers ’ the mortal remains of their friends 
 and kinsfolk, and probably under the same circumstances. 
 Their country extended from the Oxus to the Jaxartes, which 
 divided them from the Massagetae, who occupied the vast steppe 
 extending to the Altai Mountains. Their most valued river 
 was that called by the Greeks Polytimetus, the ‘ Very Precious ’ 
 or ‘ Much Honoured,’ now known as the Zarafshan, or ‘ gold- 
 scattering ’ river of Samarkand, which flows past Bokhara, and 
 is finally lost in the Denghiz or Karakul Lake, to the S. S. E. 
 of the latter city. In those days this productive region ap- 
 pears to have been overgrown with forests abounding in wild 
 beasts and in game of all kinds. At Bazaria, for instance — 
 perhaps the modern Bokhara — we read of a royal park, or 
 ‘ paradise,’ that had not been disturbed for four generations, in 
 which 4000 animals were slain by Alexander and his officers. 
 Here, it is said, Alexander overcame a lion in single fight, 
 extorting from the Spartan envoy, who witnessed the rash 
 deed, the hearty exclamation : ‘ Bravo, Alexander ! well hast 
 thou won the prize of royalty from the king of the woods.’ 
 The principal city was Maracanda, though the names of several 
 other towns are preserved, such as Cj’ropolis, Ghaza, Marginiu, 
 Nautaka (near Karshi), Alexandria Ultima (near Khojend), 
 and Oxiana. In Maracanda, however, stood the palace of the 
 Sogdian ruler, and it was here that Alexander murdered his 
 own foster-brother, Clitus. The loca deserta Sogdianorum seem 
 to have been no less terrible than those of the Bactriani, judging 
 from the experiences of the flying column commanded b}’ Alex- 
 ander in person. John Brcnde shall again be our interpreter : — 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 31 
 
 1 In the wante of water (that hath bene declared before) 
 desperation moved them to thirst before they had desire to 
 drinke. For by the space of 1111 C furlonges they founde no 
 water at all. The vapoure of the Sunne, beynge in the somner 
 season, did so burne the sande that when it began to waxe bote 
 it starrhed all thinges as it had bene with a continuall fire. 
 And then the lyght somewhat obscured by a mist that rose out 
 of the arth by the immoderate heate, caused the playnes to 
 liaue appearaunce of a maine Sea. Their iourney in the nyght 
 seamed tollerable, because their bodyes were somewhat refresh- 
 ed with the dewe and the coolde of the mornynge. But when 
 the daye came and the heate rose, then the drought driying up 
 all ye natural humoures, both their moutlies and their bowels 
 were enflamed for heate. Then their hartes failed and their 
 bodies fainted, beynge in case that thei could neither stand styl, 
 nor passe forwardes. A few that were taught by suche as knew 
 the countrey, had gotten water whiche refreshed them some- 
 what, but as the heate encreased, so their desire grewe againe 
 to drinke.’ 
 
 After subduing Seistan and Afghanistan without much 
 difficulty except such as arose fi’om the severity of the climate, 
 Alexander appears to have crossed over into Bactria by the 
 Khawak Pass, at an altitude of 13,200 feet above the sea, 
 towards the close of the winter 330 — 329 b. c. The passage 
 over the mountains occupied the best part of a fortnight, nor 
 was it until the fifteenth day that his starved and exhausted 
 army came in sight of Adraspa. Bactria was speedily over- 
 run, but terrible sufferings were endured in traversing the burn- 
 ing and waterless desert that approaches almost to the very 
 bank of the Oxus. As all the boats within a considerable dis- 
 tance had been destroyed by Bessus, the river was crossed by 
 means of inflated skins, and shortly afterwards the murderer of 
 Darius was overtaken and captured by Ptolemy. Stript naked, 
 
32 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 loaded with chains, and his neck encircled by an iron collar, the 
 traitor was placed in a conspicuous position, and exposed to the 
 scorn and derision of the entire army as it defiled past him. lie 
 was then scourged and sent to Bactria, whence he was sub- 
 sequently conveyed into Persia and delivered into the hands of 
 the mother of Darius. By her orders, according to Plutarch, 
 four trees were bent down by main force, to each of which he 
 was attached by a limb. Suddenly the trees were released, and 
 springing back to their natural positions tore the wretched 
 man into shapeless fragments.* 
 
 From the Oxus Alexander marched straight on to Mara- 
 canda, or near the site of the modern Samarkand. No very 
 serious resistance was offered by the Sogdians, though the 
 Macedonian detachments were much harassed by desultory 
 attacks. The most difficult operations were the reduction of 
 Cyropolis on the Jaxartes, and the storming of an almost in- 
 accessible rock where Alexander himself was severely wounded 
 by an arrow. Within the space of three weeks the town of 
 Alexandreia Ultima was built at no great distance from Kho- 
 jend, to mark the limit of the Macedonian conquests in that 
 direction.' The Jaxartes also was crossed, and an idle victory 
 gained over the nomad Scythians, in which bootless expedition 
 his soldiers suffered greatly from thirst, and the king himself 
 was attacked with illness. A Macedonian brigade having in 
 the mean while been cut to pieces in Sogdiana by Spitamenes, 
 Alexander overran the fertile valley of the Polytimetus — the 
 Kohik, or Zarafshan, of later times — and put to the sword all 
 who came within reach of his vengeance. lie then re-crossed 
 the Oxus and wintered at Zariaspa, another name for Bactra or 
 Balkh. 
 
 The submission of the Sogdians, however, proved to be 
 
 * 15y other writers, however, Bessus is said to have been nailed to a cross 
 and pierced with arrows, at Ecbatana. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 33 
 
 merely nominal, for no sooner had he quitted their territory 
 than they broke out into open revolt. The greater part of the 
 following year — b. c. 328 — was consequently spent in repeating 
 the work of the preceding one, and it was now that occurred 
 the slaughter of the wild animals in the Royal Chace of Bazaria. 
 This year, too, was marked by that horrible debauch at Mara- 
 canda, at which Alexander slew with his own hand his foster- 
 brother Clitus, who had saved his life at the Battle of the 
 Granicus by cutting off 'with one sweep of his sword the up- 
 raised arm of Spithridates. During the early part of the winter 
 of 328 b. c. the Macedonian army rested from its labours at 
 Hautaka. The next feat of arms, in the spring of b. c. 327, 
 was the reduction of the well-nigh impregnable fort which 
 Archdeacon Will iams places in Bactria, while Bishop Thirlwall 
 alights upon it in Sogdiana, and whose chief peril to the con- 
 queror lay in the beauty of Roxana, daughter of the Bactrian 
 chief Oxyartes, ‘ said to have been, with the exception of the 
 wife of Darius, the loveliest woman seen by the Macedonians 
 during their Asiatic expedition.’ 
 
 The spring was spent chiefly at Bactria, where Alexander 
 united himself in marriage to Roxana, greatly to the disgust of 
 his Greek soldiery. The intoxicating influences of love, wine, 
 and success without a check, here impelled the king to excesses 
 bordering upon madness. Callisthenes, the nephew of Aristotle, 
 a somewhat impracticable republican — or ‘ philosopher,’ as he 
 would have preferred to be called — having ostentatiously re- 
 fused to adopt the Persian mode of prostration, inevitably in- 
 curred the displeasure of Alexander, too little used to opposition 
 to make allowances for the feelings of others. About the same 
 time Hermolaus, one of the royal pages, presumed to transfix 
 with a javelin a wild boar that had turned upon the king, and 
 for his officious loyalty was deprived of his horse and scourged. 
 
 Thirsting for revenge, Hermolaus conspired with some of his 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 brother pages, all of them youths of the best families of Greece, 
 to slay Alexander when he retired to rest. The king, however, 
 escaped that danger by sitting up all night carousing, and on 
 the morrow one of the conspirators, as usual in such cases, be- 
 trayed his accomplices. Hermolaus and his friends were put to 
 the torture, but nobly refused to implicate others in their guilt, 
 and were stoned to death. As the intimate friend of Hermo- 
 laus, Callisthenes also was subjected to torture, and afterwards 
 hanged, though no proof had been obtained of his complicity. 
 
 In the summer of 327 b. c. Alexander again crossed the 
 mountains, taking with him 30,000 recruits from Bactria and 
 Sogdiana, and marched to the conquest of the Punjab, leaving 
 Amyntas at Bactra with a reserve of 10,000 foot, and 3,500 
 horse. In Sogdiana he had built eight towns, each of which 
 was a fortified post, but his power over that province was con- 
 fined to the immediate vicinity of those garrisons. The moral 
 effects of his conquests, however, were more extensive and 
 durable, and have been thus succinctty summed up : — ‘ Those 
 nations had not been civilized, had they not been vanquished 
 by Alexander. He taught marriage to the Hyrcanians, and 
 agriculture to the Arachosii ; he instructed the Sogdians to 
 maintain, and not to kill, their parents ; the Persians to respect, 
 and not to marry, their mothers ; the Scythians to bury, and 
 not to cat, their dead.’ 
 
 The name of the great Sikunder is still revered in the dis- 
 tant East, and the chiefs of the petty principalities <o the north 
 of the Hindoo Koosli affect to claim descent from the Macedo- 
 nian conqueror, while the people of Kafiristan pride themselves 
 on the exploits of their Grecian ancestors — though, apparently, 
 with little reason. A title commonly bestowed upon Alexander 
 by Arab writers is that of Sikunder Zulkarnain, or Dhulkarnain, 
 that is, the two-horned, in allusion to his pretensions as the son 
 of Jupiter Ammon, represented on his coins by the ram’s horns 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 35 
 
 affixed to liis head. Colonel Yule hence derives the origin of 
 the old English word ‘ dulcarnon,’ synonymous with dilemma, 
 and which is still used, he says, in that sense in some parts of 
 England. In Chaucer’s poem of ‘Troylus and Cresside,’ it 
 occurs in the following passage : 
 
 * But whether that ye dwell, or for him go, 
 
 I am till God me better minde sende. 
 
 At dulcarnon, right at my wittes end.’ 
 
 The era of the Seleucidoe is also called by the Arab historians 
 the Taarish-dhulkarnain, but less with reference to Alexander’s 
 horns than to the strength of Seleucus N icator, of whom it was 
 alleged that he could stop a hull in full career by seizing him. 
 by the horns. 
 
 On the death of Alexander, b. c. 321, Parthia and Ilyrcania 
 fell to Phrataphernes, Bactria and Sogdiana to Philip, hut by 
 the year 305 b. c. Seleucus had brought beneath his sway, 
 Media, Assyria, Persia, Hyrcania, Bactria, and all the coimtry 
 eastward as far as the Indus. Some sixty years later, or b. c. 
 256, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom was established, which 
 flourished for nearly one hundred years, until it was overthrown 
 by an irruption of the Scythians, who were, in their turn, ex- 
 pelled by the Parthians, and finally settled in a district called 
 after them, Sacastene by the Greeks and Sakasthan by the In- 
 dians, and which corresponds with the Drangiana of Alexan- 
 der’s time, and the Seistan of our own. 
 
 The Parthian kingdom was virtually founded by Arsaces 
 about the same time that Theodotus achieved the independence 
 of Bactriana, though it was not recognized by Antiochus the 
 Great until about 208 b. c. The dynasty of Arsaces maintained 
 their position for nearly 480 years. Mithridates, the sixth 
 monarch of that race, ruled from the Euphrates to the Indus ; 
 while Orodes, the eleventh king, destroyed Crassus and his 
 
36 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 legions.* But tlie thirtieth sovereign, Artahenes IV., became 
 involved in war with the Roman emperor Macrinus, and was so 
 crippled in his resources that, A. D. 226, he was defeated, taken 
 prisoner, and put to death by a Persian chief named Ardesheer 
 (Artaxerxes), whose descendants were called Sassanides from his 
 immediate ancestor Sassan, fabled to be the son of Isfundear 
 (Xerxes) the son of Gushtasp (Darius Hystaspes). This suc- 
 cessful adventurer revived the Magian religion, and terminated 
 the glories of the Parthian name. He was also the first to 
 assume the title of Shah-in-Shah, or King of kings, a titular 
 distinction claimed by his successors on the throne of Persia 
 down to our own times. 
 
 Before proceeding to briefly sketch the chief incidents 
 belonging to the history of the Sassanides so far as it is con- 
 nected with that of Central Asia, it may be worth while to say 
 a few words in explanation of the Scythian irruption which 
 so abruptly terminated the existence of the Greco-Bactrian 
 kingdom. According to Colonel Yule, about the middle of the 
 2nd century before the Christian era, the Iliongnu Scythians, 
 dwelling on the northern frontier of China, dispossessed of their 
 lands the Yuechi, a Tibetan race lying a little to the south- 
 west. The latter migrated to the Hi, and dislodged the Sze ; 
 but a few years later the Usoon were also driven by the 
 Iliongnu to the banks of the Ili, and both the Yuechi and 
 the Sze were hurled, as it were, upon Sogdiana, whence they 
 overflowed to the foot of the Afghan mountains, which, in- 
 deed, they finally crossed in their onward progress. From 
 that date the whole of Central Asia, as that phrase is undcr- 
 
 * ‘The frontier,’ says Sir John Malcolm, ‘ which the kingdom of Parfhia 
 presented to the Roman Empire, extended from the Caspian Sea to the Per- 
 sian Gulf. It consists of lofty and barren mountains, of rapid and broad 
 streams, and of wide-spreading deserts. In whatever direction the legions of 
 Rome advanced, the country was laid waste.’ 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 37 
 
 stood in common parlance, remained for several centuries under 
 Scytho-Chinese domination, until Kkosroo Nousheerwan over- 
 ran Transoxiana to tlie remote mountainous parts of Fergliana 
 or Kkokan. 
 
 Towards the latter part of the 6th century the Tou-Kioue 
 or Toorks supplanted the Chinese, better known as the llaia- 
 thalah (Ephthalites, or White Iluns), who became broken up 
 into twenty-seven small States recognizing the supremacy of 
 the Toorkish Khakan. 
 
 To this group of j»ffs/-independent principalities Iliouen 
 Stsang gave the collective name of Tou-ho-lo, or Tokhara, 
 which survived in the Mohammedan Tokkaristan as late as the 
 13th century. Under the Haiatkalak the religion of Zoroaster 
 had given way to that of Buddha, and the celebrated Buddhist 
 Pilgrim just named mentions colossal images and convents at 
 Termedk, Khulm, Balkh, and Bamian.* 
 
 The Sassanian dynasty commenced a.d. 226 with Arde- 
 sheer Babigan — that is, the son of Babec, — whose son and suc- 
 cessor Shahpoor, the Sapor of Greek historians, took prisoner 
 the Emperor Valerian, and founded the city of Nisbapoor in 
 Kkorassan near the famous Turquoise mines. The descendants 
 of this monarch figure largely in the annals of the Byzantine Em- 
 pire, though under names slightly corrupted, as Ilormisdas for 
 Hormuz, Varanes for Baharam, Isdigertes for Yezdijerd, Peroses 
 for Feroze, and Cahades for Kobad. In the reign of the third 
 Hormuz the region comprised between the Oxus and the Jax- 
 artes, between the Caspian Sea and China, changed its old name 
 
 * The Toorks are said to be descended from the Hiongnu, or Huns, whose 
 aggressiveness towards their less turbulent neighbours caused the overthrow 
 of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. They have been described as a round-headed, 
 flat-nosed people, with long, narrow, oblique eyes, prominent cheekbones, 
 thick lips, huge ears, and very white and sound teeth : in other words, as ex- 
 hibiting the Mongolian type of features. 
 
38 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 of Turan for that of Toorkestan. The former appellation is de- 
 rived by Persian romance-writers from Toor the son of Feridoon, 
 a prince of the mythical Peishdadian dynasty which com- 
 menced with Kaiomurs, Noah’s grandson, who held his court at 
 Balkh. 
 
 The sixteenth monarch of the Sassanian line, Feroze or 
 Peroses, twice waged war upon the Toorks by whose assistance 
 he had dethroned and murdered his elder brother Hormuz. In 
 his first campaign he lost his army in the desert into which it 
 had been led by the patriotic treachery of a Toorkish chief, who 
 had imitated, no doubt unconsciously, the example of Zopyrus. 
 Feroze was permitted to return to his own territories on pledg- 
 ing his royal word to live in peace for the future with his 
 magnanimous neighbour. He proved false, however, to his 
 plighted honour, and shortly afterwards re-crossed the Oxus with 
 a formidable army. On this occasion the Toorks anticipated 
 the stratagem employed by Bruce at Bannockburn, and in 
 their rear excavated a broad deep trench, concealed beneath 
 grass and shrubs, with a few pathways of solid earth left as 
 bridges. Across these the Toorks fled in seeming panic on the 
 approach of the Persians, who rushed forward, as they sup- 
 posed, to an assured victory and were precipitated into the 
 trench, where Feroze and many thousands of his troops were 
 easily slaughtered. 
 
 Ilis son Kobad became a disciple of the false prophet 
 Mazdak, who preached community of wives and property, and 
 the most advanced socialistic doctrines. For this lie was de- 
 posed by his nobles and thrown into prison, but, escaping to 
 the Toorks, was by them replaced on the throne. Ivobad, or 
 Cabades, subsequently waged successful war against the Em- 
 peror Anastasius, and built the town of Gunjah in Georgia, now a 
 llussian fort. ‘ What a change,’ Sir John Malcolm exclaims, 
 
 * has the lapse of some centuries produced. The Empire of Persia, 
 
EARLY niSTORY. 
 
 39 
 
 the great rival of the Romans, now appears unable to resist the 
 tide of civilization and of conquest which comes on her, not 
 from the fountain of early knowledge, the East, or the learned 
 West, but from the frozen regions of the North ; from a land 
 unknown to her historians, long inhabited by wretched and 
 savage tribes of ignorant barbarians, who, — from a combination 
 of powerful causes, the genius of some of their sovereigns, the 
 example of Southern Europe, and the influence of a religion 
 which has everywhere improved the condition of mankind, — 
 have overcome all those natural obstacles which opposed their 
 rise, and started, as by magic, into great and imperial power.’ 
 
 Kobad’s son, the great Nousheerwan, effectually stopped the 
 spread of socialism by sending its apostle, Mazdak, to execution, 
 and by dealing very summarily with his followers. This prince 
 was impressed with the value of learning, and afforded generous 
 encouragement to men of letters. In his reign Pilpay’s Fables 
 were first translated into the Persian language, through which 
 they became known to the nations of Europe. In his wars with 
 Justinian, Nousheerwan gained considerable successes until the 
 genius of Belisarius turned the tide of victory. The whole of 
 Transoxiana was annexed to Persia, and order prevailed to the 
 extreme frontiers of Bokhara. Few despots have exhibited a 
 nobler disposition than this illustrious monarch, and it is written 
 that Mohammed pronounced himself fortunate in being boni in 
 the reign of so just a prince. 
 
 Under his son Hormuz III. the Toorks endeavoured to re- 
 cover their independence, and even invaded the Persian terri- 
 tories, but were signally overthrown, and their Khakhan, being 
 taken prisoner, was deprived of sight and then strangled by the 
 bowstring. 
 
 The next king of this liue, Khosroo Purveez, — the Chosroes 
 of the Greeks, — underwent both extremes of fortune. He com- 
 menced his reign by expelling the usurper Baharam-Choubeen 
 
40 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 and chasing him across the Oxus. His next exploit was the 
 capture of Jerusalem, after which he gave himself up to luxury 
 and ostentation. Mohammed, his grandfather’s admirer, ad- 
 dressed to him a letter bidding him renounce his false religion 
 and become a convert to Islam. This strange missive Khosroo 
 contemptuously tore tip, and flung the fragments into the 
 Karasu. He acted with less spirit, however, in his contest 
 with Heraclius, taking at last to ignominious flight. His end 
 was miserable. He was cast into prison and murdered by the 
 orders of his own son, Shiroueh, or Siroes, A.n. 628. 
 
 After the death of Khosroo the throne of Persia was occu- 
 pied by a rapid succession of weak rulers, under whom general 
 misrule prevailed throughout the land. The choice of the 
 nobles at last fell upon Yezdijerd, who is supposed to have been 
 a grandson of Khosroo Purveez, but who was simply a puppet 
 in their hands. He was the last of the Sassanides. In his 
 reign the flood of Arab conquest swept alike over the mountains 
 of Persia and the deserts and oases of Central Asia. The pro- 
 vince of Khorassan was promised by Khalif Othman to whom- 
 soever should bring it under the true faith. In the sonorous 
 phraseology of Gibbon, * the condition was accepted ; the prize 
 was deserved ; the standard of Mohammed was planted on the 
 walls of Herat, Merou, and Balch ; and the successful leader 
 neither halted nor reposed till his foaming cavalry had tasted 
 the waters of the Oxus.’ 
 
 The unhappy Yezdijerd fled after the decisive battle of 
 Cadesia to Ferghana, where sympathy was expressed for mis- 
 fortunes that betokened a common danger. ‘ The king of Sa- 
 marcand, with the Turkish tribes of Sogdiana and Scythia, were 
 moved by the lamentations and promises of the fallen monarch ; 
 and he solicited, by a suppliant embassy, the more solid and 
 powerful friendship of the Emperor of China. The virtuous 
 Taitsong, the first of the dynasty of Tang, may be justly com- 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 41 
 
 pared with the Antonines of Rome : his people enjoyed the 
 blessings of prosperity and peace ; and his dominion was ac- 
 knowledged by forty-four hordes of the barbarians of Tar- 
 tary. His last garrisons of Cashgar and Klioten maintained 
 a frequent intercourse with their neighbours of the Jax- 
 artes and Oxus ; a recent colony of Persians had introduced 
 into China the astronomy of the Magi ; and Taitsong might be 
 alarmed by the rapid progress and dangerous vicinity of the 
 Arabs.* 
 
 Yezdijerd, however, was too impatient to await the arrival 
 of his Chinese auxiliaries, and retraced his steps to Merv at the 
 head of a tumultuous body of Toorks. It is not an easy task to 
 unravel the confused accounts that have reached us of the tragic 
 events that followed. It is only apparent that the last of the 
 Sassauides was compelled to flee for his life from his own bar- 
 barous allies, and was put to death, while he slept, by a miller, 
 for the sake of his armour. Ilis body was flung into the mill 
 dam, whence it was extracted a few days later by the penitent 
 citizens of Merv, and sent to Istakhar to be interred in the 
 royal burying-place, while the covetous miller underwent the 
 fate he had inflicted upon his unconscious and confiding victim. 
 The Magian religion was now extinguished throughout Persia, 
 where it had flourished for twelve centuries, and is now pre- 
 served only in the wealthy community of the Parsees, and in a 
 few scattered districts of the ancient Iran. 
 
 Feroze, the son of Yezdijerd, was content to lead a life of 
 inglorious security as Captain of the body-guard of the Emperor 
 of China ; and his son, also, after a faint and fruitless attempt 
 to recover his hereditary dominions, ended his days as a pen- 
 sioner of that court. Yezdijerd’s two daughters married, the 
 one Hassan, the son of Ali, Mohammed’s son-in-law, and the 
 other Mohammed, the son of Aboubekr, the father of Ayesha, 
 while the daughter of Feroze became the wife of the Ehalif 
 
42 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Walid, and thus ‘ the race of the caliphs and imams was en- 
 nobled by the blood of their royal mothers.’ 
 
 The Sassanian dynasty reigned over Persia for 415 years, 
 but their power extended beyond the Oxus under the ablest 
 princes of the race, and Sir John Malcolm asserts that ‘their 
 memory is still cherished by a nation whose ancient glory is 
 associated with the names of Ardisheer, Shahpoor, and Nou- 
 sheerwan.’ Be that as it may, although the final victory of the 
 Arabs was achieved at Nehavund, a.d. 651, or in the year of 
 the Hijra 28, it was not until a.d. 706 that Transoxiana, or, 
 as it then came to be called, Mawaralnahr, was finally sub- 
 dued by Walid’s lieutenant Kotaiba Ibn Moslem, or Catibah, 
 ‘ the camel-driver,’ who imposed upon the infidels a tribute of 
 two millions of pieces of gold, broke or burnt their idols, de- 
 livered a sermon in the mosque of Khwarezm or Khiva, drove 
 the Toorkish hordes to the desert, and overawed the Chinese. 
 
 ‘ To their (the victorious Arabs) industry, the prosperity of 
 the province, the Sogdiana of the ancients, may in a great mea- 
 sure be ascribed, but the advantages of the soil and climate had 
 been understood and cultivated since the reign of the Mace- 
 donian kings. Before the invasion of the Saracens, Carizme, 
 Bocliara, and Samarcand were rich and populous under the 
 yoke of the shepherds of the North. These cities were sur- 
 rounded with a double wall ; and the exterior fortification, of a 
 larger circumference, enclosed the fields and gardens of the 
 adjacent district. The mutual wants of India and Europe were 
 supplied by the diligence of the Sogdian merchants, and the 
 inestimable art of transforming linen into paper has been dif- 
 fused from the manufacture of Samarcand over the western 
 world.’ 
 
 There is, doubtless, some degree of truth in this ornate pic- 
 ture, but it is strange that so keen a critic as Gibbon did not 
 see in the necessity of an ‘exterior fortification’ irresistible 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 43 
 
 evidence of the unsettled state of the country, and of the gener- 
 al insecurity of life and property. That double line of circum- 
 vallation has been noticed by modern travellers, but no one has 
 ventured to cite the fact as a proof of order and prosperity. 
 The manufacture of linen paper, it may be added, was not in- 
 troduced into Samarkand from China until the middle of the 
 seventh century, or about twenty-five years before Saad, the 
 Mussulman Governor of Ivhorassan, made his entry into that 
 city, and it had long before been in use among the Persians. 
 The ‘ shepherds of the north ’ were not likely to place a high 
 value upon the possession of an ‘inestimable art,’ which had 
 nothing to do with the rearing of sheep or horses. It was cer- 
 tainly through the Arabs that paper made from linen first found 
 its way into Europe from the far East. 
 
 At the same time it sufficiently appears from Colonel Yule’s 
 exceedingly interesting book on ‘ Cathay and the Way Thither,’ 
 that in the sixth century the Toorkish Court had attained to a 
 high degree of semi-barbarous magnificence. That learned and 
 accomplished geographer quotes a fragment of Menander Pro- 
 tector, in which it is related how the Toorks sent an embassy 
 to the Emperor Justinian at Byzantium. The Sogdians had 
 previously prevailed upon Dizabulus, the great Khan of the 
 Toorks, who had won their country from the Ephthalites or 
 White Huns, to endeavour to obtain permission from Nousheer- 
 wan, King of Persia, to carry their silken goods into his ter- 
 ritories, as to a new market. That monarch, however, was 
 advised by his counsellors that ‘ it would be highly inexpedient 
 for the Persians to enter into friendly relations with the Turks, 
 for the whole race of the Scythians was not to be trusted.’ 
 Poison was consequently administered to the unfortunate envoys, 
 and in most instances with fatal effect, ‘ whilst the king caused 
 it to be whispered about among the Persians that the Turkish 
 ambassadors had died of the suffocating dry heat of the Persian 
 
44 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 climate ; for their own country was subject to frequent falls 
 of snow, and they could not exist except in a cold climate.' 
 The Khan was not deceived, but was compelled to dissemble his 
 indignation, and to content himself with despatching to By- 
 zantium the chief man among the Sogdians, named Maniach, 
 in company with an envoy from his own court, in order to 
 ‘ cultivate the friendship of the Romans, and to transfer the 
 sale of silk to them, seeing also that they consumed it more 
 largely than any other people. . . And thus it was that 
 
 the nation of the Turks became friends with the Romans.’ 
 
 These friendly overtures were well received, and a return 
 embassy under Zemarchus was despatched by the Emperor 
 Justinian to the Toorks, ‘ who were anciently called Sacae.’ 
 On the arrival of the Byzantine ambassadors in Sogdiana, they 
 were presented with some specimens of iron from the Sogdian 
 mines, which they appear to have regarded as a piece of brag 
 on the part of the barbarians. Colonel Yule, however, suggests 
 that they were simply presented with the bar, or lump, of iron, 
 annually forged by the Toorks in memory of their original 
 settlement on the Altai Mountains, where they worked as 
 smiths and armourers in the service of the Khan of the Geugen. 
 Zemarchus, his suite and baggage, were then purified from all 
 evil intents by passing between two fires, and at last reached 
 the camp of Dizabulus pitched in a valley beyond the Jaxartes, 
 perhaps at Ming Bulak, or, the Thousand Springs ; though Sir 
 ITenry Rawlinson is probably more correct in placing the 
 Khakhan’s encampment at the foot of the Ak-tagh, or White 
 Mountains, to the north of Samarkand. 
 
 The envoys were at once conducted to the Khakhan’s tent, 
 in which they found him ‘ seated on a golden chair with two 
 wheels, which could be drawn by one horse when required.’ 
 The audience being over, they were invited to a feast, and 
 spent the rest of the day convivially, in a tent that ‘ was 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 45 
 
 furnished with silken hangings of various colours artfully 
 wrought. They were supplied with wine, not pressed from the 
 grape like ours, for their country does not produce the vine, 
 nor is it customary among them to use grape wine, but what 
 they got to drink was some other kind of barbarian liquor. . . 
 Next day again they assembled in another pavilion, adorned in 
 like manner with rich hangings of silk, in which figures of 
 different kinds were wrought. Dizabulus was seated on a couch 
 that was all of gold, and in the middle of the pavilion were 
 drinking vessels, and flagons, and great jars, all of gold. So 
 they engaged in another drinking match, talking and listening 
 to such purpose as people do in their drink, and then separated. 
 The following day there was another bout in a pavilion supported 
 by wooden posts covered with gold, and in which there was a 
 gilded throne resting on four golden peacocks. In front of the 
 place of meeting there was a great array of waggons in which 
 there was a huge quantity of silver articles, consisting of plates 
 and dishes, besides numerous figures of animals in silver, in no 
 respect inferior to our own. To such a pitch has attained the 
 luxury of the Toorkish sovereign.’ 
 
 To foreign artisans, however, rather than to his own may be 
 fairly attributable the beauty of his ‘ silver articles,’ the spoils 
 of plundered cities. On their homeward journey, Justinian’s 
 envoys are said to have reached ‘ the Oech,’ or Oxus, and then 
 ‘ the great and wide lagoon,’ evidently the Aral. Crossing the 
 Ust Urt they at last came to the Volga, and finally took ship at 
 Trapezus, or Trebizond, for Byzantium. Sir Henry Rawlinson, it 
 may he remarked, maintains that Zemarchus passed over the bed 
 of the Aral, without being aware that it was a sea, and is of 
 opinion that the ambassador took nearly a bee line from the 
 Toorkish encampment to the Volga. But in that case, how 
 came he to sight the Oech, or Oxus ? 
 
46 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MAWARALNAHR IN THE 10TH CENTURY — BOKHARA SAMARKAND — 
 
 KHWAREZM — THE GHUZ — IBN MOHALHAL’S TRAVELS — THE SAMANIDES — 
 THE GHUZNEEVIDES — THE SELJOOK DYNASTY — ALP ARSLAN — MALEK 
 SHAH — SANJAR — KINGDOM OF KHWAREZM— CONQUEST OF MAWARALNAHR 
 BY THE MOGHULS — JEI.AL-OOD-DEEN. 
 
 Although the Moslem supremacy was established by Kotaiba 
 over the whole of Mawaralnahr, or the region ‘ beyond the 
 river ’ (Oxus), in the first decade of the eighth century, the small 
 Chinese States grouped together as Tokhara, or Tokharistan, 
 continued for many years afterwards to send envoys to Singanfu 
 in token of their faithful allegiance, and it was not until A. I). 
 760 that tribute was paid to the Klialif by the petty principali- 
 ties in the valleys of the upper Oxus. 
 
 The condition of Mawaralnabr in the tenth century is 
 depicted by the Arab traveller Ibn Haukal — as translated by 
 Sir William Ouseley — in the most glowing colours. The 
 inhabitants are represented as ' people of probity and virtue, 
 averse from evil and fond of peace.’ Such was the productive- 
 ness of the soil that every year enough corn was laid up to 
 compensate for deficient harvests in ‘ the other regions.’ 
 
 * Every kind of fruit and meat,’ writes the enthusiastic 
 wanderer, ‘ abounds there ; and the water is most delicious. The 
 cattle are excellent ; the sheep from Turkestan, Gliaznicn, and 
 Samarcand, are highly esteemed in all places. Maweralnalir 
 affords raw silk, wool, and (goats’) hair in great quantities. Its 
 
MAWARALNAHR. 
 
 47 
 
 mines yield silver and tin, or lead, abundantly ; and they are 
 better than the other mines, except those of silver at Penjhir ; 
 but Maweralnahr affords the best copper and quicksilver, and 
 other similar productions of mines ; and the mines of sal 
 ammoniac (used in tinning and soldering) in all Iv bora sail (sic) 
 are there. Like the paper made at Samarcand, there is not any 
 to be found elsewhere. So abundant are the fruits of Soghd 
 and Astersheineh and Ferghanah and Chaje (or Sliash) that 
 they are given to the cattle as food. Musk is brought from 
 Tibbet, and sent to all parts. Fox-skins, sable, and ermine- 
 skins, are all to be found at the bazaars of Maweralnahr. Such 
 is the generosity and liberality of the inhabitants, that no one 
 turns aside from the rites of hospitality ; so that a person con- 
 templating them in this light would imagine that all the families 
 in the land were but one house . . . You cannot see any town, 
 or stage, or even desert, in Maweralnahr, without a convenient 
 inn, or stage-house, for the accommodation of travellers, with 
 everything necessary. I have heard that there are above 2000 
 robats, or inns, in Mawaralnahr, where as many persons as may 
 arrive shall find sufficient forage for their beasts and meat for 
 themselves. 5 
 
 Ibn Ilaukal mentions also a palace in the valley of Soghd, 
 the doors of which were fastened back to the wall with nails, and 
 had been so for upwards of a hundred years, to allow strangers 
 to enter at all hours of the day or night. lie had heard, too, 
 he says, that in Mawaralnahr there were 300,000 Kulabs, each 
 furnishing one horse and one foot soldier, ‘ and the absence of 
 these men when they go forth is not felt, or is not perceptible, 
 in the country. 5 And though the people were so well-to-do, 
 many farmers possessing from one to five hundred head of 
 cattle, they were remarkable for their docility and orderly con- 
 duct. ‘ At all time the Turk soldiers had the precedence of 
 every other race, and the Khalifs always chose them on account 
 
48 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 of their excellent services, their obedient disposition, their 
 bravery, and their fidelity.’ 
 
 ‘In all the regions of the earth,’ continues our traveller, 
 
 ‘ there is not a more flourishing or a more delightful country 
 than this, especially the district of Bokhara. If a person stand 
 on the Kohendiz (or ancient castle) of Bokhara, and cast his 
 eyes around, he shall not see anything hut beautiful green and 
 luxuriant verdure on every side of the country ; so that he 
 would imagine the green of the earth and the azure of the 
 heavens were united : and as there are green fields in every 
 quarter, so there are villas interspersed among the green fields. 
 And in all Khorasan and Maweralnahr there are not any people 
 more long-lived than those of Bokhara. It is said that in all 
 the world there is not any place more delightful (or salu- 
 brious) than these three : one, the Soghd of Samarcand ; another, 
 the Bud Aileh ; and the third, the Ghouteh of Damascus.’ 
 
 For his part, Ihn Haukal gives the preference to the first 
 of the three, which ‘for eight days’ journey is all delightful 
 country, affording fine prospects, and full of gardens, and 
 orchards, and villages, corn-fields, and villas, and running 
 streams, reservoirs and fountains, both on the right hand and 
 on the left. You pass from corn-fields into rich meadows 
 and pasture lands ; and the Soghd is far more healthy than 
 the Bud Aileh, or the Ghouteh of Dameshk ; and the fruits 
 of Soghd are the finest in the world. Among the hills and 
 palaces flow running streams, gliding between the trees. In 
 Ferghanah and Chaje (or Shash), in the mountains between 
 Ferghanah and Turkestan, there are all kinds of fruits and 
 herbs and flowers, and various species of the violet ; all these 
 it is lawful for any one who passes by, to pull and gather. In 
 Siroushteh there are flowers of an uncommon species.’ 
 
 Descending to details, Ibn Ilaukal informs us that ‘ Bokhara 
 is called Bounheket : it is situated on a plain ; the houses arc of 
 
MAWARALNAHR. 
 
 49 
 
 wood, and it abounds in villas and gardens and orchards ; and 
 the villages are as close to one another as the groves and 
 gardens, extending for near 12 farsaug by 12 farsang : all 
 about this space is a wall, and within it the people dwell winter 
 and summer ; and there is not to be seen one spot uncultivated, 
 or in decay. Outside this there is another wall, with a small 
 town and a castle, in which the Samanian family, who wero 
 governors of Khorasan, resided. This kohendiz, or castle, has 
 ramparts, a mosque, and bazaar. In all Maweralnahr, or Kho- 
 rasan, there is not any place more populous and flourishing 
 than Bokhara. The river of Soglid runs through the midst of 
 it, and passes on to the mills and meadows, and the borders of 
 Beikend : and much of it falls into a pond, or pool, near 
 Beikend, at a place called Sam Kous.’ 
 
 In the inner wall there were seven gates, in the outer twelve. 
 In all directions flowed canals of irrigation derived from the 
 luain stream, on one of which were situated ‘ near 2000 villas 
 and gardens, exclusive of corn-fields and meadows.’ ‘ There is 
 not any hill or desert ; all is laid out in castles, villas, gardens, 
 cornfields, and orchards. The wood which they use for fuel is 
 brought from their gardens, and they burn also reeds and 
 rushes. The grounds of Bokhara and of Soghd are all in the 
 vicinity of water ; whence it happens that their trees do not 
 arrive at any considerable height ; but the fruits of Bokhara 
 are more excellent than the fruits of any part of Mawaralnahr.’ 
 There was a saying that never had the coffin, or bier, of a prince 
 been brought out of the kohendiz of Bokhara, and that no one 
 who was once confined within those walls was ever seen again. 
 
 Scarcely less ecstatic is Ibn Ilaukal’s description of Samar- 
 kand, situated on the south side of the Kohik or Zarafshan. It 
 boasted of a castle, of spacious suburbs, and of extensive fortifi- 
 cations, pierced for four gates. The city was surrounded -with 
 a deep ditch, and rivulets of water flowed through the streets 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 and bazaars. ‘ There are many villas and orchards, and very 
 few of the .palaces are without gardens, so that if a person 
 should go to the kohendiz, and from that look around, he w ould 
 find that the villas and palaces were covered, as it were, with 
 trees; and 'even the streets and shops and banks of the streams 
 are all planted with trees. . . The houses of Samarkand are 
 made of clay and wood : the inhabitants are remarkable for 
 their beauty : they are gentle and polite in their manner, and 
 of amiable dispositions.’ 
 
 According to local tradition, a nephew of the king of Yemen, 
 named Samar, had besieged for a whole year a castle on the 
 Jyhoon, but seemed as far off as ever from success. It chanced, 
 however, that the custodian of one of the gates was one day 
 made prisoner, and brought before the prince. In reply to the 
 questions put to him, this man stated that the king was nearly 
 always in a state of helpless inebriety, and that the government 
 was administered by his daughter. Thereupon Samar sent him 
 back to the princess, the bearer of a golden casket filled with 
 gems, and of a letter in which he offered her marriage, and in 
 proof of his sincerity promised to present her beforehand with 
 4000 chests full of gold. The princess accordingly agreed to 
 open one of the gates, through which defiled one thousand 
 donkeys, with a heavy chest slung on either side, and each 
 driven by a man rudely but sufficiently armed. In each chest, 
 however, instead of gold, two armed men were concealed, and 
 at a given signal, all these descended from their hiding-places 
 and set upon the unsuspicious garrison, making, besides, a 
 hideous uproar with the bells with which they had been 
 sagaciously provided. The place was speedily taken, the king 
 slain, and the princess reduced to captivity. The castle was 
 destroyed, and a city built upon the site, called by Samar after 
 his own name, Samarkand, or Samar’s town. It may be here 
 
MAWARALNAHR. 
 
 51 
 
 parenthetically mentioned that the post-fix ‘ kend, kund, or 
 ‘ kanda ’ signifies ‘a town,’ as Taskkcnd, or ‘ Stonetown. 
 
 Ibn Ilaukal has also a good word to say for Khiva. * Khwa- 
 rezm,’ he writes, * is a town well supplied with provisions, and 
 abounding in fruits. . . Linen and wool are manufactured 
 
 there, and also brocade. The inhabitants are people of high 
 reputation and polished manners : the men of Khwarezm are 
 great travellers ; there is not any town in Khorasan without a 
 colony of them. The lower parts of the land of Ghuz belong 
 to Khwarezm ; the inhabitants are active and hardy. The 
 wealth of Khwarezm is derived from its commerce and mer- 
 chandise. They have carpets of Siklab and of Kliozr, and they 
 bring to Khwarezm from Khozr the skins of foxes and martins, 
 sables and ermines.’ 
 
 Ibn Mohalhal, a contemporary of Ibn Ilaukal, also makes 
 mention of the Ghuz, ‘ whose city is of stone, timber, and reeds. 
 They have,’ he continues, * a temple, but no images. Their 
 king is very powerful, and trades with India and China. Their 
 clothes are of linen and camels’ hair. They have no wool. They 
 have a white stone, which is good for colic, and a red stone 
 which, by touching a sword, prevents it from cutting. The 
 route lay securely for one month through this country,’ which 
 Colonel Yule places to the east of the Sea of Aral ; and he adds 
 that, in the reign of Constantine Ducas, the Ghuz, or Uz, pene- 
 trated into Macedonia, and received large sums of money from 
 that emperor to induce them to retire. On their way home they 
 were cut to pieces by the Pechinegs, called the Bajnak by Ibn 
 Mohalhal, and described as ‘a people with beards and mous- 
 tachios.’ The Pechinegs were much dreaded by Constantine 
 Porphyrogenitus, in whose reign they were encamped on the 
 Dnieper and the Dniester, having been driven from their pre- 
 vious settlements on the Volga and the Yaek, or Ural, by the 
 
52 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 very Gliuz upon "whom they now wreaked such terrible 
 vengeance, and who were actually Toorkomans. 
 
 This Aboo Doolif Misr Ibn Mohalhal, says Colonel Yule, 
 was at the Court of Nasri or Nusser Bin Ahmed Bin Ismail, 
 the third of the Samanides, and was present at the audience ac- 
 corded to the ambassadors who were sent from China to Bokhara 
 to offer the hand of a Chinese Princess to Nasri’s son and suc- 
 cessor, Ameer Noah. Ibn Mohalhal accompanied the embassy 
 on its return to China about the middle of the 10th century, and 
 wrote a narrative of his travels, which may still be consulted 
 with interest and advantage. 
 
 After quitting the territory of the Ghuz, he came to that of 
 the Taghazghaz, a powerful Toorkee tribe occupying the district 
 afterwards known as Uigur, who eat flesh both raw and cooked, 
 and wore woollen and cotton garments. No temples were seen 
 in this land, the inhabitants of which paid great attention to 
 their horses. They had a stone which had the virtue of stop- 
 ping bleeding at the nose. "When a rainbow appeared, they 
 held high festival — rejoicing, no doubt, in any sign of moisture. 
 In praying, they turned to the west. Their standards were 
 black. On the summit of the king’s castle was erected a round 
 structure, gilded all over, and large enough to contain a hun- 
 dred men. To traverse this country was the work of twenty 
 days, during which travellers went in fear of their lives. 
 
 Next to the Taghazghaz where the Khirkiz, who possessed 
 temples and retained so much of the Magian superstitions that 
 they never willingly extinguished a light. In prayer they 
 •looked to the south, and are described as worshipping the 
 planets Saturn and Venus, and as prophesying by Mars. Musk 
 in small quantities was procurable, but the most remarkable 
 product of the country was a stone that shone in the dark, and 
 was consequently used as a lamp. The Khirkiz kept three 
 festivals in the year ; their standards were of a green colour ; 
 
MAW All A LX A I1R. 
 
 53 
 
 and their civilization so far advanced that they were possessed 
 of a written character. So great was their veneration for 
 royalty, that no one under forty years of age was permitted to 
 sit down in the king’s presence. 
 
 The nearest neighbours of the Khirkiz on the other side 
 were the Ilazlakh, a nation of gamblers, who would stake 
 mother, wife, and daughter on the chance of a throw. Chastity 
 was by no means conspicuous among the female portion of the 
 community, whose attentions to strangers appear to have ex- 
 ceeded the most extravagant eccentricities of hospitality. It is 
 suggested by Colonel Yule that Ibn Mohalhal’s Ilazlakh were 
 probably identical with the Kharlikhs, a potent tribe dwelling 
 to the north of Ferghi.ni, or Khokan. Then he crossed the 
 frontiers of the valiant Ivhathlakh, who married their own 
 sisters, and consigned adulterers to the flames. The wife was 
 endowed with the entire property of her husband, who had, 
 besides, to win her by one year’s servitude to her father. 
 Neither the king nor widows could venture upon matrimony. 
 The usage of blood money prevailed among them, and miti- 
 gated feelings of vindictiveness. 
 
 The Khatiyan — doubtless the people of Khotan — are next 
 described, whose refinement was so great that they could eat 
 none but cooked meat. They had no king and were a law 
 unto themselves. Dyed garments were repulsive to their 
 taste. They had musk, and bezoar, and a stone that cured 
 snake bites. 
 
 The last tribe before reaching the confines of China were the 
 Bahi (the Bai, dwelling between Aksu and Kucha), whose 
 country is called by Marco Polo ‘ the province of Pein,’ a fer- 
 tile region abounding with palms and vines. The capital city 
 was large and populous, and its citizens were of many creeds, 
 Jews, Christians, Mohammedans, Hindoos, and Magians. 
 Indigo was successfully cultivated, but the rarest objects were a 
 
54 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 green stone that was good for weak eyes, and a red stone that 
 acted beneficially upon the spleen. At the present day the 
 sheep farms and felt manufactures of this district are renowned 
 throughout Eastern Toorkestan. 
 
 Quite at the commencement of the 9th century the Khalif 
 Ool Mamoun, happening to be at Merv, was favourably im- 
 pressed with the character and abilities of Ahmed, the son of 
 Saman, a descendant of the Sassanian usurper Baharam-Chou- 
 heen, who unsuccessfully disputed the throne with Khosroo Pur- 
 veez. Ahmed had four sons, to each of whom was confided a 
 government. The eldest, named Xasr or Xusser, as Governor of 
 Mawaralnahr, resided at Samarkand, and set his younger brother 
 Ismael over Bokhara. Ismael was of a restless and ambitious 
 character, and enlarged his province by the annexation of 
 Khwarezm. A serious quarrel, however, broke out between the 
 two brothers, which ended in a pitched battle, and the defeat of 
 the eldest. Ismael on this occasion exhibited praiseworthy mag- 
 nanimity and restored Xusser to his former dignity. After this 
 a perfect understanding existed between them, and on the death 
 of Xusser, Ismael united the whole of Mawaralnahr beneath his 
 6way, and founded the dynasty of the Samanides. Fixing the 
 seat of his government at Bokhara, he captured Herat and sub- 
 dued Kliorassan, and established a reputation for justice as well 
 as for military and administrative genius. 
 
 Of Ismael’s descendants there is little to he said, previous 
 to the reign of Ahdool Kassim Xoah, or Ameer Noah II., who 
 was driven from his territory by Bogra Khan, the ruler of 
 Khokan, Kashgar, and Khotan. On the death of his enemy 
 Noah returned to Bokhara, and was upheld by the prowess of 
 Sehektegeen, father of Mahmoud of Ghuznee. The latter, 
 indeed, rendered such essential service to the feeble Chief of 
 Mawaralnahr that he was appointed Governor of Kliorassan. 
 
 Noah’s son Munsoor was deprived of his throne and his 
 
MAWARALNAHR. 
 
 55 
 
 eyesight by a conspiracy of the nobles, who invested his brother 
 Abdool-Malek with the insignia of royalty. The usurper, 
 grown arrogant through success, next sought to dispossess 
 Mahmoud of his province of Khorassan, but was defeated in 
 battle by that warlike prince and compelled to return with dis- 
 grace to Bokhara, which was shortly afterwards captured by 
 the son of Bogra Khan, of Toorkestan, who carried off Abdool- 
 Malek into captivity. The last of the Samanidcs was Ismael, 
 another son of Noah II., who led a wandering life until he was 
 slain a. D. 1004 by an officer of Mahmoud, who put the mur- 
 derer to death, lest his enemies might accuse him of having 
 connived at the murder of a prince from whose family he 
 had received such important favours. 
 
 The weak Samanian dynasty was succeeded by the Ghuz- 
 neevides. The first sovereign of Ghuznee was a Bokharese 
 noble, indifferently named Abestagee or Aleptekeen, who ob- 
 tained the government of Khorassan, but was afterwards com- 
 pelled to seek his fortunes on the other side of the Ilazareh 
 Mountains. Establishing himself at Ghuznee with a band of 
 six or seven hundred followers, he founded an independent 
 State, which he bequeathed to his son Isaak, whose debauch- 
 eries terminated his life at an early date. The choice of the 
 nobles then fell upon one Sabaktagee or Sebektegeen, who 
 had distinguished himself as a soldier of the body guard, 
 and was thence called Gholam-i-Shah, or the king’s slave. 
 
 Of Toorkish origin, Sebektegeen soon gave evidence that 
 he had inherited at least the martial virtues of his race. Not 
 only did he over-run the Punjab, but it was through his puis- 
 sant support that Ameer Noah II. was maintained on the 
 tottering throne of Mawaralnahr. The grateful Samanee be- 
 stowed on him, in return, the honourable title of Nusser-ood-deen, 
 or the Victorious of the Faith, and upon his son Mahmoud the 
 viceroyalty of Khorassan. Sebektegeen was succeeded by his 
 
56 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 son Ismail, whose pretensions were soon forced, to yield to the 
 masterful ambition and capacity of his famous brother, the first 
 Mohammedan invader of Hindostan, and the remainder of whose 
 life was passed in a comfortable obscurity. 
 
 Mahmoud of Ghuznee commenced his reign with the reduc- 
 tion of Mooltan, but was hastily summoned back to Khorassan 
 to oppose an invasion of the Toorks under Eylek or Elij Khan, 
 ruler of Kashgar, reinforced by a contingent of 50,000 horse 
 from Khotan. The two armies encountered each other near 
 Balkh, a.d. 1007, and victory was long doubtful until Mahmoud 
 charged in person into the thick of the melee, his elephant 
 seizing with his trunk E}dek Khan’s standard-bearer and 
 flinging him aloft. A few years later Mahmoud bestowed 
 the province of Khwarezm, with its chief city Urghunj, upon 
 his favourite general Altoon Tash. 
 
 On Mahmoud’s death, a.d. 1028, his son Massaoud succeeded 
 to his title but not to his power. In this reign the descendants 
 of Seljook assumed a prominent position in the affairs of Central 
 Asia, and made themselves masters of Khorassan, Balkh, and 
 Merou. Massaoud was deposed by his own soldiery, who raised 
 to the throne his brother Mohammed, whose eyes he had put 
 out, and a few years later he was murdered in prison by 
 Mohammed’s son Ahmed, without, however, his father’s privity 
 to the deed. 
 
 This foul action was speedily and terribly avenged. Mas- 
 saoud’s son Madood, who was then at Balkh, collected an army, 
 crossed the mountains, and overthrew Mohammed’s forces in 
 battle, that Prince and all his sons, with the exception of one, 
 being immediately afterwards put to death. The history of the 
 Ghuzneevido dynasty from this time to its extinction, a.d. 1184, 
 is characterized by Sir John Malcolm as an uninteresting and 
 disgusting record of petty wars, rebellions, and massacres. 
 
 In the 10th and 1 1th centuries the Toorks — or Tatars, as they 
 
M AW A RA LN A II It. 
 
 57 
 
 are commonly though erroneously called by European writers 
 — were divided into tribes, each paying a nominal obedience to 
 an hereditary Chief, whose influence depended upon the degree 
 of suj^port he received from the Reish Sooffeed, or Greybeards. 
 At times a son or nephew of the Chief, impatient of even the 
 semblance of control, would separate from the original tribe 
 and found a new Horde under his own name. The word Horde 
 seems to be identical with the Persian Oordoo, signif}-ing ‘ a 
 camp,’ but came to be applied to a congeries of sub-tribes 
 inhabiting a particular district. The Chief of the Kipchak 
 Toorks, or Kuzzaks, appears to have taken offence at the arro- 
 gance of one of his ablest officers, named Seljook, who conse- 
 quently withdrew to Samarkand and became a convert to the 
 faith of Islam. Seljook’s eldest son, Mikail, was killed by an 
 arrow while yet in the flower of manhood, but not before he had 
 been taken into favour by Mahmoud of Ghuznee. 
 
 Mikail left two sons, whom the aged Seljook caused to be edu- 
 cated with great care in all the accomplishments considered be- 
 coming to a Toorkish Chief. Mahmoud of Ghuznee having ex- 
 pressed a desire to see these youths, whose fame had gone abroad 
 throughout CentralAsia, their uncle Israel proceeded tohis court 
 to make the preliminary arrangements. The highest marks of 
 distinction were showered upon the envoy, who was placed in 
 the seat of honour by Mahmoud’s side during the celebration of 
 public games got up for his entertainment. Anxious to obtain 
 some definite knowledge of the influence exercised by Seljook’s 
 grandsons, the king asked their uncle how many horsemen they 
 could send to him if he needed their aid. Taking one of the 
 two arrows that he chanced to have with him, and laying it at 
 Mahmoud’s feet, Israel replied that if it were despatched to the 
 head-quarters of his tribe, a hundred thousand horsemen would 
 answer to the summons. But suppose further help were 
 needed ? asked the king. Israel produced the second arrow 
 
58 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 and said : ‘ This will bring 50,000 more to thy support.’ And 
 should that not be enough ? ‘ Then,’ exclaimed the other, 
 
 placing his bow beside the arrows, ‘ send that also into the land 
 of the Toorks, and 200,000 horsemen will speed to thy help.’ 
 Mahmoud, the tradition adds, broke up the games in alarm, and 
 consigned Israel to a fortress for life, as a hostage for the con- 
 duct of his kinsman. 
 
 Under his son Massaoud, however, the Seljookians crossed 
 the Oxus and established themselves in Khorassan, and in a. d. 
 1037 Toghrul Bey Mohammed, the eldest brother, assumed the 
 ensigns of royal power and fixed his court at Nishapoor. The 
 younger brother, Chegher Beg Daoud, likewise cut out a princi- 
 pality for himself, and seized upon Herat and Merv. On 
 Massaoud’s death the two brothers with their united forces 
 subdued Balkh and Khwarezm, and Toghrul Beg eventually 
 conquered Irak, captured Baghdad, and took to wife the 
 daughter of the Khalif-ool-Kaim, by whom he was appointed 
 Vicegerent and Vicar of the Prophet, and Lord of all the 
 Mohammedans upon earth. He was at the same time presented 
 with seven dresses and seven slaves, to symbolize his supremacy 
 over the seven regions nominally subject to the Commander of 
 the Faithful. * A veil of gold stuff, scented with musk, was 
 thrown over his head, on which two crowns were placed, one for 
 Arabia, the other for Persia ; while two swords were girt on his 
 loins to signify that he was ruler both of the East and of the 
 West.’ The doughty old warrior, however, enjoyed his honours 
 but for a brief space, for he died at Bey, whither he had pro- 
 ceeded to consummate his marriage, at the age of seventy, a. n. 
 1063. 
 
 The second monarch of the Seljookian dynasty was the 
 renowned Alp Arslan Mohammed or the Great Lion, son of 
 Toghrul’s brother Daoud or David. This great prince defeated 
 and took prisoner Itomanus Diogenes, the valiant husband of the 
 
MAWARALNAIIR. 
 
 59 
 
 Empress Eudocia. His death was the result of an excess of 
 self-reliance. Having reduced a town on the Oxus, named 
 Berzem or Nerzcm, he ordered the governor to be executed for 
 insolence of speech and demeanour. The latter drew a knife 
 from his boot and rushed at the monarch, who, in a loud voice, 
 bade the attendants to stand aside. Coolly fitting an arrow to 
 his bow, he discharged it at the distance of only a few paces. 
 For once he missed his aim, and the next moment was mortally 
 wounded. The two thousand armed attendants instantly fled 
 from the scene, and the regicide would have escaped had not a 
 tent-pitcher outside knocked him down with his mallet. 
 
 Alp Arslan was buried at Merv, and the following sentence 
 was engraven upon his tomb : ‘ All you who have seen the 
 glory of Alp Arslan exalted to the heavens, come to Merv, and 
 you will behold it buried in the dust.’ It is said that Alp 
 Arslan was childishly proud of his title, and laboured to 
 assume a fancied semblance to the royal animal after whom ho 
 was called. From the apex of his tiara to the end of his thick 
 bushy beard there was a length of four feet, which added to the 
 singularity of his personal appearance. So widely extended 
 was his sway that it is asserted that no fewer than twelve hun- 
 dred kings, princes, and sons of kings and princes, at times 
 stood before his throne.* 
 
 His successor Malek Shah was fortunate in his TTuzeer, or 
 Prime Minister, the celebrated Nizam-ool-Moolkh. This mon- 
 arch’s dominions extended from Antioch to the furthest limits of 
 Khokan, and even Kashgar was compelled to pay tribute. It 
 is written that the boatmen on the Oxus once complained to 
 him that their services had been paid in drafts upon the treasury 
 
 * General Abbolt says that on asking for information respecting this prince, 
 ■whose name he pronounced according to the English fashion, no one seemed 
 ever to have heard of him. He afterwards discovered that every one was 
 more or less familiar with the history of Ulp Urslauu, 
 
GO 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 at Antioch, but the W uzeer explained that this was done merely 
 to exhibit the prince’s glory and power, and the bills upon 
 Syria were paid in full by the treasury of Bokhara. Another 
 tradition will have it that Malek Shah twelve times traversed 
 his vast territories from end to end ; but, considering the slow 
 rate of travelling in those days, it maj r be permissible to dis- 
 count this statement. II is capital city was Ispahan, and 
 prayers for his health and happiness were daily offered up in 
 Jerusalem, Mecca, Medina, Baghdad, Ispahan, Bey, Bokhara, 
 Samarkand, Urghunj, and Kashgar. 
 
 A seemingly simple act of this powerful sovereign was pro- 
 ductive of disastrous consequences in the future. The founda- 
 tion of the kingdom of Khwarezm, and the subsequent conquest 
 of Central Asia by Chinghiz Khan, may be traced to the 
 bestowal of the viceroyalty of that province upon an officer of 
 his household, named Noshtegeen Ghirjah, whose duty it was 
 to pour water over the royal hands after each meal. Nosh- 
 tegeen’s son, Kootb-ood-deen Mohammed, renounced his allegi- 
 ance to the Seljookian princes, though he acted on all occasions 
 as a faithful friend and ally. Malek Shah left four sous, all of 
 whom reigned in their turn, but the youngest, Sanjar, alone 
 attracts the attention of posterity, and that chiefly through his 
 misfortunes. lie began, indeed, by recovering Bokhara and 
 Samarkand, which his feeble brothers had suffered to be wrested 
 from them, but he was signally defeated by Gour Khan, ruler 
 of Kara Katay, or Central Tatary, and forced to flee to 
 Tennedh. 
 
 A worse disaster awaited him. He had allowed 40,000 
 Toorkomans from Gliuz to settle in Khotl and the adjacent dis- 
 tricts, on their engaging to supply him annually with 24,000 
 sheep. The agent of his purveyor, however, demanding, one 
 year, more than the king’s due, was instantly put to death by 
 the barbarians. The governor of Balkh, vainly attempting to 
 
MAWARALNAHR. 
 
 G1 
 
 reduce tliem to obedience, likewise lost his life. Though 
 personally disposed to overlook these acts of violence, Sanjar 
 was forced by his nobles to take the field, but his army was 
 utterly routed and himself made prisoner. The Toorkomans 
 then pillaged Merv for three days, and tortured the inhabitants 
 to compel them to discover their hidden treasures. Sanjar re- 
 mained a captive in their hands for four years, when his rescue 
 was effected and he escaped to Termedh, whence he proceeded 
 to Merv. During his captivity, however, the country had been 
 reduced to misery and desolation. The nobles had sacrificed 
 every other consideration to the gratification of their own 
 pleasures and passions, and the aspect of the land was as though 
 a hurricane had swept over it. The spectacle of such wide- 
 spread wretchedness broke the heart of the aged monarch, who 
 died a. l). 1 157, in his 73rd year. 
 
 More than once in the course of his troubled reign of 40 
 years, Sanjar had been engaged in hostilities with Atseez, son 
 of Kootb-ood-deen Mohammed, tributary king of Khwarczm. 
 Driven to rebellion by the arts and insolence of Sanjar’ s nobles, 
 Atseez had been defeated in battle and driven from his terri- 
 tories, while his son was put to death and his government con- 
 ferred upon Sanjar’s brother, Suliman Shah. lie soon return- 
 ed, however, and on his approach Suliman took to flight. Again 
 did Sanjar invade Khwarezm, and Atseez, besieged in his capital, 
 was compelled to sue for mercy from his suzerain. Pardoned 
 and restored to power, he again sought to establish his inde- 
 pendence. This time Sanjar commenced by the reduction of 
 Hazarasp, and thence advanced upon the capital. Conscious 
 of his inability to offer effectual resistance, Atseez sent valuable 
 presents to the king, and obtained terms of peace, on condition 
 that he repaired in person to his conqueror’s camp on the banks 
 of the Jyhoon, and prostrated himself in token of subjection. 
 
 Only in part was this condition fulfilled. Atseez proceeded, 
 
62 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 indeed, to tlie royal camp, but refused to dismount from bis 
 borse, and merely bent his bead, whereupon Sanjar declared 
 himself satisfied and returned to Merv. Subsequently Atseez 
 extended bis sway eastwards as far as Otrar, and died a. d. 
 1156, but bis career of conquest was pursued by bis son, Ayeel 
 Arslan, to the south-west as well as to the east. 
 
 Ayeel Arslan’s younger son, Sooltan Shah, usurped the 
 throne of Khwarezm on bis father’s death, but bis reign con- 
 sisted of one long contest with bis elder brother, Sooltan Alla- 
 ood-deen Takbesb, who succeeded to power a. d. 1193. 
 
 For the space of nearly forty years the Seljookian race had 
 shown unmistakable signs of exhaustion and decay. The last 
 of that dynasty was Toghrul III., who fell in battle at Rhe, or 
 Rey, in a vain attempt to recover Irak from Takbesb, the ruler 
 of Khwarezm. In a state of mad intoxication he rode at the 
 head of his army, shouting aloud a stanza from Firdousi, and 
 brandishing his iron mace. Making an idle blow he over- 
 balanced himself, and, striking his own horse on the fore leg, 
 came heavily to the ground, where he was speedily despatched 
 and his head cut off. 
 
 Thus terminated the rule of the descendants of Seljook, 
 after an existence of 158 years, and the subordinate branches 
 in Kerman and Anatolia also died out shortly afterwards. Takh- 
 esh Khan, the conqueror of Toghrul III., was himself defeated 
 not long afterwards on the banks of the Sylioon by the Khan 
 of Soghnak, and died A. d. 1200, while on the march against 
 Alamut, the chief seat of the Ishmaelians, or Assassins, tho 
 notorious sect, once so wildly feared, founded by Ilassan Sou- 
 bah, or Shcikh-ool-Gebel, commonly known to Europeans as 
 the Old Man of the Mountain. 
 
 Under Takbesb Khan’s son, Kootb-ood-deen Mohammed, 
 the kingdom of Khwarezm experienced both extremes of for- 
 tune. In the beginning, Mohammed lost and recovered Kho- 
 
MAWAKALNAHR. 
 
 63 
 
 rassan, and, following up his success, brought under subjection 
 several provinces of Persia. lie then made himself master of 
 Bokhara and Samarkand, and, routing the forces of Gourkhan, 
 Khan of Kara-Katay, or Central Tatary, took possession of 
 Otrar. Soon after his return to Kliwarezm he was startled by 
 the intelligence that the Karakatayans had laid siege to Samar- 
 kand. Taking the field without loss of time, he forced the 
 enemy to raise the siege and give battle. While the contest 
 was raging a terrible dust storm arose, and both armies falling 
 into inextricable confusion, broke up and fled. 
 
 Ilis next exploit was less ambiguous, and Ghuznee yielded 
 to his arms, on the death of Shahab-ood-deen, the Ghourian. 
 His good fortune, however, now deserted him. While on 
 the march to Baghdad he received despatches from the 
 Governor of Otrar, informing him of the arrival of certain 
 persons who gave themselves out to be traders, but who were 
 evidently spies of the Mongol Chief, Chinghiz Khan. In reply, 
 Mohammed ordered the Governor to put the spies to death, but 
 one of the party escaped and reported the fate of his comrades 
 to Chinghiz Khan, who, immediately, despatched an ambassa- 
 dor to demand reparation for this atrocious outrage. In defiance 
 of the most elementary principles of international law, the hap- 
 less envoy was handed over to the executioner. 
 
 The Mongol leader was not of a temperament to allow such 
 an insult to pass unavenged, and instantly prepared for the in- 
 vasion of Mawaralnahr. Mohammed hurried back to avert the 
 overthrow of his kingdom, but on reaching Nishapoor gave 
 himself up for an entire month to drunkenness and debauchery. 
 At last, rousing himself to action, he pushed on to Bokhara, 
 where he again indulged in fatal excesses. Hearing that 
 Chinghiz Khan was marching upon Samarkand in person, 
 while his eldest son Joujee was advancing through Toorkestan, 
 he resolved to encounter the less formidable of his enemies, and 
 
64 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 hastened to meet the latter, hut notwithstanding the over- 
 whelming superiority of his forces Mohammed was unable to 
 do more than hold his ground. lie thereupon retreated to 
 Samarkand, where he is said to have collected an army of 
 400,000 horsemen — evidently a monstrous exaggeration. In- 
 stead, however, of hurling this immense body of cavalry upon 
 the Mongols he broke it up into detachments to garrison his 
 frontier towns, and withdrew into Ehorassan, after instructing 
 his mother Toorkan Khatoon to convey his women and children 
 into Mazanderan. That strong-minded lady acted up to his in- 
 structions, after flinging the youngest of the children into the 
 Jyhoon. 
 
 From that moment the doomed prince seemed incapable of 
 forming or fulfilling any resolution. Instead of defending the 
 fords of the Jyhoon, and the passes of the Elburz mountains, 
 he wandered without fixed purpose hither and thither, closely 
 pursued by his inexorable foe, and wasting every respite in 
 hard drinking. Ilis wives and children falling into the hands 
 of the Mongols were cruelly ill-treated and murdered, and at 
 last Mohammed himself died of grief and shame on a small 
 island in the Caspian. To such destitution had he been driven 
 that he was buried in the clothes he wore, because he left not 
 enough money to purchase a shroud. Ilis eldest son, Rokken- 
 ood-deen, was captured in Firozekoh, in 1222, by Chinghiz 
 Khan, and put to death without pity. Another son of Moham- 
 med, named Gyath-ood-deen, after fleeing from one place to 
 another, took refuge with Borah Hajet, a Ivara-Khatayan officer 
 in the service of his unhappy father, and who had established 
 himself in Kerman. Regardless alike of the laws of hospitality 
 and the claims of gratitude, the cautious barbarian murdered 
 his defenceless guest. 
 
 Jelal-ood-deen, yet another son of Mohammed, deserved a 
 better fate than dogged his wandering career. On his father’s 
 
M AWARALN All R. 
 
 G5 
 
 death he returned to Khwarezm, which had not then been 
 entered by the victorious Moghuls. Finding it impossible to 
 maintain himself in that country he fought his way to Ghuznee, 
 and overthrew the enemy in two engagements. He was com- 
 pelled, however, to retreat before the vastly superior forces of 
 Chinghiz Khan, even to the banks of the Indus. At last 
 brought to bay, he fought with desperate resolution until his 
 little hand was completely overpowered. Then, throwing off his 
 armour, he swam his horse aci*oss the river, and, on gaining the 
 opposite side, coolly dismounted and laid his charger’s accoutre- 
 ments together with his own clothes out in the sun to dry. 
 Chinghiz, who had been watching the young hero for some 
 time, is said to have uttered an exclamation of admiration, which 
 has more of the Persian than the Moghul ring: — ‘ Like a lion, 
 invincible in the conflict of the field of battle ; like an alligator, 
 un terrified in the foaming stream ; no father could ever boast 
 of a son like this ! ’ 
 
 For the next two years Jelal-ood-deen plundered the country 
 lying to the eastward of the Indus, and then directed his steps 
 to Irak Ajem, taking to wife on the way the daughter of that 
 Borah Hajet who, a few years later, murdered his brother 
 Gyath-ood-deen. His next achievement was the defeat of an 
 army of 20,000 men sent against him by the Khalif Ool Kusser, 
 as though the Mohammedans did not need to be in perfect 
 union and harmony among themselves, in face of the terrible 
 foe who was sweeping their religion from off the face of the 
 earth. 
 
 From this time the fugitive prince of Khwarezm led a rest- 
 less, unsettled life, gaining many victories, but unable to secure 
 a permanent position. Sustaining, in his turn, a severe defeat 
 at the hands of the Mongols, he retreated to Ispahan, whence 
 he again issued and invaded Georgia. After a while he began 
 to indulge too freely in wine, and on the barbarians pouring into 
 
G6 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Mazanderan lie fled from Eklat, leaving liis wives, children, and 
 dependants to be ruthlessly massacred. As to his own end, 
 nothing certain is known. According to one account, Jelal- 
 ood-deen was assassinated in Kohistan by a Koord, while he 
 slept ; but others assert that he disguised himself as a Sooffee, 
 or dervish, and so baffled further pursuit. In either case, 
 nothing was heard of him after a.d. 1231, eleven years having 
 then elapsed since his father’s flight to Khorassan and the 
 downfall of the first Mohammedan kingdoms of Central Asia. 
 
TIIE MOGIIULS. 
 
 G7 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE MOGHULS. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE MOGHULS — CHINGHIZ KHAN — CONQUEST OF NORTHERN 
 CHINA — MASSACRE OF TATAR ENVOYS AT OTKAR — REDUCTION OF OTRAR — 
 DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF MOHAMMED SHAH— CAPTURE OF BOKHARA — 
 CAPTURE OF SAMARKAND, TERMEDH, BALKH, TALIKHAN, MERV, NISHA- 
 POOR, HERAT, AND URGHUNJ — DEATH OF CHINGHIZ — HIS YASAK OR CODE 
 — BATOU KHAN’S IRRUPTION INTO EUROPE — THE MOGHUL EMPIRE — PAPAL 
 MISSIONS TO THE GREAT KHAN — REPLY OF KUYOUK KHAN — MANGOU 
 KHAN'S REBUKE — MISSION OF WILLIAM DE RUBRUQUIS — TATAR CUSTOMS 
 — THE MOGHUL COURT AT KARAKORAM. 
 
 Mohammedan writers — heedless of the Iloratian warning 
 to future historians of the Trojan war to dash at once into their 
 subject, avoiding all allusion to ‘ the twin-egg ’ — make a point 
 of tracing the genealogies of heroes and nations hack to the 
 Patriarch Noah. The Tatars and Moghuls are thus made to 
 derive their descent from Japhet, whose eldest son was named 
 Toork, and who was also the father of Rouss, described as a 
 fierce savage and yet the original deviser of a system of judicial 
 inquiry. Alenjah Khan, in the fourth generation from Toork, 
 had two sons, born at a birth, afterwards known as Tatar and 
 Moghul, between whom, at his death, he equally divided his 
 extensive possessions. 
 
 Among the rare objects bequeathed to the latter was a stone 
 inscribed with one of the mysterious names of the Deity, and 
 called by the Arabs the * Rainstone,’ owing to the virtue it was 
 supposed to possess of compelling or dispersing the water- 
 clouds. The Persians, however, refer to it as the ‘ Aidstone,’ 
 
68 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 or ‘ Stone of Power,’ and endow it with many other attributes. 
 
 The original haunts of the Moghuls were the inhospitable 
 steppes lying to the north and north-west of China, whence 
 issued the barbaric hordes with whom Attila, the Scourge of 
 God, ravaged Europe in the fifth century. A fierce untutored 
 race of wandering shepherds, of hideous aspect, they spread 
 themselves in the 13th century, like a devastating flood, not 
 only over Asia from the Sea of China to the Black Sea, but also 
 over Hungary, and threatened to overwhelm the whole civilized 
 world. ‘ From the remote shores of Eastern Asia ’ — says Mr 
 Murray in the Introductory Essay to his edition of Marco Polo 
 — ‘ westward, as far as the Rhine, extends a vast plain, which, 
 during the whole period of ancient history, presented an aspect 
 of the deepest barbarism. The population had nowhere ad- 
 vanced beyond the pastoral state, whose occupations they com- 
 bined with the more favourite ones of war and plunder. Such 
 enterprises were greatly facilitated by the moveable nature of 
 their property, which rendered it easy to assemble in large 
 bodies, and march to the remotest regions. They were tempted, 
 moreover, by the view of rich and civilized kingdoms, extending 
 in a continuous belt along the whole southern border of both 
 continents. Hence, in the earliest times, arose a mighty and 
 incessant impulse ; so that, from the heart of the north, there 
 issued in successive swarms, not armies, but whole nations, 
 with wives, children, herds and flocks, cutting their way with 
 the sword into fairer and more fruitful lands. The shepherds of 
 Scythia seated themselves on the greatest thrones of the East.’ 
 
 Although these migratory multitudes consisted chiefly of 
 Moghuls, or Mongols, they are best known to Europeans by the 
 name of Tatars, partly because the latter formed the vanguard 
 of the host that overran Hungary in the 13th century, and 
 partly because of the similarity of their name to the already 
 familar Tartarus. For the sake of convenience, therefore, — 
 
THE MOGHULS. 
 
 69 
 
 and notwithstanding the inaccuracy of the term, — the more 
 common appellation will be frequently adopted in this narrative, 
 in speaking of the achievements of Chinghiz Khan, the great 
 leader of the Moghuls. 
 
 The real name of this remarkable man was Temucheen, or 
 Temugeen. He was born on the banks of the Onon, in the 
 beffinnins; of the second half of the 12th century. At the death, 
 of his father he was only thirteen years of age, and had to pro- 
 vide for four younger brothers. This would have been no 
 difficult task had not the 30,000 families who had recognized the 
 chieftainship of his father, refused to pay him the tithes due to 
 a Khan. Ilis first attempt to coerce his refractory vassals ter- 
 minated in a drawn battle, and Temugeen found himself under 
 the necessity of suing for hospitalitj' at the Court of Ouang 
 Khan, ruler of the Keraites. 
 
 This prince is supposed by certain oriental scholars to have 
 been the original of Prester J ohn, about whom so much nonsense 
 was written by the missionaries and religious scribes of those 
 days. According to John de Plano Carpini, as rendered in 
 Astley’s collection, Chinghiz was defeated by Prester John, 
 King of Greater India, by means of hollow images made 
 of copper and filled with fire. ‘ These were set on Horses 
 and a Man behind each, who with a Pair of Bellows blew 
 Fire upon the Enemy ; which burnt them, and raised a 
 great Smoke.’ The credulous Franciscan, however, seems to 
 have been addicted to ‘ Travellers’ Tales,’ for he relates on the 
 authority of certain Russian priests, that when Chinghiz and his 
 victorious army were returning from India * through the 
 Desarts, they met with a People whose Men were shaped like 
 Dogs. These Monsters on the Approach of the Mongols ran 
 into a River, and then rolling themselves on the Ground, the 
 Dust and W ater became frozen together (it being Winter) and 
 formed a Kind of Armour, Proof against the Swords and 
 
70 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Arrows of their Enemies : whom they fell upon Tooth and 
 Nail, and thus drove them out of their Countrey.’ 
 
 It is more certain that the youthful Temugeen obtained 
 favour in the eyes of the Prince of the Keraites, whose capital 
 city was Karakoram, and commanded his forces in several suc- 
 cessful engagements. His good fortune naturally raised him 
 up some powerful enemies, and he was again forced to seek safety 
 in flight. It was not long, however, before he found himself at 
 the head of a hand of trusty followers, whose numbers were con- 
 tinually recruited through the prospect of plunder. As soon as 
 he judged his means adequate to his purpose, Temugeen invaded 
 and subdued the country of the Keraites, and the skull of 
 Ouang Khan, enchased in silver, became one of his drinking 
 cups. At length he was enabled to overthrow the collected 
 forces of his enemies, and to inflict a horrible vengeance. Hav- 
 ing prepared seventy cauldrons of boiling water, he flung into 
 each a Moghul Chief, and sold as slaves their women, children, 
 and aged parents. The young men of the conquered tribes he 
 incorporated into the ranks of his army, and never had reason to 
 regret the confidence he placed in their martial and predatory 
 habits. 
 
 By the time he had attained his fortieth year Temugeen had 
 so completely established his position, that he felt he could 
 venture upon convoking a Koroultai or general Diet of the 
 Moghul tribes. At this meeting a naked devotee, who was be- 
 lieved to have ascended to heaven on a white horse, saluted the 
 conqueror by the title of Zingiz or Chinghiz Khan, which, in 
 the language of the Moghuls, signified Very Great, or Greatest 
 Prince. The assembled Khans then accepted him as their 
 Khakhan or Qaan, and thus, a. d. 1206, tho wandering ad- 
 venturer Temugeen became tho sovereign of Mongolia. 
 
 Tho first, as also tho last, enterprise of Chinghiz Khan was 
 directed against the kingdom of Tangut to the north-west of 
 
THE MOGHULS. 
 
 71 
 
 China, which he speedily brought under subjection. The 
 Uigurs prudently sent in their submission, as did also the 
 Kirghiz, who further presented their new suzerain with a 
 ‘ Shungar,’ a white bird with red eyes and bill. Having conso- 
 lidated his authority over the pastoral hordes roaming over the 
 steppes to the north and north-west of China, Chinghiz resolved 
 to carry his victorious arms into that ancient empire, of which 
 the Moghuls were still nominally vassals. A haughty answer 
 having been returned to his insolent demand for tribute in token 
 of obedience, Chinghiz let loose his fierce barbarians upon that 
 rich and effeminate people. After the storm and pillage of 
 ninety cities, he was rapidly marching upon Khanbaleg or 
 Cambalu, the modern Tekin, or northern capital, when his 
 further advance was checked by overtures for peace too favour- 
 able to be disregarded. An enormous sum in gold and silver, 
 500 youths, 500 virgins, 3000 horses, and marriage with a 
 Princess of China, purchased for a time the withdrawal of the 
 Moghul hordes. 
 
 The weakest of these inducements to forbearance was doubt- 
 less the honour of a matrimonial alliance with the Imperial family, 
 for a harem of 500 wives and concubines must have rendered 
 Chinghiz comparatively indifferent to considerations of that 
 kind. Each of his wives could boast of royal blood in her 
 veins, and five of them are reported to have been especially dear 
 to their uxorious lord. According to Abou’l Ghazee Khan’s 
 translator and commentator, the Tatars as a people entertained 
 singularly loose ideas on the subject of their conjugal relations. 
 If they did not marry their natural mothers it was simply, he 
 says, because they had a distaste for old women. With regard 
 to their wives he adds, ‘ des qu’elles approchent les quarante ans 
 ils ne couchent plus avec elles, et ne les gardent tout au plus que 
 comme des vieilles menageres, aux quelles on jette un morceau de 
 pain pour avoir soin de l’economie de la maison, et pour servir 
 
72 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 les jeunes femmes qui peuvent venir occuper leur place dans le 
 lit du maistre.’ 
 
 At a later period Chinghiz commissioned two of his best 
 generals to complete the work he had been tempted to abandon. 
 The reduction of Khanbaleg proved a tedious and laborious 
 operation. Timid in the field, the Chinese fought bravely be- 
 hind walls, and, when their ammunition was exhausted, dis- 
 charged ingots of gold and silver from their engines. Reduced 
 by famine to the last extremity, they devoured the bodies of the 
 slain and perhaps of their own children, but still refused to 
 surrender until the Moghuls drove a mine into the heart of the 
 city, which was then sacked and plundered, while the palace is 
 said to have burned for thirty days. In the end, the Emperor 
 poisoned himself at Nankin, his southern capital, and the five 
 northern provinces were annexed to the Moghul Enquire. At 
 that time, and, indeed, until a much later period, Northern 
 China was called Kitai, from a people of the Manchu race, who 
 emigrated from the north-west towards the end of the 10th 
 century, and over-ran all China to the north of the Yellow 
 River. The domination of these conquerors lasted for nearly 
 two centuries, but the country continued to be known by their 
 name long after the decay of their power. 
 
 After the conquest of Kitai, or Cathay — as it came to be 
 called in the ,13th century — Chinghiz Khan applied himself to 
 the pacification of his vast dominions, and enforced such perfect 
 security for life and property that Abou’l Ghazee Kan asserts 
 that ‘ if any one had wished to carry openly, in his hands, gold 
 or silver from one end of the empire to the other, he could have 
 done so without the slightest risk.’ Making due allowance for 
 the hyperbolical phraseology of an oriental historian, it is pro- 
 bably no exaggeration to say that order and tranquillity so far 
 prevailed that foreign traders were encouraged to enter his 
 territories. Certain Khivan merchants, it is related, exhibited 
 
THE MOGHULS. 
 
 73 
 
 their wares to the Khakhan, hut asked such preposterous prices 
 that he grew enraged, and told them he understood the value 
 of their goods better than they imagined. Thereupon he 
 showed them some articles of equally good quality which he 
 had purchased on far more reasonable terms, and to punish 
 their greed he confiscated all their property. The next batch 
 of traders prudently left it to the Khakhan to adjust the 
 prices, and were rewarded for their apparent confidence in his 
 sense of justice by receiving double the worth of their mer- 
 chandise. This munificence became blazed abroad, and a brisk 
 retail commerce began to spring up under the Khakhan"’ s pro- 
 tection. 
 
 A large caravan being about to set out for Khwarezm, Ohin- 
 ghiz sent with them three ambassadors to Mohammed Shah, the 
 bearers of valuable presents and complimentary messages. It 
 so chanced that when this caravan reached Otrar, the governor 
 of the place was one Inallzik, whom the Sultan of Khwarezm, 
 his kinsman, had been pleased to call Gageer Khan. One of 
 the merchants who had known this man previous to his acces- 
 sion to dignity, addressed him by his original name, which so 
 enraged him that he threw the whole party into prison. The 
 governor further wrote to the Sultan and informed him that 
 certain persons had come to Otrar representing themselves to 
 be Arabs and merchants, but that he had reason to believe that 
 they were Moghul spies. In reply Mohammed Shah, then on 
 his march against Baghdad, hastily despatched instructions 
 to Gageer Khan to put them to death. These orders were 
 faithfully executed, except that one of the merchants escaped 
 and reported the horrible butchery to Chinghiz. 
 
 Failing to obtain redress, the Khakhan declared war against 
 Mohammed Shah, and made extensive preparations for taking 
 the field. Two of his sons, Ougadai and Zagatai — or Okkadai 
 and Chagatai — were detailed with a large force against Otrar, 
 
74 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 which was defended by a garrison of 60,000 men. The place 
 held out bravely for five months, when one of the Moham- 
 medan generals with 10,000 men went over to the Tatars, by 
 whom they were brutally massacred as traitors. The Tatars, 
 however, did not hesitate to avail themselves of the treachery 
 they professed to abhor, and had no scruple about entering the 
 town through the gate that had been left open for them. 
 Gageer Khan then retired into the citadel, whence he made 
 frequent sorties, and greatly harassed the besiegers. But 
 numbers at length prevailed, and the citadel was carried by 
 storm. After performing prodigies of valour the ill-fated com- 
 mander barricaded himself in his private apartments with two 
 devoted followers, and, when they were slain and his supply of 
 arrows exhausted, he still maintained a hopeless resistance by 
 hurling down upon his foes stones and missiles, handed to him 
 by his wife. In the end he was overcome and thrown into 
 chains, until an order for his execution arrived from the 
 Khakhan. 
 
 In the mean while Chinghiz, deputing his eldest son Joujee, 
 or Zouzee, to make a detour through Toorkestan, led the main 
 body of his forces in person against Samarkand. Deeming it 
 an easier exploit to crush the son than the father, Mohammed 
 Shah marched in the first instance against Joujee, who opposed 
 his superior numbers with such desperate tenacity that the 
 darkness of night alone put an end to the conflict. Dismayed 
 by this terrible illustration of the nature of the danger he had 
 provoked, the Sultan fell back upon Samarkand, while Joujee 
 with his gallant but shattered army rejoined his father. The 
 united Tatar host then continued their march upon Samarkand, 
 without encountering any further opposition in the open 
 country. 
 
 The Sultan meanwhile dispersed his 400,000 men among 
 the frontier towns, and withdrew to Klnvarezm without striking 
 
THE MOGHULS. 
 
 75 
 
 another blow in defence of his kingdom. One of his first acts 
 on reaching his capital was, in a fit of drunkenness, to order 
 the execution of a Sheikh venerated by the common people, hut 
 whom he suspected of an illicit intrigue with his mother. On 
 the following day, under an access of remorse, he sent a bowl 
 filled with gold and gems to another Sheikh, and prayed that 
 his crime might be forgiven, hut his offerings were rejected and 
 pardon refused. 
 
 After the capture of two or three smaller towns Chinghiz 
 Khan appeared under the walls of Bokhara, a. d. 1219, accom- 
 panied, says Gibbon, by ‘ a body of Chinese engineers skilled 
 in the mechanic arts, informed perhaps of the secret of gun- 
 powder, and capable, under his discipline, of attacking a foreign 
 country with more vigour and success than they had defended 
 their own (sic).’ A night sortie of the powerful garrison was 
 repulsed with such fearful slaughter that some 20,000 soldiers 
 withdrew from the city and took the road to Khwarezm. They 
 were overtaken, however, by the Tatar cavalry near the hanks 
 of the Jyhoon and cut to pieces. 
 
 The keys of Bokhara were then surrendered in token of sub- 
 mission, and Chinghiz rode his charger into the principal, or 
 Friday, Mosque. Being informed, in reply to his question if 
 this were the Sultan’s palace, that it was the House of God, he 
 dismounted and ascended the pulpit, while the chief magistrates 
 and mollahs held his horse. Flinging the Koran on to the 
 pavement, he called aloud, ‘ The hay is cut ; give your horses 
 fodder ; ’ and straightway, with exultant shouts, the barbarians 
 spread themselves through the city, insulting and plundering 
 the terror-stricken citizens. Many of them fell to eating and 
 drinking in the mosque, wine and food being brought to them 
 by Sheikhs and mollahs. Chinghiz himself repaired to the 
 open space in front of the Ark, or Palace, and explained to the 
 assembled townspeople that all this misery had been brought 
 
76 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 upon them by tbeir Sultan’s atrocious violation of the law of 
 nations. Learning shortly afterwards that some of the Sultan’s 
 soldiers were being sheltered and concealed by the inhabitants, 
 he gave orders to set fire to the town, which, being built chiefly 
 of wood, was soon burnt to the ground with the exception of 
 the spacious stone structure known as the Ark, or Government 
 House. Thirty thousand human beings were put to the sword, 
 and the survivors sold as slaves. So complete was the work of 
 destruction that one of the few who escaped being asked to 
 describe what he had witnessed, contented himself with repeat- 
 ing a Persian distich : 
 
 Amedend u kendend u suklitend 
 
 u kuslitend u burdend u reftend. 
 
 They came, destroyed, burnt, 
 
 Murdered, robbed, and went. 
 
 However, a little before his death Chinghiz rebuilt the 
 town, hut many years passed before Bokhara recovered any 
 portion of its former wealth and importance. The miserable 
 fate of Mohammed Shah has been already described, as well as 
 the heroic conduct and misfortunes of his son Jelal-ood-deen, 
 and the wretched tale needs not to be repeated. It remains, 
 however, to be told how the strongly fortified cities of Samar- 
 kand and IJrghunj were brought under the Tatar yoke. Ac- 
 cording to Abou’l Ghazee Khan, the garrison of Samarkand 
 had been reinforced by an army of 100,000 men, commanded 
 by 30 generals, and rendered more formidable by an array of 
 elephants, an animal little known to the Tatars and therefore 
 much dreaded. A broad wet moat was dug round the town, 
 and every preparation made for a prolonged resistance. The 
 besieged, however, seem to have been discouraged by the re- 
 pulse of their first sortie, and, though they successfully beat off 
 an assault that lasted till nightfall, the generals fell out with 
 the chief Mufti and Kazi, who thereupon opened to the enemy 
 
THE MOGHULS. 
 
 77 
 
 the gate reserved for festival occasions, of which they were 
 the official but untrustworthy custodians. The entire garrison 
 is said to have been massacred, with the exception of a thousand 
 men who contrived to escape. 
 
 * Chinghiz distributed 30,000 of the inhabitants among his 
 officers, and sent no small number into his Chinese provinces 
 to lay out pleasure-grounds, while upon those who were suffered 
 to remain in their ruined homes was imposed an annual tribute 
 of 300,000 gold dinars. From Samarkand he himself proceeded 
 in a southerly direction against Termedh, which he sacked and 
 destroyed. It is related that not one of the town’s-folk was 
 left alive with the exception of one old woman, who offered by 
 way of ransom a pearl of exceeding great value. Being pressed 
 to disclose her treasure, she confessed that she had swallowed 
 it ; whereupon she was ripped up alive and her truthfulness 
 made manifest. The bodies of the dead were then treated in a 
 similar manner, but not to the same advantage. 
 
 Balkh, esteemed in the East as the oldest city in the world, 
 experienced the same fate at Termedh. Some idea of its extent 
 and riches may possibly be formed from the statement that it 
 contained 1200 large mosques, without including chapels, and 
 200 public baths for the use of foreign merchants and travellers 
 — though it has been suggested that the more correct reading 
 would be 200 mosques and 1200 baths. Anxious to avert the 
 horrors of storm and pillage, the citizens at once offered to ca- 
 pitulate, but Chinghiz, distrusting the sincerity of their sub- 
 mission so long as Sultan Mohammed Shah was yet alive, pre- 
 ferred to carry the place by force of arms — an achievement of 
 no great difficulty. A horrible butchery ensued, and the ‘ Ta- 
 bernacle of Islam ’ — as the pious town was called — was razed to 
 the ground. In the words of the Persian poet, quoted by Major 
 Price, ‘ The noble city he laid as smooth as the palm of his 
 hand — its spacious and lofty structures he levelled in the dust.’ 
 
78 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 The reduction of Talikhan was a more serious operation. 
 Holding a position of great natural strength, this comparatively 
 small town checked the advance of the Moghuls for seven 
 months, before it was taken by storm and its defenders put to 
 the sword. Anderab, situated near the foot of the Ilazareh 
 Mountains, marked by its smoking ruins the victorious progress 
 of the barbarians ; but at the siege of Bamian Chinghiz lost his 
 favourite grandson, the son of Chagatai, and scarce satiated his 
 fury by the total demolition of the town and the unpitying 
 slaughter of its inhabitants, so that not one survived. The 
 desperate valour of Jelal-ood-deen, indeed, more than once 
 inflicted severe losses upon the Tatar hosts, but like a swarm of 
 devouring locusts they still swept on, regardless of the breaches 
 torn through their dense array. 
 
 The flourishing city of Merou or Merv, had at first opened 
 its gates to Toulai, the fourth son of the Khakhan, but on his 
 departure set up the standard of revolt. The respite was brief, 
 the revenge unsparing. Retracing his steps, the Tatar Chief 
 again appeared before its walls, and in three weeks overpowered 
 all opposition. The amount of treasure and valuable effects 
 that became the prize of the conquerors is described as almost 
 fabidous. The inhabitants being ordered to march out into the 
 plain were massacred in large batches, but so vast was the 
 population that it was not until the close of the fourth day that 
 the last party went forth to their doom. The artisans, how- 
 ever, were separated from the rest of the multitude, and kept 
 alive to work for their conquerors. The slain have been esti- 
 mated at 100,000, with the remark that this was the fourth 
 time that Merv had been desolated, and that on each occasion 
 upwards of 50,000 persons had been cut to pieces. These num- 
 bers are obviously exaggerated, though an authority cited by 
 Major Price declares that the number of those who perished 
 at the hands of Toulai’s barbarians, * amounted to a thousand 
 
THE MOGIIULS. 
 
 79 
 
 thousand and three hundred thousand and a fraction/ From 
 Merv, Toulai turned to the north-west, and made himself master 
 of the prosperous trading town of Nishapoor, which he pillaged 
 and depopulated. Directing his course once more to the south- 
 ward, Toulai laid siege to Herat, whose governor made seven 
 brilliant sorties, hut, being killed in the eighth, his troops fell 
 into disorder and the Tatars entered the town pelc-melo with 
 the fugitives. The garrison alone suffered death, the citizens 
 being pardoned and spared. The victorious general then hast- 
 ened to rejoin his father, who had been detained all this 
 time beneath the walls of Talikhan. 
 
 No sooner had Toulai withdrawn than the Heratees broke 
 out into open revolt, and murdered the garrison left within 
 their walls. Bitterly rebuking his- son for not bearing in mind 
 the example of Merv, Chinghiz detailed one of his best gener- 
 als with 80,000 men, and with orders not to leave a soul alive. 
 The rebellious city was speedily reduced, and so faithfully did 
 the Tatar general execute the commission he had received, that, 
 on the withdrawal of his host, only fifteen miserable beings 
 crept out of the ruins in which they had concealed themselves. 
 
 TVhile Chinghiz and Toulai were thus engaged in the work 
 of bloodshed and desolation in the provinces of Khorassan, 
 Badakhshan, and what is now called Afghanistan, the three 
 elder sons of the Khakhan were similarly occupied in Khwarezm 
 and Persia. The siege of Urghunj, the capital of Khwarezm, 
 detained the Tatars for seven months. Ignorant of their near 
 approach, the governor had suffered the citizens to leave their 
 flocks and herds in the open plain. Suddenly, the advanced 
 guard of the Tatars came in sight, when a force of 10,000 men 
 was sent out to protect the sheep and cattle. After some brisk 
 skirmishing the Tatars feigned a retreat and led their pursuers 
 into an ambuscade, from which scarce a hundred escaped to tell 
 the tale of their discomfiture. Vexed with the delay, the 
 
80 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 brothers, who in turns commanded for a day, laid the blame of 
 failure one upon the other, until Chinghiz vested the supreme 
 command in the hands of his second son Octai, or Okkadai. 
 Urghunj was shortly afterwards carried by storm, and it is said 
 that 100,000 of the inhabitants were slaughtered, and as many 
 more sold into slavery. It is also stated that the Tatars diverted 
 the waters of the Jyhoon from their natural channel, and turned 
 them against the walls of the town, which, being constructed of 
 mud and sand, crumbled away and opened a wide breach. 
 
 On the subjugation of Khwarezm the Tatar Chiefs carried 
 their arms beyond the Elburz mountains, and, dividing their 
 forces, defeated in succession the Alans, the Kipchaks, and the 
 Ooruss. Again effecting a junction amid the mountains of 
 Circassia, they returned to Bokhara, after making a circuit 
 round the north and west sides of the Caspian — a feat then 
 accomplished for the first time. Abou’l Ghazee’s translator, 
 Bentinck, was, however, convinced that had Peter the Great 
 lived a little longer, he would have undertaken and executed 
 an enterprise so full of glory ; and, further, that without some 
 such military expedition there was little chance of obtaining an 
 accurate knowledge of the eastern shores of that sea, as it was 
 impossible for private individuals to visit the different Tatar 
 hordes without wilfully exposing themselves to great danger. 
 
 Chinghiz also returned to Bokhara, then beginning to rise 
 anew out of its ruins, but was allowed brief space to indulge 
 in repose. The people of Tangut, his first conquest, took heart 
 to rebel against his authority and to reassert their independence. 
 The Khakhan made immediate preparations for their complete 
 subjugation, but was overtaken by death, a.d. 1227, in the 
 65th year of his age. 
 
 Ilis eldest son Joujee having died a short time previously, 
 Chinghiz appointed Oktai his successor, but charged his sons 
 to conceal his death until they had suppressed the Tangut 
 
TIIE MOGIIULS. 
 
 81 
 
 rebellion. The campaign was carried out in the spirit of the 
 deceased hero. Thousands were slain, thousands were sold into 
 captivity, several towns were levelled with the ground, and tho 
 country generally was laid waste. It is reported that the dying 
 monarch summoned the three surviving sons by his chief wife 
 to his bed-side, and handing to them in turn a sheaf of arrows 
 desired them to break the bundle in twain. Each essayed his 
 utmost, but all failed. lie then bade them take out the urrows 
 separately, when no difficulty was experienced in breaking 
 them. 
 
 Whether or not this ancient apologue was enacted on this 
 interesting occasion, the three sons lived together in perfect 
 harmony. Though nominally supreme, Oktai seldom adopted 
 any important line of action without previous consultation with 
 the prudent and sagacious Chagatai, whose personal sway 
 extended over Mawaralnahr, Kashgaria, Badakhshan, Ghuznein, 
 and, in fact, as far as the Indus. This prince died in 1243, but 
 his dynasty retained at least the semblance of roj'al power for 
 upwards of a century, the last of the line being Kasan Sultan 
 Khan, who fell in battle against Ameer Kasagan, a descendant 
 of Oktai. By that time, however, the title of Khakhan was 
 but the shadow of a name. Every tribal chief was more or less 
 independent, and confusion and anarchy prevailed on all sides. 
 
 To Toulai, the fourth son, were assigned Persia and Khorus- 
 san, but he died three years after his father, leaving three 
 illustrious sons — Mangou Khan, who succeeded to the dignity 
 of Khakhan, or Khan of Khans, on the death of Oktai’s son 
 Gayuk, or Kuyuk Khan ; Ivoublai Khan, who was Mangou’s 
 successor ; and Iloulakoo Khan, who destroyed the Khalifat, 
 and put down the sect of Ishmael, commonly called the As- 
 sassins. Joujee, the eldest son of Chingliiz, had also a son, 
 Batou Khan, whose name was destined to strike terror not only 
 into China but into Europe. 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Chinghiz Khan was not merely a barbarian conqueror — be 
 was also a legislator. Not content with the work of destruction, 
 be was ambitious to raise up a durable structure on broad and 
 solid foundations. PEis religion was a pure deism, though both 
 Moghuls and Tatars made to themselves tribal images, while 
 many adopted the religion of their nearest neighbours, whether 
 Christians, Mussulmans, or Buddhists. Perfect toleration was 
 the natural fruit of this general indifferentism. Chinghiz 
 would have no titles of nobility. There should be but one 
 Khan or Khakhan, whose election rested with his lineal de- 
 scendants and the heads of tribes. Every Moghul was bound 
 from his birth to serve the State, and chiefly by military 
 service, but on no account could a Moghul ever act in a menial 
 capacity. Capital punishment awaited murderers, adulterers, 
 perjurers, and horse and cattle stealers. Smaller thefts were 
 expiated by flogging, or by restitution to the extent of nine 
 times the value of the stolen article. Plurality of wives was 
 permitted, as well as concubinage, but the children of a concu- 
 bine were more lightly esteemed than those of a wife. 
 
 To allay the rancour of family feuds Chinghiz devised, or 
 confirmed, a practice eminently calculated to appeal to the 
 imagination and feelings of a rude people. The deceased child 
 of one house might be contracted in marriage to the deceased 
 child of another house, and this posthumous union was held to 
 bind together the living as by a blood alliance. The contract 
 was burned to ashes, that its spirit might ascend in the smoke 
 to the homes of the departed. 
 
 The army was divided into tens, hundreds, thousands, tens 
 of thousands, and so forth, each under the command of an 
 officer who was made responsible for the discipline and equip- 
 ments of his men. The Moghul arms consisted of bows and 
 arrows, scymitars, and iron maces, which they wielded with 
 vigour and adroitness. It is said that Chinghiz took the field 
 
THE MOGHULS. 
 
 83 
 
 with upwards of 000,000 troops on entering into hostilities with 
 the ruler of Khwarezm. 
 
 In time of peace, the Moghuls were inured by the labours 
 of the chase for the fatigue and privations of war. At the 
 commencement of the cold season the army would encircle an 
 immense plain, as large as an English county, and, gradually 
 closing up, would drive all the wild animals to a common 
 centre, when the most adventurous youths would seek to dis- 
 tinguish themselves in single combat with the fiercest denizens 
 of the swamp and juDgle. The hunt would last through the 
 whole winter, and served as a splendid training for the hard- 
 ships of the ensuing campaign. 
 
 This Yasak or Code — the word signifying ‘prohibition ’ — 
 remained in force until the conversion of the Tatars to Islam, 
 and was regarded by Timour with respect and admiration. It 
 is true that it was mainly directed to raise up and maintain a 
 nation of warriors, and that the profession of arms was the 
 only pursuit deemed worthy of a Moghul, but similar notions 
 prevailed in Europe at that time, and western princes and 
 barons were quite as illiterate as the unlettered Khakhan of the 
 Tatars. 
 
 Of Oktai, it may be truly said that he walked in the foot- 
 steps of his father. His first warlike operations resulted in the 
 extinction of the Kin dynasty, and the consolidation of the Tatar 
 supremacy over all China to the north of the Great Kiang. 
 Flushed by his easy triumphs in the East, Oktai resolved, about 
 the year 1234, to bring the "West likewise under his sway. 
 Placing his nephew Batou, son of his eldest brother Joujee, at 
 the head of half a million of savage warriors, he let him loose 
 upon Europe. His choice of a general was justified by the 
 event. * After a festival of forty days,’ writes the historian of 
 the Homan Empire, * Batou set forward on this great expedition ; 
 and such was the speed and ardour of his innumerable squad- 
 
84 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 rons that in less than six years they had measured a line of 
 ninety degrees of longitude, a fourth part of the circumference 
 of the globe. The great rivers of Asia and Europe, the Volga 
 and Kama, the Don and Borysthenes, the Vistula and Danube, 
 they either swam with their horses, or passed on the ice, or 
 traversed in leathern boats, which followed the camp, and 
 transported their waggons and artillery.’ 
 
 "While Batou in person overran Bussia, and imposed tribute 
 on the conquered province — little prescient of the future — one 
 of his lieutenants entered Poland and burned Cracow to the 
 ground. Breslau was shortly afterwards reduced to ashes, and 
 on the 12th April, 1241, the Tatar host routed in battle at 
 Lignitz, the united forces of the Poles, Moravians, and Silesians, 
 under Duke Henry of Silesia, and filled nine sacks with the 
 ears of the slain. Following up his success, Batou next invaded 
 Hungary, defeated King Bela IV., sacked and destroyed Pesth, 
 and ravaged the entire country with fire and sword. 
 
 ‘ The Latin world,’ continues Gibbon, * was darkened by 
 this cloud of savage hostility : a Russian fugitive carried the 
 alarm to Sweden ; and the remote nations of the Baltic and the 
 ocean trembled at the approach of the Tartars, whom their fear 
 and ignorance were inclined to separate from the human species. 
 Since the invasion of the Arabs in the eighth century, Europe 
 had never been exposed to a similar calamity ; and if the dis- 
 ciples of Mahomet would have oppressed her religion and 
 liberty, it might be apprehended that the shepherds of Scythia 
 would extinguish her cities, her arts, and all the institutions of 
 civil society.’ * 
 
 * In a very characteristic foot-note, a curious detail is given. ‘In the year 
 1238, the inhabitants of Gothia (Sweden) and Frise were prevented, by their 
 fear of the Tartars, from sending, as usual, their ships to the herring fishery 
 on the coast of England ; and, as there was no exportation, forty or fifty of 
 these fish were sold for a shilling. It is whimsical enough that the orders of 
 
TI1E MOGHULS. 
 
 85 
 
 In the hope of averting the impending calamity. Tope 
 Gregory proclaimed a crusade against the savage idolaters, 
 but as his relations with the Emperor Frederick II. happened 
 just then to be the reverse of amicable, no joint action of the 
 European Fowers could be brought about, and all Eastern 
 Europe lay at the mercy of Batou Khan. Suddenly, however, 
 the Tatar hordes retraced their steps from the Danube to the 
 Volga. ‘ The Great Khan Okkadai,’ writes Colonel Yule, 
 
 ‘ was dead in the depths of Asia, and a courier had come to 
 recall the army from Europe.’ 
 
 On the death of Oktai, or Okkadai, in 1241, the Supreme 
 Khan, or Khakhan, of the Moghuls, personally administered 
 the government of China, Corea, Mongolia, Manchuria, and 
 Tibet, his usual residence being at Karakoram, until Koublai 
 Khan removed it, a. n. 12G0, to Khanbaleg, or Cambalu. His 
 empire, however, extended far beyond even these wide bounds, 
 and was divided into three Khanats, or lieutenancies. 
 
 The Khan of the House of Chagatai ruled over the middle 
 portion, comprising Zungaria, part of Eastern Toorkestan, 
 Transoxiana, and Afghanistan, with his seat of government 
 sometimes at Almalik, on the Ili — perhaps near Old Kulja — 
 and sometimes at Bokhara. To the Khan of the House of 
 Toulai, or, rather, of Hoolakoo, were assigned the provinces of 
 Persia, Georgia, Armenia, part of Asia Minor, Arabian Irak, 
 and Khorassan, with Tabriz for their capital city. The north- 
 ern or Kipcliak empire fell to the Khan of the House of Joujee, 
 and embraced part of modern Siberia, Khwarezm, the country 
 north of the Caucasus, and a large slice of Russia. The court 
 of this Khanat was held at Sarai on the Volga, a town created 
 in a desert waste by Batou, and not unknown to Englishmen in 
 the days of Chaucer : — 
 
 a Mogul Khan, who reigned on the borders of China, should have lowered the 
 price of herrings in the English market.’ 
 
86 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 * At Sarra, in the Londe of Tartarie, 
 
 Ther dwelt a King that werreied Russie, 
 
 Through which ther died many a doughty man : 
 
 This noble King was cleped Cambuscan.’ 
 
 Although the unexpected withdrawal of Batou Khan relieved 
 the princes and peoples of Europe for a time from the mighty 
 dread that had fallen upon them, the danger seemed rather 
 deferred than altogether diverted. It was felt that at any 
 moment the Tatar swarms might again spread over the western 
 world, and mark their course with universal desolation. Gre- 
 gory’s successor, Pope Innocent IV., accordingly determined to 
 send envoys, whose soft words should turn away the wrath of 
 the Great Khan. 
 
 lie despatched, in fact, two missions. For the first he 
 selected three Franciscan Friars, of whom the one best known 
 to fame was named John de Plano Carpini. Starting from 
 Lyons on the 16th April, 1245, the three friars travelled 
 through Bohemia and Silesia to Kiew, at that time the capital 
 of Russia, where they remained till the 4th February, 1246. 
 Shortly afterwards they fell in with the Tatar outposts, by 
 whom they were sent on to Batou through Southern Russia, 
 then called Comania, or the country of the Comani, or Kipchaks, 
 of whom no traces are now discoverable in those parts. Pre- 
 vious to being ushered into the presence of that redoubtable 
 chief, they were compelled to pass between two fires of purifica- 
 tion, and then delivered the Pope’s letter on bended knees. 
 Batou appears to have received his strange visitors graciously 
 enough, and to have forwarded them in safety to Karakoram, 
 which they reached on the 22nd July, fifteen months after their 
 departure from Lyons. 
 
 The Papal letter was duly presented to the Great Khan, 
 Gayulc or Kuyuk. It purported to bo written by ‘ Innocent, 
 Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God, to the King and people 
 
THE MOGHULS. 
 
 87 
 
 of the Tatars,’ who were therein bidden to withhold their 
 destroying hands, and to desist from further outrages, and 
 especially from the persecution of Christians, who, though 
 tolerated in Asia, had undergone terrible cruelties in Europe ; 
 not, indeed, because of their religion, but simply as conquered 
 enemies. On the 13th November, 124G, the envoys took leave 
 of the Great Khan, and arrived at Kiew on the 8th June, 124 1 , 
 bearers of the following letter : — 
 
 * The strength of God, Kuyuk Khan, the ruler of all men, 
 to the great Pope. You and all the Christian people who dwell 
 in the West have sent by your messengers sure and certain 
 letters for the purpose of making peace with us. This we have 
 heard from them, and it is contained in your letter. Therefore, 
 if you desire to have peace with us, you pope, emperors, all 
 kings, all men powerful in cities, by no means delay to come to 
 us for the purpose of concluding peace, and j'ou will hear our 
 answer and our will. The series of your letter contained that 
 we ought to be baptized, and to become Christians ; we briefly 
 reply that we do not understand why we ought to do so. As 
 to what is mentioned in your letters, that you wonder at the 
 slaughter of men, and chiefly of Christians, especially Hun- 
 garians, Poles, and Moravians, we shortly answer that this too 
 we do not understand. Nevertheless, lest we should seem to 
 pass it over in silence, we think proper to reply as follows. It 
 is because they have not obeyed the precepts of God and of 
 Gengis Khan, and, holding bad counsel, have slain our mes- 
 sengers. (The Russians murdered some Tatar envoys before 
 the battle of Kalka.) Wherefore God has ordered them to be 
 destroyed, and has delivered them into our hands. But if God 
 had not done it, what could man have done to man ? B ut you, 
 inhabitants of the West, believe that you only are Christians, 
 and despise others ; but how do you know on whom He may 
 choose to bestow His favour ? W e adore God, and, in His strength, 
 
88 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 will overwhelm tlie whole earth from the East to the "West. 
 But if we were not strengthened by God, what could we do ?* 
 
 Very much in the same spirit was the rebuke administered 
 by Mangou Khan to William de Rubruquis. ‘ The Mongols/ 
 observed the Khakhan, ‘believe there is but one God, and have 
 an upright heart towards Ilim : That as He hath given to the 
 hand many fingers, so He hath infused into the minds of men 
 various opinions. God hath given the Scriptures to you Chris- 
 tians, but you observe them not. You find it not there that 
 one of you should revile another, or that for money a man ought 
 to deviate from justice. . . God hath given you Scriptures 
 
 and you keep them not, but He hath given us Soothsayers, 
 whose injunctions we observe, and we live in peace (with one 
 another) / 
 
 Carpini, however, was by no means favourably impressed 
 with the uprightness of heart claimed by the Tatar chief as the 
 special attribute of his people. ‘ They speake fayre/ he says, 
 * in the beginning, but in conclusion they sting like scorpions. 
 For craftie they are, and full of falsehood, circumventing all 
 men whom they are able by their sleights/ Neither was he 
 pleasantly affected by their superstitious objection to personal 
 cleanliness. Their garments were never cleansed, and were 
 worn till they rotted off. When thunder was growling in the 
 distance it was peculiarly unlucky to wash any article what- 
 ever, as such an act was likely to dispel the rain-clouds — in 
 other words, water was too precious to be thrown away on 
 external applications. 
 
 Notwithstanding the bootless result of the Franciscan Mis- 
 sion, Pope Innocent, in 1247, despatched four Dominican 
 Friars — Ascelin, Simon de St Quintin, Alexander, and Albert 
 — into Persia, but with even less success than had crowned his 
 first venture. At that time a very general belief pervaded 
 Europe that the Tatars, if not actually orthodox Christians, 
 
THE MOGIIULS. 
 
 89 
 
 had a decided leaning towards that religion. It was known 
 that they were not Mohammedans, neither could they be called 
 idolaters any more than the Christians themselves, who bowed 
 down and worshipped graven images as though they had never 
 heard of the Fourth Commandment. De Joinville relates that 
 while Louis IX. was detained at Nicosia in Cyprus, waiting for 
 a fair wind, envoys arrived from the Khan of the Tatars 
 soliciting his co-operation against the Khalif of Baghdad, and 
 avowing themselves of the same faith as the Franks. It has 
 been suggested that the Tatars confounded the Christians with 
 the Bonzas of Tibet, and that the Franks in their turn took 
 their notion of Trester John from the Dalai Lama. Be this as 
 it may, the sainted monarch lent a credulous car to his visitors 
 from the far East, and sent back a return mission consisting of 
 tin •ee Friars and two officers of his household. 
 
 A little later, or in the year 1253, Saint Louis despatched 
 William de Bubruquis — a Fleming, whose real name was 
 Buysbroek — * of the order of the minorite friers, unto the East 
 parts of the worlde,’ because a report had reached his ears that 
 Batou’s son, ‘ the Lord Sartach,’ had been converted to Chris- 
 tianity. The Friar, whose simple and picturesque narrative 
 may be read in Hakluyt, and in Astley, started from Constan- 
 tinople with a little present for the Tatar chief, consisting of 
 ‘ pleasant fruits, muscatel wine, and delicate bisket bread,’ and 
 encountered many adventures on the road, but which, though 
 highly amusing, are foreign to the purport of this compilation. 
 He very soon discovered, however, that the idea of Tatar 
 Christianity was altogether a delusion, which he largely 
 ascribed to the proneness of the Xestorian Christians to spin out 
 a most wonderful story from the merest trifle. When he was 
 about to return to Europe, a Mongol officer begged him not to 
 say that ‘ our master is a Christian : he is no Christian but a 
 Mongol ; ’ and he adds that these barbarians fancied that the 
 
90 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 word Christian was simply the name of a tribe, or race. But 
 the general reader will turn most readily to the Friar’s quaint 
 descriptions of the manners and customs of the Tatars. 
 
 ‘ They have,’ he says, ‘ in no place any settled citie to abide 
 in, neither knowe they of the celestiall citie to come. They 
 have divided all Scythia among themselves, which stretched 
 from the river Danubius even unto the rising of the sunne. 
 And every of their captaines, according to the great or small 
 number of his people, knoweth the bounds of his pastures, and 
 where he ought to feed his cattel winter and summer, spring 
 and autumne. For in the winter they descend unto the warm 
 regions southward. And in the summer they ascend unto the 
 colde regions northward. In winter when snow lyeth upon the 
 grounds they feede their cattel upon pastures without water, 
 because they use snow instead of water. 
 
 * Their houses wherein they sleepe, they grounde upon a 
 round foundation of wickers artifically wrought and compacted 
 together : the roofe whereof consisteth (in like sorte) of wickers 
 meeting above into one little roundell, out of which roundell 
 ascendeth upward a necke like unto a chimney, which they 
 cover with white felte, and oftentimes they lay morter or white 
 earth upon the sayd felte, with the powder of bones, that it may 
 shine white. And sometimes also they cover it with blacke 
 felte. The sayd felte on the necke of their house they doe 
 garnish over with beautifull varieties of pictures. Before the 
 doore, likewise, they hang a felte curiously painted over. For 
 they spend all their coloured felte in painting vines, trees, birds 
 and beastes thereupon. The sayd houses they make so large that 
 they conteine 30 foote in breadth. For measuring once the 
 breadth between the wheele-ruts of one of their cartes, I found it 
 to be 20 feete over ; and when the house was upon the carte, it 
 stretched over the wheeles on each side five fecte at the least. 
 I told 22 oxen in one tcame, drawing an house upon a cart, 
 
THE MOGHULS. 
 
 91 
 
 eleven in one order according to tlie breadth of the cart, and 
 eleven more before them ; the axle-tree of the carte was of an huge 
 bignes like unto the mast of a ship. And a fellow stood in the 
 doore of the house, upon the fore-stall of the carte, driving forth 
 the oxen. 
 
 ' Moreover, they make certaino four-square baskets of small 
 slender wickers as big as gi-eat chestes : and afterward, from 
 one side to another, they frame an hollow lidde, or cover, of 
 such like wickers, and make a doore in the foreside thereof. 
 And then they cover the sayd chest or little house with black 
 felt rubbed over with tallow or sheep’s milke to keep the raine 
 from soaking through, which they decke likewise with painting 
 or with feathers. And in such chests they put their whole 
 houshold stuffe and treasure. Also the same chests they do 
 strongly binde upon their carts, which are drawen with camels, 
 to the end they may wade through rivers. Neither do they at 
 any time take down the sayd chests from off their carts. When 
 the}* take down their dwelling-houses they turne the doores al- 
 ways to the south : and next of all they place the carts laden 
 with their chests, here and there, within half a stone’s cast of 
 the house : insomuch that the house standeth between two 
 ranks of carts, as it were between two wals. The matrons 
 make for themselves most beautiful carts, which I am not able 
 to describe unto your majestie but by pictures onlie. 
 
 ‘ Duke Baatu hath sixteen wives, every one of which hath 
 one great house besides other little houses, which they place be- 
 hind the great one, being as it were chambers for their maidens 
 to dwel in. When they take their houses from off the cartes, 
 the principal wife placeth her court on the west frontier, and so 
 all the rest in their order : so that the last wife dwelleth upon 
 the east frontier : and one of the said ladies’ courts is distant 
 from another about a stone’s cast. Whereupon the court of one 
 rich Moal or Tartar will appeare like unto a great village, very 
 
92 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 few men abiding on tbe same. One woman will guide 20 or 
 30 cartes at once, for their countries are very plaine, and they 
 binde the cartes with camels or oxen one behind another. And 
 there sittes a wench ( muliercula ) in the foremost carte driving 
 the oxen, and al the residue follow on a like pace. When they 
 chance to come at any bad passage, they let them loose and 
 guide them over one by one : for they goe a slowe pace, as fast 
 as a lambe or an oxe can walke.’ 
 
 Here follows a picture of a Tatar interior. * When they 
 have taken down their houses from their carts and turned the 
 doors southward, they place the bed of the master of the house 
 at the north part thereof ; the women’s place is always on the 
 east, that is, on the left hand of the master of the house, when 
 sitting upon his bed with his face to the south, but the men’s 
 place is to the west, that is, to the right hand of the master. 
 Men, when they enter into the house, never hang their quivers 
 on the women’s side. Over the master’s head there is an image 
 made of felt, which they call the master’s brother, and another 
 over the head of the mistress, which is called her brother, 
 fastened to the w r all, and a bow between both of them. There 
 is a little lean idol which is, as it were, the guardian of the 
 whole house. The mistress of the house places at the feet of her 
 bed, on the right hand, the skin of a kid stuffed with wool, and 
 near that a little image, looking towards the apartment of the 
 women. Next the door on the woman’s side there is another 
 image, with a cow’s udder, which is the guardian of the women 
 that milk the cattle, for this is the constant employment of their 
 women. On the other side of the door, next the men, is another 
 image, with the udder of a mare, for the guardian of those who 
 milk the mares.’ 
 
 The chief drink of the Tatars was a fermented liquor made 
 from mares’ milk, called by Hubruquis ‘Cosmos,’ by Jonas 
 Ilanway ‘ Kumeese,’ and by later writers ‘ Kumiz.’ The 
 
THE MOGHULS. 
 
 93 
 
 Flemish Friar found it somewhat pungent, and says that ‘ it 
 biteth a man’s tongue like the wine of raspes when it is drunk. 
 After a man hath taken a draught thereof, it leaveth behind it 
 a taste like the taste of almon milke, and goeth downe very 
 pleasantly, intoxicating weake braines.’ Another beverage is 
 named Caracosmos, or Black Cosmos, which was reserved for 
 the ' great lords,’ and is described as ‘ like unto whay or white 
 must.’ The lees were given to the servants and caused them 
 to ‘ sleepe exceedingly.’ ‘ That which is thinne and cleare 
 their masters drinke ; and in very deed it is marveilous sweete 
 and holesome liquor.’ The Russian priests more truly than 
 wisely declared that cosmos was not a drink fit for Christians, 
 and consequently the Tatars declined to embrace a religion 
 that forbade indulgence in their favourite liquor. The women 
 in winter time usually drank a mixture made by pouring hot 
 water upon curds kept in a bladder, the result being a very 
 sour beverage. 
 
 Such as could afford it, loved to array themselves in silken 
 stuffs, cotton cloths, and gold brocade brought from Persia, 
 India, and Cathay, and in rich and costly skins procured from 
 Russia and the northern regions of Asia. The house inhabited 
 by Mangou Khan — for Okkadai, or Oktai, had set the example 
 of abandoning the nomad tent for a settled residence — was bun 2 
 with cloth of gold. ‘ In the midst was a Fire made of Thorns, 
 Wormwood Roots of a great Size, and Ox-Dung. The Khan 
 sat on a Bed, and was clad with a Robe of spotted Fur, which 
 shined like a Seal Skin. He was of middle Stature, flat-nosed, 
 and about 45 years old. Ilis Wife, who was a little pretty 
 Woman, sat by him.’ 
 
 "When in doubt as to what course to pursue, Mangou Khan 
 had recourse to divination by means of the shoulder-bones of 
 rams, and which seems to have been much on a par with our 
 modern vulgar practice of tossing a coin in the air and crying 
 
94 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Heads or Tails. The Khan, we are told, would call for three 
 bones, and, holding them in his hands, would inwardly formu- 
 late his dilemma. The bones were then taken away and put 
 into a fire, and when quite black were brought back to him. 
 If one were cleft lengthwise, the sign was affirmative ; if one 
 were cleft across, or if round pieces had flown off, the answer 
 was held to be negative ; but it is not stated how the response 
 was to be read should both these events occur. 
 
 Apparently under the impression that a benediction can do 
 no harm, if it does no good, Mangou Khan, when drinking, 
 allowed the Nestorian priests to wave incense towards his cup 
 and pronounce a blessing on its contents. The rumoured tolera- 
 tion and munificence of the Tatar chief drew to his court at 
 Karakoram adventurers from all parts of the world. Rubru- 
 quis particularly mentions a Norman Bishop, a French lady 
 from Metz with her Russian husband, several Hungarians, 
 Greeks, Russians, Georgians, and Armenians, and a goldsmith 
 from Paris, who had executed for the Khakhan a silver tree 
 supported by four lions of the same precious metal, and ejecting 
 four different kinds of liquor. There was also a colony of 
 Germans, carried off as captives by Batou Khan, settled on the 
 Jaxartes, or Syr Darya, and employed as miners. 
 
 The gradual decline of the Tatars from their original sim- 
 plicity, and their attainment to a certain degree of barbaric 
 splendour, have been described by Gibbon with his usual felicity 
 of diction. ‘ On the banks of the Onon and Selinga, the royal 
 or golden horde exhibited the contrast of simplicity and great- 
 ness ; of the roasted sheep and mares’ milk which composed 
 their banquets ; and of a distribution in one day of five hundred 
 waggons of gold and silver. The ambassadors and princes of 
 Europe and Asia were compelled to undertake this distant and 
 laborious pilgrimage ; and the life and reign of the great dukes 
 of Russia, the kings of Georgia and Armenia, the sultans of 
 
THE MOGHULS. 
 
 93 
 
 Iconium and the Emirs of Persia, were decided by the frown or 
 smile of the great Khan. The sons and grandsons of Zingis 
 had been accustomed to the pastoral life ; but the village of 
 Caracorum (about 600 miles to the north-west of Pekin) was 
 gradually ennobled by their election and residence. 
 
 ‘ A change of manners is implied in the removal of Octai 
 and Mangou from a tent to a house ; and their example was 
 imitated by the princes of their family and the great officers of 
 their empire. Instead of the boundless forest (?), the enclosure 
 of a park afforded the more indolent pleasures of the chase : 
 their new habitations were decorated with painting and sculp- 
 ture ; their superfluous treasures were cast in fountains and 
 basins, and statues of massy silver ; and the artists of China 
 and Paris vied with each other in the service of the great Khan. 
 Caracorum contained two streets, the one of Chinese mechanics, 
 the other of Mohammedan traders ; and the places of religious 
 worship, one Nestorian church, two moschs, and twelve temples 
 of various idols, may represent in some degree the number and 
 division of inhabitants. Yet a French missionary declares that 
 the town of St Denys, near Paris, was more considerable than 
 the Tatar capital ; and that the whole palace of Mangou was 
 scarcely equal to a tenth part of that Benedictine Abbey.’ 
 
96 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 THE TATARS. 
 
 KING HAITON I. OF ARMENIA — CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MOGHUL AND 
 CHRISTIAN PRINCES — LETTERS OF EDWARD II. TO THE KING OF THE 
 TATARS — LETTER FROM PRESTER JOHN TO ALEXIUS COMNENUS — VARIOUS 
 ACCOUNTS OF PRESTER JOHN — NESTORIUS — REVIVAL OF MOHAMMEDAN- 
 ISM — BIRTH OF TIMOUR — HIS EARLY LIFE AND ADVENTURES— RAISED TO 
 THE THRONE — HIS CONQUESTS— SHEEAHS AND SOONEES — THE TWELVE 
 IMAMS — DEFEAT OF BAYAZID — RETURN OF TIMOUR TO SAMARKAND. 
 
 The prevalent belief in Europe as to tbe Christianity of the 
 Tatars may have been partly attributable to the letters addressed 
 to the King and Queen of Cyprus by the Constable of Armenia, 
 who wrote from Saurequant, conjectured b} r Colonel Yule to be 
 a misprint for Samrequant, or Samarkand. In 1246, or there- 
 about, Hetoum or Ilayton I., King of Little Armenia, deeming 
 it prudent to place himself under the protection of the Great 
 Khan, deputed his brother Sempad, or Sinibald, the constable 
 of his tiny kingdom, to congratulate Kuyuk Khan on his acces- 
 sion to the power and dignity of the ‘ Cham of Tatarie.’ The 
 ambassador appears to have corresponded with their Cyprian 
 Majesties, and to have furnished them with information of a 
 novel as well as interesting character. Among other curious 
 matters he states that the Three Kings who made their offerings 
 to the Saviour in the manger came from Tanchat, or Tangut, 
 and carried back with them to their distant homes on the 
 borders of China the chief articles of the Christian faith. 
 
 Some j r ears later King Ilayton repaired in person to the 
 court of Mangou Khan, successor to Kuyuk, — first of all 
 
THE TATARS. 
 
 97 
 
 visiting tlie camp of the Tatar General at Kars. Thence the 
 royal traveller proceeded through Armenia Proper and, travers- 
 ing the Derbend Tass, at length arrived at Sarai on the Volga. 
 Here he made the acquaintance of Batou Khan and his son 
 Sartach, both of whom he declared to he Christians. Resuming 
 his journey on the 13th May, 1234, he reached Karakoram in 
 the early part of September, and was welcomed with profuse 
 hospitality. On the 1st November the Armenian started on 
 his homeward journey, travelling in safety by way of Zungaria, 
 Otrar, Samarkand, Bokhara, Khorassan, Mazanderan, and 
 Tabriz. 
 
 Towards the close of the 13th and in the beginning of the 
 14th century, diplomatic communications were more than once 
 opened between Christian Powers and the Moghul Khans of 
 Persia. The initiative seems to have been taken by the latter, 
 who, with the diminution of their martial spirit, had laid aside 
 their insolence of tone and manner, and were only solicitous to 
 obtain assistance from the Franks in their wars with the Sultan 
 of Egypt. According to Colonel Yule, two of these supplicatory 
 letters are still preserved among the French archives. The 
 earlier is from Argun Khan, and came in 1289. It is written 
 in TTigur characters in the Mongol language, on a roll of cotton 
 paper six feet and a half long by ten inches wide. The seal is 
 thrice impressed on the face of the letter in red. It is five 
 inches and a half square, containing six characters : ‘ Seal of 
 the Minister of State, Pacificator of Nations.’ The second 
 letter is from Khodabandah, otherwise called Oljaitu, and 
 written in 1305. The seal in this case contains the words: 
 ‘ By a supreme decree the Seal of the Descendant of the 
 Emperor, charged to reduce to obedience the ten thousand 
 barbarous nations.’ 
 
 A duplicate was probably sent to Edward II. of England, 
 whose reply, dated from Northampton, 16th October, 1307, will 
 
 7 
 
98 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 be found in Rymer’s Foedera. It is addressed ‘Ad Regem 
 Tartarorum,’ and begins, * Excellentissimo Principi, Domino 
 Dolgieto, Regi Tartarorum illustri.’ After mentioning the 
 arrival of the Tatar envoys and the receipt of the letters 
 intended for his royal father, who had shortly before departed 
 this life, Edward acknowledges the friendly and affectionate 
 relations that had alwaj^s existed between the ancestors of the 
 Tatar prince and his own, and reciprocates the wish that they 
 may continue and grow still closer. lie further expresses his 
 great gratification on learning that the Khan had succeeded, 
 
 ‘ Deo propitio,’ in establishing peace ‘ ab ortu solis usque ad 
 confinia ultra mare,’ and trusts that in a short time, ‘ mediante 
 Deo praesidio/ he also will be able to suppress all discord and 
 controversy, and introduce tranquillity and concord throughout 
 his dominions. 
 
 On the 30th November of the same year, Edward wrote a 
 second letter, ‘ Ad Imperatorem Tartarorum,’ and this time ‘de 
 Ilocrese Mahometans extirpanda.’ Premising that it is the 
 duty of kings and princes to defend the believers in Christ, to 
 overthrow mischievous and perfidious peoples, and to destroy all 
 unbelievers and rebels against Christ, he goes on to say that 
 were it not for the great distance and because of the hinderance 
 of bis own affairs, lie would gladly apply himself ‘ ad tam 
 nepliandse sects) eradicationcm ’ — which is described as the 
 ‘ prophana secta et sordida Mahometi, circumquaque pululans et 
 diffundens sua infecta germina.’ The time for such action had 
 arrived, for the very books of these nefarious heretics pro- 
 phesied that within a brief period their sect would cease and 
 be annihilated. The English monarch therefore urges the 
 Tatar prince to persevere in the good work lie had begun, and 
 not to rest till he had wholly swept away that ‘ sect am sordi- 
 dam.’ And for his own part he proposes to send some honour- 
 able, learned, and pious men, who shall convert the Tatars 
 
THE TATARS. 
 
 90 
 
 themselves to Christianity, and rouse them to wage war to the 
 bitter end, ‘ contra detestabilem Mahometi sectam.’ 
 
 The influence of the Chaldaean, or Nestorian, Christians 
 under the early Arab conquerors, and down to the conquest of 
 Baghdad by TToolakoo Khan in the 13th century, is clearly set 
 forth in Layard’s ‘ Nineveh.’ Their missionaries had penetrated 
 into the very heart of the Moghul Empire, and boasted of mak- 
 ing converts of several Tatar Chiefs, notably of one whom they 
 styled Prester or Presbyter John. A very singular letter 
 addressed to Alexius Comnenus has been ascribed to this fabled 
 prince, but Mr Layard reasonably suspects that it was the 
 handiwork either of a Chaldaean missionary, or of some imagina- 
 tive ecclesiastic who had visited the East. 
 
 It commences in this strain: ‘Prester John, b}- the Grace 
 of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, the king of kings, to 
 Alexius Comnenus, the Governor of Constantinople, health and 
 a happy end.’ After inquiring if Alexius were acquainted with 
 the true faith, the writer extols his own greatness and excel- 
 lence. He calls himself a * devout Christian,’ and declares that 
 he had made a vow to rescue with a great army ‘ the sepulchre 
 of our Lord ’ from the infidels. ‘ Our magnificence/ he con- 
 tinues, * ruleth over the Three Indies, and our territories stretch 
 beyond the furthermost India, in which resteth the body of the 
 blessed Apostle Thomas.’ ‘ Seventy-two provinces obey us, a 
 few of which are Christian provinces, and each hath its own 
 king. And all their kings are our tributaries. In our terri- 
 tories are found elephants, dromedaries, and camels, and almost 
 every kind of beast that is under heaven. Our dominions flow 
 with milk and honey. In one portion of our territories no 
 poisons can harm ; in another grow all kinds of pepper ; and 
 a third is so thick with groves that it resembleth a forest, and 
 is full of serpents in every part. There is also a sandy sea 
 without water. Three days’ journey from this sea, there are 
 
100 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 mountains from which, descend rivers of stones ’ — evidently, 
 alluding to glaciers and moraines. Beyond a certain river dwelt 
 the Ten Tribes, and also Salamanders. * These worms,’ it is 
 written, ‘ can only live in fire, and make a skin around them as 
 the silkworm.’ Their cocoons were spun by ladies and woven 
 into cloth, which could only be cleansed in a bright fire, 
 p „ In war time the army was preceded by thirteen great 
 crosses of gold, ornamented with gems. On ordinary occasions 
 Prester John was content with a simple cross, and a vase filled 
 with gold pieces. Once a year he made a pilgrimage to the 
 tomb of the prophet Daniel in Babylon. Ilis palace was fire- 
 proof, was built of ebony and shittim woods, and was full of 
 marvellous objects. Ills bed was made of sapphire, and he 
 possessed ‘most beautiful wives,’ but, unfortunately, their num- 
 ber is not mentioned. Thirty thousand persons, exclusive of 
 casual guests, were fed daily at his charge, while he himself was 
 served by seven kings, sixty-five dukes, and three hundred and 
 sixty-five counts. On his right hand there sat every day at 
 dinner twelve archbishops, and on his left twenty bishops, in 
 addition to the Patriarch of St Thomas, the Protopapas of Sal- 
 mas, and the Archiprotopapas of Susa. The abbots who 
 officiated in his private chapel were of the same number as the 
 days in the year. Ilis butler was a primate and also a king : 
 his steward, an archbishop and a king; his chamberlain, a 
 bishop and a king ; his mareschal, an archimandrite and a king ; 
 and his head cook, an abbot and a king. ‘ But,’ the veracious 
 writer modestly remarks, ‘we assume an inferior rank, and a 
 more humble name, that we may prove our great humility.’ 
 
 In the Edinburgh Review for January, 1872, it is pointed out 
 that the Prester John of William de Rubruquis was a different 
 person from the Prester John of Marco Polo — the one being 
 Kushlouk, the Naiinan, and the other Ouang Khan, the Kcrait, 
 both of them contemporaries of Chinghiz ; while the genuine 
 
THE TATARS. 
 
 101 
 
 Presbyter was Gour Iihan, tbe Kara Khitayan, who certainly 
 never professed Christianity, but whose name, softened to \ our 
 Khan, was confounded by the Syrian priests with Juchanan, or 
 Johannes. 
 
 Describing the progress of the Nestorians under the Moghul 
 Empire, Gibbon remarks that they ‘ overleaped the limits which 
 had confined the ambition and curiosity both of the Greeks and 
 Persians. The missionaries of Balch and Samarkand pursued 
 without fear the footsteps of the roving Tatar, and insinuated 
 themselves into the camps and villages of Imaus and the banks 
 of the Selinga. They exposed a metaphysical creed to those 
 illiterate shepherds ; to those sanguinary warriors they recom- 
 mended humanity and repose. Yet a Khan, whose power they 
 vainly magnified, is said to have received at their hands the 
 rites of baptism, and even of ordination ; and the famous 
 P renter or Presbyter John has long amused the credulity of 
 Europe. The royal convert was indulged in the use of a port- 
 able altar ; but he despatched an embassy to the Patriarch to 
 inquire how, in the season of Lent, he should abstain from 
 animal food, and how he might celebrate the Eucharist in a 
 desert that produced neither corn nor wine.’ 
 
 Colonel Yule explains the myth in his usual clear and 
 explicit manner. A Syrian Bishop of Gabala who had been 
 despatched about the middle of the 12th century by the king 
 of Armenia to Pope Eugene III., informed that Pontiff that in 
 the far East a Xestorian king and priest named John, who was 
 descended from one of the Three lYise Men, had taken Ecbatana 
 from the king of Persia and was on the march to the deliver- 
 ance of Jerusalem, when his progress was stopped b}' the Tigris. 
 From this source sprang the ridiculous stories about Prester 
 John and his wide-spread dominions. In reality this mythical 
 personage was simply the Headman of a pastoral tribe of Xes- 
 torian Christians, whose pastures were a mountain-side. On 
 
102 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 the overthrow of the Leao dynasty of China, early in the 12th 
 century, one of those fugitive princes escaped to the Uigurs, 
 and with the aid of other western tribes made himself master of 
 Toorkestan. He thereupon assumed the title of Gour Khan, or 
 Universal Lord, and established the Buddhist religion in this 
 new Empire of Kara Khitai. His dynasty was short-lived; for 
 his grandson was dethroned by his son-in-law, the last Khan of 
 the Christian Xaimans who had fled to him for refuge. The 
 usurper adopted Buddhism, and was slain by Chinghiz Khan 
 amid the mountains of Badakhshan. 
 
 ‘ Xestorius, a native of Germanicia and a monk of Antioch, 
 was recommended,’ says Gibbon ‘by the austerity of his life 
 and the eloquence of his sermons.’ He wielded, however, the 
 sword of persecution with such ferocity that he disgusted the 
 moderate and alarmed the timid. Theodosius appointed him 
 Patriarch of Constantinople. ‘ In the Syrian school Xestorius 
 had been taught to abhor the confusion of the two natures, and 
 nicely to discriminate the humanity of his master Christ from 
 the divinity of the Lord Jesus. The Blessed Virgin he revered 
 as the mother of Christ, but his ears were offended with the 
 rash and recent title of Mother of God, which had been insen- 
 sibly adopted since the origin of the Arian controversy . . In 
 his calmer moments Xestorius confessed that it (the title OtoroKos, 
 Deipara) might be tolerated, or excused, by the union of the 
 two natures and the communication of their idioms : but he was 
 exasperated, by contradiction, to disclaim the worship of a new- 
 born, an infant Deity, to draw his inadequate similes from the 
 conjugal or civil partnerships of life, and to describe the man- 
 hood of Christ as the robe, the instrument, the tabernacle of his 
 Godhead.’ 
 
 The violent opposition of Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, 
 caused the outbreak of serious riots, and produced many scenes 
 scandalous to the Church, and in the end Xestorius, condemned 
 
THE TATARS. 
 
 103 
 
 by tlie First Council of Ephesus, abdicated bis see, a. n. 435. 
 After enduring much subsequent persecution, he died in Egypt, 
 a. i). 451, but his heresy, though banished from the Roman 
 Empire, found support and encouragement in Persia, where his 
 exiled adherents were welcomed as ‘ victims and enemies of the 
 tyrant ’ — Justinian. 
 
 ‘The ecclesiastical institutions of the Nestorian Christians,’ 
 the historian continues, ‘were distinguished by a liberal prin- 
 ciple of reason, or at least of policy : the austerity of the cloister 
 was relaxed, and gradually forgotten ; houses of charity were 
 endowed for the education of orphans and foundlings ; the law 
 of celibacy, so forcibly recommended to the Greeks and Latins, 
 was disregarded by the Persian clergy ; and the number of 
 the elect was multiplied by the public and reiterated nuptials of 
 the priests, the bishops, and even the patriarch himself. To 
 this standard of natural and religious freedom, myriads of 
 fugitives resorted from all the provinces of the Eastern Em- 
 pire; the narrow bigotry of Justinian was punished by the 
 emigration of his most industrious subjects ; they transported 
 into Persia the arts both of peace and war ; and those who de- 
 served the favour, were promoted in the service of a discerning 
 monarch ’ (Xousheerwan). 
 
 Christianity had penetrated into Khorassan and Bactrja at 
 a very early period, and in the sixth century a Metropolitan 
 see was established at Samarkand. It was from Samarkand 
 that the Chaldaean Patriarch obtained his information regard- 
 ing the progress of the Northern Tatar hordes, and startled 
 the Khalif and his courtiers by reading aloud in open divan a 
 letter addressed to him by the Archbishop of that distant see. 
 ‘ A people numerous as the locust-cloud had burst from the 
 mountains between Thibet and Khotan, and were pouring down 
 upon the fertile plains of Kashgar. They were commanded by 
 seven kings, each at the head of 70,000 horsemen. The war- 
 
104 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 riors were as swarthy as Indians. They used no water in their 
 ablutions ; nor did they cut their hair. They were most skilful 
 archers, and were content with simple and frugal fare. Their 
 horses were fed upon meat.'’ This last statement, however, was 
 too much for the credulity of the audience, until one who had 
 travelled into foreign parts, averred, from his personal observa- 
 tions, that in Arabia both raw meat and fried fish were given 
 to horses. 
 
 Under the Moghul Empire it was not an uncommon thing 
 for Tatar chiefs to take to themselves Christian wives, who 
 were permitted to bring up their children in their own faith, and 
 one of the numerous wives of Chinghiz himself is said to have 
 been a Nestorian heretic. In the early part of the 14th cen- 
 tury, no fewer than twenty-five Archbishops recognized the 
 Patriarch of Babylon as the Head of the Eastern Church, and 
 those who were too remote to give a personal account of their 
 stewardship, sent in a written report every sixth year. As the 
 Metropolitan sees were placed at such distant points as Merv, 
 Herat, Seistan, Balkh, Samarkand, Kashgar, and Almalik, and 
 as the Patriarch himself was at one time at Selcucia, at another 
 at Ctesiphan, and at yet another at Baghdad, it is evident that 
 his supervision must have been rather nominal than real and 
 practical. For all that, Mosheim attests that * to the lasting 
 honour of the Nestorian sect, they, of all the Christian societies 
 established in the East, have preserved themselves most free 
 from the numberless superstitions which have found their way 
 into the Greek and Latin Churches.’ 
 
 After the downfall of the Khalifat, the Chaldseans, as they 
 have since been called, were cruelly persecuted by the Tatars, 
 greatly at the instigation of the Romanist missionaries. Their 
 churches were utterly destroyed by Timour Lung, who put to 
 the sword, regardless of age or sex, all who were unable to 
 escape into the mountains of Koordistan. Save only in that 
 
THE TATARS. 
 
 105 
 
 wild and barbarous region few traces of the Nestorian churches 
 have survived since the commencement of the 15th century, 
 — the modern Assyrians, or Clialdoeans, repudiating all connec- 
 tion with the Nestorian heresy. 
 
 According to Mr Layard, they deny the intermediate state 
 of purgatory, neither do they worship the Virgin Mary. The 
 Cross, indeed, is set up in their churches, and they sign them- 
 selves by the figure of faith, but this is to be understood merely 
 as a token of religious brotherhood. The doctrine of transub- 
 stantiation they reject altogether, and the practice of auricular 
 confession has fallen into desuetude. The clergy are divided 
 into eight grades, of which the five lower are permitted to 
 marry. One hundred and fifty-two days are set apart in every 
 year, on which abstinence from animal food is rigidly enjoined, 
 and the religious day, whether as regards fasts or festivals, is 
 measured from sunset to sunset. The Patriarch lives solely on 
 milk and vegetables, and can be chosen only from one family, 
 and his name is always Shamoun, or Simon. 
 
 At different times, indeed, in the fourteenth century, Ro- 
 manist Friars succeeded in reaching China, or Cathay, after 
 traversing the deserts and oases of Central Asia, but it was 
 with fear and trembling ; and in 1339, William of Modena, a 
 merchant, died for the faith that was in him, in company with 
 certain friars, at Almalik on the Hi. Shortly afterwards 
 both missionaries and mei’ehants disappeared from the scene. 
 Friars, and even bishops, were despatched from Avignon, but, 
 as Colonel Yule expresses it, ‘ they go forth into the dark- 
 ness and are heard of no more. . . Islam has recovered 
 
 its ground, and extended its grasp over Middle Asia, and 
 the Nestorian Christianity, which once prevailed there, is 
 rapidly vanishing, and leaving its traces only in some strange 
 parodies of church ritual, which are found twined into the 
 worship of Tibetan Lamas, like the cabin gildings and mir- 
 
106 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 rors of a wrecked vessel adorning the hut of a Polynesian chief.’ 
 
 The power and glory of the dynasty of Chinghiz passed 
 away on the death of his grandson Koublai Ivhan, brother and 
 successor to Mangou Khan, and whose name is familiar to all 
 readers of the quaint narrative of Marco Polo. Meanwhile a 
 Toorkoman horde had laid the foundation of the Ottoman Em- 
 pire, by the reduction of Prusa and the subjugation of Bithynia 
 to the shores of the Hellespont. The faith of Islam had re- 
 vived throughout Mawaralnahr, and a legend tells how Toglx- 
 louk Timour Khan, the ruler of Badaklishan and Kashgar, was 
 brought to see the errors of a deism obscured by idolatry. 
 
 This prince, a lineal descendant of Chagatai, succeeded to 
 the Khanat of Kashgar in 1348, when he was only in his eight- 
 eenth year. One day, while enjoying the pleasures of the 
 chase, he was much annoyed by the intrusion of a party of 
 strangers, whom he supposed to be Tajeeks, or members of an 
 almost aboriginal race, and accordingly ordered them to he 
 brought before him bound hand and foot. Heaping upon the 
 prisoners much coarse and violent abuse, he assured them that 
 he valued a Tajeek no more than a dog. Sheikh Samoul-ood- 
 deen, the chief man of the offending party, answered that he 
 and his companions were true believers from Ivuttack, and by 
 no means to be treated as unclean animals. 
 
 Struck by his bold spirit and bearing, Toghlouk ordered 
 him to be kept in close custody until his return from the hunt, 
 when he held much earnest conference with the Sheikh, and 
 became convinced of the truth of the Mohammedan religion. 
 Ho was not, however, sufficiently secure of his position to avow 
 his conversion, and was constrained to content himself with 
 setting the strangers at liberty. After a time the Sheikh was 
 gathered to his fathers, but not until, with his dying breath, 
 lie had enjoined his son Ilasheed-ood-deen to complete the work 
 he had himself begun. 
 
TIIE TATARS. 
 
 107 
 
 Failing in every attempt to obtain a private audience, 
 Ilasheed one morning ascended a mound immediately beneath 
 tlio prince’s windows, and intoned his devotional exercises in so 
 loud a voice that lie disturbed the royal slumbers. lie was 
 accordingly seized and led before the Khan, to whom he 
 announced the mission he had received from his father, and 
 spoke with such earnest eloquence that all who heard him 
 resolved instantly to become followers of the prophet. One 
 alone held out and refused to change his religion, unless the 
 Sheikh succeeded in throwing to the ground the most famous 
 wrestler in Kashgar. The Khan at first refused to suffer such 
 a test to be applied, until he was over-ruled by the Sheikh him- 
 self, who expressed his readiness to encounter the athlete. As 
 soon as these strange combatants were placed face to face, the 
 Sheikh dealt his antagonist a tremendous blow on the stomach, 
 and laid him breathless at his feet. Such an argument was 
 irresistible. The prostrate wrestler was the first to profess his 
 faith in Allah, and in Mohammed the prophet of Allah, and his 
 example was eagerly followed by the Khan and all the courtiers. 
 
 This Chief subsequently laid claim to the whole of Mawaral- 
 nahr, by virtue of his descent from Chagatai, and experienced 
 little difficulty in enforcing his pretensions. The governor of 
 the province, whose chief city was Kesh, fled to Khorassan, 
 but his nephew boldly repaired to the Khan’s camp, and so 
 thoroughly ingratiated himself in that prince’s favour, that he 
 was appointed successor to his fugitive uncle. The nephew was 
 Timour Lung, commonly called Timour Beg, or Tirnour the 
 Tatar. 
 
 Fortunate in most things, Chagatai had the further good 
 fortune to possess a Prime Minister of remarkable ability and 
 great worth of character, on whom he bestowed his daughter in 
 marriage. Karachar Nuyan — so was he called — belonged to 
 the tribe of Berlas, which he induced to settle in the immediate 
 
108 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 neighbourhood of Kesh, a town situated about thirty miles to 
 the south of Samarkand. His grandson Taragai, or Tourghai, 
 resigned the hereditary office of Commander-in-chief of the 
 forces of Mawaralnahr, and devoted himself to the duties of a 
 pastoral and patriarchal life. This wise and unambitious man 
 is represented as being distinguished for his learning and 
 liberality, as well as for his great wealth in sheep and goats, 
 cattle and servants. His chief treasure, however, was his 
 beautiful and virtuous wife, Tekiua Khatoum, who, on the 8th 
 April, 1336, made him the happy father of a man-child. This 
 excellent couple, — whose residence was in a suburban village, 
 almost contiguous to Kesh, appropriately named Shuhr-i-Subz, 
 or the City of Verdure, — carried the infant to the pious Sheikh 
 Shems-ood-deen, whom they found engaged, as usual, in the 
 study of the Koran. 
 
 It so chanced that the Skeikh was reading the G7th chapter, 
 and had just reached the verse wherein it is asked, ‘ Are you 
 sure that He who dwelleth in Heaven will not cause the earth 
 to swallow you up? And behold it shall shake (tamurou).’ 
 Turning to his visitors the holy man said, in prophetic tones, 
 * We have named your son Timour ; ’ but in after life this babe 
 enjoyed the titles of Sultan (Lord), Kamran (successful), Ameer 
 (commander), Kootb-ood-deem (polestar of the faith), Timour 
 (it shall shake), Kourkhan or Gourgan (son-in-law of a prince, 
 or simply Great Lord), Sahib Keraun (master of the grand con- 
 junctions). 
 
 When only seven years of ago, the child was sent to school, 
 and made such rapid progress that at the age of nine he was 
 taught the daily service of the mosque, and habitually read the 
 91st chapter, called the Sun. Timour asserts of himself that he 
 was barely twelve when he first became prescient of the great- 
 ness to which he was predestined, and that from that time he 
 began to assume a dignified and even haughty deportment, lie 
 
TI1E TATARS. 
 
 109 
 
 had scarce attained his eighteenth year when he was puffed up 
 with vanity and conceit, passing his time on horseback and in 
 hunting, or in playing at chess — not unfrequently, however, 
 reading the Koran. Suddenly he was seized with a fit of re- 
 pentance, which caused him to renounce even the pastime of 
 chess as too absorbing, and to vow that he would never willingly 
 do injury to any living being. Indeed, so tender-hearted did 
 he become, that it grieved him to tread upon an ant. This 
 violent reformation was naturally of brief duration, for on his 
 father presenting him in the following year with a separate 
 establishment, his youthful ambition was rekindled, and the 
 value of human life faded away. 
 
 Shortly afterwards he was sent by his father on a business 
 mission to Ameer Kourgan, a powerful chief, whose favour he 
 so completely gained, that the Ameer gave him to wife his 
 grand-daughter Aljaz Tourkan Aga. This lady faithfully and 
 courageously accompanied her warlike lord in his most perilous 
 and toilsome expeditions, and cheerfully shared the dangers 
 and privations of the early part of his career. At that time 
 Mawaralnahr was held in thraldom by Ameer Kazan Sultan, 
 who had hitherto succeeded in suppressing every attempt to 
 throw off his heavy yoke. At last, however, he was defeated, 
 made prisoner, and subsequently put to death by Ameer 
 Kourgan, who finally overcame the opposition of the other 
 chiefs, Timour himself intriguing against him — and assumed 
 absolute dominion over Mawaralnahr. 
 
 In the year 1358, Timour greatly distinguished himself in 
 a brief campaign against the Heratees, and about this time was 
 presented by Sheikh Zyn Addeen Shady, with a cornelian 
 engraved with the Persian phrase, Rasty va Rousty — Righteous- 
 ness and Salvation — which he caused to be set as a seal-ring, and 
 adopted as his motto. The Ameer next resolved upon the con- 
 quest of Khwarezm, in which he was for some time thwarted 
 
110 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 by the shameless intrigues of his grandson-in-law. In the end, 
 the chiefs of that country submitted themselves, and Timour’s 
 duplicity was rewarded with the district of Urghunj. Not 
 long afterwards the Ameer was murdered, and, availing them- 
 selves of the general confusion, Timour and two other chiefs 
 divided Mawaralnahr between them. Their authority, however, 
 does not appear to have been generally recognized, and in 1361 
 no leader came forward to oppose the advance of the Jetes — or 
 unconverted Toorks, and not to be confounded with the Get* — 
 under the command of Toghlouk Timour Khan. 
 
 At this crisis, Timour’s uncle, the nominal governor of 
 Kesh, sought safety in flight, and the more daring nephew was 
 deputed to offer presents and terms of accommodation to the 
 formidable Toghlouk. In this difficult conjuncture, Timour 
 displayed so much courage and sagacity, that he was appointed 
 governor of the province. But no sooner had the danger passed 
 away than his authority was disputed, and be found himself 
 under the necessity of applying to Toghlouk for assistance. 
 The aid solicited was promptly afforded, but, charmed with the 
 beauty and fertility of the country, the Jetes showed no desire 
 to return to their own less favoured lands. As this was by no 
 means the end Timour had in view, he began to conspire against 
 Toghlouk, and on the discovery of his treachery was forced to 
 flee towards Khwarezm. In his flight he was joined by his 
 brother-in-law Ameer Ilosein, who had just been expelled from 
 Badakhshan. 
 
 The two fugitives, finding themselves at the head of seventy 
 followers whose circumstances were as desperate as their own, 
 marched boldly against Urghunj, but were surrounded in the 
 desert by a body of one thousand Toorkomans. An Homeric 
 conflict ensued, and we are invited to believe that, after killing 
 or disabling nine hundred of their assailants, Timour, Ilosein, 
 and seven of their companions were permitted to withdraw 
 
THE TATARS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 without further molestation. Worn out with fatigue and thirst, 
 they at length reached a well, and were regaled by a shepherd 
 with goat’s flesh, over which they enjoyed themselves exceed- 
 ingly- 
 
 Their wanderings lasted for a whole month, at the end of 
 which they were captured by some roving Toorkomans, who 
 confined Timour and his wife for sixty-two days in a filthy 
 cow-house, swarming with vermin. From this loathsome 
 duress, Timour’s courage and patient endurance ultimately 
 wrought their deliverance, though his troubles were vet far 
 from being ended. For many months he roamed to and fro 
 over the wilderness, at one time gathering together adherents, 
 and at another reduced to the verge of starvation. His moral 
 nature, however, gained strength in the school of adversity, 
 and his long career of triumph was made easier by his terrible 
 experiences in the deserts of Khwarezm and Mawarulnahr. In 
 touching language, he relates how he was recognized by three 
 chiefs at the head of a party of seventy horsemen, who had 
 gone forth in search of him. ‘ When their eyes fell upon me,’ 
 he writes, ‘ they were overwhelmed with joy, and they alighted 
 from their horses, and they came and bent their knees, and 
 they kissed my stirrup. I also came down from my horse, and 
 took each of them in my arms. And I put my turban on the 
 head of one chief, and my girdle, rich in jewels and wrought 
 with gold, I bound on the loins of another ; and the third I 
 clothed in my own coat. And they wept, and I wept also : and 
 the hour of prayer had arrived, and we prayed with tranquil 
 minds. We then mounted and came to my encampment, where 
 we remained for some time : I assembled my principal people 
 and gave a feast, and, having killed a quantity of game, we had 
 abundance of meat, for which we returned thanks to God.’ 
 
 For seven years Timour contended with varying fortune 
 against the Jetes and Toorkomans. In Seistan he sustained a 
 
112 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 terrible defeat, and was severely wounded in the arm and foot, 
 and lamed for life. From this misadventure he acquired the 
 posthumous epithet of Timour-' lene/ or ‘lung’ — the lame 
 Timour — which was first applied to him about the middle of 
 the loth century, by his Syrian biographer Ahmed Ben Arab- 
 shah, who hated and maligned him as much as he was praised 
 and flattered by Sheref-ood-deen Ali, of Yezd. 
 
 By 13G2 Timour had collected a body of 3000 horsemen, 
 with whom he defeated an army of 20,000 Jetes, and in the 
 following year, with 6000 men, routed 30,000 of the enemy, 
 commanded by Toghlouk’s son Alyas Khwajeli. This incom- 
 petent prince succeeded his father, but could not prevent the 
 victorious Timour from entering Samarkand. Shortly after- 
 wards the Jetes again crossed the Syhoon or S}'r, and only 
 escaped annihilation through the jealousy of Timour’s brother- 
 in-law, Ameer Hosein. Between these two kinsmen there en- 
 sued a long and deadly struggle, which ended in the discom- 
 fiture and death of the latter. 
 
 All obstacles being now removed out of his path, Timour was 
 placed on the throne in the city of Balkh — a. n. 1369, and in 
 the 34th year of his age — by four of the most revered Syuds, 
 and all the people held up their hands and prayed for his pro- 
 sperity. Thence he marched to Samarkand, which he made 
 his capital, though for many years he affected to govern by the 
 title of Ameer, and as the vicegerent of Sultan Mohammed 
 Khan, the lineal descendant of Chagatai, but who was nothing 
 more than a submissive pageant. 
 
 The next few years were devoted by Timour to the con- 
 solidation of his authority, the establishment of order, the 
 organization of the army, and the extirpation of idolatry and 
 Christianity. Then returned the old dreams of conquest and 
 empire, veiled under the thin pretence of promoting the welfare 
 of foreign lands and their peoples. Accordingly, in 1378, ho 
 
TIIE TATARS. 
 
 113 
 
 over-ran Khwarezm, sacked and destroyed Urghunj, and re- 
 moved tke inhabitants to Kesh. He next subdued Khorassan 
 and Mazanderau, Azerbijan and Georgia — Candahar and Seis- 
 tan being soon afterwards added to bis dominions. In 1387 
 Ispahan received the conqueror within its walls, but in the 
 night, some of bis barbarians being slain in a riot, a general 
 massacre ensued. lie thence proceeded to Shiraz, and sum- 
 moning to bis presence the poet Hafiz, asked him bow be dared 
 to dispose of bis two finest cities, Samarkand and Bokhara, 
 which be bad said, in a well-known couplet, be would give for 
 the mole on the cheek of bis mistress. ‘ Can the gifts of Hafiz 
 ever impoverish Timour ? ’ was the happy reply, rewarded by 
 munificent largesses. Many anecdotes, indeed, are related of 
 Timour’ s occasional affability and kindliness of nature, which 
 prove no more than that be was not a ‘ perfect monster,’ but at 
 times subject to capricious impulses that could be gratified 
 without pain to bis fellow-men. 
 
 From Shiraz the path of victory led to the Persian Gulf, to 
 Ormuz and to Baghdad, and ‘ the whole course of the Tigris and 
 Euphrates, from the mouth to the sources of those rivers, was 
 reduced to bis obedience.’ Crossing the Syr Darya at Kho- 
 jend, be passed the latter part of 1390 at Tasbkend, where be was 
 attacked by a serious illness. He was again in the field, how- 
 ever, at the commencement of 1391, and marched for three 
 weeks across the steppes to the north of the Aral. Sometime 
 in May be reached the western bank of the Yaik or Ural river, 
 and was suddenly confronted by the countless horsemen of the 
 Kipcbak hordes. The struggle was fierce and protracted, but 
 in the end the fortune of Timour turned the scale, and the 
 enemy broke and fled in every direction. 
 
 Delighted with the verdure of the soil, and the abundance 
 
 of game, Timour lingered on the banks of the Volga till the 
 
 month of July, when be once more set bis face to the eastward, 
 
 8 
 
114 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 and entered Samarkand at the close of the year, bringing in his 
 train immense flocks and herds of sheep, cattle, horses, and 
 camels, with troops of prisoners. But, though defeated, the 
 Kipchaks were by no means subdued. Barely three years 
 elapsed before Tokatmish, or Toktamish, rushed down through 
 the Gates of Derbend in the hope of cutting off Timour’s army 
 while entangled in the mountains of Georgia. This time the 
 Kipchaks were overthrown with still greater slaughter than in 
 the former campaign, and their prince fled to Siberia. All 
 Muscovy was over-run to the banks of the Dnieper, and the in- 
 habitants of Moscow only deemed themselves safe when the 
 news arrived that the eastern barbarians had recrossed the Cau- 
 casus. On a plain in Georgia the victorious army held high 
 festival, nor was it until 1396 that it again drank of the waters 
 of the Zarafshan. 
 
 ‘ Superb mosques and palaces,’ says Mr Clements Markham, 
 ‘ were built at Samarkand and Kesh, gardens were laid out full 
 of fragrant flowers, marble was transported from Azerbijan, 
 and porcelain to adorn the chambers from the distant empire of 
 China.’ The two years thus devoted to the arts of peace were 
 followed by the subjugation of the Punjab and Ilindostan, the 
 massacre of the inhabitants of Delhi, and the foundation of the 
 Moghul Empire in India. 
 
 On his return to Samarkand in 1399, Timour commenced the 
 erection of a magnificent mosque, whose vaulted roof was sus- 
 tained by 480 columns of hewn stone. The doors were of brass, 
 while the walls were decorated with inscriptions in relief. At 
 each of the four corners rose a lofty minaret, but the daily 
 spectacle of ninety Indian elephants, employed in transporting 
 stone from the quarries, may be supposed to have impressed his 
 subjects with greater awe and admiration than the architectural 
 wonders they were not yet qualified to appreciate. 
 
 Neither did Timour himself indulge for more than a few 
 
THE TATARS. 
 
 115 
 
 months in repose from war and bloodshed. The first year of 
 the 15tli century beheld him in the plains of Syria, and the 
 possession of Aleppo crowned one of the greatest victories he 
 had yet achieved. Inviting the doctors of the law to a personal 
 conference, Timour discussed with them various religious pro- 
 blems of a delicate nature, and insisted upon his own aversion 
 from war and love of clemency, while — in the words of Gibbon 
 — * the streets of Aleppo streamed with blood, and re-echoed 
 with the cries of mothers and children, with the shrieks of 
 violated virgins. The rich plunder that was abandoned to his 
 soldiers might stimulate their avarice, but the cruelty was en- 
 forced by the peremptory command of producing an adequate 
 number of heads, which, according to his custom, were curiously 
 piled in columns and pyramids : the Moguls celebrated the feast 
 of victory, while the surviving Moslems passed the night in 
 tears and in chains.’ 
 
 From Aleppo, Timour marched against Damascus, and nar- 
 rowly escaped a defeat by an army from Egypt. Damascus 
 fell into his hands from the foolish confidence placed in his 
 honour by the inhabitants, who fondly imagined that the 
 Moghul would respect the truce demanded by himself. His 
 perfidy he sought to justify as caused b)' the duty of avenging 
 the death of Ilosein, the grandson of Mohammed. ‘ A family 
 which had given honourable burial to the head of Ilosein, and 
 a colony of artificers whom he sent to labour at Samarkand, 
 were alone reserved in the general massacre ; and, after a period 
 of seven centuries, Damascus was reduced to ashes, because a 
 Tatar was moved by religious zeal to avenge the blood of an 
 Arab.’ The massacre of the citizens of Damascus makes a pro- 
 minent figure in Marlow’s bombastic drama entitled ‘ Tambur- 
 laine the Greate, who, from the state of a Shepheard in Scythia, 
 by his rare and wonderful conquests, became a most puissant 
 and mighty Monarge.’ 
 
116 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Timour’s ferocity seems in this instance to have been 
 aggravated by fanaticism. He had espoused the traditions of 
 the Sheeahs, or Schismatics, who repudiate the first three suc- 
 cessors of Mohammed recognized by the Soonees, or orthodox 
 Moslemin. The former are now confined to the Persians and a 
 considerable minority of the Mussulman population of India, 
 while the latter comprise the entire Mohammedan community, 
 with those two exceptions. The schism of the Sheeahs arose in 
 this way. On the death of the Prophet, the rightful successor 
 would have been Abou Taleb’s son Ali, the husband of his 
 daughter Fatima. Aboubekr’s daughter, Ayestha, the Pro- 
 phet’s widow, was, however, the deadly enemy of Ali, whose 
 lofty spirit and independent bearing were, besides, distasteful 
 to the Koreisb, jealous rivals of the tribe of Hashem to which 
 he belonged. Mohammed dying without naming a successor, 
 Aboubekr was chosen to rule in his stead. Two years later, 
 Aboubekr, on his death-bed, bequeathed his power to Omar, 
 who fell by the hand of an assassin, but not before he had ex- 
 pressed his wish that the choice of a successor should be left to 
 the six surviving ‘ Companions ’ of the Prophet. These elected 
 Othman, Mohammed’s secretary, and it was not until his death, 
 or twenty-four years after that of the Prophet, that Ali was 
 permitted to ascend the throne. The Sheeahs hold that his 
 three predecessors were usurpers, and no true Persian will bear 
 the name of Aboubekr, Omar, or Othman. 
 
 The pathetic fate of Ali’s sonsllassan and Ilosein is familiar 
 to all readers of Gibbon, and to the present day the anniversary 
 of Iloscin’s death, on the plain of Kerbcla, gives rise to the 
 most extravagant demonstrations of grief and fury. Ali, his 
 two sons, and Ilosein’s lineal descendants to the ninth genera- 
 tion, constitute the Twelve Imams, of whom two are still 
 specially revered by the Persians. These were Ali Pcza, the 
 eighth Imam, sometimes called Morteza, or, The Approved, 
 
THE TATARS. 
 
 117 
 
 who died at Tous, a. d. 818, as some affirm, poisoned by the 
 orders of Haroun A1 Rasheed. lie was buried at Meshed, and 
 a magnificent tomb erected over his remains, which is still 
 visited hy numerous pilgrims. Even the great Shah Abbas 
 once proceeded to Meshed on foot from Ispahan, in order to 
 offer up his devotions at this tomb, an achievement that can 
 only be appreciated by those who understand the antipathy of 
 every Oriental to any sort of pedestrian exercise. Even more 
 famous was the twelfth and last of the Imams, Abou’lkazem 
 Mohammed Melidi, who mysteriously disappeared, a. d. 879, 
 and is believed to have been, like Enoch, translated to Paradise 
 without passing through the intermediate stage of dissolution. 
 
 Though originally separating upon a point of political rather 
 than doctrinal importance, the Slieeahs and Soonees still detest 
 each other with intense, implacable hatred. The former have 
 been driven by their comparative weakness to arrant hypocrisy, 
 and in the presence of their enemies, when in superior force, will 
 dissemble their sectarianism, and affect to be orthodox. This 
 dissimulation, according to Dr ’Wolff, is enjoined as a duty, and 
 goes by the name of Takeeah. They are also less rigid than 
 the Soonees in moral observances, and indulge in wine with 
 little reservation or disguise. In prayer their arms hang down 
 by their sides, instead of being crossed on their breast. They 
 also wear green slippers, and a turban of a particular shape, 
 and practise various other petty distinctions, cleverly ridiculed 
 in Moore’s ‘ Twopenny Post Bag,’ Letter YI. Though generally 
 known as Sheeahs, they prefer to be called Adaleeahs, or Fol- 
 lowers of Justice, but are regarded by the Soonees as worse even 
 than Christians, while the Toorkomans, in selling them as slaves, 
 deny that they transgress the Koran, which prohibits true 
 Believers from reducing their brethren to servitude. 
 
 Timour’s crowning victory was now at hand. On the 28th 
 July, 1402, he encountered with a far greater force, the im- 
 
118 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 mense army of Sultan Bayazid, or Bajazet, in the plains round 
 the city of Angora, and gained a complete victory. After dis- 
 playing, in vain, both military skill and personal valour, Baj’azid 
 beheld the irremediable rout of his 400,000 trained -warriors, 
 and was himself taken prisoner while fleeing from the fatal 
 field. Timour’s grandson, Meerza Mohammed Sooltan, with a 
 chosen body of horse, followed up this brilliant success. Boursa 
 was pillaged and burnt to the ground, ‘ and the Mogul squad- 
 rons were only stopped by the waves of the Propontis.’ Smyrna 
 was taken by Timour himself after a gallant resistance, and 
 ‘ all that breathed were put to the sword.’ 
 
 There seems no reason to doubt that the captive Sultan was 
 at first treated with the consideration due to his exalted rank 
 and pitiable reverse of fortune. It is more than probable that 
 he would even have been restored to power had he borne him- 
 self with less arrogance, and abstained from idle attempts to 
 escape from confinement. To destroy all hope of immediate 
 deliverance, and to facilitate his conveyance to Samarkand, 
 Timour placed his royal captive on a Moghul cart fenced round 
 with iron bars, but the sense of humiliation and disappointment 
 speedily released the unhappy Sultan from the shame and 
 misery of his situation. Within nine months after the over- 
 throw of his empire at Angora, Bayazid was carried off by an 
 apoplectic stroke at Akshuhr — White Town — in Anatolia, and 
 his body was interred with royal honours in the Mausoleum 
 built by himself at Boursa. 
 
 Ilis eldest son Soliman was confirmed in his government of 
 Eoumania, while a patent in red ink bestowed upon Bayazid ’s 
 younger son, Mousa, the province of Anatolia. The B} r zantine 
 emperor now avowed allegiance to the victorious Tatar, and 
 engaged to pay an annual tribute in token of subjection. 
 Finally, the Sultan of Egypt, trembling for his rich possessions, 
 acknowledged the supremacy of the Moghul conqueror, and 
 
THE TATARS. 
 
 119 
 
 sent him a peace-offering of nine ostriches and. a giraffe. The 
 winter of 1403 was passed on the banks of the Araxes, but in 
 the following spring Tiinour set out on his return to Samarkand, 
 after an absence of four years and nine months. Ilis sovereign 
 power now extended, at least in name, from the western bound- 
 ary of China to the Mediterranean and the Hellespont, and 
 from the northernmost extremity of the Caspian Sea to the 
 Persian Gulf, Egypt and Hindostan being also his tributaries. 
 
120 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TIMOUR-LUNG. 
 
 MARRIAGE OF JEHANGHEER — EMBASSY OF CLAVIJO — KESH— FESTIVITIES AT 
 SAMARKAND — TIMOUR’s MAGNIFICENCE— HARD DRINKING — DRESS OF THE 
 KHANUM — BADAKHSIIAN — BALAS RUBIES — LAPIS LAZULI — SAMARKAND — 
 LAWS AND REGULATIONS — CLAVIJO’S JOURNEY ACROSS THE DESERT — 
 DEATH OF TIMOUR. 
 
 On his return from his work of destruction in Western 
 Asia, Timour entered Samarkand for the ninth time. Although 
 on each previous occasion he had come to his capital city laden 
 with the spoils of the conquered, never had he exhibited such 
 magnificence, marred, though it might be, by revolting coarse- 
 ness and brutality. And yet it could have been no easy matter 
 to surpass the barbaric splendour that had shed lustre on the 
 espousal of Timour’s eldest son, Jehangheer, to the lovely 
 princess Khan Sadah, daughter of the Khan of Khwarezm. 
 
 ‘ The bride’s outfit,’ says Dr Wolff, ‘ consisted of rich crowns, 
 of golden thrones, of precious armlets and ear-rings, of girdles 
 of diamonds and pearls, of beds, tents, and palanquins. As a 
 welcome, the grandees of the empire threw over the head of 
 the bride gold pieces and pearls, the air was filled with the 
 odour of ambra, the ground was covered with carpets and gold ; 
 throughout all the towns which they passed, the Sheikhs and 
 Cadis, the Imaums and Mollahs, came out to meet them, and 
 all these festivities were doubled on their arrival in Samarkand. 
 The tent in which the espousal took place, represented in its 
 interior the dome of heaven, covered with stars and sown 
 
TIMOUR-LUNG. 
 
 121 
 
 with diamonds. Shawls, cloths, and stuffs, were disti buted 
 among the guests, and in the nuptial chamber the astronomers 
 placed the horoscope of the happy and lucky moment of the 
 espousal.’ They failed, however, to foresee, or at least to pre- 
 dict, the early death of the bridegroom, Tiinour’s most beloved 
 and favourite son. 
 
 Of the savage debauchery that testified to the power and 
 wealth of the Tatar monarch on the conclusion of his Western 
 campaigns, a picturesque description is given in Mr Markham’s 
 vigorous translation of the ‘Narrative of the Embassy of Huy 
 Gonzalez de Clavijo to the Court of Timour at Samarkand.’ 
 The battle of Angora had been witnessed by two Spanish 
 knights, Pelayode Sotomayor and Fernando de Palaznelos, 
 ambassadors from Henry III. of Castile, to the formidable 
 Timour. On their return they were accompanied by a Tatar 
 envoy, Mohammed A1 Kazi, charged to present the Spanish 
 monarch with some costly jewels, and — as a more delicate 
 attention — with several beautiful women, among whom were 
 two Christian ladies found in the harem of the captive Bayazid, 
 the one, Angelina, daughter of Count John of Hungary, the 
 other a Greek lady named Maria. 
 
 On the 22nd May, 1403, Mohammed A1 Kazi sailed from 
 Seville for Constantinople, in company with Buy Gonzalez de 
 Clavijo, a knight of Madrid, Gomez de Salazar, and Fray 
 Alonzo Paez de Santa Maria, a Master of Theology. From 
 Europe the travellers entered Asia at Trebizond, whence they 
 proceeded by Tabriz, Teheran, Damghan, and Nishapoor, to 
 Meshed, where they admired the tomb of the Imam Ali Iteza, 
 which was at that time covered with silver gilt. They also 
 observed that posting-houses were established from Khorassan 
 to Samarkand, at some of which as many as two hundred horses 
 were kept, while couriers were travelling to and fro day and 
 night. In the desert, large staging stations were built and 
 
12.2 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 amply stored with provisions. Ambassadors journeying to the 
 Tatar court were empowered to impress as many horses as they 
 required, and could take them from the greatest in the land. 
 The old league was divided by Timour into two, at each of 
 which was placed a small pillar to mark the road and the 
 distance. 
 
 The melons grown in the well-watered plain between 
 Meshed and Merv are pronounced by those envoys the finest in 
 the world, but on this point their evidence is opposed to that of 
 Ibn Batuta, the famous traveller and theologian from Tangiers. 
 
 ‘ They have in Khwarezm/ he says, ‘ a melon to which none, 
 except that of Bokhara, can be compared : the nearest to it is 
 that of Ispahan. The peel of this melon is green, the interior 
 red. It is perfectly sweet, and rather hard. Its most remark- 
 able property is that it may be cut in oblong pieces and dried, 
 and then put into a case, like a fig, and carried to India or 
 China. Among dried fruits there is none superior to this.’ 
 
 But, however exquisite the flavour of the melons of Khoras- 
 san, the ambassadors were painfully struck with the large pro- 
 portion of women and children to men, and were informed that 
 Timour had deported upwards of a hundred thousand males to 
 till the lands of Samarkand, together with sheep, cattle, and 
 asses beyond computation. The country through which they 
 passed seemed generally well cultivated. The town of Anchoy 
 — evidently, Andkhooee — is described as being surrounded for 
 two leagues in every direction with gardens, vineyards, rural 
 houses, and canals of irrigation. 
 
 Three days from the Oxus, or Amou — called by them \ iadme 
 and Biamo — they came to Vaeq — their synonym for Balkh. The 
 town proper was girt with three walls of earth, the outermost of 
 which was thirty paces in thickness, but nevertheless breached 
 in many places. The space between this and the middle wall 
 was planted with cotton, while that between the middle and 
 
TIMOUR-LUNG. 
 
 123 
 
 the innermost wall was partly cultivated, partly built upon. 
 
 The next place was Termit, the modern Termedh, a very 
 large and populous city, unconfined by walls, and surrounded 
 by gardens and streams of water. The river Oxus, or Jyhoon, 
 was I'egarded by the Spaniards as ‘ one of the rivers which 
 flow from Paradise,’ and that view is supported by the testi- 
 mony of Ibn Batuta, and of all Mussulman writers of that age. 
 They might also boast that they were the first and the last Eu- 
 ropeans who have ever passed through the Kohluga, or Iron 
 Gate, and their description tallies very closely with that given 
 by Iliouen Tsang, who traversed the defile about a. d. G30, on 
 his way from Samarkand to Balkh. 
 
 * The journey,’ writes the Buddhist pilgrim, ‘ was rugged 
 and stony ; the paths up the gorges ran along the verge of 
 precipices ; no village was met with, nor was there water, or 
 any green thing. After three days’ journey among these 
 mountains in a south-west direction, the traveller entered the 
 pass called the Iron Gate. This is a gorge between two 
 mountains, which rise parallel to each other, right and left, to a 
 prodigious height. Nothing divides them but the path, which 
 is extremely narrow and precipitous. The two mountains form 
 on either hand mighty walls of stone of an iron hue. The pass 
 is closed by folding gates clamped with iron, and to the gates 
 are attached a number of iron bells. From these circumstances, 
 and from the difficulty and strength of the pass, it has got the 
 name it bears.’ 
 
 In Clavijo’s time the iron gates had been removed, and the 
 place had degenerated into a Custom House, at which mer- 
 chants from India paid duty upon their goods. The road 
 through this pass has long since been disused, caravans now 
 preferring to turn the flank ef the Karategeen mountains and 
 travel by way of Karshee. 
 
 The level plain round Kesh, or Shuhr-i-Subz, contained 
 
124 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 many villages with well- watered pastures, and was * a very 
 beautiful, bright, well-peopled country,’ full of corn-fields, 
 vineyards, cotton plantations, melon grounds, and groves of 
 fruit-trees. The town was surrounded by a wall of earth, with 
 a deep moat all round traversed by draw-bridges. It boasted 
 of several mosques, and one superior to all the rest was being 
 erected over the remains of Timour’s father, and of bis eldest 
 son Jehangbeer, who died in 1372, in the twentieth year of 
 bis age. ‘ This mosque, with its chapels, was very rich and 
 beautifully ornamented in blue and gold, and within it there 
 was a large court with trees and ponds of water. In this 
 mosque the lord gives twenty boiled sheep every day, for the 
 souls of his father and son, Avhich lie buried here.’ 
 
 There was also a magnificent palace in progress, which had 
 been commenced twenty years previously and was not yet 
 finished. It was entered by a long gallery with a lofty gate- 
 way, and on each side were small open recesses, paved and lined 
 with glazed tiles arranged in pleasing patterns. These were 
 the rooms in Avhich the attendants waited. Over the doorway 
 of the reception hall was placed the figure of a lion and the 
 sun — the arms of Persia — whence Clavijo infers that this 
 portion of the building must have been erected previous to the 
 reign of Timour, whose emblem was three noughts or circles, 
 two above and one beloAV. Many of the chambers displayed 
 ornamental work in gold and blue and oilier colours, executed 
 with wonderful taste. Especially resplendent was the apart- 
 ment reserved for festal occasions and the society of his wives, 
 which looked out upon spacious pleasure-grounds shaded by 
 trees and cooled by fountains. 
 
 Immediately after their arrival at Samarkand the ambas- 
 sadors were conducted to the royal palace situated outside the 
 walls of the Tatar capital, and at once ushered into the presence 
 of the ‘mighty hunter before the Lord.’ ‘Timour Avas seated 
 
TIMOUR-LUNG. 
 
 125 
 
 in a portal, in front of the entrance of a beautiful palace ; and 
 he was sitting on the ground. Before him there was a fountain, 
 which threw up the water very high, and in it there were some 
 red apples. The lord was seated cross-legged, on silken em- 
 broidered carpets, amongst round pillows. lie was dressed in 
 a robe of silk, with a high hat on his head, on the top of which 
 there was a spinal ruby, with pearls and precious stones round it.’ 
 
 As soon as the ambassadors came within sight of the 
 monarch, they bent the knee and bowed low, with their arms 
 crossed on their breast. They then advanced a little, and 
 repeated this act of obeisance. Coming yet a little nearer, they 
 knelt down, and remained in that attitude until Timour 
 graciously bade them arise and approach without fear. Ilis 
 eyesight was very bad, and * the eyelids had fallen down 
 entirely.’ 
 
 At table they were placed by the master of the ceremonies 
 below the ambassador from Cathay, but Timour called them to 
 a higher seat, and the slighted envoy was informed that ‘ the 
 lord had ordered that those who were ambassadors from the 
 King of Spain, his son and friend, should sit above him ; and 
 that he who was the ambassador from a thief and a bad man, 
 his enemy, should sit below them.’ 
 
 ‘ As soon as these ambassadors, and many others who had 
 come from distant countries, were seated in order, they brought 
 much meat, boiled, roasted, and dressed in other ways, and 
 roasted horses ; and they placed these sheep and horses on very 
 large round pieces of stamped leather. When the lord called 
 for meat, the people dragged it to him on these pieces of leather, 
 so great was its weight ; and as soon as it was within twenty 
 paces of him, the carvers came, who cut it up, kneeling on the 
 leather. They cut it in pieces, and put the pieces in basins of 
 gold and silver, earthenware and glass, and porcelain, which is 
 very scarce and precious. The most honourable piece was a 
 
126 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 haunch of the horse, with the loin, but without the leg, and 
 they placed parts of it in ten cups of gold and silver. 
 
 ‘ They also cut up the haunches of the sheep. They then 
 put pieces of the tripes of the horses, about the size of a man’s 
 fist, into the cups, and entire sheep’s heads, and in this w'av 
 they made many dishes. When they had made sufficient, they 
 placed them in rows. Then some men came with soup, and 
 they sprinkled salt over it and put a little into each dish as 
 sauce ; and they took some very thin cakes of corn, doubled 
 them four times, and placed one over each cup or basin of 
 meat. As soon as this was done, the Meerzas and courtiers of 
 the lord took these basins, one holding each side, and one helping 
 behind (for a single man could not lift them), and placed them 
 before the lord and the ambassadors, and the knights, who were 
 there ; and the lord sent the ambassadors two basins from those 
 which were placed before him as a mark of favour. When this 
 food was taken away, more was brought ; and it is the custom 
 to take this food which is given to them, to their lodgings, and 
 if they do not do so, it is taken as an affront ; and so much of 
 this food was brought that it was quite wonderful 
 
 ‘ When the roast and boiled meats were done with, they 
 brought meats dressed in various other ways, and balls of forced 
 meat ; and after that there came fruit, melons, grapes, and 
 nectarines ; and they gave them drink out of silver and golden 
 jugs, particularly sugar and cream, a pleasant beverage which 
 they make in summer time.’ 
 
 Timour had several palaces and gardens within an easy 
 distance of Samarkand, and he entertained the Spanish ambas- 
 sadors at one named Pilkoosha, or Heart’s Pcligkt, and at 
 another called the Bngh-i-Chenar, or Plane-tree Garden. In 
 the latter ‘ there were many tents, and awnings of red cloth 
 and of various coloured silks, some embroidered in various ways, 
 and others plain. In the centre of the garden there was a very 
 
TIMOUR-LUNG. 
 
 127 
 
 beautiful house, built in the shape of a cross, and very richly 
 adorned with ornaments. In the middle of it there were three 
 chambers for placing beds and carpets in, and the walls were 
 covered with glazed tiles. 
 
 ‘ Opposite the entrance, in the largest of the chambers, 
 there was a silver gilt table as high as a man, and three arms 
 broad, on the top of which there was a bed of silk cloths, em- 
 broidered with gold, placed one on the top of the other, and 
 here the lord was seated. The walls were bung with rose- 
 coloured silk cloths, ornamented with plates of silver gilt, set 
 with emeralds, pearls, and other precious stones, tastefully 
 arranged. Above these ornaments there were pieces of silk, a 
 palmo broad, whence hung tassels of various colours, and the 
 wind moved them backwards and forwards, which caused a very 
 pretty effect. Before the great arch which formed the entrance 
 to the chamber there were ornaments of the same kind, and silk 
 cloths raised up by spear poles, and kept together by silken 
 cords, with large tassels which came down to the ground. 
 
 ‘ The other chambers were furnished in the same way, and 
 on the floors there were carpets and rush mats. In the centre 
 of the house, opposite the door, there were two gold tables, 
 each standing on four legs, and the table and legs were all in 
 one. They were each five palmos long, and three broad; and 
 seven golden phials stood upon them, two of which were set 
 with large pearls, emeralds, and turquoises, and each one had a 
 ruby near the mouth. There were also six round golden cups, 
 one of which was set with large, round, clear pearls inside, and 
 in the centre of it was a ruby, two fingers broad, and of a 
 brilliant colour.’ 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that these elegant and 
 artistic objects were the handiwork of the Tatars. Such 
 articles as were not spoils of war, were wrought by the artificers 
 whom Timour carried into captivity from more settled and 
 
128 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 civilized States. It needed not to scratch either Timour or the 
 least barbarous of his tribe to find the Tatar. Their rude and 
 savage nature lay on the surface, and continually manifested 
 itself in the ordinary incidents of life. Thus it happened that 
 the ambassadors on the occasion of their visit to the Bagh-i- 
 Chenar were so long delayed by the dilatoriness of their inter- 
 preter, that they did not arrive until the dinner was over. In 
 his fury Timour ordered a hole to be bored through the inter- 
 preter’s nose, a cord passed through, and the poor wretch led 
 in this ignominious fashion up and down the ranks of the army. 
 ‘ He had scarcely finished speaking when men took the inter- 
 preter by the nose to bore a hole in it,’ and it was only at 
 Clavijo’s earnest intercession that the offender was pardoned. 
 
 The Tatars were potent wassailers, notwithstanding Moham- 
 med’s prohibition against the use of fermented liquors. The 
 ambassadors, abstemious like all well-bred Spaniards, were 
 astonished at the hard-drinking of the ladies, who held their 
 own against their male companions. Timour having invited 
 them to a wine party — and without his permission no one could 
 indulge in strong drink, either publicly or in private — they 
 were enabled to describe the mode and manner of a drinking 
 bout from actual observation. ‘ The wine,’ says the chronicler 
 of their doings, ‘ is given after dinner, and they serve it out in 
 such quantities, and so often, that it makes the men drunk ; 
 and they do not consider that there is either pleasure or fes- 
 tivity without being drunk. The attendants serve the wine on 
 their knees, and, when one cup is finished, they give another ; 
 and these men have no other duty, except to give another cup 
 as soon as the first is finished. As soon as one attendant is 
 tired of filling the cups, another takes his place.’ 
 
 There was an attendant to every two or three guests, who 
 were continually pressed to take more. A refusal to drink was 
 regarded as an insult, and no heel-taps were allowed under any 
 
TIMOUtt-LUNG. 
 
 129 
 
 pretence. ‘ They drink from one cup, once or twice, and if 
 they are called upon to. drink by their love of the lord, or by 
 the lord’s head, they must drink it all at one pull, without 
 leaving a drop. They call the man who drinks the most wine 
 “ Bahadoor,” which is as much as to saj* “ a valorous man ; ” 
 and he who does not drink is made to do so, although he does 
 not wish it.’ Timour even sent a jug of wine to the ambas- 
 sadors before they set out from their own quarters, ‘ so that 
 they might arrive in a jovial mood.’ 
 
 The preliminary meal was substantial, and ‘ consisted of 
 many roasted horses, boiled and roasted sheep, and rice cooked 
 in their mode.’ After every one’s hunger was satisfied a 
 Meerza made his appearance with a silver basin full of silver 
 coins, which he scattered over the company. The ambassadors 
 were then clothed in robes of honour, and acknowledged the 
 royal favour by thrice bending the knee. 
 
 At these feasts the crowd was so great that the guards had 
 to clear a path for the Spaniards, ‘ and the dust was such that 
 people’s faces and clothes were all one colour.’ In the vast 
 plain that stretched out in front of this palace, 20,000 persons 
 were assembled within the space of three or four days, all 
 dwelling in tents. ‘ In this horde there are always butchers, 
 and cooks who sell cooked sheep, and others who sell fruit and 
 barley, and bakers who sell bread. Every division of the horde 
 is provided with all that the troops require, and they are 
 arranged in streets. There are even baths and bath-men in 
 the horde, who pitch their tents, and make their huts for hot 
 baths with boilers for heating the water, and all that they 
 require ; and as each man arrived, he was shown his station.’ 
 The Spaniards appear to have been deeply impressed with 
 the splendour of the spacious awnings made of white linen 
 cloth relieved by cloths of many colours, and of great length 
 and height, for the double purpose of acting as a screen against 
 
130 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 the rays of the sun and of admitting a free current of air. A 
 crimson carpet was laid down to walk upon, and the ornamenta- 
 tion generally exhibited a magnificent taste. At a little dis- 
 tance a wall of silken cloth, as high as a man on horseback, ran 
 all round, to secure perfect privacy. On the top of one tent 
 was a large silver gilt eagle with outspread wings, and below 
 that, just over the entrance, three silver gilt falcons with 
 extended wings and heads turned up towards the eagle. The 
 most superb tents were intended for Timour ’s wives, but a 
 grand pavilion was reserved as a banqueting hall. 
 
 On the marriage of one of his grandsons, Timour com- 
 manded all the shopkeepers in Samarkand to come out into the 
 plain, and there establish their stalls. Each trade had a separ- 
 ate street for its tents, and was obliged to devise a game or 
 entertainment for the recreation of the gathered multitude. 
 Gallows were erected at convenient points, — Timour very un- 
 necessarily informing his trembling subjects that he knew how 
 to be severe, as well as how to be merciful and bounteous. 
 And he verjr soon acted up to this declaration by hanging a 
 great lord whom he had left in Samarkand as Governor, and 
 who had neglected his duties. The delinquent’s property was 
 also confiscated, and a faithful friend who ventured to intercede 
 for him was likewise ordered off to execution. At the request, 
 however, of a Meerza, or rojml prince, this sentence was com- 
 muted to a fine of 400,000 silver bezants, each worth a silver 
 rial. But when this penalty was discharged the unhappy man 
 was tortured to give more, and when he had parted with all he 
 possessed, he was hanged by the feet till death terminated his 
 misery. 
 
 Another great man to whom had been confided the care of 
 3000 horses, being unable to produce that number, expiated his 
 carelessness on the gallows, though he offered to make good 
 the loss by delivering over G000 horses. ‘ In this and other 
 
TIMOUR-LUNG. 
 
 131 
 
 ways the lord administered justice.’ lie was also impartial, 
 and exercised the same severity towards the weak as towards 
 the powerful. Certain provision dealers having asked too 
 much for their goods were summarily executed, and likewise 
 certain shoemakers, while fines were imposed upon others. 
 
 ‘ The custom is that when a great man is put to death he is 
 hanged ; but the meaner sort are beheaded.’ Whence it ap- 
 peared that the Tatars differed from modern Mohammedans as 
 to the peculiar consequences of death by strangulation. 
 
 According to Sheref-ood-deen, an amphitheatre covered in 
 with carpets was erected on this occasion, in which masquerad- 
 ing of a very primitive character was exhibited. ‘ The women 
 were dressed like goats, others like sheep, and fairies, and they 
 ran after each other. The skinners and butchers appeared like 
 lions and foxes, and all other tradesmen contributed specimens 
 of their skill.’ 
 
 One day the ambassadors were invited to a carouse in a 
 pavilion within an enclosure, of which the following description 
 is given : — ‘ One of the walls was of crimson cloth covered with 
 embroidery of gold lace in many figures and patterns, which 
 was very beautiful to look upon. This wall was higher than 
 any of the others, and the entrance was shaped like an arch, 
 with a vaulted covering above it ; and the whole was em- 
 broidered in beautiful designs with gold lace ; and the doors 
 were of carpeting embroidered in the same way. On the top 
 of the entrance there was a square tower with turrets, all made 
 of cloth embroidered with gold ; and the wall had turrets of 
 embroidered cloth, all round it, at intervals. There were win- 
 dows in the walls, with lattices made of silken cords, and these 
 windows also had cloth shutters. Within the enclosure the 
 tents were pitched, and they were very rich and beautiful. 
 Close to this enclosure there was another, the walls of which 
 were of white satin, with the entrance and windows the same as 
 
132 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 the former, and these enclosures had doors leading from one to 
 the other. In front of these enclosures a great pavilion was 
 pitched, made of white silk, and it was ornamented, both inside 
 and out, with many patterns, in various-coloured silks. 
 
 ‘ The ground near the pavilion of the lord was covered with 
 jars of wine, which were placed in a row, a stone’s throw in 
 length. No man was allowed to pass beyond these jars towards 
 the pavilion, and mounted guards were placed to watch the 
 line, with bows and arrows, and maces, in their hands. If any 
 one passed the line, they shot arrows at him, and gave him 
 such blows with their maces that some men were taken outside 
 the gates for dead/ 
 
 Near the pavilion a number of small awnings were erected, 
 and under each awning was placed a jar of wine of portentous 
 dimensions. It has already been said that the ladies of the 
 Court rivalled the male guests in potations deep. They drank, 
 we are told, from small golden cups placed on flat plates of 
 gold. Their attendants, in presenting these cups, touched the 
 ground thrice with their right knee, and had their hands 
 wrapped in white napkins, and in retiring they walked back- 
 wards. 
 
 A drinking bout usually lasted some hours, unbroken by 
 eating, and the great khanum or wife could not understand 
 how it was that Clavijo never touched fermented liquors. 
 ‘ The drinking was such that some of the men fell down drunk 
 before her ; and this was considered very jovial, for they think 
 that there can be no pleasure without drunken men. . . They 
 
 also brought great quantities of roasted sheep and horses, and 
 other dressed meats ; and they eat all this with much noise, 
 tearing the pieces away from each other, and making game over 
 their food. They also brought rice cooked in various ways, 
 and tarts made with flour, sugar, and herbs ; and besides the 
 
TIMOUR-LUNG. 
 
 133 
 
 meat brought in basins, there were other pieces on skins for 
 those who wanted them.’ 
 
 While Clavijo and his companions were at Samarkand, 
 Jehanghcer’s son, l’eer Mohammed, arrived from India, and 
 they went to pay their respects to him. * lie had on a robe of 
 blue satin, embroidered with golden wheels, some on the back, 
 and others on the breast and sleeves. Ilis hat was adorned 
 with large pearls and precious stones, with a very brilliant ruby 
 on the top ; and the people who stood round him treated him 
 with great reverence and ceremony. In front of him were two 
 wrestlers, dressed in leathern doublets without sleeves ; but they 
 neither of them could throw the other. At last one of them 
 threw the other and held him down for a long time ; for they 
 all said that if he got up the fall would not be counted.’ Ti- 
 mour came forth about noon, and many games were played; 
 jugglers exhibited much cleverness of sleight of hand; and 
 trained elephants went through various performances. Three 
 hundred jars of wine were then placed before the King, and 
 also large skins full of cream into which had been put whole 
 loaves of sugar. 
 
 When the guests were all duly ranged the chief Khanum 
 made her appearance. * She had on a robe of red silk, trimmed 
 with gold lace, which was long and flowing, but without sleeves 
 or any opening, except one to admit the head and two arm- 
 holes. It had no waist, and fifteen ladies held up the skirts of 
 it to enable her to walk. She had so much white lead on her 
 face that it looked like paper ; and this is put on to protect it 
 from the sun, for when they travel in winter or summer all 
 great ladies put this on their faces. She had a thin veil over 
 her face, and a crested head-dress of red cloth, which hung some 
 way down the back. This crest was xery high, and was covered 
 with large pearls, rubies, emeralds, and other precious stones, 
 
134 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 and it was embroidered with gold lace, on the top of which 
 there was a circlet of gold set with pearls. On the top of all 
 there was a little castle, on which were three very large and 
 brilliant rubies, surmounted by a tall plume of white feathers. 
 One of these feathers hung down as low as the eyes, and they 
 were secured by golden threads ; and as they moved, they 
 waved to and fro. Her hair, which was very black, hung down 
 over her shoulders, and they value black hair much more than 
 any other colour. 
 
 * She was accompanied by three hundred ladies, and an awn- 
 ing was carried over Cano, supported by a lance, which was 
 borne by a man. It was made of white silk, in the form of the 
 top of a round tent, and held over her to protect her from the 
 sun. A number of eunuchs who guard the women walked 
 before her, and in this way she came to the pavilion where the 
 lord was, and sat down near him with all her ladies, and three 
 ladies held her head-dress with their hands, that it might not 
 fall on one side.’ Seven other wives came and took their seats 
 below the Khanum, as likewise did the spouse of Peer Moham- 
 med. Hard drinking, in which the ladies took their part, went 
 on both before and after dinner, and lasted all night. 
 
 The ambassadors were taken one day to sec the Khanum’s 
 private tents. In the centre stood a cabinet made of gold, 
 richly enamelled, as high as a man’s breast. The top was flat, 
 surrounded by small turrets in green and blue enamel, set with 
 pearls and precious stones. On opening the door of the cabinet 
 a shelf was seen on which were ranged numerous cups, and 
 above these six golden balls covered with gems and pearls. At 
 the foot of the cabinet was a small gold table, two pa/mos high, 
 set with precious stones all round, and on the top a clear bril- 
 liant emerald. The length of this table was four palmos, and 
 its width one and a half. In front of this rose a golden tree, 
 with a trunk as big round as a man’s leg, with many branches 
 
TIMOUR-LUNG. 
 
 135 
 
 and oak leaves. It was the height of a man, and overshadowed 
 the table. The fruit consisted of rubies, emeralds, turquoises, 
 sapphires, and fine pearls. Birds of enamelled gold and of 
 many colours were perched upon the boughs, and pecked at 
 the fruit with outstretched wings. Against the wall of the 
 tent was placed a wooden table inlaid with silver gilt, and 
 beside it a bed of rich silk, embroidered with golden leaves and 
 flowers. The floor was covered with rich carpets of silk. 
 Timour himself had a portable mosque, beautifully painted with 
 gold and blue, which accompanied him in his most distant 
 expeditions. 
 
 Among Timour’s visitors about this time was the Khan of 
 Badaklishan, who is called in this narrative ‘ the lord of 
 Balaxia, which is a great city where rubies are found ; and he 
 came with a large trcop of knights and followers. The ambas- 
 sadors went to this lord of Balaxia, and asked him how he got 
 the rubies ; and he replied that near the city there was a moun- 
 tain whence they brought them, and that every day they broke 
 up a rock in search of them. He said that when they found a vein 
 the}' got out the rubies skilfully by breaking the rock all round 
 with chisels.’ 
 
 Another tributary arrived from ‘ Aquivi,’ for which Mr 
 Markham suggests Akshee, but it was evidently some place 
 near the modern Jerrn, for the narrator adds that it is thei’e 
 * they procure the blue mineral, and in the rock they find sap- 
 phires.’ The distance of both Balaxia and Aquivi is estimated 
 at ten days’ journey from Samarkand on the route to India. 
 
 The ‘ blue mineral,’ lajwuod, or lapis lazuli, obtained from 
 a mine about 1500 feet up the side of a mountain in the Kok- 
 cha valley, was declared by Marco Polo to be ‘ the finest in the 
 world/ and ‘got in a vein like silver.’ It is found, according 
 to Captain Wood, in a black and white limestone, unstratified 
 but much veined with coloured lines. The mountain is de- 
 
136 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 scribed as rugged and barren, and ascended by a steep dan- 
 gerous path. A sloping shaft, ten feet square, has been sunk 
 from the surface, and a gallery about eighty paces in length 
 ends in a hole some twenty feet deep. The roof of the gallery 
 occasionally falls in, and the mine is worked in the rudest pos- 
 sible manner, but of late years it has been virtually abandoned. 
 Three varieties of lapis lazuli were extracted in Captain "Wood’s 
 time — 1836-37 — one of an indigo blue colour, one light blue, 
 and the other green. The ‘ Balas ’ rubies of Badakhshan, or 
 Balakhshan, were long famous in Europe as well as in Asia. Is 
 it not written in the * Court of Love ’ ? 
 
 * For I belield the toures high and strong, 
 
 And high pinacles, large of hight and long, 
 
 With plate of gold bespred on euery side. 
 
 And precious stones, the stone werke for to hide, 
 
 No saphire in Inde, no rube rich of price, 
 
 There lacked than, nor emeraud so grene, 
 
 Bales Turkes, ne thing to my deuice. 
 
 That may the castle maken for to shene.’ 
 
 Marco Polo speaks of Badakhshan as being, in the middle 
 of the 14th century, a very great kingdom governed by an 
 hereditary ruler, who claimed descent from Alexander the Great 
 and a daughter of Darius — probably alluding to Roxana, daugh- 
 ter of the Sogdian chief. A writer in Pinkerton’s collection, 
 speaks of Badakhshan as ‘ a very ancient city, and exceeding 
 strong by its situation in the mountains. It is dependent on the 
 Khan of Proper Bukharia (the modern Khanat of Bokhara), 
 and serves him for a kind of state prison, where he shuts up 
 those from whom he thinks it convenient to secure himself. 
 This town is not very big, but it is well enough built, and very 
 populous. . . It is a great thoroughfare of the Karawans 
 
 designed for Little Bukharia (now Eastern Toorkestan), or to 
 China, which take the same road.’ 
 
 Tho pseudo- Alexandrine dynasty terminated in the 15tli 
 
TIMOUR-LUNO. 
 
 137 
 
 century, though, even at the present day, the petty chiefs of 
 Darwaz, Kulab, Shighnan, Wakhan, Chitral, Gilgit, Swat, and 
 Balti, all lay claim to the Macedonian conqueror as their com- 
 mon ancestor. The city of Badakhshan has also passed away, 
 the chief place in the province being at present Fyzabad. 
 
 The ruby mines no longer lie within the boundaries of 
 Badakhshan, being situated to the north of the Panja, the 
 recently accepted line of demarcation between the territories of 
 the Khan of Bokhara and those of the Ameer of Afghanistan. 
 The mines, situated about 1200 feet above the river, were for- 
 merly a royal monopoly, but have long since been exhausted. 
 The late Moorad Bey, of Kunduz, on conquering this country, 
 was so disgusted with the unproductiveness of the mines, that 
 he ceased working them, and sold the miners as slaves. In 
 1866 a new mine was opened, but the rubies extracted were 
 comparatively worthless. 
 
 Clavijo and his companions had occasion more than once to 
 recognize the absolute authority exercised by Timour, and the 
 abject humility with which he was obeyed. Having issued 
 orders for the erection of a bazaar right through the heart of 
 the capital, the houses then occupying the site were pulled 
 down with such rapidity that their owners had barely time to 
 escape from their ruins, with such of their effects as were most 
 easity carried. Within twenty-one days the new bazaar was 
 built, and covered in with a vaulted roof, while, to cool the air 
 and to supply the bazaar people with water, fountains were 
 established at convenient intervals. As fast as a shop was com- 
 pleted, a tradesman was compelled to take it. 
 
 In like manner, the mosque constructed in memory of 
 Timour’s grandson, Mohammed Sooltan Meerza, who died of the 
 wounds he received at the battle of Angora, being judged too 
 small, was pulled down and replaced by a more suitable edifice 
 in ten days. The mosque over the remains of the Khanum’s 
 
138 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 mother was also demolished, to make way for one on a grander 
 scale. Timour himself, being too ill to mount on horseback, 
 superintended the workmen from a litter, while the more active 
 supervision was exercised by some of the Meerzas. 
 
 Samarkand was at that time a little larger than Seville, and 
 possessed far more extensive suburbs. ‘ The city,’ we read, ‘ is 
 surrounded on all sides by manj r gardens and vineyards, which 
 extend in some directions a league and a half, in others two 
 leagues, the city being in the middle. In these houses and 
 gardens there is a large population, and there are people selling 
 bread, meat, and many other things ; so that the suburbs are 
 much more thickly inhabited than the city within the walls. 
 Amongst these gardens, which are outside the city, there are 
 great and noble houses, and here the lord has several palaces. 
 The nobles of the city have their houses amongst these gardens, 
 and they arc so extensive that when a man approaches the city, 
 he sees nothing but a mass of very high trees. Many streams 
 of water flow through the city, and through these gardens, and 
 among these gardens there are many cotton plantations and 
 melon grounds, and the melons of this ground are good and 
 plentiful; and at Christinas time there is a wonderful quantity 
 of melons and grapes. Every day so many camels come in 
 laden with melons, that it is a wonder how the people can eat 
 them all. They preserve them from year to year in the villages 
 in the same way as figs, taking off their skins, cutting them in 
 long slices, and then drying them in the sun.’ 
 
 The land around bore forth abundantly, but the agricultur- 
 ists were captives imported from other countries. ‘The sheep,’ 
 continues the narrator, ‘ are very large, and have long tails, 
 some weighing 20 lbs., and they are as much as a man can hold 
 in his hand.’ Two of these animals could be had for a ducat, 
 and, notwithstanding the sudden influx of foreign treasure, and 
 even when the resident population was so largely increased by 
 
TIMOUR-LUNG. 
 
 139 
 
 the presence of Titnour’s Court, an army in itself, all kinds of 
 provisions were procurable at prices that appeared low to the 
 Spaniards. 
 
 ‘The city is so large, and so abundantly supplied, that it is 
 wonderful. . . The supplies of this city do not consist of 
 
 food alone, but of silks, satins, gauzes, tafetas, velvets, and other 
 things. The lord had so strong a desire to ennoble this city 
 that he brought captives, to increase its population, from every 
 land which he had conquered, especially all those who were 
 skilful in any art. From Damascus he brought weavers of silk, 
 and men who made bows, glass, and earthenware, so that of 
 these things Samarkand produces the best in the world. From 
 Turkey he brought archers, masons, and silversmiths. lie also 
 brought men skilled in making engines of war ; and he sowed 
 hemp and flax, which had never before been seen in the land.’ 
 These captives were computed at 100,000, including men and 
 women, ‘ Turks, Arabs, Moors, Christians, Armenians, Greek 
 Catholics and Jacobites, and those who baptize with fire in the 
 face (Parsees), who are Christians with peculiar opinions.’ 
 Many of these unfortunate beings lived under trees, or in 
 caves, outside the walls of city. 
 
 From Russia and Tatary were imported linen and furs; 
 from India, nutmegs, cloves, mace, cinnamon, ginger, and many 
 other spices, which did not find their way to Alexandria ; and 
 from China, silks, satins, musk, rubies, diamonds, pearls, and 
 rhubarb. The Chinese were at that period deemed the most 
 skilful artizans in the world, and were wont to say of them- 
 selves that they had two eyes, that the Franks had one, and 
 that the people of all other countries were blind. 
 
 In Samarkand there were several open spaces in which were 
 sold cooked meats, fowls, and other birds, ‘ very nicely dressed.’ 
 These stalls were attended night and day. Slaughter-houses, 
 too, were provided for killing not only sheep and horses, but 
 
140 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 also fowls, pheasants, and partridges. At one end of the city 
 rose a strong castle, defended by a stream flowing through a 
 ravine. Here the royal treasure was stored, and here, too, a 
 thousand captive armourers were incessantly employed all the 
 year round in making head-pieces, bows, and arrows. 
 
 When setting out upon an important expedition Timour 
 had made a vow not to enter this castle for seven years, and the 
 time expired during Clavijo’s visit to Samarkand. The Tatar 
 monarch proceeded thither with much pomp, and distributed 
 among his * knights ’ 3000 breast-plates, adorned with red cloth 
 but not well tempered. He also gave away a vast number of 
 tall, round-shaped helmets, having in front a plate to move up 
 and down and act as a visor. 
 
 The distance from Samarkand to Cambalu, or Pekin, was 
 estimated at a six months’ journey, of which one third lay 
 across bleak steppes, frequented only by roving shepherds and 
 their flocks. During the month of June 800 camels arrived 
 from Cambalu, loaded with precious stuffs. Fifteen days to the 
 eastward of Samarkand w r as situated the country of the Ama- 
 zons, who were in the habit of repairing once a year, with such 
 of their daughters as had attained the age of puberty, to the 
 nearest settlement, where they consorted for a while with the 
 likeliest men. Their female children they brought up under 
 their own eyes, but the males were sent to their fathers. These 
 masculine dames were Christians of the Greek Church, and ‘ of 
 the lineage of the Amazons who were at Troy when it was de- 
 stroyed by the Greeks.’ 
 
 The police regulations of Samarkand appear to have been 
 strict and efficient. No acts of personal violence were per- 
 mitted, but all quarrels were referred to magistrates, who sat 
 in tents to administer justice, either in the police or t lie revenue 
 department, and the proceedings were reported to Timour. 
 The judge’s decision was written out by a scribe, und entered in 
 
TIMOCR-LCNG. 
 
 141 
 
 a public register. The warrant or decree was confirmed by four 
 separate impressions of the judge’s seal, and by that of Timour’s 
 seal — in the middle — three cyphers, two above and one below, 
 with the legend ‘ Rasty va Rousty.’ 
 
 The chief source of revenue was the land-tax, which was 
 fixed at one-third of the produce from irrigated lands, with an 
 additional rate for the use of water derived from public reser- 
 voirs. But whosoever constructed a tank, planted a grove, or 
 broke up fresh land, was exempted from taxation for two years. 
 The use of whip or scourge was forbidden, serais were built for 
 the accommodation of travellers, and roads and bridges were 
 kept in good repair. 
 
 The army was still divided as in the time of Chinghiz 
 Khan into Tens, Hundreds, Thousands, and so forth. Each 
 man was provided with two horses, a bow, a quiver filled with 
 arrows, a sword, a saw, an awl, a ball of thread, ten needles, 
 and a leathern knapsack. One tent sufficed for eighteen horse- 
 men. The officers, however, woTe a coat of mail, and had each 
 his own tent, and from five to three hundred horses according 
 to his rank and duties. There was a standing order that en- 
 campments should always, if possible, be fixed on high ground, 
 and near a supply of water. Mercy to the vanquished was 
 also particularly enjoined, but seemingly with little effect. 
 
 Timour’s favourite pastime from boyhood was chess, at 
 which he became such, an adept that he increased the numbeT 
 of pieces and squares, and complicated the moves. When the 
 new3 of his youngest son’s birth was brought to him, he had 
 just castled his king — exclaiming, as was customary, * Shah 
 Rokh,’ and that became the young prince’s name. 
 
 The departure of the Spanish ambassadors was hastened by 
 the alarming illness of Timour. Thev were dismissed bv the 
 Meerzas without much ceremony, but were abundantly supplied 
 with whatever they could reasonably want during the painful 
 
142 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 journey that awaited them. For the first part of the way they 
 travelled in the company of the ambassadors of the Sultan of 
 Babylon, and had a painful experience of the horrors of the 
 desert. 
 
 ‘On Wednesday the 10th of December (1404), they crossed 
 the great river of Biamo (Amou or Oxus) in boats. On the 
 banks there were great plains of sand, and the sand was moved 
 from one part to another by the wind, and thrown up in 
 mounds. In this sandy waste there are great valleys and hills, 
 and the wind blew the sand away from one hill to another, for 
 it was very light ; and on the ground, when the wind had 
 blown away the sand, the marks of waves were left, and men 
 could not keep their eyes on this sand when the sun was 
 shining. This road cannot be travelled over without a guide 
 who knows the marks and signs of the desert, and these guides 
 are called Anchies, and the ambassadors had one of these guides. 
 On this road there is no water, except a few wells sunk in the 
 sand, with vaulted roofs, and surrounded by brick walls, for if 
 they were not covered the sand would fill them up. The water 
 of these wells is either rain or snow water ; and in the last 
 day’s journey they found no water, and they travelled all night ; 
 but at the hour of Mass they came to a well and drank, and 
 gave water to their beasts, and they all bad much need of it.’ 
 
 From that illness, indeed, Timour recovered, and on the 8th 
 of January, 1405, he quitted the luxuries of Samarkand in the 
 midst of a fall of snow. At the head of an army of veterans, 
 computed at 200,000 in number, he crossed the river Syhoon, 
 or Jaxartes, on the ice, and pitched his camp outside the walls 
 of Otrar. His indignation had been roused to fury by a 
 demand for tribute made by the Chinese ambassador, whom, as 
 already related, he publicly insulted as the representative of * a 
 thief and a bad man.’ lie had resolved, therefore, to repeat 
 the teachings of Chinghiz, and to bring that insolent people 
 
TIMOUR-LUNG. 
 
 143 
 
 under complete subjection. Ilis preparations had been made 
 with great forethought, and on the most extensive scale. As 
 the march to Pekin would occupy not less than six months, 
 Timour took with him many thousand loads of corn to sow 
 along the line of march, so that an ample provision might be 
 secured for his victorious soldiers on their return homewards. 
 
 Otrar, however — the Farab of Arabian writers — was the 
 farthest point he reached. Attacked by fever and ague, he 
 indulged to excess in draughts of iced water, and on the 17th 
 February, 1405, closed his career of bloodshed and desolation. 
 He was G9 years of age, and had reigned 35 years. lie left 
 behind him thirty-six male descendants. Ilis body was em- 
 balmed with musk and rose water, wrapt in a linen shroud, and 
 carried back to Samarkand in an ebony coffin. His ruined 
 palace without the walls, and his jasper tomb within the city, 
 are still visited with curiosity and respect by the Russians, who 
 now lord it in the capital of the mighty Tamerlane. 
 
 Timour is described as tall of stature, broad-shouldered, and 
 possessed of great muscular strength. He was born, it is said, 
 with white hair, like Zal, a hero of Persian romance. His head 
 was large, his forehead open, his complexion ruddy, and his 
 beard ample and flowing. His character was a singular mixture 
 of great qualities, painfully contrasted with the vices of bar- 
 barism. A dreamer of dreams and oftentimes babbling about 
 clemency, he was utterly reckless of human life or suffering, 
 and for the sake of gratifying the lust of conquest was ready to 
 sacrifice thousands upon thousands of his fellow-creatures. It 
 is true, he did not spare his own person, and was always to be 
 found in the post of danger. He has been preferred, with little 
 reason, to Chinghiz Khan, on the ground that the latter was a 
 Jehan-Gheer, or World Subduer, while the former was not only 
 a Jehan-Gheer, but a Jehan-Dar, or 'World Holder. As a fact, 
 however, Timour consolidated nothing. He swept over Central 
 
144 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 and Western Asia like a tornado, and Lis course was marked 
 by towns in ashes, countries depopulated, and pyramids of 
 human skulls. lie made a wilderness and called it a conquest. 
 
 ‘ Though one of the greatest of warriors,’ says Sir John 
 Malcolm, ‘ he was one of the worst of monarchs. lie was able, 
 brave, and generous ; but ambitious, cruel, and oppressive.’ It 
 is related of him that in the mosque of Meshed he chose to 
 perform his devotions at the tomb of Abou Moslem, whose 
 power was purchased at the cost of a million lives. ‘ The bloody 
 shadow of Abou Moslem,’ exclaimed a dervish, ‘is hovering 
 over thy head, O thou Man of Blood ! ’ 
 
 On the other hand, Timour was an ardent lover of truth, 
 and hated falsehood above all things. Of a serious, and even 
 gloomy, disposition, he was a munificent patron of letters, and 
 was himself an author. The ‘ Mulfurzat Timoury,’ or the 
 Institutes of Timour, are at once an amusing autobiography 
 and a code of despotic government. His knowledge of the 
 Koran dated from his childhood, and he was able to converse 
 fluently in the Toorkee, Persian, and Mongolian tongues. He 
 was fond of rich apparel, and wore diamond ear-rings of great 
 value. He usually arrayed himself in loose flowing silken 
 robes with a tall conical hat of beaver skin, surmounted by a 
 pear-shaped ruby, encircled with pearls and brilliants. 
 
 In this reign lived the great Bokharan mystic Saint, Khoja 
 Baha-ood-deen, founder of the Order of Nakishbendi, three 
 pilgrimages to whose shrine were held equivalent to one to the 
 Kaaba. Timour’s liberality to poets, physicians, and historians 
 was only equalled by his munificence to astronomers and santons. 
 
MOHAMMED BABER. 
 
 145 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MOHAMMED BABER: ANTHONY JENKINSON. 
 
 BABER — FERGHANA — BABER'S FATHER AND UNCLE — CAPTURE OF SAMAR- 
 KAND — REVERSE OF FORTUNE — A MOGHUL CUSTOM — BABER DEFEATED 
 BY SHEIBANI BEG — THE KAFIRS, EIMAUKS, AND IIAZAREHS — BABER 
 RECOVERS SAMARKAND — EXPELLED BY THE OOZBEGS — CONQUERS HIN- 
 DUSTAN — THE OOZBEGS — ISMAEL THE S9UFFAVEAN — THE SHEIBAXIDES 
 — ANTHONY JENKINSON — CRGHUNJ — ATTACKED BY ROBBERS — BOKHARA 
 — THE KING — TRADE — RETURN TO MOSCOW. 
 
 * To reign, rather tlian to govern,’ remarks Gibbon, ‘ was 
 tbe ambition of (Timour’s) children and grandchildren, the 
 enemies of each other and of the people. A fragment of the 
 empire was upheld with some glory by Sharokh, his youngest 
 son ; but after his decease the scene was again involved in 
 darkness and blood ; and before the end of a century Transoxiana 
 and Persia were trampled by the Uzbeks from the north, and 
 the Turkmans of the black and white sheep.’ Shah Rokh was, 
 in fact, Timour’s fourth son, and is represented by Eastern his- 
 torians as a brave and successful general, a just, amiable, and 
 unambitious prince. He reigned for 40 years over Khorassan 
 and the immediately adjacent country, and restored many of 
 the cities that had been destroyed by his father’s barbarous 
 soldiery. The immense empire, however, that had been over- 
 run, rather than established, by Timour, fell to pieces at the 
 death of that ruthless conqueror, though in India the illustrious 
 names of Baber, Akbar, Jehan-Gheer, Shah-Jehan, and Au- 
 
 rungzeb appear in the roll of his descendants. 
 
 10 
 
146 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Mohammed Baber was born in Ferghana in the year 1483. 
 On the mother’s side he was descended from Cliagatai and 
 Chinghiz, and when yet barely twelve was placed on the throne 
 of that small and mountainous principality. One of his uncles 
 was rider of Samarkand and Bokhara ; a second governed the 
 district of Ilissar ; a third was lord of Kabool and Ghuznee ; 
 while a fourth held his court at Tashkend. His seemingly 
 powerful relatives, however, were by no means a source even of 
 moral strength to the youthful prince. Indeed, their first 
 thought on his father’s death was to divide the little State 
 among themselves, but it so happened that one fell sick, another 
 lost his horses on the march, and their joint enterprise fell to 
 the ground. 
 
 Baber himself says of Ferghana, ‘ This country is in the fifth 
 climate (that is, the fifth from the equator), on the extreme 
 boundary of the habitable world. On the east is Kashgar ; on 
 the west Samarkand ; on the north there were formerly the 
 cities of Almalig, Almatu, and Otrar, but they have been laid 
 desolate by the Uzbeks.’ The chief district in this petty king- 
 dom was Andijan, situated on the south bank of the Syr, 
 abounding in grain and fruit of all kinds, with a supply of 
 melons exceeding all possible demand, and pheasants of ex- 
 cellent flavour. The people were Toorks, and remarkable for 
 their beauty, but too proud to cultivate the soil for the sake of 
 ‘ the top of a weed,’ their irreverent expression for ears of corn. 
 It was not, however, a health)' province, owing to the pre- 
 valence of ague in the autumnal months. 
 
 To the eastward was situated the town of Usb, with its de- 
 lightful gardens of tulips, roses, and violets. ‘Near the 
 mosque, which is outside the town, there is a meadow of clover 
 so pleasant that travellers love to take rest there, and it is a 
 common sport of the townsfolk to carry all who fall asleep there, 
 across the three streams. Westward lay Marghinan, celebrated 
 
MOHAMMED BABER. 
 
 147 
 
 for its apricots, pomegranates, and white deer, and inhabited 
 mostly by Sarts, an aboriginal race, ‘ notorious all through 
 Mawaralnahr for blustering and love of boxing.’ Turning to 
 the south-west, stood the town of Asfera in the midst of gar- 
 dens and groves of almond trees, and also peopled by Sarts. 
 ‘ In a rising ground on the south-east is found the stone mirror, 
 about 20 feet in length ’ (crystal or talc ?). To the west of An- 
 dijan the ancient city of Kojeud commanded the bend of the 
 river Syr, which here turns in a northerly direction. In the 
 surrounding countiy white deer, hai’es, and mountain goats 
 were exceedingly numerous, and almonds so plentiful as to be 
 an article of export. The climate, however, was insalubrious, 
 and inflammation of the eye so prevalent that the very sparrows 
 suffered from it. 
 
 Baber’s father, Omar Sheikh, regarded Akshee as his capital, 
 — a town built upon the hanks of the Syr, some 36 miles from 
 Andijan. The castle stood on the edge of a precipice high 
 above the river. The melons grown in the suburbs were in- 
 comparable, white deer, ‘ the fowl of the desert,’ and ‘ very fat ’ 
 hares, were the commonest of live things. The people disputed 
 with them of Kasan as to the beauty and climate of their 
 respective districts, hut ‘ the gardens of Kasan being all 
 sheltered along the side of the river, it was called the mantle 
 of five lambskins.’ The revenue sufficed for the maintenance 
 of nearly 4000 troops. 
 
 According to Baber, his father was appointed ruler of Fer- 
 ghana not so much for his own merits as because he bore the 
 same name as a chief upon whom Timour had once conferred 
 the government. lie was of low stature and wore his tunic 
 remarkably tight, but was not particular either as to food or 
 dress. On state occasions he donned a turban, with the end 
 hanging down, but at ordinary times he preferred the common 
 Moghul cap. He belonged to the Ilaneefah sect, and was very 
 
148 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 strict, never omitting the five daily prayers. His favourite 
 reading was the Koran and Firdousi’s Shah Nameh, or Book of 
 Kings. Such was his sense of justice that, a Chinese caravan 
 having been overwhelmed in a snow-storm, he preserved the 
 property of the unfortunate victims until their heirs came to 
 claim it in the following year. He was brave, affable, sweet- 
 tempered, an indifferent archer, but strong in the arm, and a 
 powerful hitter. When young he was too much addicted to 
 intoxicating drinks, and even in his latter days had a carouse 
 once or twice every week, besides continually eating comfits 
 prepared with bhang. He was fond of backgammon and not 
 averse from a turn with the dice. 
 
 Notwithstanding, or perhaps because of, his amiability, 
 Omar Sheikh was thrice engaged in hostilities with his nearest 
 relatives. In a battle with his father-in-law he was worsted, 
 and also by his eldest brother Ahmed, the ruler of Samarkand. 
 Over the Oozbegs, however, he was victorious, but in 1494 his 
 brother Ahmed and one of his uncles combined their forces 
 against him. ‘At this juncture, being in the fort of Akshee, 
 he was precipitated from the edge of the steep rock with his 
 pigeons and pigeon-house, and departed to the other world/ — 
 and his son Baber reigned in his stead. One of Omar Sheikh’s 
 Ameers is described as ‘ an excellent archer, and distinguished 
 for his skill at leap-frog.’ 
 
 Baber’s uncle Ahmed Meerza of Samarkand was a very strict 
 Mussulman in one respect, though lax in others. lie never by 
 any chance omitted one of the daily prayers, ‘even when en- 
 gaged in a drinking party/ and these bouts sometimes lasted 
 from twenty to thirty days. In the intervals of sobriety he 
 partook of ‘ pungent substances.’ lie was naturally of a penu- 
 rious disposition, but brave, and dexterous with bow and arrow. 
 One of his wives, whom he married for love, took to drinking, 
 and became so jealous that she would not suffer him to speak to 
 
MOHAMMED BABER. 
 
 149 
 
 any other ladies of his harem. * At last, however, he put her 
 to death, and delivered himself from the reproaeh.’ One of h’s 
 Ameers had 7000 servants and 500 faleons. Baber mentions a 
 Mollah, who was a learned man and skilled in falconry, and 
 who ‘ knew the art of bringing down rain and snow by appoint- 
 ment.’ 
 
 A tribe of five or six thousand families inhabiting the wilds 
 of Andijan, and trusting to their mountains for protection, re- 
 fused to pay their annual tribute to Baber, whereupon he de- 
 spatched against them a strong body of soldiers, who captured 
 1500 horses and 20,000 sheep, which were magnanimously 
 divided among the captors. 
 
 While yet a mere j-outh Baber became involved in opera- 
 tions of a far more serious character than the chastisement of a 
 refractory tribe of mountaineers. His first important expedi- 
 tion was directed against Samarkand, called the Protected City 
 because it had never been taken by storm. Young as he was, 
 he maintained a strict discipline among his rude soldiery, and 
 inspired them with confidence in his courage and ability. Some 
 traders, who had come to his camp w T ith goods for sale, having 
 complained to him that they had been robbed, he ‘ commanded 
 that everything should be restored to them without reserve, 
 and before the first watch of the morrow there was not a bit of 
 thread nor a broken ueedle that was not recovered by the 
 owner.’ 
 
 Samarkand surrendered in November, 1497, after sustaining 
 a seven months’ siege, and Baber dwells lovingly upon the 
 many objects of admiration within its walls. The Great 
 Mosque with iron gates and 480 pillars, built by Tirnour after 
 the conquest of Hindostan and by the hands of Indian stone- 
 cutters and masons, especially attracted his attention. -The 
 Echoing Mosque was also deemed remarkable, nor were the 
 many beautiful palaces and gardens allowed to pass unnoticed. 
 
150 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 To every trade was allotted its own bazaar. Manufactures also 
 flourished. The paper of Samarkand was greatly esteemed, 
 as was likewise the Icermczi, or crimson velvet, — the cramoisy 
 of European writers. 
 
 Marco Polo, in his description of Turcomania, after abusing 
 the Mohammedan inhabitants as ‘ a rude people with an un- 
 couth language of their own/ mentions the Armenian and Greek 
 traders and artisans who dwelt in the towns and villages, and 
 adds : ‘ They weave the finest and handsomest carpets in the 
 world, and also a great quantity of fine and rich silks of 
 cramoisy and other colours, and plenty of other stuffs/ 
 Whence it appears that Ferghana, at the close of the 15th 
 century, was inferior in arts and manufactures to Mawaralnahr 
 in the latter part of the 13th, for otherwise Baber would 
 scarcely have taken any particular notice of the excellencies of 
 Samarkand. 
 
 His success was transient. His allies and soldiers having 
 plundered the citizens of all that was easily turned to account, 
 broke out into violent mutiny, and finally returned to their 
 homes. Some of his own people, too, rebelled and laid siege to 
 Andijan, with the intention of raising his brother Jehangheer 
 to the throne of Ferghana. At that critical moment Baber fell 
 ill and lost the power of speech. Andijan was taken, and 
 Samarkand renounced its allegiance. Khojend alone remained 
 faithful, and for a while he wandered about almost in despair 
 at the head of a small band of followers, who lived as well as 
 they could by pillage. However, in 1499 he recovered An- 
 dijan, and two years later made himself master of Samarkand 
 with only 240 men, the largest force he was then able to 
 muster. 
 
 In the year 1500 Baber married his cousin Aisha Sooltan 
 Begum, and he states with amusing naive tt$ that, although at 
 first his affection for her was not slight, yet through bashfulncss 
 
MOHAMMED BABER. 
 
 151 
 
 lie used to visit licr only once in fifteen or twenty days. After 
 a while love declined whilo his shyness increased, ‘ insomuch 
 that my mother the Klianum used to fall upon me and scold 
 me with great fury, sending me off like a criminal to visit her 
 once in a month or forty days.’ Shortly after this domestic 
 event Baber was signally defeated by Sheibani Mohammed Beg, 
 an Oozbeg chief, who became the founder of a dynasty. Shut 
 up in a stronghold and reduced to the verge of starvation, he 
 contrived to escape under the darkness of night, accompanied 
 by his mother and two other ladies. Ilis eldest sister was taken 
 to wife by Sheibani, to whom she bore a daughter, but was 
 afterwards bestowed by him in marriage upon a Syud. 
 
 A singular Moghul custom, which may be termed the 
 Blessing of the Standards, is thus described by Baber. lie was 
 at the time a fugitive at the court of his uncle. ‘ Presently,’ 
 he writes, ‘ there came tidings that Tambol was moving against 
 Uratippa. "Wherefore the Khan led forth his army from Tash- 
 kend in due order, with right and left wing, and then, after 
 the Mogul custom, formed the ivim, or hunting circle. The 
 horns were blown, and the Khan having alighted, they brought 
 nine horse-tail standards. One Mogul stood by, holding the 
 shank-bone of an ox, to which a long cotton cloth was tied. 
 Another fastened three strips of white cloth beneath the horse- 
 tail of the standard, and passed them under the staff of the nine 
 streamers. The Khan took his stand on the corner of one cloth, 
 while I stood upon another, and Prince Mohammed upon the 
 third. Then the Mogul, who tied the cloths, taking the shank- 
 bone in his hands made an oration in the Mogul tongue, often 
 pointing to the standards. Then the Khan and all the men 
 near him took some spirit of mare’s milk, and sprinkled it 
 towards the nine standards. In that instant all the drums and 
 trumpets struck up at once, and the soldiers raised the war-cry. 
 These ceremonies were repeated thrice. After that, they leaped 
 
152 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 on horseback, then sent up the shout of battle, and put their 
 horses to full speed. The customs established by Zingis Khan 
 are observed to the present day. Every man had an appointed 
 station in the right, left, or centre, and the post is inherited 
 from generation to generation. Next morning the army formed 
 the him, and hunted in the vicinity of Sam Seirek.’ 
 
 The Oozbeg invaders, consisting of an aggregation of 
 Toorks, Mongols, and vagabond descendants of the soldiers of 
 Chinghiz and Timour, proved too strong for Baber, who in 
 1504 reluctantly bade farewell to Ferghana, and with less than 
 300 men passed over into the district of Ilissar. He was then 
 in the 22nd year of his age, and now for the first time began to 
 use the razor. Crossing the Amou, he advanced to Termedh, 
 being joined by thousands of Moghuls until the entire region 
 between the Iron Gate and the Hindoo Koosh acknowledged 
 him as master, the former ruler, Khosroo Shah, retiring to Kho- 
 rassan, according to the Eastern proverb, 
 
 Ten dervishes may sit on one carpet. 
 
 But the same climate will not hold two kings. 
 
 Baber’s next exploit was to cross the mountains by the Kipchak 
 Pass, and take possession of Kabul. In his passage over the 
 mountains he traversed the country of the Kafirs, of whom he 
 observes, ‘ They are all wine-bibbers ; every one of them carries 
 a leathern bottle of wine about his neck. They never pray : 
 they fear neither God nor man ; and are heathenish in their 
 usages.’ They learned, however, to fear Timour. Trusting to 
 their apparently inaccessible fastnesses, they treated with scorn 
 and derision his summons to submit themselves to his supremacy. 
 Turning the ravines in which they dwelt, Timour ascended to a 
 height that domineered over them, and was thence lowered 
 down on rafts or platforms from rock to rock — and five times 
 was the operation repeated — until he stoed on a level with the 
 awe- stricken idolaters. He had with him a mere handful of 
 
MOHAMMED BABER. 
 
 153 
 
 men, but it was felt impossible to resist a conqueror capable of 
 such superhuman daring. 
 
 In this region pines, oaks, and the mastic-tree were met 
 with in abundance, and a little lower down the mountain-side 
 was gay as a parterre with a vast variety of tulips, one of which 
 had a hundred petals, and is somewhat rashly supposed to have 
 been rather a double poppy. The mountains were inhabited in 
 other parts by Eimauks and Ilazarehs, who spoke a Persian 
 dialect, but whose features and habits bespoke a Moghul extrac- 
 tion. The Eimauks lived in camps called ‘ordes,’ and the 
 Hazarehs in villages of thatched houses, each of which had a 
 watch-tower, in which was posted a sentinel with a kettle-drum 
 to sound the alarum. In one respect the Hazarehs were favour- 
 ably distinguished from their neighbours — they never beat their 
 wives. 
 
 At Heri, or Herat, Baber increased his store of useful know- 
 ledge ; he there acquired the art of carving a goose. He was 
 at the time a guest of Badia-ez-Zeman, a hospitable and jovial 
 host, and one day a goose was set before him to his utter be- 
 wilderment. Badia, however, came to his relief and showed 
 him how to cut up the savoury bird in slices. He was also 
 entertained with concerts of music, the performers consisting of 
 a harper and a player on the flute, who accompanied a singer 
 with a good voice. ‘ The people of Heri,’ he remarks, ‘ sing in 
 a low, delicate, and equable style.’ They were also very refined 
 and polite in their manners, but overmuch addicted to the 
 pleasures of the table, and narrowly missed giving Baber a 
 taste for wine and dissipation. 
 
 Upon the discomfiture and death of Sheibani Khan in 1510 
 at the hands of Ismael the Soufiavean, Baber saw that his 
 opportunity had come, and fiercely attacked the Oozbegs in 
 Ilissar. Within a very brief space of time he drove them not 
 only out of that district, but also out of Kunduz and Khotl, 
 
154 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 and at the head of 60,000 horse, made himself master of all 
 Tokhara. In the following year he re-entered Samarkand in 
 triumph, the houses being hung with rich carpets and brocades, 
 and the inhabitants greeting him with loud acclaim. Coins 
 were struck in his name, and the Jchutbeh, or prayer for the 
 reigning sovereign, was offered up for him in the mosques. So 
 firmly established did he now consider himself, that he bestowed 
 the government of Kabul upon his brother Nusser Meerza, and 
 dismissed with handsome presents the Persian officers and 
 their retainers who had assisted him in recovering the throne 
 of his great ancestor Timour. 
 
 For some time after his restoration Baber resigned himself 
 to pleasure and amusement, until rudely awakened to a sense 
 of the uncertain tenure of power in half-civilized countries. 
 Timour Sooltan, son of the deceased Sheibani Khan, suddenly 
 swept over Mawaralnahr with a swarm of Oozbegs, and defeat- 
 ing Baber in battle, forced him to retire to Ilissar. The struggle 
 for the mastery was long protracted, for his Persian allies again 
 flocked to his standard, but on the 14th October, 1514, a 
 decisive engagement took place, in which the Oozbegs were 
 completely victorious, and so vigorously did they follow up 
 their advantage that the Moghuls were dispersed hi all 
 directions. Baber himself, bare-footed, and in his night-dress, 
 escaped with difficulty into the citadel at Ilissar, whence he 
 was finally driven b} r famine, and in 1515 crossed the Paropa- 
 misan range for the last time. 
 
 The next few years were occupied in consolidating his power 
 in Kandahar, but in 1519 Baber felt strong enough to indemnify 
 himself for the loss of his ancestral dominions by attempting 
 the conquest of Ilindostan. Crossing the Indus near Attock — 
 the point chosen also by Alexander the Great, Timour, and 
 Nadir Shah — he commenced the series of successes which cul- 
 minated in the crowning victory of Paniput, on the 21st April, 
 
MOHAMMED BABER. 
 
 1 53 
 
 1520. Baber’s direct connection with the affairs of Central 
 Asia ceased, however, on his flight from the famished citadel of 
 Ilissar, but it is recorded that he carried with him into India 
 the barbarous Moghul practice of building up into pyramids 
 the heads of his fallen enemies. 
 
 Ilis son Iloomayoon retained the government of Badakhshan 
 until shortly before his accession to the throne of Delhi in 
 1530. For rather more than two centuries after Uoomayoon’s 
 retirement that province remained virtually independent, until 
 it was overrun by the armies of Shah Jehan, under Moorad and 
 Aurungzeb. In the end that emperor conferred Badakhshan 
 \ipon Nazar Mohammed Khan of Balkh, and with that act 
 terminated the connection of the Moghul rulers of Hindu- 
 stan with the countries lying to the north of the Hindoo 
 Koosli. 
 
 The Oozbeg conquerors of Mawaralnahr were descended 
 from the Moghul horde of 15,000 families settled in Siberia by 
 Sheibani Khan, brother of the renowned Batou. Their name 
 is said to signify ‘ one who is his own master,’ but this inter- 
 pretation is evidently an after-thought, suggested by the mastery 
 they acquired over the people upon whom they were hurled by 
 the advance of the Russians into their own domains. It is 
 certainly more probable that they derived their apellation from 
 Oozbeg, the ninth ruler of the house of Joujee, the eldest son of 
 Chinghiz, who converted them from idolatry to the profession 
 of Islam. In their irruption into the lands south of the 
 Sylioon, or Jaxartes, they were led by a chief whose name 
 recalled the memory of their original leader. Sheibani Moham- 
 med Khan was not destined, however, to behold the final success 
 of his people, being slain in a great battle near Merv in 1510. 
 He is described as a patron of learned men, and a versifier of con- 
 siderable merit. He was also the founder of several colleges 
 and mosques, but after death his skull was converted into a 
 
156 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 drinking cup by his conqueror Ismael Khan, the founder of the 
 SoufFavean dynasty of Persia. 
 
 Ismael was descended from Sheikh SoufFee-ood-deen, who 
 resided at Ardebil, and traced his lineage from Moussa-al- 
 Kazeem, the seventh Imam, but who was still more revered for 
 his personal sanctity. The ascendancy of the Sheeah sectarians 
 in Persia dates from Ismael, who prided himself on springing 
 from the stock of Ali. This prince expelled the Oozbegs from 
 Khorassan, which has ever since been an integral portion of the 
 Persian territories. Two of his successors were not unknown 
 to their contemporaries in England. Shah Tamasp emerged 
 from the obscurity that habitually envelopes the history of the 
 East through the slights he offered to our countryman Anthony 
 Jenkinson, while Abbas the Great had the good fortune to 
 command the services of the two distinguished brothers, Sir 
 Robert and Sir Anthony Shirley. The SoufFavean dynasty 
 ceased in 1722 with the abdication of Shah Ilosein in favour of 
 Mahmood of Kandahar. 
 
 Although the star of Sheibani Khan waned before that 
 of Shah Ismael, his son Timour Sooltan, as we have seen, be- 
 came sufficient^ powerful to dispossess Baber of both Samarkand 
 and Tokhara. The greatest of his descendants, however, was 
 Abdoollah Khan, who subdued the whole of Hawaralnahr, and 
 made Bokhara his capital. This dynasty was of brief duration, 
 expiring in 1597, with Abdoollah’s savage and rebellious son 
 Abdool Moomeen Khan. The princes of this line showed 
 marked favour to the priestly class, and encouraged theological 
 studies of an abstruse character. They were also believers in a 
 Magic Stone, which was supposed to control the elements, cure 
 diseases, and insure victory. 
 
 The Oozbegs were not the only race who were compelled to 
 give way before the Russian advance. Certain of Joujee’s 
 descendants had settled near Ashtarkhan, or Astrakan, at the 
 
ANTHONY JENKINSON. 
 
 157 
 
 north-western extremity of the Caspian Sea. Here they 
 remained in comparatively peaceful obscurity for some two 
 hundred years, when the encroachments of their northern 
 neighbours drove them from their homes at the mouth of the 
 Volga. The emigrants were hospitably received by Abdoollah’s 
 father Iskander Khan, who even gave his daughter in marriage 
 to their leader Janee Khan. The grandson of this couple 
 ultimately ascended the throne, and founded the ninth dynasty 
 that has ruled over Bokhara, and which was superseded towards 
 the middle of the 18th century by Nadir Shah. 
 
 On the 23rd of April, 1558, ‘Master’ Anthony Jenkinson 
 started from Moscow in company with Richard and Robert 
 Johnson, and a Tatar Tolmach, or interpreter. These adventur- 
 ous travellers were sent out by the Muscovy Company of 
 London, to establish a direct trade with Bokhara and Samarkand, 
 and were furnished with letters from the Czar Ivan Vasilovich, 
 ‘ directed unto sundry kings and princes.’ It was the 10th of 
 August before they reached the Caspian, on which they were 
 sorely storm-tossed until the 3rd September, when they were 
 landed ‘over against Manguslave’ — Manghishlak — and were 
 ‘ greatly entertained by the prince and his people,’ who did not, 
 however, improve upon further acquaintance. ‘ Before our 
 departure from thence,’ the tormented traveller remarks, ‘ we 
 found them to be a very bad and brutish people, for they 
 ceased not daily to molest us, either by fighting, stealing, or 
 begging, raising the prise of horses and camels and victuals, 
 double that it was woant there to be, and forced us to buy the 
 water that we did drinke : which caused us to hasten away, and 
 to conclude with them as well for the hire of camels, as for the 
 prise of such as were bought, with other provision, according to 
 their owne demand ; so that for every camel’s lading, being but 
 400 waight of ours, we agreed to give three hides of Russia, 
 and foure woddin dishes, and to the Prince or Gevernour of the 
 
158 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 sayd people, one ninth, and two sevenths ; Namely, nine 
 severall things and twise seven severall things ; for money they 
 use none.’ 
 
 At last, on the 14th September, the Englishmen commenced 
 their long land journey with a caravan of one thousand camels. 
 They had not proceeded, however, further than five marches, 
 when they were stopped by a troop of Toorkoman horsemen of 
 Timour Sooltan, Governor of Manguslave, who laid their hands 
 upon various articles in the name of their Prince. Jenkinson 
 at once rode up to the latter, and after a spirited remonstrance 
 got from him a horse in part exchange, together with a letter 
 of acknowledgment. Had he not acted in this fearless manner, 
 he would have been not only robbed, but murdered— at least, 
 so he was informed by his interpreter. 
 
 The Toorkoman chief, whom he calls the ‘ Soltan,’ lived, he 
 says, ‘ in the'fields without castle or towne, and sate, at my being 
 with him, in a little rounde house made of reeds, covered 
 without with felts, and within with carpets.’ There was with 
 him £ the great Metropolitan of that wilde countrey, esteemed 
 of the people as the Bishop of Pome is in most parts of Europe.’ 
 At this encampment the English travellers were regaled with 
 horse-flesh and mare’s milk, but the absence of bread is par- 
 ticularly noticed. For twenty days they wandered through a 
 desert, compelled every now-and-then to kill a camel or a horse 
 for food, and finding no water except in old deep wells, when 
 it was generally brackish, and even salt, and sometimes two or 
 three days elapsed without a well of any kind being met 
 with. 
 
 On the 5th October, the caravan struck a gulf of the 
 Caspian (?) where excellent water was obtained, and where the 
 ‘ Kina: of the Turkomans customers’ examined the mcrchan- 
 dise, and £ tooke customc, of every twenty-five one (four per 
 cent.) and seven-ninthes ’ — that is, sixty-three separate articles. 
 
ANTHONY JENKINSON. 
 
 159 
 
 Into this gulf the Oxus, according to Jcnkinson’s informant, 
 formerly emptied itself, but there is evidentl}' some confusion 
 in this statement. The Oxus at one time no doubt discharged 
 itself into Balkan Bay, hut Jenkinson must have alluded to 
 Kara Boghaz Bay, if it was really the Caspian Sea at all, un- 
 less, indeed, he referred to the Gulf of Kindelinsk or Kinderli, 
 which Bruce regarded as the outlet of the ancient Oxus. The 
 last supposition, however, is irreconcilable with the route laid 
 down by our traveller, which, though ill defined, still gives the 
 exact number of eleven days from the Toorkoman * custom- 
 house’ to Urghunj, of which seven seem to have been spent in 
 the Castle of Azeem Khan. Perhaps the true solution of the 
 difficulty might be found in reading Aral for Caspian, and in 
 regarding the Aibugir Gulf or Lake, as the point that was 
 ‘ struck ’ after three weeks wandering in the desert. Urghunj is 
 represented to have been only two days’ journey from Sellizure, 
 and not more than five days from the gulf. 
 
 Be that as it may, the caravan is stated to have arrived on 
 the 7th at a place misnamed Sellizure or Shayzure, where the 
 castle of Azeem Khan, the governor of the Urghunj district, 
 stood on a considerable eminence. It seems to have been built 
 of mud, and boasted of neither strength nor beauty. The 
 people around were poor and knew nothing of commerce. The 
 low-lying lands to the southward were well cultivated, and 
 produced corn, rice, and fruit in abundance, but the water used 
 for irrigation was drawn entirely from the Oxus, and the 
 volume of that river had consequently been diminished to a 
 serious extent. 
 
 Here the travellers remained, content with their reception, 
 until the 14th, and on the 16th they entered Urghunj, after 
 paying a poll-tax upon every man, horse, and camel in their 
 company. This town was situated in a plain, and surrounded 
 by mud walls, four miles in circuit. ‘ The buildings within it 
 
160 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 are also of earth, hut ruined and out of good order : it hath 
 one long street that is covered above, which is the place of 
 their market. It hath been wonne and lost four times within 
 seven yeeres by civill warres, by meanes whereof there are but 
 few merchants in it, and they very poore, and in all the town 
 I could not sell above foure kerseis.’ The country between 
 Urghunj and the Caspian is said to have belonged to Azeem 
 Khan and his five brothers, Toorkoman chiefs, always at feud 
 with one another. 
 
 When not engaged in a foray, these magnates solaced them- 
 selves with the toilsome pleasures of the chase, and were 
 particularly partial to hawking — the quarry being wild horses. 
 ‘ The hawkes are lured to sease upon the beasts neckes or heads, 
 which with chafing of themselves and sore beating of the 
 hawkes are tired : then the hunter, following his game, doth 
 slay the horse with his arrow or sword. In all this lande there 
 groweth no grasse, hut a certaine brush or heath, whereon the 
 cattle feeding become very fat. The Tartars never ride without 
 their bow, arrowes, and sword, although it be in hawking or at 
 any other pleasure, and they are good archers, both on horse- 
 backe and on foote also. These people have not the use of 
 golde, silver, or any other coyne, but, when they laeke apparrcll 
 or other necessaries, they barter their cattell for the same. 
 Bread they have none, for they neither till nor sowe : they he 
 great devourers of flesh, which they cut in smal pieces, and 
 eat it by handfuls most greedily, and especially the horseflesh. 
 
 ‘ Their chiefest drink is mare’s milke soured, and they wil 
 be drunke with the same. They have no rivers nor places of 
 water in this countrey, until you come to the aforesaid gulf, 
 distant from the place of our landing twenty days’ journey, 
 except it he in wels, the water whereof is saltish, and yet 
 distant the one from the other two daies journey and more. 
 They eate their mcate upon the ground, sitting with their legs 
 
ANTHONY JENKINSON. 
 
 101 
 
 double under them, and so also when they pray. Art or science 
 have they none, but live most idlely, sitting round in great 
 companies in the fieldos, devising and talking most vainely.’ 
 
 Jenkinson and his companions were detained at Urghunj 
 till the 26tli November, and on the 7th December halted at 
 Ivait Castle. The Christians in the caravan were here in great 
 peril of being despoiled of their goods by ‘ Soltan Saramet,’ 
 but in the end he deferred to the more moderate counsels of 
 his brother of Urghunj, and contented himself with taking a 
 Russian hide for each camel. When again involved in the 
 desert the)' were alarmed by rumours of robbers being abroad 
 under an exiled prince, who maintained themselves by plunder- 
 ing defenceless travellers. 
 
 In the caravan it chanced that there were several Hajees, 
 or pilgrims returning from Mecca, who resorted to divination 
 to ascertain whether the threatened danger would overwhelm 
 them, or pass over. For this purpose ‘ they tooke certaine 
 sheepe and killed them, and took the blade bones of the same 
 and first sodde them and then burnt them, and tooke of the 
 bloode of the said sheepe, and mingled it with the powder of 
 the said bones, and wrote certaine characters with the saide 
 blood, using many other ceremonies and wordes, and by the 
 same divined, and found that wee shoulde meete with enemies 
 and theeves (to our great trouble), but should overcome them, 
 to which sorcerie I and my companie gave no credit, but we 
 found it true.’ 
 
 The robbers came on boldly enough till Jenkinson and his 
 companions, who were armed with muskets, emptied several 
 saddles. A desultory skirmish then ensued, which lasted till 
 nightfall, when a truce during the hours of darkness was con- 
 cluded with mutual consent. The rogues, however, were too 
 knowing for the honest men, and cut them off from the water. 
 
 In the course of the night also they hailed the leader of the 
 
 ll 
 
1G2 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 caravan, and bade bim surrender tbe Christians and their 
 goods, and depart in peace. lie proved loyal, however, to his 
 trust, and even a Hajee, who had been taken prisoner, refused to 
 give any information about them. On the following morning 
 the caravan was permitted to proceed without further molest- 
 ation on giving twenty times nine several things together with 
 a camel to carry the plunder. 
 
 It was with infinite satisfaction the travellers at last reached 
 the banks of the Oxus, having been without water for three days. 
 All the next day they halted and rested their wear}' animals, 
 ‘ making merry with our slaine horses and camels.’ Being still 
 alarmed about thieves, they struck off into the desert again for 
 the space of four days, when they came to a well of brackish 
 water, and had to kill some of their beasts of burden to avoid 
 being famished. 
 
 On the 23rd December they entered the famous city of 
 Bokhara. * This Boghar,’ says Master Anthony, ‘ is situated 
 in the lowest part of all the land, walled about with a high 
 wall of earth, with divers gates into the same ; it is divided 
 into three partitions, whereof two parts are the king’s, and the 
 third part is for Marchants and markets, and every science hath 
 their dwelling and market by themselves. The citio is very 
 great, and the houses for the most part of earth, but there are 
 also many houses, temples, and monuments of stone, sump- 
 tuously builded and gilt, and especially bathstones so artifi- 
 cially built that the like thereof is not in the world : the man- 
 ner whereof is too long to rehearse. 
 
 ‘ There is a little river running through the middest of the 
 said Citic, but the water thereof is most unholsome, for it 
 breedeth sometimes in men that drinke thereof, and especially 
 in them that be not there borne, a wormc of an ell long, which 
 lycth commonly in the legge, betwixt the flesh and the skinne, 
 and is pluckt out about the ancle with great art and cunning, 
 
ANTHONY JENKINSON. 
 
 1G3 
 
 the surgeons being much practised therein, and if slice brcake 
 in plucking out, the partie dieth, and every day she commeth 
 out about an inch, which is rolled up, and so worketh till she be 
 all out. And yet it is there forbidden to drinke any other 
 thin<r than water and mare’s milke, and whosoever is found to 
 breake that law is whipped and beaten most cruelly through 
 the open markets, and there are officers appointed for the same, 
 who have authoritie to goe into any man’s house, to search if 
 he have either aqua vitae, wine, or brage, and, finding the same, 
 doe breake the vessels, spoilc the drinke, and punish the masters 
 of the house most cruelly ; yea, and many times if they perceive 
 but by the breath of a man that he hath drunke, without 
 further examination he shall not escape their hands.’ 
 
 Truly a mighty reformation since the jovial days of Timour, 
 or even of Baber. The strict observance of this law was en- 
 forced by the High Priest, who was more feared even than the 
 king. Jenkinson adds that the people of Bokhara hated the 
 Persians, and called them ‘ Caphars,’ or unbelievers, because 
 they suffered their moustaches to grow, and this seems to be all 
 he knew as to the difference between Soonees and Sheeahs. 
 
 ‘ The king of Boghar,’ we are told, ‘ hath no great power or 
 riches, his revenues are but small, and he is most maintained by 
 the Citie ; for he taketh the tenth piece of all things that are 
 there solde, as well as by the craftsmen as by the marchants, to 
 the great impoverishment of the people, whom he keepeth in 
 great subjection, and, when he lacketh money, he sendeth his 
 officers to the shoppes of the sa}'d Marchants to take their wares 
 to pay his debts, and will have credite of force, as the like he 
 did to pay me certaine money that he owed me for nineteen 
 pieces of Kersey.’ 
 
 There was no gold coin in the realm. The silver coin was 
 a piece'equi valent to twelve pence of English money, and 120 cop- 
 per coins, called Pooles, were of the same val ue. Notwithstanding 
 
164 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 its manifest inconvenience, the copper currency was most em- 
 ployed even in comparatively large transactions, because the 
 silver was frequently tampered with hy the king, who caused it 
 to ‘ rise and fall to his most advantage every other moneth, and 
 sometimes twise a moneth, not caring to oppresse his people, 
 for that he looketh not to reigne above two or three yeres 
 before he be either slaine or driven away to the great destruc- 
 tion of the countrey and marchants.’ 
 
 Personally, the representative of the Muscovy Company of 
 London had no great reason to complain of his reception at 
 court. The Khan even showed him much attention, and invited 
 him to exhibit his skill as a marksman, condescending himself 
 to enter the lists against him. More than this, on being in- 
 formed of the attack made upon the caravan in the desert, he 
 despatched a body of soldiers in search of the robbers, of whom 
 several were killed and four taken prisoners, two of whom had 
 been wounded hy the English guns. ‘ And after the king had 
 sent for me to come to see them, he caused them all four to he 
 hanged at his palace gate, because they were gentlemen, to the 
 example of others. And of such goods as were gotten againe, 
 I had part restored to me, and this good justice I found at his 
 hands.’ 
 
 For all that, ‘before my departure he shewed himselfe a 
 very Tartar ; for he went to the wars owing me money, and 
 saw me not payed before his departure. And although, indeed, 
 he gave order for the same, yet was I verie ill satisfied, and 
 forced to rebate part and to take wares as payment for the rest, 
 contrary to my expectation : but of a beggar better paiment I 
 could not have, and glad I was so to he paid and despatched.’ 
 
 Bokhara was at that time a great resort for merchants from 
 India, Persia, and Bussia. In bygone days there had also been 
 much intercourse with Cathay, but this had of late been inter- 
 rupted hy constant wars on the borders between the Moham- 
 
ANTHONY JENKINSON. 
 
 1G5 
 
 medan Kossaks and the Tatars of Tashkend and Kashgar. 
 Caravans were, besides, liable to be plundered by nomad tribes, 
 and the journey oftentimes occupied nine months. Trade had 
 consequently dwindled away, though small quantities of musk, 
 rhubarb, satins, damasks, &c., &c., were occasionally imported 
 into Bokhara. One of Jenkinson’s companions, Richard John- 
 son, was informed that ‘ ships may saile from the dominions of 
 Cathaia unto India. But of other waies, or how the seas lie by 
 any coast hee knoweth not.’ The religion of the Chinese, 
 according to Tatar report, was ‘ Christian, or after the manner 
 of Christians ’ — it was, of course, Buddhism. 
 
 * The Indians,’ we learn, ‘ doe bring fine whites, which the 
 Tartars do all roll about their heads, and al other kinds of 
 whites, which serve for apparell, made of cotton, wooll, and 
 crasko ; but gold, silver, precious stones, and spices, they bring 
 none. I enquired and perceived that all such trade passetli to 
 the ocean sea., and the vaines where all such things are gotten 
 are in the subjection of the Portingalls. The Indians carie 
 from Boghar againe wrought silkes, red hides, slaves, and 
 horses, with such like, but of kerseis and other cloths they 
 make little accompt. I offered to barter with marchants of 
 those countreis which came from the furthest parts of India, 
 even from the countrey of Bengala, and the river Ganges, to 
 give them kerseis for their commodities, but the} r would not 
 barter for such commodities as cloth. 
 
 ‘ The Persians do bring thither Craska, woollen cloth, 
 linnen cloth, divers kindes of wrought pide silks, Argomacks, 
 with such like, and do carie from thence redde hides, with other 
 Russe wares, and slaves which are of divers countreis ; but 
 cloth they will by none, for that they bring thither themselves 
 is brought unto them, as I have enquired, from Aleppo in 
 Syria and the parts of Turkie. The Russes doe carie unto 
 Boghar redde hides, sheepe skinnes, wollen cloth of divers 
 
1G6 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 sorts, woodden vessels, bridles, saddles, with sucb like, and doe 
 caiie away from thence divers kindes of wares made of cotton, 
 wooll, divers kinds of silkes, Crasca, with other things, but 
 there is but smal utterance.’ 
 
 Disappointed in his expectation of being able to open a 
 lucrative trade with the far East through the medium of Russia 
 and Bokhara, Jenkinson turned his face homewards on the 8th 
 March, 1559, accompanied by ambassadors from Bokhara and 
 Balkh to the Czar Ivan. On the 25th the caravan, consisting of 
 GOO camels, reached Urghunj, where they remained till the 
 2nd April, when they started afresh, their numbers swollen by 
 envoys fi*om the Toorkoman chiefs, and on the 23rd found them- 
 selves once more at Manghishlak on the shores of the Caspian. 
 
 The old bark was moored where they had left her, but had 
 been stripped of sails, rigging, boats, and anchors. While the 
 Englishmen were scheming how to convert a cart-wheel into 
 an anchor, a vessel put into the harbour and provided them 
 with a few necessaries. When all was ready they set sail — ‘ I 
 and the two Johnsons being Master and Mariners ourselves, 
 having in our barke the said six Ambassadors and twenty-five 
 Russians who had beene slaves a long time in Tartarie, nor 
 ever had before my cumming libertie or meanes to get home, 
 and these slaves served to rowe, when neede was.’ A storm, 
 however, suddenly arose, their cable parted, and their anchor 
 was lost. In order to escape being driven on to a lee shore, 
 they endeavoured to gain an offing, but at last took shelter in 
 an oozy creek, where they ‘ lived in gi-cat discomfort for a 
 time.’ 
 
 When the wind had lulled they made for their former 
 anchorage and fished up the lost anchor, the Tatars marvelling 
 how they knew where to find it beneath the waters. * Note,’ 
 cries the honest Englishman with pardonable pride, ‘ that 
 during the time of our navigation wee set up the redde crosse of 
 
ANTHONY JENKINSON. 
 
 1G7 
 
 Saint George in our flagges, for honour of the Christians, which 
 I suppose was never scene in the Caspian Sea before.’ 
 
 Astrakhan was reached on the 28th May, after much peril 
 and distress, and Moscow on the 2nd September, ‘ and on the 
 fourth day I came before the Empcrour’s Maiestie, kissed his 
 hand, and presented him a white Cowes taile of Cathay and a 
 drumme of Tartaric, which he well accepted. Also I brought, 
 before him all the Ambassadors that were committed to my 
 charge, with all the Russe slaves ; and that day I dined in his 
 Maiestie’s presence, and at dinner his Grace sent me meate by 
 a Duke, and asked me divers questions touching the lands and 
 couutreis where I had bene.’ 
 
168 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: NADIR SHAH. 
 
 BERNIER AND THE TATAR AMBASSADORS AT THE COURT OF AURUNGZEB — 
 A TATAR HEROINE — ROUTE FROM KASIIMEER TO KASHGAR — TRAVELS OF 
 BENEDICT GOES AND OTHER MISSIONARIES — ABOU’L-GHAZEE KHAN — 
 
 KHIVA AND BOKHARA IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY — NADIR SHAH 
 
 ENGLISH TRAVELLERS — TRADE — DECADENCE OF PERSIA. 
 
 The annals of Central Asia in the 17th century are stained 
 with the useless bloodshed that characterizes the incessant feuds 
 of petty States submerged in barbarism, and regarding arms 
 and the chase as the only honourable employment for free men. 
 A savage fanaticism passed current for religion, and the capri- 
 cious will of a narrow-minded and irresponsible despot dispensed 
 with the usual forms and machinery of government. For the 
 rest, what has been written touching the social usages of the 
 Tatars and Moghuls during the previous three centuries will 
 apply, with very slight variation, to the manners and customs 
 of the Oozbegs and Toorkomans down to quite a recent period. 
 
 Bernier relates how about the year 1601 the Khans of 
 Oozbeg Tatary sent ambassadors to Aurungzeb to congratulate 
 him on having finally triumphed over his brothers. The real 
 object, however, of this mission was to efface whatever feelings 
 of resentment might have been roused by the coalition of 
 the Oozbeg Chiefs whom he had shut up in Balkh, whence 
 he effected a difficult and disastrous retreat. They came not 
 empty-handed, but brought as presents * some boxes of choice 
 lapis lazulus, divers camels with long hair, several gallant horses, 
 and some camel-loads of fresh fruit, as apples, pears, raisins, and 
 
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 1G9 
 
 melons (for it is chiefly Usbec that furnishes these sorts of fruit, 
 eaten at Dehli all the winter long) ; and many loads of dry 
 fruit, as prunes of Bokhara, apricots, raisins without any stones 
 that appeared, and two other sorts of raisins, black and white, 
 very large and very good.’ 
 
 According to that amusing traveller, there was no ‘more 
 avaricious and uncleanly nation ’ than the Tatars, on the sur- 
 face of the earth. The ambassadors grudged to spend the 
 money that was allowed by Aurungzeb for their maintenance, 
 and ‘ lived a very miserable life,’ altogether unworthy of their 
 position. They were ignorant even of the history of their own 
 people. On one occasion Bernier dined with them. ‘ They 
 are not,’ he remarks, ‘men of much ceremony; it was a very 
 extraordinary meal for such a one as I, it being mere horse- 
 flesh ; yet for all this I got my dinner with them ; there was a 
 certain ragout which I thought passable, and I was obliged to 
 express a liking of so exquisite a dish, which they so much lust 
 after. During dinner there was a strange silence : they were 
 very busy in carrying in w r ith their whole hands, for they know 
 not what a spoon is ; but after that this horseflesh had wrought 
 in their stomachs, they began to talk, and then they would 
 persuade me that they were the most dextrous at bows and 
 arrows, and the strongest men in the world. They called fur 
 bows which are much bigger than those of Indostan, and would 
 lay a wager to pierce an ox or my horse through and through.’ 
 
 His entertainers likewise told him a tale of a Tatar maiden 
 who slew, with arrows and sabre, from twenty to thirty Indians 
 who had plundered her native village in her absence, and car- 
 ried off captive her aged mother. The old woman warned them 
 that they would do well to let her go free, for it would fare 
 badly with them when her daughter came to know how they 
 had treated her. They naturally laughed at her threats, but 
 had not gone far before the Tatar Brindomart was seen ‘ prick- 
 
170 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 ing o’er the plain.’ While yet at a great distance she began to 
 discharge her fatal arrows with unerring aim, and, when her 
 quiver was exhausted, charged them sword in hand and rescued 
 the beldame. 
 
 Bernier accompanied Aurungzeb to Kashmeer, where he made 
 the acquaintance of some merchants from Kashgaria, who in- 
 formed him that the quickest and easiest route to their country 
 laj r through Great Tibet. They themselves, however, proposed 
 to return home by way of Eskerdon — Iskardo — in Little Tibet, 
 and expected to occupy forty-four days in travelling to Kashgar, 
 described as ‘ a small town, once the seat of the king of Kaclie- 
 guer, which is now at Jourkend — Yarkund — lying somewhat 
 more to the north, and ten days journey distant from Kacke- 
 guer.’ The traders added that from that town to ‘ Katay,’ on 
 the north-west of China, by way of Khoten, was a distance of 
 two months constant travel, by very difficult roads, and that 
 there was ‘ a place where, in what season soever it he, you must 
 march for about a quarter of a league upon ice ’ — across a glacier. 
 
 In the course of the 17th century several Jesuit Mission- 
 aries made their way from India to China, in the hope of con- 
 verting the heathen. The most notable of these was Benedict 
 Goes, who started from Agra in 1602, and travelled by way of 
 Lahore, Attoek, and Peshawur to Kabul, where he was detained 
 for a considerable time. At length resuming his journey, he 
 crossed the Ilindoo Koosli by the Parwan Pass, ascended the 
 valley of Badakhshan, and traversed the Pamcer Steppe to 
 Sarikol, being the first European since Marco Polo who had 
 visited those regions. Thence he proceeded to Yarkund by the 
 Ckiohiklik Pass and the Tangitar AUillcj', and so passed on to 
 the fulfilment of his bootless mission. 
 
 Half a ccntuiy later the two Jesuit Missionaries Dorvillo 
 and Gruober penetrated to China from Bengal, and in 1714 
 another Jesuit, Dcsideri, adopted Kashmeer as his starting 
 
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 171 
 
 point. There is not much, however, that is either very enter- 
 taining or instructive in the records of their wanderings, or of 
 a nature to arrest the attention of the general reader. 
 
 Of far greater interest is the ‘ Genealogical History of the 
 Tatars ’ commenced by Abou’l-Ghazee Khan, after his abdication 
 of the throne of Khwarezm, and completed by his son and suc- 
 cessor. Abou’l-Ghazee Khan was born at Urghunj in 1G05, 
 and by his mother’s side descended in a direct line from Cliin- 
 g-hiz Khan. He became King of Khwarezm in lG4o, and after a 
 glorious reign of twenty years voluntarily abdicated in favour of 
 his son Anou Shah Mohammed Bahadoor Khan. In his leisure 
 hours after retiring from the management of public affairs, he 
 applied himself with great diligence to the compilation of his 
 History, and on the visible approach of death earnestly com- 
 mended its completion to his son, Avho faithfully acquitted him- 
 self of the sacred trust. This useful work was translated and 
 annotated by Bentinck, a learned Dutch Orientalist, whose 
 notes, published at Leyden in 172G, convey a lively impression 
 of the general condition of Central Asia at that period. 
 
 The description of the kingdom of Khwarezm applies almost 
 equally well to that of the Khanat of Khiva at the present day. 
 In length it extended 440 miles from north to south, and in 
 breadth 340 from east to west. It consisted for the most part 
 of wide plains of sand, fringed by a few ranges of hills, and cul- 
 tivated only in the vicinity of the Jyhoon and its numerous 
 estuaries and canals. Of pasture land the extent was consider- 
 able, and in the irrigated districts fruits and cereals yielded 
 abundant crops. Vines grew well in certain localities, and the 
 melons were famous throughout all Asia. The capital city*, 
 Urghunj, had fallen so much to decay that it made 1 but a piti- 
 ful figure, being no more than a great scrambling town about a 
 league in compass.’ 
 
 The kingdom of Bokhara, or, as it was then called by 
 
172 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 European writers, Buchai’ia or Bogaria, was in a very flourish- 
 ing condition. Strictly speaking, it was divided into two 
 portions, Great Bucharia and Little Bucharia. The latter is at 
 present represented by Eastern Toorkestan, but the former was 
 roughly calculated to extend 760 miles from east to west, and 
 720 from north to south, and comprised all the country en- 
 closed between the Jyhoon and the Syhoon — or the Amou and 
 Syr. 
 
 Nature, we read, ‘ has denied nothing to this fine country to 
 make living in it agreeable. The mountains abound with the 
 richest mines ; the vallies are of an astonishing fertility in all 
 sorts of fruits and pulse ; the fields are covered with grass the 
 height of a man ; the rivers swarm with excellent fish ; and 
 wood, which is so scarce all over Grand Tartary, is found here 
 in great plenty in several parts. In short, it is the best culti- 
 vated and inhabited of all the Northern Asia. But all these 
 things are of very little use to the Tartar inhabitants, who are 
 naturally so lazy that thej r would rather go steal, or rob and 
 kill their neighbours, than apply themselves to improve the 
 benefits which nature so liberally offers them.’ 
 
 The inhabitants consisted of three distinct races, who kept 
 aloof from one another. The most industrious were the Sarts, 
 or descendants of the early Aryan population, and who are best 
 known by their Persian appellation of Tajeeks. The Toorks, or 
 Toorkomans, originally from Toorkestan, were of tall stature and 
 robust frame, with square flat faces, and of a swarthier com- 
 plexion than their brethren who settled in Anatolia and founded 
 the Empire of Turkey in Europe. 
 
 The lords of the land, however, were the masterful Oozbcgs, 
 who, nevertheless, had been forced to give way before the 
 superior numbers, discipline, and intelligence of the encroaching 
 [Muscovites. Though possessing fixed habitations,' they were 
 much given to wandering from place to place, carrying with 
 
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 173 
 
 them all their effects of any value. Their houses, indeed, were 
 chiefly ‘ a dome of laths, and o’er it felts were spread.’ They 
 were armed with bow and arrows, a lance, a sword, a javelin, oc- 
 casionally with an arquebuss, and generally with a buckler slung 
 at their back — the chiefs in war time wearing coats of mail. In 
 these respects, indeed, there was little difference between the 
 Oozbegs* and the partially conquered Toorkoinans. Both were 
 men of blood, and lived by rapine, scorning the arts of peace 
 and the tillage of the soil, which were left to the Sarts, dwell 
 ing in towns and villages, and to Persian slaves torn from their 
 homes in Khorassan. Their favourite dishes were then, as 
 now, roast horse-flesh and mutton pillao, washed down by 
 ‘ Kumeez ’ and arrack, both made from mare’s milk. 
 
 The Toorks, or Tatars, — for they belonged to the same stock 
 — were divided into five Aimaks or tribes; the Uigurs; the 
 Kankli Tatars, near the Hi ; the Kipchaks, ancestors of the 
 Cossacks of the Ural ; the Kall-Atz, in Mawaralnahr ; and the 
 Karliks, on the mountains whence the Moghuls of Chinghiz 
 issued forth upon the plains. The Kankli Tatars are said to 
 derive their name from the inventor of wheeled carriages for 
 carrying off plunder, which from the creaking of their wheels 
 were called Kunnecks, and their ingenious deviser Kankli. 
 The epithet Kalmuk seems to have been given in derision by the 
 Mohammedan Tatars to those who still adhered to idolatry, just 
 as the Russians fell into the habit of speaking of the indepen- 
 
 * la ‘Lalla Rookk ’ the minstrel-prince sings of the 
 
 ‘ Chiefs of the Uzbeck race 
 Waving their heron crests with martial grace ; 
 
 Turkomans, countless as tbeir flocks led forth 
 From the aromatic pastures of the North ; 
 
 Wild warriors of the turquoise hills — and those 
 Who dwell beyond the everlasting snows 
 Of Hindoo Ivosh in stormy freedom bred, 
 
 Their fort the rock, their camp the torrent’s bed. 
 
174 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 dent Kozzaks as Kirghiz, by which name the Persians con- 
 temptuously designated all the nomad tribes, as if dwellers in 
 Khourgah, or asses’ stables. 
 
 The Tatar horses, we are assured, ‘ make but a sorry appear- 
 ance, having neither breast nor buttocks, the neck long and 
 straight like a stick, and the legs very high, and no belly. 
 They are, besides, of a frightful leanness : for all this, they are 
 exceeding swift and almost indefatigable. They are easily 
 maintained ; a little grass, though ever so indifferent, and even 
 a little moss, satisfying them in case of need : so that these are 
 the best horses in the world for the use the Tatars make of 
 them.’ 
 
 Pushing poetic license to the verge of reckless audacity, Mr 
 Matthew Arnold, in his spirited but singularly anachronistic 
 poem, ‘ Sohrab and Rustum,’ picturesquely delineates the Tatar 
 hordes as they existed some centuries subsequent to the histori- 
 cal romance he has selected for the pastime of a Muse capable 
 of far greater flights. It is thus he describes the auxiliaries of 
 Sohrab : — 
 
 ‘ From their black tents, long files of horse, they stream’d : 
 As when, some grey November morn, the files, 
 
 In marching order spread, of long-necked craues 
 Stream over Casbin, and the Southern slopes 
 Of Elburz, from the Aralian estuaries, 
 
 On some froze Caspian reed-bed, Southward bound 
 For the warm Persian sea-board ; so they stream’d. 
 
 The Tartars of the Oxus, the King’s guard, 
 
 First, with black sheep-skin caps, and with long spears : 
 Large men, large steeds : who from Bokhara come 
 And Khiva, and ferment the milk of marcs. 
 
 Next the more temperate Toorkmaus of the South, 
 
 The Tukas, and the lances of Salore, 
 
 And those from Attruck and the Caspian sands ; 
 
 Light men, and on light steeds, who only drink 
 The acrid milk of camels, and their wells. 
 
 And then a swarm of wandering horse, who came 
 From far, and a more doubtful service own’d ; 
 
S E V E N TE ENT II C EN TU It Y . 
 
 175 
 
 The Tartars of Ferghana, from the banks 
 Of the Jaxartcs, men with scanty beards 
 And close-set skull-caps ; and those wilder hordes 
 Who roam o’er Kipchak, and the Northern waste, 
 
 Kalmuks, and unkemp’d Kuzzaks, tribes who stray 
 Nearest the Pole, and wandering Kirghizzes, 
 
 Who came on shaggy ponies from Pamere.’ 
 
 Bokhara, the capital city, appears to have undergone little 
 change between the date of Anthony Jenkinson’s visit and the 
 close of the 17th century. According to Abou’l-Ghazee Khan, 
 the name is derived from a Moghul -word * Buchar,’ signifying 
 * a learned man/ because all such as desired to study grammar 
 and science were wont to repair to Bokhara. Unfortunately 
 for this derivation, the town possessed that name ages before 
 either mosque or medresseh was erected within its walls, or the 
 Moghul had swept down from his native mountains, 
 
 As when a vulture on Imaus bred, 
 
 Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds, 
 
 Dislodging from a region scarce of prey, 
 
 To gorge the flesh of lambs, or yearling kids, 
 
 On hills where flocks are fed, flies towards the springs 
 Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams. 
 
 The town is still pictured as begirt with a wall of earth 
 faced with turf, and divided into three parts, in one of which 
 stood the Ark, or Boyal Palace ; in another, the chief public 
 offices and buildings ; and in the third, the shops and dwellings 
 of the industrial population. As usually happens in the East, 
 each calling had its own peculiar quarter or bazaar, and the site 
 of the city on the great caravan route between Eastern and 
 Western Asia was bearing its legitimate fruits. The humbler 
 habitations, however, were built of mud, stone being reserved 
 for more stately edifices, and the water was execrably unwhole- 
 some. Traders, too, complained that, although the customs 
 duties did not exceed the two-and-a-half per cent, sanctioned 
 by the Koran, they were subjected to such vexation and oppres- 
 
CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 176 
 
 sion, that their business was seriously injured. In like manner 
 the philo-Russian Bentinck says that nothing is wanting to the 
 city of Samarkand to enjoy a very considerable commerce, but 
 to have other masters and neighbours than the Mohammedan 
 Tatars. 
 
 Samarkand, however, was a much finer town than Bokhara. 
 Many private houses were built of stone from the neighbouring 
 quarries, and some of the Mosques and Medressehs were really 
 handsome structures. The palace, indeed, had suffered from 
 neglect, but the lofty dome over the tomb of Timour, and the 
 observatory erected by Ooloogh Beg, one of Timour’ s numerous 
 grandsons, failed not to excite the admiration of strangers. 
 The beautiful environs and the fertile valley of the Zarafshan 
 retained all their attractions, ‘ and all, save the spirit of man, 
 was divine.’ 
 
 Another town of importance was Balkh, at that time the 
 residence of an Oozbeg Chief who ruled over Badakhshan. 
 The country around was well cultivated, and produced silk of 
 superior quality. The silken manufactures of Balkh likewise 
 bore a high reputation, and the people were said to differ from 
 the inhabitants of most other cities of Central Asia in that they 
 were less prone to theft, and more gwen to honest industry. 
 The houses were for the most part built with brick or stone, 
 and the lofty ramparts of earth that surrounded the city were 
 faced with stone. Situated on an affluent of the Amou and on 
 the direct caravan route between India and Persia, Balkh 
 enjoyed the advantages of a brisk trade, and as a duty of two- 
 and-a-half per cent, was levied on all goods entering or issuing 
 from the gates, the public revenue must have been considerable. 
 The castle was a spacious and substantial structure, — the 
 neighbouring quarries of marble furnishing the materials. 
 
 The eighteenth century was destined to witness a revival 
 of the massacres that characterized the triumphs of Chinghiz 
 
NADIR SIIAH. 
 
 177 
 
 and Tiraour. In the province of Khorassan and at no great 
 distance from Kelat, the ancient Artacoana, and in the year 
 1687 or 1688, a man of the Affshar tribe, named Imam Kouli, 
 possessed of neither riches nor rank, became the father of one 
 of the most savage conquerors even Asia has produced. Nadir 
 Kouli, or Slave of the Wonderful, that is, of God, began life 
 as a robber, and early distinguished himself by the murder of 
 an uncle who had been appointed Governor of Kelat, the 
 possession of which city with its fertile table land was the 
 motive and recompense of the crime. His unscrupulous audacity 
 having recommended him to the notice of Shah Tamasp, then 
 King of Persia, he was taken into the royal service, and 
 honoured with the title of Khan. 
 
 Courtier-like, Nadir now transferred his allegiance from 
 The "Wonderful One to his earthly master, and called himself 
 with hypocritical humility Tamasp Kouli Khan. His aptitude 
 for war was speedily made manifest by the expulsion of the 
 Afghans from Persia, and the grateful or timid monarch, in 
 recognition of his valour and ability, conferred upon him the 
 governments of Khorassan, Mazanderan, Seistan, and Kerman, 
 thus raising him to a position scarcely inferior to his own. 
 
 The ingratitude, or patriotism, of Tamasp Kouli Khan, was 
 on a par with the suddenness of his elevation. His benefactor 
 having concluded a disgraceful peace with Sultan Mahmoud, 
 was declared unworthy to rule over Persia, and his son, barely 
 eight months of age, was placed on the throne, with Tamasp 
 Kouli Khan for his guardian and vicegerent. On the death of 
 the infant, which happened very shortly afterwards, the Regent 
 usurped the insignia of royalty, and adopted the name by which 
 he is known in history — that of Nadir Shah. 
 
 His son Iliza Kouli Meerza likewise displayed great military 
 talent, and gave hopeful promise of being a j ust, merciful, and 
 
 enlightened monarch, should he ever succeed to the throne. 
 
 12 
 
178 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 His first feat of arms was the complete overthrow of an Oozbeg 
 army, followed by the capture of Balkh, and the passage of the 
 Oxus. Ho was checked, however, in mid-career, in 1738, by a 
 summons from his father, who was then on the point of setting 
 out on his murderous expedition into Hindostan. During 
 Nadir Shah’s absence, Riza Kouli Meerza ruled in his stead, 
 fixing his seat of government at Meshed. It was at this time 
 that Jonas Han way visited that city, which has passed through 
 so many vicissitudes of fortune. ‘ It is situated,’ he wrote, 1 to 
 the north of a ridge of mountains and is well supplied with 
 water, which is brought hither in an aqueduct from a great 
 distance : in time of peace it is a place of great trade ; caravans 
 are employed daily from Bokhara, Balkh, Biddukhshan, Kan- 
 dahar, and India ; as well as from all parts of Persia. The 
 bazaars, or market-places, are large and well-built, filled with 
 rich merchandise, and frequented by great numbers of people 
 of different nations. There were computed about ninety cara- 
 vanserais in this city, all in good repair. Great numbers of 
 people Avere sent hither by Nadir Shah from all parts of Persia, 
 as Avell as from the new-conquered dominions ; and all other 
 means were used to make it a flourishing city. It is fourteen 
 days’ journey distant from Bokhara by the direct road, twenty 
 from Balkh, twenty-six from Biddukhshan, and thirty from 
 Kandahar.’ 
 
 It is said to have been the intention of Nadir Shah to re- 
 move the seat of government permanently from Ispahan to 
 Meshed, as better situated for a commercial emporium, and 
 both lie and his son conferred many privileges upon its in- 
 habitants, in the hope of restoring it to its former state of 
 prosperity. There Avas a time, says a writer of that century, 
 when Meshed was ‘ famous for its manufactures of all sorts, 
 such as gold and silver brocades, tapestry, rich silks, and 
 woollen stuff, as beautiful and as dear as silks : there was, 
 
NADIR SIIAII. 
 
 179 
 
 besides, a manufacture of earthenware, which was looked upon 
 as the best in Asia, on this side China ; so that, an age ago, 
 this city for mosques, public baths, caravanserais, bazaars, and 
 other public structures, was not in the least inferior to any city 
 in Persia; but the Uzbeck Tatars had so totally destroyed it, 
 that it made but a very indifferent figure when the Shah Nadir 
 made choice of it for the seat of his empire.’ 
 
 On his return from the capture of Delhi, and the massacre 
 and pillage of its inhabitants, Nadir crossed the Oxus, and 
 encamped within twelve miles of the city of Bokhara. The 
 Khan, though descended from Chinghiz, wisely preferred 
 timely submission to useless resistance, and not only laid the 
 insignia of I’oyalty at the feet of the conqueror, but also gave 
 his daughter in marriage to Nadir’s nephew. The Oxus was 
 declared to be thenceforth the boundary between the kingdoms 
 of Bokhara and Persia, and 12,000 Oozbeg horsemen enlisted 
 under the banners of the Shah. The conqueror then proceeded 
 to avenge a cruel insult he had received at the hands of the 
 Khan of Khwarezm. 
 
 Nadir had sent ambassadors to that barbarous court to 
 demand the release of all Persians detained in slavery, but his 
 envoys were savagely put to death, with the exception of one, 
 who returned to him without ears or nose. The Khan boldly 
 took the field with 20,000 men, but, learning that Nadir Shah 
 was approaching in person at the head of 50,000, his courage 
 failed him, and he hastily retreated towards his capital. He 
 was overtaken, however, when only half a day’s journey from 
 its friendly walls, and, after a desperate struggle, was defeated 
 and made prisoner. On being conducted into the presence of 
 the victor, he sought to obtain his own pardon by accusing his 
 Oozbeg chiefs of having murdered the Persian ambassadors 
 without his knowledge. Nadir sternly replied that, if he had 
 not capacity enough to govern the handful of subjects who 
 
180 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 acknowledged him as their lord, he was not fit to live ; and 
 that, for the affront he had passed upon himself in killing his 
 messengers, he did not deserve to die like a man — he should 
 die, therefore, like a dog. The Khan and thirty of his prin- 
 cipal officers were accordingly led forth to execution, and had 
 their throats cut. 
 
 The capital city, however, still refused to open its gates, 
 and many of the Fersian slaves were butchered, lest they should 
 betray the place to their fellow-countrymen. On the 8th No- 
 vember, 1739, Nadir pitched his camp on the east side of 
 Khiva, and opened fire upon the walls with 18 cannon and 
 16 mortars. He also constructed wooden towers to over-top 
 the walls, and subdue the enemy’s musketry fire. The besieged 
 had only a few field pieces, which they had taken from the un- 
 fortunate Prince Beckovich, and on a practicable breach being 
 effected they surrendered at discretion. Two English mer- 
 chants, named Hogg and Thompson, had been involuntarily 
 immured in the beleaguered tow’n, and on appearing before 
 Nadir were graciously received, and promised protection for 
 themselves and their property. A fortnight afterwards the Fer- 
 sian monarch withdrew from Khwarezm w T ith 20,000 liberated 
 slaves and 8000 Oozbcg recruits, after bestowing the Khan at on 
 Taher Khan, a cousin of the ruler of Bokhara. 
 
 We learn from Jonas Han way’s narrative that Nadir’s 
 army, shortly before his death, was estimated at 200,000 men, a 
 number far short of the countless hordes assigned to Chinghiz 
 and to Timonr. The hosts of his predecessors, however, were 
 migratory nations rather than disciplined troops. For every 
 fighting man there were probably five or six non-combatants, 
 including the old men, the women, the children, and the slaves. 
 In the case of Nadir Shah it w r as different. He went forth to 
 scourge and to conquer, but without thought of migration or 
 settlement. It is true that, like all Eastern conquerors, lie was 
 
NADIR SHAH. 
 
 1S1 
 
 encumbered with many useless followers, who may have con- 
 tributed to the magnificence of his presence, but who were 
 otherwise a source rather of weakness than of strength. Among 
 these may be enumerated 50 black eunuchs, 200 running foot- 
 men, 1000 stirrup-holders, 10,000 koulam or royal slaves, 500 
 heralds, and 150 carpet-spreaders. The 2000 Beg-zadeh, or 
 gentlemen’s sons, and the 1000 sons of elders, may have served 
 as pledges for the loyalty of their parents, and the 4000 watch- 
 guards may possibly have deserved their title. But the main 
 body contained 50,000 Affghans, 20,000 Affshahs, or nomads 
 of Korassan of Nadir’s own tribe, 0000 Oozbegs, 6000 Toorko- 
 maus, 0000 Balouche, probably Beloochees, and 12,000 mus- 
 keteers. 
 
 Unchecked, success, unlimited power, unthwarted caprice, 
 worked out their own nemesis, and in his latter days Nadir was 
 tormented by jealousy and suspicion. In a moment of un- 
 reasoning fury he deprived of sight his eldest son Itiza Kouli 
 Meerza. ‘You have put out the eyes of Persia,’ was the only 
 reproach uttered by the submissive sufferer, and the event 
 proved the justness of the prince’s view of the instability of the 
 empire acquired by his father. While encamped in a wide 
 plain, a day’s journey to the north-west of Meshed, Nadir con- 
 ceived the mad design of massacring all the Persian soldiers in 
 his army, and of trusting entirely to his Affghans and Toorko- 
 mans. At least, a rumour to that effect got abroad, and im- 
 pelled by the motive of self-preservation Saleh Beg, the com- 
 mander of the AfFshah bod} r -guard, conspired with some other 
 officers to assassinate the tyrant, who was accordingly slain in 
 his own tent while offering a vain resistance. 
 
 This tragic event occurred in 1747, and from that year 
 dates the rapid decadence of Persia. The- reigning dynasty be- 
 longs to the Kajar tribe, and is descended from Mohammed 
 Hosein Khan, whose father was murdered by Nadir Shah, and 
 
182 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 who makes an unpleasing figure in Ilanway’s narrative as an 
 unscrupulous freebooter. 
 
 The gracious reception accorded by Nadir to the two Eng- 
 lish merchants found among the captive inhabitants of Khiva 
 was consistent with the protection and encouragement that 
 monarch systematically extended to industry and commerce. 
 One object of his ambition was to command the navigation of 
 the Caspian Sea, though chiefly with a view to overawe the 
 Lesghians on the one coast and the Toorkomans on the other. 
 For this purpose he applied to the Empress Catherine I. to 
 send him some ship -carpenters, but her Majesty astutely replied 
 that the only artificers of that class in her dominions were 
 foreigners, whom she had no power to employ beyond her own 
 territories. In this difficulty Nadir procured the services of a 
 ship-captain named Elton, in the pay of an English company 
 trading with Russia and Persia, whose representatives, Mr 
 George Thompson and Mr Reynold Hogg, were the two Eng- 
 lishmen shut up in Khiva when taken by the Persians. 
 
 These pioneers of commerce had started from Yaik on the 
 Ural, on the 26 June, 1740, and travelled in a direction to the 
 east-south-east of Orenberg, a fortress then recently built as an 
 outpost to repress the incursions of the Karakalpaks and Kir- 
 ghiz, and also as an emporium for furs, gold dust, and rhubarb. 
 On the 6th August they reached the shores of the Aral, and 
 followed its western shore, distressed by the want of drinkable 
 water and impeded by the ruggedness of the route. The cir- 
 cuit of the sea, or lake, they estimated at something over a 
 thousand English miles, while the country they traversed is 
 represented as abounding in wild horses, asses, and antelopes, 
 and infested by wolves, and ‘a very fierce creature called jol- 
 bart, not unlike a tyger, which the Tartars say is of such pro- 
 digious strength as to carry off a horse.’ 
 
 A valley covered with brushwood and knee-deep in stagnant 
 
NADIR SIIAII. 
 
 183 
 
 water, described as the ancient channel of the Oxus, was crossed 
 on the 1st September, and on the 5th they halted at ‘ Jurgantz ’ 
 — Urghunj — a heap of ruins, with only one mosque remaining. 
 Four days later the travellers entered Khiva, a town with three 
 gates, situated on rising ground, defended bv a mud wall higher 
 than the roofs of the houses, strengthened by towers at short 
 intervals, and surrounded by a broad ditch. The houses, how- 
 ever, were nothing better than mud huts, with flat roofs covered 
 with eai’th. Trade, too, was at a stand-still, the inhabitants 
 looking forward with reasonable apprehension to an early attack 
 from Nadir Shah. Lodged in a caravanserai, the Englishmen 
 found it difficult to dispose of a sufficient quantity of goods to 
 maintain themselves and their cattle, although they had been 
 compelled to pay an octroi duty of five per cent, upon the 
 whole of their merchandise. 
 
 ‘ The dominions of Khiva/ they contemptuously remark, 
 ‘ are of so small extent that a person may ride round them in 
 three days : it has five walled cities, all within half a day’s 
 journey of each other/ The Khan was possessed of absolute 
 power, tempered by the ascendancy, in religious matters, of the 
 ‘ Moollah Bashi/ and his annual revenue did not exceed one 
 hundred gold ducats. Ilis people were found to be even more 
 cunning and treacherous than the Kirghiz. According to the 
 rate of travelling in those days, Khiva was seventeen days from 
 the Caspian, and thirty-three from Orenberg, each day being 
 equivalent to forty versts, or about twenty-seven English miles. 
 
 After the submission of Khiva to Nadir Shah, the English- 
 men sold a portion of their merchandise without much difficulty 
 to the Persians, but had great trouble in getting their money. 
 Hogg therefore remained till the 6th April, 1741, when, to 
 avoid the Toorkomans, he directed his course to the eastern 
 shores of the Sea of Aral. In fifteen days he reached the Syr, 
 but on the other side fell into the hands of the Kirghiz, who 
 
184 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 took from him everything he had, so that it was with much 
 pain and fatigue he finally made his way to Orenberg, and 
 thence to St Petersburg. 
 
 In the meanwhile Thompson had proceeded to Bokhara, ‘ a 
 large and populous city,’ situated on a rising ground, and begirt 
 with a slight mud wall and a dry ditch. The dwelling-houses 
 were mud hovels with flat roofs, but the mosques and caravan- 
 serais were built of brick, as also the bazaars, though many 
 ‘ stately buildings ’ of brick and stone were in a ruinous con- 
 dition. ‘ The place,’ says Thompson, ‘ is not esteemed un- 
 healthy as to air and soil ; but the water is so very bad that 
 many of the inhabitants are confined several months in the 
 summer by worms in their flesh, which they call Bislitas : 
 some of these, when taken out of their bodies, prove to be forty 
 inches long.’ Serpents and scorpions of an exceedingly venom- 
 ous nature were unpleasantly frequent. ‘ The most effectual 
 remedy they find for the immediate cure of this distemper (the 
 sting of the scorpion) is to bruise the scorpion, and apply it to 
 the wound.’ 
 
 The Bokhariots themselves are denounced as a cruel, cow- 
 ardly, effeminate, and perfidious race, but more polite and 
 civilized than the Khivans. The Armenian prince Ilaiton also 
 spoke ill of the latter, as lawless, rude, unlettered pagans, while 
 Ibn Batuta wrote, ‘ I have never seen better or more liberal 
 people than the inhabitants of Khwarezm, or those who are 
 more friendly to strangers. They have,’ he adds, ‘ a very com- 
 mendable practice with regard to their worship, which is this : 
 When any one absents himself from his place in the mosque, he 
 is beaten by the priest in the presence of the congregation ; and, 
 moreover, fined in five dinars, which go towards the expenses 
 of the mosque, and for nourishing the poor. In every mosque, 
 therefore, a whip is hung up for this purpose.’ Ibn Batuta 
 was further astonished by the crowds of people in the strcels, 
 
NADIR SI1 All. 
 
 1S5 
 
 who made the ground, as it were, tremble beneath their feet, 
 while the incessant movement recalled to mind the agitated 
 surface of a storm-vexed sea. 
 
 No doubt, these different travellers bore each faithful wit- 
 ness according to his lights and persoual experience. The 
 Englishman, however, would probably have gladly exchanged 
 something of the politeness of the Bokhariots for a brisker 
 market for his wares, but the demand for European goods was 
 very slight, and cloth was used only for caps. The duty on 
 imports, whether belonging to natives or to foreigners, was no 
 more than one per cent., but ten times that rate on exports. 
 In the rare intervals of peace, the Customs were estimated to 
 yield one thousand ducats per annum. 
 
 On the 8th August Thompson turned his back upon Bok- 
 hara, and proceeded to Meshed by a strangely circuitous route. 
 He first travelled for four days in an easterly direction, passing 
 through many Oozbeg villages, and then, turning to the south, 
 crossed the Amou at Klierki on the 16th, after traversing the 
 inhospitable desert. Here he was constrained to pay a small 
 duty upon his merchandise. Bending to the south-east he 
 next reached * Anthuy ’ — Andkooee — after a painful journey 
 through a desert country, and found that he was only three 
 days distant in a direct line from his starting-point. The whole 
 of this district was subject to the Persians, who bought large 
 quantities of cattle from the inhabitants. 
 
 After a detention of ten days, waiting for a caravan, Thomp- 
 son got away again on the 31st, and travelled westwards through 
 narrow valleys hemmed in by lofty mountains, and on the 6th 
 September arrived at a place he calls Margiehab — probably a 
 corruption of Murghab, but which was actually Merou. It is 
 stated to be very strong, defended by a garrison of 500 soldiers, 
 and surrounded by a double wall on which several guns were 
 mounted, but very unhealthy in summer in consequence of 
 
186 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 pestilential winds. It was not until the 22nd September that 
 he arrived at Meshed, the chief town of Khorassan, and at that 
 time the capital of Nadir’s wide dominions. 
 
 ‘Few things,’ as Sir Rutherford Alcock remarked in his 
 comprehensive address to the Geographical Section of the 
 British Association at Bradford, ‘ Few things in the retrospect 
 of past intercourse and knowledge of each other among nations 
 widely separated, are more remarkable than the continuous 
 communication across the whole breadth of Asia between the 
 east and west, which seems always to have been maintained for 
 purposes of traffic from the earliest historic periods. No 
 dangers of the way, no physical obstacles of mountain ranges 
 and great rivers or deserts, no length of time nor ignorance of 
 the geographical bearings of any portions of this area of so 
 many thousand miles, seemed to have acted as deterrents.’ 
 
 The decadence of Persia, it has been said, commenced 
 immediately upon the death of Nadir Shah. It might, perhaps, 
 have been more correct to say that it was greatly accelerated by 
 that event. In any case, we have contemporary evidence to 
 the complete dissolution of the empire acquired by the victorious 
 arms of that adventurer, and to the appalling disorder which 
 ensued upon his assassination. Thus we read of Khorassan, * It 
 was formerly the best peopled, the best planted, and the best 
 built province in Persia, but of late the incursions of the Uzheck 
 Tatars have laid one half of it waste ; and though for a few 
 years they were kept in awe by the Shah Nadir, who drove 
 them out of this country, for which he had a peculiar affection, 
 yet it is not to be supposed, while the affairs of the Persian 
 empire are in confusion, that they can be long restrained.’ 
 
 Again, ‘If we could with any probability suppose that a 
 well-constituted government coidd take place, and be thoroughly 
 established in Persia, it is very evident that in the space of a 
 century, not only the affairs, but the very face of the country 
 
NADIR SHAH. 
 
 187 
 
 would be changed ; their great cities would be repcopled, the 
 trade through Persia to India and Tatary would be revived, 
 their silk works and manufactures would be restored, and 
 multitudes of people would flock into all their provinces for the 
 sake of the plenty which in such a situation of things they 
 would be sure to enjoy. But as this supposition is, on the one 
 hand, improbable, so, on the other, it is very evident that for 
 this very reason the Persian monarchy must for a long series of 
 years continue broken and weak ; for it is by commerce only 
 that the people of the country can become formidable ; for 
 while, on the one side, they want a naval power to maintain the 
 sovereignty of the Caspian Sea, to which they pretend, and on 
 the other hand have no fortresses of great strength to secure 
 the frontiers against the Uzbcck Tatars on the north, and the 
 Turks on the west, they will always be in danger from both 
 those neighbours.’ 
 
 As the surest remedy for this calamitous state of things, the 
 occupation of the Caspian provinces by the Russians is contem- 
 plated with a certain degree of hopefulness, especially as tending 
 to the overthrow of the Mohammedan heresy. ‘ If the feuds of 
 Christian princes were once laid asleep, there is no improbability 
 in the conjecture that the Russians might make themselves 
 masters at least of some of the provinces of this empire which 
 lie nearest to the Caspian Sea ; and whenever it shall happen 
 it may prove a beginning to much greater revolutions, since 
 there are multitudes of Christians in the adjacent countries, 
 who are either of the Greek religion, or very little removed 
 from it ; and if their spirits should once revive, the weakness 
 of the Mahometans, both here and elsewhere, would be quickly 
 seen.’ As it happened, the feuds, or the indifference, of Chris- 
 tian princes afforded Russia the desired opportunity of seizing 
 upon the western shore of the Caspian, a movement that has 
 undoubtedly proved the prelude to greater revolutions, though 
 
188 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 without aid from the co-religionists imagined by our author. 
 
 Less foresight, however, was manifested in his over-hasty 
 congratulations on the gain to British merchants likely to arise 
 from the opening up of a route through. Russia into the heart of 
 the Persian empire. ‘ We must consider ourselves,’ he says, 
 ‘ extremely happy in having set on foot a trade through Russia 
 into Persia by the Caspian Sea, by which the most lucrative 
 part of the commerce of that empire will fall into our hands, 
 and may be justly esteemed the fruits of our great naval power, 
 and the effects of sending our squadrons into the Baltic, which 
 gave the Court of Petersburg such an impression of our power 
 to assist or distress them, as it is our interest to take care that 
 time shall never efface.’ 
 
 Time’s effacing fingers, however, have obliterated far deeper 
 impressions than an y that might have been made by the spirited 
 conduct of a British Minister in the eighteenth century. What- 
 ever share of the Persian trade is now enjoyed by this country 
 is carried on through the Persian Gulf, the Caspian having 
 become politically, as well as physically, a mare clausum. 
 To the East India Company is due the merit of having, as it 
 were, tapped Persia and the extreme eastern territories of the 
 Turkish empire from the south, and thus in some degree 
 revived the ancient commercial importance of Assyria and 
 Mesopotamia. As the Russians bear down from the north, it 
 becomes a matter of vital interest to Great Britain to establish 
 a counterpoise in southern and western Asia, as the most 
 efficient means of rescuing Persia from the state of vassalage 
 and dependence on the Government of St Petersburg, into which 
 she is rapidly descending. Strangely enough, it is to British 
 capital and enterprise that Russia is primarily indebted for the 
 possession of the Caspian, and for all the advantages resulting 
 from that position. 
 
THE RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 189 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF ANGLO-RUSSIAN TRADE— QUEEN ELIZABETH’S LETTER 
 TO SHAU TAIIMASP — CHRISTOPHER BURROUGH — EXPEDITION OF PRINCE 
 
 BECKOVICn CHERKASSKY — JOHN ELTON CAPTAIN WOODROOFE — JONAS 
 
 HANWAY COUNT VOINOVICH — RELATIONS OF RUSSIA WITH KIIIVA — 
 
 MOURAVIEF’s MISSION — GENERAL PEROFSKl’s EXPEDITION — RUSSIA AND 
 ENGLAND IN CENTRAL ASIA — MAJOR ABBOTT’S MISSION — HIS EXPERIENCES 
 OF KHIVA — UNDERTAKES A DIPLOMATIC MISSION TO ST PETERSBURG — 
 HIS ADVENTURES IN THE DESERT. 
 
 The first English expedition to Russia was undertaken in 
 the reign of Edward VI., under the command of Sir Hugh 
 "Willoughby, who, together with the crew of the ill-named 
 Bona Esperanza, was frozen to death off the coast of Lapland. 
 Richard Chancelor was more successful As captain of the 
 good ship Edward Bonaventure, he discovered the Bay of 
 Archangel, whence he proceeded to Moscow, and was received 
 with great distinction by Ivan Vasilivich, commonly called 
 Ivan the Terrible. This prince, in 1555, concluded a treaty 
 with England, by which important privileges were conferred 
 upon the merchants of that country, and in the following year 
 a Russian ambassador was sent to London. 
 
 In 1557, Anthony Jenkinson was despatched by ‘the 
 merchants of London, of the Moscovie Companie ’ to open up a 
 direct trade route with Bokhara, in the hope of bartering 
 English merchandise for * the gorgeous silks that Samarkand 
 supplies.’ On his return voyage across the Caspian Sea, in 
 1560, the patriotic Englishman, as we have seen, hoisted the 
 
190 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 red cross of St George at the peak of his frail bark, the chief 
 result of his hazardous journey being a sort of firman from the 
 Sultan of Hircan (Hyrcania), or Shirvan, to establish a factory 
 in his dominions. This Abdoollah Khan, whose name is 
 corrupted into Obdolowcan, is described as ‘ a prince of a meane 
 stature and of a fierce countenance,’ parelled in gorgeous array, 
 and fond of good living — 140 dishes of meat and 150 dishes of 
 desert constituting the menu of the banquet at which he 
 entertained his guest from foreign parts. 
 
 In 1561, Anthony Jenkinson had the honour of bearing a 
 a letter from Queen Elizabeth to Shah Tick mas, or Tahmasp, 
 of Persia, who is styled therein * the great Sophie, Emperor of 
 the Persians, Medes, Parthians, Hyrcanes, Carmanarians, 
 Margians, &c., &c.’ After praying for due protection to her 
 envoy, Elizabeth remarks in the stiff and redundant phraseology 
 of the day : ‘ If these holye duties of entertainment and sweete 
 offices of naturall humanitie may he willingly concluded, 
 sincerely embraced, and firmely observed, bctweene us, and our 
 realmes, and subjects, then wee doe hope that the Almightie 
 God will bring it to passe that of these small beginnings greater 
 moments of things shall hereafter spring, both to our furnitures 
 and honors, and also to the great commodities and use of our 
 peoples, so it will be knowen that neither the earth, the seas, 
 nor the heavens have so much force to separate us as the godly 
 disposition of natural humanitie and mutual benevolence have 
 to joyne us strongly together.’ Shah Tahmasp, however, cared 
 little for ‘ naturall humanitie,’ and treated the English ambas- 
 sador with studied neglect. Before this, however, the western 
 coast of the Caspian had fallen into the hands of the Turks, 
 and trade in that quarter was completely suspended. 
 
 In 1579, Christopher Burrough built a vessel on the Volga 
 at Nijni Novgorod, and sailed in it to Baku. On his return 
 voyage the ship was stranded off Nizabad, and a portion of the 
 
THE RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 191 
 
 cargo thrown overboard and lost. At Derbend, Burrough dis- 
 posed of his goods to the Turks and purchased another vessel 
 which he loaded with raw silk, but before he could reach the 
 Volga the winter had set in, and the ship was ‘ cut to pieces by 
 the ice.’ The cargo was taken out and put into a boat which, 
 in a temporary thaw, floated out to sea, where it was again 
 frozen up. Tho crew then abandoned the boat, and struck 
 across over the ice, but lost their way and were nearly starved 
 to death, besides being shot at with arrows by the Nogai Tatars. 
 In the end the cargo was got to Astrakhan, ‘ and thus ended the 
 British Caspian commerce.’ 
 
 In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, England enj oyed the 
 exclusive privilege of importing foreign commodities into 
 Russia. At that time, even during the continuance of hostili- 
 ties, caravans — which Jonas Ilanway asserts should be spelt 
 ‘ kiervans ’ — passed unmolested between Turkey and Persia. 
 After the suppression of Stenka Radzin’s rebellion in 1071, 
 and the recovery of Astrakhan from the Cossacks of the Ukraine, 
 Russian and Armenian merchants procured English and Dutch 
 cloths at Archangel, which they passed on into Persia from 
 Astrakhan by means of wretched unseaworthy boats. A Russian 
 factory was also established at Shirwan, but after the plunder 
 of that province in 1721 by the Lesghians, the Russians 
 ‘ almost quitted the field to the Armenians, who were more 
 enterprising in commerce, as well as more resolute in defending 
 their property.’ 
 
 Peter the Great reduced a portion of Ghilan in 1722, but 
 the warm moist temperature, together with the .abundance 
 of fruit, ‘ rendered that province the grave of the Russians,’ 
 and it was evacuated under the Empress Anne. It was 
 not so much the coasting trade of the Caspian that Peter 
 was anxious to command, as the route to India, China, and 
 above all to the gold mines of ‘ Little Bucharia,’ the exist- 
 
192 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 ence of which had been reported by Prince Gagarin, the 
 Governor of Siberia. "With this view he despatched in 
 1716 an expedition of 6000 men in sixty-nine vessels, under 
 the leadership of the Circassian Prince Beckovich, to take 
 possession of the eastern coast of that sea. Three forts were 
 consequently erected : St Peter’s on Cape Tup Karaghan, Fort 
 Alexander in the Gulf of Bektirli Ishan, and a third on the 
 Krasnovodsk promontory at the entrance of the Balkan Bay. 
 
 In the following year, Prince Beckovich was sent with a 
 force of only 3000 men against the Khan of Khiva. Marching 
 across the Ust Urt plateau, the Prince defeated the Khivans in 
 a pitched battle, whereupon the latter affected to tender their 
 submission, and undertook to conduct the victors to the capital. 
 Leading them through the most desolate tracts, they at length 
 persuaded the Prince to break up his little army into detach- 
 ments as more likely to obtain a sufficient supply of water for 
 all. They then fell upon the scattered and exhausted troops 
 and cut them to pieces. Prince Beckovich, it is said, refusing to 
 kneel down, had his head hacked off with circumstances of 
 great cruelty — it being even affirmed that he was flayed from 
 his knees upwards, and his skin used to cover a drum. In any 
 case, his head was stuffed with hay, and sent as a present to 
 the ruler of Bokhara. This disaster checked the advance of 
 Prussia for a century, though the interval was usefully employed 
 in consolidating her possessions and influence to the north of 
 the Caspian. 
 
 So far back as the early part of the 17th century, the Don 
 Cossacks on the Yaik, or Ural, had sworn fealty to Michael 
 Komanof, and in 1732, the Smaller Kirghiz Horde besought 
 the Empress Anne to protect them from their violent neigh- 
 bours, the Hungarians and Kalmuks. In consequence of that 
 application, the towns of Orslc and Uralsk were connected by 
 a line of fortified stations, and a solid foundation laid for an 
 
THE RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 103 
 
 advance towards the south-east. The sagacity of Peter had 
 recognized the necessity of first securing his footing in the 
 north, before his ulterior designs could be safely commenced. 
 
 ‘ Although these Kirghiz,’ he is reported to have said, ‘ are a 
 roaming and fickle people, their steppe is the key and gate to all 
 the countries of Central Asia.’ 
 
 In 1734, an English sea-captain, named John Elton, 
 accompanied General Tutischef to Orenberg, to assist in the 
 erection of a line of forts from Samara* on the Volga, right 
 across the steppe, to Siberia, a distance of 800 English miles. 
 
 ‘ It was presumed,’ says Jonas Ilanway, ‘ that these forts 
 would give a check to the inroads of the neighbouring Tartars, 
 particularly the Keergeese, and in time become a means of 
 civilizing them.’ Elton himself was sent to explore the Aral, 
 or Blue Sea, as it is termed by the Russians, but failed to 
 penetrate so far in that direction. For four years, however, he 
 was employed in surveying the south-eastern frontiers and 
 rivers, and in the execution of this duty was thrown much 
 among the roving Tatars, as well as among the Sarts or 
 traders from Bokhara, Taslikend, Khojend, and so forth. lie 
 thus conceived the idea that, if a safe road could be struck out, 
 a profitable trade in woollen goods might gradually be developed, 
 but it appeared to him, after much reflection, that the only 
 practicable route would be from Astrakan on the north-western, 
 to Astrabad on the south-eastern, extremity of the Capsian 
 Sea. 
 
 In 1738, Captain Elton threw up the Russian service in 
 disgust, and finally joined the English Company in St Peters- 
 burg. On the 14th March, 1739, he started from Moscow, 
 
 * A ‘Prince of Carizme,’ it will be remembered by readers of the ‘Arabian 
 Nights,’ was taken prisoner by ‘ the Samars,’ a tribe of Cannibals who de- 
 voured his companions, and only spared himself because of the love he had 
 inspired in their Princess. 
 
 13 
 
194 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 in company with Mr Mungo Graeme, and in charge of a 
 small ear go of goods specially selected for the markets of 
 Khiva and Bokhara. After undergoing much risk and fatigue 
 by land and by river, the two adventurers reached Astrakan on 
 the 14th May, and on the 21st June landed their goods at 
 Enzelli, the port of Resht, and eight miles distant from that 
 important city. An ad valorem duty of five per cent, was here 
 levied upon their merchandise, but the Regent, Riza Kouli 
 Khan, Nadir’s eldest son, granted them a satisfactory charter, 
 armed with which Elton returned to St Petersburg. 
 
 The British merchants in that capital induced him to draw 
 up a memorial for presentation to the British Minister, urging 
 the expediency of establishing factories at both Resht and 
 Meshed. The last-named place was at that time the chief 
 emporium of the trade between Bokhara, Tangut, Tibet, Kabul, 
 and India, and it was thought that woollen stuffs would yield 
 there a better profit than in Russia, where long credit had to be 
 given, whereas in the eastern marts not only were prices higher, 
 but goods were paid for on delivery. ‘ The British merchants,’ 
 it was stated, ‘ can never be supplanted in this trade so long as 
 they secure a passage for their goods through the empire of 
 Russia, and a freedom of navigation on the Caspian, both 
 which it will be the interest of the sovereign of Russia to 
 grant to the subjects of Great Britain.’ 
 
 Elton proposed that the Company should build at Kazan 
 one or two vessels of 180 tons each, with crews half English, 
 half Russian, for the navigation of the Caspian, and some large 
 boats for the transport of goods on the Volga. At that time 
 it took ninety-five days to convey merchandise from St Peters- 
 burg to Resht: that is, twenty to Moscow; thence thirty-five 
 to Tzaritzin ; thenee again, ten to Astrakan ; and thirty more 
 to Resht, including quarantine. From Smyrna to Resht was 
 a journey of seventy days, by way of Erzeroum, Tabriz, and 
 
TfIK RIVAL ROWERS. 
 
 195 
 
 Ardebil ; and from Resht to Aleppo, sixty days. The charges 
 from London to Resht amounted to about 34 per cent, on 
 the value set forth in the invoices, and on raw silk from 
 Resht to London to about 3G per cent. The trade between 
 Persia and England, however, had almost ceased to exist. 
 By the Treaty of 1734, English merchants were author- 
 ized to convey all kinds of merchandise through Russia 
 to Persia, on payment of three per cent, ad valorem in rix- 
 dollars ‘ for the duty and transit of such goods ; ’ and the like 
 amount was exacted for goods passing from Persia to England. 
 
 The Turkey merchants naturally exerted their utmost 
 interest to impede the new route, while those engaged in the 
 Russian trade fiercely attacked the privileges enjoyed by the 
 former, and declared that they were hurtful even to the com- 
 merce they were intended to foster. On the other hand, the 
 Turkey Company complained that they had to pay £8000 a 
 year towards the maintenance of a British Embassy at Con- 
 stantinople, and of consuls and other public officers — these 
 charges amounting in 1740 to four per cent, on their gross 
 returns. They therefore demanded a bounty on woollen goods 
 for exportation, together with a reduction of duty on imports of 
 Turkish silk and grograms. 
 
 The Russian Company made no such demands, and it was 
 open to any one to go into the trade ‘ on the common terms of 
 the small fine or contribution of five pounds.’ The Charter of 
 this Company dated from the 1st and 2nd of Philip and Mary, 
 and originally conferred upon them the monopoly of the trade 
 with Russia. In 1741, Parliament having duly considered the 
 claims of the two rival Companies, empowered the Russian 
 Company to import Persian produce if obtained in exchange for 
 British manufactures, and not purchased by money — for the 
 latter case the penalty was forfeiture. Persian manufactures 
 could only be s'ent to English ports for exportation, and might 
 
196 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 not be worn in this country, without contravening an Act of 
 William III., entitled, ‘ An Act for the more effectual employ- 
 ing the poor by encouraging the manufactures of this king- 
 dom.’ 
 
 The Russian Company upon this despatched agents to 
 Ghilan with a cargo of English goods, and at the same time Mr 
 John Elton was sent out as supercargo in the ship he had built 
 at Kazan, with Captain Woodroofe as commander. Elton, 
 however, almost immediately accepted service under Nadir 
 Shah as Superintendent of the Persian coast of the Caspian, 
 
 ‘ with design to build ships in the European manner if it should 
 be found practicable.’ This was no easy task, as might have 
 been foreseen from his own and Captain Woodroofe’s experience 
 at Kazan. That energetic mariner relates how he laid the ship’s 
 keel and fixed stem and stern posts on the loth January, 1741, 
 but could find ‘ neither boat-builder, rigger, or sail-maker ’ in 
 the place. Nevertheless, he contrived to launch the vessel, 
 which was 65 feet in length, on the 30th May, and on ‘ July 
 the 10th we stept our masts and bowsprit and set the rigging 
 over-head.’ All the following winter the)’ were frozen up, but 
 on the 25th April, 1741, being the coronation day of the 
 Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, they fired a salute, drank her 
 Imperial Majesty’s health, and baptized their ship by the name 
 of ‘ Elizabeth.’ 
 
 When all was ready Captain Woodroofe started under full 
 sail, at which the Russians expressed great admiration and 
 ‘represented the danger of running aground, but their appre- 
 hensions did not intimidate us.’ While descending the Volga 
 they were attacked by pirates, but on their firing into the 
 nearest boat and mortally wounding five or six of their assail- 
 ants, they were suffered to proceed without further molestation. 
 Astrakan was reached on the 23rd May, after a voyage of 
 twenty-eight days, and the adventurers were hospitably enter- 
 
THE RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 197 
 
 tained and warmly complimented by the governor and other 
 official personages. 
 
 Peter the Great, it is true, had kept up a flotilla on the 
 Caspian, of which the largest vessel was of a circular form and 
 180 tons burden. AYhen laden, it was hound round with 
 hawsers to prevent it from bursting and falling to pieces. But 
 in 1742 the Russians employed only long flat-bottomed barges 
 with square sails — the topsails to haul down upon the deck : 
 ‘ with such vessels, hv the help of good ground tackle, they 
 navigate the Caspian.’ The cordage was exceedingly strong, as 
 were also the anchors, though ill-shaped and of an ancient 
 fashion. The new anchors turned out by the famous Demidofs 
 iu Siberia are pronounced inferior to these, but the canvas 
 procured from Yarislaw and Moscow is mentioned with com- 
 mendation. 
 
 At that time very little was known of the Caspian, but it 
 was believed that rocks and shoals were numerous. ‘ The 
 natives of those inhospitable shores,’ writes Captain Woodroofe, 
 ‘except the Russians, having hardly employed their imperfect 
 navigation to any other purpose than to surprise and plunder 
 their unguarded neighbours. Thus it was with the Tartars and 
 Persians till the Russian army brought the one into subjection ; 
 and, awing the other, gained an entire jurisdiction over this 
 great Mediterranean lake.’ The Kalmuk Tatars were deprived 
 of all their large boats, and permitted only to retain their small 
 fishing craft. The ‘ Elizabeth,’ drawing upwards of eight feet 
 when laden, showed clearly a great advance in ship-building. 
 
 The Russian exports to Persia, chief!}" for the account of 
 the Armenians established in Ghilan, consisted of red leather, 
 linens, woollen cloths, and European manufactures ; and their 
 imports of silk sashes embroidered with gold ‘ for the con- 
 sumption of the Polanders,’ wrought silks and stuffs, mixed 
 with rice, cotton, a few drugs, and raw silk. ‘They also 
 
198 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 bring rhubarb, but as the Government has engrossed this 
 article, private persons are forbid to deal in it under penalty of 
 death.’ Rhubarb was then carried into Russia by Tatars from 
 Yakutski, who travelled through Siberia to Samara, Kazan, and 
 Moscow. 
 
 Captain Woodroofe, acting upon instructions received from 
 Captain Elton, still his superior, though actually in the service 
 of Nadir Shah, carefully surveyed the Caspian Sea, and reported 
 Balkan Bay and the adjacent islands to be a nest of pirates. 
 Nadir, accordingly, proposed to erect a fort there to overawe 
 the Toorkomans, but it was reserved for another sovereign and 
 people to take that step in the interests of civilization. The 
 scarcity of fresh water was also noticed by the English com- 
 mander, for it was nowhere obtainable except in the Island of 
 Naphtonia, so called from its naphtha springs, but which is 
 known to the Persians as Cherrican, or Cheleken. 
 
 When the Russians first began to navigate the Caspian, 
 about the middle of the 16th century, there was only five feet 
 of water off the mouth of the Volga. In 1722 Peter the Great 
 found a depth of six feet, which had doubled twenty years later 
 and the water had become salt. At some distance from the 
 shore no soundings could be bad with a line of 460 fathoms. 
 It was remarked that the depth within the preceding thirty 
 years had everywhere perceptibly increased, and that the sea 
 was making inroads on the low coast to the north-west, and at 
 Lengarood on the south, while at Astrabad there was twelve 
 feet of water where only fifty years before Ihere was a ford used 
 by donkeys. Much the same state of things was observed in 
 Balkan Bay. According to local tradition the water rose for 
 thirty years and then fell for a corresponding period, but Jonas 
 Ilanway was disposed to assign as a cause for the increased 
 depth a long series of cool summers, during which the evapora- 
 tion had been less than usual. 
 
THE RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 199 
 
 Of late years there has been a marked diminution of the 
 volume of water iu this inland sea. It was stated by Mr 
 Delmar Morgan, at the meeting of the British Association at 
 Bradford, that ‘ The Caspian Sea, in its northern part, as far as 
 Cape Karaghan, is ill-suited to navigation, owing to its extreme 
 shallowness. South of Cape Karaghan, as far as Balkan, the 
 sea is deep and good anchorage abundant. The most remark- 
 able feature of the Caspian Sea,’ he continued, ‘ is its deposit of 
 salt in Karabugaz Bay, which is connected with the Caspian by 
 a strait not more than 125 fathoms wide, and four fathoms deep. 
 The flow of water through the strait is never less than 2 3 versts 
 (a verst equals two-thirds of an English mile), sometimes attain- 
 ing a velocity of live versts per hour. The natural explanation 
 of this phenomenon is the evaporation caused by the intense 
 heats and the consequent diminution of the water, which can 
 only be supplied by the flow of water from the Caspian, and the 
 vast quantity of salt thus deposited has converted the shores 
 into a saline marsh, where no creature can exist.’ The change 
 in the rainfall of Persia and the gradual desiccation of that 
 country have, of course, much to do with the contraction of the 
 area of the Caspian, just as the diminished rainfall in Toorkestan 
 has caused the Aral to shrink within its borders since quite a 
 recent period. 
 
 TThile TToodroofe was engaged in surveying the sea, Elton 
 was occupied in the more difficult task of building ships. In 
 Ghilan, we are told, he found timber, but no roads for its trans- 
 port, while Mazanderan furnished abundance of iron ore, but 
 no iron-smith to work it. Nothing daunted, he fished up old 
 Russian anchors, made sail-cloth of cotton and cordage of flax, 
 and collected a few Indians and Russian renegades, whom he 
 placed under a ship’s carpenter he had borrowed from AYoodroofe. 
 ‘ Thus he contended with numerous and almost insuperable dif- 
 culties ; but his spirit was equal to the most arduous enterprise.’ 
 
200 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 His English, employers, however, regarded all this energy 
 as misdirected, so long as it was not employed to their advantage, 
 while the Russian Government naturally took umbrage at his 
 assiduity in raising up a rival power on the Caspian. The 
 Russian Company, therefore, deputed one of their most intelli- 
 gent and sagacious partners to proceed to Russia, and if 
 necessary to Persia, to restore the balance of their affairs. He 
 himself tells us that when he was on the point of starting from 
 London in 1743, Mr Richard Lockwood, a Turkey merchant, 
 made the prescient remark : ‘ Either you will teach the 
 
 Russians how to trade, and become an object of their jealousy, 
 if you have success in this enterprise, or you will he plundered 
 in Persia ; and in either case your trade cannot last long.’ The 
 annual value of English exports to Russia did not then exceed 
 £220,000, while the imports from that country were estimated 
 at only double that amount. Indeed, the cargo of broad cloth 
 with which Jonas Han way sailed from Astra kan was worth no 
 more than £5000, and the venture was thought to be on a re- 
 spectable scale. 
 
 It is clear that natives of India must have been engaged in 
 considerable numbers in the Russian trade, for a Hindoo temple 
 is mentioned among the sights of Astralcan. ‘The object of 
 their adoration was a Pagod, ugly and deformed to a degree of 
 horror.’ Some of the fruits offered to the idol were presented 
 to the Englishman, who declined the courtesy, ‘ not without 
 some melancholy reflections on the abject state to which human 
 reason is frequently reduced.’* 
 
 * Some forty years later George Forster, in liis overland journey from 
 Bengal to England, met with a hundred Hindoo merchants, or thereabout, 
 lodged in two Karavanserais at Herat, ‘ who by the maintenance of a brisk 
 commerce and extending a long chain of credit have become valuable subjects 
 to the Government; but, discouraged by the insolent and often oppressive 
 treatment of the Persians, they arc rarely induced to bring their women into 
 this country.’ 
 
THE RIVAL TOWERS. 
 
 201 
 
 Failing to dispose of his wares in Ghilan, Ilanway pro- 
 ceeded to Astrabad ; but while he was vainly seeking for a 
 market, the town was taken and pillaged by Mohammed Ilosein 
 Khan, chief of the Kajar Toorkomans and ancestor of the 
 present Shah, Nusser-ood-deen. The place, however, was soon 
 recovered by Nadir’s troops, and Ilanway, having contrived to 
 escape from the hands of bis captors, made his way to ICasvin, 
 where he obtained from that monarch an order to recoup him 
 for his losses. In 1744 he returned to Astrakan with a cargo 
 of Persian silk. 
 
 The Russian Government, however, could no longer brook 
 the resolute attitude of defiance assumed bv John Elton, who 
 had even compelled a merchant vessel of that nation to lower 
 her flag to a Persian ship of war, which he had built for Nadir, 
 carrying twenty three-pounders, and which was more than a 
 match for anything then possessed by Russia on those waters. 
 It was in vain that the Company recalled their refractory agent, 
 who wrote to the Committee that he never conceived his building 
 a few ships for the Shah could give umbrage to such a power- 
 ful sovereign as the Empress. British subjects, he continued, 
 were in the habit of serving Russia by land and by sea, while 
 many Russian subjects resided in Great Britain with the avowed 
 purpose of becoming acquainted with the arts and sciences, and 
 yet no foreign powers took offence. No doubt, as the Company’s 
 trade passed through her dominions, it was in the power of the 
 Empress to put a stop to it, but in that case what was the use 
 of a Treaty of Commerce, if the acts of a private individual 
 could thus destroy the rights and privileges formally granted to 
 a nation by such Treaty ? 
 
 Nadir Shah, on his part, regarded the conduct of the Eng- 
 lishman in a very different light. By a decree of the 19th 
 November, 1745, he positively forbade Elton to leave Persia, 
 describing him as * the properest of the Christians,’ and confer- 
 
20.2 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 ring upon him the title of Genial Beg, or ‘ the Well-favoured 
 Knight.’ The latter end of this brave and energetic adventurer 
 was very sad. Like most men of decided character, he had 
 made many enemies, and in the anarchy that ensued upon 
 Nadir’s death he was forced to capitulate to two Persian Chiefs, 
 against whom he had fortified his house and garden. Regard- 
 less of the solemn engagement they had taken to spare his life, 
 these men sentenced him to he hanged, but at length so far 
 humoured his prejudice that they suffered him to be shot, in- 
 stead of ending his life on the gallows. 
 
 The Company had already ceased to exist. In November, 
 1746, the Empress Elizabeth issued a decree prohibiting the 
 transit of English goods to Persia through Russia, and conse- 
 quently the Company were compelled to sell their two ships on 
 the Caspian at a great loss to Russian merchants at Astrakan. 
 
 ‘ The Russians, however,’ Jonas Hanway philosophically re- 
 marks, ‘benefitted by our loss, received no small advantage from 
 the models we left them, and by learning of us in those parts, as 
 they had before done in St Petersburg, the use of the best 
 materials for ship-building.’ lie did not, indeed, look upon 
 the suppression of the Caspian trade as any great national loss, 
 and it certainly appears to have been on a ridiculously small 
 scale. Though one hundred and fifty persons were concerned in 
 it, in the five years from 1742 to 1746, both inclusive, the total 
 exports of British goods by this route amounted to no more 
 than £172,623, while the imports of raw silk, according to the 
 price paid in Persia, did not exceed £93,375. 
 
 One result of the suppression of this route was the develop- 
 ment of the trade with China, the duty on Chinese raw silk 
 being shortly afterwards reduced. Nadir Shah had made a 
 feeble attempt to do business with Russia on his own account, 
 and, as a preliminary venture, had sent 200 bales of raw 
 silk to Moscow in charge of a trusty agent, but all manner of 
 
THE RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 203 
 
 obstacles were placed in bis way, and the transaction proved so 
 unsatisfactory that he was not tempted to repeat the experi- 
 ment. 
 
 The only check since experienced by Russia in establishing 
 her supremacy on the Caspian partook of the ludicrous. In 
 1781 a Russian squadron, consisting of four frigates and two 
 armed sloops, anchored in the Bay ot Ashrof, and extorted from 
 Aga Mohammed, the Kajar Chief, a reluctant permission to 
 build a factory at a point on the coast some miles distant. 
 When the works were nearly completed the wily Persian 
 invited the Russian Commander, Count Yoinovich, and his 
 principal officers to a grand banquet at one of his hunting 
 lodges in the mountains, and on their arrival placed them in 
 irons. Under the threat of the gallows, Yoinovich sent off a 
 peremptory order for the demolition of the ‘ factory,’ which had 
 taken the form of a fortified post mounted with eighteen guns. 
 When the walls had been thrown down and the guns re-em- 
 barked, the Russians were released and sent back to their ships 
 with insult and contumely. 
 
 The commercial relations of Russia with Khiva date from the 
 14th century, but the first official communication took place in 
 1557, after the reduction of Kazan and Astrakan b) r Ivan the 
 Terrible, when envoys were sent by the ruler of Khwarezm to 
 obtain for his subjects permission to trade with the Muscovites. 
 Similar missions were despatched in 1566 and 1583, but in 1602 
 the Ural Cossaks descended upon the Xlianat and plundered 
 the capital. On their homeward march across the steppe, how- 
 ever, they were overtaken and defeated with considerable 
 slaughter. 
 
 Twenty years later a fourth embassy proceeded to Russia 
 on matters relating to trade, but in 1700 Khan Shamaz offered 
 to pay an annual tribute on condition that Peter the Great 
 rendered him aid against his rivals. The offer was accepted, 
 
201 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 and in 1703 Peter extended his protection to the success of 
 Shamaz, though it does not appear that he afforded any sub- 
 stantial support to either supplicant. In 1714 Abou’l-Ghazee’s 
 grandson, Hajee Mohammed Bahadoor Khan, sent an ambas- 
 sador to St Petersburg to treat of an alliance, offering a safe 
 route through his dominions to the western frontiers of China, — 
 a four months’ journey, — and an auxiliary force of 50,000 horse. 
 The envoy, whose name is corrupted into Ocherhi, was ‘ of a 
 lively and venerable aspect, wearing a long beard, and an 
 ostrich feather in his turban.’ 
 
 Peter is said to have listened with pleasure to liis music, 
 an accomplishment for which the Ivhivans were widely famed. 
 
 Only three years later occurred the ill-fated expedition of 
 Prince Beckovich, but in 1740 Abou’l Khair, a Kirghiz Sultan 
 of the Lower Ural, obtained possession of the throne, and was 
 accompanied to the capital by two Russian officers, in whose 
 presence he declared himself a vassal of the Empress Anne. 
 This pusillanimous act raised up a rebellion headed by the 
 Khan’s own son, who established an independent principality 
 known as the Aral State, which continued to exist until 1802. 
 
 Occupied with more serious matters, the Government of 
 St Petersburg suffered its relations with the Khivans to remain 
 in a state of abeyance until the year 1819, when Captain 
 Mouravief- — the captor pf Kars in 1854 — was sent to Khiva 
 to propose an alliance. This mission narrowly escaped termin- 
 ating disastrously. Attended only by one servant, and his 
 whole caravan numbering no more than seventeen camels, the 
 gallant envoy reached II Gheldi, a fort situated some twenty- 
 throe miles from Khiva, in eighteen days from the Caspian. 
 Here he was detained a close prisoner for forty-eight days, 
 during which he solaced himself as well as he could by opening 
 Pope’s Iliad at hazard, with a sort of half-faith in divination. 
 The expediency of putting him to death had more than once 
 
THE RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 205 
 
 been discussed, but at last the Khan consented to see him. The 
 audience was neither imposing nor satisfactory. The Russian 
 Envoy was conducted without ceremony into the third court of 
 a mean building, where he found the Khan seated at the en- 
 trance of a Kibitka, or Toorkoman tent, and his dismissal was 
 scarcely more respectful than his reception. 
 
 So far as the imperfect information he received would allow 
 him to form an estimate, Captain Mouravief computed the num- 
 ber of Russian slaves then in the Khanat of Khiva at 3000, 
 and of Persians at 30,000. A Russian in good health and about 
 twenty-five years of age was valued at from sixty to eighty 
 tillahs, — a tillah being worth about thirteen shillings and four- 
 pence, — while rather less was given for a Persian. The latter 
 were forced to become Soonees, but the Russians were very 
 little molested in the exercise of their religion, and had even a 
 chamber in which they placed certain pictures of saints, though 
 it was only at night that they could obtain leisure for worship. 
 They contrived, however, to celebrate two festivals in the year, 
 at which they intoxicated themselves with a spirit distilled from 
 fruits, and these orgies occasionally finished with a murder. 
 Slaves were generally treated with cruel harshness. For slight 
 offences they were struck across the face with a whip, and for 
 serious misconduct had an e)’e put out, or an ear cut off. 
 
 The climate of Khiva appeared to the Russian envoy as 
 rather enjoyable than otherwise. He speaks of the serenity of 
 the atmosphere, the slight fall of rain even in autumn, the brief 
 continuance of the winter, and the comparatively small quantity 
 of snow, though the wind is admitted to be piercingly cold. 
 The large, mild onions, the variety of grapes, the delicious 
 melons, the abundance of wheat, sorgum, and millet, the flocks 
 of sheep, the herds of cattle and camels, and the beautiful gar- 
 dens, are all duly admired, if not actually coveted — though it is 
 significantly remarked that a force of 3000 Russians would be 
 
200 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 ample for the conquest and tenure of the country. The iron 
 work was. done in the mean time by Russian slaves, and from 
 Russia came the coj^per and glass. Wheat was still ground by 
 the hand in primitive fashion. The population was evidently 
 under-estimated by the Russian envoy at 300,000, of whom 
 10,000 are assigned by him to the 3000 houses, or hovels, that 
 constituted the town of Khiva. 
 
 The true capital was Urghunj, the population of which 
 was considerably larger, and consisted chiefly of Sarts. There 
 were besides, three smaller towns, and several large villages. 
 The fortifications were everywhere insignificant, and the regu- 
 lar army did not exceed 12,000 horsemen, — infantry there was 
 none,— but on one occasion the Khan marched to the Caspian 
 at the head of 20,000 mounted warriors. The chiefs dwelt in 
 square fortified houses in the midst of spacious gardens, built 
 mostly of earth and without even a ditch to impede the 
 approach of an enemy. Their chief amusements were hawking, 
 arid playing at draughts in the Russian fashion. In the matter 
 of musical instruments, they preferred the drum, triangle, and 
 trumpet, to all others. 
 
 Mohammed Raheem Khan, the ruler, was a man of lofty 
 stature and robust frame, with a piercing eye. Though of a 
 cruel, implacable disposition, he had a kindly expression of 
 countenance, and, with his short white beard, might have been 
 taken for a Russian. lie had at that time renounced his pro- 
 pensity for spirits, and was content with seven wives, lie lived 
 almost permanently in a kibitka, and was satisfied with plain 
 fare. lie was fond of watching a game of chess played by his 
 courtiers, and was warmly addicted to the chase. lie would 
 sleep mostly in the day time, and worked all night. Though 
 maintaining the semblance of a Council, his government was 
 purely personal, and his ministers were almost exclusively of 
 alien extraction. 
 
THE KIVAL POWERS. 
 
 207 
 
 The penal code was severe and barbarous. Criminals were 
 not un frequently hanged by the feet till death slowly inter- 
 vened. 
 
 At other times they were impaled, and endured that horrible 
 torture for two whole days. "When the bastinado was inflicted, 
 the stick would be impartially applied to every part of the per- 
 son. Any one discovered in the enjoyment of the forbidden 
 luxury of smoking, had his mouth split from ear to ear. A 
 slave detected in a second attempt to escape from bondage 
 was nailed by the ear to a stake or doorpost, and there left to 
 die of starvation. The punishment of decapitation had been 
 abolished, and the privilege of being buried alive was reserved 
 for heretics and ambassadors. 
 
 The Khan’s revenue is put down at £100,000, but it must 
 be borne in mind that neither Oozbegs nor Toorkomans were 
 liable to taxation. A mint had been established, but the cur- 
 rency was of very limited dimensions. Business, too, seems to 
 have been conducted in a leisurely manner. A Ivhivan, being 
 asked the distance to Bokhara, made answer ; ‘ A merchant 
 arrives there on the seventh day, — a robber on the third.’ 
 
 Nothing came of Captain Mouravief’s mission, though the 
 Khan sent some agents to accompany the Russian envoy to the 
 head-quarters of the Commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, 
 ostensibly to concert measures for a joint attack upon the Toork- 
 omans, but in reality to gain time and put off the evil day. 
 Equally fruitless was the mission of Colonel von Berg — the late 
 Field-Marshal von Berg — who landed at Mangishlak in 1825, 
 with an extremely small retinue, and struck boldly across the 
 desert to Khiva. Three months later he was back in Orenberg, 
 without having accomplished any perceptible object. 
 
 Nothing more was done for fifteen years, but in 1839 
 General Perofski was instructed to proceed with a strong force 
 from Orenberg to chastise the Khivan kidnappers. Unfor- 
 
208 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 tunately, that gallant and accomplished officer chose the winter 
 season for his march, with a view to supply by snow the 
 deficiency of water in the desert. The expedition consisted of 
 5000 picked men, with 10,000 camels for the transport of pro- 
 visions and ammunition. No expense had been spared in 
 clothing and equipping the troops, and nothing worse was 
 apprehended than what could be endured and overcome by 
 courage and constancy. On the 16th November divine service 
 was solemnly performed, after which the following proclama- 
 tion was read aloud at the head of each regiment : 
 
 GENERAL PEROFSKI TO THE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE. 
 
 ‘ Ilis Majesty the Emperor has commanded me to lead a 
 portion of the troops under my orders against Khiva. For 
 many years past Khiva has been sorely trying the patience 
 of her great and generous neighbour, and courted the thunder- 
 storm now about to* discharge itself over her head. Honour 
 and glory to all who enjoy the advantage of taking part in an 
 expedition intended to liberate so many of our brethren, kid- 
 napped by the enemy, and living in ignominious slavery in a 
 foreign land. Comrades ! the frost and the snow storm, and 
 all the inevitable hardships of a prolonged march in the steppe 
 at this inclement season await us ; but every precaution has 
 been taken to diminish the difficulties incidental to our task, 
 and your zeal, your patriotism, and manliness will do the rest 
 and secure success. It is for the first time that such a con- 
 siderable force of the Orenburg Corps marches against the 
 enemy; it is the first time that Russia undertakes to punish 
 her wild and perjured neighbours of Khiva. Two months hence 
 we shall, with the Divine assistance, be in the hostile capital, 
 there erecting the cross which is the symbol of our faith, and 
 offering up prayers for Czar and country. I cannot conclude 
 without saying a word to those troops remaining at Orenburg, 
 
THE RIVAL TOWERS. 
 
 209 
 
 in charge of their country’s frontier. You are not lucky 
 enough to share our danger and our toil ; but you are none the 
 less worthy of all honour and the gracious consideration of Ilis 
 Majesty the Emperor. In bidding farewell to us, you will re- 
 member that you, too, have a sacred duty to fulfil during our 
 absence. You will remember your oath, and that you have to 
 acquit yourselves of your service with twofold zeal now that 
 such a large number of your comrades are detailed for a special 
 object. In due time we shall return to you, when you will 
 march out to give a brotherly greeting to your fellow-soldiers, 
 coming home from distant and difficult service.’ 
 
 The march commenced on the following day. The Emba, a 
 distance of 350 miles, was reached in about thirty days, but 
 upwards of 3000 camels had already perished, and the suffer- 
 ings of the soldiers could only be compared with those that had 
 proved fatal to the French in their retreat from Moscow. Still 
 thev persevered, and in another month had gained the oasis of 
 Ak Boulak, to the north-east of the Karabughaz Bay. Only 
 2000 camels now remained, and these utterly attenuated 
 and exhausted. The condition of the men was truly pitiable, 
 and threatened to become much worse, as their Kirghiz camel- 
 drivers and guides here suddenly abandoned them, carrying off 
 in their flight no small number of those indispensable beasts of 
 burden. The distance to the city of Khiva was still 300 miles, 
 and it was painfully manifest that even if the mere journey 
 could be performed, the fighting power of the troops was already 
 destroyed. To push on any further would have been an act of 
 sheer madness. A retreat was accordingly decided upon, and 
 the miserable remnants of the gallant column that had so hope- 
 fully marched out from Orenberg that cold November morning, 
 straggled back as well as they could, famished and frost-bitten, 
 with hundreds of their comrades lying stiff and stark in the 
 snow upon the plateau. 
 
 14 
 
210 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 The time was not ripe for the conquest of the Khanat of 
 Khiva. ‘ Had Russia,’ observes General Abbott, ‘ succeeded in 
 creeping to Khiva, the affairs of Asia must have undergone a 
 revolution, the consequences of which would not have closed 
 perhaps with the present or coming century ; and would pro- 
 bably have embroiled all the principal nations of Europe in 
 tumult and war.’ He further expresses a hope that England 
 will ‘ regard as a breach of mutual confidence any future 
 encroachment of Rnssia upon the territories of Khaurism.’ 
 
 At that conjuncture a somewhat jealous rivalry in Central 
 Asia threatened to embitter the political relations of Russia and 
 England. About the time that General Perofski was supposed 
 to be at Khiva, it was in contemplation to despatch a British 
 force across the Bamian Pass in pursuit of Dost Mohammed. 
 This project appears to have been discussed in an interview 
 between Baron Brunow and Sir John Cam Ilobhouse, at which 
 the Russian ambassador is reported to have said : ‘ If we go on 
 at this rate, Sir John, the Cossack and the Sepoy will soon meet 
 upon the banks of the Oxus.’ ‘Very probably, Baron,’ replied 
 the President of the Board of Control; ‘ but however much I 
 should regret the collision, I should have no fear of the result.’ 
 There is much reason to believe that the siege of Herat by 
 the Persians, in 1837, was the result of Russian intrigue, and 
 it is certain that Count Simonich, the Russian minister at the 
 court of Teheran, took an active part in the siege operations. 
 Not less energetically, if less openly, did Captain Vicovich 
 labour to poison Dost Mohammed’s mind, and lower the British 
 prestige in his estimation. Admitting that the English had 
 anticipated his own countrymen in civilization by a couple of 
 centuries, he added that they were no longer a military nation, 
 but simply ‘the merchants of Europe.’ It is true that tho 
 action of both these officers was subsequently repudiated by 
 Count Nesselrode, but in such cases it is not unfair to apply the 
 
Till? RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 211 
 
 old test Cai bono ? and it is clear that these over-zealous agents 
 had no personal interests to serve by embroiling Great Britain 
 with Persia and Afghanistan. 
 
 After the Persians had been compelled to raise the siege of 
 Herat, the British resident, Major d’Arcy Todd, conceived the 
 idea of opening up direct communication with Oolluh Kouli 
 Khan, the ruler of Khiva. lie accordingly sent to that poten- 
 tate, in June, 1839, a handsome rifle and a complimentary letter, 
 bv the hands of a Mohammedan priest. In return, the Khan 
 despatched an Oozbeg envoy in company with the priest, and 
 charged him to present the British agent with ‘ a broken down 
 nag,’ and a letter of inquiry as to the character of the support 
 he might expect from his new ally. The Khan subsequently 
 told Major, now General Abbott, that he had never heard of the 
 English until some one chanced to mention Captain Pottinger’s 
 bravery at Herat. None of his courtiers, however, could give 
 him any information as to what manner of men they were, and 
 he himself supposed that they were a petty tribe of the Russian 
 nation in a state of rebellion ; but, shortly afterwards, he learn- 
 ed that they had conquered Hindostan and invaded the king- 
 dom of Kabul. 
 
 As the most effectual means of satisfying the Khan’s rea- 
 sonable inquisitiveness, Major Todd deputed his subordinate, 
 Major Abbott, an artillery officer of exceptional intelligence and 
 hardihood, to represent Great Britain at the court of Khiva, 
 but the paltry gifts within his means to offer as a sample of 
 British skill and opulence were a too common illustration of 
 the niggardly spirit that chai’acterizes our dealings with petty 
 states, and our chronic unreadiness to meet unexpected con- 
 tingencies. As Balzac remarks, Le despotisme fait ilUgalement 
 de grandes choses , ct la liberte ne se donne pas la peine d’en faire 
 legahment de tres petites. 
 
 The first part of the journey — for the envoy started on 
 
212 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Christmas Eve, 1839 — lay across mountain ranges covered 
 with snow, and over trackless plains claimed by a Toorkoman 
 tribe calling themselves Jamsliedies, who bartered their sheep 
 and horses for slaves, at the rate of two human beings for a 
 horse barely worth £15 of English money. Major Abbott seems 
 to have been much pleased with his first glimpse of desert life. 
 * The Toorkoman tents,’ he says, ‘ are the most comfortable 
 dwellings in this serene climate. A house cannot be adapted 
 to*; the vicissitudes of heat and cold which mark the year. 
 Whereas by removing a portion of the felt covering, this tent 
 is open to the air in summer ; and in winter a fire lighted in the 
 centre makes it the warmest of retreats, all the smoke rising 
 through the skylight in the roof : not to mention the great 
 advantage of being able to migrate, dwelling and all, to a 
 sunny or sheltered spot.’ He enjoyed also the Toorkoman 
 breakfast of home-made macaroni, rolled in broad thin cakes 
 cut into strips by a sword, and stewed with hooroot, milk, and 
 syrup of grape juice, followed by a mutton and bread stew. 
 
 Early marriages are the rule among these wanderers. Boys 
 become husbands at fourteen, and girls are wives at eleven or 
 twelve. To each young couple is assigned a separate tent, the 
 furniture being provided by the bride according to the price 
 that has been paid for her, and the daughter of a well-to-do 
 Jamshedie is often worth £70 to her father, a widower being 
 constrained to pay double that sum for his second venture in 
 the matrimonial market. Women, however, are never per- 
 mitted to eat in company with men. 
 
 The horses are famed for their endurance. A mounted 
 messenger will cover the 360 miles that intervene between 
 Merv and Khiva in six days, on the same animal, carrying on 
 his crupper, 60 lbs. of barley, 20 lbs. of horse-clothing, and 
 food and water for his own use. On the other hand, the grass 
 was alive with venomous snakes, panthers prowled about at 
 
TIIE RIVAL TOWERS. 
 
 213 
 
 ni<?ht, and the tents swarmed with ‘ the familiar beasts which 
 signify love.’ 
 
 The once populous town of Merv was reduced to a miserable 
 hamlet, consisting of about one hundred mud hovels clustered 
 round a mud fort, while the population of the entire province 
 was estimated at no more than 00,000 families spread over a 
 plain measuring sixty miles by forty. Here the envoy was 
 entertained by the Khaloofauh, or High Priest. 
 
 ‘After some discourse water and a basin were brought 
 round, and we washed our hands, drying them, as usual, on our 
 handkerchiefs. Theu a filthy cloth of chintz, greased to the 
 consistence of leather, was spread on the ground before us. It 
 is considered thankless to wash from a table cloth the stains of 
 former banquets, or to suffer a crumb to be lost. Upon the 
 table cloth metallic trays were set, containing pilaus, hot and 
 very greasy. Tucking up my right sleeve, I set to work, spill- 
 ing half the rice into my lap, and making little way against 
 the practised fists and elbows of the priests. As for the Kha- 
 loofauh, he showed himself a man of might in the mt'steries of 
 the table, tearing large handfuls of mutton from the bone, as a 
 bear might claw the scalp from a human victim, and plunging 
 elbow-deep into the hot and greas}’ rice. With fists greased 
 above the wrists, we sat waiting for the water which was to 
 wash off the slush upon our fingers, and eventually be absorbed, 
 with a large mass of highly-scented mutton fat and gravy, by 
 our handkerchiefs, haunting us for the rest of the day with the 
 stale smell of pilaus.’ 
 
 From Merv to Khiva the route lay across a sandy plain 
 with an exceedingly irregular surface, high ridges and deep 
 hollows continually alternating, with here and there patches of 
 wormwood and camel’s thorn. Wells were found only at long 
 intervals — in one instance of 160 miles — and the water was 
 generally brackish. Fodder for the horses had to be conveyed, 
 
214 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 as well as food for the riders, camels being invariably employed 
 as the beasts of burden. On the way, Major Abbott overtook 
 a caravan bound for the same bourne as himself. 
 
 ‘ They bad brought,’ be says, ‘ grain from Khiva, and are 
 returning thither laden with slaves, many of whom are natives 
 of Heraut. The whole number, men, women, and children, may 
 be about 25. Some of the women are very decently clad, and 
 seemed to have been in good circumstances until seized for this 
 inhuman traffic. One poor female was mounted a-straddle upon 
 a camel behind her master. Her child, an infant, was lodged 
 in a grain bag hanging from the saddle. This poor wretch has 
 an inhuman master, and is the picture of misery. Her master 
 has lost two children to the Persians, and is trying by this hor- 
 rible trade to raise money for the purchase of their freedom. 
 But the men are chained together by the throats at night, so 
 that rest is scarcely possible, while the contact of the frozen 
 iron with their skin must be a torture. For them also no car- 
 riage is found, they walk the whole way, every step of which 
 renders their captivity more hopeless.’ 
 
 On the 12th day from Merv, the capital of Khiva appeared 
 on the horizon, and a messenger was sent forward to notify the 
 arrival of the British envoy, who was lodged for the night ‘ in 
 a respectable dwelling, some little distance ’ outside the town, 
 described as ‘ such a place as an English farmer would use as a 
 wood or coal house.’ Next morning he was conducted to a 
 ‘Palace,’ nearer to the town, by the Welcomer of Guests, escort- 
 ed by horsemen well mounted and armed with matchlock rifles. 
 
 ‘ After riding a couple of miles,’ Major Abbott continues, 
 ‘ the town of Khiva appeared on our right, and we entered a 
 country, laid out in gardens and dwellings of the gentry. The 
 houses have all one character, being an enclosure of very lofty 
 clay walls, flanked by ornamental towers at the angles, which 
 give them the appearance of castles, This name (Gullah) (hey 
 
THE RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 215 
 
 boar at Khiva. The exterior has but one visible opening, which 
 is the entrance, lying generally between two towers, and being a 
 spacious gateway, flat above, and roofed throughout, to its term- 
 ination in the court behind the house, or rather, within the 
 enclosure. On one side of this, a door admits to the men’s 
 apartments, and on the other side the women’s quarters are 
 constructed. The walls, built with great regularity of rammed 
 clay, are generally fluted, an effect given them perhaps by the 
 hurdles of straight branches, between which the clay is sup- 
 ported while soft, and during the process of ramming. The 
 gardens are surrounded by very low walls of similar construc- 
 tion, allowing the eye to command many estates from a single 
 point of view.’ 
 
 The house assigned to the envoy was a large building with 
 several wretched rooms, ill-shaped, unfloorccl, unplastered, and 
 without windows or chimneys. A hole in the roof let out the 
 smoke and admitted the light. The principal room had been 
 spread with felt, and was closed by a heavy rough-hewn door, 
 turning on pivots. In the centre was a hearth for burning 
 charcoal. The magnificent sum of twenty-eight shillings a-day 
 was allowed by the Khan for his maintenance, but of this one- 
 half was filched by the Mehtur, or Prime Minister. lie dined 
 not badly, however, off a pheasant pillao, sweetened with raisins. 
 The butter, too, was eatable, and was made over a very slow 
 fire, the milk being constantly skimmed. The shimmings being 
 put into jars, in which they kept fresh for months. But the 
 cold was intense. Liquids were instantaneously changed into 
 solids, and, if the door was opened, towels grew rigid, though a 
 fire was burning in the room. 
 
 The dry serene atmosphere seemed to sparkle, and at night, 
 when all else was still, sounds of aerial music filled the stranger 
 with wonder and delight. The cause of these fairv-like sounds 
 was sufficiently simple and prosaic. The Khivans, it seems, 
 
216 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 are much addicted to flying kites, formed upon two diagonals of 
 light wood, whose extremities are connected by a tight string, 
 thus making a square, and paper is pasted over all. To a loose 
 string on the upright diagonal is fastened the string that holds 
 the toy, while a tail is attached to the lower extremity. The 
 cross-stick is then bent back like a strung bow, and fastened by 
 a piece of string or catgut. This tight cord vibrates with the 
 slightest breath of air, and the vibration naturally extends to 
 the sonorous frame. As hundreds of these kites are left floating 
 in the air all night, their combined vibrations sound like an 
 ABolian harp. 
 
 On the second day after his arrival, Major Abbott was con- 
 ducted to the presence of the Khan Hoozoorut, or Supreme Lord 
 of Khaurism, who styled himself Father of the Conqueror of 
 Heroes, the Father of Victory. Passing through a considerable 
 suburb and a miserable bazaar, he at length reached the citadel, 
 ‘ a poor brick building, forming an angle of the city defences. 
 Near the gate stood the artillery of Khaurism, consisting of about 
 twenty-two brass field-pieces, of from 6 lb. to 12 lb. calibre, very 
 indifferently mounted upon carriages having wooden axles.’ 
 At the gate, the master of the ceremonies dismounted, as also 
 the envoy, who, leaving his shoes at the door, was led into an 
 apartment filled with officers of the court. ‘ The Mehtur, or 
 Premier, a little, dark, high-featured, long-bearded man (who 
 always reminded me afterwards of the knave of clubs), dressed 
 in a huge Oozbeg cap and cloak of quilted chintz, said, “ You are 
 very welcome,” and instantly a piece of greasy chintz was 
 spread before me as a table cloth, and bread, raisins, loaf-sugar, 
 and fruit were placed before me.’ Among the Oozbegs it is 
 invariably the custom to place refreshments before a visitor, 
 before proceeding either to business or conversation. After a 
 brief delay, the envoy was taken through dark passages to 
 
TI1E RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 217 
 
 a small inner court, in which was pitched a black felt ten(, 
 — about twenty-four feet in diameter — exactly as described by 
 Captain Mouravief. 
 
 Oollab Kouli Khan was about forty-five years of age, of 
 middle stature, and stoutly built, with a round face, high regular 
 features, and an amiable expression. Ilis eyes were long and 
 sleepy, and bis beard unusually ample for au Oozbeg, indicating 
 a tinge of Sart or Persian blood. Ilis manner was languid 
 and spiritless, and be was propped up by a cushion, the only 
 article of furniture to be seen. 
 
 ‘ Before him a wood fire blazed up, sending its smoke and 
 sparks through the skylight of the tent. lie shifted bis 
 posture from time to time. It was always ungraceful and 
 unkingly : sometimes cross-legged, sometimes kneeling, some- 
 times half reclining. His dress was a green cloak, fringed and 
 lined with dark sables, and showing at the waist a gold chain, 
 the exact use of which I know not. On bis head was the 
 Oozbeg cylindric cap of black lambskin. He wore no ornament, 
 and bis sole insignium of office was a large dagger in a sheath 
 of gold, which lay before him.’ 
 
 There were no guards about the tent, though the doors of 
 the courtyard were duly guarded. "Whenever the Khan wanted 
 bis kullaun, or pipe, it was banded to him by bis Prime Minister. 
 According to the strict Mohammedans, smoking was Oollab 
 Kouli Khan’s only vice, for be indulged neither in snuff nor 
 in wine, and bad no more than four wives at a time. Major 
 Abbott expresses himself pleased with bis reception, though he 
 was kept standing, in bis stockings, in the attitude of ‘ at ease,’ 
 and bad some difficulty in explaining the purport of bis 
 mission — the Persian language being even less familiar to the 
 Khan than to himself. Notwithstanding the favour thus shown 
 to him, be was not allowed to go beyond the grounds of bis 
 
218 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Palace, nor was he ever visited by any of the nobles, who, 
 besides, had very little intercourse with one another. 
 
 The Khan of Khiva, says M. Yambery, is titular cup-bearer 
 to the Sultan of Turkey. Ilis chief officers in 1840 were the 
 Mehtur or AYuzeer, and the Khoosh Begi or Grand Falconer, 
 who was also the Commander-in-Chief. The priests, from 
 among whom were chosen the Kazis, acknowledged two heads, 
 the Nuqueeb and the Sheik-ool-Islam. The Khan alone had 
 power to pass sentence of death. The revenue had sensibly 
 increased since Captain Mouravief’s visit, when it was estimated 
 at £160,000 per annum. At least, Major Abbott computes the 
 annual receipts at £285,900, of which nearly the whole amount 
 found its way into the private treasury of the Khan, who paid 
 neither the police nor the salaries of official personages. Taxes 
 were levied upon houses, upon property, and upon merchandise. 
 The Oozbegs paid from six to thirty-six shillings on each house, 
 and the Toorkomans and Kuzzaks one in forty, or two-and-a- 
 half per cent., on their live stock. There were, besides, duties 
 on imported and on liberated slaves, and upon wheat and 
 tobacco for exportation. 
 
 The settled inhabitants were required to furnish in war time 
 an armed horseman for every fifty chains of arable land — but 
 there must be some mistake in these figures, and for fifty it may 
 be safer to read 500. The Nomads were expected to equip one 
 horseman for four families, and while on active service the pay 
 was usually about £3 for each expedition, every man finding 
 himself in provisions. The Oozbegs, it was calculated, could 
 turn out 50,000 men, the Toorkomans 25,000, the Kuzzaks 
 25,000, and the Kizilbashcs 8,000; in all 108,000; but the 
 largest muster on record was one of 85,000 men. 
 
 The population of the Khanat was set down by Major 
 Abbott at a little over two-and-a-lialf millions, and consisted of 
 500,000 Oozbegs, 500,000 Toorkomans — divided into 91,700 
 
THE RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 219 
 
 families — 200,000 Ivarakalpaks, 500,000 Kuzzaks, 100,000 Sarts, 
 30,000 Kalinuks, 20,000 Kizilbashes, and 700,000 slaves, of 
 whom 30,000 were Persians. Taking the area of the Khanat, 
 at 450,000 square miles — that is, assuming the extreme length 
 of the kingdom at 750 miles, and the extreme breadth at GOO — 
 this would give only five-and-a-half to the square mile. 
 
 Among the wild animals and birds of the country are 
 mentioned lions, tigers, leopards, hears, panthers, wolves, foxes, 
 dromedaries, two-humped camels, goats, slice}) like deer, hut 
 with the head of a goat and the horns of a sheep, antelopes, 
 asses, hogs, hares, jerboas, pheasants, partridges — also the red- 
 legged variety — quail, woodcock, snipe, swans, geese, ducks, 
 fowls, ravens, crows, magpies (in flocks), plovers, larks, and 
 kingfishers. Though situated in the same latitude as Rome, 
 the Amou in Khiva is frozen for four months in the year, and 
 in sheltered spots, the snow lies in drifts five or six feet deep 
 till quite late in the summer. But while the cold in winter is 
 irresistible, the heat of summer is scarcely less intolerable, and 
 sleep beneath a roof is unattainable. Even linen clothing is a 
 burden. 
 
 In subsequent interviews the Khan grew more communica- 
 tive, and gave an account of his dispute with Russia, differing 
 in many respects from that put forth by the Government of St 
 Petersburg. lie said that, about twenty years previously, his 
 father stopped a caravan escorted by 200 Russian soldiers, from 
 penetrating into Bokhara from the eastern side of the Aral. 
 At that time Khiva and Bokhara were at war with one another, 
 and bis father was reasonably apprehensive of the advantage 
 the enemy would derive from such a potent auxiliary. The 
 caravan was accordingly assailed by clouds of Kuzzak and 
 Toorkoman horse, but the Russians defended themselves with 
 such obstinate valour that they were suffered to withdraw into 
 their own territories without further molestation. Again, in 
 
220 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 1833, the Russians built the fort of Nuov Alexandrofski on the 
 Mangishlak promontory under pretext of protecting the fisher- 
 men of the Ernba district against the Toorkoman pirates, but 
 in reality to obtain a standing-point whence to commence 
 operations against Khiva. 
 
 Only three years before the arrival of the British envoy, 
 they pounced upon a Khivan caravan, and threw into prison 
 550 traders. The Khan thereupon sent an ambassador to 
 Orenberg, with a letter for the Czar, with a view to negotiate 
 an exchange of prisoners. The Governor of that province, 
 however, refused to enter into any negotiations, or to liberate 
 a single prisoner, until every Russian captive in Khiva was 
 unconditionally set free, and no notice was taken of the Khan’s 
 letter to the Emperor Nicholas. Another envoy was then 
 despatched, with six Russians, who were to be exchanged for a 
 like number of Khivans. This time the envoy’s brother was 
 detained as a hostage, and not a single Khivan was released in 
 return for the Russians. A third time the Khan essayed a 
 pacific overture, and set free 110 captives, who were accepted 
 without a word of thanks and without the slightest reciprocity 
 of action. lie felt assured, therefore, that the Russians meant 
 mischief, and were only waiting for the clearing away of the 
 snow. 
 
 The Father of Victory even exhibited, with ludicrous rever- 
 ence, a six-pounder ball which the Russians had fired at a body 
 of Toorkoman cavalry, who ‘ would have swept the Russians off 
 the face of the earth, only for the cold which froze them to 
 their saddles,’ while the others sat round a blazing fire and 
 discharged these * deadly missiles.’ The Khivan force detailed 
 to encounter General Perofski, had lie succeeded in struggling 
 through the snows of the Ust Urt, suffered horribly from the 
 cold. Many of the men lost one or bofh hands, one or both 
 feet, the ears, the nose, the lips, and even the tongue, which 
 
THE RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 221 
 
 protruding in tlie night time would be frozen beyond recovery. 
 Something in the spirit of the British Prince, Caradwg — 
 Caraetacus — at Borne, the Khan one day piteously complained : 
 
 ‘ It is very hard that they cannot find in all the world some 
 other battle-field than just my dominions.’ 
 
 Moved to compassion by these frequent complaints, Major 
 Abbott volunteered to proceed to Russia, and ‘ to become in 
 fact, though not in name, the ambassador of a Khan of Tatary 
 to the court of the Muscovite.’ After some hesitation his offer 
 was accepted, and it was at length decided that he should 
 traverse the desert to Mangishlak, a distance of 480 miles, and 
 there take boat for a Russian fort built of stone, three marches 
 to the north of that peninsula. 
 
 It was the first week in March before he actually started, 
 being entrusted with a jewelled dagger, an Ispahan sabre, and 
 a letter for the Czar enclosed in a bag of sarsenet flowered with 
 gold. The guide selected by the Khan was the chief of the 
 Chawdor Toorkomans, a tall, powerful, noble-looking barbarian, 
 but with a deep-set eye that ‘ was the very channel-light of 
 avarice and treachery.’ The first day’s march lay through a 
 well- wooded and highly cultivated country, interspersed with 
 large villages and spacious residences. The road was well 
 defined, and exhibited considerable movement. Strings of 
 camels going forth or returning, one-horse carts in which rode 
 an Oozbeg matron driven by a slave, with whom his mistress 
 was frequently on improper terms of intimacy, and Toorkoman 
 horsemen, singly or in groups, imparted spirit and animation to 
 the scene. 
 
 On the next day the aspect of the land was still unchanged, 
 the natural aridity of the soil being overcome by artificial irriga- 
 tion. The ruins, too, were passed of the old Kalmuk capital 
 Unbarra, long since abandoned on the discovery of huge bones, 
 supposed to have belonged to the ancient Anakim. A three 
 
900 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 days’ halt, in spite of Major Abbott’s remonstrances, took place 
 at Darh IIouz, a small town defended by a rectangular mud 
 fort, surrounded by a double wall with curtains and circular 
 bastions. An equal delay occurred after another day’s advance, 
 and on the 14th March the travellers entered the region of 
 tents and nomad life. 
 
 There must surely be some strange attraction in the wild 
 freedom of the desert, to atone for the filthy uncleanliness, phy- 
 sical and moral, of the wandering tribes. M. Yambery revels 
 in the dirty rags of the Dervish, Major Abbott is at home in 
 the foul atmosphere of a Toorkoman tent, and even the gentle, 
 refined Arthur Conolly quits with regret the society of those 
 unwashed savages. 
 
 Kids and lambs, men and women — very slightly clad — 
 sleep together in the same black felt tent, in close proximity. 
 The women, we are told, have complexions of a transparent, 
 sunny hue, such as is seen on a ripe nectarine or an evening 
 cloud. Their eyes are bright and sparkling, but ill-cut and 
 only half-opened, and the hair is plaited in two long tresses 
 that are simply loathsome. Their dress consists of a chogah 
 or cloak of striped, sometimes quilted, chintz or silk, over a 
 pair of very loose drawers. ‘ They seem clad,’ writes the en- 
 raptured envoy, ‘ in the wings of butterflies, and the dress ap- 
 pears to confer on them a fay-like kindred with the wild 
 creatures proper to the desert.’ The disenchantment, however, 
 must have been very conqdete when they were seen helping 
 themselves to mutton broth, in which lumps of fat were floating 
 and bobbing about. Men and women, though squatted round 
 different bowls, alike tear off a piece of bread, which they knead 
 in the broth with their dirty hands. Then, scooping up as 
 much as they can at a time, they cram it into their mouths, 
 while they bend over the vessel that the drops may be caught 
 and do duty a second time. 
 
THE RIVAL POWERS. 
 
 223 
 
 On the 1st of April the British envoy reached the desert of 
 the Kuzzaks, a beardless race, living almost wholly on the milk 
 of sheep, mares, and camels, with occasionally a little camel’s 
 flesh salted and boiled. Their dislike of ‘ villanous saltpetre ’ 
 is not inferior to the aversion avowed by Sir John Falstaff, and 
 of artillery they entertain a superstitious dread. Men and 
 women dress alike. Ignorant, or careless, of the use of linen, 
 they content themselves with a mantle of the half-tanned skin 
 of a sheep or young camel, with the wool turned inside, and 
 sometimes of the skin of a horse, with the hair outside. The 
 women are said to be too red and too robust, and, ‘ perhaps,’ 
 the ugliest in the world. 
 
 In ten days more the Caspian was sighted, but not a single 
 sail broke the monotony of the blue expanse, for quite recently 
 the Toorkomans had set fire to every Russian vessel upon which 
 they could lay their hands. Rejecting the proposition of his 
 treacherous guide that he should purchase a boat and a couple 
 of Russian slaves, and make for an island about five hours’ sail 
 from the shore, where he would be certain to find shipping, 
 Major Abbott resolved to push on to the Russian outpost, about 
 three marches distant. The headman of a small Kuzzak tribe, 
 in league with the Chawdor Chieftain, undertook to conduct 
 him, but in the darkness of the second evening the envoy was 
 suddenly assaulted, badly 'wounded, and beaten almost to 
 death. His servants also were maltreated, and his proj:>ert 3 T 
 divided among his brutal assailants. His life, however, was 
 saved by the interposition of the Kuzzak’s brother, but for 
 many days he was dragged from one encampment to another, 
 until he was released through the marvellous fidelity of a mes- 
 senger despatched by Major Todd from Herat, who had started 
 from Khiva, without stopping to refresh himself after his forty 
 days’ journey, and, as if dropped from heaven, arrived at a 
 moment when Major Abbott’s life hung by a thread. 
 
224 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 The envoy was then safely guided to Fort Nuov Alexan- 
 drofski, into which he was admitted after some comical precau- 
 tions on the part of the commandant, and ultimately forwarded 
 to Orenberg, whence the gallant, if unfortunate, General 
 Perofski sent him on to St Petersburg. Though robbed, 
 bruised, and crippled for life in his right hand, Major Abbott 
 did not the less exert himself to accomplish the object of his 
 humane and hazardous mission. In the following year his 
 preliminary labours enabled his successor, Captain, afterwards 
 Sir Richmond, Shakespear, to proceed to St Petersburg in 
 charge of 400 Russian slaves, who were exchanged for an equal 
 number of imprisoned Oozbegs and Toorkomans. 
 
KHIVA. 
 
 225 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 KHIVA. 
 
 KHIVA : HISTORICAL NOTICE— NATURAL PRODUCTIONS — TI1E SAXAUL — POPU- 
 LATION— THE CAPITAL CITY — THE KHAN AND HIS WIVES — EXECUTIONS — 
 PERSIAN CAPTIVES — CARAVAN ROUTES — URGHUNJ, OLD AND NEW — HAZAR- 
 
 ASP — K UNGRAD CAPTAIN CONOLLY’S JOURNEY FROM ASTRABAD TO HERAT 
 
 — MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TOORKOMANS — MERV. 
 
 The extensive and fertile oasis in tlie midst of the sandy 
 deserts of Central Asia, known in these days as the Khanat of 
 Khiva, was called by the Greeks Chorasmia, and by the Arabs 
 Khwarezm. The Chorasmians were of the Aryan race, and 
 their contingent to the army of Xerxes was equipped precisely 
 in the Bactrian fashion. It is probable that Chorasmia formed 
 a portion of the short-lived Greco-Bactrian monarchy, and it 
 certainly passed under the domination of the White Huns, from 
 whom it was subsequently wrested by the Toorks. In the 
 legendary history of Persia, all the country enclosed between 
 the Oxus and Jaxartes, between the Caspian Sea and China, is 
 designated Tooran, from Toor the son of Feridoon, a prince of 
 the Paishdadian dynasty, whose founder Kaiomurs, a grandson 
 of Xoah, selected Balkh as the seat of his government. 
 
 The most celebrated monarch of this line was Afrasiab, the 
 son of Pushung, who conquered Persia and reigned over it for 
 twelve years. Then arose the great Persian patriot and hero, 
 Roostam, who encountered Afrasiab in battle and, dragging 
 him out of his saddle, would have slain or captured him, had 
 
 not the king’s girdle broke at the critical moment. Falling to 
 
 15 
 
226 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 the ground, he was rescued by a desperate charge of his troops. 
 The independence of Persia, however, was achieved, and the 
 river Oxus was mutually accepted as the boundary line between 
 the two States. 
 
 Peace did not long subsist on those terms. More than once 
 afterwards Afrasiab invaded Persia, but was at length com- 
 pletely worsted by Roostam, and compelled even to cede Bok- 
 hara and Samarkand, with other important districts. In the 
 end he was put to death by Khai Khosroo, the third sovereign 
 of the Khaianian dynasty, who slew Afrasiab’s son, Sheidah, in 
 single combat, and stigmatized the prostrate province with the 
 name of Khowarezm, or Easy Victory. 
 
 Surer footing is found when we come to the conquest of 
 Khorassan and Mawaralnahr, and their conversion to the faith 
 of Islam. During the ninth century Khwarezm was an appan- 
 age of the Samanides, upon whose extinction it fell into the 
 hands of Mahmoud of Gliuznee, the first Mohammedan invader 
 of Hindostan, and destroyer of the Temple of Somnauth. Its 
 next rulers were the Seljooks, the last of whom, Toghrul II., fell 
 in battle against Sooltan Allah-ood-deen Takkesh, Khan of 
 Khwarezm. The first independent ruler of this oasis was 
 Kootb-ood-deen Mohammed, ewer-bearer to Sanjar the Seljook- 
 ian, upon whom it was conferred by that unfortunate monarch, 
 at the close of the eleventh century. The last of this family 
 was the gallant Jelal-ood-deen, ‘whose active valour repeatedly 
 checked the Moguls in the career of victory,’ and who, ‘ could 
 the Carizmian empire have been saved by a single hero/ would, 
 in the opinion of Gibbon, have achievod that illustrious distinc- 
 tion. Ilis father, Mohammed, provoked an unequal conflict with 
 the Moghul hordes of Chinghiz Khan, in the early part of the 
 thirteenth century, and after the loss of his dominions ‘expired, 
 unpitied and alone, in a desert island of the Caspian Sea.’ 
 
 For the next 120 years Khwarezm was governed by the 
 
KHIVA. 
 
 227 
 
 descendants of Chinghiz Khan, who gave place to a succession 
 of petty Oozbeg princes, until the power of Tiinour Lung 
 extended, at the opening of the fifteenth century, ‘from the 
 Irtish and Volga to the Persian Gulf, and from the Ganges 
 to Damascus and the Archipelago.’ From one of Timour’s 
 feeble successors it was torn in 14 ( J8 by Shah Bukht Sooltan, 
 who, in his turn, was vanquished and slain at Merv twelve years 
 later by Shah Ismail, the founder of the Souffavean dynasty 
 and the implacable enemy of the Oozbegs. Very shortly after- 
 wards, however, the Oozbegs of Khwarezm again asserted their 
 independence of Persia, and maintained a separate misrule until 
 they passed beneath the shadow of Nadir Shah. Their Khan, 
 Sooltan Ilboorz, then suffered ‘the death of a dog,’ by having 
 his throat cut, and a kinsman of the Khan of Bokhara was 
 placed upon the throne he had dishonoured and forfeited. 
 
 Under the famous Beggie Jan, the Khan of Khiva was re- 
 duced to a state of vassalage to Bokhara, but since the death of 
 that half-crazy monarch, in 1802, the mutual relations of the 
 two States have been those of independent kingdoms divided by 
 jealousy, while their common safety depended upon close union 
 and concerted action. The Muscovite consequently sits in the 
 seat of his ancient master, the Tatar, and the Cossack domineers 
 where the Kuzzak was despised. 
 
 Khiva is bounded on the west by a desert which stretches 
 for 800 miles in a north-easterly direction, from the south- 
 east angle of the Caspian to the ba^ of the Moughojar range, 
 and for an equal distance from that sea in a south-easterly 
 direction to Balkh. ‘ This vast tract,’ Canon Rawlinson 
 remarks, ‘void of all animal life, without verdure or vegetation, 
 depressed in parts (according to some accounts) below the level 
 of the ocean — the desiccated bed, as Humboldt thinks, of a sea 
 which once flowed between Europe and Asia, joining the Arctic 
 Ocean with the Euxine — separates more effectually than a water 
 
228 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 barrier between the Russian steppes and the country of Khoras- 
 san, and lies like a broad dry moat outside the rampart of the 
 Elburz range. It is sandy and salt ; and is scarcely inhabited, 
 excepting towards the skirts of the bills that fringe it, and 
 along the courses of the rivers that descend from those hills and 
 struggle — vainly, except in one or two instances — to force their 
 way to the Sea of Aral, or the Caspian.’ On the east of Khiva 
 lies the Khanat of Bokhara, and immediately to the north is 
 the blue expanse of the Aral, or Sea of Khwarezm. 
 
 The country enclosed within these wide limits is highly 
 cultivated, being watered not only by the Amou, but also by an 
 elaborate system of canals, sluices, and reservoirs. IVheat is 
 sown early and harvested in June, not unfrequently yielding 
 sixty-fold. On the moist lands rice is grown very successfully, 
 being planted in April, and gathered in September. A coarse 
 kind of sorgum, or jowarree, supersedes oats and yields three 
 hundred-fold, while the stalks are greedily eaten by the cattle. 
 Barley, millet, lentils, peas, &c., thrive well, as also cotton in 
 the southern districts, and in the northern hemp, tobacco, 
 sesame, and excellent madder. To make up for the absence of 
 meadow hay, lucerne is largely cultivated, and may be cut three 
 times in the year. The fruits of Khiva have been celebrated 
 from time immemorial, and consist of apples, pears, quinces, 
 plums, figs, peaches, apricots, and grapes, while the melons are 
 peculiarly delicious. Timber, however, is scarce, although there 
 is no lack of tall poplars, mulberry trees, and elms. 
 
 On the steppes vegetation is confined to a species of worm- 
 wood, the thorny shrub devoured by camels, and a kind of 
 willow, called Saxaul, which is the only substitute for fire- 
 wood. This plant, the Anabasis Anmodendron of botanists, has 
 been described as ‘ sometimes growing to a height of 15 feet, and 
 forming whole woods on rivers and lakes. It is probably the 
 most lugubrious-looking tree in the world. It has no leaves, 
 
KIIIVA. 
 
 2:29 
 
 but only small excrescences of a livid liue ; it lias no ramifying 
 branches, but only thin boughs coining immediately from the 
 stems ; last, not least, it does not grow erect, but laboriously 
 struggles up in zig-zag curves, as though it longed to return to 
 the earth, whence it sprang up with such painful effort. Still 
 the tree makes excellent fuel, and is an inestimable blessing in 
 a country in which there is no other material to kindle a fire. 
 Until lately, the Russians heated their steamers on the Aral 
 and Sir Daria exclusively with Saxaul.’ 
 
 According to Dr Wolff, the Jews of Toorkestan will have it 
 that the Khivans are descended from the Ilivites, who were 
 driven out of Palestine by Joshua, though it appears only that 
 they were made 4 hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all 
 the congregation.’ Be that as it may — and it would be scarcely 
 less absurd to discover a Hivite extraction for the Auvergnats 
 in Paris — the fixed population is at present divided into 
 Oozbcgs, Tajeeks or Sarts, and Persians. The first of these 
 are the governing class, and came originally from the north 
 about the end of the fifteenth century, under the pressure of the 
 Russian advance. The Tajeeks, or Sarts, are of the Indo- 
 Persian stock, and have clung to the land while each new wave 
 of conquest has rolled over their bowed heads. They constitute 
 by far the most useful and productive class of the community. 
 Intellectually, they are incomparably superior to their rulers, 
 and are not only occupied with agricultural and commercial 
 pursuits, but have for some time past taken an active part in 
 the management of public affairs. As for the Persians, they 
 are either slaves, or freedmen the descendants of slaves, and are 
 employed to till the soil and to discharge menial functions in 
 the households of the rich and powerful. 
 
 The nomad tribes are at least as numerous as the fixed 
 population, though their actual numbers can only be matter of 
 conjecture from very imperfect data. The Kara-Kalpaks, or 
 
230 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Black Hats, roam about the delta of the Amou, and employ 
 much of their time in fishing. They are said to possess 150 
 boats between Kungrad and the Aral, varying in burden from 
 300 lbs. to 2000 lbs. They are an industrious and unwarlike 
 tribe, and have nearly lost their wandering propensities. The 
 Kirghiz, on the other hand, being great breeders of cattle, are 
 always in movement, pitching their tents wherever gross is 
 obtainable for their flocks and herds, and passing on from one 
 grazing ground to another. Their chief haunts lie between the 
 Amou and the Yany Su, though not strictly confined within 
 those limits. The Toorkomans occupy the southern and western 
 borders, and are the most important of all the wandering tribes. 
 Towards the eastern coast of the Caspian, the Kuzzaks are 
 chiefly found, and enjoy the unenviable distinction of producing 
 ‘ perhaps the ugliest women in the world.’ 
 
 The fauna of the Khivan Khanat has already been enumer- 
 ated. No mention, however, was made of the nightingale, 
 which, as we learn from M. Vambery, trills his thick-warbled 
 notes the summer long, while at Bokhara there are only storks, 
 so that the jeering Khivan thus twits the less favoured Bok- 
 hariot : ‘ Thy nightingale song,’ he cries, ‘is the bill-clapping 
 of the stork.’ 
 
 The city of Khiva is pleasantly situated in the midst of 
 green fields, orchards, and lofty poplars. It encloses two water- 
 courses, and is surrounded by a clay-built wall five miles in 
 circumference and ten feet in height. Within this there is a 
 second wall, between two and three miles in circuit, and twenty- 
 eight feet in height, with a width of twenty-two feet in the 
 lower part. The space between these walls is laid out to some 
 extent in gardens. On the inner wall were mounted twenty 
 guns to protect the Ark or Royal Castle, which comprises not 
 onty the palace, but also the residences of the chief official 
 persons and several medressefis, or Mussulinaun seminaries. The 
 
KHIVA. 
 
 231 
 
 streets are narrow and tortuous, but the bazaar boasts of a 
 vaulted roof. The entrance into the Ark is by a narrow gate 
 which opens into a courtyard tilled with servants and soldiers 
 of the body-guard. Two cannons were planted here by Nadir 
 Shah, highly ornamented, which he probably brought from 
 Delhi. 
 
 An inner gate leads into another and more spacious court, 
 on one side of which stands a mean-looking building that serves 
 for Government Offices, and where all the business of the state 
 is conducted under the supervision of the Mehtur or Prime 
 Minister. To the left of this is a guard-house occupied by 
 soldiers, police, and executioners, functionaries whose office was 
 no sinecure under Oozbeg rule, notwithstanding M. Vambery’s 
 assertion that * the Khivan Oozbeg, although but rough-hewn, 
 is the finest character of Central Asia.’ 
 
 Between these two buildings a small gate closes the passage 
 to the royal residence, a poor mud hut, without windows. The 
 furniture consists of a few costlj' carpets, some sofas and round 
 cushions, and several chests. It is divided into the Harem, or 
 suite of women’s apartments, and the Hall of Audience. 
 
 The Khan, at the time of M. Vambery’s visit, was waited 
 upon by fifteen head servants. He wore a sheep-skin cap, 
 clumsy boots stuffed with yards of linen rag, and a thickly 
 wadded coat of silk or chintz, the ordinary costume of the 
 Oozbegs. lie would rise before the dawn and attend the 
 morning prayer for half-an-hour. He then partook of tea, 
 seasoned with mutton fat and salt. At times learned mollahs 
 were invited to discuss knotty theological problems, an exercita- 
 tion that usualh' lulled the Khan to sleep for a couple of hours 
 or more. To this succeeded the business of the state, which 
 was followed by a heavy breakfast, all who were present stand- 
 ing the while in a respectful attitude. Chess filled up the in- 
 terval till the mid-day prayer, an affair that occupied an hour. 
 
232 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Then came the Public Audience. Seated on a terrace over the 
 outer court, the Khan was compelled to listen with as much 
 patience as he could command to every one, no matter how 
 humble, who chose to address him, and not unfrequently he had 
 to endure home-truths of a very personal and unpleasant charac- 
 ter. The afternoon prayer cut short this disagreeable duty, 
 after which the Khan •went forth for a ride outside the walls, 
 until sunset. Evening prayer was offered in full assembly. 
 
 The labours of the day were then crowned with a luxurious 
 supper, washed down by spirituous drinks, and enlivened by the 
 performances of jugglers, singers, and musicians, the latter 
 making use of a tambourine and an instrument somewhat re- 
 sembling a violin, hut with a longer neck, and with three 
 strings, one of wire and two of silk : it was played with a how. 
 The songs were mostly of an erotic character. Two hours after 
 sunset the Khan retired into the harem, where he had only two 
 •wives, but both of the Blood Royal, w r hose constant occupation 
 was the making of the articles of apparel worn by their lord. 
 
 At a stated hour the ladies were taken out for a drive in a large 
 gaudy carriage, shut in with red shawls and carpets, and pre- 
 ceded and followed by two horsemen bearing white staves. As 
 the carriage passed along every one rose and made a low bow. 
 In winter time the Khan lived in a light tent pitched outside 
 the walls, with a fire burning in the middle ; but in the sum- 
 mer season he frequently repaired to Rafenek or Taslihauz, 
 castles built in the Persian style, and possessing some window- 
 panes and even looking-glasses, with fine gardens around. 
 
 The executioners had, indeed, quite enough to do. M. 
 Vambery describes a horrible spectacle witnessed by himself. 
 While he was staying in Khiva, disguised as a dervish, three 
 hundred prisoners of the Chawdor tribe of Toorkomans were 
 brought into the town, and for forty-eight hours kept without 
 food. They were chained together in groups of ten or a dozen, 
 
KHIVA. 
 
 233 
 
 with iron collars round their necks, and those under forty years 
 of age were sold as slaves, or bestowed as useful presents upon 
 nobles whom the Khan delighted to honour. The leaders were 
 conducted to the gallows or the block, but eight old men, who 
 were too feeble to be utilized in any way, were laid on their 
 backs upon the ground. ‘ They were then bound hand and foot, 
 and the executioner gouged out their eyes in turn, kneeling to 
 do so on the breast of each poor wretch ; and after every opera- 
 tion he wiped his knife, dripping with blood, upon the white 
 beard of the hoary unfortunate. . . As each fearful act 
 
 was completed, the victim, liberated from his bonds, groping 
 around with his hands, sought to gain his feet. Some fell 
 against each other, head against head ; others sank powerless 
 to the earth again, uttering low groans, the memory of which 
 will make me shudder as long as I live.’ 
 
 Their offence, it must be admitted, had been sufficiently 
 heinous. They had surprised and plundered a caravan of 
 Khivan traders, whom they then left in the desert without food 
 or clothing, so that fifty-two out of sixty perished of cold and 
 hunger. Executions, however, were of daily occurrence, and 
 very frequently for offences against the law or traditions of tha 
 Koran. Another common sight was that of a body of horsemen 
 riding into the great square, and throwing down before the 
 officer appointed for that purpose the heads of robbers, or rebels, 
 which they carried at their saddle hows. In truth, this was an 
 old and general practice in the East, and has prevailed among 
 most barbarous peoples. Pietro delle Yalle relates how on the 
 21st March, 1G18, being the Kou Roz, or Persian New-Year’s 
 Day, ‘ among the presents brought to the palace (of Shah Abbas 
 at Ferhabad) was one on the part of the Khan of Chorasan, 
 who, among many other things, sent nearly three hundred 
 heads of Uzbeck Tartars, besides a nobleman of distinction of 
 that nation, and eight or ten of his servants alive, who surren- 
 
234 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 dered themselves prisoners, the result of a skirmish, in which 
 the remainder were put to the rout.’ 
 
 M. Vambery, no friend of the Russians, candidly allows that 
 they have contributed largely to the suppression of barbarous 
 usages in Central Asia. By means of their naval station at 
 Ashourada, for instance, they have put down kidnapping and 
 piracy by the Toorkomans along the shores of the Caspian. 
 The latter, however, had a depot for Persian slaves at Gomush- 
 tepe, a small town about twenty miles from the mouth of the 
 Gorghen, or Gurghan. Here those unhappy beings were fast- 
 ened with heavy chains, badly fed, and clothed in rags, in 
 order to give greater weight to their applications to their 
 friends for ransom. At night an iron ring was put round their 
 necks and attached to a peg, so that at every movement of their 
 body a rattling noise was produced. After a brief delay they 
 were sold for the Khiva or Bokhara market. Even worse than 
 Gomushtepe was Attrek, on the river of that name — the 
 ancient Sarneius — which is pronounced emphatically to be a 
 place of torment for Persian captives. 
 
 From this point there are three caravan routes to Khiva. 
 The first skirts the Caspian at the back of the Greater Balkan 
 for two days in a northerly direction, and then for ten days runs 
 nearly due east. This route occupies twenty-four days, and is 
 badly supplied with water, but possesses the recommendation of 
 being tolerably free from robbers. The second, or middle, course 
 lies along the ancient channel of the Oxus, and passing between 
 the Great and Little Balkan proceeds north-east, Khiva being 
 reached in twenty days. On this line at the foot of the latter 
 range, which rises to a height of 3000 feet, are marshes that 
 resemble quicksands, and which have to be cautiously avoided. 
 The third route is by far the shortest, and may be traversed in 
 a fortnight, sweet water being obtainable at every halting-place ; 
 but, on the other hand, it is terribly infested by Toorkomans, 
 
KIIIVA. 
 
 235 
 
 and can be pursued only by very numerous, or well-armed, 
 caravans. At one point a table-land rises suddenly out of the 
 sandy desert, and is some 300 feet above the lower level. Here 
 antelopes and wild asses are seen grazing in large herds, and 
 M. Vambery conjectures that this plateau, which he calls Kaf- 
 lankir, or Tiger-field, may formerly have been an island begirt 
 bv the Oxus. At another point the track skirts the Slior Gol, a 
 rectangular lake of salt water, about twelve miles in circum- 
 ference. 
 
 Until quite a recent period the commercial capital of the 
 Khanat was Kohne or Kunya Urghunj, called, also, Jorjaniah. 
 It stood on both banks of the Amou, with a bridge connecting 
 the two divisions. The place was utterly destroyed by Chin- 
 ghiz’s son Okkadai, in 1221, but subsequently recovered much 
 of its importance, until the river changed its course and left the 
 town, as it were, stranded in the interior. According to Pascal 
 of Vittoria, the tomb of Job was to be seen here in 1338, but 
 Colonel Yule sceptically remarks that, if tombs are to be taken 
 as evidence, ‘ the man of Uz ’ was buried in Oudh. 
 
 Yew or Yani Urghunj is considerably higher up the river, 
 from which it is about eight miles distant. It is surrounded by 
 a wall, and stands in the midst of productive gardens, with a 
 population estimated at 3000 souls. Between thirty and forty miles 
 to the south-east of Khiva is the fortified town of Ilazarasp, 
 boasting of a manufactory of gunpowder. It is supposed to 
 contain 4000 inhabitants. 
 
 Ivungrad, on the Taldvk branch of the Amou, has fallen 
 from its once high estate. Though nominally fortified, it is 
 utterly defenceless, and its mud hovels are in such a ruinous 
 condition that its mixed population of Oozbegs, Sarts, Karakal- 
 paks, and Kirghize, prefer to dwell in tents. There are, indeed, 
 a few public buildings that seem to bear witness to better times 
 in the past, but Admiral Boutakof describes the streets as nar- 
 
236 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 row, crooked, dirty, and malodorous, though he admired the 
 well-cultivated fields, gardens, and melon-grounds outside the 
 apology for a wall. In shape it is an oblong square, and the 
 population is variously put at from six to eight thousand. The 
 Kirghiz come hither to exchange their cattle for cereals and 
 pulse, but the country around has been cruelly devastated by 
 the Toorkomans, who have been in the habit of carrying off the 
 adults, and selling them as slaves to the Khivans and Persians, 
 being wholly unrestrained either by the precepts of the Koran 
 or by feelings of patriotism. 
 
 Kungrad was for a time the chief seat of a petty Oozbeg 
 principality, but was reduced to obedience in 1814 by Moham- 
 med Raheem Khan. If it be identical with Major Abbot’s 
 * Gonghraut,’ it was at one time memorable for a custom more 
 honoured in the breach than in the observance. Every stranger, 
 he says, was challenged to a wrestling match by an unmarried 
 damsel, and the conquered was subjected to the caprice 
 of the victor or victrix. The Russian mission to the late 
 Khan Said Mohammed, found the neighbourhood very un- 
 healthy, and complained bitterly of the mosquitoes and gad- 
 flies. The other towns of the Khanat are even less important 
 than those above-mentioned. Khoja-ili, Bent, Tashhauz, 
 Khanki, and Mangyt, are all insignificant places, defenceless 
 save against the marauding Toorkomans, and inhabited by a 
 wretched and impoverished population. 
 
 In the spring of 1830, Captain Arthur Conolly, an amiable 
 and intelligent officer of the Bengal Artillery, endeavoured to 
 make his way overland to India through Russia, Persia, and 
 Central Asia. In this he was only partially successful, being 
 thwarted in his desire to traverse the Khanats of Khiva and 
 Bokhara. For the purposes of this compilation it is sufficient 
 to mark his course from Astrabad, a few miles from which town 
 he made his first acquaintance with the Toorkomans, nominally 
 
KIIIVA. 
 
 237 
 
 tributaries of the Shah, but who nevertheless kidnapped his 
 subjects. 
 
 ‘Four miles of our road from Astrabad,’ he wrote, ‘were 
 through an open wood, in which there was a vast lake, and our 
 path lay for the most part over the heads of many strong dams 
 raised to divide the water, so that portions of it might be drawn 
 off at pleasure for rice grounds. Then we rode for six miles 
 across a very rich meadow to the river Goorgaun. The grass 
 in some places grew so luxuriantly that, at a distance, we mis- 
 took it for grain. Tho Toorkoman tents, in camps of from 
 sixty to eighty families, were thickly dotted over it ; troops of 
 mares and foals, herds of oxen and camels, and numerous flocks 
 of sheep and goats, were ranging in all directions to choose 
 their pasture, watched here and there by a dog or a ragged 
 Tatar child.’ 
 
 The Gurghan was here sixty yards wide, with a deep bed 
 which is filled to overflowing when the melted snows descend 
 from the Elburz mountains. In summer-time it is shallow, but 
 the water is always sweet and drinkable after it has stood a 
 little while and had time to settle, though M. Vambery avers 
 that it has a fishy flavour as high as Gomushtepe, owing to the 
 dense shoals of fish. For three miles on either side the land is 
 wonderfully productive, and is said to yield from seventy to a 
 hundred-fold. 
 
 Quitting the meadow land on the 26th April, Captain 
 Conolly came upon a light dry soil, covered with patches of 
 good grass, small thorns, and straggling bushes. On the next 
 day he crossed the Attreck by a ford, twenty-seven miles from 
 the Gurghan, where it was forty yards wide. In spring this 
 river overflows its banks, and its waters are muddy and dis- 
 coloured. 
 
 Marching due north all night across a barren country, he 
 passed the ruins of Meshed-i-Misreaun, and struggled on over 
 
23S 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 ridges and hillocks of sand, with the thermometer in the tent 
 at 97° during the heat of the day, and not a breath of wind 
 stirring. During the 30th the caravan proceeded up the old 
 bed of the Oxus, 2000 paces wide, and pushed on all night 
 through drenching rain till they reached a spring of delicious 
 water on a plateau covered with fine grass. The Balkan range 
 was about thirty miles to the north, abounding in springs and 
 ‘ with verdure clad,’ running from E.N.E. to W.S.W. 
 
 May-day was spent in traversing ‘ a barren white plain, on 
 which there was not a blade of herbage — not a weed. In parts 
 it was strongly impregnated with salt, and portions of soil on 
 which the mineral lay in a thin crust, when refracted in the 
 extreme distance, had the appearance of white buildings. The 
 hard earth sounded under the horses’ feet, but some tracks of 
 deep camel footmarks that crossed the plain, showed that, 
 earlier in the season, it had been watered. These, and the 
 bones of a camel which lay bleaching in the sun, were the only 
 signs we had of any other living thing having passed over so 
 waste a place. Before us was apparently a forest, but when we 
 neared it every evening we found only large bushes growing in 
 deep sand, with here and there a small tree ; so much did the 
 mirage deceive us, accustomed as we had become to its illusion. 
 A cuckoo was singing on the decayed branch of a small tree ; 
 we saw some beautifully-coloured paroquets (the body green, 
 head and wings of a rich brown colour), and a flight of birds 
 like the Indian minas (a species of starling) ; and, desolate as 
 the scene was, there was a beauty about it in the stillness of the 
 broad twilight. Occasionally, during our journey from the 
 Goorgaun, we had started a hare from her form ; many ante- 
 lopes bounded across the plain ; and the desert rat (an animal 
 rather slighter than the common rat, with a tuft on the tip of 
 its tail, and which springs with four feet like a kangaroo) was 
 everywhere common.’ 
 
KHIVA. 
 
 239 
 
 Captain Couolly himself went no further than a large pool 
 of water called Cheen Mohammed, about 210 miles from Astra- 
 bad. lie was here forced to retrace his steps, and more than 
 once was in danger of his life. However, he at length reached 
 Astrabad in safety, and on the 12th June started afresh for 
 Meshed, travelling along the foot of the Elburz range, by Shah- 
 rood, Abbasabad, Subzawar, and Nishapoor, to Meshed, whence 
 he pursued his route to Herat, * the gate of India,’ and travers- 
 ing the kingdom of Kabul, stood once more on British soil. 
 The conclusion he arrived at from what he had seen and heard 
 during his long and eventful journey was to the effect that if 
 ever the Russians became masters of Khiva, they would move on 
 by the Amou to Balkh, and create a revolution in the trade of 
 Central Asia. Should they ever attempt the perilous enterprise 
 of invading India, they will, as it seemed to Captain Conolly, 
 make Khiva their base of operations, whence they will ascend 
 the Amou to Balkh, cross the intervening mountains by the 
 Bamian Pass, and push on to the Indus by Kabul and Peshawur 
 — not then a British military station. There is also another 
 and easier route through Korassan. 
 
 The line of march from Khiva to the Indian frontiers did 
 not appear to this observant officer as likely to be impeded by 
 any very extraordinary difficulties, the Amou being navigable 
 for eight months of the year. At the same time the passage of 
 the Hindoo Koosh would be attended with considerable labour, 
 ‘for provisions must be carried all the way (from Balkh to 
 Kabul), and there would be difficulty in transporting artillery 
 and stores over these stupendous mountains. However, the 
 passes are practicable during six months of the year.’ From 
 Kabul a mountainous but very passable road, well supplied 
 with water, leads to Attock, by way of Jellalabad and Peshawur, 
 but it is Kandahar that, in Captain Conolly’s opinion, will 
 prove the pivot upon which the real operations of war will turn. 
 
240 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 That could only be so, however, in the event of Afghanistan 
 being previously reduced to the condition of a Russian or a 
 British dependency. 
 
 During his brief experience of the desert, Captain Conolly 
 availed himself to the utmost of the opportunities he enjoyed of 
 studying the habits and customs of the Toorkomans. His de- 
 scription of a modern tent is equally applicable to those which 
 astonished William de Ruysbroek and other travelled friars of 
 the middle ages. Dour pieces of framework, made of light 
 sticks loosely pivoted on each other so that they may he drawn 
 out or put together at pleasure (after the manner of lazy tongs 
 or scissors), are set up in a circle of twelve feet diameter, space 
 being left for the lintels of a wooden door. To the top of this 
 frame are tied the ends of manj'’ long pliant sticks, which bend 
 up in the shape of a dome, and are fixed in a circular hoop of 
 wood, which forms the top, and the chimney of the tent. Over 
 this skeleton-work are laid large cloths of thick black felt ; 
 they are raised on forked sticks tied round the dome and kept 
 close by a broad band which goes round the centre of the whole. 
 Not a pin or a pole is required for these tents ; they are roomy 
 and a defence against all weathers, and one is no more than a 
 load for a camel.’ 
 
 The amount and variety of disease, however, in an oubch, or 
 camp, painfully surprised the traveller. Ophthalmia was almost 
 universal, while cutaneous diseases, leprosy, elephantiasis, rheu- 
 matism, and insanity, were all represented in this small tented 
 village. 
 
 ‘ It is a wild scene, a Toorkoman camp. All its tenants are 
 astir at daybreak, and the women, after a short busy period, 
 retire to work within their tents. Towards the evening the 
 men get together, and sit in circles, discoursing ; the mistress 
 of a tent is seen seated outside, knitting ; near her is an old 
 negro woman, dry and withered as the deserts of Libya, who is 
 
KHIVA. 
 
 241 
 
 churning in a skin hung upon three sticks, or dandling the last 
 born ; and the young fry, dirty and naked, except perhaps a 
 small jacket or skull cap, fantastically covered with coins, bits 
 of metal, or beads and charms, run about in glee, like so many 
 imps, screaming and flinging dust on each other, the great 
 game of these unsophisticated children of nature. As the day 
 declines, the camels are driven in, and folded within the camp ; 
 soon after the sun has set a few watchers are set; here and 
 there perhaps in a tent remain for a short time the light of a 
 candle and the sound of the millstones, but soon the whole 
 camp is in still repose.’ 
 
 The Toorkomans roam over the wilderness stretching from 
 the south-east of the Caspian Sea to the vicinity of Balkh, and 
 from the foot of the Elburz mountains to the banks of the 
 Amou. They speak of themselves as the Nine Peoples, or 
 Tribes, resembling each other in all essential points. The 
 Chawdors, numbering 12,000 tents, occupy the Ust Urt plateau 
 between the Caspian and the Aral. The 50,000 tents of the 
 Ersari, tributaries of Bokhara, are pitched along the left bank 
 of the Amou. Near Andkui are met the Alielies, a small tribe 
 possessing only 3000 tents, while the yet smaller division, 
 named Kara, are content with half that number. It is well 
 that these are so few, for they infest the region between Andkui 
 and Merv, and are badly pre-eminent in fierceness and brutality. 
 Near the last-named town the historic Salores, brave and far- 
 descended, fill some 8000 tents, and next to them on the Mur- 
 gliab come the equally warlike families of the Sarukhs, with 
 their 10,000 tents. 
 
 From Merv well nigh to Khiva the Tekkeh Toorkomans 
 wander over the Kara-Koum or Black Sands, the most powerful 
 of all the tribes and the scourge of Khorassan. Their numbers 
 are estimated by M. Yambery at 60,000 tents, but General 
 Ferrier, a more trustworthy guide in this particular matter, is 
 
 16 
 
242 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 content with 35,000. Nominally, they are subject to the Khan 
 of Khiva, hut plunder Khivan and Persian with perfect im- 
 partiality. To check their inroads Shah Abbas established, on 
 the frontier beyond Meshed a colony of Koords, hut he thereby 
 only increased the evil he had hoped to mitigate. For these 
 mountaineers, though Sheeahs, speedily made common cause 
 with the Toorkoman Soonees, and readily connived at their in- 
 roads into Persian territory and seizure of their co-religionists. 
 In 1832, however, they were severely chastised by Abbas 
 Meerza and temporarily reduced to a state of order. 
 
 The 10,000 tents of the Goklans give life and movement to 
 the upper valleys of the Attreck and Gurghan. These are the 
 most civilized of all the Toorkomans and are comparatively 
 settled, cultivating the land and acknowledging themselves 
 subjects of the Shah. Near the mouth of those two rivers and 
 risdit across the desert to the confines of the oasis, the fierce 
 Yamoods prey upon all alike, and in these latter days are be- 
 lieved to have imposed their will upon the Khan of Khiva. 
 They number, according to M. Vambery, 40,000 tents, which 
 General Ferrier cuts down to 25,000. The entire Toorkoman 
 population may be safely taken at about three-quarters of a 
 million. 
 
 ‘ How can any spark (of civilization),’ exclaims that ad- 
 venturous orientalist, ‘ penetrate to Central Asia, as long as the 
 Toorkomans menace every traveller, and every caravan, with a 
 thousand perils ! ’ General Ferrier, however, was of opinion 
 that their incursions into Khorassan might easily he checked 
 by occupying the three principal passes which lead into the 
 steppe, and by stationing three or four columns of light cavalry 
 on the frontier, supported by a few howitzers and field-pieces. 
 ‘Unhappily,’ he adds, ‘there is little hope that such a plan 
 would he adopted by the Government, of the Shah ; provided 
 gold flows into his treasury, little does lie care whether his 
 
KHIVA. 
 
 2*3 
 
 people o.re pillaged or not, or that eight or ten ol Ins pi incipal 
 nobles eat up the revenues of the country.’ This was written 
 prior to the Shah’s romantic visit to Europe. 
 
 If caring little for Fraternity, the Toorkomans practise 
 Liberty and Equality in the most uncompromising manner. 
 Their Aksakuls— literally Grey Beards— exercise no more than 
 a moral influence, each in his own aoul, or group of families. 
 When a Chief meditates a foray — called by them a chappow, 
 or chap-aoul — he plants his lance, surmounted by his colours, 
 in front of his tent, and a crier goes about through the encamp- 
 ment inviting all good Moslemin to join in a raid against the 
 Persian infidels. The volunteers plant their spears beside that of 
 the Chief. AVhen a sufficient number have presented them- 
 selves, the departure is appointed for that day month, in order 
 to "ive time to get the horses into condition. Each animal is 
 thenceforth allowed 6 lbs. of hay and 3 lbs. of barley per diem, 
 which reduces his flesh and improves his pace. For half-an- 
 hour every day he is ridden at full speed, after which some time 
 elapses before he is fed — very little water being given to him 
 during the whole period of his training. Each Toorkoman 
 takes the field with two animals, one his charger, the other a 
 yaboo or packhorse. On setting out, it is the latter which 
 has to bear his master, while the nobler beast follows like a 
 dog. 
 
 The first day’s march is usually a very short one, but the 
 length increases daily. On the fourth day the charger is sup- 
 plie dwith a mixture composed of lbs. barley flour, 2 lbs. maize 
 flour, and 2 lbs. raw sheep’s-tail fat, well mixed and kneaded toge- 
 ther. This compound is given in balls, and is much relished, 
 while its nutritive qualities are shown in this, that after four 
 days of such diet a horse is capable of enduring almost any 
 amount of fatigue. Hay and straw are absolutely forbidden. 
 The saddle is now transferred to the charger. A secure retreat 
 
244 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 i9 next sought out, in which the band rests, and secretes itself, 
 while scouts are sent out to look for a kafila. Sometimes the 
 robber spy will join an unsuspecting party of travellers, and 
 obtain from their own lips all the information he requires. 
 Persian villagers too are often in league with the marauders 
 and furnish them with the desired intelligence, in the hope of 
 themselves being exempted from bonds and spoliation. Small 
 detachments, besides, scour the fields and carry off the tremb- 
 ling peasants. 
 
 When an attack is resolved upon, half-a-dozen of the band 
 remain with the yaloo-s, while the others fall like a whirlwind 
 upon village or caravan, and gallop off with everything upon 
 which they can lay their hands. Not unfrequently they will 
 fire the houses, and never draw bit until many a mile separates 
 them from the scene of their depredations. Of the prisoners 
 some are taken up on the saddle, others are placed on the cap- 
 tured horses, and others again are fastened by a long cord to 
 the saddle-bow of their captors, and pricked by lances if they 
 lag behind. When incapable of further exertion, they are 
 killed upon the spot, or left to perish miserably in the desert. 
 Two-thirds of the prisoners often die by the way. 
 
 Now and again it happens that the villagers, apprized of the 
 approach of their relentless enemies, suddenly attack them 
 while passing through a defile, and give no quarter. At times 
 the Toorkomans penetrate to a considerable distance within the 
 Persian frontiers, gliding by night between villages, and care- 
 fully avoiding a conflict. ‘ The Turcomans,’ according to 
 General Ferrier, ‘ are the best mounted robbers in the world, 
 but will never make good soldiers.’ Should they chance to 
 return to their tents empty-handed, they are jeered at by the 
 women, who offer them petticoats, and otherwise insult their 
 misfortune. The plunder is sold to the Oozhegs ; a boy of ten 
 years of age being valued at forty toinauns, or about £20 ; 
 
KHIVA. 
 
 245 
 
 while a man of thirty is worth only twenty-five, and of forty 
 only twenty tomauns. 
 
 Slightly different is the account given by Captain Conollv. 
 ‘ The Toorkoraans,’ he says, ‘ train their horses for a long 
 march, and when they are going beyond the plain country, they 
 shoe them, which they do not at other times. Their longest 
 expeditions are undertaken in spring and autumn. A\ ith a bag 
 of Hour and some oil cakes, a few kooroot balls, and a waterskin 
 for their own use, and a small bag of barley, or joicarree, for 
 their horses, they set out on a distant foray. Their pace is 
 alternately a yoorttmh, or gentle jog trot, and a long walk ; 
 every hour or two they halt, and let their horses graze if there 
 be herbage — themselves perhaps snatching a few moments’ 
 sleep, and occasionally they give them a handful of corn. 
 Marching on thus unceasingly to the point they have in view, 
 they get over much ground in a few days, and their horses’, and 
 indeed their own, steady endurance of fatigue is wonderful.’ 
 Sometimes a piece of fat is rolled round the bit, to keep the 
 mouth moist. 
 
 General Ferrier enters at some length upon the Toorkoman 
 horses and their management. They are treated, he tells us, 
 more tenderly than wife or child, and are loved passionately, it 
 being deemed a sin to maltreat one. A Toorkoman will never 
 voluntarily fight from behind a wall or other barrier. He is 
 only himself when in the saddle. The grass of the steppe is 
 pronounced very sweet and nutritious, but is found only in 
 spring. ‘ It produces in their horses a higher temperature and 
 better condition of the blood, as well as a peculiar elasticity, 
 and strength of muscle quite wonderful.’ Ho important expe- 
 ditions, according to General Ferrier, are undertaken before 
 the end of July. After that, horses are fed on dry food, usually 
 about 7 lbs. of barley daily, mixed with dry chopped straw, 
 lucerne, sainfoin, or clover ha} x . 
 
24G 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 The best horses come of an Arab stock, and, though not 
 handsome, are worthy of their descent. Tirnour it seems, dis- 
 tributed 4200 Arab mares among the different tribes, while 
 Nadir Shah bestowed GOO upon the Tekes or Tekkehs. Their 
 heads may be too long, their chests too narrow, and their legs 
 too weedy, to please the eye of a European judge, but their 
 pace is excellent, and their power of hunger, cold, and fatigtie 
 unsurpassed. Instances are known of Toorkoman horses cover- 
 ing 600 miles in six, and even in five days. General Ferrier 
 personally vouches for 420 miles being accomjfiished in twelve 
 days, of which three were passed in inaction. This animal was 
 ridden from’ Teheran to Tabriz, from Tabriz to Teheran, and 
 thence back again to the original starting-point. 
 
 A common description of horse can be had for about fourteen 
 guineas, but a good horse of inferior breed will fetch from £40 
 to £48, while a second-rate animal of the best stock costs not 
 less than £120 to £1G0. The best of all are not procurable for 
 money, and can be torn from their owners only by superior 
 force. Foals are gradually broken in to work when about two- 
 and-a-half years old. Toorkoman horses are never placed in a 
 stable, but always picketed in the open air, covered with warm 
 felt rugs. In towns they are put into stables during the winter, 
 but as soon as a little warmth returns, they are turned out into 
 a courtyard or field, tied with head and heel ropes, and well 
 exercised every day, except when out at grass. 
 
 AVater is given to them at any time, even when in a lather 
 of perspiration, but in that case they are galloped up and down 
 for a while, to prevent the skin under the saddle from puffing 
 up like a bladder. To a certain extent the Toorkomans are 
 good horse-doctors. For incipient glanders they administer 
 daily G lbs. sainfoin hay, 6 lbs. camel’s milk, with 1 lb. powdered 
 sulphur — the cure being usually wrought in about a fortnight. 
 If a young colt refuses to feed, an incision is made, and a piece 
 
KHIVA. 
 
 247 
 
 of cartilage removed, from the upper part of the nostril. The 
 age of twenty to twenty-five years is not uncommon. 
 
 Every Toorkoman clan has its own range, beyond the limits 
 of which it cannot wander without trespassing on the grounds 
 claimed by some other clan. The different tribes are constantly 
 at variance with one another, their national arms being a spear 
 ten or twelve feet long and a sword, though most of them now 
 possess a clumsy matchlock. They are inveterate thieves and 
 robbers, and do not scruple to stop and plunder a guest when 
 he has left the tent in which he has been hospitably entertained. 
 Nor are thc)^ so facetiously polite as the Arabs, whose equivalent 
 for ‘Stand and deliver!’ is, according to Captain Conolly, 
 
 ‘ Cousin, undress thyself, thy aunt is without a garment.’ The 
 forms of hospitality, however, are as closely observed by the 
 Toorkomans as by the wandering tribes of Syria. ‘ When a 
 stranger comes to an oiibeh (group or encampment), he is in- 
 vited into the first tent, the master of which welcomes him by 
 taking his hands within his own, and, holding the bridle of his 
 horse, orders his wife to prepare refreshment for their guest.’ 
 
 The women, indeed, do all the work of the household. They 
 milk the camels, fetch water, make buttermilk, and collect fuel 
 in the morning; while in the afternoon they milk the sheep and 
 goats, make curds, prepare milk for butter and kooroot, and 
 provide the evening meal. When not thus engaged, they arc 
 employed in sewing, knitting, carding wool, weaving carpets, 
 and making felt cloths and horse clothing. They are often 
 assisted, however, by slaves, ‘ who, for the most part, live very 
 much like dogs.’ When men are conversing together in a 
 tent, it is customary for the women to pull up a small piece of 
 cloth from their bosom and cover their mouth. Their ordinary 
 costume consists of a long chintz chemise, open in front of the 
 chest, which reaches to the feet and covers their loose drawers. 
 The hair is worn in two long plaited tails, horribly greasy and 
 
248 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 swarming with vermin, with a bunch and some sort of ornament 
 at the end of the tail. Unmarried women part their hair in the 
 Madonna fashion, hut matrons don a heavy ugly cap, from the 
 hack of which hangs a red silk scarf, and on the front are 
 strung any number of gold coins, according to the temporal 
 wealth of the husband. Chastity does not appear to be one 
 of their cardinal virtues, General Ferrier declaring that all that 
 their husbands demand of them is obedience and hard work. 
 
 The men, he says, are rude, coarse, and of a cold, contemp- 
 tuous temperament. They have large flat faces with pointed 
 chins, and two small holes for eyes. Their heads look too small 
 for their muscular frames, and their beards are thin, sandy, and 
 irregular. They profess to be Soonees, which is their excuse 
 for enslaving the heretical Sheeahs, but they know nothing of 
 the Koran, nor heed even the ceremonies of their pretended 
 faith. They certainly do not pray, or fast, or wash, or purify 
 themselves, and both physically and morally are an unclean 
 race. In every question of life they are guided by * deb,’ or 
 precedent, of which they think far more than of the intrinsic 
 merits of the case. It seldom happens that they have more 
 than two wives, widows being preferred to maidens, by reason 
 of their greater experience of household duties. A divorce is 
 of rare occurrence. Persian female captives are not often kept 
 as wives, being usually sold to traders from Khiva or Bokhara. 
 ‘ A really old Toorkoman woman,’ Captain Conolly ungallantly 
 remarks, ‘ looks as if she was made of leather, and as much like 
 a witch as any creature that can be imagined.’ 
 
 The descendants of freed captives are called Kouls to the 
 most distant generation, and are despised by the Kegs, or free- 
 born, who never intermarry with them, and if they chance to 
 take the life of a Koul no blood feud arises; and yet the latter 
 are said now to constitute the majority. Children are actually 
 married, not merely betrothed, at the precocious age of six or 
 
KHIVA. 
 
 24 ( J 
 
 Boven, and live together while yet of tender years. The bride 
 is expected to provide, besides her own clothes, the carpets and 
 lighter articles of furniture ; while the bridegroom supplies the 
 tent, a few camels and sheep, and perhaps a mare. Should the 
 father’s circumstances be too limited to enable him to furnish 
 his son with a separate establishment, he takes the young couple 
 into his own tent until they are in a condition to do better for 
 themselves. 
 
 The bridegroom’s father, if a wealthy man, sometimes gets 
 up races in honour of the event, and will offer prizes to the value 
 of a hundred tillas, or <£05 of English money. As might be 
 anticipated, the Toorkomans are passionately fond of racing, 
 but their matches are generally for long distances, even for 
 twenty miles for four-year-olds, but the pace may be varied by 
 trot, canter, and gallop. For untrained animals, the distance 
 is often not less than eight miles. ‘ I once heard a young 
 man,’ says Captain Conollv, ‘ sing through his nose for half-an- 
 hour, occasionally striking the two wire strings of his guitar; 
 I could not make out any tune, but was told that he was rather 
 an artiste, and that he had been extemporising the history of a 
 famed horse.* 
 
 The ruling passion of the Toorkomans is covetousness. Their 
 one thought is to increase their troops of mares and herds of 
 camels. But let them be ever so wealthy, they continue to live 
 on unleavened cakes of wheaten or barley meal. The dough is 
 kneaded in a wooden trough, or on a dried skin, and baked on 
 wood embers ; at times, a little oil or ghee — clarified butter — is 
 mixed with the flour. They also eat rice and yanna, or bruised 
 wheat, and are fond of sour milk. On grand occasions they will 
 kill a sheep to make broth or pillao. Camels are only slaughtered 
 when incurably lame or likely to die — a healthy camel, capable 
 of carrying the average burden of 570 lbs., being worth upwards 
 of three guineas. The ordinary drink of all classes is butter- 
 
250 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 milk, but tbe more opulent will, now and again, intoxicate 
 themselves with fermented mare’s milk. 
 
 In every tent may be seen one or two east-iron pots of 
 Russian manufacture, which are placed on tripods over the fire 
 for the family meal. Their luxuries are spices, coarse sugar, 
 tobacco, and gay articles of dress, chiefly from Persia, for which 
 they exchange the produce of their flocks, and felts and carpets 
 made by their women. The Toorkoman garb resembles that of 
 the Oozbegs, and consists of a shirt, loose trousers, a vest, a 
 camel’s-hair cloak belted round the waist, and a large sheep- 
 skin cap. In their tents they go barefooted, or with sandals 
 fastened by a string round the big toe ; but on horseback they 
 sport Ilessian boots, with pointed iron-tipt heels. Those who 
 cannot afford boots, roll folds of cloth round their legs. Against 
 these dashing, reckless barbarians, the supple, timid Persians 
 are utterly helpless. * A Toorkoman is a dog,’ say the}*, ‘ and 
 will only be kept quiet, like a dog, with a bit of bread : give 
 it, then, is the doctrine of the traveller, and pass on unmo- 
 lested.’ 
 
 In the south-eastern extremity of the Khanat of Khiva is 
 situated the oft-pillaged town of Merv, Maro, or Merou, which 
 has belonged alternately to Persia, Khiva, and Bokhara. 
 Strictly speaking, however, it now belongs to the Saryk or 
 Sharukhs Toorkomans, and may therefore be properly noticed 
 in this place. According to tradition, Merv was originally 
 founded by Alexander the Great ; but, falling into decay, 
 was rebuilt by Antiochus Soter, who called it after himself 
 Antioclicia Margiana. Both at that time and for many cen- 
 turies afterwards, the country around was remarkable for its 
 fertility, being watered by the Murghab, the Margus of Strabo 
 and the Epardus of Arrian. At a later period, the town was 
 honoured with the title of Merv, Shah-i-Jehan, the King of the 
 World, and was the burial-place of Alp Arslan, the sentimental 
 
KHIVA. 
 
 251 
 
 and slightly absurd epitaph on whose tomb has already been 
 given. 
 
 As long as it remained under the Persians the district was 
 exceedingly flourishing. Towards the close of the last century, 
 however, Shah Mounul of Bokhara destroyed the dams of the 
 canals of irrigation, demolished the town, and carried off the 
 inhabitants, estimated at 25,000 souls, to his own capital, where 
 they were settled in a separate quarter, and are said to have 
 taught their conquerors the manufacture of silk. On the death 
 of Mourad the Bokharese garrison was withdrawn, and the 
 place abandoned to the Toorkomans. 
 
 Mahommed Raheem, Khan of Khiva, subsequently took 
 possession of Merv, and Oollah Kouli Khan also marched an 
 army thither in fifteen days, sinking a well at every stage, but 
 nevertheless lost 2000 camels. Though only 200 miles from 
 both Khiva and Bokhara, neither State now appears to consider 
 that it is worth the trouble and expense of a garrison. The 
 Russians may possibly after a while think otherwise of a post 
 which commands the roads to Herat and Meshed, and there is 
 little doubt that the ancient canals might to a great extent be 
 repaired. f ir Alexander Burnes speaks of ruins extending 
 over a circle of thirty to forty miles in circumference, but at the 
 time of his visit in 1832 the place was occupied by a few Oozbeg 
 families surrounded by the tents of the Toorkomans. 
 
 In the latter part of the eighth century Merv obtained an 
 unenviable reputation in the Moslem world as the head-quarters 
 of a pestilent heresy. Heretical notions were, indeed, very 
 prevalent just then. A spirit of philosophical inquiry had got 
 abroad, and there were individuals who denied that the world 
 had ever had a beginning', or would ever have an end. Men 
 and beasts, they said, sprang up like the plants, and would 
 have no existence beyond the pi’esent life. During this un- 
 wholesome state of excitement one Ilasheem Ben Hakeem 
 
25.2 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 declared that he himself was God. He had been, he said, in 
 turns Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Abou Moslem, 
 and now, in the fulness of time, was come to purify and rule the 
 world. Ilis followers were drawn chiefly from Bokhara and 
 Samarkand, and, from the colour of their garments, were called 
 the White-Robed, while he himself was known as Mokanna, or 
 The Veiled. He was at last routed and driven into a strong 
 fortress near Kesh, where he held out for several years. The 
 place was at length reduced by famine, and it is said that the 
 impostor threw himself into a blazing furnace, in order that it 
 might be believed that he had returned to Heaven. This slight 
 thread of historical fact was woven by Moore into his popular 
 poem, ‘The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.’ 
 
BOKHARA. 
 
 253 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BOKHARA. 
 
 BOKH ARIA — FRONTIERS- — AREA — POPULATION — THE OOZBEGS AND THEIR 
 PECULIARITIES— THE TAJEEKS — OTHER RACES — RUSSIAN SLAVES — THE 
 KOHIK, OR ZARAFSHAN — VALLEY OF SHUHR-I-SUBZ — NATURAL PRODUC- 
 TIONS — MANUFACTURES — TRADE — M. DE NEGRI’S MISSION — JOURNEY 
 FROM ORENBERG TO BOKHARA— THE KHAN — SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRA- 
 TION — MANNERS AND CUSTOMS — REVENUES — MILITARY FORCES. 
 
 Prior to the rapid advance of the Russians towards the 
 eouth-east the Khanat of Bokhara was bounded on the north 
 by the Sea of Aral, the Syr Darya or Jaxartes, and the moun- 
 tains of Ferghana, or Khokan. On the south it extended to 
 the ‘ Stony Girdle of the earth ’ that separates Afghanistan 
 from Central Asia : to the eastward it was bordered by the high 
 table-land of Pameer : while on the west it was divided from 
 Khiva by the Desert of Khwarezm. It is justly observed, 
 however, by M. Khanikof that the boundaries of Bokhara have 
 never been a fixed quantity, but have expanded or contracted 
 according to the strength or weakness of the reigning prince. 
 
 ‘ The security of the frontiers,’ he adds, ‘ is only relative ; for it 
 is very doubtful whether they would prove a sufficient barrier 
 against an army organized according to European tactics, 
 pushed on at the right season, with its movements properly 
 regulated.’ 
 
 All doubts on that point have long since been dissipated by 
 the facility with which the Russians have pursued their career 
 of triumph. The ancient States of Asia seem, one and all, to 
 
254 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 dissolve at the slightest touch, just as a corpse that has been, 
 long buried is often disinterred looking as fresh and perfect as 
 on the day when it was first hidden away out of sight, hut 
 straightway crumbles into dust if a finger be laid upon it, or 
 even if the air move over the surface of the deceitful image. 
 
 The widest divergence marks the estimates of the area and 
 population given by different writers. According to M. Khanikof, 
 the superficial area of the Khanat is about 5600 geographical 
 square miles, but Baron Meyendorf is not satisfied with less 
 than 10,000 marine leagues, while another Russian authority 
 reduces it to 23,000 square miles. Still greater is the diffi- 
 culty of reconciling the widely-varying statements as to the 
 exact bearings of the country. Baron Meyendorf places it 
 between 37° and 41° North latitude, and 61° and 66° 30' East 
 longitude; M. Khanikof, between 37° and 43° N. and 80° and 
 88° E., which must surely be a misprint for 60° and 68° ; while 
 Sir Alexander Burnes asserts that it lies between 36° and 45° 
 N., and 61° and 67° E. 
 
 On the subject of population, again, opinions are equally at 
 variance. The last-named traveller fixes it at about one mil- 
 lion : Dr Wolff reports 1,200,000 souls, of whom 200,000 are 
 Persians : the authors of ‘ The Russians in Central Asia ’ exactly 
 treble this calculation ; and M. Khanikof believes that there 
 may be in all some two and a half millions of inhabitants ; but 
 Baron Meyendorf is more precise, and gives a grand total of 
 2,478,000. There are, he says — his mission to Bokhara took 
 place in 1820—1,500,000 Oozbegs, 650,000 Tajeeks, 200,000 
 Toorkomans, 50,000 Arabs, 40,000 Persians, 20,000 Kalmuka, 
 6000 Kirghiz and Karakalpaks, 4000 Jews, 4000 Afghans, 2000 
 Lesghians, and 2000 Gipsies — the last-named being divided 
 into three tribes, chiefly engaged in horse-dealing. 
 
 The Oozbegs, whose name signifies one who is his own lord 
 or master, arc said to be descended from Oozbcg Khan, whose 
 
BOKHARA. 
 
 aucestor, Sheibani Khan, was a brother of the great Batou, 
 grandson of Chinghiz Khan, and conqueror of Russia, Poland, 
 Silesia, and Hungary. They first obtained a footing to the 
 south of the Syr Darya at the close of the fifteenth century, 
 and by their encroachments on his paternal territories the 
 gallant and genial llaber was driven from the mountains of 
 Ferghana to found an empire and a dynasty in India. It was 
 not, however, until the reign of Shah Mourad, commonly called 
 Beggie Jan, that the Oozbegs came to be recognized as the 
 dominant class in the Ivhanat of Bokhara. 
 
 They are described by Mountstuart Elphinstone as of short 
 stature, with a stout, sturdy frame, a broad forehead, high 
 cheekbones, small eyes, a thin reddish beard, black hair, and a 
 clear, ruddy complexion. Their costume consists of a cotton 
 shirt and trousers, a coat or tunic called chappaou, of silken or 
 woollen materials, begirt round the waist with a girdle, and 
 over that a gown of woollen cloth, felt, or posteen. In the 
 winter season some wear a little cap of broad cloth, lined with 
 fur, and fitting close to the head, while others prefer a pointed 
 silk cap, called a ka/pak ; but the national head-dress is a large, 
 white turban usually worn over a white ka/pak. Boots are 
 common to all classes, though the more affluent put on, for 
 house use, a sort of slipper of light shagreen made from horse 
 or donkey hides. Instead of stockings the legs are wound 
 round with bandages. A knife hangs from the girdle, and also 
 a case containing a flint and steel. 
 
 The women dress very like the men, even to the boots, 
 except that their garments are somewhat longer. Over the 
 head, too, the}” tie a silk handkerchief, and often enwrap them- 
 selves in a silk or cotton sheet. Ornaments of gold and silver 
 are duly prized, and the hair is plaited in a long tail, after the 
 Chinese fashion. 
 
 An Oozbeg breakfast consists of leavened bread a fortnight 
 
 o o 
 
25G 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 old, and tea made from boiled ‘ lumps ’ or cakes of tea-leaves, 
 softened with milk or butter, but more generally with oil from, 
 the fat tails of the Dombeh sheep : only the rich indulge in 
 sugar. The ordinary dish for dinner is thick mutton broth, or 
 pillao, with masses of fat conspicuous, and much relished. 
 Horse-flesh is a delicacy reserved for the wealthy. 
 
 The favourite beverage is kumeez, a white-looking, sub-acid, 
 intoxicating liquor obtained from mare’s milk. It is a home- 
 made preparation, ehiefty in use during the last two months of 
 summer, when drunkenness is consequently very prevalent. 
 Bozeh, another description of fermented liquor distilled from 
 different kinds of grain, is much taken by the poorer classes, 
 being considerably cheaper than kumeez. It is of a sour taste, 
 and in appearance somewhat resembles thin water- gruel. As a 
 rule, however, the Oozbegs may be considered a sober and 
 frugal race. 
 
 A few of them dwell in houses, but the vast majority cling 
 to the tents of their forefathers. The kibitha is a circular tent, 
 formed of a lattice-work of thin laths, covered with black or 
 grey felt, and hung inside with carpets and shawls. The roof 
 is made with four stout laths bent into a dome-shape, and held 
 together by a wooden hoop over the middle of the tent. This 
 simple contrivance combines the advantages of warmth and 
 light, and is called by the Toorkomans kara-ooee, or Black 
 House. An encampment of twenty to fifty kibitkas is known as 
 an Aoul. 
 
 The Oozbegs, according to M. Khanikof, are addicted to 
 murder and rapine, being ‘ more straightforward in their 
 manners’ than the Tajceks, but they like to have on their side 
 both darkness and superiority of numbers. As regards the 
 ceremonies of their religion, they are extremely fanatical, for, 
 except in the larger towns, few of them are able to read or 
 write. 
 
BOKHARA 
 
 257 
 
 Baron Meyendorf’s description ol tlio Oozbeg costume as 
 seen by himself in Bokhara differs in a few respects from 
 Elphinstone’s account, which probably referred more par- 
 ticularly to the section of that tribe dwelling to the south of 
 the Amou. The ordinary dress of the Bokhariot, says the 
 Russian llaron, is composed of two long robes of blue and 
 white striped cotton, from fifteen to twenty yards in length. 
 Many Oozbegs, however, wear a pointed cap of red cloth, 
 trimmed with marten. The use of wide white trousers over 
 short, ti<rht drawers is said to be universal. Those who can 
 afford it, indulge in robes of mingled silk and woollen texture, 
 while the great officers of State disport themselves in rich 
 Kashiueer shawls and gorgeous brocades. In the streets the 
 women shroud their figures in long mantillas, or dominos, with 
 the sleeves fastened behind, and wear a black veil to conceal 
 their features. They are given to the use of cosmetics, and 
 some of them are barbarous enough to suspend a ring from the 
 nose. Their nails are tinged with henna, their eyebrow's 
 darkened and united with collyrium, and their eyelids touched 
 w ith soorma from Kabul. 
 
 The Tajeeks are probably descended from the ancient 
 Sogdians. They are certainly of the Aryan stock, and strongly 
 resemble Europeans, but they speak the Persian language. 
 They appear to be a tall, handsome race of men, w'ith a fair 
 skin, and black hair and eyes. Their moral character is that of 
 most conquered peoples. They are said to be treacherous, 
 false, insolent, and cowardly. ‘ Murder is unknown to them/ 
 writes M. Khanikof, ‘not because of its heinous nature, but 
 because they have not sufficient courage to commit it.’ They 
 have the bad taste, too, it seems, to prefer Bokhara to St 
 Petersburg, though Sir Alexander Burnes declares that the 
 inhabitants of Central Asia regard the Russian capital as ‘ a 
 very close approximation in wine and women to the paradise of 
 
 17 
 
253 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 their blessed prophet.’ Baron Mejendorf admits that they 
 have a genius for commerce, and that they display as much 
 intelligence and activity in mercantile operations as parsimony 
 in their style of living. In their hands Bokhara has become 
 essentially a trading community, and those who can traffic in 
 nothing else offer their official influence to the highest bidder. 
 
 The Toorkoinans who dwell between the capital and the 
 banks of the Amou have settled down to peaceful pursuits, but 
 the nomadic tribes beyond the river retain their hereditary 
 habits and usages. It is a common Persian saying that a 
 Toorkoman on hoi’seback knows neither father nor mother, but 
 will seize and sell whatever lies at his mercy. They are subject 
 to dryness of the skin, and often lose both ejm-lashes and eye- 
 brows — vegetables being unknown to them. They suffer also 
 from ophthalmia and rheumatism. 
 
 The Arabs, on the other hand, who are also nomads, are to 
 be found chiefly in the northern parts of the Khanat. On 
 account of the cold they have exchanged the tents of their 
 Syrian ancestors for the more comfortable kibitka, and their 
 speech would be thought a vile patois at Damascus. They are 
 of a swarthy complexion, with large black eyes, and have the 
 character of being simpler and less vicious than the Tajceks. 
 Their main occupation is the breeding of sheep. 
 
 The Persians in the Khanat are mostly captives, or the sons 
 of captives. Many thousands of that nation were transplanted 
 in the latter part of the last century from Merv to Bokhara and 
 Samarkand. Their features are regular, and their hair bushy 
 and black. They cordially detest the Oozbegs, who, neverthe- 
 less, place much confidence in them, and freely admit them 
 into the regular military service of the State. Dr Wolff 
 estimated the number of Persian slaves in this Khanat at 
 200,000, whereas Baron Mcycndorf cuts down these numbers to 
 40,000 : possibly, the latter calculation refers only to domestic 
 
BOKHARA. 
 
 259 
 
 slaves, while the former embraces those engaged in agricultural 
 labour. 
 
 In like manner, the Baron speaks of five to six hundred 
 Russian slaves, but Dr Wolff protests that there were not more 
 than twenty in his time, though there were many deserters. 
 According to the Russian traveller, the price of a robust fellow- 
 countryman ranged from £25 to £32, a skilful artisan, how- 
 ever, being worth double that sum, and a young woman, if 
 good-looking, fetching as much as £100. lie also further states 
 that he saw a Russian slave who had had his ears cut off, his 
 hands pierced with a nail, the skin stript from his back, and 
 boiling oil poured over his arms, to make him confess in what 
 direction his comrade had fled. They do not seem to have 
 been generally ill-treated, being greatly valued as field- 
 labourers and gardeners, but they complained, not unreasonably, 
 that even after their ransom was paid, they were not permitted 
 to leave the country. The indignant Baron accordingly sug- 
 gests reprisals, and recommends that on a given day all the 
 Bokhariots and Khivans in Russia should be arrested, and kept 
 as hostages until every Russian captive was restored to his 
 native land. The persistent progress of enlightenment in 
 Russia, he complacently remarks, summons that vast empire to 
 the realization of the generous idea of civilizing Central Asia. 
 To Russia it belongs to impart a salutary impulse to the 
 Khanats, and to diffuse over those countries the blessings of 
 European civilization. 
 
 Undoubtedly it must have been a painful and depressing 
 spectacle that met his eyes as he entered the capital in the suite 
 of M. de Negri. ‘Nous eprouvames,’ he writes, ‘ un sentiment 
 bien penible en apercevant au milieu de cette population 
 asiatique des soldats russes reduits a la triste condition d’esclaves. 
 La plupart etaient sexagenaires et infirmes ; a la vue de leurs 
 compatriotes, ils ne purent retenir leurs larmes ; ils beguyaient 
 
2G0 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 quelques mots de leur langue maternelle ; ils s’efforcaient de se 
 preeipiter au milieu de nous ; tant le plaisir de revoir nos 
 guerriers leur causait une vive emotion. Ces scenes toucliantes, 
 qui dechiraient Fame, ne sauraient se depeindre.’ 
 
 No Englishman, at least, will deny that Russia would have 
 been fully justified any time within the last half century in 
 declaring war against the two Khanats, hut a very unpleasant 
 impression would have been made upon Europe had the govern- 
 ment of St Petersburg adopted the policy of reprisal suggested 
 by Baron Meyendorf. It is hardly necessary even to scratch 
 the Muscovite in order to get at the Tatar. Nothing, for 
 instance, could be more thoroughly barbarous than General 
 Neidhart’s proclamation promising its weight in gold to any 
 one who should bring him the head of Shamyl. The Circassian 
 hero merely acknowledged the compliment, contemptuously 
 remarking that he would not give a straw for the head of the 
 Russian General. 
 
 The Kalmuks are, for the most part, descendants from the 
 hordes of Chinghiz Khan, while the hostages brought by 
 Timour from Afghanistan, China, and the western shores of the 
 Caucasus will account for the sprinkling of Afghans, Chinese, 
 and Lesghians. The Jews are supposed to have been brought 
 from Baghdad. They live in a separate quarter by themselves, 
 and are found in Bokhara, Samarkand, Kattakurghan, and 
 Karshee. They may be readily distinguished by the cord tied 
 round their waists, over which they are not suffered to wear 
 any sort of flowing garment. Neither are they permitted to 
 ride on horse or ass within the town walls. On the other hand, 
 they may be beaten by a Mussulman within the town, or killed 
 outside the walls, with perfect impunity. 
 
 Though excessively ignorant, they were much favoured by 
 Nusscr-oollah Khan, the murderer of Stoddart and Conolly. 
 
 • That prince was fond of asking questions about the coining of 
 
BOKHARA. 
 
 2G1 
 
 the Messiah, and not only was present at their Feast of Taber- 
 nacles, hut even partook of their food. Though his profligacy 
 knew no restraints, he abstained from seizing upon Jewish 
 maidens to increase and vary his harem. According to these 
 Jews the Toorkomans belong to ‘ the house of Togarmah/ men- 
 tioned in Ezekiel, chap, xxvii. 14, as trading in the fairs of 
 Tyre ‘ with horses, and horsemen, and mules,’ and Dr Wolff 
 asserts that they often call themselves Togranah. 
 
 The Kirghiz occupy the northern portion of the Khanat, 
 while the Karakalpaks are met with between Jizak and Oura- 
 toupeh. As for the Mazane, or gipsies, they arc ubiquitous. 
 
 In addition to the two great rivers, the Amou Darya, and the 
 Syr Darya — if the latter can fairly be said to have ever belonged 
 to Bokhara — the principal stream is the Kohik, better known 
 as the Zarafshan, or ‘ Gold-scattering,’ in allusion to its fertiliz- 
 ing qualities, and not to any gold that may have been discovered 
 in its sands. It is the Polytimetus, or ‘ Much-esteemed,’ of 
 classical geographers, and issues from an extensive glacier in 
 the Kara-tagh, or Kara-tau, a name signifying the Black 
 Mountains. The head stream is the Macha-darya, though its 
 waters are also swollen by those of the Magliian-darya and the 
 Fan-su. It runs from east to west until it reaches the Khanat 
 of Bokhara, when it bends to the south-west, and Anally to the 
 south. 
 
 For the flrst hundred and thirty miles of its course the 
 Kohik runs with great force and rapidity through the moun- 
 tains of Khokan, carrying down much earth, which constitutes 
 an excellent manure when deposited by floods on the adjacent 
 Aelds. Even at Samarkand the current is too strong to allow 
 ordinary boats to ply upon it, nor is it fordable except at one 
 point, and then only in the early morning before the sun has 
 had power to melt the snows on the mountains. Kear Bokhara 
 it is still Afty yards in width, and four feet in depth. The 
 
2C2 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Valley of Soghd, or Samarkand, owes its productiveness and 
 beauty entirely to this river, from which at least one hundred 
 canals convey water to the thirsty lands on either side to the 
 distance of a mile from the banks. About twenty miles to the 
 south-west of the capital it flows into, or forms, the Kara-kul, or 
 Black Lake, known to the Oozbcgs as the Denghiz, a word 
 bearing the same signification as kul, or lake. 
 
 The only other rivers of Bokhara are the Kashka-darya and 
 the Ak-su, both flowing through the Shuhr-i-Subz valley, and, 
 after forming a junction, losing themselves in the sands. 
 Several small streams, unworthy of particular notice, are like- 
 wise absorbed upon descending into the plains. 
 
 Between Bokhara and Samarkand the country is mostly 
 flat, narrowed by the hills which hem in the valley of the 
 Soghd, and intersected by numerous drains and channels of 
 irrigation. This is the best cultivated district in the kingdom, 
 and it is stated that at least seven-tenths of the entire Ivhanat 
 are abandoned to nature, not so much from want of water as 
 from the scantiness and indolence of the population. "With the 
 exception of the Noura-tagh — on which Noah’s Ark is said to 
 have rested — and Aktagh ranges, there are no hills above a 
 thousand feet in height. The soil in the intervening plains or 
 valleys is a hard clay covered with drifting sands to a consider- 
 able depth, and producing spontaneously only the thorny shrubs 
 that supply the camel’s repulsive fare. The low ranges of hills 
 are of primitive formation, traversed by veins of iron ore. In the 
 Kara-tagli to the eastward coal and copper ore have been found 
 in considerable quantities. Spurs of this lofty range run in a 
 southerly direction towards Termedh, and in the branch which 
 forms the eastern boundary of the Shurh-i-Subz valley occurs 
 the famous Koliluga Pass described by Iliouen Tsang. 
 
 Although Bokhara lies in nearly the same latitude as Naples, 
 Madrid, and Philadelphia, the winters arc far more severe there 
 
BOKHARA. 
 
 2 03 
 
 than in any of those cities, and the cold is infinitely more intense 
 than in London, which is situated so much farther to the north. 
 The temperature of autumn is, on the other hand, considerably 
 higher in Bokhara than in Europe, but lower than in the 
 United States or at Pekin. The climate, indeed, is really hot 
 from the middle of March to the end of November, at which 
 season frost sets in, followed by snow to the depth of twelve to 
 eighteen inches — ice also forming from one to four inches in 
 thickness. But little rain ever falls, though thunderstorms arc 
 of frequent occurrence, as likewise are earthquakes. The wind 
 blows for the greater part of the year from the north-east, and, 
 except near the capital, the air is dry and salubrious. 
 
 The cultivated portion of the Khanat is estimated by Baron 
 Meyendorf at 1200 square leagues, and by M. Khanikof at GOO 
 square miles. The land is tilled for the most part by slaves, 
 but agriculture generally is much impeded by want of water, as 
 the canals require Constant cleaning out and deepening. Rice 
 is little grown, and that little of inferior quality. Fruits are 
 abundant, but of watery flavour, and without aroma. Apricots, 
 peaches, quinces, pears, apples, plums, cherries, pomegranates, al- 
 monds, and the kishmisk, or stonelcss grape, all come to maturity, 
 
 Prunes of Bokhara, and sweet nuts 
 
 From the far groves of Samarkand. 
 
 In the early morning, after the dew has evaporated, a cloth 
 is spread under a plant called the tikan, which, being shaken, 
 lets fall a white powder, or manna, much used in the prepara- 
 tion of sweetmeats. 
 
 There are no forests in the kingdom, but large quantities of 
 woo 1 are drifted down the Zarafshan from the mountainous re- 
 gion to the east of Samarkand. Wheat and barley are the chief 
 cereals, though the poorer classes affect jowarree as more prolific. 
 Millet is grown in small quantities, but orchards and gardens are 
 found more profitable than agriculture. Ploughing is reserved 
 
264 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 for night work. Gardens are generally inclosed within mud walls, 
 silver poplars being planted all round, partly for shade, partly 
 for fuel. The centre is occupied by a quadrangular pond, or 
 tank, from which runnels are led in all directions to water the 
 grounds. Four main walks, or paths, radiate from the pond. 
 There are thirteen varieties of grape, but the wine made from 
 them is hardly drinkable, the process being probably more in 
 fault than the fruit. Two kinds of cotton are successfully cul- 
 tivated, and almost exclusively for home consumption ; from 
 the seed an oil is extracted for cooking purposes. In some 
 districts the tobacco-plant flourishes, while lucerne and trefoil 
 are as common as in Khiva. Hemp is grown, but chiefly for 
 the sake of the oil procured from the seed, the cattle being fed 
 upon the stalks. Madder thrives, but neither indigo nor the 
 sugarcane has yet been introduced. Wheat is said to be reaped 
 for three years in succession from the same roots on the banks 
 of the Oxus, the stalks being eaten down by the cattle. 
 
 Of vegetables there is a great variety, such as turnips, 
 carrots, beetroot, onions, brinjals, radishes, greens, lentils be- 
 loved of the Tajeeks, &c., &c. The melons are pronounced 
 delicious. The musk melon ripens in June, but July produces 
 a melon from two to four feet in circumference, with a firm 
 pulp two inches thick, sweet to the very rind. The water- 
 melons are so enormous that two suffice for a donkey-load. 
 
 Beef is never eaten, but the mutton is excellent, and the 
 tails of the sheep yield as much as 15 lbs. tallow. The Karakul 
 district is celebrated for its jet black curly fleeces. 
 
 And on his head lie placed his sheep-skin cap, 
 
 Black, glossy, curl’d, the tlecce of Kara kul. 
 
 The lambs are killed a few days after birth, and 200,000 skins 
 are annually exported, especially to Porsia. A shawl-wool 
 nearly equal to that of Kashmoer is obtained from goats, by 
 combing out the grev wool next to the skin. 
 
BOKIIA BA. 
 
 2C5 
 
 Tho price of a good camel varies from £G to £7. The Bokhara 
 camels have sleek coats, and at the commencement of summer 
 shed their hair, which is woven into a tine waterproof cloth. 
 The two-humped Bactrian camel is much bred by the Ivuzzaks 
 in the northern parts of the Khanat. It will carry G40 lbs., 
 while 500 lbs. are thought a good load for the ordinary camel. 
 
 There are no mules or buffaloes, but the horned cattle are 
 tolerably good, and the ass is a large and sturdy animal. With 
 the exception of plover and waterfowl, game is by no means 
 plentiful. To the bees and wasps of Bokhara Sir Alexander 
 Burnes ascribes a taste for fresh meat. Silkworms arc very 
 generally reared, the mulberry being planted everywhere in the 
 neighbourhood of water. 
 
 Manufactures are susceptible of much improvement. No 
 manufacturer employs more than four or live men. Silken 
 goods are of two kinds : the one striped, after Russian patterns 
 — the other of different shades passing into one another, red 
 predominating ; cotton, however, is usually mixed with the silk. 
 The Toorkomans bring to market not only magnificent stallions 
 worth from £100 to £400 each, and butter in sheep-skins, but 
 also striped horse-cloths, woollen carpets, camel’s-hair stuffs, 
 and goat’s-hair felt. The Kirghiz contribute nothing to the 
 common stock in this manner, being simply consumers. Ac- 
 cording to Baron Meyendorf they annually barter 100,000 sheep 
 for silk dresses, coarse cotton stuffs, cheese, barley, and pulse. 
 
 The currency of Bokhara is extremely limited. The gold 
 tilln is worth thii-teen shillings, the silver tonga seven-pence 
 halfpenny, and the copper pox l the thirty-eighth thousandth 
 part of a penny. 
 
 The dyers are invariably Jews, who make large use of 
 indigo : sandal- wood and a species of cochineal obtained in the 
 countoy are also applied to silks. Tanning is still in its infancy, 
 the leather being soft and not durable. A useful description 
 
206 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 of sliagrecn for slippers and scabbards is made from sheep, 
 goat, and ass skin. 
 
 The Bokhariots are skilful workers in steel, and turn out 
 excellent sword blades at a very low cost. As gunsmiths, how- 
 ever, they are decidedly backward, and still manufacture heavy 
 matchlocks that are fired from a rest. ‘ The Oozbeg,’ sa) r s M. 
 Vambery, ‘will never fire his arm while in saddle. He must, 
 before all, dismount, and, after having found a fair level ground, 
 he betakes himself to fasten the fork-like lafette (gun-carriage), 
 and then he begins to aim. When the latter object is obtained, 
 he will have to light the occasionally wet match, no easy matter 
 indeed, and then only you will find him meddling with the 
 powder-pan a good while, until the explosion occurs, carrying 
 the ball Ileaven knows whither.’ The guns are worthy of such 
 marksmen. 
 
 The ladies of Bokhara find a graceful occupation in em- 
 broidering silk handkerchiefs for their lords, ornamenting them 
 with lines from Hafiz, appropriate to the ardour of their love. 
 The walls of rooms are sometimes painted with flowers of bright 
 hues, in which gold leaf and lapis lazuli are freely employed. 
 Painters are also book-binders, ornamenting the covers with 
 wreaths and arabesques. Blue is a favourite colour of the 
 Bokhariots, though Jonas Hanway declares that ‘ deep blue is 
 their mourning colour,’ and Moore describes Zelica as 
 
 ‘ . . . . Not glittering o’er 
 With gems and wreaths, such as the others wore, 
 
 But in that deep blue, melancholy dress, 
 
 Bokhara’s maidens wear in mindfulness 
 Of friends or kindred, dead or far away.’ 
 
 Since the trade of Bokhara has been monopolized by Russia it 
 is not easy to calculate the annual value of exports and imports. 
 It is stated that the chief exports from Bokhara to Russia are 
 confined to dried fruits and raw cotton, which together cover 
 
BOKHARA. 
 
 207 
 
 about one-half of the value of the imports, consisting of coarse 
 prints, muslins, brocades, furs, fair imitations of Benares kincobs, 
 English broadcloth, furs, nankeens, hardware, iron, brass, and 
 copper wire, leather, inferior cutlery and jewelry, paper, sugar, 
 spices, cochineal, honey, wax, glass-ware, &c., &c. 1' rom 
 
 India, chiefly through the medium of Afghan merchants, 
 Bokhara receives Dacca muslins, Kashmeer shawls, and Ben- 
 ares brocades, besides opium, indigo, and spices — though this 
 trade may be expected to cease, now that Russian ships pass 
 through the Suez Canal and draw their supplies direct from 
 Bombay. A curious illustration of the manner in which com- 
 merce finds its own level in spite of artificial restrictions and 
 impediments, was afforded during the blockade of the European 
 continent by the first Napoleon, when British goods were ob- 
 tained from India by the merchants of Bokhara and conveyed 
 by them to the Russian station at Orenburg. 
 
 Some years ago the trade between Bokhara and Kabul 
 amounted annually to three thousand camel-loads, — the return 
 goods being for the most part of Russian manufacture. From 
 Yarkund, again, china-ware, musk, rhubarb, bullion, and tea, 
 are carried across the Pamcer steppe and down the valley of 
 the Oxus to Balkh and thence to Bokhara, though the safer, 
 more direct, and usual route is by way of Khokan. The re- 
 turn caravans were laden with Russian merchandise until 
 very recently, but, as will be shown hereafter, there is now a 
 fair prospect that this trade, whatever it may be worth, will 
 be largely diverted into the hands of English manufacturers 
 and Indian traders. The Kashgar traffic is supposed to have 
 amounted to about 1000 camel-loads annually, though horses 
 were exclusively employed on the lower route through Ba- 
 dakhshan. 
 
 The profits on each article were formerly enormous, but the 
 total value must have been very insignificant. Twenty years 
 
2(38 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 ago, and it is unlikely that there was much alteration prior to 
 the Russian occupation of Samarkand, the trade between 
 Bokhara and her too powerful neighbour did not exceed per 
 annum 5000 camel-loads, yalued at half a million sterling. 
 Baron Meyendorf, indeed, in 1820, anticipated a notable increase, 
 if the route were rendered more secure, and to this end lie sug- 
 gested the annexation of the Khanat of Khiva. ‘ Independently,’ 
 he wrote, ‘ of a great commercial advantage, the acquisition of 
 this Khanat would diminish the frightful traffic in human 
 beings and in Russian subjects carried on by the Toorkomans 
 and Kirghiz, and would also augment the salutary influence of 
 Russia over Western Asia; finally, it would, little by little, 
 furnish Russia with the means of germinating and develop- 
 ing in that part of Asia the blessings of European civiliza- 
 tion.’ 
 
 At that time it was believed that there was only one 
 Bokhariot merchant in existence possessed of a capital of 
 £40,000, and that solitary individual had made his fortune, not 
 by commerce, but by forging Russian notes, and was conse- 
 quently unable to live in either of those countries. 
 
 Readers of the ‘ Arabian Nights ’ — and who is there that 
 has not devoured with insatiable interest those rare tales of 
 marvel ? — are sometimes disposed to cavil at the constant re- 
 course to the pillage of caravans as part of the permanent 
 machinery for the development of personal adventures, but it is, 
 in fact, only one of the many illustrations of the general truth- 
 fulness of those charming delineations of social life in Asia 
 prior to the introduction of European influences. Modern 
 travellers assure us that caravans between Russia and Bokhara 
 have been always liable to bo attacked and plundered by the 
 Khivans and Kirghiz, between Bokhara and Meshed by the 
 Toorkomans, between Bokhara and Kabul by the Eleuths and 
 llazarehs, and so forth. Neither life nor property was secure, 
 
BOKHARA. 
 
 2C0 
 
 and it was only the prospect of immense gains that induced 
 traders to encounter such imminent peril. 
 
 In Bokhara there were no export duties of any kind, and on 
 imports Mohammedans were charged the orthodox 2 \ per cent. 
 ad valorem, Hindoos 5 per cent., and Christians four times as 
 much as Hindoos. It was not, however, of the actual duties 
 that traders complained so much as of the exactions and ra- 
 pacity of the subordinate officials. 
 
 British manufactures have always been in greater requisition 
 than those of any other country. ‘The Oozbeg ladies,’ accord- 
 ing to M. Vambery, ‘ when admiring the texture of the English 
 or Cabul chintzes, generally remarked, “ One Russian thread 
 may be split in three Cabul threads, and while the colour of an 
 English kerchief will stand the sun of three summers, the 
 Russian fabric will scarcely keep for a single summer.” Similar 
 were the remarks in reference to cloth, and particularly to 
 muslin, of which every well-to-do man must wind at least seven 
 yards round his head in the shape of a turban — a stuff which 
 will be always a standard article for Central Asia.’ The 
 Tajeeks, however, in whose hands the trade with Russia almost 
 exclusively centres, have not scrupled to invent the most absurd 
 tales to discredit English manufactures — asserting, for instance, 
 that swine fat is used in bleaching muslins intended for turbans. 
 English manufacturers, too, frequently fall into the egregious 
 mistake of imprinting the figures of birds and animals upon 
 their goods, forgetful of the prohibition of the Koran against 
 the making likenesses of any creature that moves on the 
 earth, in the air, or in the waters. Stripes, checks, and ara- 
 besques are the safest patterns. 
 
 Caravans for Russia generally set out from Bokhara in the 
 month of May in order to arrive at Nijni Novgorod in time for 
 the great annual fair held from the middle of July to the 20th 
 August — the journey occupying on an average about two months. 
 
270 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 On their return they start some time in November, though oc- 
 casionally much later. The merchants themselves usually ride 
 on horseback, their servants and goods being conveyed on 
 camels. Terrible hurricanes, that last for two or three days, not 
 unfrequently assail travellers on the dreary steppes, and are 
 terribly fatal to the camels. At that season of the year forage 
 for the animals has to be carried, as well as provisions for the 
 men. Strangely enough, the Kirghiz, though such inveterate 
 plunderers, may be safely entrusted with the transit of valuable 
 merchandise. 
 
 It may, however, be safely predicted that caravans between 
 Russia and- Central Asia will soon become as obsolete as the old 
 stage waggon in England. A safe and comparatively rapid 
 communication by railroad will ere long be established between 
 the Caspian Sea and some convenient point on the Amou, the 
 prolongation of which to Bokhara and Samarkand can only be 
 a question of time. Even more certain, perhaps, is a line from 
 Kesht, Teheran, and Meshed, to Herat, which will bring Russia 
 into direct and easy communication with Afghanistan. Permitte 
 Divis ccetera. 
 
 In acknowledgment of the complimentary missions de- 
 spatched from Bokhara to St Petersburg in 181 G and 1820, the 
 Emperor Alexander sent M. de Negri in the latter year to 
 Bokhara, accompanied by several gentlemen of high scientific 
 attainments, and with an escort of 200 Cossacks, 200 foot 
 soldiers, 25 mounted Bashkirs, two guns, 358 camels, and 400 
 horses. Two boats and 25 waggons were also provided. This 
 well-equipped party started from Orenburg on the 10th Octo- 
 ber, in company with a numerous body of Kirghiz, and reached 
 Bokhara on the 20th December. The first part of the journey 
 lay across an undulating plain intersected by long low ridges, 
 almost entirely bare of wood. ‘ Barrenness, uniformity, and 
 silence are the characteristics of a steppe.’ By the end 
 
BOKHARA. 
 
 271 
 
 of June the heat of the sun scorches the scanty vegetation, and 
 verdure is superseded by the sere and yellow leaf. Stunted 
 brushwood is seen here and there, but only at two points be- 
 tween Orenberg and the Moughojar Mountains is there any 
 appearance of trees. Many little streams were crossed, which 
 in summer and autumn would be distinguishable only by their 
 dry beds, or by a chain of stagnant ponds. On this steppe 
 some members of the mission found fossil belemnites, ammon- 
 ites, bivalves, and even a shark’s tooth, and on the third day 
 the}' came upon traces of coal which burnt satisfactorily. 
 
 While passing through the country of the Kirghiz, Baron 
 Meyendorf paid a visit to Sooltan llaroun Ghazce, a powerful 
 chief friendly to Russia. ‘ I found him,’ he says, ‘ seated nearly 
 in the centre of a circular tent; his friends sat in a semi -circle 
 on one side ; on the other seats had been reserved for us. The 
 walls were hung with carpets. There were also garments sus- 
 pended from a rope, tiger-skins spread out, a rich lofty diadem 
 set with turquoises and balas rubies, the head-dress of a Kir- 
 ghese lady. Besides these articles, there might be observed 
 raw meat hanging from a hook, large bags of skin filled with 
 mare’s milk, and several wooden vessels.’ 
 
 The Moughojar hills are a branch of the Ural range, but do 
 not attain an elevation of more than eight or nine hundred feet. 
 Beyond them spread barren plains destitute of vegetation. On 
 the 2nd November the travellers reached Khoja Kid, the first 
 lake they had yet seen, and two days later were compelled to 
 burn ten of their waggons, their cattle being too exhausted to 
 drag them any further. Large quantities of salt had accumu- 
 lated in some of the depressions to the depth of two or three 
 inches, but very impure and earthy. At Saree-Boulak, on the 
 9th November, they came upon beds of small shells and fish 
 bones, two or three feet thick, and their Kirghiz escort assured 
 them that their fathers had seen the Aral washing the base of 
 
272 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 that ridge, though it was then forty miles distant. They now 
 entered upon the dreary expanse of the Karakum, or Black 
 Sands, though the sands are of the usual colour. 
 
 The terrors of this dreary track have, however, disappeared 
 since it passed under Russian domination. ‘The sands of 
 Kara-Kurn,’ wrote the late military correspondent of the Golovs, 
 ‘ which border the north-east shore of the Aral Sea, have always 
 been considered among the chief obstacles on the Orsk-Kazali 
 road, terrible to the imagination of all travellers, and to remedy 
 which every effort has hitherto proved A r ain. We entered the 
 Kara-Kum sands with some feelings of nervousness, but were 
 from the very first agreeably surprised at the first station of the 
 Turkestan region, Djulius, which appeared to us as a pretty 
 cottage, with large windows and a sloping roof. Inside the 
 station the cleanliness, and even comfort, were such as to re- 
 mind us at once of another country, and cause us to forget all 
 our experiences of the earth huts and kibitkas. It was pleasant 
 to stretch oneself out in this roomy apartment, to eat and drink 
 tea in a European fashion, sitting at a table, a custom to which 
 we had long been strangers in the postal kibitkas and earth 
 huts. It was still more agreeable to hear that we should find 
 such comfortable cottages all the way to Kazali. Travelling 
 over the frozen sands, which were here and there visible from 
 beneath the snow, was not very difficult. The horses in the 
 whole of the Turkestan region are contracted for by a Siberian 
 merchant, Kuznekoff, at 800 roubles per pair per annum, and, 
 contrary to the custom of the country, are fed with hay and 
 barley produced in the neighbourhood. The sands of Kara- 
 Kum extend for a distance of 200 versts on the Orsk-Kazali 
 road between the station of Terekli and Galoffsk, but in order 
 to ease the horses and increase the rate of travelling, the whole 
 of this distance is divided into very short stages, and the 
 stations arc placed close to one another at distances varying 
 
BOKHARA. 
 
 273 
 
 from 9 to 17 versts. Such are the very rational arrangements 
 that the most difficult stages, owing to the softness of the sands, 
 are the 9 versts between the stations of Nicolaieffsk and Alta- 
 Kuduk, and 10^ versts from the last station to Ak-djulpask, in 
 all, 25 versts. All the rest of the distance these dreadful sands, 
 according to the accounts of all those who have frequently- 
 crossed them, with the present organization of post stations and 
 driving do not present any exceptional difficulties, and cer- 
 tainly are not worse than the sands of the Murom forest, the 
 neighbourhood of MoghilefF, and other such-like parts of Euro- 
 pean Russia and the Caucasus. Notwithstanding the porous 
 nature of the sand, the hillocks (here called barkhan ) are 
 covered with clumps of grass and bushes, such as the saxaul, 
 which is the chief fuel in this country ; they cannot, therefore, 
 be compared with the drifting sands of Egypt and the Great 
 Sahara. In this sandy steppe the Nomads can always find 
 better pasturage for their herds than in the neighbouring clayey 
 saline steppe of the Irghiz district. Water, too, is more abund- 
 ant in the sands of Kara-Kum at less depths and of better 
 quality than in the adjoining steppes of Orenberg, the elevated, 
 plateau of Ust-IJrt, or even the desiccated channel of the Amu 
 Daria. The principal post-stations in the Kara-Kum are sup- 
 plied with water from wells dug to a depth of 6 ft. to 14 ft.’ 
 
 On the 19th November, forty-one days after leaving Oren- 
 berg, M. de Negri and his companions crossed the Syr Darya 
 opposite Karatepeh. The rate of travelling has improved since 
 then, for in 1873 the Grand Duke Nicholas Constantinovitch and 
 suite left Orenberg on the 23rd of February, ‘ fortified with a 
 good luncheon,’ and on the 3rd of March, ‘about 10 o’clock in 
 the evening, in a bright light, arrived safely at Kazali.’ From 
 Karatepeh to the mouth of the river extends a vast plain of 
 grass, rushes, and reeds. Along the southern bank the Kara- 
 kalpaks roamed free and independent until the commencement 
 
 18 
 
274 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 of the present century, hut since then have been subject some- 
 times to Khiva, at other times to Bokhara. To the south of the 
 Syr Darya is the channel of the Yany Darya, pronounced 
 Jan-i-Darya by the Kirghiz, now fast drying up. The country 
 between the two rivers — though the latter is simply a branch of 
 the former — consists of a hard clay intersected with sandy 
 hillocks, and partially covered with a copse of saxaul and worm- 
 wood, the haunts of wolves, wild cats, and tigers. Kuins of 
 ancient habitations and of disused works of irrigation are not 
 unfrequent. 
 
 A broad beaten track leads from the Yany Darya to Bok- 
 hara, much frequented by caravans, and during the late expedi- 
 tion against Khiva * studded by dead and abandoned camels, 
 the impressions of horses’ hoofs, the soles of boots, and artillery 
 horses.’ Between that river and the cultivated districts of 
 Bokhara the Kizil Kum desert intervenes, so called from the 
 redness not of the sand, but of the substratum of clay. It is 
 about seventy miles in breadth, and entirely barren. Hillocks 
 of sand, from twenty to sixty feet high, alone break the drear 
 monotony. From the summit of an unusually lofty eminence 
 Baron Meyendorf took a survey of the melancholy scene. * The 
 eye wanders over a boundless surface like unto a stormy sea that 
 has suddenly been changed into sand. In vain do you seek to 
 discover an object upon which to fix your gaze. On all sides 
 stretches a desert unutterably mournful and monotonous; scarce 
 any brushwood, a few thorny shrubs, in autumn not a blade of 
 grass, and in spring a vegetation so feeble that it is straight- 
 way scorched up, and reduced to powder. It swarms with 
 lizards of different species, chameleons, tortoises, rats, marmots, 
 jerboas, magpies, vultures, and with numbers of birds with a 
 bluish plumage, not unlike crows, though much smaller. Such 
 are the living creatures that venture into this desert, notwith- 
 standing its sterility.’ A vast unpeopled tract extends from the 
 
BOKHARA. 
 
 275 
 
 Syr Darya to the Araou Darya, separating Bokhara from the 
 Kirghiz steppes, and Khokan from Khiva. 
 
 After emerging from the Kizil Knin the mission traversed 
 a plain for about thirty miles, overgrown with wormwood, and 
 bounded on the right by the Boukan range, which rises to the 
 height of GOO feet. Though not lofty, these mountains are 
 precipitous and intersected by narrow ravines. This hilly re- 
 gion gave place to another plain, succeeded in it3 turn by a wide 
 tract of loose sand, after which the ground again rose to a con- 
 siderable altitude. Traversing another plain about thirty miles 
 in width, and shut in by distant hills, the wearied travellers were 
 at length cheered by the sight of a hundred mulberry trees 
 planted round a well of sulphurous water, and on the loth 
 December arrived at Aghatma on the borders of the cultivated 
 portion of the Klianat. Here they feasted on new white bread 
 — a delightful change after seventy days of hard biscuits — de- 
 licious grapes, water melons, and pomegranates. The horses 
 fell ill from over-eating, and fifty died after reaching Bokhara 
 from change of diet, and the effects of fatigue. 
 
 From Aghatma the plain sloped gradually upwards to the 
 belt of cultivation, which began suddenly after crossing a series 
 of sandy hillocks. From this point to the capital, there was a 
 pleasing succession of canals, trees, houses, gardens, villages, 
 orchards, mosques, and minarets. On the 20th December the 
 mission entered Bokhara in soldierly array, and remained till 
 the 22nd March, 1821. 
 
 The interval was advantageously employed in collecting as 
 much information as possible respecting the resources of the 
 Khanat, the system of government, and the manners of the 
 people. Upon the whole, the result of these inquiries made 
 upon Baron Meyendorf, at least, not a very favourable impres- 
 sion. * Never,’ he says, ‘ have I beheld among the Bokhariots 
 a countenance animated by gentle gaiety ; never have I wit- 
 
276 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 nessed a spark of disinterestedness, never a good action.’ 
 On the other hand, the Russians were as little admired by 
 the Bokhariots. Sir Alexander Burnes, speaking of a period 
 twelve years posterior to M. de Negri’s mission, observes, 
 ‘ They — the Russians — have impressed the whole of the Uzbegs 
 with high notions of their power, to the detriment of all other 
 European nations ; but they have yet to eradicate by their 
 future conduct other opinions which have been as universally 
 adopted, that they want truth and honour in their diplomacj'.’ 
 Sir Alexander goes on to say that the people generally were un- 
 friendly to the Russians, though the latter were no longer 
 bought and sold within the Khanat. In his ignorance of the 
 wonderful improvements that have since been introduced into 
 the military art, he was disposed to regard the conquest of Bok- 
 hara as a work of great difficulty on account of the nomadic 
 habits of the inhabitants. ‘ Regular troops,’ he scntentiously 
 remarks, ‘ would be useless, and irregulars could not subdue a 
 race which had no fixed places of abode.’ The present gener- 
 ation, however, has been taught the very different lesson that 
 undisciplined valour cannot, under any circumstances, offer an 
 effectual resistance to the skilful combinations of greatly inferior 
 forces armed with superior weapons. 
 
 The Government of Bokhara is a despotism as regards the 
 settled population, checked by the influence of the Mollahs. 
 The Khan of Bokhara assumes the title of Ameer ool Momeneen, 
 or Commander of the Faithful, while the Khan of Khokau has 
 adopted that of Ameer ool Moslemeen, or Commander of the 
 Mussulmans. Ameer is, strictly speaking, a religious title, and 
 has therefore been more highly esteemed by many rulers of this 
 State than the more secular designation of Khan. Indeed, they 
 have seldom cared to be addressed as King, but rather as 
 Prophet. The Sultan of Turkey, called here flic Klialif of 
 Roum, is the spiritual superior of the Khan, and from time to 
 
BOKHARA. 
 
 277 
 
 time receives presents of money and other articles of value, 
 sending back in return copies of the Koran and of esteemed 
 theological treatises. The Khan, besides, is the honorary Bow- 
 bearer to the Sultan. Ilis personal influence is very great, his 
 ministers merely executing his orders. It can hardly be said 
 that there is an hereditary aristocracy. The most powerful in- 
 dividuals arc probably the Khan’s domestic slaves, many of 
 whom possess his entire confidence. The Hakeems, or govern- 
 ors of districts, usually purchase their posts, indemnifying 
 themselves at the expense of the people committed to their 
 stewardship. The whole system of administration being based 
 upon the Koran, it is only natural that the head men in towns 
 and villages should be Mollahs, or Khwajas — or Khojas — 
 claiming to be descended from the first Khalifs. Subordinate 
 governors are, to some extent, kept under restraint by the right 
 of direct personal appeal to the Khan, which is enjoyed and ex- 
 ercised by the poorest and humblest. 
 
 The Khan to whom M. de Negri was accredited is de- 
 scribed as a fanatical libertine, encumbered with four wives 
 and two hundred concubines. He was also mean enough to 
 appropriate all the presents designed for his chief officers of state. 
 Every Friday he went with much parade to the grand mosque, 
 and once a week repaired on horseback to another mosque, pre- 
 ceded by guards and outrunners. As he passed, every one 
 stopped and cried, ‘ Salaam Aleikoum ! ’ which an officer ap- 
 pointed for the purpose mechanically reciprocated. The order 
 of succession merely requires that the Khan shall be descended 
 from Chinghiz, and, as his most dangerous enemies are those of 
 his own house, whenever he sleeps outside the walls of the capi- 
 tal his eldest son also must retire to the suburbs. 
 
 The Council varies, according to the caprice of the ruler, 
 from five to twenty members, w r ho take care to adopt the view 
 favoured by their imperious master. At that time there were 
 
278 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 some 2000 priests in the capital, and, as the Khan much affected 
 the priesthood, every one who could read dubbed himself a 
 Mollah. The penal code was severe, and even sanguinary. 
 Adultery and drunkenness were equally punished by death. 
 There was, however, much secret drinking, and concubinage 
 was limited only by each individual’s income. Smoking was 
 prohibited, because it is forbidden in the Koran to take into the 
 mouth anything of an intoxicating tendency. Astrology, how- 
 ever, was freely practised, and among the Russian imports 
 should be enumerated packs of playing cards, each pack con- 
 sisting of 36 cards, and the games all strictly Russian. Every 
 householder was expected to appear every morning at a mosque, 
 or was liable to be driven to it by the police, and at 4 p.m., the 
 hour of evening prayer, when the bazaars were most crowded, all 
 business was suddenly suspended, the police driving out the 
 laggards with scourgings. 
 
 The bastinado was administered with great severity on both 
 back and stomach, seventy-five blows being equivalent to a sen- 
 tence of death. For certain offences a criminal would be tied 
 hand and foot, and thrust into a room swarming with flies of a 
 noxious kind, from whose stings he was generally released by 
 starvation and fever on the third or fourth day. The healing 
 art, so far as the patient is concerned, furnishes a fine field for 
 studying the doctrine of chances. Doctors feel the pulse, but 
 ask no questions. Constitutions are classed under four heads, 
 hot, cold, moist, and dry, and medicines are accordingly pre- 
 scribed of a strengthening, heating, depressing, or stimulating 
 character, the line being rigidly drawn and no compromise even 
 attempted. Only three arteries are recognized : one termin- 
 ating in the head, one in the chest, and one in the stomach. 
 The veins are a mystery of ramification. It is not, however, 
 from the absence of disease that human pathology is so con- 
 temptuously neglected. Intermittent fevers, for instance, arc 
 
BOKHARA. 
 
 279 
 
 long, severe, and liable to frequent relapses after considerable 
 intervals. They usually begin about the end of August, and 
 last till the frost sets in. Small-pox is prevalent and fatal, 
 and cholera by no means a rare visitor. Consumption, dropsy, 
 and weakness from excessive indulgences, are common com- 
 plaints, and strangers often suffer from total prostration, ac- 
 companied by swoons and irresistible drowsiness, terminating in 
 death. Swellings and ulcers on the neck and upper part of the 
 chest are among the ills to which Bokharian flesh is heir ; and 
 in children blotches upon the face, which leave deep, and often 
 indelible, traces. 
 
 Cataract and a painful tendency of the eyelashes to turn in 
 upon the pupil are among the diseases to which the eye is 
 most subject. Far more serious is a species of leprosy that 
 begins with white specks coming out, which rapidly spread 
 and cover the whole body. The skin dries and shrivels up, 
 while the hair, nails, and teeth fall off. The disease is heredi- 
 tary and incurable, but is fortunately confined to certain dis- 
 tricts. Reference has already been made to the Rishta, a sort 
 of ulcer indicating the presence of the guinea-worm, bred from 
 drinking water drawn from cisterns in summer time, when they 
 swarm with animalculae. One-fourth part of the population is 
 annually attacked, and in strangers the first symptoms often 
 appear several months after they have left the place. A man 
 has been known to have 120 of these worms at a time. 
 
 The only history taught in Bokhara is that of Iskander 
 Zoulkarnain — Alexander the Great, or the Two-TIorned — which 
 is read aloud, by the Khan’s orders, in a public place, by a 
 Mollah, who receives trifling gratuities from the audience. 
 Geography is nothing thought of ; and as for astronomy, there 
 are only five planets, and the sun revolves round the earth. 
 Education simply means ability to read, write, and quote the 
 Koran and a few of the commentaries to which it has given rise. 
 
280 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Persian is the language of the court and the Tajeeks, but the 
 nomad population adheres to Toorkee, the tongue of their fore- 
 fathers. There are said to be some 10,000 students in Bok- 
 hara, for the most part going through a dry course of theological 
 instruction, and the Khan’s library, which fifty years ago was 
 thought large, at that time contained two hundred volumes. 
 
 The interior of the mud-built houses is as miserable and un- 
 inviting as the exterior. Furniture there is none, beyond a 
 few carpets, rugs, and cushions. When M. de Negri was first 
 presented to the Khan, that potentate was seated on cushions 
 covered with red cloth richly embroidered with gold, arranged 
 at one end of a room covered with mean Persian carpets, the 
 walls plastered, and the ceiling of painted boards. 
 
 In Central Asia it is not the custom to sit cross-legged as in 
 Turkey, but rather to kneel, the hams pressing upon the heels 
 — a posture almost impossible for a European adult. Visitors are 
 at once served with tea, fruits, and sugar, and are pressed to take 
 some away with them — should they not do so, it is sent after them 
 to their residence. When friends meet, the) 1, bow slightly and, 
 placing their right hand upon their heart, exclaim ‘ Khosh ! * 
 After the morning prayer they breakfast upon bread boiled with 
 milk and salt, and at about five in the afternoon dine off a 
 pillao, made of rice, carrots, turnips, and mutton, finishing with 
 tea, prepared as in Europe. Coffee is unknown, as also are 
 spoons and forks. 
 
 As proprietor of the land, the Khan derives a considerable 
 portion of his revenues from that source, which then j-ieldcd 
 about £400,000 per annum. Of this one-half is absorbed in the 
 maintenance of garrisons in the fortified towns. The priests 
 and the public schools are also a heavy drain upon the treasury. 
 The militia are not paid in money, but hold their lands on the 
 condition of rendering military service when called upon. The 
 Khan’s Civil List was supposed not to exceed £40,000, but it is 
 
BOKHARA. 
 
 281 
 
 impossible to fix any amount for his private expenditure. 
 
 The army, prior to the dismemberment of the kingdom, 
 consisted of about 20,000 horse, 5000 foot, and 40 guns, many 
 of which were not mounted, or were honey-combed, or other- 
 wise worthless. The militia may have numbered 50,000 undis- 
 ciplined horsemen, good rather for predatory purposes than for 
 war as understood by civilized nations, Besides these, there 
 were the Toorkoman levies, on whom no particular reliance could 
 be placed, for, though not deficient in a certain dashing kind of 
 valour, they were not amenable to any sort of discipline, and 
 ‘fought for their own hand.’ In fine, Baron Meyendorf was 
 probably not far wrong when he said that ‘ the characteristic 
 features of the semi-barbarous Government of Bokhara are 
 superstition, a certain warlike spirit, and covetousness, spring- 
 ing from the influence exercised by that country over the petty 
 khanats that surround it.’ 
 
 In the January (1S73) number of ‘ Ocean Highways,’ a summary is given 
 of a paper by Mr Greb'inkin, founded upon information obtained during a visit 
 to Karshee, from which the following extract is taken: — 
 
 ‘The mountains within the Shahr-i-Subz Valley strike off from the massive 
 elevation twenty miles west of the Iskander-Kul. The northern ranges, unit- 
 ing with those of Kohistan of the upper Zarafshan Valley, enter the limits of 
 the Shahr-i-Suhz Valley from the great, mountain knot called Sultan-Hazret 
 Daiit, and spreading out, form gorges and dcliles, through which issue the 
 right-hand sources of the Ivashka-daria. There is no regular general name for 
 these mountains ; the natives of the Shahr-i-Subz Valley call them Samarcaud- 
 tau, and the people of Samarcand give them the general appellation of the 
 Shahr-i-Subz mountains. These are not snowy mountains within the limits of 
 the valley ; they gradually fall in height towards the west, finally losing their 
 wild character from the Djam defile ; here they are rounded off, and are 
 covered with a crust of earth, and beyond the Karshi-Djam road they dw indie 
 into a closely connected system of undulations. There are several passes over 
 these mountains, which are all practicable for field artillery ; that of Djam 
 being particularly easy. The following are the names of some portions of these 
 mountains of the north : — Takta-karacha, Gure-mar, Biteii, Ata-kinty, Ayakh- 
 chi, Kopkan-agatch. 
 
 ‘ The mountains skirting the southern side of the Shahr-i-Subz Valley are 
 
282 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 higher and more massive ; they belong to the basin of the Kashka from the 
 very point of their separation from the immense snow-capped mountain knot 
 on the north-east, of which the natives do not know the name. Their direction 
 is from the north-east to the south-west ; these ranges are snow-covered in 
 the north-east, and are called Bakhcha and Ishkahar : they form a wide semi- 
 circle, and deflect considerably to the south of the valley, filling the southern 
 portion of the Shahr-i-Subz cavity with offshoots of an inferior height. Ac- 
 cording to the natives the southern water-parting ceases to be snow-covered 
 at a distance of about 33 miles from its separation from the great mountain 
 knot, and declines very rapidly in the south. The direction of the offshoots in the 
 southern portion of the valley is from south-east to north-west. The names of 
 these offshoots, proceeding from the west, are Istalik, Langar, Tash-kurgan- 
 tail, Bakhcha, Ishkahar, &c.’ 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 283 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BOKHARA — RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 BOKHARA — HISTORY — ASPECT — THE ARK — PUBLIC BUILDINGS — HINDOOS 
 
 JEWS — CLIMATE — RUSSIAN SLAVES — SAMARKAND — RUSSIAN OCCUPATION — 
 KARSHEE — KHOJA-SALEH — SHUHR ISLAM — CHARJUI — KARAKUL — SHUHR- 
 I-SUBZ — HISSAR — HISTORICAL SKETCH OF BOKHARA — EXECUTIONS OF 
 STODDART, CONOLI.Y, AND WYBURD — NUSSER-OOLLAH KHAN — MOZUFFAR- 
 OOD-DEEN KHAN — ADVANCE OF THE RUSSIANS— PRINCE GORTCHAKOF’S 
 CIRCULAR — BATTLE OF Y1RDJAR — FALL OF KHOJEND — CAPTURE OF SA- 
 MARKAND — MISSION FROM BOKHARA TO ST PETERSBURG CAPTURE OF 
 
 KULJA — THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER LINE. 
 
 Prior to tlie Chinese occupation of Central Asia the city of 
 Bokhara, if we may credit M. Vambery, was called Jemkend. 
 Bukhar, it seems, signifies a Buddhist monastery, though, 
 according to Abou’l-Gliazee Khan, that word in the Moghul 
 language means * a learned man/ while Baron Meyendorf dis- 
 covers its equivalent in ‘ Treasure of Study.’ It may, perhaps, 
 be more natural to trace the modern name to a corruption of 
 Bazaria, by which appellation the district, at least, seems to 
 have been known at the time of the Macedonian conquest. 
 However that may be, the capital of the Khanat is now pro- 
 nounced Boukara by the Toorkomans, and Bokhara by the 
 Persians. 
 
 Although we are assured by Sir Alexander Burnes that 
 ‘ Samarcand and Bokhara have afforded a theme for glowing 
 description to the historians and poets of all ages,’ there is 
 much reason to believe that the latter town was in the begin- 
 ning a mere fishing station in the midst of a reedy marsh in- 
 
284 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 fested by wild beasts. The fishermen’s huts gradually clustered 
 together into a village, which, as time went on, assumed the 
 proportions of a town, and the rude art of fishing became sup- 
 plementary to the cultivation of the land and the breeding of 
 cattle. The ruins of Bykend, about twenty miles distant, pro- 
 bably cover the site of the original aggregation of huts. 
 
 Under the Samanides, Bokhara attained to a degree of 
 luxury and refinement not surpassed at that time by the most 
 opulent city in Europe. Its riches, however, tempted the 
 cupidity of the hordes of Chinghiz Khan, and a long period of 
 desolation effaced the memory of its previous greatness. But 
 the advantages of its situation were too remarkable to be long 
 overlooked. On the highway between Europe and China, and 
 surrounded by an inhospitable desert, it was marked out by 
 nature as a resting-place for the way-worn caravans, and an 
 emporium for the productions and manufactures alike of the 
 East and the West. It rose therefore once more into note 
 under Timour, — though Samarkand was the favourite residence 
 of that ‘ man of blood,’ — and continued to flourish under his de- 
 scendants. 
 
 The Oozbeg chiefs who succeeded the Timourides mostly 
 resided at Bokhara, and the wrath of Nadir Shah was averted 
 by t he timely submission of the reigning Khan. From that time 
 to the present day no very important changes or chances have 
 befallen the city, and, though fallen from its once high estate, 
 it is still a place of great resort for the traders of Central Asia, 
 while in the eyes of Mohammedans it retains its claim to the 
 honourable title of El Shereefab, or the Holy. 
 
 ‘ The aspect of the city from a little distance,’ says Baron 
 Meyendorf, ‘ is to European eyes very striking. The domes of 
 its mosques, the lofty points of the facades of its medressehs, 
 the minarets, the palaces that tower in the midst of the town, 
 the crenellated wall that surrounds it, a lake situated close to the 
 
BOKI1ARA — RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 285 
 
 walls and encircled with flat-roofed houses, or with pretty rural 
 villas, begirt with crenellated walls, fields, gardens, trees, and 
 the movement that always characterizes the environs of a 
 capital, all contribute to produce a most agreeable effect. But 
 the illusion ceases as soon as you enter the town ; for, with the 
 exception of the public baths, the mosques, and the medressehs, 
 there is nothing to be seen but mud houses of a greyish hue, 
 massed without order one beside the other, forming narrow, 
 winding, filthy streets, traced without design.’ 
 
 For the most part the dwelling-houses stand in court-yards, 
 showing only a blind wall to the street. The best streets 
 barely exceed six feet in width, while the majority are not more 
 than three or four feet wide. As almost everybody rides, the con- 
 fusion arising from the crowd of camels, horses, and donkeys, 
 jostling one another as they struggle through these narrow 
 defiles, is both bewildering and disgusting. The building 
 materials are earth mixed with chopped straw, poplar posts, 
 four or five inches in circumference, being driven in here and 
 there, and at the corners, for the sake of security. The ceilings 
 are made of a hard wood, generally painted in different colours, 
 and the flooring of bricks, except in the houses of the opulent, 
 where glazed tiles are preferred. On the flat roof earth is 
 plentifully sprinkled, as a defence against both heat and cold. 
 
 In the almost total absence of glazed windows the interior 
 is, in winter, intolerably cold. In the middle of the sitting- 
 room a brazier is accordingly lighted, over which stands a table 
 covered with a wadded quilt. Around this sit the family and 
 their friends, each holding the quilt up to their chins, while 
 their backs and fingers become painfully chilled. The residences 
 of the rich consist of several small houses within a common 
 wall, and are usually surrounded with verandahs. 
 
 The aspect of the people is grave to the verge of melan- 
 choly. Every man distrusts not only his neighbour, but his 
 
286 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 nearest kindred. There are no public fetes, and very little 
 private festivity. No merry voices, no sounds of music, break 
 the silence of the less frequented streets. A settled gloom 
 broods over the capital. 
 
 The principal building is the Ark, or Royal Palace, built by 
 Alp Arslan eight hundred years ago. It stands on a natural 
 mound enlarged by human bands, about 200 feet high, and 
 rather steep. In shape this eminence is a truncated cone, the 
 base measuring from four to five hundred paces in diameter. 
 The palace is surrounded by a mud wall sixty feet in height, 
 pierced for a gateway, erected by Nadir Shah in 1742, on each 
 side of which rises a tower ninety feet high, affording a secure 
 retreat for the storks in the breeding season. The palace, built 
 of earth, is altogether an unsightly edifice. Inclosed within 
 the outer wall are three mosques, the offices of the ministers, 
 the house of the Kooshbegie, guard-houses, menial offices, and 
 dungeons, one of which is called the Kana Khaneh, because 
 swarming with ticks, which are supplied with raw meat when 
 there is no prisoner to he thrown to them. 
 
 At the foot of this mound is a spacious square known as the 
 Registan, lined on two sides w T ith mosques and other public 
 buildings, while the fourth side is planted with trees and cooled 
 by a fountain. This is the favourite resort both of citizens and 
 strangers, who recline in the grateful shade, or inspect the 
 varied wares laid out for view in smart tents or booths. Here 
 also is held the daily market for fruit, vegetables, grain, cotton, 
 and fuel. And here, too, executions take place, and human 
 heads are exposed on stakes, or laid out on the ground, at the 
 foot of the gallow'S. Rul ing Baron Meyendorf’s brief stay in 
 Bokhara at least six Persian slaves and two Tajecks were 
 hanged for theft, and he became familiarized with the ghastly 
 spectacle of the heads of Khivans, Toorkomans, and others. 
 
 For all that, so holy a place is Bokhara El Shereefali that 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 287 
 
 light there ascends from the earth, instead of descending from 
 above as in less favoured lands. Samarkand, says the proverb, 
 is the paradise of the world, and Bokhara the strength of the 
 religion of Islam. Indeed, it boasts of 3G0 mosques, the largest 
 capable of containing 10,000 worshippers, while the minaret of 
 Mirgharab, ascribed to Alp Arslan, but certainly rebuilt by 
 Timour, towers to a height of 180 feet, gradually tapering 
 away, and formed of bricks artistically arranged in pleasing 
 patterns. 
 
 The medressehs, or Mohammedan seminaries, exceed one 
 hundred in number, some no doubt very small, but others large 
 enough to accommodate from sixty to eighty students. They 
 are built like caravanserais, and have little to recommend them 
 from an architectural point of view. They are for the most 
 part well endowed, and maintain a considerable number of pro- 
 fessors and resident students in listless indolence. The course 
 of instruction is purely theological, and even more puerile than 
 the disputations of the schools in ancient Christendom. How- 
 ever, for six months in the year the medressehs are closed, to 
 enable the scholars to earn their livelihood by industrial pur- 
 suits. 
 
 Besides these considerable buildings, there are sixteen pub- 
 lic baths of considerable magnitude, and fourteen caravanserais 
 for the use of travellers. * Asiatics who travel,’ writes Mr 
 Shaw, ‘ do so from one of three motives, and they can under- 
 stand no other. Their journeys are either religious, commer- 
 cial, or political. They will cross the whole continent to visit 
 a shrine ; they will peril their lives on a trading trip ; and 
 envoys are constantly threading their way from one distant 
 chief to another.’ The erection of caravanserais has therefore 
 always been regarded as a meritorious work, and no prince is 
 more highly esteemed even by posterity than one who has 
 associated his name with resting-places for man and beast, in a 
 
2S8 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 land where armed robbers roam abroad in formidable bands, 
 where water fails the wanderer at bis utmost need, and where 
 otherwise be must pass the night unsheltered, and exposed to 
 heavy dews or drenching rains. 
 
 In the capital there are between sixty and seventy wells, 
 upwards of a hundred feet in circumference, a dozen stone steps 
 leading down to the reservoir of stagnant water derived from 
 the canal that flows round the town. It is in these that are 
 developed the germs of the guinea-worms, locally supposed to 
 have caused the ‘ sore boils ’ with which Job was smitten ‘ from 
 the sole of his foot unto his crown.’ The canal is opened only 
 once a fortnight, so that in hot weather the water in the wells 
 swarms with animalculae. 
 
 There are several large bazaars covered over, in which each 
 trade has its separate quarter : the two largest are called the 
 Morning and Evening bazaars. The circumference of the 
 town has been stated at eight miles. It is surrounded by two 
 mud walls about twenty feet in height, and strengthened by 
 buttresses. The outer one is in a tolerable state of preservation, 
 but the inner one has fallen to decay. According to some 
 writers there are twelve gates, while others insist upon only 
 eleven, built of brick with a round tower on each side. They 
 are closed at sunset, and a guard of soldiers is stationed at each. 
 There are thirteen cemeteries, and 360 streets ankle-deep in 
 mud or sand. 
 
 The population has been variously estimated at from 
 150,000 to 180,000, of whom three-fourths arc Tajeeks, the 
 balance being made up of Oozbegs, Toorkomans, Afghans, Kal- 
 muks, Hindoos, foreign traders and pilgrims, Persian slaves, 
 and a sprinkling of negroes and Kafirs. The Hindoos are dis- 
 tinguished from Mussulmans by wearing a small square cap and 
 a string round the waist instead of a girdle. They are demure 
 of aspect and keep much to themselves. Their position is one 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED 
 
 289 
 
 of marked inferiority. They are not suffered to build temples 
 or set up idols, or indulge in religious processions. Neither are 
 they allowed to ride within the walls, or to purchase female 
 slaves. They wear a peculiar style of dress, and are mulcted in 
 a poll-tax varying from four to eight rupees ; but they enjoy 
 equal rights before the law, and are prosperous in business. 
 Their numbers are computed at about 300, mostly natives of 
 Afghanistan and Scinde. 
 
 The Jews are far more numerous, and are said to have been 
 deported from Baghdad to Samarkand, whence they migrated 
 to Bokhara, which has long since been their head-quarters in 
 Central Asia, though a numerous colony of that race is settled 
 at Meshed. They are also to be found in Shuhr-i-Subz, 
 Balkh, Samarkand, Herat, and Khiva, but not in Khokan, 
 Kashgar, or Badakhshan. They are restricted, however, to 
 three streets in the capital, and are engaged in manufactures 
 and dyeing, dealing likewise in raw silk and silken textiles. 
 Like the Hindoos, they are subject to a capitation tax, and 
 are forbidden to mount horse or ass within the city walls. 
 Though suffered to keep the old synagogue in good order, 
 they may not build a new one. Until half a century ago 
 they were extremely ignorant, and few of them could either 
 read or write, while the whole community possessed only two 
 copies of the first three books of the Pentateuch. All this has 
 been since changed. Reading and writing are now universal 
 accomplishments, and comparatively few respectable families are 
 destitute of an entire copy of the Old Testament. For the rest, 
 they are described as a handsome race, with fair complexions, 
 large eyes full of expression, and long faces. 
 
 The city of Bokhara stands about 1200 feet above the level 
 of the sea. The climate is dry and salubrious, and very cold 
 in winter, but in summer the temperature never exceeds 90° 
 
 Fahrenheit, though in the desert it is often 10 J higher. The 
 
 19 
 
290 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 atmosphere is wonderfully serene and cloudless, and the stars 
 shine with marvellous brilliancy. It is by the light of the stars 
 that the Kirghiz best trace their course over the steppes. As 
 it is now, so was it in the time of the Macedonians. * Qui 
 transeunt campos,’ writes Quintus Curtius, ‘ navigantium modo, 
 noctu sidera observant, ad quorum cursum iter dirigunt, et 
 propemodum clarior est noctis umbra, quam lux.'’ 
 
 The seasons are very regular throughout the Khanat. The 
 fruit trees put forth their blossoms about the middle of February, 
 and a month later burst into leaf. After three weeks of heavy 
 rain the great heats begin, and last till the end of October, when 
 wet weather returns for a fortnight or three weeks. Frost 
 appears in November, and snow in December. The most intense 
 cold is felt in January, when ice forms on the river to the 
 thickness of three or four inches, and snow covers the ground 
 for a fortnight at a time. At the end of the first or second 
 week in February, the rains commence, and the annual cycle is 
 repeated. Both in summer and winter, violent dust-storms 
 arise, which have been known to overwhelm not only caravans, 
 but entire villages, with the gardens in which they are em- 
 bosomed. 
 
 It may be remarked that no allusion has been made to 
 Russian slaves as forming a part of the population of Bokhara. 
 At present, of course, there are not any, and even Baron Mcy- 
 endorf in his description of the capital allows for only a dozen, 
 independently of Tatars claiming to be Russian subjects. Sir 
 Alexander Burnes was of opinion that there were not 130 
 Russian slaves in the entire Khanat. ‘ The Mahomedans,’ he 
 adds, f are not sensible of any offence in enslaving Russians, 
 since they state that Russia herself exhibits the example of a 
 whole country of slaves, particularly in the despotic government 
 of her soldiery. “ If we purchase Russians,” say they, “ the 
 Russians buy the Kuzzaks on our frontier, who arc Mahomedans, 
 
BOKHARA — RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 291 
 
 and they tamper with these people by threats, bribery, and 
 hopes, to make them forsake their creed, and become idolaters.” ’ 
 There is a wide difference, however, between proceedings of 
 this kind, and the seizure by force of inoffensive individuals, 
 and selling them like cattle or chattels. 
 
 The city that ranks in importance next to the capital, 
 though now an appanage of the Russian empire, is the far- 
 famed Samarkand, the Maracanda of the Macedonians and the 
 scene of the odious murder of Kleitus. It is favourably men- 
 tioned by the Buddhist pilgrim Iliouen Tsang, by the name of 
 Samokien, as inhabited by a brave, energetic people, skilful in 
 the arts, and a model for neighbouring countries. In the 
 seventh century it was the entrepot of the world, and much 
 frequented by caravans. Sir John Mandeville also refers to 
 the quantity of silk produced in this valley, and declares that it 
 was so abundant that in Sumar-margo, as he calls the city, it 
 was sold at the rate of 401 bs. for ten francs. 
 
 Samarkand is nearly quadrangular, and is surrounded with 
 a wall pierced for six gates. It covers more ground than 
 Bokhara, though the population prior to the Russian annexation 
 was probably not much over 30,000. The citadel, also, is more 
 imposing than the Ark at that city, and the mosques and 
 colleges, built of white marble, are much superior in apj^ear- 
 ance. The ruined palace of Tim our stands outside the walls, 
 but his jasper tomb, beneath a lofty dome inlaid with agates, is 
 still the chief object of curiosity within the town. The gardens 
 around are extremely productive, being watered by numerous 
 canals and tanks filled from the gold-scattering Kohik. There 
 is likewise an observatory erected by Timour’s grandson, 
 Ooloogh Beg. The manufacture of paper from silk was intro- 
 duced into Europe from Samarkand, but the invention seems to 
 have been due to the Chinese. 
 
 In the time of the Khalifs, this city was a Metropolitan See 
 
292 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 of the Nestorian Christians. By Chinghiz Khan Samarkand 
 was sacked and demolished, and 30,000 of the inhabitants 
 were distributed as slaves among his chief officers. Under 
 Timour, however, it more than recovered its ancient prosperity, 
 and became for a time the capital of his empire, and was em- 
 bellished with several stately mosques, medressehs, and public 
 baths. Owing to the vicinity of excellent stone quarries, in 
 which captives from distant lands, and especially from India, 
 were constantly employed, even private houses were built of 
 durable materials, and favourably contrasted with the mud 
 hovels of Bokhara, Urghunj, and Khiva. 
 
 Towards the latter part of the sixteenth century, Samarkand, 
 previously an independent Oozbeg principality, was annexed to 
 Bokhara, by Abdoollah Khan, but was wrested by General 
 Kaufmann from that Khanat, in 1868, and has since then been 
 retained by the Russians. Prince Gortchakof, indeed, assured 
 Sir Alexander Buchanan, on' the 1st November, 1869, that it 
 was the desire of the Emperor to restore Samarkand to Bokhara, 
 ‘ but that there was some difficulty in ascertaining how this 
 could be done without a loss of dignity, and without obtaining 
 guarantees for the welfare of the populations which had accepted 
 the sovereignty of Russia.’ 
 
 Again, on the 13th July, 1870, the British ambassador at 
 St Petersburg informed Lord Granville that it was ITis 
 Imperial Majesty’s intention to * withdraw his troops from 
 Samarkand as soon as the Ameer of Bokhara fulfils his engage- 
 ments ; ’ and a little further on Sir Alexander explained that 
 the Ameer would be required ‘ not to appoint any one to the 
 government of Samarkand without General Kaufmann’s ap- 
 proval of the appointment being previously obtained, and by 
 his engaging to dismiss and punish the Governor so appointed, 
 if his conduct towards the subjects of the Emperor should give 
 occasion to just grounds of complaint. Under such an arrange- 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 293 
 
 ment, however,’ Sir Alexander remarks, * the real sovereignty 
 of the province will apparently remain in the hands of Russia.’ 
 It has been found simpler and more satisfactory — at least, to 
 Russia — to keep absolute possession of the city, which, from its 
 position on the upper waters of the Zarafshan, holds Bokhara, 
 as it were, in the palm of its hand. 
 
 On the caravan road from Samarkand to Herat and Kabul, 
 and about 85 miles to the north of the Amou, the once con- 
 siderable town of Karshee, or Nakhsheb, stands in the midst of 
 a fertile oasis, twenty-two miles in breadth, watered by the 
 river of Shulir-i-Subz. Beyond the belt of cultivation extends 
 on all sides a flat, desolate waste, inhabited only by lizards, 
 tortoises, and ants. Karshee is a long straggling town, of mean 
 flat- roofed houses, surrounded by three concentric walls full of 
 breaches, and defended by a mud fort, encircled by a wet moat. 
 It contains four medressehs, a covered bazaar, and two caravan- 
 serais, one of which is permanently occupied by Jews. The 
 population does not exceed 10,000. Cherries grow here to per- 
 fection, and fruit-trees and lofty poplars clothe the banks of the 
 stream until it is swallowed up by the sands of the desert. 
 
 The route to Herat crosses the Amou at Kherkee, a place 
 otherwise insignificant. Timour, however, preferred the pass- 
 age at Termedh, the Tami of Hiouen Tsang, a small town in a 
 state of decay, and which has never recovered from the ravages 
 inflicted by the Moghuls of Chiughiz Khan. It was here that 
 the bodies of the slain were ript up in the hope of finding 
 precious stones, because one old woman confessed that she had 
 swallowed a pearl of great price, — a statement verified on the 
 spot at the cost of her life. Between these two hamlets is the 
 ferry over against the village of Khoja Saleh, the extreme point 
 of the western boundary line between the territories of the 
 Ameers of Bokhara and Afghanistan. 
 
 It may hereafter prove matter for deep regret that the 
 
294 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 British Government did not insist upon the line of demarkation 
 being carried due west from that point to the Persian frontier, 
 as the eagerness of the Russian Government to keep Merv out- 
 side of the ywasi-neutral zone is calculated to excite suspicions 
 of ulterior designs, prejudicial to the security of the Afghan 
 dominions at their most accessible and vulnerable point. The 
 reason assigned for objecting to Merv being included within the 
 frontiers of the Ameer Shere Ali, that the country of the 
 Toorkomans, in which that town is situated, is becoming com- 
 mercially important, cannot be accepted as a serious argument 
 for handing it over to the feeble sway of the ruler of Bokhara, 
 a mere tool or pageant in the hands of Russia. However, it 
 now onty remains to watch with a jealous eye the exercise of 
 Russian influence in that direction. If Herat be the gate of 
 India, Merv is the key of that gate. 
 
 According to Sir Alexander Burnes, the Amou, at Khoja 
 Saleh, was, in the month of June, 800 yards in width, and 
 twenty in depth, with a current running at the rate of three-and- 
 a-half miles per hour. The ferry-boat was drawn across by a 
 pair of horses, one fastened to each bow by a rope attached to 
 his mane, and the reins playing loose. 
 
 About eight miles westward of Bokhara, is the little town 
 of Shuhr-Islam, which claims the honour of being the first place 
 in Mawaralnahr to renounce idolatry for faith in Islam. It is 
 also said to have been the favourite residence of the fabled 
 Afrasiab. In the oft-quoted words of Firdousi, 
 
 ‘ The spider weaves its web in the palace of Caesar : 
 
 The owl stands sentinel upon the watch-tower of Afrasiab.’ 
 
 On leaving Bokhara, Sir Alexander Burnes took a south- 
 westerly course towards Charjui, and crossed the Amou whero 
 it was only 650 yards in width, but from twenty-five to twenty- 
 nine feet in depth, flowing between depressed banks, overgrown 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 295 
 
 with rank vegetation. A kind of dogfish, eaten by the Oozbegs, 
 and weighing as much as 500 lbs., is caught in this part of the 
 river. Six miles on the other side of the Amou he came to 
 the town of Charjui, with a population of four to five thousand 
 souls, standing on the verge of both culture and desolation. In 
 the bazaar were to be seen knives, saddles, bridles, and horse- 
 cloths of native manufacture, while European industry was 
 represented by beads, chintz skull caps, lanterns, ewers, and 
 copper pots. Business was transacted chiefly on horseback, 
 many even of the vendors being mounted, and no women were 
 seen abroad. A strong garrison was usually stationed here, to 
 repress the incursions of the Khivans. 
 
 Also in a south-westerly direction from Bokhara the well- 
 peopled town of Karakul is situated near the Denghiz, or large 
 lake,* which forms the termination of the Kohik. Cultivation 
 extends in this direction not more than thirty miles from the 
 capital, and year by year the desert encroaches upon the habit- 
 able lands. If Baron Meyendorf be a true prophet, ‘ the rich 
 and smiling oases of Bokhara will one day become sterile and 
 waste like those of Sejistan, whose ancient fertility is attested by 
 superb ruins, and which are now covered with sand and gravel.’ 
 
 Independently of these towns there are several hamlets con- 
 sisting of three or four hundred houses, and many smaller 
 villages hidden away in luxuriant orchards, not unfrequently 
 encircled by a crenelated wall, flanked with towers, though 
 occasional!}- it is only the gardens that are so defended. A 
 village is generally an aggregation of perhaps a hundred small 
 detached houses made of earth, and separated from each other 
 by narrow lanes. The centre is occupied by a well, or tank, 
 and no village stands far from a canal. 
 
 Since the death of Xadir Shah the provinces of Shuhr-i- 
 
 * The water of this lake, which is 25 miles in length and fed only by fresh- 
 water streams, is decidedly brackish. 
 
296 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Subz and Hissar have been virtually independent, being 
 governed by Oozbeg chiefs with whose quite nominal allegiance 
 the rulers of Bokhara have been constrained to content them- 
 selves. The former State contains the hamlet of Kish, Timour’s 
 birth-place, and is divided into the three begships of Shurh, 
 Kitab, and Yakobak. The population is computed at 46,000 
 inhabitants, scattered among fift 3 r -three villages. It produces 
 cotton of good quality, and several kinds of dyes. 
 
 In ancient times 'travellers from Bokhara or Samarkand 
 journeying to Balkh were accustomed to bear away to the east- 
 ward, traversing the rugged, precipitous range of mountains 
 through which the only pass was that called Kohluga, or the 
 Iron Grate. This route has long since been disused, caravans 
 now turning the flank of the mountains and proceeding by way 
 of Karshee. 
 
 Of the petty state of Hissar there is little to be said, except 
 that to the old Mohammedan writers it was known as Sha- 
 ghanian. It is a hilly, but not mountainous district, and in the 
 plains rice is successfully cultivated, indicating a plentiful 
 supply of water. The modern capital, or fortress, stands fifty 
 miles further to the westward than the former city of Hissar, a 
 word signifying a fort, from which the province subsequently 
 received its name. 
 
 In the army of Xerxes, the Sogdians were ranged with the Par- 
 thians, Chorasmians, Gardanians,and Hadicae, and were equipped 
 in the Bactrian fashion, with short spears, bows and arrows made 
 of cane, and a head-dress similar to the Median. In the Zen- 
 davesta their country is called (^ugdha, and by Mohammedan 
 writers the Valley of Soghd. In the time of the Macedonian 
 conquest the town of Maracanda became the temporary residence 
 of Alexander the Great, after the demolition of Cyropolis and 
 apparent subjugation of the Bactrians and Sogdians. There is 
 reason to believe that the original inhabitants belonged to tho 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 297 
 
 great Tnclo-Persian race, and also that they were subject to the 
 short-lived Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Subsequently they passed 
 under the yoke of the Chinese invaders, and of all the successive 
 hordes that moved down from the north-east, settling in Central 
 Asia but overflowing even into Europe. 
 
 In the words of Colonel Yule ( Ocean Highways, April, 1873) 
 
 ‘ we dimly see empires centred there, waxing and waning, and 
 extending sometimes to the delta of the Indus, or to the frontier 
 of China Proper, and coining now and again into collision with 
 Sassanian Persia. But what kind of civilization they had 
 reached, we know not. Perhaps remains of their cities, or cities 
 still older, may yet become accessible, and throw light on the 
 obscure history. A break in the clouds shows us at one period 
 the broad and clay-stained surface of the Oxus reflecting the 
 gleam of gilded pagodas and images of tranquil colossi, with the 
 painted masts and bar-floating banners that characterize a 
 Buddhist country. And thus we gather that a company of 
 Buddhist monks had established their convent amid the reeds 
 and wild-ducks of the Sogdian swamps, as other monks did 
 among those of Ely or Glastonbury. And the very name of 
 IIolv Bokhara, in modern times ‘practically the spiritual centre 
 of Islamism,’ remains a tide-mark in the remote north-west of 
 that strange power of Indian religion, whose traces are found 
 in a diametrically opposite direction as far as Ternate and 
 Tidore. To Buddhism must have belonged the idolatrous sculp- 
 tures which continued to adorn the gates of the mosques of 
 Bokhara for three centuries after the conquest.’ 
 
 ‘But Buddhism was not the only faith that Islam had to 
 extinguish in Bokhara. That of Zoroaster maintained a more 
 obstinate resistance. Long after the conquest, the nominal and 
 enforced converts continued to cherish the worship of their 
 fathers under the shelter of night, insomuch that ever)' native 
 family was compelled to receive an Arab inmate, whose duty 
 
298 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 was to watcli against such backslidings. And among the few 
 antiquities of Bokhara survives a monument of those days, re- 
 calling the subterranean church of St Clement on the Esquiline, 
 an underground mosque bearing the name of the mosque of the 
 Magians.’ Christianity was more than tolerated, and during 
 the Middle Ages it was currently reported in Europe that the 
 Tatars were Christians, and that Prester John was the Cham 
 of Tatary. 
 
 Early in the eighth century all Mawaralnahr, or the 
 country to the east of the river Jyhoon, was converted to Islam- 
 ism and governed from Khorassan. Under the Samanian 
 djmasty Mawaralnahr not only became independent, but 
 attained to as high a degree of civilization as then prevailed 
 even in Europe. The Seljoukian period was scarcely less 
 favourable, but in the early part of the thirteenth century the 
 Moghuls broke loose from their native pastures on the Ala-tagh 
 range, and devastated both Central and Western Asia. During 
 the interval of 150 years that intervened between the desolating 
 reigns of Chinghiz and Timour thirty feeble princes followed 
 one another in rapid succession, and left no trace behind them, 
 though in their case uneventfulness was by no means synonym- 
 ous with modest beneficence. Their respective reigns, however 
 brief, were marked with oppression, bloodshed, and anarchy. 
 
 Under Timour, whatever might have been the condition of 
 the rest of Asia westward to the Mediterranean and the Helles- 
 pont, Bokhara and Samarkand recovered much of their former 
 splendour, though they never attained to stable prosperity. The 
 descendants of Timour, like those of Chinghiz, were only re- 
 markable for their incapacity, with the exception of Baber, 
 whose early misfortunes were more than compensated by the 
 magnificent triumphs of his later career. 
 
 The Oozbegs were the next masters of Transoxiaua, and in 
 the sixteenth century Abdoollah Khan caused his reign of forty- 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 299 
 
 two years to become the standard of all that is good and great 
 on the part of an absolute monarch. With that glorious excep- 
 tion, however, the Oozbegs failed to rise to the height of their 
 opportunity, and were more anxious to institute a number of 
 petty independent states than to establish an empire. 
 
 About the year 1784 the Manghit family rose to power. 
 This clan originally came from the north-east of Mongolia with 
 Chinghiz Khan, and settled on the left bank of the Amou, in 
 the district now occupied by the Kliivan Kara-Kalpaks. They 
 were at all times distinguished for their valour, but the first to 
 make unto himself a name was the Ameer Maassoum, son of 
 Ameer Daniel, called by his father Beggie Jan, and at a later 
 period Shah Mourad, or King’s Wish. This crafty and perhaps 
 half-crazy adventurer obtained the throne of Bokhara partly by 
 force of character, but still more through his affectation of 
 extreme asceticism. 
 
 The nominal king was Abdool Ghazee Khan, in whose name 
 Beggie Jan at first pretended to govern, but, as always happens 
 in such cases, the too powerful minister was at length almost 
 compelled by circumstances to assume the insignia as well as 
 the power of royalty. Personally he made great parade of 
 humility, and seemed never so happy as when surrounded by 
 the most learned doctors of the Mohammedan law, whom he 
 often sorely perplexed by the ingenuity of his inquiries. He 
 always purchased and cooked his own provisions, though his 
 cooking utensils comprised only an iron cauldron, a wooden 
 bowl, and some earthen pots. He insisted, too, upon waiting 
 upon his guests, who sometimes found it difficult to swallow the 
 abominable food placed before them, and the most menial offices 
 he performed for himself. His dress consisted of an old dirty 
 green mantle of camel’s hair, patched in many places, and the 
 only animal he would bestride was a donkey, which he rode 
 without a saddle. He invariably spoke of himself in the third 
 
300 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 person as ‘The Fakeer,’ though his subjects took care to 
 address him as ‘ His Excellency the Lord of Beneficence.’ 
 
 With regard to the due observance of the ceremonies of 
 religion, Beggie Jan was pitilessly severe. He revived the 
 obsolete office of Reis-i-Sheriat, or Guardian of the Law, whose 
 duty it was to patrol the streets with a body of police furnished 
 with four-thonged scourges, which were laid on to all who 
 failed to recite the Farz-ool-ain, or whose turban was without 
 the orthodox kesek, or balls of earth. Small delinquencies were 
 visited with terrible punishments, while death was the penalty 
 for theft or robbery, and for a second offence in smoking, 
 drinking, or neglecting the mosque. Though he himself lived 
 so meanly, the officers of his court displayed great magnificence 
 and even extravagance. 
 
 Shah Mourad reduced beneath his sway all the country be- 
 tween the Syr and the Amou, and also made himself master of 
 Merv, deporting the inhabitants to Bokhara and Samarkand. 
 Finding Meshed too strong for him, he declared that the Imam 
 Reza appeared to him in a dream and bade him spare the place 
 in honour of his tomb. It is said that he could levy a force of 
 60,000 horsemen, and M. Yamhery speaks of him as the last 
 Tooranian prince who invaded Iran sword in hand. Possibly 
 the strife might have been prolonged had not the Empress 
 Catharine II. invaded Persia from the Caspian Sea, and diverted 
 the Shah, Aga Mohammed Khan, the founder of the present 
 dynasty, from chastising the insolence of the Ameer who had 
 called him Akta Khan, or Eunuch Khan. The Shah, however, 
 wrote the Ameer a letter exhorting him to moderation and 
 peace. * We all of us,’ so the letter ran, ‘owe thanks to God 
 the Almighty, that lie hath given the dominion over Turan 
 and Iran, over Rum, Rus, China, and India, to the exalted 
 family of Turk. Let each be content with the position that 
 hath fallen to him, and not stretch out his hand over the frontier 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 301 
 
 of his own kingdom. I also will dwell in peace within the 
 ancient boundaries of Iran, and none of us will pass over the 
 Oxus.’ 
 
 Beersrie Jan never himself assumed the title of Khan. On 
 his chair was engraven the style he affected to adopt — ‘ Ameer 
 Maassoum, the son of the Ameer Daniel,’ — encircled with this 
 characteristic maxim, * Tower and dignity when founded on 
 justice are from God ; when not, from the devil.’ Ilis death 
 took place in 1802, and he was succeeded by his son the Ameer 
 Syud Hyder Towra, who lived and died a Mollah. 
 
 Syud Hyder’s son, Nusser Oollah Bahadoor Khan, ascended 
 the throne in 1826, and was suspected of having poisoned his 
 father and five brothers. In stature he did not exceed five feet 
 six inches, but was stout for his height. He had small black 
 eyes and a swarthy complexion, and the muscles of his face at 
 times twitched convulsively. lie spoke rapidly and vehemently, 
 but when listening to others he framed his lips to a forced 
 smile. Though at the verj r outset of his reign he deprived the 
 Mollahs of the excessive influence they had exercised under his 
 father and grandfather, he himself usually dressed as one. 
 
 Nusser Oollah is described as a vainglorious, cruel, cunning, 
 profligate prince, who fancied himself superior to all his 
 neighbours because he looked down upon the Afghans, and yet 
 they had succeeded in destroying a British army. In the early 
 part of his reign he was guided by the wise counsels of his 
 Kooshbegie, Hakeem Beyk, but this prudent minister was, 
 after a while, supplanted by Abdool Samut Khan, a fugitive 
 from Kabul, whose counsels proved most pernicious. 
 
 In 1838 Colonel Stoddart, a brave but imperious and over- 
 bearing soldier, was sent to Bokhara from Teheran by Sir John 
 McNeil, and seems to have acted imprudently in giving some 
 sort of assurance that he would very shortly be accredited to 
 that court by the British Government. Fourteen months hav- 
 
302 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 ing elapsed without any letters of credence arriving from Eng- 
 land, the Colonel was thrown into prison and so barbarously 
 treated that his nervous system gave way, and he was prevailed 
 upon to profess faith in Islam in the hope of saving his life. 
 General Ferrier states that he could have left Bokhara in com- 
 pany with M. Kanikof, but that he was too proud to owe his 
 life to Russian intercession. If this be so, he betrayed a strange 
 inconsistency in renouncing his religion for the sake of that 
 which he scorned to accept under an obligation to a friendly 
 and Christian Government. 
 
 Greater sympathy, however, is generally felt for the gallant, 
 kindly, gentle Captain Conolly, who was despatched from Kabul 
 to Khiva in 1840, and thence proceeded to Khokan by way of 
 Jizak, carefully avoiding Bokhara. In an evil hour he subse- 
 quently trusted himself to a safe-conduct from Nusser Oollah, 
 and visited that prince at his urgent request when encamped at 
 Mehrem, not far from Khokan. Notwithstanding the Ameer’s 
 assurances, he was seized, plundered, and carried off to Bokhara, 
 where he was thrown into the same dungeon with his unfortun- 
 ate fellow-countryman. 
 
 They were both executed on the 17th June, 1842, but 
 accounts vary as to the manner of their death. M. Vambery 
 affirms that they were put to death in an open place, but Major 
 Abbott declares that Colonel Stoddart was bastinadoed on the 
 feet till the skin peeled off, and being carried back to prison 
 was secretly murdered in the night, his throat being cut and 
 his head severed from his body. Captain Conolly, lie adds, 
 was led before the Ameer and promised his life if he would 
 abjure Christianity, and on his firm refusal was taken back to 
 prison, where he met his fate at night by the hands of a differ- 
 ent executioner. 
 
 Dr Wolff is more circumstantial — perhaps, too much so. 
 According to his informants, Captain Conolly was dragged to 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 303 
 
 the place of execution, exclaiming in Persian, ‘Woe to me! 
 Woe to me ! Woe to me ! that I have fallen into the hands of 
 a tyrant.’ In another place he states that Stoddart and Conolly 
 were taken to a spot at the back of tho Ark, where they kissed 
 each other, and the former said to Makhram Saadut : * Tell the 
 Ameer that I die a disbeliever in Mohammed, but a believer in 
 Jesus — that I am a Christian, and a Christian I die.’ Conolly 
 then turned to his companion and said : ‘ Stoddart, we shall see 
 each other in Paradise, near Jesus ; ’ but Dr Wolff omits to ex- 
 plain in what language this remark was made. At such a 
 moment an Englishman would naturally express himself in his 
 mother tongue, especially in addressing a fellow-countryman, 
 and in that case what he said would have been perfectly un- 
 intelligible to the bystanders. The statement seems quite as 
 apocryphal as that relating to his woeful ejaculations. 
 
 When the heads of the victims were laid at the feet of the 
 Ameer and the Kazee Kelaun, or Chief Civil Magistrate, a 
 Dervish lifted up his voice and said : ‘ The blood of these mur- 
 dered men shall cry up to the Most High against you ! ’ a 
 malediction that brought upon the utterer the bastinado and 
 banishment. The heads and bodies of the English officers were 
 then thrown down a well, and, when the people heard of these 
 things many of them wept and said, ‘ A great calamity will be- 
 fall the country by reason of this murder.’ The Jews beat 
 their breasts, and evinced their sorrow in a demonstrative man- 
 ner. The Ameer himself afterwards regretted the rash and 
 unjust act, and often murmured that nothing prospered with 
 him after he put the Franks to death. It must be admitted 
 that for a sovereign who had assumed as his favourite maxim 
 the motto ‘ Truth and Equity,’ his entire conduct with refer- 
 ence to these unfortunate Englishmen was open to grave re- 
 prehension. 
 
 A few years previous to this shocking outrage another 
 
304 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 officer of the Indian army, Lieutenant Wyburd, had also 
 perished miserably within the territories of this hateful prince. 
 M. Yambery, indeed, declares that he died in the desert in con- 
 sequence of the violent treatment he experienced at the hands 
 of the Khivans; hut Dr Wolff, while acknowledging that he 
 had been knocked down and rifled by robbers, insists that he 
 escaped to Bokhara, where he was cast into the Black Well 
 and subsequently had his throat cut on his scornful refusal to 
 renounce Christianity and enter the Ameer’s service. Three 
 other Europeans, Giovanni Orlando, a watchmaker, Flores 
 Naselli, and a Greek named Joseph, were likewise done to 
 death in this reign. 
 
 The disasters of the British army at Kabul averted from 
 Nusser Oollah the punishment his crimes so justly merited, nor 
 were his own subjects successful in their attempts to break his 
 galling yoke from off their necks. In 1840 a conspiracy had 
 been formed for that purpose, but its onlj r result was the execu- 
 tion of forty individuals suspected of being implicated. The 
 tyrant was at least consistent with himself to the end. His last 
 public act was to cause one of his wives, who had borne him 
 two children, to be decapitated in his presence, because her 
 brother had rebelled against him. 
 
 In 1841 Nusser Oolah Bakadoor Khan made war upon 
 Khokan, whose ruler, Mohammed Ali, was of a gentle disposi- 
 tion and had shown great partiality for the society of Captain 
 Conolly, but he was also weak and too much addicted to love 
 and wine. He was consequently defeated in battle, and com- 
 pelled not only to cede Khojend but to acknowledge the 
 suzerainty of Bokhara. Having again appealed to arms he 
 was again worsted, made prisoner, and put to death. His 
 capital was given up to pillage and massacre for twenty-four 
 hours, his family and favourites slaughtered, and his pregnant 
 widow ripped open. In 1843 the people of Khokan re-asserted 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 305 
 
 their independence, and, electing as their Khan their late 
 monarch’s nephew, Shere Ali, repulsed the Bokharian army 
 and were never again overcome by Nusser Oollah. 
 
 This restless prince next meditated the reduction of the 
 province of Shuhr-i-Subz, but Dr 'Wolff, according to his own 
 account, caused timely intelligence to be conveyed to the Go- 
 vernor, who cut the dams and inundated the country. That 
 eccentric missionary further states that he was told by Abdool 
 Saamut Khan that Nusser Oollah was advised by the Russian 
 envoy to declare war against Khokan, in the expectation that 
 the latter State would apply to the Government of St Peters- 
 burg for protection, and the event justified this anticipation. 
 If this be true, it is not surprising that the Ameer should have 
 afterwards shown scant courtesy to Major Boutenief. 
 
 His contempt for the English may partly be due to the 
 shabby presents sent to him by Colonel Sheil, and which were 
 almost an insult. They consisted of a silver watch and two 
 pieces of cloth, altogether not worth above £6. He seems, 
 however, to have had an ear for English music, his band play- 
 ing our national anthem. The performers, it turned out, were 
 deserters from Runjeet Singh’s service, and had picked up the 
 air from the British soldiers. 
 
 Nusser Oollah’s successor, Mozuffar-ood-deen, found himself, 
 on his very accession to the throne, involved in difficulties not 
 of his own making, but not the less hard to overcome. He was, 
 almost from the commencement of his reign, engaged in hos- 
 tilities with Khokan, from which he won no laurels, but by 
 which he became entangled in the most fatal complications. 
 As so often happens in the last agonies of an expiring kingdom, 
 the people of Khokan had split into two great parties, hotly 
 opposed to one another. The northern division, from Uratupeh 
 to Tashkend, was governed by Khoda Yar Khan, who was at 
 enmity with Russia ; while the southern division from TJsh to 
 
 20 
 
306 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Mehrem was held by Khoda Yar’s younger brother Shah 
 Mourad, supported by the Kipchaks. It was with Khoda Yar 
 Khan that Mozuffar-ood-deen threw in his lot, and thus brought 
 down upon himself the heavy hand of the White Tzar. 
 
 Ever since 1847 the Russians had been steadily pushing 
 forward their stations from Orenberg to the Jaxartes. In that 
 year three forts were erected which gave them the entire con- 
 trol of the steppe, and effectually bridled the wandering tribes, 
 though they at first discountenanced the inclination to settle 
 down to agricultural pursuits displayed by the Kirghiz, lest 
 the latter should give up the breeding of cattle and so diminish 
 the supplies necessary for the military occupation of those in- 
 hospitable wastes. Fort Aralsk, now Fort 1, was established at 
 the mouth of the Syr in 1847-48, and two armed steamers pro- 
 ceeded up that river to a considerable distance. In 1853 the 
 fortress of Ak Musjeed, now Fort Perofsk 3 r , after a vigorous 
 defence, was given up to the Russians by the present ruler of 
 Eastern Toorkestan, not without suspicions that its reduction 
 was facilitated by the same means that opened the gates of 
 Olynthus to Thilip of Macedon.* 
 
 During the Crimean war no progress could be expected, but 
 the apathy of Oriental States is illustrated by their neglect of 
 this opportunity to fall upon their common enemy at the 
 moment of his greatest weakness. Nothing, however, was 
 done to check the advance of Russia, and so early as 1854 a 
 Russian detachment, starting from Semipalatinsk, marched 
 southwards to the Balkash Lake, and so onward to the upper 
 
 * It is at least remarkable that the ‘ most heroic resistance ’ of Ak Musjeed 
 — to quote the official Gazette — should have cost the Russians only 25 men 
 killed, and 8 officers and 40 men wounded. Again, when Fort Perofsky was 
 besieged, a sortie was made but so stoutly met that the position of the Rus- 
 sians, according to their own account, became exceedingly critical. Rut how 
 ran ‘the butcher’s bill’? Of the enemy, 2000 slain— of the Russians, 13 
 killed and 49 wounded. 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 307 
 
 waters of the Ili, where they established a military station, 
 called Fort Yernoe, a little to the north of Issyk-Kul. From 
 this post they commanded the route from Khokan to Kulja, 
 and threatened the northern frontier of Toorkestan. 
 
 In 1863 Admiral Boutakof ascended the Syr to a point one 
 thousand miles from its embouchure, and in the following year 
 Chemkend, Toorkestan, and Aulietta were added to the line, of 
 advanced forts which Prince Gortcliakof, in his Circular of the 
 21st November, 1864, affirmed to be absolutely necessary for 
 the protection of the frontier tribes who had placed themselves 
 under the protection of Russia. This line, taken up with great 
 reluctance, produced a double result. 
 
 ‘ In the first place,’ his Excellency remarks, ‘ the country 
 it takes in is fertile, well wooded, and watered by numerous 
 water-courses ; it is partly inhabited by various Kirghiz tribes, 
 which have already accepted our rule ; it consequently offers 
 favourable conditions for colonization, and the supply of pro- 
 visions to our garrisons. In the second place, it puts us in the 
 immediate neighbourhood of the agricultural and commercial 
 populations of Kokand. We find ourselves in presence of a 
 more solid and compact, less unsettled, and better organized 
 social state ; fixing for us with geographical precision the limit 
 up to which we are bound to advance, and at which we must 
 halt, because, while, on the one hand, any further extension of 
 our ride, meeting, as it would, no longer with unstable com- 
 munities, such as the nomad tribes, but with more regularly 
 constituted states, would entail considerable exertions, and 
 would draw us from annexation to annexation with unforeseen 
 complications. On the other, with such states for our future 
 neighbours, their backward civilization, and the instability of 
 their political condition, do not shut us out from the hope that 
 the day may come when regular relations may, to the advantage 
 of both parties, take the place of the permanent troubles which 
 
308 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 have up to the present moment paralyzed all progress in those 
 countries.’ 
 
 In 1865 Tashkend was captured by General Tchernaief 
 with a mere handful of men and eight old guns, after a severe 
 struggle in the open field. For this officious conquest General 
 Tchernaief was recalled in (simulated) disgrace, and General 
 Romanofsky, who succeeded to the command of the forces in 
 Russian Toorkestan, was instructed to pacify and consolidate 
 the newly acquired territories, and to resist all temptations to 
 further aggrandisement. In that year MozufFar-ood-deen had 
 taken the imprudent step of marching to Khokan to place 
 Khoda Yar Khan upon the throne, and, not content with send- 
 ing a letter of defiance and menace to General Tchernaief, con- 
 fiscated all the property of Russian subjects he could lay hands 
 upon. By way of reprisal, the Russians seized upon the goods 
 of Bokhariot traders in Orenberg, and the Ameer had the 
 assurance to send an envoy to complain of this act of violence. 
 His messenger, however, got no further than Fort Kazali, now 
 Fort 2, where he was placed in confinement. A counter-mission 
 despatched by General Tchernaief to Bokhara was treated in 
 like manner, but not otherwise ill-treated. 
 
 The Russian General, avoiding Khojend, pushed on to Jizak 
 through a barren country, until he found himself in presence of a 
 force twenty times more numerous than his own. lie retreated, 
 however, in good order and without loss, and gave up the com- 
 mand to his successor, the olive-bearing Romanofsky. But 
 peace was at that juncture impossible. The Oozbcgs, after a 
 series of smart skirmishes, had entrenched themselves at Chinaz 
 on the Syr, while Mozuffar-ood-deen took the field with 5000 
 regular troops, 35,000 Kirghiz, and 21 guns. 
 
 The two armies encountered each other on the 20th May, 
 1866, at Yirdjar, a few miles to the north of Khojend. Tlio 
 Russians had 20 guns, but only fourteen companies of infantry 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 309 
 
 and five squadrons of cavalry, tlaeir total force not exceeding 4000 
 men. The issue of the fight, however, was never for a moment 
 doubtful. The Bokharian irregulars were thrown into con- 
 fusion at the very outset by the well-served artillery of the 
 Russians, and a gallant charge drove the entire host into head- 
 long flight. Their camp and artillery fell into the hands of 
 the victors, who affirm that they counted 1000 dead bodies of 
 the enemy on the field of battle, while their own loss in killed 
 and wounded did not amount to fifty. 
 
 This brilliant success was followed up by the surrender of a 
 small fort called Nau, and after a siege of seven days the im- 
 portant town and fortress of Khojend was carried by escalade, 
 the garrison suffering a loss of 2500 men, while that of the 
 Russians is again reported to have been insignificant. Con- 
 vinced of the uselessness of any further resistance, Klioda Yar 
 Khan hastened to save what ) T et remained to him of his domin- 
 ions by accepting the hard terms imposed by the conqueror. 
 Not only did he acknowledge himself a vassal of the Tzar, but 
 he also ceded the valley of the Syr from Melirem, threw open 
 all his towns to Russian traders and residents, and undertook 
 the payment of an indemnity. 
 
 Untaught by the hitter experience of his neighbour and 
 ally, the Ameer of Bokhara, in 1866, proclaimed a Jihad, or 
 religious war, against the infidel, in the vain hope of rousing 
 the fanaticism of his subjects and of the nomad tribes of the 
 desert. The first consequence was Count Dashkof’s capture of 
 Uratupeh, and shortly afterwards of Jizak. In the following 
 year General Kaufmann made himself master of Yenghy Kur- 
 ghan, and on the 13th May, 1868, with only 8000 troops, de- 
 feated Mozuffar-ood-deen’s host of 40,000 men, drawn up on 
 the opposite hank of the Zarafshan. The rout was complete, 
 and the fugitives, on reaching the walls of Samarkand, found 
 the gates closed against them. That once beautiful and opulent 
 
310 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 city surrendered at discretion on tlie approach of the victorious 
 Russians, in whose hands it has ever since remained. 
 
 The Ameer fled to the Kermeeneh, and his eldest son 
 Abdool Malek Meerza to Bokhara, while General Kaufmann 
 followed upon the heels of the retreating army. Ketty Kur- 
 ghan submitted without firing a shot, and the final struggle 
 took place at Serpul, on the same ground that had witnessed 
 the defeat of Baber by Sheibani Khan and his Oozhegs. The 
 Ameer’s troops were advantageously posted, hut the Russians 
 stormed the heights in the most dashing manner, and the 
 existence of Bokhara as an independent kingdom was brought 
 to a close. 
 
 In the mean while, however, the feeble garrison left behind 
 in Samarkand was placed in a position of imminent danger. It 
 consisted of no more than 685 men, most of whom were on the 
 sick list, under the command of Baron Yon Stempel. This 
 little band was suddenly attacked by 25,000 Oozbegs and 
 Samarkandians, but resolutely maintained their post from the 
 12th to the 18th June, when they were relieved by General 
 Kaufmann, hut not before they had forty-nine of their number 
 killed and 172 wounded. 
 
 The Ameer now laid down his arms, opened his country to 
 the Russians, undertook to pay an indemnity, and agreed to 
 place Russian traders on the same footing as Mohammedans, 
 who are exempted by the Koran from paying a higher duty 
 than one in forty, or two and a half per cent. The fanatical 
 party, however, headed by Abdool Malek Meerza, were indig- 
 nant at the Ameer’s submission, and demanded his abdication 
 in favour of his eldest son, hut this movement was speedily 
 crushed by the Russians, who took possession of Karshee, the 
 stronghold of the rebels. The astonishment of the Ameer and 
 his subjects was unbounded when, on the third day after their 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 311 
 
 victorious entry, the Russians marched out again and restored 
 the town to its lawful sovereign. 
 
 There seems to he some doubt as to the ultimate fate of 
 Abdool Malek Meerza, beyond the fact of his marrying a 
 daughter of Shere Ali, the Ameer of Afghanistan. According 
 to M. Vambery, the prince either died in Khiva, or is a secret 
 guest of Yakoob Khan, the ruler of Eastern Toorkestan. In 
 1869 the Ameer sent his fourth and favourite son Abdool Fut- 
 teh Meerza, though only twelve years of age, to St Petersburg, 
 the bearer of nine presents as from an inferior, with the covert 
 hope of securing the recognition by the Russian government 
 of his claims as heir apparent. The incident was regarded by 
 Sir Alexander Buchanan as of sufficient importance tq be 
 notified to the Earl of Clarendon, at that time Secretary of 
 State for Foreign Affairs. The letter is dated St Petersburg, 
 October 19, 1869, from which the following extract is given in 
 the * Correspondence respecting Central Asia,’ presented to 
 parliament during the session of 1873. 
 
 * A mission from the Emir of Bokhara,’ the British ambas- 
 sador observes, * has arrived here, consisting of the fourth son 
 of the Emir, and other members of his family. The ostensible 
 object of this mission is said to be to give information to the 
 Emperor respecting the hostile intentions and intrigues of the 
 government of India and of the Afghans, but it is believed that 
 his principal object is to secure the succession of the throne 
 of Bokhara to the fourth and favourite son of the Emir. M. 
 de Westmann tells me that the mission is merely one of 
 courtesy, hut that it is true that the Emir is desirous that his 
 fourth son should be his successor, a question on which his 
 Excellency says the Russian government can have no interest.’ 
 Considering the very prompt and decided line of action adopted 
 by General Kaufmann in crushing the pretensions of the eldest 
 
312 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 son, it may be permissible to question the indifference of the 
 Tzar’s government with respect to the Ameer’s successor, 
 unless it be intended to reduce the Khan to a state of direct 
 vassalage, and to treat him as an hereditary governor of a pro- 
 vince, removable at the pleasure of his all-powerful masters. 
 
 Having thus established their power on a solid foundation 
 in the western portion of the frontier line between anarchy and 
 order, between barbarism and civilization, the Russians next 
 turned their attention to the eastward, and erected several forts 
 between Fort Vernoe and the northern borders of Eastern 
 Toorkestan. Nor did they rest contented with merely strength- 
 ening the line of demarcation drawn by Prince Gortchakof in 
 18G4, when it was thought necessary to offer some sort of 
 apology for the recent annexation of Tashkend. Emboldened 
 by success and the supineness of the European powers, the Rus- 
 sian government in 1871 seized upon Kulja without any sort of 
 provocation beyond the standing challenge of the fat lamb to 
 the ravening wolf, and without condescending to offer any 
 explanation of this additional illustration of the policy, to pro- 
 mote the interests of humanity and civilization, sketched in that 
 perspicuous circular. 
 
 In this place it may be worth while to trace the exact posi- 
 tion of Russia with reference to Khokan and Eastern Toor- 
 kestan previous to this last acquisition, as described by Mr 
 Robert Michell in his paper on the Jaxartcs or Syr Darya, 
 avowedly derived from Russian sources and published in the 
 Royal Geographical Society’s Journal, No. xxxviii. Mr Michell, 
 it should be premised, is by no means a Russophobist. He 
 does not hesitate to express his belief that ‘ the contributions to 
 science wdiich Russian officers and civilians have made since 
 they have been able to penetrate into the interesting regions of 
 Central Asia, are of greater value and importance than the 
 political side of the question as regards our Indian possessions.' 
 
BOKHARA RUSSIANIZED. 
 
 313 
 
 lie confesses his inability to perceive any material benefit likely 
 to accrue to Russia from accessions of territory in Central Asia, 
 and he is fully persuaded that the scientific results of her recent 
 extensions in that direction are superior to all other considera- 
 tions. 
 
 ‘ Those/ he adds, ‘ who form a correct estimate of the power 
 of the Russians to affect us in any way on the north-west fron- 
 tier of India, and who know the footing on which they stand 
 in relation to the Kliivans, Bokharians, Kokandians, and 
 nomads, entertain only a feeling of pleasure at the prospect of 
 comparative well-being now opening before the degraded 
 fanatics of those regions, and they rejoice to see that a large 
 tract of the earth’s surface is being cleared of the dark shadows 
 which tyranny and barbarism have so long cast over it. TV ith 
 these feelings, on the other hand, is mingled a not altogether 
 unfounded suspicion that the position of the Russians in Central 
 Asia is extremely precarious. Their position in Turkestan is 
 so isolated, their means of communication with the mother 
 country so difficult, their forces in the province so slender, 
 whilst the races are so numerically overwhelming, and more- 
 over so mistrustful, treacherous, and fanatical, that they might 
 any day be overtaken by some great calamity.’ 
 
 Possibly, Mr Michell might now be willing to modify con- 
 victions so little justified by subsequent facts, but which were 
 shared by no less distinguished a personage than the late Sir 
 Roderick Murchison, who spoke in equally slighting terms of" a 
 Russian invasion of India. ‘ TVhen we consider,’ he said in his 
 annual address in 1868, ‘ that the Russian forces which have 
 now extended along the Syr Darya to Tashkend do not exceed 
 eight or ten thousand men in the remote provinces they have 
 brought into order, and that they are separated from their 
 great centre of suppl)'- by many wild and sterile countries, I 
 trust we may hear no more of this phantom.’ 
 
314 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 In 1868, as Mr Michell informs us, Russia possessed an 
 area of 143,000 square miles, along both banks of the Syr, 
 occupied by one million of inhabitants, in addition to a trian- 
 gular slice out of the territories of Bokhara and Khokan, her 
 possessions south of the Syr extending from Khojend and Fort 
 Chinaz to Samarkand. The Russian picket-posts formed one 
 continuous chain from Jizak, eighty miles south of Chinaz, to 
 Uratupeh, 135 miles to the south-east, skirting the base of the 
 Koura- tag'll range to the north of Bokhara. From Uratupeh 
 the line tended in a north-easterly direction to Khojend, passing 
 Fort Nau. Bokhara was thus entirely severed from Khokan, 
 and the old caravan route from Khiva to China intercepted 
 and commanded. 
 
 Again, Khojend, with its forty-five to fifty’- thousand in- 
 habitants, was connected by a series of military stations with 
 Tashkend, fifty-four miles to the northward, all the country west 
 of the Urtak-tagh being claimed by Russia in her capacity of pro- 
 tectrix of the nomad tribes. From Tashkend the line of posts 
 ran due north, sixty-seven miles, to Chemkend, and thence 
 through a mountain pass between the Kara-tagh and Alexan- 
 drofsky ranges to Aulietta, whence it passed along the northern 
 foot of the latter mountains to Fort Vernoe, which is now con- 
 nected by a short chain of stations with Kulja. In other words, 
 the Russian flag now waves over the whole of northern Asia 
 with the exception of Chinese Tatary. 
 
CHINESE TATARY. 
 
 315 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CHINESE TATARY. 
 
 FLOODS OK MIGRATION FROM TIIE NORTH-EAST — ZUNGARIA, OR SEMI- 
 PALATIXSK — FORT VERNoE — THE PROCESS OF ANNEXATION — INTER- 
 NECINE STRIFE BETWEEN THE BOGUS AND SARA-BOGUS TRIBES — HABITS 
 AND CUSTOMS OF THE KIRGHIZ — ATTACK UPON A CARAVAN — ISSYK-KUL 
 
 SEMIRECHINSK — THE ILI — ALMALIK — THE TRANS-XARYN DISTRICT — 
 
 KHANAT OF KHOKAN — CHIEF TOWNS — USH — RUSSIAN TOORKESTAN — 
 OTRAR. 
 
 From Chinese Tatary issued the migratory hordes that 
 overwhelmed and destroyed what little of Greco-Persian civil- 
 ization had taken root in the wide-spread regions stretching 
 westward to the high lands of Khorassan, and southward to the 
 Hindoo Koosh. From the contiguous steppes of Mongolia 
 moved the nomad tribes that, each in its turn, overwhelmed 
 the Chinese emigrants, and which, in the fulness of time, were 
 themselves borne down by other floods of population pouring 
 forth from the same inhospitable, but strangely populous regions. 
 It is, indeed, a problem worthy of a Colenso, to reconcile with 
 credibility the ordinarily accepted statements of the countless 
 myriads that are alleged at different periods to have swept over 
 Central and Western Asia. That their numbers were greatly 
 exaggerated by the abject terror of the conquered peoples, may 
 be fairly assumed, and it must not be forgotten that whole 
 nations, including women and children, flocks and herds, rather 
 than mere armies, were in motion — pressing onward like a 
 swarm of locusts, eating down every green thing in their way, 
 and, wherever they passed, creating a wilderness. 
 
310 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 It is related by Sir Alexander Burnes how, in the latter 
 part of the eighteenth century, a Kalmuk colony that had 
 migrated to the shores of the Black Sea, being dissatisfied with 
 their new settlement, set out in a stupendous column, three 
 days’ march in breadth, for their original home in the far 
 distant province of Kashgar. They numbered one hundred 
 thousand families, including the aged and infirm, children of 
 tender years, and babes in their mothers’ arms, and were accom- 
 panied by their flocks and herds, and whatever could walk or 
 be carried, — -an exceeding great multitude. Though harassed 
 by the Mussulmans throughout their long and tedious march, 
 1500 captives being made in Bokhara and sold as slaves, the 
 vast host pushed ever onwards until they reached their haven 
 of rest and security. This story is certainly hard to believe. 
 Taking a day’s march at fifteen miles, we have a column forty- 
 five miles in breadth passing like the breath of the simoom 
 over the immense tract of country that lies between the Baltic 
 and Eastern Toorkestan, traversing several mountain-ranges, 
 crossing streams of considerable magnitude, and finally arriving 
 at their destination with no greater diminution of their original 
 numbers than is made by the dashing onslaught of kites and 
 crows upon a cloud of locusts ‘ warping on the eastern wind.’ 
 
 This startling episode, however, is an exact type of the 
 more extensive and aggressive migrations of the Ilaiatilla, 
 Toork, Moghul, Tatar, and Oozbeg hordes that have successively 
 been propelled from the ‘ frozen loins ’ of the ‘ populous North,’ 
 and the question again and again recurs, How came these bar- 
 barians to multiply so fast in those dreary wilds ? whence did 
 they procure arms and even armour ? how did they maintain 
 themselves and their little ones and their four-footed accom- 
 paniments, while crossing the rugged mountains and barren 
 deserts that intervene between Bokharia and Mongolia ? 
 
 It is, of course, no new thing that a comparatively civilized 
 
CniNESE TATARY. 
 
 317 
 
 and disciplined soldier should be panic-stricken by the shrill, 
 piercing yells, the repulsive ugliness, even by the rude, ill- 
 shaped weapons, of untrained barbarians, ignorant of danger, 
 reckless of human life, and stimulated to frenzy by the presence 
 of their wives, their parents, and their children. And there is, 
 besides, good reason to believe that the ruling tribe, or ‘ govern- 
 ing classes,’ in the settled districts were ill supported by the 
 mass of the population whom they held in subjection. The 
 mere conquest, therefore, of these fertile and flourishing coun- 
 tries by the northern savages has in it nothing very extra- 
 ordinary, nor is there any cause to marvel at the celerity with 
 which the latter degenerated from their original fierceness, 
 and became an easy prey to the next horde that went forth 
 from the ancestral steppe in search of a fat and pleasant land. 
 
 The real subject of wonder is the fact, if it be a fact, that 
 the scanty pastures of Mongolia should have been so much more 
 prolific of human life in the olden than in the present times. 
 The seemingly immeasurable extent of those grazing lands was 
 well described by Defoe, when he makes his immortal hero, 
 Robinson Crusoe, remark : ‘ We were now launched into the 
 greatest piece of solid earth, if I understand anything of the 
 surface of the globe, that is to be found in any part of the 
 world ; we had at least 1200 miles to the sea eastward ; 2000 
 to the bottom of the Baltic Sea, westward ; and above 3000 if 
 we left that sea and went on west to the British and French 
 Channels ; we had full 5000 miles to the Indian and Persian 
 Sea, south ; and about 800 to the Frozen Sea, north. Nay, if some 
 people may be believed, there might be no sea north-east till we 
 came round the pole, and consequently into the north-west, and 
 so had a continent of land into America, the Lord knows where.’ 
 
 Truly, a mighty tract of dry land, but, one would say, 
 capable of supporting only a thin and scattered population, 
 living on the produce of their flocks and herds. A purely 
 
313 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 pastoral people naturally requires a far larger area than 
 one that looks chiefly to agriculture for its sustenance, and 
 society is divided, after the patriarchal fashion, into families, 
 and groups of families, rather than into the confused but 
 coherent aggregations of individuals that constitute towns and 
 cities. These families, no doubt, quarrelled and disputed with 
 one another, and fought together and harried each others’ flocks 
 and herds, as in the days when Abram the Hebrew dwelt in 
 the plain of Mamre, and when the five kings, or khans, went 
 forth to join battle with the four. 
 
 Indeed, the sole occupation of the men as artificers appears 
 to have been to extract iron from the ore, and forge weapons of 
 war, and occasionally defensive armour. In Mongolia the main 
 difficulty to he overcome must have been the scarcity of fuel, 
 hut it is clear that they did contrive to fabricate their own 
 arms, and that armourers and blacksmiths were held in fair 
 esteem. M. Yambery states on the authority of Juvaini, that 
 the original name of Chinghiz Khan was Temourjee, or Black- 
 smith, and not Temoucheen, as it is commonly written, and it is 
 undisputed that he belonged to the Moghul aristocracy. But, 
 after making due allowance for the exaggerated estimates of 
 numbers to be expected from the conquered, and for the natural 
 proneness of mankind to the marvellous, it can hardly be ques- 
 tioned that the province of Semipalatinsk and the adjacent dis- 
 tricts -were far more densely peopled in the days of yore than in 
 our own time. 
 
 The ancient kingdom of Zungaria, extinguished by the 
 Chinese about the middle of the 18th century, now constitutes 
 the Russian district of Semipalatinsk, and, according to M. 
 Semenof, incloses the centre of the Asiatic continent, the 
 gigantic mountain group of the Tengri Tagh. This region, 
 observes that eminent geographer, ‘ has served from time im- 
 memorial as the point of departure for migrating races from 
 
CHINESE TATARY. 
 
 310 
 
 the high lands of Asia, the cradle from whence they sprang, to 
 the low and arid steppes of the Aralo-Caspian depression, and 
 the still more distant and better favoured regions of the west. 
 It was here, namely in Dzungaria, and on the fertile and smiling 
 banks of the Hi and Irtysh, that the migrating hordes lingered 
 for some time, loth, as it were, to venture out into the unknown 
 plain before them, stretching far away in the sandy ocean that 
 separates Europe from Asia, until a new tide of popular migra- 
 tion forced them at last to strike their tents and depart west- 
 wards from their mountainous halting grounds.’ 
 
 Early in the present century the Russian traveller Madatof, 
 starting from Semipalatinsk, struck away due south, skirting 
 the Balkash Lake and Issyk-Kul, and crossing the Tian Shan, 
 or Celestial Mountains, traversed the country now called Eastern 
 Toorkestan, and finally reached India. The snow-clad Zun- 
 o-arian Ala-tagdi may be said to have been unknown to science 
 until within the last fifty years, but has since been explored by 
 the astronomer Federof and other scientific travellers. 
 
 The district was occupied for the most part by two powerful 
 clans, the Buruts or Kirghiz proper, and the Kirghiz Kuzzaks 
 of the Great Ilorde. In 1844 the latter tribe submitted to 
 Russia, which then formally annexed and created the Semi- 
 palatiusk district. In order to protect these new tributaries 
 against their independent and troublesome neighbours, Go- 
 vernor-General Prince Gortchakof founded the military settle- 
 ment of Kopal on a fertile plateau, at the base of a snow-capt 
 spur of the Ala-tagh range. 
 
 Russian factories were shortly afterwards established at 
 Kulja and Chuguchak, though both of those towns were actually 
 situated within the Chinese frontier, and prepared the way for 
 future annexation. Kopal soon became a place of some com- 
 mercial importance, but failed to bridle the Buruts, as the 
 Chinese call the tribe known to the Russians as the Dikokam- 
 
320 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 enni Kirghiz. General Hasford, therefore, resolved to occupy 
 the whole of the Trans-Ilian district, in order to secure the 
 flank of the Kirghiz steppe, and in 1854 this work was com- 
 pleted by General Peremvshelsky, who passed that winter with 
 his detachment in the sheltered valley of the Talgar. In the 
 following year General Hasford erected Fort Yernoe at the 
 base of the Trans-Ilian Ala-tagh, at the head of the Almatynka 
 valley, which is described as ‘ picturesquely wooded with apple 
 and apricot trees.’ 
 
 ‘ The occupation of the fertile Trans-Ili region,’ M. Seme- 
 nof remarks, as interpreted by Mr Micheli, ‘ well adapted for 
 agricultural and gardening purposes, and in all respects beau- 
 tifully endowed by nature, had the effect of protecting the 
 Great Horde from the attacks of the B units, hut placed its 
 nearest tribes in the same position as that occupied ten years 
 previously by the Great Kirghiz Horde.’ For instance, the 
 Bogus tribe inhabiting the picturesque valleys and table-land 
 between the Thian Shan and the Trans-Ilian Ala-tagh, were 
 subject to frequent inroads from their fierce neighbours, the 
 Sara Bogus, and applied in vain for help to the Chinese govern- 
 ment, on whom they were nominally dependent. In despair 
 they at length had recourse to General Hasford, who despatch- 
 ed a detachment from Fort Yernoe to Issyk-Kul, with orders to 
 survey the country and enforce tranquillity. 
 
 The Russian troops on this occasion were recalled before 
 they had penetrated to any great distance into the interior of 
 the mountains, hut the case precisely illustrates the position of 
 Russia in Central Asia as described and deplored by Trince 
 Gortchakof in his circular of 1864. ‘It always happens,’ his 
 Excellency observes, ‘ that when civilized states are brought 
 into contact with half-savage, nomad populations, possessing no 
 fixed social organization, they are forced by the necessity of 
 guarding their frontier and their commercial relations, to 
 
CniNESE TATARY. 
 
 321 
 
 exercise a certain ascendancy over those whom their turbulent 
 and unsettled character make most undesirable neighbours. 
 First, there are raids and acts of pillage to be put down. To 
 put a stop to them the tribes on the frontier have to be reduced 
 to a state of more or less perfect submission. 
 
 * This result once attained, these tribes take to more peaceful 
 habits, but are in their turn exposed to the attacks of the more 
 distant tribes. 
 
 ‘ The State is bound to defend them against these depreda- 
 tions, and to punish those who commit them. lienee the 
 necessity of distant, costly, and periodically recurring expedi- 
 tions against an enemy whom his social organization makes it 
 impossible to seize. If, the robbers once punished, the expe- 
 dition is withdrawn, the lesson is soon forgotten ; its withdrawal 
 is put down to weakness. It is a peculiarity of Asiatics to 
 respect nothing but visible and palpable force ; the moral force 
 of reason and of the interests of civilization has as yet no hold 
 upon them. The work has then always to be done over again 
 from the beginning. 
 
 ‘ In order to put a stop to this state of permanent disorder, 
 fortified posts are established in the midst of these hostile tribes, 
 and an influence is brought to bear upon them which reduces 
 them by degrees to a state of more or less forced submission. 
 But soon beyond this second line other still more distant tribes 
 come in their turn to threaten the same dangers and necessitate 
 the same measures of repression. The State thus finds itself 
 forced to choose one of two alternatives, either to give up this 
 endless labour and to abandon its frontier to perpetual disturb- 
 ance, rendering all prosperity, all security, all civilization an 
 impossibility, or, on the other hand, to plunge deeper and 
 deeper into barbarous countries, where the difficulties and 
 expenses increase with every step in advance.’ 
 
 M. Semenof explains in the clearest manner how the process 
 
 21 
 
322 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 of annexation goes on among the restless, turbulent tribes 
 dwelling on the northern steppes. The Bogus and Sara-Bogus 
 clans located on the shores of Issyk-Kul became, he says, subject 
 to Russia, entirely through their mutual disputes and jealousies. 
 ‘ The first casus belli between two tribes is generally a quarrel 
 between individuals. These quarrels frequently arise from such 
 cause as the buying, selling, or paying for goods, or sometimes 
 from difficulties about the land-marks dividing the territory of 
 two neighbouring nomad tribes. Quarrels respecting property 
 among the Kara-Kirghizes are settled by their own magistrate 
 {beg). These functionaries are generally men who have been 
 invested by the Kirghizes, of their own free will, with a certain 
 authority, and are publicly recognized as Ministers of Justice. 
 The litigants have recourse to either one or the other of these 
 functionaries, who investigate the case, and fine the offending 
 party for the benefit of the injured : the fine is paid in sheep, 
 which are the currency of the country, and answer to our 
 roubles. The decision of the Justice is generally strictly ad- 
 hered to, but appeal is allowed from such decision to the Manap 
 (Headman). The Manap has only an intermediate power of 
 jurisdiction, and refers the matter for reconsideration to the 
 nearest justices, whose decision is final. 
 
 * If the litigants belong to different tribes, they prefer their 
 complaints to two different Manaps, and the case can then only 
 be finally decided by the Manaps and Justices of the two tribes 
 in Session. In such cases jealousies between rival tribes very 
 often prevent their respective Justices from arriving at a col- 
 lective decision. The offended party in such case carries out by 
 force the first decision of the Justice by seizing, with the assist- 
 ance of his friends, the number of cattlo fixed upon as the 
 penalty due by the other. The number seized, however, is 
 seldom limited to the amount of the fine, and the consequent 
 sufferers retaliate in a similar way, that is, by a baranta, or raid. 
 
CHINESE TATARY. 
 
 323 
 
 * The quarrel is considerably aggravated by the fact that 
 the cattle seized on these occasions is rarely the property of the 
 offender, but generally the first that comes, and that these 
 forays are generally attended by some fighting and loss of life. 
 Men’s lives are valued at a certain number of sheep (upwards 
 of a hundred heads) ; every tribe keeps an account of its losses, 
 and continues to baranta until it has fully retaliated by inflicting 
 proportionate loss on the enemy ; but, as it is difficult to equalize 
 exactly the losses on either side, a baranta very often grows into 
 a regular war.’ 
 
 The Sara-Bogus Kirghiz, and their intimate allies the 
 Saltees, hold the lesser western portion of the Issyk-Kul basin, 
 and all the valleys of the tributaries of the Upper Chu, and 
 number over 80,000 of both sexes. The Bogus clan, on the 
 other hand, occupy the greater eastern portion of that basin, 
 together with the valleys of the Upper Tekes and the Xaryn, 
 and at present do not exceed 60,000, though at one time they 
 were more numerous. Their Headmen were closely connected, 
 — the Manap of the former, named Urman, having given his 
 beautiful and high-spirited daughter in marriage to the son of 
 Burambai, Manap of the latter tribe. Nevertheless, the two 
 tribes went to war in 1853, and in almost every engagement the 
 Sara-Bogus came off victorious, and at last drove the Bogus 
 from the best pasture grounds, and appropriated the entire 
 south side of the lake. 
 
 Encouraged by these successes, Urman resolved to surprise 
 Burambai’s aoul, where the women and children, the aged and 
 infirm, were left while the warriors went forth to battle. The 
 surprise w r as effected by a chosen band of 600 men, but these 
 were unexpectedly surrounded by the whole Bogus clan, and a 
 terrible hand to hand fight ensued in the darkness of the night. 
 After performing many deeds of heroic valour, Urman fell 
 mortally wounded by Burambai’s nephew and adopted son, 
 
324 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Klitclia, and died in the arms of his daughter, in the yourta of 
 his son-in-law. 
 
 The Bogus now assumed the aggressive, and pushed on to 
 the Tierske, on the opposite hank of which were massed 
 the Sara-Bogus, under the command of Urman’s son, Umbet 
 Ala. A period of inaction ensued, as neither party ventured 
 to cross the stream in presence of the other, but at the expira- 
 tion of a week Umbet Ala, leaving his brother and a small 
 force at the bivouac fires, made a rapid march round the north 
 side of the lake, and, suddenly falling upon Burambai’s aoul, 
 carried off all his flocks and herds, his women and children. 
 The Bogus warriors hurried back as soon as intelligence reached 
 them that their homes were left desolate, but arrived too late 
 to rescue either their families or their property. The fiery 
 Klitclia, indeed, overtook a rearguard of some fifty horsemen, 
 all of whom bit the dust after a gallant resistance. 
 
 After such tragic incidents a pitched battle could no longer 
 be delayed, but the fortune of war was again hostile to the Bogus, 
 who were totally defeated and forced to flee up the valleys of 
 the Tek4s and the Karkar. In his sore distress, Burambai, 
 himself a Chinese Mandarin, applied to the Government of 
 Pekin for protection, but all in vain, and he was constrained 
 to transfer his allegiance to the White Tzar. In the mean time, 
 Urman’s daughter, with a companion as courageous as herself, 
 effected her escape from her brother’s camp, and after wandering 
 for seventeen days over pathless crags, almost without food, the 
 two women joined their husbands on the Tek6s, worn-out and 
 famished. 
 
 The aid of Russia turned the scale, and the Sara-Bogus, 
 powerless to inflict further injury upon their unfortunate neigh- 
 bours, followed their example, and in 1858 sent in their sub- 
 mission to the Russian General. Previous to 1850, they had 
 been nominally subject to China, but in that year they annexed 
 
CHINESE TATARY. 
 
 325 
 
 themselves to Khokan. Oil accepting the supremacy of Russia, 
 they complained of the excessive taxation that had been imposed 
 upon them by that little State, struggling for its own existence. 
 
 Captain Yalikhanof, a Russian officer of Kirghiz extraction 
 — for a knowledge of whose interesting account of Zungaria, 
 the English public is indebted to Messrs Robert and John Micliell 
 — represents the Kirghiz, as clinging to dirt, and refusing to 
 wash even their domestic utensils lest they should frighten 
 away plenty. They never change their linen, but go on wearing 
 the same garment till it falls to pieces and drops off their per- 
 son. Covered with vermin, they help one another in hunting 
 down the abominable parasites. Among their superstitions is a 
 reverence for fire, upon which they never spit, and a repugnance 
 to stepping over the tether of a mare while she is being milked. 
 Their mourning consists in total abstinence from the use of 
 water externally, and from change of raiment for tw T elve months, 
 a simple and unexpensive mode of expressing grief. Chastity 
 is not held in high esteem. 
 
 Professedly, the Buruts are Mohammedans, but they have 
 no knowledge whatever of the history of Mohammed. They are 
 unacquainted with letters, and their Tatar mollahs are unable 
 to enlighten them. The harem and a savage fanaticism con- 
 stitute their acquaintance with Islam. They drink freely of a 
 spirit distilled from Kummeez, and are fond of listening to tales 
 of marvel. They call themselves ‘ Krgj-z,’ and have a tradition 
 that they are descended from the forty (Kyrk) maidens (Kyz) 
 of a Queen, by a red greyhound (Kezin-taizan). As a fact, 
 they came originally from Siberia, whence they were gradually 
 extruded by the Russians in the latter part of the seventeenth 
 centur} r . 
 
 One of their favourite legends relates to a cruel ogre named 
 Alp, who was overcome by the Kirghiz giant Batour in much 
 the same way that Polyphemus suffered at the hands of Ulysses. 
 
326 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 The Dikokamenni, or Buruts, possess an epic poem called ‘ The 
 Manas,’ the centre figure of which is the giant Manas. It is 
 full of episodes, that are brought down to the present times in 
 a continuation called ‘ the Samyatei.’ 
 
 The chief public games among the Kirghiz are named 
 Baigas, and consist of races and wrestling matches, the prizes 
 being cattle and slaves. They are also given to the milder 
 pastime of endeavouring to pick up a small coin out of a vessel 
 of milk with their lips, while their hands are tied behind them ; 
 the fun lies in the player overbalancing himself and tumbling 
 prone upon the floor. 
 
 To the same class of amusement belongs the waving of a 
 kerchief by a damsel to some particular swain, who straightway 
 dropping on one knee sits on one heel, and in that uncomfort- 
 able attitude chants an amorous lay, in tones said to resemble 
 a donkey’s bray. Should his performance please the maiden, 
 the two stand up together in the middle of the tent, back to 
 back, and crane their necks round till their lips meet. Should 
 the singer, however, fail to give satisfaction, he gets a sound 
 drubbing to encourage him to greater exertions the next time. 
 The Kirghiz are fond of improvisation, and tolerably proficient 
 in that showy accomplishment. 
 
 Unhappily the Kirghiz are not content with such harmless 
 employment of the hours not given to tending their flocks and 
 herds. M. Semenof presents us with a graphic picture of an 
 attack upon a small caravan that came under his own eyes. As 
 President of the Physical Section of the Imperial Russian 
 Geographical Society, he conducted, in the year 1856, an ex- 
 ploring expedition from Fort Yernoe to the western shore of 
 Issyk-Kul. The object of the expedition was two-fold : to 
 survey the valley of the Chu, and to ascertain the moral effect 
 produced upon the Sara-Bogus by the appearance of a Russian 
 detachment in that valley. This was two years previous to tho 
 
CHINESE TATARY. 
 
 327 
 
 submission of that turbulent tribe. The party had proceeded 
 about eighteen miles along the foot of the Ala-tagh, or Dappled 
 Mountains — so called from their dark surface being relieved 
 ■with frequent patches of snow — and had just reached the banks 
 of the river Iveskelen, when they came upon a strange and 
 stirring scene. 
 
 ‘ I rode,’ says M. Semenof, ‘ with two Cossacks, half a verst 
 (between five and six hundred j'ards) a-head of the detachment, 
 the men of which were singing some melancholy air. Suddenly 
 we heard fearful cries a-head of us. Galloping to an eminence 
 in our front, we beheld an unexpected sight. A number of 
 Kirghiz horsemen hurriedly detaching themsels'es from a group 
 of people, whose cries had attracted our attention, with extra- 
 ordinary swiftness galloped away from us. The group of 
 people and pack-animals left by the plunderers were on the slope 
 of another hill in front of us, in picturesque confusion. Some 
 of the camels were lying on the ground, others stood unladen ; 
 some of the horses were tethered, others ran at liberty, and 
 their loads, which had been ransacked, lay scattered on the 
 ground. Of the ten Sarts (Tashkend traders) who composed 
 the caravan, two lay on the ground bound, one old man was 
 on his knees, and several, half-stripped of their clothes, ran to 
 meet us with cries. My interpreters were behind with the 
 detachment, and though we could not understand a word of the 
 rapid utterances of the Sarts, their expressive gestures suffi- 
 ciently explained the nature of the occurrence. 
 
 ‘ A plundering band of Kara-Kirghizes had been in the act 
 of pillaging the caravan, binding the Sarts, undoing their loads, 
 stripping and searching some of them, relieving them of the 
 valuables they were carrying in their girdles, on their breasts, 
 and in their boots, when a sudden interruption was put to their 
 proceedings by the sound of the distant Russian chorus which 
 had reached them. For some minutes they had listened to the 
 
328 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 gradually approaching sounds, and then, seeing the leading files 
 of our detachment, they jumped on their horses and galloped 
 off, leaving the caravan, saved by our arrival, in the state of 
 picturesque confusion in which we found it. The barantn men 
 were thirty in number. 
 
 ‘ The whole of our party soon came up. We were now close to 
 one of the branches of the river Keskelen, where we had intended 
 to halt, after a march of twenty-six to thirty versts. Here we 
 had agreed to wait for fresh horses to be collected for us by the 
 Hussian magistrate of the Kirghiz districts. As we had plenty 
 of time to spare, I called for volunteers to follow the baranta 
 men. Fifteen came forward, the remainder of the detachment 
 bivouacked on the bank of the river. I joined the volunteers 
 and we gave chase to the marauders, though we were conscious 
 of the great difficulty of overtaking them, from the fact of our 
 Cossack horses being no match for those of the Kirghizes in 
 speed. However, we did not lose sight of the retreating Kir- 
 ghizes, or rather of some of them, for the unequal strength of 
 their horses scattered them over some extent of ground ; the 
 strength of our own horses soon began to fail, and one after 
 another our volunteers dropped behind and finally stopped. 
 
 ‘ The pursuit terminated after sunset, seven of the hindmost 
 Kara-Kirghizes, after lightening their distressed horses by 
 throwing away their arms and even their outer clothing, were 
 going at a foot pace, followed at considerable intervals by three 
 of the pursuing Cossacks also at foot’s pace. The Kara-Kir- 
 ghizes were looking round and apparently contemplating turn- 
 ing back, and falling on the Cossacks one by one. Notwith- 
 standing the superiority of their arms, the Cossacks might have 
 shared the fate of tho Curiatii, and therefore determined to 
 return, after collecting everything that had been thrown away 
 by the Kara-Kirghizes in their flight. It was late at night 
 when we all regained our encampment.’ Seeing that the 
 
CHINESE TATARY. 
 
 3.29 
 
 robbers had flung away their arms and even their outer gar- 
 ments, it could have been no very hazardous exploit for three 
 well-armed Cossacks to have tested the accuracy of their aim, 
 but discretion is sometimes the better part of valour. 
 
 The large expanse of water known as Issyk-Kul lies in a broad 
 basin between the Tian Shan mountains on the south, and the 
 Trans-Ili Ala-tagh on the north. This vale is 1G7 miles in length, 
 and fifty in breadth, and is hemmed in by gigantic hills. The 
 lake itself measures 120 miles from W.S.W. to E.N.E., and is 
 about thirty-three miles broad. Between the water and the foot 
 of the highlands the ground is either flat or gently undulating. 
 The elevation of the lake is 4540 feet above the sea level. The 
 Trans-Ilian Ala-tagh on the north side of Issyk-Kul rises to the 
 height of 5500 to 6500 feet above the bed of the lake, and in 
 some parts is not less than 14,000 feet above the sea. The 
 peaks are covered with perpetual snow, but on the southern 
 slope the snow lies in scattered patches. This range rises 
 abruptly like a wall, intersected by a few valleys through which 
 mountain torrents rush down to the lake. On the south side of 
 Issyk-Kul the Tian Shan slopes rapidly upwards to the height 
 of ten or eleven thousand feet above its banks, and with spurs 
 running down into the broad basin. 
 
 These magnificent mountains are surmounted * with an end- 
 less row of gigantic peaks in an unbroken covering of snow.’ 
 The line of perpetual snow beginning about two-thirds up from 
 the base. The Kunge tract on the north of the lake is described 
 as rocky, unfruitful, and covered with pebbles, with scarce a 
 tree to be met with, except here and there by the side of a 
 torrent. ‘ Occasionally the white felt yourtas (tents) of the 
 Kirghiz herdsmen are seen to peep out of these groves, and the 
 two-humped camel stretches out its long neck, and still more 
 rarely a numerous herd of wild boars rushes out of the forests 
 of thick reeds which surround the copses, or the terrible in- 
 
330 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 habitant of these cane thickets, the blood-thirsty tiger, springs 
 from his lair.’ 
 
 The area of the lake appears to be gradually diminishing, as 
 its tributaries dry up through the snow line ascending, in con- 
 sequence of the increasing dryness of the climate of the con- 
 tinent. The depth is supposed to be very great, the water quite 
 salt and undrinkable. Except in shallow creeks it never freezes, 
 whence it is called by the Kirghiz, Issyk-Kul, or the Warm 
 Lake, and by the Chinese, Je-hai, which means the same thing. 
 To the Mongols and Kalmuks, however, it is known as the 
 Temout Nor, or Iron Lake. It abounds with fish, resembling 
 carp, hut the Kirghiz take no pains to catch them. Its tribu- 
 taries are forty in number, many of which are frozen up in the 
 winter season, but during the rest of the year are full, rapid, 
 and tumultuous. 
 
 There is very little land fit for arable purposes, though 
 many spots are suitable for horticulture. It is stated that an 
 important Chinese town once stood on the shores of the lake. 
 According to Lord William Hay’s estimate, from Nijni-Novgorod 
 to Issyk-Kul the distance is equal to a caravan journey of from 
 fifty-two to sixty days, by way of Ekaterineberg, Ormsk, Semipa- 
 latinsk, and Kopal. Between Issyk-Kul and Kashgar 250 miles, 
 or fifteen days, intervene. From the last-named town to Leh, by 
 Yarkund, is an affair of thirty-six days, so that a caravan travel- 
 ling by this route would occupy three months and a half in transit 
 from the great Russian mart to the territories of the Maharajah 
 of Kashmeer, an important rather than powerful vassal of the 
 Indian Government. 
 
 The Semirecliinsk region — so called from the seven streams 
 by which it is watered — in the vicinity of Lake Balkash merges 
 into a sandy steppe, which appears at one time to have been the 
 bed of an inland sea, that has since dried up, with the exception 
 of that lake and of the two Ala-Kuls. * With currents be- 
 
CHINESE TATARY. 
 
 331 
 
 coming more and more sluggish, these seven rivers are bordered 
 by high reeds, tenanted by boars, tigers, and other animals.’ 
 Only two of these streams now reach the Balkash — the others 
 being lost in the sands. What vegetation there is, belongs to a 
 saline flora. 
 
 The Hi, a very considerable river, separates Semirechinsk 
 from the district to the southward. It flows from east to west 
 through a vale a hundred miles in width, and elevated a thou- 
 sand feet above the sea. The banks are low and depressed, and 
 over two thousand yards apart ; the current running with great 
 rapidity. For the last 165 miles the Ili passes through a sterile, 
 sandy steppe, and before discharging its waters into the Balkash 
 creates a reedy delta — the canes forming an impenetrable 
 thicket upwards of seventeen feet in height. 
 
 On, or near to, the banks of this river stood the old capital 
 of the Chagatai Empire. Under the Toorks, previous to the 
 rise of the Moghul ascendancy in Central Asia, Almalik — a 
 name signifying ‘ a grove of apple-trees ’ — had been a place of 
 much note, but its importance increased under the immediate 
 descendants of Chinghiz. 
 
 After the fall of the Zungarian kingdom Chinese settlements 
 were thickly planted throughout the valley, each embosomed 
 in lofty trees, proving, as M. Semenof observes, that ‘ the arti- 
 ficial cultivation of timber is possible even in so dry a climate 
 as that of Central Asia.’ Vines and pomegranates, if sheltered 
 in winter, bear fruit in this district, while apricots, plums, pear, 
 and apple trees flourish luxuriantly. Rice and maize are suc- 
 cessfully cultivated, and melons are abundant and good. 
 
 Fort Vernoe stands about forty-seven miles to the south of the 
 ford over the Ili, at the base of the Trans-Ilian Ala-tagh, and 
 at an elevation of about 2000 feet. These mountains run nearly 
 parallel with the Ili, and are almost impassable. The fort is 
 ‘ situated at the point where the turbulent and impetuous Alma- 
 
332 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 tynka emerges from its mountain bed : the valley of this river 
 is clad with natural orchards, of apple and apricot trees bearing 
 excellent fruit. The settlement, which has been formed by 
 Cossacks and immigrant peasants, already (1857) consists of 
 4000 inhabitants, admirably located. The timber for building 
 purposes is supplied by the mountain slopes and transverse 
 valleys, which, at elevations of 4000 to 7500 feet, are overgrown 
 with the Siberian fir. The two Aksai and the two Almatynka 
 streams issuing from the mountain valley near Vernoe afford an 
 abundant supply of water for irrigation, and have already raised 
 agriculture to a very flourishing condition.’ 
 
 In 1867 Baron Osten Sacken was invited to accompany 
 Colonel Poltoratsky on a reconnoitring expedition from Fort 
 Vernoe into the Trans-Naryn country, which was transferred to 
 Russia by the Treaty of Pekin in 1860, when the Chinese 
 frontier was drawn eastward of Issyk-Kul along the southern 
 spurs of the Tian Shan to Khokan. This district comprises the 
 whole mountainous district south of Issyk-Kul to the borders of 
 Eastern Toorkestan, and includes the two Alpine lakes, the Su- 
 Kul and Chatir-Kul, as also the head waters of the Syr Darya. 
 
 At a place called Uzunagatch, half way between Vernoe and 
 the Kastek Pass, a severe engagement took place on the ‘21st 
 October, 1860, between the Russians and the Khokan levies. 
 The latter are said to have been 40,000 strong, while the former 
 did not exceed one thousand, and to make up even this small 
 force the fort had to be denuded of its garrison and entrusted to 
 civilians and women. In the end General Kolpakofsky came 
 off victorious, and the whole Trans-Ili country was added to the 
 territories of the White Tzar. 
 
 Through the Kastek Pass runs the post road from Vernoe to 
 the Syr Darya district. ‘ Here, too,’ writes the Baron, as inter- 
 preted by Mr Delmar Morgan, ‘a line of telegraph wires to 
 connect Russia with Turkistan is meditated. As we went 
 
CHINESE TATARY. 
 
 333 
 
 through the Tass we saw works in progress for making the road 
 practicable for wheel conveyances, an operation attended by 
 great difficulties owing to the large quantity of boulders which 
 obstruct the way, and the frequent windings of the little river 
 Kastek, whose waters first strike one side, then the other, of the 
 narrow defile. The work was being done by soldiers, and five 
 wooden bridges are ready. The newly -planed hand-rails 
 glistened in the sun, and our Kirghiz horses, startled at so un- 
 usual a sight, could hardly be forced across the bridges.’ 
 
 The time was when this terror of the sapient animals would 
 have been ascribed to their recognition of the fact that the old 
 order of things was passing away, and that the lordship of the 
 mountains and the steppes was transferred from the pillagers of 
 caravans to the despoilers of kingdoms. The Indian Govern- 
 ment may well be shamed by the example of Russia in those 
 remote regions, to greater activity in pushing forward public 
 works that answer the two-fold purpose of promoting trade, 
 commerce, and industry, and of augmenting the aggressive and 
 defensive powers of the State. 
 
 Baron Osten Sacken’s route lay across the long snowy chain 
 of the Alexandrofsky mountains, a branch of the Tian Shan 
 range. On entering the Chu valley the expedition was met by 
 the Chief Manap of the Sara Bogus tribe. ‘ A gold medal, 
 with the ribbon of St George, and a deep scar on his forehead, 
 were sufficient proofs of Djantai’s services to the Russian Go- 
 vernment.’ Wheat and millet are grown in this valley, while 
 white hollyhocks and the blue chicory flower are everywhere 
 conspicuous. The Alexandrofsky mountains are covered with 
 white pine forests, interspersed with the mountain ash, and re- 
 lieved by berberry, honeysuckle, dogberry, and wild rose. The 
 Shamsi Pass is described as being exceedingly picturesque, and 
 its Alpine flora remarkably rich and varied. The ascent from 
 the north side was steep and over rough shingle, while the de- 
 scent to the south was unpleasantly abrupt. 
 
334 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 A small caravan was here met with that had travelled from 
 Andijan to Tashkend, Aulietta, Tokmak, and across the Shamsi 
 Pass to the valley of the Naryn, and was then on its way to 
 Yernoe with cotton cloth. ‘ One cannot help feeling astonish- 
 ment/ exclaims the Baron, ‘at the boldness and enterprise of 
 these traders, who venture in small numbers into parts of the 
 country where their lives are entirely at the mercy of the 
 cunning Kirghizes/ 
 
 The Khoskar valley appeared dreary and monotonous, 
 whence a difficult road through defiles and over steep cliffs led 
 ever upward till the last lofty axis was reached, and the Su-Kul 
 basin opened out below. This lake is seventeen miles in length 
 by twelve in breadth. The water is drinkable, but not equal to 
 that of the streams which flow into it, and the fish are of no 
 great size. The banks are covered with short thick grass, but 
 the elevation is too great for timber. The clean white yourtas 
 of the Kirghiz added much to the beauty of the scene. 
 
 The road thence again ascended, passing through the Molda- 
 Asu defile and a dark green belt of pine forest, with a very 
 steep descent into the Naryn valley, progress being much im- 
 peded by boulders and coarse shingle. This valley is about 
 twelve miles broad, the banks of the river being fringed with 
 poplars and willows. On a high precipitous cliff overlooking 
 the vale was a Khokan fort, consisting of ‘ a number of small 
 buildings, crooked lanes, and hedges,’ but the garrison bolted 
 as soon as the reconnoitring party came in sight. The Naryn 
 was crossed at a ford 200 yards wide, where the river divides 
 into several channels. 
 
 Forcing their way through a thicket of tall canes the expe- 
 dition soon .reached the Terek, fringed with poplars, the last 
 trees that were seen until within two days’ march of Kashgar. 
 A sloping path of hard clay led to a plateau also of hard clay, 
 without vegetation or water. Two days were occupied in 
 
CHINESE TATARY. 
 
 335 
 
 traversing the Jaman-daban Pass, a wild dreary defile, with a 
 flora similar to that of the southern Himalaya. The elevation 
 of the pass above the sea was estimated at 12,900 feet. It looks 
 down upon the Arpa valley, which is divided by a low water- 
 shed from the Atbasha valley at the foot of the Tashrobat Pass, 
 much used by caravans, and named from a stone {tank) caravan- 
 serai ( robat ) built against the mountain-side, and ascribed to 
 Abdoollah Khan of Bokhara. The caravanserai covers a space 
 about forty-nine paces square, and the Kirghiz pretend that the 
 number of the cells cannot be correctly counted. 
 
 This pass also is said to be 12,900 feet above the sea level, 
 but may be crossed in six or seven hours, a short descent lead- 
 ing to the Chatir-Kul plateau. The measurement of this lake 
 is given at fourteen miles for the length and six for the breadth, 
 the surrounding vegetation being of a saline character. The 
 water is brackish, but not deep, though it has no outlet. Chatir- 
 Kul marks the boundary between Russia and Eastern Toorkestan, 
 and is about five miles distant from a range of snowy mountains 
 to the south. 
 
 The expedition pushed on thence by three forced marches 
 through mountains of decreasing altitude, and satisfied them- 
 selves that the descent from that point into Kashgar was easy 
 and practicable. They stopped at last at the Kirghiz fort of 
 Tessik-Tash, eight miles from Artush, and only twenty from 
 the city of Kashgar, passing through fields of wheat, bordered 
 by willows and poplars, with the rural population pursuing 
 their peaceful labours. The hill country above the plain is in- 
 fested by wolves and bears. Hares are plentiful, and likewise 
 the Argali deer with immense twisted horns. This is a very 
 timid animal, and is chased by birds of prey that terrify it to 
 such a degree that in its headlong flight it often falls down 
 precipices and is killed, or becomes entangled by its horns in 
 narrow defiles whence it is unable to extricate itself. 
 
336 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 The ancient kingdom of Ferghana, the Feihan of Hiouen 
 Tsang, is poorly represented by the Khanat of Khokan as at 
 present constituted. Within the last fifty years, however, it 
 extended 950 miles from east to west, while its greatest breadth 
 from north to south was not less than 360 miles. This mount- 
 ainous region was the patrimony of the illustrious Baber, but 
 in all the great crises of the history of Central Asia it has 
 shared the fate of Bokhara. In the intervals it has usually en- 
 joyed a rude independence, being divided into numerous petty 
 districts, each under its own ruler. Indeed, at the very time 
 when the only chance of retaining a separate existence depended 
 upon the close and faithful concert of all its inhabitants, the 
 country was divided into two great factions, each more bent 
 upon humbling its rival than upon offering a vigorous resistance 
 to the encroachments of the Russians. 
 
 Khokan is a mountainous and picturesque region, with pro- 
 ductive valleys and excellent pastures. It is watered by 
 several considerable streams, of which the most important are 
 the Naryn and the Gulishan, whose union forms the Syr Darya. 
 The Zarafshan also derives its waters from the highlands of 
 Khokan, uniting in one channel those of the Macha Darya, the 
 Maghian Darya, and the Fan-Su. 
 
 The valley of the Fan is described as particularly beautiful. 
 One of its chief features is a burning mountain, a phenomenon 
 due to the ignition of carboniferous strata at no great distance 
 from the surface. Many useful minerals, such as alum, sal- 
 ammonia, &c., are found here. It contains also two lakes, the 
 larger of which, named Iskander Kul, or Kulikolan, is eight 
 miles in length by seven in breadth. In winter time the sur- 
 face is frozen over, as might be expected from its elevation of 
 7000 feet above the sea, and it is surrounded on all sides by 
 lofty mountains. According to popular belief it is inhabited 
 by Adam-oba, or water people — possibly, at some former period 
 
CHINESE TATARY. 
 
 337 
 
 seals may have been found here, as they are still found in the 
 Caspian, though not in the Aral. 
 
 The silk of Khokan is equal to any produced in Bokhara, 
 hut the chief wealth of the people lies in their flocks and herds 
 and troops of hardy hill ponies. The population of the Khanat 
 was estimated by Dr Wolff at three millions, and that of the 
 capital city at 300,000 — a fantastic and ridiculous conjecture. 
 So far as regards the town of Khokan it would he nearer the 
 truth to compute the inhabitants at one-tenth of that number, 
 or about 30,000. It is situated six or seven miles from the Syr, 
 and is on the direct caravan route between Bokhara, Tashkend, 
 and Kashgar. 
 
 The ancient capital was Andijan, now a place of no import- 
 ance. Namanglian has also fallen from its former condition of 
 prosperity. Towards the southern frontier the little town of 
 Ush is still frequented by pilgrims wending their way to the 
 Takht-i-Suleiman, or Solomon’s Throne, an isolated .. rock on 
 whose summit the Wise King cut the throat of a camel, at the 
 great Mohammedan festival of the Eed — the surface being still 
 reddened by the blood of the slaughtered animal. Whoso lies 
 long enough on this favoured spot will be cured of rheumatism. 
 
 In the seventh century Ou-cha was described by Iliouen 
 Tsang as inhabited by a coarse, savage people, addicted to 
 fraud and theft, ugly and with mean features, and dressed in 
 skins and woollen stuffs. Their redeeming point was their 
 belief in Buddha, to whose service nearly a thousand monks, 
 occupying ten convents, devoted their lives. The district was 
 pleasant to the eyes, being abundantly wooded, rich in fruits, 
 enjoying a temperate climate, and containing jade of three 
 varieties, white, black, and green. 
 
 The most valuable portion of Khokan, however, now belongs 
 to Russia. The Sou-tou-li-se-na of the Chinese pilgrim, since 
 
 successively named Satroushna, Osroushna, and Uratupeh, is 
 
 22 
 
338 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 now becoming a place of some importance. Tashkent!, or Stone 
 Town, fifty years ago was a badly built town of some 3000 
 bouses, with ten medressebs ; but in 1865 was captured by 
 General Tchernaief, and bas since become the capital of Rus- 
 sian Toorkestan, with a population estimated at 70,000. Kho- 
 jend, a fortress surrounded by gardens, situated on the Syr and 
 on the road from Uratupeb to Kbokan, was the first-fruits of 
 the victory of Yirdjar won by General Romanofsky in 1866. 
 The Ta-lo-sse of Hiouen Tsang, subsequently known as Talas, 
 Taras, and Toorkestan, has been a Russian possession since 
 1864 ; while Ak-Mesjeed, or the White Mosque, fell in 1853, 
 and merged its very name in that of Fort Perofsky. 
 
 Few, if any, vestiges remain of Otrar, originally called 
 Farab, once upon a time the capital of Toorkestan. It was 
 taken by Chinghiz in 1219, but is better known in history as 
 the scene of Timour’s death in 1405. It is mentioned by 
 Ilaiton, the Armenian prince, as Octorar, while Fegoletti speaks 
 of it as Oltrarre, and states that it is forty-five days’ journey, 
 with pack-asses, from ‘ Armalec ’ — Almalik on the Hi. 
 
 What remains of the Khanat of Khokan is virtually de- 
 pendent on Russia, and will be formally annexed at the first 
 convenient opportunity, with a view to ‘ the rectification ’ of 
 the frontier line from Samarkand to the eastern extremity of 
 the Tian-Shan mountains. It is simply a question of time, and 
 indeed it little matters to Europe how soon this measure is 
 carried out, provided it be not made a stepping-stone to en- 
 croachments upon Eastern Toorkestan. Few, however, will be 
 found to share the late Sir Roderick Murchison’s enthusiastic 
 appreciation of the benefits conferred upon science, commerce, 
 and civilization, by the progress of Russian influence in Asia. 
 
 In his annual address delivered on the 23rd May, 1870, the 
 illustrious President of the Royal Geographical Society com- 
 mitted himself to an expression of opinion that testifies rather 
 
CHINESE TATARY. 
 
 339 
 
 to his amiability than to his sagacity. ‘ The day, indeed, has 
 now arrived,’ he said, * and to my great delight, when the Rus- 
 sian Imperial Government on the North, and the British Go- 
 vernment on the South, are rivals in thoroughly exploring and 
 determining their respective frontiers, leaving between each 
 dominion wild tracts which will probably be for ever independ- 
 ent, but whose chiefs will well know how to respect their 
 powerful neighbours. These geographical operations are also, 
 I doubt not, the forerunners of the establishment of good com- 
 mercial intercourse, and are, I venture to think, the surest 
 pledges of peace.’ 
 
340 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 EASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 ‘LITTLE BUCH ARIA. ’—RIVERS — MOUNTAINS — THE GOBI — THE YAK — POPULA- 
 TION — THE KIRGHIZ — THE. TUNGANIS — HOUSES — COSTUME— MANNERS 
 
 HORSES — UGHLAK — COINAGE — MR ROBERT SHAW — LIEUTENANT HAY- 
 WARD — SANJU — KARGHALIK— POSGAM — YARKUND — YANGHISSAR — KASH- 
 GAR — MOHAMMED YAKOOB BEG — AKSU — USH-TURFAN — KHOTAN — MR 
 JOHNSON. 
 
 The country now called Eastern, and until the last few 
 years Chinese Toorkestan, is more familiarly known to English 
 readers as the Lesser Bueharia, whose youthful and chivalrous 
 monarch Aliris, son of Abdalla, won the heart of Lalla Rookh, 
 the lovely daughter of Aurungzeb. 
 
 The appellation of Little Bueharia, when first applied to 
 distinguish Toorkestan from Bokharia proper, was singularly ill- 
 chosen, for the former was actually the more extensive of the 
 two countries. At that time it extended from the 35th to the 
 45th degree of north latitude, and from the 72nd to the 110th 
 degree of east longitude, and comprised not only Eastern Toor- 
 kestan, hut also Ferghana and Zungaria, the desert of Gobi, and 
 the Chinese provinces of Kansu and Shensi. 
 
 The present kingdom may he described as a depressed valley 
 400 miles in length from north to south, by 300 in breadth 
 from east to west, shut in on three sides by mountain-ranges 
 of great height, on the north by the Tian Shan, on the south by 
 the Kuen Lun, and on the west by the Bolor chain. It is for 
 the most part a barren and unproductive country. Near the 
 
EASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 34-1 
 
 foot of the hills the soil is clayey or stony, and in the interior 
 sandy, while to the eastward the sand drifts into shifting ridges 
 and hillocks. The air is dry, and rain of rare occurrence, but 
 the melting snows fill the river-beds with an abundant supply 
 of water. 
 
 The Kashgar river, or Kizil Darya — ‘ Red River ’ — flows 
 out of a small lake situated in the angle formed by the inter- 
 section of the transverse section of the Pameer chain by the 
 Tian Shan, there called the Artush range. After a course of 
 300 miles it joins the Yarkund river, which was discovered by 
 Lieutenant Hayward to take its rise not from the Sarikol dis- 
 trict as previously conjectured, but from the basin of a small 
 plateau upwards of 16,600 feet above the sea, a little to the 
 north-west of the Karakoram Pass. Abreast of the town of 
 the same name this river, after a course of 420 miles, is nearly 
 a mile in width, and in summer can only be crossed in boats, 
 though in winter it is fordable on horseback. After uniting 
 their waters, the Kashgar and Yarkund rivers merge their 
 respective names in that of the Tarym or Erguo Gol, which 
 after a further course of 250 miles empties itself into the Lob 
 Nor on the edge of the Gobi, a word signifying ‘ desert.’ The 
 entire length of the Yarkund river from its lofty source to its 
 final discharge into that extensive lake exceeds 1200 miles, and 
 below the town of that name it is navigable during June, July, 
 and August. 
 
 Another river is the Karakash, which rises on the northern 
 slope of the Karakoram mountains at an elevation 16,800 feet, 
 and, after a course of neai’ly 600 miles, falls into the Yarkund 
 river. Its waters are much used for irrigation, especially in 
 the province of Khotan, but in winter it is frozen over. . 
 
 Eastern Toorkestan stands at a considerable height above the 
 sea level. On the west the elevation of the land is computed 
 at 4000 feet, with a gradual slope to the eastward, so that it 
 
342 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 does not exceed 1300 feet on the confines of the Gobi. The 
 Tian Shan range, which forms the natural boundary on the 
 north, is known to the people of the country as the Artush or 
 Kokshal range. Though a lofty chain, these mountains pre- 
 sent few peaks above 18,000 feet in height, and the passes are 
 probably a little under 16,000 feet. On the southern slopes no 
 trees are to be found, hut the northern side descending to the 
 Naryn valley is covered with forests. 
 
 The Pameer steppe, which constitutes the western frontier, 
 is a lofty table-land 16,000 feet in height, extending from the 
 Hindoo Koosh to the Tian Shan, to the west of the Terek Pass. 
 This plateau rises on its eastern edge into a range called the 
 Kizil Yart, which descends into Toorkestan by a succession of 
 steep, rugged slopes. It was formerly supposed that the Kara- 
 koram and Kuen Lun mountains were parts of one continuous 
 chain, hut Lieutenant Hayward ascertained that a distinct 
 watershed and the Yarkund and Karakash rivers intervene. 
 The name Karakoram, generalty given to an extensive and 
 towering range of mountains, is locally applied only to the pass, 
 while the mountains themselves are called the Muztagh, or 
 Glacier Mountains. 
 
 According to Hr Thompson, the elevation of the Karakoram 
 Pass is not less than 18,660 feet, while the Chang Lang Tass in 
 the same mountains is said to he 18,839 feet above the sea. 
 The chain may he taken to commence about 74° east, whence 
 it runs in a south-easterly direction nearly parallel with the 
 Kuen Lun. The crest averages about 20,000 feet, hut several 
 peaks attain to 25,000, while one near the Muztagh Pass rises 
 to the enormous altitude of 28,278 feet. 
 
 On the north side the snow line is placed at about 18,600 
 feet, and on the south a few hundred feet lower. The passes 
 are all impracticable till the end of May, by which time tlio 
 trees in sheltered valleys are in full leaf and blossom. The 
 
EASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 343 
 
 heaviest fall of snow usually takes place in March. Between 
 the Karakoram and Kuen Lun ranges the highest line of 
 vegetation is fixed at 17,000 feet, by the ‘ Boorsee,’ a plant re- 
 sembling lavender, above which no vegetable life is to be met 
 with. 
 
 The Kuen Lun mountains, so called either from their blue 
 colour, or from the quantity of wild leeks with which they are 
 overgrown, until the air is heavy with the offensive smell, lie 
 between 77° and 81° E., and in the 37th parallel of north lati- 
 tude. The crest averages quite *20,000 feet, broken by peaks 
 rising from two to three thousand feet still higher. Unlike 
 the broad mass of the Karakoram mountains, the Kuen Lun 
 range is a tall narrow wall, of which comparatively little is yet 
 known. 
 
 About six miles to the north-east of Khotan commences 
 the Takla Makan, or Desert of Gobi. ‘ The edge of this desert,’ 
 Mr Johnson observes, ‘ has the appearance of a low range of 
 broken hills, and consists of hillocks of moving sand, varying 
 in height from 200 to 400 feet.’ Impelled by the north-easterly 
 gales the sand surges onward in gigantic billows, and is fabled 
 to have overwhelmed 360 towns and villages in twenty-four 
 hours. That places of considerable importance have at times 
 been buried seems to be incontestable, and Mr Johnson men- 
 tions a quantity of Chinese tea bricks being found in a town 
 that had been again uncovered by the wind after the lapse of 
 several years. Mr Shaw also quotes a legend to the effect that 
 this desert was once peopled with infidels, to whom Julla-ood- 
 deen preached the religion of Mohammed. The idolaters con- 
 sented to embrace Islam if he would turn their dwellings into 
 gold. In answer to the saint’s prayers that miracle was per- 
 formed, whereupon they laughed him to scorn, and would have 
 nothing to do with him or his new creed. In sorrow and anger 
 he turned his back upon them, and huge waves of sand came 
 
344 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 and covered the land and all that was upon it. At present the 
 chief denizens of the waste are reported to be herds of wild 
 camels, and of antelopes with lyre-shaped horns. The most re- 
 markable feature, however, of the Gobi is an extensive lake, 
 called Lob Nor, which lies in a depression surrounded by moun- 
 tains of the loftiest character, whose drainage it receives with- 
 out any appreciable effect upon its depth or area, though it has 
 no apparent outlet. Near the rivers extensive marshes are of 
 frequent occurrence, surrounded by barren tracts. South of the 
 Tian Shan, and east of the Parneer, wide sandy steppes are in- 
 terposed between the mountains and the fertile districts. Towns 
 and villages naturally follow the course of the rivers. On the 
 plains the roads are sufficiently good for two-wheeled convey- 
 ances, but the ass and the dromedary are in greater request than 
 carts. In the mountains recourse is had to that hardy and 
 useful animal, the Yak. 
 
 According to Captain Wood, the Yak usually stands about 
 forty-two inches in height. It is covered with hair. Its belly 
 is not above six inches from the ground, which is swept by its 
 bushy tail, and long hair streams as it were down its dewlap 
 and fore legs. The horns are those of the bovine race, to which 
 it belongs. A light saddle with horn stirrups is placed upon 
 the back, and a string, passed through the cartilage of the nose, 
 serves for a bridle. In Badakhslian the Yak is commonly 
 known as the Kash-gow. These animals are as sagacious as the 
 elephant, perfectly sure-footed, and fond of extreme cold. In 
 summer time they ascend to the line of perpetual snow, but in 
 winter come down to their calves which arc left below. They 
 go in great herds, which will keep at bay a whole pack of 
 wolves. Their mode of grazing is peculiar. They eat upwards 
 from a lower level to a higher, furrowing through the snow with 
 their nose to get at the short grass beneath. 
 
 Their hair is dipt in spring, and woven into various articles. 
 
EASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 345 
 
 The tail is the familiar choury, or fly-flapper, of Hindostan, 
 though in the hills it is made into ropes. The milk is remark- 
 ably rich. The Yak does not thrive in warm climates, and 
 even at Kabul, (3000 feet above the sea, it pines away. The speci- 
 mens that have occasionally been introduced into Europe belong 
 to a Chinese variety, whose horns are even with the plane of 
 the visage, while those of the Yak of the Pameer and the Kara- 
 koram mountains are projecting. 
 
 The population of Kashgaria is conjectured at between 
 three and four millions, and comprises Oozbegs, Kipchaks, 
 Moghuls, Mohammedans, Chinese, Tunganis, Kalmuks, and 
 Tajeeks, while the Kirghiz roam over the mountains with 
 flocks of sheep and goats, and herds of yaks and camels. The 
 original inhabitants of Eastern Toorkestan were of the Aryan 
 race, and are largely represented among the Yarkund villagers 
 even at the present day, their descendants being described as 
 tall gaunt men, resembling the typical Yankee in figure, and 
 with long faces, but with good noses and full beards. 
 
 About the middle of the second century b.c., says Mr 
 Shaw, the Youchee Tatars were expelled by other Tatar tribes 
 from their homes in the north-east and driven into the districts 
 of Yarkund and Kashgar, where they mastered or dispossessed 
 the Aryans. A small remnant of that ancient stock was cooped 
 up for ages in the valleys of the Sarikol district, in the angle 
 formed by the intersection of the Pameer and the Muztagh, or 
 Karakoram, mountains. Quite recently this interesting colony, 
 numbering from 1000 to 1500 souls, having exhibited symptoms 
 of insubordination, was transplanted by the Atalik Ghazee into 
 the more cultivated regions. Their language was nearty pure 
 Persian, with a few Toorkee words intermingled, but the Yar- 
 kund Aryans have entirely lost the language of their fore- 
 fathers and speak only Toorkee. 
 
 The Oozbegs are the most civilized of all the various tribes 
 
346 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 settled in this country. They constitute the ruling military 
 caste, so to speak, and have ruddy, brick- coloured complexions. 
 The Kipchaks rank next to the Oozbegs, and constitute the 
 connecting link between the nomad and non-nomad Toorks. 
 They possess much cultivated land in Khokan, but from spring 
 time to harvest are always on the move with their flocks and 
 herds. Some thousands of Kipchaks are enrolled in the Atalik’s 
 army, and are conspicuous for their bravery. In general 
 appearance they are like the Kirghiz, but speak a different 
 dialect. The Kirghiz here, as elsewhere, are remarkable for 
 their ugliness. They have narrow eyes, high cheek-bones, 
 thick depressed noses, and very little hair on the face. Though 
 long since converted to Islam they still retain many of their 
 old Tatar names. 
 
 ‘The Kirghiz,’ wrote Lieutenant Hayward in his very in- 
 teresting paper published in the Royal Geographical Society’s 
 Journal, No. xl., ‘ are the Bedouin Arabs of Central Asia, and, 
 like those children of the desert, possess no fixed habitation, but 
 move about amongst the valleys of the mountains with their 
 flocks and herds. Their tents are made of felt, in shape circular, 
 supported on cross pieces of wood, constituting a framework 
 against which rush matting is fixed in the interior of the tent. 
 Felt carpets cover the floor, in the centre of which is the fire- 
 place. A circular opening in the roof of the tent, which can 
 be covered over and closed at will, gives escape to the smoke. 
 The tents are very comfortable and impervious to rain, and will 
 last a dozen years. Each family possesses one, and when a 
 young couple marry a separate tent is provided for them, and 
 they henceforward constitute a separate family in the encamp- 
 ment.’ 
 
 An average-sized tent is about sixteen feet in diameter, and 
 when moving to a new encamping ground, all at once assist in 
 striking the tent, which is then packed on three yaks, and tko 
 
EASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 347 
 
 Kirghiz move off to fresh fields and pastures new. They are 
 an excessively hardy race, as men, women, and children aliko 
 brave the rigours of winter and the heat of summer amongst 
 their native mountains. Their food is the produce of their 
 flocks and herds, which are driven to pastures, and tended by 
 the men and boys during the day-time ; and on the approach of 
 evening return to their folds in the encamping ground. Here 
 the women milk the yaks and goats, make butter and curd 
 cakes, and are employed during the day in carrying water, or 
 weaving the warm material which the wool of their flocks 
 affords them, into articles of wearing apparel. In appearance 
 they are seldom attractive, and are short and robust. The men 
 are low in stature, and generally of spare wiry frame, with high 
 cheek-bones, a low and slanting forehead, and a broad flat nose. 
 Their complexion is a yellowish brown, with a ruddy tinge, 
 and they are mostly devoid of beard, with very little hair on 
 the face, while their features unmistakably exhibit the true 
 Mongolian Tatar type. 
 
 The Tajeeks, or trading and industrial classes, are usually 
 good-looking, with a high forehead, full expressive eyes with 
 dark eyelashes, thin delicate nose, a short upper lip, and a rosy 
 complexion. Their beards are large and full, often of a brownish 
 and even reddish hue. They are stouter and with fuller faces 
 than the high caste men of the Upper Provinces of India, 
 though evidently sprung from the same Indo-Persian stock. 
 
 All these tribes are Soonees, and regard the Ameer of Bokh- 
 ara as inferior only to the Sooltan-i-Boum, or Emperor of 
 Constantinople. It was the Ameer, indeed, who bestowed upon 
 their present ruler, Yakoob Beg, the title of Atalik Ghazee, or 
 Leader of the Champions of the Faith, and, more recently, of 
 Ameer. In the Kilian valley, however, dwells a colony of 
 Sheeahs, comprising about forty families, who crossed, some 
 fifty years ago, from Wukhan, over the Pameer, and live quite 
 
343 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 apart from the surrounding population. The Kalmuks are 
 Buddhists, and occupy the foot of the Tian Shan mountains. 
 They are partly settled, partly nomad, and fight on horseback 
 with bows and arrows. 
 
 In the town of Yarkund, a separate quarter is assigned to 
 the Kashmeeree Hindoos, men of ill repute, deceitful, and 
 mendacious, and particularly obnoxious to the natives of British 
 India. Around the same town are located many Mohammedan 
 Tibetans, chiefly engaged in the cultivation of melons and 
 tobacco. Such of the Chinese, also, as were not put to the 
 sword, were forcibly converted, and are empk>3 T ed as gardeners. 
 On the skirts of the Takla Makan dwells a semi-nomadic, quasi- 
 Mohammedan tribe of Moghul origin, called Doolans, who live 
 in holes dug in the ground, or in mud huts. There are rumours, 
 too, of a fish-eating community, who dress in garments made from 
 the bark of trees, and inhabit the lagoons near the Lob Nor. 
 
 The Tunganis demand a more particular notice. At the 
 commencement of the Christian era Toorkestan was peopled by 
 a branch of the great Uigur horde of Toorks, called by the 
 Chinese Hoeike, Oihor, and Iloai-IIoai. At the close of the 
 eighth century, the Chinese transplanted an immense number 
 of families from Eastern Toorkestan to Kansu and Shensi. The 
 Tagazgao tribe of Uigurs, many of whom were Manichacans, 
 and many, likewise, Nestorian Christians, moved in a body from 
 the neighbourhood of Kashgar to the frontiers of China. Near 
 the close of the tenth century the Kashgaree Uigurs, with their 
 prince Satook Bookra Khan, embraced Mohammedanism, and 
 overran Mawaralnahr, bringing jback with them a long train of 
 captives of the Tourgai tribe of Toorks. Many of these subse- 
 quently returned to Samarkand, but not a few remained behind, 
 and were called by their own countrymen Turghanies, or Tunga- 
 nics, signifying ‘ The Remnant.’ Both Chinghiz and Okkodai 
 drove large numbers of the Uigur and Tungani Mohammedans 
 
EASTERN TOORKF.STAX. 
 
 349 
 
 into China, who kept up an intercourse with Central Asia, 
 
 through the medium of the caravans that travelled from Kash- 
 © 
 
 gar to Pekin. In Eastern Toorkestan a fusion was gradually 
 brought about of the Uigurs and Tunganis, the mixed population 
 coming to be called by the latter name or by that of Dungens, 
 though they were better known to the Chinese as Uigurs or 
 Hoai-IIoai. At a later period, however, the Chinese applied 
 the epithet Tun-jen, or 4 military people,’ to the Mohammedan 
 colonists settled on the Tun-tien, or ‘ military lands ’ on the 
 western frontier of the empire. 
 
 The Tunganis, or Dungens, though Mohammedans and of 
 Toorkish extraction, resemble the Chinese in features, and until 
 quite recently used the same garb and speech. They are large- 
 built, powerful men, and abstain from wine, spirits, opium, and 
 tobacco. They are said to be passionate and quarrelsome, but 
 fond of trading and honest in their dealings, and are subject to 
 the spiritual authority of their Imams and Akhoonds. 
 
 The Manchu Government having taxed them with great 
 severitv and unfairness, besides requiring the men to wear pig- 
 tails, and the women to compress their feet, their patience was 
 at length exhausted, and they flew to arms. The rebellion first 
 took form and shape in a city of Kansu called Hochow by the 
 Chinese, and Salar by the Tunganis, but the first overt act of 
 violence occurred in 1862 at Singanfu, the capital of Shensi. 
 A squabble arose between a Tungani and a Manchu, in which 
 the latter was stabbed to death, when a riot and general 
 massacre of the Chinese ensued. As the Pekin troops were 
 defeated in three successive engagements, the movement 
 naturally gained strength, and spread to the north-west. Such 
 was the resolution of the rebels, or patriots, that when they 
 found themselves unequal to a contest with their oppressors, 
 they would slay their wives and children and, abandoning their 
 property, flee to the mountains. 
 
350 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 A Holy War being proclaimed, the Moslemeen brought 
 their possessions to the local or nearest mosque, as to a common 
 store, and the Imams* distributed arms, food, and clothing to 
 all who applied for aid. The Buddhist Temples were razed to 
 the ground, but robbery was severely punished. The Chinese 
 garb was discarded, and the choice was offered to Chinese adults 
 of becoming Mussulmans or serfs. It will be more convenient, 
 however, to narrate the sequence of this revolt in its proper 
 place in the historical sketch of Eastern Toorkestan.* 
 
 Dwelling-houses in Eastern Toorkestan may be more com- 
 fortable than a tent, but they are devoid of all pretensions to 
 elegance. The rooms are disposed round the sides of a court- 
 yard, upon which they open, and occasionally a verandah 
 shields them from the sun. The cooking fire is made up in 
 the middle of the courtyard. Lieutenant Hayward mentions 
 the use of unburnt bricks as building materials, but this must 
 have been an exceptional case, as both Captain Yalikhanof and 
 Mr Shaw describe the generality of houses — at least in villages 
 — as being built of mud. * The walls/ says the latter traveller, 
 ‘ were all of mud, a couple of feet thick. A straight thick log 
 of poplar supported the roof of the room, passing from wall to 
 wall, while small sticks were laid across from each side, resting 
 on this beam in the middle. A good coating of dry mud on the 
 top of this formed the roof, through which a small opening was 
 left near the door to give light. After entering, a step led up 
 to the floor of the room, which was covered with felt carpeting. 
 There were shelves for cups and dishes all round the room, and 
 a large wooden bedstead at one side, with a great quantity of 
 good bedding. The fire-place projected from the wall, forming 
 a kind of arch about four feet high ; behind which the chimney 
 went up through the wall. About a foot from the hearth were 
 
 * The foregoing particulars are taken from an able and exhaustive article 
 in the Edinburgh Review for April, 1SC8. 
 
EASTERN' TOORKESTAN. 
 
 351 
 
 recesses on both sides to hold the cooking pots over the fire. 
 Several vessels for water were standing in the corner, being 
 large double calabashes, the larger half below, and the smaller 
 above, joined by a neck round which a rope is tied. There was 
 another smaller room in the house ; also several store rooms, 
 and a large cattle house. Outside the courtyard was a small 
 shed for the fowls.’ 
 
 In the houses of the rich, small windows are introduced, 
 closed with glazed paper. The inner walls, also, are stuccoed, 
 and the niches adorned with scroll patterns. The housework is 
 performed by women, and in wealthy families by slaves, both 
 male and female, brought from Badakhshan and Chitral. This 
 abominable traffic was conducted under the Chinese in a pecu- 
 liarly odious manner. In Chitral parents sold their daughters, 
 if good-looking, to Badakhshee traders for about £6 each, and 
 these disposed of their human wares in Yarkund for prices 
 varying from £20 to £25 a-head. The slave trade, however, 
 has been abolished by the Atalik Ghazee, though not domestic 
 slavery, but in the East that form of servitude is usually very 
 mild. In towns the women go about veiled, but not so in rural 
 districts, and they are everywhere allowed considerable liberty 1 '. 
 In Yarkund and Kashgar the streets are patrolled at certain 
 hours by the Kazi, attended by half-a-dozen men carrying long 
 leathern scourges, with which they flog whomsoever they find 
 omitting to say their prayers at the prescribed periods of the 
 day, and likewise such women as venture out-of-doors without 
 a veil. 
 
 There are no indications of individual poverty in Eastern 
 Toorkestan. A sufficient livelihood falls to the lot of all. The 
 costume of the agricultural classes consists of a loose choga , 
 or dressing-gown, lined with wool or sheep’s-skin, and girt round 
 the waist with a cord, or roll of cloth ; a round cap, lined with 
 sheep or lamb’s wool ; felt stockings, and boots of untanned 
 
352 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 leather. The choga is usually of a grey or drab colour, except ou 
 festal occasions, when bright hues are preferred and the cap 
 replaced by a white or coloured turban. The sipahis, or soldiers, 
 dress like the villagers, except that they affect silk chogaft of 
 glaring patterns, and wear a pointed cap like the Afghans. 
 They also indulge at times in turbans of white muslin. Their 
 weapons are a tulwar, or crooked sword, and a jizail, or long- 
 barrelled matchlock, with which they take a long steady aim, 
 resting the barrel on a rock or other support. Their other 
 accoutrements are two leather pouches, a wooden powder flask, 
 and a coil of thin rope to light their matchlocks. The officers 
 are distinguished by the splendour of their apparel, and the 
 superior finish and smartness of their martial equipment. 
 
 Mr Shaw thus describes the outward appearance of a dash- 
 ing young Yoozhashee, or Centurion, who escorted him from 
 the frontier to Kashgar. ‘ lie was a young man of apparently 
 little more than thirty years, with a bright intelligent face and 
 energetic manners. Ilis headdress was a green turban. A 
 sober-coloured outer robe covered the richer clothes beneath, 
 and was fastened round the waist by two separate blue belts 
 ornamented with numerous silver clasps and bars. To those 
 belts were attached a silver-hilted sabre much curved, and 
 a series of nondescript articles, including pouches of embroidered 
 leather, a priming flask of peculiar shape, &c. The ends of a 
 pair of very wide trousers of soft yellow leather, covered with 
 embroidery, were just visible below his robe, and his feet were 
 enclosed in hoots, or rather high mocassins of the same, with a 
 row of silver nailheads round the soles. lie rode a small hut 
 handsome grey, with an almost Arab look about the head, but 
 a heavier neck, and his seat on horseback was perfection.’ 
 Within-doors this gay cavalier doffed his outer garment and 
 appeared in ‘ a Yarkand silk Klielat, loose and shining ; beneath 
 it a Kamsole, or inner robe, of English printed muslin, fastened 
 
FASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 353 
 
 by a scarf round the waist. On his head, instead of a turban 
 was a tall cap of dark green velvet, turned up with a fur 
 lining.’ 
 
 The countrywomen wear a loose cholah , somewhat shorter 
 than the men’s choga, made of a light material in summer, but 
 in winter of a warm material lined with wool. In hot weather 
 they are content with a round silk cap, which in the cold season 
 is exchanged for one of cloth lined with fur or lambswool. 
 Under the cap they wear a white flowing veil, or a white ker- 
 chief covering the back of the head, the neck, and ears. They 
 have also long leather boots, mostly red or green. Town ladies 
 get themselves up in a more splendid style. They appear some- 
 times in two silk cho/ahs of gaudy hues, lined and trimmed with 
 fur or lambswool. The summer covering for their head is a 
 round silk cap, richly embroidered, which gives place in winter 
 to a tall black lambswool cap, turned up, and trimmed with fur 
 or beaver skin, under which is secured a white veil that floats 
 over the shoulders within the house, but is brought over the 
 face out-of-doors. Their feet are encased in long red leather , 
 boots with silk tassels, but they indulge in no ornaments. They 
 are often rather handsome, with round pleasant faces and healthy 
 complexions. They are somewhat short of stature, and of a 
 robust figure. They are fond of plaiting long masses of horse- 
 hair with their own, and this mixture they allow to hang down 
 behind in two long thick tails. 
 
 One of the virtues of this people is a profuse hospitality. A 
 stranger is always greeted on his arrival with a * Dastar-Khan,’ 
 or present of welcome, consisting of trays of fruit, loaf-sugar, 
 eggs, bread, with sometimes a sheep and some fowls shown at 
 the door of the apartment. The bread is pronounced delicious. 
 It is made in large sheets, two feet across, and is unleavened, 
 but as light as a French roll. Equally unremitting is the 
 
 politeness of salutation. ‘ If you receive a present, or enter a 
 
 23 
 
354 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 house, or finish a meal, it is always Alla-a-a-ho Akber ! The 
 Moghuls pronounce the a very broad in this, as in all other 
 words, sounding it like our au\’ When two officers meet they 
 dismount while yet twenty yards off, run forward, and embrace, 
 each putting his chin over the other’s right shoulder, with 
 their arms round each other’s body. The sitting posture is one 
 very trying to Europeans. The men, at least, kneel down, with 
 their robes well tucked in, and then sit back on their heels ; or 
 the toes may be turned inward, and they then sit on the inside 
 flat of the foot. 
 
 It does not appear that the Toorkestanees are very proficient 
 in social accomplishments, though quite as much so as most 
 Orientals. Their Andijan neighbours, however, seem to excel 
 them in dancing, nor is it thought a disgraceful exhibition 
 suitable only for itinerant performers. Mr Shaw’s light-hearted 
 Yoozbashee favoured him with a specimen of an Andijanee dance. 
 ‘ It was really a very pretty and effective movement, more like 
 a ballet step than anything I have seen in the East. With bare 
 feet, loose trowsers, and a red scarf in each hand, he flew round 
 the room, changing feet at each step, and waving the scarves in 
 front and behind alternately with each hand.’ 
 
 The musical instruments in general use are a kind of harpsi- 
 chord, resembling a miniature piano without keys, played with 
 a pointed instrument held in the right hand, while the left 
 hand follows its motion and stops the vibration of the wires. 
 There is also a long-necked guitar, called ‘ citar,’ with nine 
 strings, played with a bow like a violoncello. Only one string 
 is actually touched, the others being depressed below its level, 
 and helping to swell the tone of the instrument. A slender 
 fife and the tambourine are the commonest of all. 
 
 Letters arc done up into a thin wisp gummed together, and 
 impressed with the seal of the sender in blank ink, but bear no 
 signature. A superior writing to an inferior makes use of a 
 
EASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 355 
 
 small scrap of paper, while the latter in addressing the former 
 seeks as large a piece as he can find. The position of the seal 
 likewise varies according to the respective ranks of the corre- 
 spondents. 
 
 The Toorkestan horses are strong, active, and capable of 
 great fatigue. The saddle is never removed from their backs. 
 The horse-clothing envelopes the whole body, and extends to the 
 neck and head. The saddles are made of painted and polished 
 wood, with a high peak in front, and are raised well above the 
 backbone. The rich are fond of smart trappings, with embroid- 
 ered cloths and silver mounting. Yen' little grass is given to 
 horses, but barley or Indian corn without stint. At the end of 
 their journey, the reeking animals are walked up and down till 
 they are quite cool. They are never turned out loose, but 
 always kept tied up. Yarkund ponies are said to be superior 
 to the small Ladakh breed, and will carry from 200 lbs. to 250 lbs. 
 each, across the mountain passes. 
 
 Where the roads are good, two-wheeled conveyances, called 
 Arabahs, are affected by the wealthy. They are, in fact, covered 
 vans or tilt-carts, and are drawn by three horses, one between 
 the shafts, and two in traces in front, which are driven by reins 
 and a long whip. The two-humped camel, darker, stouter, and 
 more hairy than the Indian species, is the ordinary beast of 
 burden. 
 
 The Toorkestanees justly pride themselves on their horseman- 
 ship. Their favourite amusement, called Ooghlak, is practised 
 in this wise. The headless body of a goat being thrown on the 
 ground, the object is to pick it up without leaving the saddle. 
 Going at top speed, they stretch down to it, with one foot and one 
 hand on the saddle. One clutches the prize and swings himself 
 back into his seat, and gallops off, chased by the others. Whoso 
 overtakes him, strives to wrest the prize from his grasp, while 
 another may come up on the other side. Away the}’ all go, 
 
356 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 helter-skelter, over banks and ditches, heedless of the path, and 
 with the bridle often loose upon their horses’ necks. The con- 
 sequence is not unfrequently a tremendous fall, and a broken 
 head or limb. 
 
 Partridges, too, are chased down on horseback. Soon tiring, 
 they run along the ground, and are knocked over with whips. 
 Black eagles are trained like falcons to fly at deer and antelope. 
 They are hooded, wrapped up in a sheep-skin, and carried head 
 downwards, until within sight of the quarry, when they are 
 unhooded and cast off. 
 
 The penal code is peculiar on some points. The punishment 
 for theft, whatever the value of the property stolen, is death by 
 hanging or impaling; but murderers are pardoned, as high- 
 spii’ited fellows who are likely to make good soldiers. 
 
 The coinage of the country is open to improvement. Twenty- 
 five copper coins are equal to one tanga, valued at fourpence of 
 English money. They are strung together, 500 on one string, 
 which is equal to 20 tangas. Two and a half strings, worth 
 seventeen shillings, were given to Mr Shaw for his daily main- 
 tenance. A kooroos, or lump of stamped silver, is worth £17 
 10s. — ten small lumps making a kooroos. Gold tillahs, stamped 
 in Khokan, are each worth from 32 to 35 tangas. There is 
 also a silver ingot, called Yamboo, or Koors, shaped like a boot 
 or shoe, and bearing a Chinese stamp, which is valued at 1100 
 tangas. 
 
 Ten or a dozen years ago no part of Central Asia was less 
 known to Europeans than the country which now passes by the 
 name of Eastern Toorkestan, or Kashgaria, though called by the 
 people themselves Alty-Shuhr, or the Land of the Six Cities, 
 while some writers maintain that its usual appellation is Yedi- 
 Shuhr, or the Land of the Seven Cities. Be that as it may, the 
 recent travels and observations of Mr Shaw and the late Lieu- 
 tenant Hayward — since murdered by the Chief of Yassin — have 
 
EASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 337 
 
 thrown so strong a light upon this hitherto unknown land, that 
 its geographical configuration, as well as the manners and 
 customs of its inhabitants, are now familiar to the most general 
 reader, while further information may be expected from Sir D. 
 Forsyth’s Report of his late Mission. 
 
 Mr Shaw belongs to that illustrious body of ‘ pioneers of 
 commerce,’ who have opened out so many paths of wealth and 
 usefulness to their home-staving countrymen. Ilis first journey 
 into the dominions of the Atalik Gliazee was a purely personal 
 and tentative enterprise, fraught with much apparent danger to 
 himself, and the fruits of which would be chiefly gathered by 
 those who had neither sown nor planted. No trained diploma- 
 tist, however, could have displayed greater sagacity and self- 
 control, while his kindly nature and thorough manliness won 
 the good will and respect of all who came within his influence. 
 It is not too much to say that the favourable impression made 
 by Mr Shaw has been the most potential cause of the friendly 
 feelings entertained towards England by the ruler and people of 
 Eastern Toorkestan. Lieutenant Hayward, again, was an 
 adventurer in the cause of science. lie was the able and 
 courageous representative of the Royal Geographical Society, 
 and fearlessly hazarded his life that knowledge might be 
 extended. 
 
 By a strange chance it happened that these two remarkable 
 men, perfect strangers to one another and ignorant of each 
 other’s projected journey, reached the frontiers of Eastern Toor- 
 kestan about the same time, although they never met face to face 
 until they were once more at Yarkund on their return towards 
 British territory. Alarmed by a report that a party of fifty 
 Englishmen — possibly the forerunners of an army — were about 
 to follow in their steps, the Atalik Ghazee gave orders that the 
 two explorers should be hospitably treated but kept apart, and 
 should on no account be suffered to wander about the country 
 
358 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 and take notes. Such, precautions were not inexcusable con- 
 sidering the great difficulties of bis position between tbe 
 Russians on one side and tbe English on tbe other, with a large 
 portion of bis nominal subjects opposed to bis authority. 
 
 Descending from tbe dreadful Passes of the Karakoram 
 range, it is pleasant to travel between hedgerows planted with 
 poplar, apple, and pear trees, with a continuous breadth of cul- 
 tivation on either side, and houses and villages appearing at 
 brief intervals. The town nearest to the southern boundary is 
 Sanju, consisting of a street running into and out of a small 
 square containing a mosque. The so-called street is simply a 
 road between two lofty mud-walls, pierced for doors at about 
 every thirty yards. Each door opens into a court-yard, round 
 which are disposed the rooms and offices that constitute a 
 Toorkish house. From Sanju Mr Shaw rode for four days in a 
 westerly direction across a sandy, undulating plain, interspersed 
 with a few scraggy bushes, and intersected by four streams 
 from the mountaius, forming fertile strips and oases, each main- 
 taining a village. On the fifth day he turned to the northward, 
 and passed over broken ground sloping down to the desert, till 
 he reached Karghalik, situated in a cultivated and populous 
 district about seventy-nine miles* from Sanju, and thirty-six 
 from Yarkund. It stands upwards of 4500 feet above the sea, 
 and, according to Mr Hayward, contains 20,000 houses, a spacious 
 bazaar, and several caravanserais. 
 
 Twenty-one miles from Karghalik is the town of Posgam 
 with its 10,000 houses, its huge, busy caravanserai, its long 
 bazaar, covered with matting to keep out the sun. This place 
 bears an evil reputation in connection with the tradition that 
 
 * Distances in Eastern Toorkestau arc measured by the ‘ tash ’ — literally a 
 stone. Upon a pile of stones is planted a post, to which is nailed a board, in- 
 scribed with the number of ‘ taslies ’ to this or that town. The measure may 
 be taken to be the distance that a horse can walk in an hour, which, in that 
 country, is about four and a half miles. 
 
EASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 359 
 
 accounts for the introduction of goitre into the country. Once 
 upon a time a holy man used to despatch a sagacious camel into 
 Yarkund, without any attendant, to collect the offerings of the 
 pious. Some of the Posgam people, moved by the Evil One, 
 one day seized the unguarded animal, killed, and cooked it. 
 The Saint thereupon uncharitably prayed that the perpetrators 
 of the deed might be made known by some sign on their throat. 
 And he was answered by the goitre, which is confined to the 
 Moghul population, and spares both the Oozbegs and strangers 
 from foreign parts. 
 
 From Karghalik to Yarkund the road passes through a 
 very productive country, devoid of hedges, but presenting a 
 wooded appearance from the roads being lined with poplar and 
 mulberry trees, and from the numerous villages and hamlets 
 being: surrounded bv fruit-trees. Water- courses are led in all 
 directions, over or under the road, and across marshes and hol- 
 lows, while falls and sluices are employed in driving mills for 
 husking rice, and pounding saltpetre to make gunpowder. The 
 machinery is of the simplest, being merely a wheel with a 
 single cog, and a pair of pestles rising and falling. Rice, 
 wheat, barley, Indian corn, carrots, turnips, clover, and cotton 
 are successfully cultivated, while sheep, goats, fowls, and 
 pigeons add to the comforts of the rural population ; but 
 neither ducks nor geese seem to thrive, except in a wild state. 
 
 Approaching Yarkund, ‘ the road was covered with people 
 and animals, strings of camels and donkeys carrying hales of 
 silk and goods from Ivhotan, country produce going in to mar- 
 ket, with men and women riding ponies, the latter astride the 
 saddle like the men.’ From a little distance the long low line 
 of the city walls rises against the horizon, with one conspicuous 
 object challenging observation. On a nearer approach this is 
 made out to be a tall square scaffolding, with two platforms, 
 one above the other, built over the roof of a substantial build- 
 
3C0 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 ing. ‘ This is the first thing a stranger sees of the city of 
 Yarkund,’ and it proved to be the executioner’s stage. 
 
 This famous town stands 3830 feet above the sea, and is in 
 shape a parallelogram, measuring two miles from north to 
 south, and one and a half from east to west. The circuit of the 
 walls is about seven miles, and their height is stated at from forty 
 to forty-five feet. Their thickness is said to be very great, and 
 they are strengthened by bastions and intermediate flanking de- 
 fences. Few names have been so variously mis-spelt. It has 
 been written Irken, Irghen, Jarkan, Yarkhan, Yurkend, Yar- 
 kian, Yarghian, Yerkeen, and Yerkehen. Marco Polo calls 
 the town and province Carcan, describing the latter as five 
 long days’ mai’ches in length, teeming with corn and fruit, and 
 peopled by Mohammedans, with a commingling of Christians. 
 The city at one time had fallen to decay, till a Toorkish Sultan, 
 named Abou Bekr, made it his capital, about the close of the 
 9th century, and constructed a citadel and many canals of 
 irrigation. 
 
 Benedict Goes, who travelled in these parts about the year 
 1403, makes mention of Hiarchan, ‘ the capital of the kingdom 
 of Cascar,’ as ‘ a mart of much note, both for the great con- 
 course of merchants, and from the variety of wares.’ The cara- 
 van from India to China always halted at this point and was 
 reorganized. As it was not every year that a sufficient number 
 of traders could be got together to justify the prosecution of 
 such a hazardous journey, the Indian traders patiently waited 
 till the next batch of their fellow-countrymen arrived from 
 across the mountains. The best and surest goods for the 
 Chinese markets ‘ were lumps of a certain transparent kind of 
 marble, which we, from poverty of language, usually call 
 jasper’ — meaning jade. 
 
 About half way between the Karakoram Pass and Yarkund 
 jade is worked with great difficulty out of a quarry. A trench 
 
EASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 3G1 
 
 being excavated on the top of a rock, a fire is lighted, and 
 when the heat is supposed to have penetrated sufficiently deep, 
 a quantity of cold water is suddenly poured into the trench, 
 with the effect of splitting off a considerable slab. The Torkce 
 name for jade, says Colonel Tule, is ‘ Kash,’ but the Chinese 
 call it ‘ Yu-she, or Yu stone. The best quality is fished up in 
 the form of boulders out of the rivers of Khotun. 
 
 According to Lieutenant Ilayward, Yarkund now contains 
 about 40,000 houses, but he estimates the population at only 
 120,000. There are five gates, the main street running from 
 the gate in the western wall to the Aksu gate in the eastern 
 side. The streets are usually narrow, never exceeding ten to 
 twelve feet in width, and are lined with shops kept mostly by 
 women. Some houses possess an upper storey, in which Mr 
 Shaw’s quick eye observed mothers rocking cradles with their 
 foot, a novel spectacle in the East. YArkund boasts of 1G0 
 mosques, numerous colleges, and twelve caravanserais, ‘ which 
 are always crowded with merchants from every country in 
 Asia.’ The water for the use of the citizens is brought from 
 the river by canals, and stored in large open reservoirs, or tanks. 
 
 About 500 yards to the westward of the city stands the 
 Y r ang-shulir, or New Town, a citadel surrounded by walls of 
 earth forty feet high, and twelve feet wide at the top, parallel with 
 the four cardinal points. It is nearly square, measuring about 
 700 yards each way. Each corner is defended by a bastion 
 and a tower, with eight intermediate flanking defences, and the 
 parapet is loop-holed for musketry. A dry moat encloses the 
 fort, twenty-five feet in depth, eighteen feet wide at the bottom, 
 and thirty at the top. There are three gates, but only one is 
 kept open. In the south-west corner is placed the ‘ TJrdoo,’ or 
 residence of the chief authorities, girt with a wall thirty feet 
 high. The north-west corner is occupied by the inner fort, 
 which, at the time of Mr Hayward’s visit, was in a very ruinous 
 
362 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 condition. No guns were mounted on the walls, but in the 
 sti’eet stood five long swivels, two small mortars, and five four- 
 pounders mounted on carriages, with ammunition waggons 
 drawn up in the rear. The gunners were chiefly Hindoostanees, 
 soldiers of fortune, and mutineers from the old Bengal army, — 
 the words of command being given in English. 
 
 The temperature of Yarkund varies considerably at different 
 seasons of the year. Early in January Fahrenheit’s thermometer 
 sinks nearly to zero in the morning, rising to 23° at noon, but 
 by the end of May it marks 72°, and in July and August from 
 80° to 85°. 
 
 The road from Yarkund to Kashgar passes through the 
 hamlet of Kokrobat, with its 200 houses ; skirts the Dusht-i- 
 TTameed, a barren stony plain, exhibiting scanty patches of 
 grass and a few stunted shrubs ; traverses the busy townlet of 
 Kizil, consisting of 500 houses, with furnaces for smelting the 
 iron ore procured from the lower slopes of the Kizil-Tagh, or 
 Bed Mountains ; discovers several smaller villages ; crosses 
 another broad sterile plain, and finally reaches Yanghissar on 
 the left bank of the Sargrak. This town contains perhaps 
 11,000 houses, but the streets are very narrow, and lined with 
 booths succeeding each other in wild confusion, a stall covered 
 with silks standing next to one reeking with horse-flesh. Six 
 hundred yards from the town is a square fort, 250 yards in 
 length and breadth, with bastions, towers, and flanking defences, 
 walls thirty-six feet in height, and a dry moat thirty-six feet in 
 depth. Yanghissar was the first place captured by Yakoob 
 Beg, and was defended by the Chinese with desperate resolution 
 even after every article of food had been consumed ; the mere 
 handful that survived submitting to be circumcised. 
 
 Picturesque views may be here enjoj r ed of the Kizil Yart 
 range, rising to peaks 20,000 feet in altitude ; with spurs run- 
 ning abruptly into the high table land below. Yanghissar is 
 
EASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 3G3 
 
 about thirty miles north-west of Yarkund, and a little over forty 
 from Kashgar. After leaving this town, Mr Hayward traversed 
 a track of marshy ground before he again found himself in the 
 midst of cultivation. At Yupchan, a townlet of 700 houses, he 
 crossed the Ilosun river, and a little further on the Khanarik, 
 with a breadth of 700 yards, between low banks, fringed with 
 grassy strips, covered with a jungle of tamarisk shrubs. The 
 large village of Tasgam next came in view in the heart of a 
 fertile district, and then the Yangi-shuhr, or New Town, of 
 Kashgar. As at Yarkund, this is the citadel, and in 18G4-G-5 
 was held by the Chinese for eighteen months, until famine 
 compelled them to surrender. The northern and southern 
 walls are about GOO yards in length, but the eastern and west- 
 ern are somewhat less. They are forty feet high, constructed of 
 earth, and pierced for three gates, of which only one is in use. 
 They are surrounded with a dry moat, twenty-five feet deep and 
 forty in width. The interior is divided into three courts, in 
 the innermost of which is the ‘ Urdoo,’ or King’s Palace.* 
 
 The town itself is situated four miles to the north, on the 
 other side of the Kizil Darya, or Kashgar river. It is com- 
 monly called the Old Town, and is encircled with a clay-built 
 wall, penetrated by five gates. Kashgar is a flourishing city, 
 containing perhaps 28,000 houses, and a population estimated 
 by Mr Ha^’ward at over 60,000 souls. * The power in possess- 
 ion of Kashgar,’ that traveller remarks, ‘holds the key of 
 Eastern Turkestan from the north. "Wonderfully well and 
 centrally situated, it is a place of the utmost importance, both 
 in a political and military point of view. Here all the roads 
 from the Khanates of Central Asia converge, and in the hands 
 of any European Power it would be a place of immense com- 
 merce.’ 
 
 * Mr Shaw, however, is probably more correct ia spelling this word as 
 Oorda, evidently derived from the same origin as Oordoo, and corrupted into 
 our English ‘horde.’ 
 
364 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 In Hiouen Tsang’s time the people, as compared with the 
 Chinese, appeared to be coarse, unlettered, and immoral. They 
 flattened the heads of their babies, and painted their persons. 
 Their eyes were of a green colour, and their language peculiar, 
 though they wrote in the Indian style. They were Buddhists, 
 and 10,000 monks occupied a hundred convents. The province 
 was for the most part sandjr and sparingly cultivated, but in 
 places produced good crops of fruit and grain. The local 
 manufactures were felt, stout cloth, fine carpets, and brocades. 
 
 Lieutenant Ilayward describes, as follows, his interview 
 with Mohammed Yakooh Beg, the Atalik Ghazee. ‘ Passing 
 through the north gate into the fort, a body of Tungani soldiers, 
 armed with long lances, were first noticed, drawn up on each 
 side of the way, while a guard of Turki sipahis, in scarlet 
 uniform and high sheepskin caps, were grouped around some 
 few pieces of artillery in position, near the main entrance. 
 Dismounting at the entrance of a large courtyard, I was con- 
 ducted by the Yuzhashee across this enclosure to the gate of 
 an inner court, where a Yuzawal-bashee, dressed in the costume 
 and chain-armour of the Egyptian Mamelukes, came forward 
 to say that, if I would sit down for a few minutes, the Atalik 
 would be prepared to see me. I accordingly waited until he 
 returned, and ushered me across the second court, which, with 
 the first, was filled with men all dressed in silk, and armed. . . 
 
 ‘Having readied the entrance of the innermost court, I 
 found it to he quite empty, save of a piece of ordnance in posi- 
 tion, with muzzle pointed towards the entrance gate. At the 
 further end of this court, sitting under the verandah in front of 
 his apartment, was the Atalik Ghazee himself, and here, as at 
 Yarkund, no display or decoration appeared in the plain and 
 unadorned buildings of his palace. As if scorning any costli- 
 ness but that of military display, everything about him is in 
 keeping with his simple and soldier-like habits. . . 
 
EASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 3G5 
 
 ‘The Yuzawal-bashee who escorted me retiring, I advanced 
 alone, bowed, and shaking hands, sat down opposite to the 
 Atalik. He was dressed very plainly in a fur-lined silk choga, 
 with snow-white turban, and, in the total absence of any orna- 
 ments or decorations, presented a striking contrast to the 
 bedecked and bejewelled Rajahs of Hindustan. I was at once 
 favourably impressed by his appearance, which did not belie 
 the deeds of a man who in two years has won a kingdom twice 
 the size of Great Britain.’ (Clearly an exaggeration.) ‘ He is 
 about forty-five years of age, in stature short and robust, with the 
 strongly marked features peculiar to the U zbegs of Andijan.’ 
 (He is said to be of Tajeek extraction.) ‘His broad, massive, 
 and deeply-seamed forehead, together with the keen and acute 
 eye of the Asiatic, mark the intelligence and sagacity of the 
 ruler, while the closely-knit brows and firm mouth, with its 
 somewhat thick sensuous lips, stamp him as a man of indomit- 
 able will. . . Although an adept in dissimulation and de- 
 
 ceit, the prevailing expression of his face was one of concern 
 and anxiety, as if oppressed with constant care in maintaining 
 the high position to which he has attained. His manner, how- 
 ever, was most courteous, and even jovial at times.’ 
 
 In another place Mr Hayward said of this successful soldier 
 of fortune : ‘ If the villainy and deceit which he has practised 
 during his career stand in strange contrast with his fortitude 
 
 o O 
 
 and unflinching braver} 7 , he has also fought well, for he has 
 been twelve times wounded. And as an Asiatic will never 
 hesitate to stoop to treachery and deceit, it would be hopeless 
 to look for any trait of generosity and magnanimity displayed 
 by him during his rapid rise to power. He is now proving 
 himself to be an able and energetic statesman, and a fit ruler of 
 the somewhat turbulent subjects whom he has to govern.’ 
 
 In the north-eastern extremity of Eastern Toorkestan 
 stands the ancient town of Aksu, at the confluence of the Aksu 
 
3G6 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 and Kokshal rivers. According to Colonel Yule it contains 
 6000 houses, and forms the central point of the Chinese trade, 
 whence diverge routes to China on one side, and to Eastern 
 and Western Toorkestan on the other. The surrounding dis- 
 trict is particularly fertile, and produces grapes, melons, cereals, 
 and cotton. Hiouen Tsang speaks favourably of the cotton 
 and wool of Aksu, or, as he calls it, Po-lou-kia, hut these ad- 
 vantages were terribly counter-balanced by the fierce dragons 
 that infested the stony desert to the north-west and attacked 
 travellers, who consequently avoided uttering loud cries or 
 wearing red dresses. It certainly lies unpleasantly near the 
 Muz-Art or Icy Mountains, a branch of the Tian Shan, across 
 which passes the road to Ivulja, formerly the capital of the 
 Chinese Government of Zungaria and Toorkestan, but now 
 annexed to Itussia. 
 
 Aksu may have been the Auxacia of Ptolemy, and was cer- 
 tainly the chief seat of an extensive Chinese province under 
 the Han dynasty in the second century b.c. It was, also, at 
 one time the favourite residence of the rulers of Kashgar and 
 Yarkund. Hiouen Tsang crossed the mountains to Issyk-Kul, 
 or Lake Thsung-Tchi, and ascertained that no one dared to fish 
 in its salt, dark-green waters, for fear of the strange monsters 
 that dwelt beneath its stormy surface. Another town of East- 
 ern Toorkestan is Ush Turfan, now an inconsiderable place, 
 but which once possessed a tolerably large population. It is 
 famous for the tobacco grown in the neighbourhood, and a 
 brisk trade in cattle is also carried on. The inhabitants having 
 revolted from the Chinese in 1765 were put to the sword, and 
 500 families brought in from the neighbouring districts to 
 form the nucleus of a new town. 
 
 A far more notable place is Khotan in the south-eastern 
 extremity of Alty-shuhr. It was, says Colonel Yule, the 
 seat of a very ancient civilization, and had friendly relations 
 
EASTERN TOORKKSTAN. 
 
 3G7 
 
 with China upwards of a century before the Christian era. In 
 the fourth century it was entirely devoted to Buddhism, and in 
 the time of Iliouen Tsang contained a hundred convents peopled 
 by 5000 monks. According to that pilgrim, the people were 
 of gentle character, orderly in their conduct, polite in their 
 manners, skilful, industrious, and fond of music, song, and the 
 dance. They wrote after the Indian fashion, but spoke in a 
 peculiar dialect. Their ordinary apparel was of white cotton, 
 few making use of either furs or wool. Silkworms were much 
 cultivated, while carpets, felt, and cotton cloths were the chief 
 manufactures. Marco Polo also makes mention of Cotan, a 
 Mohammedan province, eight days’ journey in length, contain- 
 ing many towns and castles, with much abundance of all things 
 necessary for life and comfort. The inhabitants — who, it has 
 been suggested, may be descended from the Xairai Scythians of 
 Ptolemy — were rather given to the pursuit of trade than of 
 arms. The silkworm, it is said, was introduced by a Chinese 
 Princess, who, at a far distant epoch, had married the rider of 
 Khotan. The original capital was named Ilchi, and it is quite 
 recently that the town of Khotan has obtained any sort of 
 notoriet}\ 
 
 The ill-fated Moorcroft was favourably impressed with the 
 natural capabilities of the province. Yaks, he says, were 
 bred on the mountains, and ordinary cattle in the plains. 
 Sheep of the Dumba stock and shawl-goats increased and mul- 
 tiplied. Among wild animals, the two-humped camel was 
 hunted down both for its flesh and for its wool. The Grorkhar 
 or wild ass, many kinds of deer, including the musk deer, hares, 
 foxes, leopards, bears, wolves, and perhaps tigers, provided pro- 
 fitable sport for hunters. Partridges and the larger francolin 
 were common. The manufactures comprised woollens, camlets, 
 cottons, and silks, and at one time an extensive trade was 
 carried on with Hindostan, but this had fallen off previous to 
 
3G8 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Mooreroft’s wanderings, between 1819 and 1825. The jade 
 manufacture was tben in a flourishing condition, and stones 
 free from speck were reserved exclusively for bis Celestial 
 Majesty. It was believed that if poison were put into a jade 
 cup the vessel would fly into pieces ; that fragments of jade 
 worn upon the person avert the lightning flash ; and that any 
 liquor drunk from a jade cup will relieve palpitation of the 
 heart. 
 
 In the year 1865 Mr W. II. Johnson, employed in the Indian 
 Trigonometrical Survey Department, finding himself at Leh in 
 Ladakh, was moved by truly British restlessness to make a 
 journey across the mountains to Ilchi. Setting out in the 
 month of July he took the usual route to the Pangong Lake up 
 the Changchenmo valley, and across the Pass. After that he 
 chose the Brinjga route, which traverses extensive plains with 
 an easy slope, but devoid of vegetation except a few lavender 
 plants, and badly supplied with water. At the northern ex- 
 tremity of the plains the route dips suddenly to the Karakash 
 river, where grass and fuel are obtainable in small quantities. 
 It thence leads over the snowy Passes of Brinjga, lofty and 
 difficult through the masses of snow and ice with which they 
 are encumbered. It then turns down a ravine for one whole 
 march, and afterwards crosses several more passes and streams, 
 and finally descends into the plains of Ivhotan near Bezilia. 
 
 ‘ I was informed,’ Mr Johnson remarks, ‘ that by skirting the 
 Jviun Lun range wheeled conveyances might be easily taken 
 from Ilchi to the Changchenmo valley near Leh ; that water, 
 grass, and wood are obtainable at every halting- place, and that 
 the only difficulty is the liability to meet with opposition from 
 the shepherds of Rudok in the portion of the route which passes 
 across the Changthang Plain.’ 
 
 As it was, it took him sixteen days from the valley of the 
 Karakash to Ilchi, by a very difficult road and over a recently 
 
EASTERN TOORKESTAN. 
 
 369 
 
 discovered Pass. lie goes on to describe the province of Kho- 
 tan as an extensive plain gently sloping towards the north, and 
 well watered by mountain streams and artificial canals. The 
 soil is generally sandy, free from stones, and highly productive. 
 An exceedingly tine sand, resembling minutely pulverized clay, 
 often falls in showers, when there is not a breath of wind, 
 obscuring the light of day, but fertilizing the land which it 
 covers. Much the same cereals are grown as in India, but of 
 superior quality, owing to the greater equality of the climate. 
 The most common trees are poplars, willows, and tamarisks. 
 The grass is magnificent, and cotton and raw silk are of excel- 
 lent quality. Minerals abound, such as gold, silver, iron, lead, 
 copper, antimony, salt, saltpetre, sulphur, and soda. 
 
 As a manufacturing town Ilchi, or Khotan, ranks next to 
 Yarkund, and turns out silks, felts, carpets of a mixed fabric of 
 silk and wool, coarse cotton cloths, and paper made from mul- 
 berry fibre. The population of the capital is estimated at 
 40,000 and that of the province at 200,000. Females are said 
 to be in excess of males to the extent of twenty per cent., 
 owing to the frequency of wars and rebellions. The men are 
 fair complexioned, well built, and good looking ; and the 
 women, though rather short, are pretty, but with a slight 
 touch of the Tatar cast of countenance. Men and women alike 
 were dressed in clean and comfortable attire, and seemed cheer- 
 ful and prosperous. 
 
 The Khan at that time dwelt in an old Chinese fort, built 
 of earth. The town was surrounded by a wall twenty-five feet 
 in height and twenty in breadth. 'Watchmen patrolled the 
 streets at night, notifying their approach by striking a stick 
 against a hollow piece of wood, which gave forth a loud, un- 
 musical souud. The old Chinese instruments of torture were 
 then in use. One of them was the rack, worked by screws ; 
 another, similar to our treadmill ; and a third, employed to 
 
 24 
 
370 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 extort confession, was a frame covered with, sharp stones and 
 gravel, on which the culprit was forced to kneel with a heavy 
 log of wood laid across the inner part of his knee joints, the 
 pain being excruciating. Hanging and blowing away from 
 guns were the ordinary modes of inflicting capital punishment. 
 Gallows were erected, for convenience sake, in various parts of 
 the city. Flogging with a leather thong was also a common 
 method of chastising both men and women. 
 
 Mr Johnson was invited to Yarkund to take possession of 
 the town and district in the name of the British Government, 
 and was informed that the inhabitants, weary of anarchy, con- 
 fusion, and oppression, had clubbed together to present him 
 with £30,000 and sundry robes of honour, if he would consent 
 to remain and he their ruler. The flattering offer was declined, 
 and Mr Johnson returned to his humbler duties as a surveyor, 
 and it is reported received something like a snubbing from the 
 Governor-General for wandering into unknown lands, and 
 incurring the liability of being pelted with provinces and 
 kingdoms. 
 
THE AMEER OF KASIIGAR. 
 
 371 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE AMEER OF KASHGAR. 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ALTYSHUIIR — WALEE KHAN TOURA — MOHAMMED YA- 
 KOOB BEG— TUNGAXI REBELLION — HEROIC SUICIDE OF THE AMBAX — FALL 
 OF KASHGAR— YAKOOB BEG DEFEATS THE TUNGANIS — RECEIVES TITLE OF 
 ATALIK GKAZEE— TREACHEROUS SEIZURE OF KHOTAN— REDUCTION OF 
 TASK KURGHAN — OFFICIAL RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA — MR FORSYTH’S 
 ' FIRST MISSION — BARON VON KAULBARS’ MISSION — EXPORTS AND IMPORTS 
 
 PROGRESS OF RUSSIAN INFLUENCE — AGA MEHDIE RAPHAEL — ROUTES 
 
 TO INDIA — LADAKH — MR FORSYTH'S SECOND MISSION — LORD CLARENDON’S 
 NEUTRAL ZONE. 
 
 Buddhism was the national faith of Eastern Toorkestan 
 from the commencement of the Christian era to the close of the 
 14th century. During the 8th century, indeed, a long and 
 terrible war raged between the Arabs and the Chinese, in which 
 the former were victorious, and succeeded in impressing the 
 ritual observances of their faith upon the nomad population. 
 The original inhabitants and the Chinese settlers continued, 
 however, loyal to their ancient creed, and it was not until the 
 reign of Timour that Islam finally superseded belief in the 
 teachings of Sakya-Muni. Under the descendants of Chinghiz 
 Khan, Altyshuhr — comprising the six cities of Yarkund, Kash- 
 gar, Ilchi, Aksu, Yanghissar, and Ush-Turfan — formed a por- 
 tion of the Chagatai Khanat. Religious toleration, or indiffer- 
 ence, was one of the characteristic features of the early Tatar 
 domination, and in Marco Polo’s time there existed several 
 nunneries belonging to the Xestorian Christians. 
 
S r /2 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 About the year 1678, the Khwajas or Khojas of the Black 
 Mountain fell out with the Khojas of the White Mountain, and 
 the latter, being worsted in battle, implored the aid of Galdan 
 Khan, chief of the Eleuths, or Kalmuks, of Zungaria. Assist- 
 ance was granted. Ismail Khan, ruler of Kashgar, and the 
 Black Mountain Khojas were carried off into captivity, and 
 their country reduced to a state of vassalage to Galdan Khan 
 and his successors. In 1757 the Zungarian empire was over- 
 thrown by the Chinese, who also annexed the Land of the Six 
 Cities, and expelled the Khojas of the White Mountain. 
 
 In the mountainous regions of Ferghana, or Khokan, these 
 descendants of the Arabian prophet, revered by the people for 
 their sanctity and gift of working miracles, found a secure 
 asylum from further persecution, but, unhappily for themselves, 
 could not rest contented with peaceful obscurity. In 1827, Je- 
 hangheer Khan Khoja suddenly made himself master of Kash- 
 gar and Yarkund, but was soon driven out again by the Chinese. 
 Fleeing to Khokan, he was surrendered to his pursuers, and 
 executed at Pekin in the following year. The next attempt at 
 recovering their former position was made in 1852 by seven 
 Khojas, but without success. 
 
 Five years later, however, the notorious Walee Khan Toura 
 obtained some notable advantages until his own adherents, terri- 
 fied by his insane cruelty, abandoned him to his fate. This 
 madman w T as in the habit of daily intoxicating himself with 
 bhang, and in his frenzy thought nothing of human life. A 
 Kashgaree armourer one day presented him with a sword 
 wrought by himself with special care. Drawing it from the 
 sheath, Walee Khan with one sweep struck off the head of the 
 armourer’s son, a youth standing by his father’s side. ‘Yes,’ 
 he quietly remarked, ‘it is a good blade,’ and turning to his 
 attendants, he added, ‘ Give this man a killut,’ or robe of 
 honour. At another time he ordered a musician to be beheaded 
 
THE AMEER OF KASHGAR. 
 
 373 
 
 for yawning in his presence, and scarce a day passed without 
 threfc or four executions, llis chief officers sat before him with 
 downcast eyes, and open hands stretched out as in prayer. If 
 one of them raised his eyes or altered his attitude, the penalty 
 was death. If the Muezzin called to prayers when Walee 
 Khan was going out, he forfeited his head. 
 
 While this monster was besieging the Chinese in the fort of 
 Kashgar, the Prussian traveller Adolph von Selilagintweit in 
 an evil hour arrived at his camp. Conducted to the presence 
 of Walee Khan he asked how long the siege had lasted, and 
 was answered ‘ Three months.’ * Oh ! ’ he imprudently exclaim- 
 ed, ‘ my countrymen would take the place in three days. There 
 is no difficulty at all.’ ‘ Indeed,’ replied the chief, and in 
 obedience to a sign the indiscreet traveller was led out of the tent 
 to the river-bank, where his throat was cut, and his head finally 
 severed from his body.* Walee Khan ultimately fell into the 
 hands of Yakoob Beg, by whom he was put to death in 1866. 
 
 In 1857, Khoda Yar Khan, of Khokan, having given offence 
 to his people, was deposed by his nephew Malla Khan, and fled 
 to Bokhara, where he was well received by the Ameer Nusser 
 Oollah, who gave him his daughter in marriage. Malla Khan 
 was murdered in his bed by five Kirghiz chiefs, in 1860, after 
 which a period of anarchy ensued until a Kipchak chief, named 
 Alam Kool, obtained the ascendancy, which he secured by the 
 decapitation of the five Kirghiz murderers. He then assumed 
 the regency in the name of Malla Khan’s son, Sooltan Khan, 
 and for a time Khokan enjoyed the blessings of a vigorous and 
 united government. But in 1865, Alam Kool fell in battle 
 against the Russians, and Mozuffer-ood-deen, now Ameer of 
 
 * Captain Valikhanof, who visited Eastern Toorkestan in 1859 in the 
 character of a native trader, alludes to the cruelties practised both by the 
 Kirghiz aud Chinese in that country. Sehlagintweit’s head was exposed to 
 view as the apex of a pyramid of skulls, and the road approaching Kashgar 
 was bordered on eaeh side with small wicker cages containing human heads. 
 
374 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Bokhara, taking advantage of the confusion that prevailed, 
 restored Khoda Yar Khan to the throne. The Kipchaks there- 
 upon fled with the youthful Sooltan Khan to the Kooshbegie, 
 Mohammed Yakoob Beg, who received the little prince with 
 every demonstration of respect. 
 
 Yakoob Beg is said to he of Tajeek extraction, and to have 
 been born at Pishpek, now a Russian possession ; though Mr 
 Hayward fixes his birth-place at a village near Namangan. 
 His courage and remarkable abilities had raised him from one 
 post to another, until he attained the high office of Kooshbegie, 
 or Commander-in-chief of the Khokan forces, then vainly 
 endeavouring to check the advance of the Russians. In this 
 truly patriotic war Yakoob Beg displayed very considerable 
 military skill, and so fearlessly exposed his own person that he 
 was five times wounded by Russian bullets. His defence of 
 Ak Musjeed was sufficiently obstinate to command the admira- 
 tion of the enemy, but circumstances connected with the ulti- 
 mate surrender of that strong place were held to prove that he 
 was not a second Fabricius. When Sooltan Khan fled to him 
 for protection he was serving in Kashgaria as the right arm of 
 Khoja Boozoorg Khan, son of the Jehanglieer Khan who was 
 carried to Pekin in a cage and executed in 1828. 
 
 Under the Chinese government, Zungaria and Eastern Toor- 
 kestan were the northern and southern circuits of a province 
 denominated Ili, and were governed from Kulja. The admin- 
 istration seems to have been of a gwcrst-military character, and 
 has been likened to the S3’stem that exists in the Non-Regula- 
 tion Provinces of India. The Chinese had incorporated large 
 numbers of the Tunganis among their regular troops, and had 
 thus supplied them with arms and discipline, while they them- 
 selves were demoralized by excessive indulgence in opium and 
 other drugs. In 18G4, the Mohammedan agitation, which had 
 broken out in Salar and Kansu, spread to the province of Ili. 
 
TIIE AMEElt OF KASIIGAR. 
 
 375 
 
 Khamil and T rumchi were the first towns to rise in rebellion. 
 The latter town was the depot for tea for all Central Asia. 
 The Tungani soldiery having compelled their co-religionists, 
 the Sarts, to join them, put the Manchus to the sword, and an 
 extensive conflagration destroyed many warehouses filled with 
 tea. 
 
 The insurgents marched thence in two bodies, one to the 
 north, the other to the south. The former met with an unin- 
 terrupted series of successes, so that by the autumn of 1865 the 
 Chinese retained only four places in all Zungaria, including the 
 citadels of Kulja and Chuguchak. At this last-named place 
 the Kirghiz declared for the Tunganis, while the Kalmuks 
 espoused the opposite side, and, crossing the Russian frontier, 
 fell upon the Kirghiz encampment, which they plundered for 
 two whole days. The booty they then carried off consisted of 
 100,000 sheep, 6000 horned cattle, 600 camels, and 1300 horses, 
 while they left amid the ashes of the encampment 300 dead 
 bodies, 200 carcases of slaughtered sheep, and 1500 masterless 
 dogs, which, after devouring corpse and carcase, became des- 
 perate and scoured the country in formidable packs. Early in 
 1866 the Tunganis carried the citadel of Kulja by storm, mas- 
 sacred the garrison, and gained possession of Zungaria north of 
 the Tarbagatai mountains. 
 
 In the mean while, the southern wave of rebellion rolled in 
 westward from the desert of Gobi. In the eastern districts the 
 population generall}’ s) r mpathized with the Tunganis, but not 
 so in Altyshuhr. Aksu and Usli-Turfan speedily fell, and no 
 quarter was asked or given. The Mussulman host next elected 
 as their ruler Khoja Rasheed-ood-deen, and then marched 
 against Yarkund. The town at once fell into their hands, but 
 the Chinese retiring into the fort held them at bay for six 
 weeks, by which time everything eatable had been consumed, 
 and death by starvation seemed imminent. The Tungani leader 
 
376 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 having offered life and amnesty to all who embraced the true 
 religion — as professed hy himself — the venerable Amban or 
 Chinese governor of Altyshuhr, called together his chief officers 
 in an upper room of the palace, and invited them to express 
 their opinions. A violent wrangle ensued, in the midst of 
 which the old man’s daughters sat weeping at his feet, while 
 his sons handed round tea and sweetmeats. Suddenly the ter- 
 rible war shout of the Moslemeen, * Allah-ho Akbar ! ’ rang in 
 their ears. Addressing a few brief words of farewell to his 
 children, the Amban calmly reversed his long pipe and allowed 
 the hot ashes to fall upon a train, connected with a large quan- 
 tity of gunpowder placed in the room below. An explosion 
 followed on the instant, and all were blown into the air, a little 
 page-boy alone escaping to tell the heroic tale. 
 
 Encouraged by the general confusion, the Kirghiz had 
 swooped down from their mountains like a flock of vultures, but 
 lost their chance of plunder by suffering themselves to be de- 
 tained for six months before the walls of Kashgar. Ignorant 
 of the art of war, and wholly unprovided with artillery, they 
 could do nothing but cut off all supplies, and trust to famine 
 as their surest auxiliary. And the besieged were reduced to a 
 sorr) 1, plight. ‘ First,’ says Mr Shaw, ‘ they ate their horses, 
 then the dogs' and cats, then their leather boots and straps, the 
 saddles of their horses, and the strings of their bows. At last, 
 they would collect together in parties of five or six, who would 
 go prowling about, with ravenous eyes, till they saw some one 
 alone, some unfortunate comrade, who still retained the flesh on 
 his bones. They would drag him aside and kill him, after- 
 wards dividing the flesh betwixt them, each carrying off his 
 piece hidden under his robe. Thirty or forty men died of hun- 
 ger every day. At last, when no defenders were left on the 
 walls, or at the gateways, the Kirghiz made good their entrance.’ 
 
 Indescribable barbarities were committed by these savages 
 
THE AMEER OF KASHGAR. 
 
 377 
 
 until they were surprised and routed by Boozoorg Khan and 
 the Kooshbegie, and their leaders summarily executed. Leaving 
 the main body of his troops to blockade the Chinese garrison in 
 the Yangshuhr, or Fort of Kashgar, Yakoob Beg marched with 
 a small force against the overwhelming host of the Tunganis. 
 The two armies met on the Kanarik near Yupchan, and the 
 battle raged for eight hours. Yakoob Beg had two horses shot 
 under him, and received two severe gun-shot wounds, from 
 which he fainted, but not until the victory had been won by 
 repeated desperate charges. The submission of Yanghissar was 
 the first fruits of this well contested action, which broke the 
 power of the Tunganis. Early in 1865, the Chinese garrison 
 of the Fort of Kashgar surrendered to the Kooshbegie, accepting 
 life at the cost of their religion. 
 
 Yakoob Beg was not, however, equally successful at Yar- 
 kund. Entering the town with only 500 horsemen, he was 
 surprised to find that the population sided with the Tunganis. 
 The gates being closed upon him, 200 of his little band struck 
 down, and himself wounded, he rode up the city wall and 
 leaped down into the moat, scrambling up the other side. In 
 his daring leap he was followed by the survivors of his party, 
 but he then went to the rear and was the last to leave the moat 
 — a truly valiant barbarian. His second attempt also failed, 
 but at last treachery triumphed, and the Tungani faction was 
 overpowered. 
 
 Hitherto Yakoob Beg had fought and bled and conquered 
 as the General of Boozoorg Khan, a feeble old debauchee. He 
 now felt that the time had arrived to throw off the mask and act 
 in his own name. The Khoja was accordingly placed in confine- 
 ment, but in 1868 was permitted to make a pilgrimage to 
 Mecca, whence he returned in safety by way of Bokhara, and 
 retired to his native hills of Andijan. The execution of the 
 atrocious Khoja Walee Khan must be regarded as almost a 
 
378 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 meritorious act, and was necessary to the consolidation of 
 Yakoob Beg’s power. The vigour he had displayed in restoring 
 the Land of the Six Cities to Mohammedanism called forth the 
 approbation of the Ameer of Bokhara, who bestowed upon the 
 victorious Champion of the Faith the appropriate title of 
 Atalik Ghazee, until quite recently the official designation of 
 the present Buler of Eastern Toorkestan, but who has since 
 received from the Sultan of Turkey the still more distinguished 
 title of Ameer. 
 
 The Atalik’s next exploit, however, was unutterably foul 
 and treacherous. The venerable Hajee Habiboula Khan, a Chief 
 eighty years of age, had at the commencement of the insurrec- 
 tion expelled the Chinese, and had subsequently routed the Tun- 
 ganis near Sanju and taken all their guns. This was the Buler 
 visited by Mr Johnson, the English surveyor, who declined the 
 government of Yarkund. The Atalik Ghazee proceeded with a 
 small force into the province of Khotan, and encamping near 
 the capital, declared that he asked only for the Hajee’s blessing 
 on his expedition against the Tunganis in the north-east. He 
 took even a solemn oath on. the Koran to the old Chief’s son 
 that he intended no harm to his father. Ilabiboula upon this 
 proceeded to Yakoob Beg’s camp with a mere escort, and was 
 treated with every possible distinction. When about to take 
 his leave, however, he was arrested with all his suite, while the 
 town was at the same time suddenly attacked and taken. 
 Ilabiboula, his son, nephew, and Wuzeer were carried off to Yark- 
 und and there secretly put to death. ‘ Their graves,’ says Mi- 
 llay ward, ‘may be seen behind the Tungani Ziurat in the Fort, 
 where the Khotan sepahis, in memory of their old leader, pro- 
 ceed every morning to scatter flowers upon his grave.’ 
 
 Master of Khotan, the Atalik Ghazee hastened to the north, 
 and quickly reduced Aksu, Kucha, Ush-Turfan, and Bai 
 Sairam, — the Kalmuks up to the Ilussian frontier, on the Ili 
 
TIIE AMEER OF KASHGAR. 
 
 379 
 
 engaging to pay tribute. lie then returned to Kashgar for a 
 brief interval of repose, which was soon interrupted by disturb- 
 ances in the Sarikol district. The chief town in this mountain- 
 ous region was appropriately named Tash Kurghan, or the 
 Stone Fort, surrounded by a wall built of huge blocks of stone, 
 and a mile-and-a-half in circuit.* On the death of Babash Beg, 
 the local chief, in 18GG, his eldest son succeeded to the vacant 
 seat, but was murdered by his brother Alaf, who avowed 
 himself the vassal of the Atalik Ghazee, for until then, Sarikol 
 seems to have enjoyed a sort of rude independence, owing to its 
 isolated position in the hills and its intrinsic insignificance. 
 After a little time, however, Alaf renounced his allegiance, but 
 was compelled to flee to Badakhshan, while his brother, his 
 wives, and his principal officers were carried off into captivity 
 — his brother being soon afterwards executed. In 18G8, the 
 entire population was transported into the plains, and a colony 
 of Kirghiz and Yarkundies sent up to occupy their deserted 
 houses and lands. 
 
 The whole of Toorkestan was now subdued, and it seemed 
 that, at last, Yakoob Beg might rest from his labours, and enjoy 
 the fruits of his long toil. Unfortunately for his peace of mind, 
 the politico-geographical position of the kingdom he had so 
 hardly won was in some respects not unlike that of the Low 
 Countries between Austria and France. On the north, the 
 dark chilly shadow of Russia fell upon his dominions, and 
 threatened storm and destruction, while to the south he dreaded 
 the ambition or the jealousy of the British Government in India, 
 lest it should be moved to annex his otherwise worthless pos- 
 sessions to prevent them from falling into the hands of the 
 Russians. The danger from the north was real, imminent, and 
 abiding, while that from the south soon appeared to be specu- 
 
 * Hiouen Tsang visited this place in a.d. 645, but calls it Kabanddha, 
 and its foundation is ascribed to the legendary Afrasiab. 
 
380 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 lative and prospective. It is not, therefore, a matter for surprise 
 that the Atalik Ghazee should have shown greater anxiety to 
 cultivate the friendship of his northern than of his southern 
 neighbours. 
 
 The designs of Russia upon this country date from the reign 
 of Peter the Great, who despatched an expedition to explore 
 the Irtish, construct a fort on the frontier, and take possession 
 of Yarkund, but the undertaking was premature and came 
 to nothing. Prince Beckovitch had also instructions to enter 
 into direct communications with the Great Moghul and open a 
 trade-route between the Caspian Sea and India, while a branch 
 expedition was to ascend the Jaxartes into Little Bucharia and 
 push on to Yarkund. The fate of the gallant Circassian and 
 his much-enduring troops need not be repeated in this place, but 
 we are assured by the Dutch Orientalist Bentinck that ‘ if the 
 late Emperor of Russia (Peter I.) had lived yet a little longer, 
 he, would have laboured incessantly to establish a regular com- 
 merce between his States and the city of Jerkeen, by the river 
 Irtis, which would have had very advantageous consequences 
 for the subjects of Russia.’ A hundred and fifty years later, 
 the grand projects of the founder of the Muscovite Empire 
 approached their realization. A fort has been erected on the 
 banks of the Naryn only six days from the city of Kashgar, 
 and it is stated that both the Terek and the Kashgar-Davan 
 Passes have been made practicable for wheeled conveyances, 
 and therefore for artillery. 
 
 The first official communications between the Atalik Ghazee 
 and the Russians took place in 1868, for previously to that time 
 the latter affected to regard the people of Eastern Toorkestan 
 as rebels to their ally the Emperor of China, and Yakoob Beg 
 as a mere adventurer and soldier of fortune. But in political 
 ethics success justifies all means, and accordingly in that year, 
 Captain Reinthal, aide-de-camp to his Excellency the Governor- 
 
TITE AMEER OF KASHGAR. 
 
 381 
 
 General of Russian Toorkestan, was sent from Tashkend on a 
 complimentary mission to Kashgar — possibly, to ‘ search out all 
 the country.’ On his return to Tashkend, Captain Reinthal 
 was accompanied by Meerza Shadee, who went on to St Peters- 
 burg, where he was received with much distinction. 
 
 The Russian mission may perhaps have been hastened by 
 the steps taken by the Atalik Ghazee to increase the natural 
 difficulties of access into his dominions from the north. Not 
 satisfied with building a fort in the mountains above Artush, 
 three days’ march from Kashgar, he is said to have closed up 
 several Passes, and generally to have exhibited symptoms of 
 distrust as to the intentions of his neighbour. Beyond this, he 
 had twice sent envoys to the Indian Government, but the policy 
 of a ‘ masterly inactivity ’ — or rather of a timid waiting upon 
 Providence — blinded the eyes and paralysed the arm of the 
 Viceroy, and Yakoob Beg, still apprehensive of the Chinese and 
 by no means certain of the loyalty of his own subjects, had no 
 alternative, but to throw himself into the arms of Russia. 
 
 It is true that in 1870, Mr Douglas Forsyth, a distinguished 
 member of the Bengal Civil Service, was sent on a mission to 
 Kashgar, but with instructions to return within so brief a period 
 that he failed to have any interview whatever with the ruler of 
 the country, at that time engaged in suppressing a formidable 
 insurrection of the Tunganis in Ush-Turfan and Kucha. Mr 
 Forsyth, therefore, returned to India without accomplishing 
 the object he had in view, — though, personally, he appears to 
 have done all that any man coidd do to counteract the mischief 
 embodied in his feeble, short-sighted instructions. The Atalik 
 Ghazee was meanwhile successful in his efforts to crush the 
 rebels, and was careful, at the same time, to strengthen the de- 
 fences of the Aksu and Muzart Passes. 
 
 The Russians, however, watched his progress with a jealous 
 eye, and in April, 1871, seized upon the town of Kulja, though 
 
382 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 situated in Chinese territory. In May of the following year, 
 Baron Von Kaulbars arrived in Kashgar, to arrange the pre- 
 liminaries of a Treaty of Commerce. The Baron had certainly no 
 reason to complain of his reception, the Atalik Ghazee exclaim- 
 ing with genuine Oriental exaggeration, ‘ Sit down wherever 
 you please, upon my knees, upon my hosom. You are guests 
 sent by Allah.’ A military review of 3000 Chinese and 
 Tungani soldiers, supported by a battery of artillery, must have 
 appeared to the Kussians in much the same light as the famous 
 review in "Windsor Park to the military suite of Napoleon III., 
 at the time of that Emperor’s visit to England, in the early 
 days of the Crimean War. After this display of his weakness, 
 Yakoob Beg said to the Envoy : ‘ 1 reckon upon you as upon 
 my intimate friends, and it is for this reason I have shown you 
 my soldiers. Had I thought that you were to become my 
 enemies, I certainly would not have done so.’ He also frankly 
 remarked to the Baron that, ‘ It is not in the Russian to live 
 at peace with his neighbour. He may do so for a year or two, 
 but that is the utmost. After that he is sure to make war, and 
 conquer as much as he can.’ Nevertheless, or perhaps to 
 lengthen the temporary lull as far as possible, he affixed his 
 signature to the commercial treaty, and sent Meerza Mah-ood- 
 deen Maasoum to Tashkend, in company with the Russian 
 Mission. ‘ To secure the friendship of a neighbouring State 
 without bloodshed,’ said General Kaufmann to the Meerza, ‘ I 
 consider to be a blessing from God,’ and he advised the Envoy 
 to visit all the establishments in Tashkend that are not yet to 
 be found in Kashgar, * but which in time w r ill doubtless be 
 introduced there ’ — a phrase of ambiguous meaning. 
 
 The Russian idea of treaties with Asiatic States has been 
 explained by Baron Yon Kaulbars in a letter to the StT Peters- 
 burg VedomosU, after a fashion little calculated to remove the 
 suspicions or allay the anxiety of the Atalik Ghazee. * Speak- 
 
THE AMEER OF KASIIGAR. 
 
 ing of Treaties,’ says the Baron, ‘ I ought to observe that in 
 Central Asia such like instruments have not the meaning 
 
 O 
 
 accorded to them in Europe. They are no more than a point 
 d'appui which may be used for the gradual development of 
 amicable relations, but ought not to be carried out too promptly, 
 unless we wish to push the natives to resistance. Concluded 
 only to obtain a cessation of hostility, they are at first carried 
 out very unwillingly, until the natives perceive that the main- 
 tenance of peace is really the one thing we have at heart. Only 
 after some time do they realize the truth that peace and com- 
 merce are profitable to both sides, and condescend to hold 
 friendly intercourse and to profit by the rights accorded them. 
 The conclusion of Commercial Treaties, therefore, is by no 
 means the only thing required in Central Asia ; it must be 
 succeeded by a discreet use of the privileges obtained, if our 
 conciliatory mission is to be fulfilled at all. In fact, there is 
 nothing permanent on earth. In Europe as in Asia Treaties 
 have been broken before now, and may be broken in the future. 
 If the time should ever come when we shall be compelled to 
 conquer this or that country in Central Asia with which we 
 have previously entered into Treaty stipulations, we shall be 
 able to console ourselves with the reflection that we shall find 
 the soil prepared to receive the seed of our infl uence and culture. 
 Nor will it be disadvantageous to us in such a case to find a 
 good many acquaintances in the new country, whom we came 
 to know through the relations established under these Trea- 
 ties.’ 
 
 The exports to India consist of felt cloths, silk, bhang, 
 pushmeena wool, gold, silver, and cotton ; while the imports 
 include opium, spices, sugar, tea, linen cloths, kinkab, English 
 broadcloth, muslins, Kashmeer shawls, fire-arms, leather, uten- 
 sils of brass, and indigo. From Khokan are received Russian 
 prints and calicoes, silk, iron, silk caps, cochineal, porcelain, 
 
384 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Russian knives and padlocks, Russian broadcloths, tobacco, 
 snuff, &c. A profitable trade in tea might doubtless be carried 
 on between Altyshukr and Upper India. Though it is used in 
 immense quantities, the price in Kashgar at the time of Mr 
 Shaw’s adventurous journey was ten shillings for a packet 
 holding a pound and a quarter. The tea sent from China into 
 Central Asia, is described by Moorcroft as being compressed 
 into blocks of about 8 lbs. each. The leaves are firmly pressed 
 together while moist, and each lump is covered with coarse 
 3 rellow paper stamped with a seal impressed with Chinese 
 characters. They are next wrapped in grass, and in that state 
 conveyed to Lhassa, where they are packed in undressed yak- 
 skin, the hairy side inwards, the joinings being neatlj'’ secured 
 by a sewing of fine thongs, or laces. Green tea in lumps was 
 then sold at Ladakh, at the rate of three rupees per seer, or 
 three shillings per pounds and black tea at rather less than two 
 shillings a pound — the retail prices being double these rates. 
 
 The trade between Eastern Toorkestan and Hindostan is 
 said to have increased sevenfold between 18G7 and 1871. In 
 the former year a British Commissioner was appointed to reside 
 at Leh in Ladakh for a certain portion of each year, to facilitate 
 commercial intercourse between India and Central Asia, and in 
 1870 the Maharajah of Kashmeer was induced to abolish transit 
 duties on merchandise passing through his dominions. Still it 
 cannot be denied that the present value of this trade is quite 
 insignificant, if measured by the standard of mutual commerce 
 between any two European countries. Besides, it is as yet in 
 the hands of native traders, and much resembles the itinerant 
 semi-retail mode of traffic that prevailed in Europe during the 
 middle ages. Neither the manufacturers nor the merchants of 
 England are likely to take much personal interest in an 
 exchange of commodities conveyed for many hundred miles over 
 pathless mountains on the backs of small ponies and smaller 
 
THE AMEER OF KASHGAR. 
 
 335 
 
 cows. A business of this kind is evidently more suited to the 
 semi- Asiatic, pedlar-like genius of the Russians, and it may be 
 safely predicated that by far the larger share of the trade of 
 Central Asia will ultimately fall into their hands. Indeed, they 
 have already secured a monopoly wherever their power has been 
 established. The Caspian Sea they have long since made a 
 Mare clausum, contrary to the spirit of international comity, 
 which requires that every navigable sea, and strait, and river 
 should be open to the flags and commercial enterprise of all 
 nations. One might, perhaps, go further and insist that true 
 international comity demands the abolition of all restrictions 
 upon trade, of all export and import duties, and that the inter- 
 change of produce and manufactures should be free and unfet- 
 tered over the whole earth. 
 
 Awaiting that commercial millennium, it cannot be un- 
 patriotic to express a regret that Russia should thus become 
 dominant over two-thirds of the continent of Asia, and be 
 enabled to bring an irresistible influence to bear likewise upon 
 the Chinese Empire. Half a century ago Moorcroft indignantly 
 asked if Ladakh, Tibet, and Lhassa were to derive their supplies 
 of hardware and woollens from England or from Russia, and 
 answered his own question by the admission that there could be 
 little doubt ‘ to which the prize will be awarded, for enterprise 
 and vigour mark the measures of Russia towards the nations of 
 Central Asia, whilst ours are characterized by misplaced squeam- 
 ishness and unnecessary timidity.’ He gives also a curious 
 illustration of the mode of operation pursued by the Russian 
 Government to obtain accurate information as to the capabilities 
 of neighbouring states, at the same time conveying exalted 
 notions of the power of Russia, and holding out promises and 
 expectations which could at any time be repudiated by simply 
 disavowing the agent. 
 
 Aga Mehdi Raphael, son of a Persian Jew settled in Kash- 
 
 25 
 
386 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 meer, was at an early age left an orphan, and to obtain a liveli- 
 hood served in a menial capacity. Having saved a little money, 
 he started as a pedlar and found his way into Russia, where he 
 developed into a shawl-merchant. Up to that time he had pro- 
 fessed Islam according to the doctrines of the Sheeahs, but he 
 now proclaimed himself a Christian, and was presented to the 
 Tzar, who granted him a sort of roving commission, and em- 
 ployed him as an agent to * extend the influence of Russia to 
 the confines of British India, as well as to acquire information 
 regarding the geographical and political circumstances of the 
 intervening countries.’ He appears to have given satisfaction, 
 for on his return from a lengthened tour he received from the 
 Emperor, Alexander I., a gold chain and a medal, and was 
 again sent forth like the raven from the Ark. Among his 
 credentials were a letter from Count Nesselrode to Runjeet 
 Singh, commending to his notice the ‘ merchant and aulic 
 councellor,’ as a respectable person anxious to do business. A 
 similar letter was sent to the ruler of Ladakh. One whole year 
 of his adventurous career was passed by Aga Mehdi in the 
 service of an English dyer, settled in Russia, and he died at last 
 quite suddenly while crossing the Karakoram mountains. 
 
 His partner, Mohammed Zahoor, however, reached Leh with 
 a small kafilah of cochineal, indigo, woad, &c., &c., to be used 
 in Kashmeer in dying shawl goods, ‘ according to specimens of 
 colour on flannel furnished by a British artist at St Petersburg.’ 
 Besides these dyes, he had a collection of rubies and emeralds far 
 too costly for the Tibet and Lahore markets, ‘and it seemed 
 probable that they were designed for presents rather than for 
 sale.’ Ilis stock of miscellaneous articles further consisted of 
 Russian telescopes, English cutlery, phosphorus boxes, Ac., Ac., 
 and a considerable sum in money. It was reported at Yarkund 
 that the Aga assured the Mohammedans that they might rely 
 upon the aid of Russia in throwing off the Chinese yoke, and 
 
THE AMEER OF K ASTIGAR. 
 
 3S7 
 
 that ho had invited the rightful heir to the throne to St Peters- 
 burg, promising to send him back with an army to effect his 
 restoration to the throne of his ancestors. It was also said that 
 Runjeet was to be asked to send envoys to St Petersburg, whose 
 charges should be defrayed by the Russian government. At 
 Yarkuud this clever emissary professed Mohammedanism after 
 the Soonee fashion. 
 
 According: to Lieutenant Hayward, the most direct route 
 from India to Eastern Toorkestan lies across the Chang Lang 
 Pass, 18,839 feet above the sea, and keeping to the westward of 
 the Lingzie Thung plains, traverses the upper valley of the 
 Karakash river, crosses the Karatagh Pass, at an elevation of 
 17,953 feet, and so reaches the Ak-tagh, or White Mountains. 
 The track pursued by caravans from this point to the Karakoram 
 Pass is strewed with the skeletons of horses and other animals, 
 a spectacle that drew from the English traveller the obvious 
 remark that ‘ the great commercial enterprise of the Toorkestan 
 traders is fully evinced by their efforts to carry their merchan- 
 dise hundreds of miles over what would be thought in Europe 
 such impracticable mountains. Their losses in horses must be 
 considerable, for a caravan during its journey from Yarkund to 
 Leh, and back to Toorkestan, generally loses a third at least of 
 its horses.’ 
 
 From the Ak-tagh the route descends the valley of the Yar- 
 kund river, crosses the Kuen Lun range by the Yangi Pass, 
 and, winding down into the plains at Kugiar, proceeds to Kar- 
 ghalik and Yarkund. From the Chang-Chenmo Pass to 
 Koolunooldee in the Yarkund valley there would be little 
 difficulty in making a road practicable for two-wheeled con- 
 veyances, and in the upper Karakash valley there is a fair 
 supply of both grass and fuel. ‘ An army,’ Mr Hayward 
 remarks, ‘ attempting a passage across the mountains from 
 Eastern Toorkestan to India would have no great impediment 
 
388 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 to encounter until they had entered the deeper defiles of the 
 lower Himalayas. The portion of the line intervening between 
 the crest of the Karakoram range and the plains of Toorkestan 
 is quite practicable, and, as in all human probability it is here 
 that the .Russian and Indian empires will first come into contact, 
 and the frontiers run conterminous, this fact is deserving of 
 especial consideration.’ 
 
 Moonshee Mohammed-i-Hameed, commonly called Major 
 Montgomerie’s Meerza, started from Leh on the 24th August, 
 1868, and took what is known as the summer route to Yarkund. 
 Panamick, seven days’ journey from Leh, being the last point 
 where good grass was obtainable, he halted there two days pre- 
 paratory to undertaking the nineteen days march that lay 
 between him and Kilian, the first village in Eastern Toorkestan. 
 His road traversed lofty desolate mountains, and for twelve days 
 not a blade of grass was visible. On the 20th September he 
 emerged into the plains, and reached Yarkund on the 30th, 
 though five days is the time usually occupied between that city 
 and Kilian. Starting from any place in the Punjab at the foot 
 of the Himalayas, a traveller on horseback will take sixty-six 
 days in crossing over into Central Asia, of which twenty-five 
 will be passed at an elevation never lower than 15,000 feet, and 
 for forty-five days above 9000. 
 
 The mountain range between Little Tibet and Eastern 
 Toorkestan is not less than 450 miles in length, and varies in 
 height from 20,000 to over 28,000 feet. Some faint idea of the 
 stupendous character of the volcanic agency that upheaved this 
 tremendous barrier may be afforded by the fact that the base of 
 the Himalayas is nowhere less than 400 miles in breadth from 
 north to south. It is as if all England and Scotland between 
 London and Edinburgh were suddenly broken up, and raised in 
 precipitous masses, to a height of which the lowest indentation, 
 or valley, should be on a level with the summit of Mont Plane. 
 
TI1E AMEER OF KASHGAR. 
 
 3S9 
 
 The route recommended by Mr Johnson starts from the 
 Punjab to the Hindostan and Tibet road to the Chinese frontier, 
 crosses the Chumourti plains to the Indus, whence it proceeds 
 to Rudok, and thence by the Changthang Tass to Polou, five 
 marches to the south-east of Ilchi, or Khotan. This is a cir- 
 cuitous way, but possesses the advantages of grass, water, and 
 fuel, and avoids the most rugged passes. Wheeled conveyances, 
 Mr Johnson asserts, may be driven from the Chaugchenmo 
 valley via Rudok to Ilchi and Yarkund. He further pronounces 
 the route across the Karakoram Pass to be good so far as the 
 mere road is concerned, but it is destitute of water and grass, 
 and in winter the cold is so intense that men and laden animals 
 have been frozen to death on the lofty plateau between the 
 Niobra and the Karakash rivers. 
 
 Lieutenant Hayward was informed by an Afghan trader 
 that the best route was by the Chitral vallej", but that it would 
 be unsafe for an English traveller. One of the highest living 
 authorities, however, is undoubtedly Mr Robert Shaw, formerly 
 a tea-planter in the Kangra valley, subsequently British Com- 
 missioner at Leh in Ladakh, and now British Resident at the 
 Court of the Ameer of Kashgaria. The Ladakh district is 
 formed by the widening of the valley of the Upper Indus, and 
 lies midway between the ‘ ten long mountain ridges, more or 
 less parallel, which divide India from Turkestan ’ — having five 
 of these ridges on each side. To the east and south-east lie the 
 districts of Rudok and Chumourti ; to the south, Lahoul and 
 Spiti ; to the west Kashmeer and Baltistan, the former separated 
 from it by the Western Himalaya, the latter by an imaginary 
 line drawn from the mouth of the Dras to the sources of the 
 Niobra. Its greatest length from N.W. to S.E. is 240 miles, 
 and its greatest breadth 290, but its mean length is about 200, 
 and its mean breadth 150 miles, containing a superficial area of 
 30,000 square miles. 
 
390 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Ladakh, says General Cunningham, is called by the Tibet- 
 ans La-tags, and also Mar-yul, or the Red or Low Land, and 
 sometimes Kha-chan-pa, or Snow Land. It was formerly sub- 
 ject to Lhassa, but in 1834 it was seized by Golab Sing, and is 
 now a province of Kashmeer. The people are Buddhists, and 
 speak of themselves as the Bot-pa. The Ladakh valley is the 
 central and most populous portion of the district. It is 120 
 miles long and 33 in width, comprising an area of 4000 square 
 miles, with a mean elevation of 11,500 feet, though the town of 
 Leh is placed by Hayward at 11,740 feet above the sea. 
 
 From India Leh is reached hy ‘ following up the two easiest 
 of the five rivers of the Punjab to their sources. Travellers 
 from the southern part of the Punjab take the route by the 
 Beas river, which leads through the beautiful valley of Kullu ; 
 while the more northerly route follows the Jhelam river into the 
 equally beautiful and more celebrated Yale of Cashmir. From 
 these valleys respectively, each route crosses over the watershed 
 into the drainage of the Upper Indus, a region distinguished by 
 aridity and high elevation, and forming part of the vast plateau 
 of Tibet. They thus arrive finally at the great depression of 
 the Upper Indus called Ladak.’ 
 
 ‘Thence,’ continues Mr Shaw,* ‘there is a choice of two 
 routes again, and a very few words will suffice to show their 
 relative merits. Beyond Ladak the lofty mountain ranges are 
 drained by rivers running in a general direction of H.'NY. The 
 direct road to Turkistan, which is the old one, strikes boldly 
 across all the difficulties of this district, climbing \ip to the 
 ridges, and plunging into the gorges, going at right angles to 
 their general direction, and finally crossing into the Central 
 Asian basin, over the high lip or edge called the Karakoram 
 Pass, where for five days, at an elevation averaging 17,000 or 
 18,000 feet above the sea, no fodder can be found for the bag- 
 * Ocean Highways, August, 1S72. 
 
T1IE AMEER OF KASHGAR. 
 
 391 
 
 o-ao-e animals. With the view of avoiding these difficulties, 
 other routes have been sought out. It has been found that by 
 coin w round a little to the east, the heads of all these rivers can 
 be turned, and the traveller can pass round them in a high 
 country, where the ranges have sunk down, and the valleys 
 have been exalted so as to form a comparatively level tract 
 with but few formidable irregularities. This region, moreover, 
 possesses the advantage of supplying grass for the horses at 
 almost every stage, so that there is only one day in which the 
 animals are entirely dependent on the grain carried with them.’ 
 It is not, however, from this quarter that any danger to the 
 security of the British rule in India can be seriously appre- 
 hended. Under certain conceivable circumstances some mis- 
 chief might possibly be wrought by the intrigues of secret 
 emissaries instructed sparge re voces in vulgum ambiguas, but for 
 such purpose it is by no means necessary that Russia should 
 possess a dominant influence in Eastern Toorkestan. Malicious 
 rumours may be originated at any point beyond as well as 
 within her territories, but it is scarcely possible that an invad- 
 ing army will ever be hurled against India, even through the 
 comparatively practicable valleys between the Karakoram and 
 Kuen Lun ranges. Keither can it be pretended that the money 
 value of the trade that under the most favourable contingencies 
 is ever likely to be carried on between British India and Cen- 
 tral Asia is worthy of much consideration on the part of the 
 British Government, or deserving of any very vigorous ex- 
 hibition of diplomacy. As a general rule, trade may be safely 
 trusted to find its own level, and no amount of lectures or lead- 
 ing ai’ticles will induce the people of Eastern Toorkestan to 
 lean to Anglo-Indian rather than to Russian traders, unless 
 they find it to be to their positive advantage to do so, through 
 the inferior price or superior quality of the goods offered in 
 barter for their own raw materials or textile fabrics. It is 
 
392 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 idle, therefore, to attach any extraordinary importance to the 
 coquetting missions that have been lately interchanged between 
 the Atalik Ghazee and the Viceroy of India. Friendly and 
 neighbourly relations are always worth cultivating, and in 
 that sense it is satisfactory to know that the visit paid to Cal- 
 cutta in March, 1873, by Yakoob Beg’s nephew and heir- 
 apparent, has been returned in a becoming style by Mr — now 
 Sir — Douglas Forsyth, as the representative of the Indian 
 Government. As a matter of international courtesy the pro- 
 ceeding was quite proper and even commendable, but it cer- 
 tainly does not merit the tone of importance in which it has 
 been mentioned in the public prints. 
 
 At the same time the British Government would have 
 manifested culpable apathy, or irresolution, had it failed to 
 take official notice of the rapid advance of the Russian forces 
 into Central Asia, and so far back as the spring of 1869 Lord 
 Clarendon ‘ earnestly recommended the recognitio n of some 
 territory as neutral between the possessions of England and 
 Russia, which should be the limit of those possessions, and be 
 scrupulously respected by both Powers.’ The suggestion was 
 received in a friendly spirit by the Government of St Peters- 
 burg, but four years of protracted negotiation elapsed before a 
 definite arrangement could be devised equally acceptable to both 
 parties. The original idea of a neutral zone was, however, 
 abandoned as practically impossible, or at least as ill calculated 
 to attain the object proposed by Lord Clarendon, and in the 
 end it was mutually agreed that the line of demarcation be- 
 tween the direct * influences ’ of the two Governments should 
 be coincident with the northern boundary of the territories of 
 the Ameer of Kabul. The misunderstanding that threatened 
 to arise with respect to the exact definition of this frontier was 
 removed by the prompt and courteous adoption by the Russian 
 Government of the views enunciated by the British Cabinet. 
 
TI1E AMEER OF KASHGAR. 
 
 393 
 
 It was, therefore, finally decided that the Ameer Shore Ali 
 should be considered the sovereign ruler of Badakhshan, with 
 its dependent district of Wakhan, from the Sir-i-kul on the 
 east, to the junction of the Kokcha with the Oxus or Panja ; 
 and also of Afghan Toorkestan from that point on the Oxus to 
 the post of Khoja Saleh, inclusive, embracing the districts of 
 Kunduz, Kliulm, and Balkh, and extending in a westerly direc- 
 tion to Andkhui — the desert beyond being given up to the 
 Toorkomans. 
 
 It is true that the petty States comprised within this 
 boundary enjoyed a rude sort of independence until they were 
 annexed to Afghanistan by Dost Mohammed in 1850, but it 
 appears from Mountstuart Elpliinstone’s ‘xiccount of the 
 Kingdom of Caubul ’ — published in 1814 — that the Afghan 
 dominions reached to the Oxus at a much earlier period. ‘ The 
 only actual possession of the Afghauns in Toorkestaun,’ he says, 
 
 ‘ is the district immediately around Balkh ; but the possessor of 
 that city has always been considered as the rightful master of 
 its dependencies, which include the track having the Oxus on 
 the north, the mountains of Hindoo Coosh and Paropamisus on 
 the south, Budukhshaun on the east, and (generally speaking) 
 the desert on the west. The extent of this tract may be near 
 250 miles in length (from east to west), and from 100 to 120 
 miles in breadth (from north to south).’ 
 
 In bis account of Central Asian discoveries published in the Royal Geo- 
 graphical Society’s ‘ Proceedings,’ Mr Shaw remarks : — 
 
 4 In a letter to our late President, Sir Roderick Murchison, I described my 
 astonishment in walking across ‘an open plain from waters which run towards 
 Central Asia to others which flow into the Indus ; while the mighty mountain 
 range, topped with glaciers and perpetual snow, which for days before I 
 reached it had seemed to bar all access to the southern regions, was found, on 
 a nearer approach, to be riddled through and through by the streams which 
 rise in the northern plateaux. More recently a striking proof of the same 
 fact reached me. Last year I had recommended certain shooting grounds 
 
394 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 north of the Karakorum to some officers of the 37th Regiment in search of 
 sport. Captain Skinner and his companions, finding themselves on the Upper 
 Karakash River, and their time being scanty, thought to return by a short cut 
 to the Indus, leaving the Karakorum Pass to the west of them. On arriving 
 at Leh their first inquiry of me was, “ What has become of the Karakorum 
 Range ? Has it vanished ? ” “ In fact, they had been tempted to follow a 
 
 broad opening southward from the Karakash River, expecting always to cross 
 the lofty range marked on the maps ; but, after traversing several high barren 
 plains, had found themselves on the banks of a stream running into the Indus, 
 without having crossed any range at all. Having thus abolished the Kara- 
 korum Chain, we may, I think, proceed to do the same with several others, and 
 notably with Humboldt’s Bolor or Belut Tagh. The explorations of the Rus- 
 sians from Khokand and Samarcand, and of Major Montgomerie’s men from 
 the Upper Oxus, seem to show that the highlands of the Pamir, Alai, &c., 
 participate in the character of the country I have just described. High snowy 
 ranges there are, but they do not determine the main flow of the rivers ; on 
 the contrary, the crossing from one great river system to the other is generally 
 over an almost insensible rise. The same might be gathered from a statement 
 of a Kashmiri prisoner, whom we met with in Kashgar. He had been captured 
 in one of the wild valleys south of the watershed (near that where the unfortun- 
 ate Hayward was afterwards murdered). In accordance with the customs of 
 that region he had been sold as a slave. Wounded, barefooted, almost naked, 
 he had been tied to the tail of his master’s horse and led, with other slaves, 
 across into Central Asia. In such a plight he would probably have magnified 
 fourfold any difficulties of the road ; but he could not, when asked, remember 
 having crossed any mountain pass on the journey, and only after repeated in- 
 quiry recollected a certain spot were the waters had beeu shed into opposite 
 directions.’ 
 
BADAKHSII AN. 
 
 395 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 BADAKHSHAN. 
 
 BADAKHSHAN — HISTORICAL SKETCH — INHABITANTS — HINDOO KOOSH — THE 
 HAZAREHS — SYKAN — SLAVES — AIBEK — KHCI.M, OR TASHKURGHAN — 
 MAZAR — BALKH — KUNDUZ — OOZBEGS — KHANA-A-ABAD— TALIKHAN — 
 FYZABAD — JERM — MANNERS AND CUSTOMS — WAKHAN — KOOROOT — ISU- 
 KASHM— KUNDCT — KIRGHIZ ENCAMPMENT. 
 
 Badakhshan, the Bactria of classical writers, shared the 
 vicissitudes of its more powerful neighbours, from the over- 
 throw of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom down to comparatively 
 recent times. The royal family claimed to be descended from 
 Alexander the Great until the middle of the fifteenth century, 
 when the male line expired in Shah Sholtan Mohammed. 
 During Baber’s early struggles the whole of Tokhara was in 
 the hands of a Kipchak Toork, named Khosroo Shah, and the 
 country was overrun by Toorks, Moghuls, and vagabonds de- 
 scended from the hordes of Chinghiz and Timour. When 
 Baber was firmly seated on the throne of Delhi, he bestowed 
 the province of Badakhshan upon his son Hoomayoon, who 
 governed it for eight or nine years until his accession to the 
 Imperial power. From that time it remained practically in- 
 dependent till Shah Jehan, in the middle of the seventeenth 
 century, deputed his sons Moorad and Aurungzeb to re-establish 
 the imperial authority in that remote province. On the reduc- 
 tion of Balkh and the adjacent territory, Shah Jehan appointed 
 as Governor the previous ruler Xazar Mohammed, whose pos- 
 terity continued undisturbed for a hundred years, when they 
 
396 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 were succeeded by the dynasty that, a century later, succumbed 
 to the arms of Dost Mohammed. 
 
 In 1759 the Chinese pursued two of the Khoja family they 
 had expelled from Kasbgaria into Badakhshan, one of whom 
 shortly afterwards died of the wounds he had received. The 
 other, in defiance of all laws of hospitality, was arrested, con- 
 demned to death, and executed, to gratify the hatred of the 
 Chinese. The Khoja, being also a Syud, cursed the country 
 that permitted the perpetration of such a sacrilege as the mur- 
 der of a descendant of the Prophet, and prayed that it might 
 be thrice depopulated. The uncharitable wish was gratified. 
 First, in 1765 Shah Walee Khan, W uzeer of Ahmed Shah 
 Abdali of Kabul, ravaged the province, put to death the 
 treacherous Sooltan Shah, and — worse than all — carried off 
 Mohammed’s shirt, a relic not less authentic than St Veronica’s 
 handkerchief. Again, in the commencement of the present 
 century Kokan Beg, Chief of the Kataghan Oozbegs of Kun- 
 duz, swept through the land with fire and sword. And for the 
 third time, in 1829, when Kokan’s son Moorad carried off 
 thousands into hopeless captivity, or planted them in the pesti- 
 lential swamps of Kunduz. 
 
 On Moorad’s death his power passed to Mohammed TValee 
 Khan, Ameer of Khulm, but in 1850 the Afghans recovered 
 Balkh, and Kunduz nine years later, when Meer Jeliandar 
 Shall was reinstated in the government of his ancestors, with 
 Fyzabad for his capital. This arrangement, however, was not 
 destined to remain long in force, for in 1867 the province of 
 Badakhshan was committed to the stewardship of Meer Mah- 
 mood Shah, who was lately driven out by the people, but re- 
 stored by Ameer Shere Ali, to whom he pays an annual tribute 
 of 50,000 rupees, or £5000. 
 
 The Badakhshees, as the people of Badakhshan arc called, 
 are descendants — according to Dr AVolff— of the captive tribes 
 
BADAKHSHAN. 
 
 397 
 
 of Dan, Naphthali, Zabulon, and Asser. They arc described 
 by Ilioueu Tsang as a hard and violent race, without religion, 
 without letters, and of a mean aspect. The country he calls 
 Po-to-tch’oang, and speaks favourably of its productive powers, 
 notwithstanding the coldness of the climate, which necessitated 
 the use of woollen garments. In the eyes of Marco Polo, 
 Badakhshan was a very great kingdom, producing lapis lazuli, 
 ba/as rubies — whence it was sometimes named Balakh-khan, or 
 Ruby Land — and silver ore. The horses, he adds, were won- 
 derfully swift, and though unshod traversed the mountains 
 with ease and safety. This statement is in some degree 
 confirmed by Captain Wood, except that he represents them as 
 beiiisr shod on the fore feet with circular shoes. They are 
 small, hardy animals, and always go at a gallop over the most 
 rugged and difficult country. 
 
 At the present day the population is almost exclusively 
 Tajeek, a quiet, hospitable people, speaking Persian, much 
 given to trade, and professing the doctrines of the Sheeahs. 
 A local tradition traces their origin to the neighbourhood of 
 Baghdad, and they themselves pretend that their name is de- 
 rived from the Arabic word Tadj, an ornament for the head 
 which the founder of their race stole from Mohammed. It is 
 probable, however, that they come direct from the original 
 inhabitants of the country. 
 
 Sir Alexander Burnes was charmed with the romantic 
 beauty of the scenery, and speaks like a ‘ kindly Scot ’ of its 
 mountain streams, leaping down from the highlands and fer- 
 tilizing the plains. The fruits, the flowers, and the night- 
 ingales, likewise drew forth expressions of delight. It is true 
 that he had just emerged from the bleak gorges of the Hindoo 
 Koosh, and was prepared to welcome the change from barren 
 cliffs and gloomy precipices to the pleasant champaign country 
 that lay spread out before him. 
 
398 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Strictly speaking, Hindoo Koosh is the name only of the 
 highest snowy peak, but it has long since been applied to the 
 chain which begins in Kashmeer to the westward of the Indus 
 and extends 440 geographical miles to the westward, winding 
 between 34° 30' and 35° N. The highest point is a little to 
 the east of Bamian, after which the range gradually decreases 
 in altitude. It was called by the Arab geographers ‘ the Stony 
 Girdle of the Earth,’ and by their predecessors, the historians 
 of Alexander’s campaigns, was regarded as a continuation of 
 the Western Caucasus. The Koh-i-Baba peak is said to attain 
 an altitude of 18,000 feet, but there are seven Passes, of which 
 the highest, Hajeekak, does not exceed 13,000 feet above the 
 sea, or 7000 above the city of Kabul. Between Kabul and 
 Bamian three considerable ridges have to be traversed, and the 
 same number between Bamian and Khulm. 
 
 The spurs and valleys between the Afghan capital and He- 
 rat are peopled by Eimaks and Hazarehs, the latter a Tatar race 
 resembling the Kirghiz of the Pameer. Their numbers were 
 vaguely estimated by Captain Wood at 150,000, and at that 
 time — 1836 — they were subject to Kunduz, to whose ruler they 
 paid a small tribute in slaves. They barter carpets, felt, strong 
 brown chogas, and ghee, or clarified butter, in exchange for white 
 and coloured coarse cotton cloths, Peshawur loongees, &c. ; 
 their possessions consisting chiefly of fine flocks of sheep of the 
 Dhumba breed, and small, hardy horses. Lead and sulphur 
 are found in large quantities. The women go about unveiled, 
 and are delicate-looking for mountaineers. The men, there- 
 fore, do most of the out-of-door work, which for seven months 
 in the twelve is confined to gathering fuel. The houses are 
 flat-roofed, and built of stone, and are divided into several 
 rooms — men and women sleeping apart. 
 
 The Hazarehs belong to the Shccah sect, and one tribe, the 
 Jakoorie, ‘on hospitable thoughts intent,’ tender their wives to 
 
BADAKIISIIAX. 
 
 399 
 
 their guests. Rigid morality, indeed, does not appear to charac- 
 terize the social habits of the Sheeahs. In the holy city of 
 Meshed, * une nombreuse population,’ M. Khanikof cynically 
 remarks, ‘do femmes jeunes et belles, qui d’apres les regies 
 accommodantes du rite chiite ne demandent pas mieux que de 
 conclure des manages parfaitement legitimes pour un mois, 
 pour quelques surnames, et meme pour vingt-quatre heures, 
 presentc au pelerin Musulman un moyen facile d’oublier qu’il 
 est loin du foyer domestique.’ 
 
 In the region of perpetual snow is found a caterpillar re- 
 sembling a silk-worm, which dies if removed to a more genial 
 temperature. Birds often perish in attempting to fly across, 
 or when driven before the wind. Travellers, too, suffer much 
 from giddiness and retching, and usually provide themselves 
 with lumps of sugar and mulberries to relieve respiration. 
 
 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, 
 
 Choked by the air, and scarce can they themselves 
 Slake their parch’d throats with sugar’d mulberries — 
 
 In single file they move, and stop the breath, 
 
 For fear they should dislodge the o’er-hanging snows. 
 
 As soon as the snow melts in the valleys the ploughshare is 
 driven into the ground. The seed is sown early in June, and 
 the crops garnered before the end of September. Xo trees are 
 to be seen on the hill-sides, and the only fuel obtainable is 
 furnished by a stunted furze with thorns like hedgehog quills. 
 Assafcetida thrives luxuriantly at an altitude of 7000 feet, and 
 grows to the height of eight to ten feet. It is an annual, and 
 is eaten eagerly by both men and beasts. The milk as it exudes 
 from the stalk is perfectly white, but soon turns yellow. When 
 it has hardened it is put into bags made of hair. A good-sized 
 
400 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 plant will yield | lb. of dried juice. Aromatic plants also 
 abound. In the valleys fruit trees are cultivated without diffi- 
 culty, the apricot being met with in sheltered nooks at a very 
 high elevation. 
 
 The road often winds through tortuous defiles, and at the 
 foot of wall-like cliffs from two to three thousand feet in height, 
 which frequently approach on either side so close that the sun 
 is excluded at noon-day, and the polar star becomes visible. 
 At the same time it must not be forgotten that during the 
 Afghan war a battery of the Bengal Horse Artillery crossed 
 the Barnian Pass, 12,000 feet above the sea, nor can it be 
 doubted that a considerable force might be transported from 
 one side to the other should the easier route by Herat be 
 judged unadvisable. Beyond Barnian, travellers have to cross 
 the Akrobat — or White Caravanserai — Pass, 10,200 feet above 
 the sea level, whence they descend to the village of Sykan in 
 the Kunduz district. The dreariness of the surrounding moun- 
 tains is relieved by the fresh verdure and fruitful gardens of 
 this valley, which being now happily subject to Kabul, pays its 
 annual tribute in horses, and not in human beings, as when it 
 was held by the Oozbeg chief of Kunduz. 
 
 Captain Wood beheld ‘ the tribute ’ on its way to that town. 
 ‘ The able-bodied slaves were chained together ; the aged, who 
 were too infirm to walk, rode on donkeys, and behind them 
 were bound children, whose extreme youth rendered them 
 happily unconscious of the home they had left, and the liberty 
 they had lost. They all of them were squalid and dirty, and 
 the ragged pieces of clothing that hung from their shoulders 
 were but a poor substitute for covering. One haggard old 
 woman, on whose lineaments Time had traced many a wrinkle, 
 presented an appearance scarcely human ; she was a humiliat- 
 ing sight.’ 
 
 At Sykan the road again ascends to the Dundan-Shikan or 
 
BADAKIISHAN. 
 
 401 
 
 Tooth-Breaker Buss, so called from its extreme ruggedness and 
 steepness. It thence descends into a narrow valley lined with 
 orchards of apricot trees, and then passes between cliffs 3000 
 feet in height, and not 300 yards apart. Beyond this is the Kara 
 Kotal, or Black Pass, the last on this route though still ninety- 
 five miles from the plains, and after a while the village of Dooab 
 is reached in the bed of the river of Khulm, between precipices 
 that appeared to Sir Alexander Burnes as ‘terrific.’ The 
 banks of the river, however, are overgrown with rank hemlock, 
 peppermint, bramble, sweet-briar, and hawthorn, and other 
 ‘homely’ shrubs and plants. A further descent between 
 ‘ tremendous defiles,’ with hawks and eagles circling overhead, 
 leads through the Khurm valley to Aibek or Ileibuk. 
 
 The poisonous arum is here common as a weed ; vast flocks 
 browse on aromatic pastures ; herds of deer bound along the 
 rocks overhead ; wild hogs haunt the reeds and jungle ; Avhile 
 the heart of the valley is a vast orchard of fruit-frees. Aibek 
 itself is a flourishing village, famous for its dried apricots. It 
 is the ancient Samangan, the birth-place of Roostam, and the 
 residence of the father of Rudaba, his wife. A conical rock- 
 cell on the summit of an isolated mound is still known as the 
 Takht-i-Roostam, or Roostam’s throne. Chinghiz is said to 
 have exterminated 7000 Hindoo families who at that time 
 peopled this valley. A castle built of sun-dried bricks stands 
 upon a hillock commanding the valley. The houses are dome- 
 shaped, with a hole in the centre at the top, evidently modelled 
 on the Toorkish yourka, and not unlike the Kamtsehadale jourts 
 described in Captain King’s continuation of ‘ Cook’s Voyages.’ 
 The climate is mild, but snakes and scorpions are disagreeably 
 plentiful. The road at last debouches from the hills by a 
 narrow defile, easily defensible, the mountains rising out of the 
 plain like a wall, black, bare, and abrupt. 
 
 The chief town in Khulm is properly called Tashkurghan, 
 
 26 
 
402 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 though it now more frequently passes by the name of the dis- 
 trict. In Moorcroft’s time — 1819 to 1825 — it contained per- 
 haps 20,000 houses, built of clay and sun-dried bricks, one 
 storied, dome-shaped, and each standing within its own en- 
 closure. Earthen ramparts, with wooden gates, surround the 
 town, which is three miles in circumference. The streets are 
 straight, and tolerably wide, with a runnel of water running 
 down the middle. Sir Alexander Burnes, however, in 1832, 
 estimated the population at only 10,000. According to Captain 
 Wood, 200,000 skins, including those of dogs and cats, are 
 annually sent thence to Bokhara. Lamb-skins, which are here 
 procurable for 24 to 30 shillings per hundred, are sold in Bok- 
 hara at double those prices. Old Khulm is four or five miles 
 distant. 
 
 Between Khulm and Balkh is the ruined townlet of Mazar, 
 with its 500 houses, famous for the Ziarat or Shrine of Ilazrat 
 Ali, built by one of Timour’s descendants, and locally believed 
 to contain the body of the Shah Murdan, or king of men, Ali, 
 the nephew of Mohammed, though he was actually buried at 
 Nejef near Baghdad. Once a year a great fair is held at Mazar, 
 to which the blind the halt, and the maim resort from a great 
 distance. Some are cured and some die, but the majority bewail 
 the want of faith that has counteracted the miraculous virtues 
 of the shrine. During the celebration of this religious fair no 
 highway robberies are committed in the district, though at 
 other times of daily occurrence. 
 
 Balkh, called Amo-ool-Bulad, or Mother of Cities, is now in 
 a state of utter decay. According to Persian tradition Balkh 
 was the birth-place of Zoroaster, and the capital of the empire of 
 Cyrus, whose throne — a block of white marble — was preserved 
 in the citadel until a very recent date, if it be not still there. 
 Firdousi makes Isfundear (Xerxes), the son of Gushtasp (Darius 
 Ilystaspes), Viceroy of Balkh, and describes his victories over 
 
BADAKHSIIAN. 
 
 403 
 
 the neighbouring princes until he succumbed to the superior 
 prowess of Roostam. 
 
 In classical times Bactra obtained a certain historic celeb- 
 rity as the scene of Alexander’s marriage with Roxana, of the 
 conspiracy of the Pages, and of the execution, or murder, of 
 Kallisthenes. It was also the chief seat of the short-lived Greco- 
 Bactrian kingdom. During the Aryan empire Balkh was the 
 seat of an Archimagus, and was styled the ‘ bannered,’ and * 
 when Zoroaster yielded to Buddha, and the Pyraeum was re- 
 placed by the temple, it was still distinguished for its banners. 
 At the time of the Arab conquests, in the middle of the seventh 
 century, the great temple was decorated with pennons of silk a 
 hundred yards in length. It was, however, still at the height 
 of its glory when visited by Hiouen Tsang, who counted a 
 hundred convents in * Po-ho,’ inhabited by 3000 monks. The 
 New Convent boasted of a statue of Buddha made of precious 
 metals, and of many rare and valuable articles, the offerings of 
 the devout, but which were too frequently pillaged by neigh- 
 bouring princes. Among the relics most worthy of veneration 
 was a basin that held about three pints, in which Buddha used to 
 perform his ablutions, probably a lotah. The material was some- 
 what of a mystery, but it was of many dazzling colours. There 
 was a broom dignified by similar associations, with a handle 
 two feet in length, and seven inches in circumference, set with 
 precious stones. Yet more worthy of veneration was a tooth of 
 the divine Teacher, an inch in length and nearly as much in 
 breadth. The town was strongly fortified, if not over- well 
 peopled, but the produce of the district was abundant and 
 varied, so that it was ‘ difficult to enumerate all the flowers 
 which grow in the water or on the land.’ 
 
 At the period of its conquest by the Khalif Othman, the 
 province of Balkh measured eighty leagues from east to west and 
 * Edinburgh Eeciew, January, 1872. 
 
404 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 forty from north to south, and the circuit of the town walls was 
 about six miles. Marco Polo says, ‘ Bale is a noble city and a 
 great, though it was much greater in former days. But the 
 Tatars and other nations have greatly ravaged and destroyed 
 it. There were formerly many fine palaces and buildings of 
 marble, and the ruins of them still remain.’ Although the 
 place capitulated on condition of security to life and property, 
 Chinghiz Khan compelled the entire population to go forth into 
 the plain under the pretext of numbering them, when they 
 were massacred without pity. Ibn Batuta, who visited Balkh a 
 century later, deplores its ruined condition, and remarks that 
 it had not been ‘ rebuilt since its destruction by the cursed 
 Jengis Khan.’ ‘ Its mosque,’ he continues, ‘ was one of the 
 largest and handsomest in the world. Its pillars were incom- 
 parable ; three of which were destroyed by Jengis Khan,’ under 
 the impression that treasure was concealed beneath them ; but, 
 discovering his mistake, he spared the others. The youthful 
 Aurungzeb made Balkh the capital of his trans-IIimalayan 
 government, but it was again made desolate by Nadir Shah, 
 after whose death it fell into the hands of the Afghans, from 
 whom it was wrested in 1823 by the Ameer of Bokhara. It 
 was recovered, however, by Dost Mohammed in 1850, and is 
 now included within the northern boundary line of the terri- 
 tories of the Ameer of Kabul. 
 
 The population, chiefly Afghans, was estimated by Sir Alex- 
 ander Burnes at only 2000. The town, overlooked by a weak 
 citadel, stands in a plain watered by the Dahash, or ancient 
 Bactrus. Clumps of trees and broken aqueducts attest its 
 former cultivation, but at present two-thirds of the district are 
 waste and unproductive. Luscious fruits, however, are still 
 procurable, and apricots as large as apples are sold for one 
 shilling a thousand. Snow is brought down from the moun- 
 tains, twenty miles distant, and may be enjoyed throughout the 
 
BADAKHSHAN. 
 
 405 
 
 summer at a very low price. Though the heat is never ex- 
 cessive, the place is considered unhealthy. The harvest takes 
 place in June, about fifty days later than at Peshawur. 
 
 Ninety miles to the westward of Balkh the prosperous town 
 of Shibrgan, formerly called Shabourkhan, stands in the midst 
 of a richly cultivated plain. It is the Sapurgan of Marco Polo, 
 and was then, as now, famous for its melons. ‘ They preserve 
 them,’ he says, ‘ by paring them round and round into strips, 
 and drying them in the sun. When dry they are sweeter than 
 honey, and are carried off for sale all over the country.’ In 
 that respect, at least, the lapse of 700 years has made no change. 
 Still further to the westward the otherwise unimportant town of 
 Andkhui marks the termination in that direction of the new 
 frontiers of Afghanistan. 
 
 Eastward from Khulm lies the Kunduz district, extending 
 thirty miles from east to west, and forty from north to south. 
 ‘The country,’ says Captain Wood, ‘strongly resembles the 
 delta of the Indus, but is more moist and unfavourable to 
 human life. The jungle grass is here taller and more dense. 
 We saw but one village, though the number of rice mills at 
 work and the continued barking of the dogs proved that the 
 region must be populous.’ It is indeed so unhealthy that it is 
 proverbially said, ‘ If you wish to die go to Kunduz.’ The 
 roads are constructed on piles of wood driven through matted 
 reeds and rank vegetation. The soil, however, is fertile, and 
 grows excellent crops of rice, wheat, and barley, as well as 
 apricots, cherries, plums, and mulberries. Towards the Hindoo 
 Koosh the land rises into beautiful undulations, sometimes 1000 
 feet in height, clothed with grass and flowers, but without 
 either trees or brushwood. 
 
 ‘ The low swelling outlines of Kunduz,’ Captain Wood 
 rapturously exclaims, ‘ are as soft to the eye as the verdant sod 
 which carpets them is to the foot.’ During three months of the 
 
406 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 year these pleasant pastures are covered with, snow, but in the 
 plain the summer heat is excessive. Two small rivers descend 
 from the mountains and discharge themselves into the Oxus, 
 which flows about forty miles to the north of the chief town. 
 Kunduz is, in fact, rather a hamlet than a town, consisting of 
 five or six hundred mud hovels, some sheds built of straw, and 
 a certain number of Oozbeg tents. At the east end, upon a 
 low mound surrounded by a broken-down mud wall and a dry 
 ditch, stands the fort, built of kiln-dried bricks, the winter 
 residence of the late Moorad Beg, a tyrant, and, in a small way, 
 a conqueror, whose followers were simply an organized banditti 
 15,000 strong, with whom he overran and plundered the coun- 
 try from Balkh to Chinese Toorkestan. 
 
 The Oozbegs, as the dominant class, will take to wife the 
 daughter of a Tajeek, but no Tajeek may hope to marry the 
 daughter of an Oozbeg. The priests, being Khojas, have con- 
 siderable influence, but at that time were notoriously engaged 
 in the traffic of slaves. Few Oozbegs condescend to read or 
 write. They delight in robes of scarlet and other glaring 
 colours, though the women prefer dark, or pure white, dresses, 
 with a showy silk handkerchief bound round the head. A wife 
 may be sold, but not a dog. 
 
 The Kunduz horses are inferior to those of the Toorkomans, 
 but not less patient of fatigue, and better adapted for hill work. 
 On completing their first year they are mounted by a light 
 weight, and ridden at top speed for some distance, but for the 
 next two years the saddle is not again placed upon their backs. 
 After the third year they are broken in, and circular shoes 
 placed on their fore feet. 
 
 The Oozbegs take two meals a day, one in the forenoon, and 
 the other at twilight. They prefer horseflesh, but content 
 themselves with mutton made into soup and pillao, which they 
 cat with whito leavened bread of good quality. Tea never 
 
BADAK1ISIIAN. 
 
 407 
 
 comes amiss to tliem. It is called Keirnuk Cha, or Cream lea, 
 and is boiled in a large iron pot, from which it is haled out 
 with a wooden ladle, and handed round by the host in small 
 china bowls. It is softened with rich, clotty cream, or, where 
 that is unobtainable, with fat, salt taking the place ol sugar. 
 The tea-leaves are sometimes served after dinner by way of 
 dessert. 
 
 Moorad Beg’s summer residence was at Khana-a-abad, the 
 Gana of Marco Polo, situated about seventeen miles from Kun- 
 duz on the banks of a small river crossed by a stone bridge. 
 Immediately behind rises an isolated mountain, 2500 feet in 
 height, called Koh Umber, which divides the Kunduz district 
 from that of Talikhan. According to tradition the Koh Umber 
 was transported thither from Ilindostan, and on its sides may 
 be found every herb indigenous to India. Above the hills on 
 the road to Talikhan may be seen many eagles, with flocks of 
 white-backed and hooded crows, as in the time of the Venetian 
 traveller. There is, of course, a fort, and a large building for 
 the use of the governor, besides two medressehs, and five or 
 six hundred mud huts. 
 
 In a northerly direction towards the Oxus is the town of 
 Hazrat Imam, as large as Kunduz, with a much superior fort 
 encircled by a wet ditch. The place has the reputation of being 
 unhealthy, but this is partly attributable to the inveterate habit 
 of the Oozbegs of encamping and settling on the swampy plains 
 rather than move to the high grounds. Of the 25,000 families 
 deported from the northern side of the Oxus in 1830 by Moorad 
 Beg, scarce 6000 survived eight years later. The Oozbegs 
 hunt down the pheasants in these parts on horseback, the birds 
 after a couple of flights running along the ground. To the south 
 of Kunduz at the foot of the Hindoo Koosh are two small towns, 
 Khost and Anderab, neither of which merits particular notice. 
 
 Fifty miles east of Kunduz, and 170 from Balkh, the ham- 
 
403 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 let of Talikhan — the Talakien of Hiouen Tsang, the Taican of 
 Polo, and the Talhan of Goes — with its three or four hundred 
 hovels, stands in a fruitful tract of land favourable to the vine. 
 It is now peopled by Badakhshies, probably descended from the 
 Venetian’s ‘ evil and murderous generation, whose great delight 
 is in the wine-shop ’ (though Mohammedans) ; ‘ for they have 
 good wine (albeit it be boiled) and are great topers; in fact, 
 they are constantly getting drunk. They wear nothing on the 
 head but a cord, some ten palms long, twisted round it.’ They 
 were then mighty huntsmen, and clad themselves in the skins 
 of beasts. Salt mines are worked in the neighbouring moun- 
 tains. 
 
 A market is held twice a week, and the busy scene awoke 
 pleasant recollections in Captain Wood’s mind. ‘Troops of 
 horsemen were hurrying into market, many riding double. 
 Gaudily painted cradles, toys, bird-cages, skins of animals, and 
 white and striped cotton cloth, were the articles forming the stock 
 in trade of most of the dealers. All whom we met were blythe 
 and jocund, and but for the difference of dress, and the large 
 proportion of those who rode, I could have fancied them my 
 own countrymen hastening to some merry fair in Old England.’ 
 Notwithstanding the bird-cages nests are not molested, and the 
 sparrows, which flew about in flocks, took no trouble to conceal 
 their eggs. Talikhan was taken by Chinghiz Khan after a 
 siege that lasted upwards of six months. Enraged by the 
 heroic resistance of the garrison, the barbarian left not a soul 
 alive, or one stone standing upon another. 
 
 A mountain ridge divides Afghan Toorkestan from Badakh- 
 shan. The road lies through the Lattaband Pass and descends 
 into the valley of Ak-Bolak, or the White Springs, and so on 
 to Kila Afghan, about thirty miles from Talikhan, — when the 
 snow is on the ground infested by packs of wolves. Taishkhan 
 is reached after a further journey of twenty-six miles, beyond 
 
BADAKHSII AN. 
 
 409 
 
 which the Junasdurah range rises to the height of 6000 feet. 
 When traversed by Captain Wood these mountains were covered 
 with snow, but the descent on the eastern side was facilitated 
 by following the tracks made by the wild hogs. ‘So numerous 
 are these animals that they had trodden down the snow as if a 
 large flock of sheep had been driven over it.’ He then crossed 
 the narrow valley of Darah-i-Aim and the plain of Argoo, once 
 peopled by 6000 families, but then utterly desolate. He next 
 came upon the undulating district of Reishkhan, where Khan 
 Khoja, fleeing from Kashgar before the victorious Chinese, was 
 treacherously attacked, defeated, and mortally wounded by 
 Sooltan Shah, who was himself put to death a few years later 
 by Ahmed Shah Dourani. 
 
 Traversing the Ivokcha valley, Captain Wood halted at the 
 small hamlet of Chittah. Since his departure from Talikhan 
 he had seen no signs of animal life save the hog-tracks and a 
 few partridges. It was, no doubt, the winter season, but still it 
 appeared to him strange and depressing, that except in villages 
 thirty miles apart not a single human being had been encoun- 
 tered during a journey of upwards of eighty miles. Fyzabad, 
 the present capital of Badakhshan, was only distinguished by 
 ‘ the withered trees which once ornamented its gardens.’ It 
 had been destroyed by Moorad Beg, and the inhabitants car- 
 ried off" to Kunduz, ‘ a place only fit to be the residence of 
 aquatic birds.’ 
 
 It has since then revived, and is once more a place of com- 
 parative importance. It stands on the right bank of the 
 Kokcha, and carries on a small trade in cast-iron utensils, the 
 manufacture of which, as Colonel Yule suggests, may have been 
 taught by Chinese exiles or slaves. The town is unwalled, but 
 the Zagarchie, or old citadel, overlooks it from the south bank 
 of the river, and the Meer lives in a mud fort, only useful in 
 the event of a sudden riot. The Khirkat-i-Shureef, or the 
 
410 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Mosque of tlie Holy Shirt, once contained a garment, believed 
 to have been worn by Mohammed. Behind Fj'zabad, which is 
 itself 3500 feet above the sea, a mountain rises to a height of 
 2000 feet. Thirteen miles distant, the village of Kasur crowns 
 an eminence, not less than 6600 feet in altitude. 
 
 From the 26th December to the 30th January, 1838, Cap- 
 tain Wood was detained by a heavy snowfall in the cluster of 
 hamlets that together make up the small town of Jerm, at that 
 time the most considerable place in Badakhshan, though the 
 population did not exceed 1500 souls. It stands on the bank 
 of the Kokcha, at a point where the usually narrow valley 
 expands to the breadth of a mile. Some miles higher up the 
 river, where the width of the valley diminishes to 200 yards, 
 the once famous mines of Lajwurd, or Lapis Lazuli,* were 
 formerly worked by a rude gallery driven into the mountain- 
 side. 
 
 In olden times Jerm was a comparatively large and pros- 
 perous town, but it has shared the declining fortunes of Badakh- 
 shan. ‘Enduring decay/ Colonel Yule remarks, ‘ probably 
 commenced with the wars of Chinghiz, for many an instance in. 
 Eastern history shows the permanent effect of such devasta- 
 tions. And here wave after wave of war passed over a little 
 country isolated on three sides by wild mountains and barbarous 
 tribes, destroying the apparatus of culture, which represented 
 the accumulated labour of generations, and without the support 
 of civilization, and the springs of recovery. Century after 
 century only saw progress in decaj r . Even to our own time 
 the process of depopulation and deterioration lias continued.’ 
 
 As already observed, Jerm consists of several detached ham- 
 lets grouped together, and each enclosed within its own outer 
 wall. The houses are substantially built and plastered with 
 mud, both inside and out. The roofs are flat, with a hole in 
 
 * Described in chap. vi. 
 
BADAKHSHAN. 
 
 411 
 
 the centre to permit the smoke to escape, the aperture being 
 provided with a wooden frame, by which it can be closed at 
 pleasure. When a room is unusually large, the roof is sup- 
 ported by four stout pillars arranged in a square in the middle 
 of the apartment. The floor is strewed with straw, or covered 
 with a felt carpet, according to the wealth or poverty of the 
 family. 
 
 To commence housekeeping comfortably implies the posses- 
 sion of property to the value of nearly six pounds sterling, or, 
 to speak by the book, £5 14 — to wit : A wife costs twenty-five 
 
 rupees, bedding six, an iron boiler two, culinary and other ves- 
 sels one and a half (including spoons, flour sieve, antimony for 
 the eyes, a red willow bowl, a firwood drinking bowl, table- 
 cloth, dresser, knife to cut beans, wooden ladle, .frying-pan, 
 wooden pitcher, stone lamp, and iron girdle), the wife’s ward- 
 robe four and a half (comprising a head covering, a shirt, 
 trousers, and shoes), and the husband’s outfit eighteen and 
 three quarters (consisting of a turban, cloak, shoes, stockings, 
 girdle for the waist, loose trousers, a long sword, a matchlock 
 and its equipments). Earthenware is scarce and expensive. 
 Bread is baked upon a stone girdle, and of the same material 
 are the lamps, cut into the shape of a shoe. Reeds are also used 
 instead of candles, and are peeled round at a certain point, so 
 that the light may go out of itself, instead of being blown 
 out. 
 
 A bride, it should be mentioned, does not enter her parents’ 
 house for a year after her marriage, except that on her wedding 
 day she visits her mother, and receives a present, generally a cow. 
 She then entertains her female friends beneath her husband’s 
 roof, but no men are suffered to intrude on such occasions. The 
 hill-men always go armed, but not the dwellers in the plains. 
 The ordinary dress is that of the Oozbegs. In Upper Badakh- 
 shan, a strong man slave was, in 1836-37, valued at the same 
 
412 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 price as a horse or a large dog, that is, at eighty rupees, or £8. 
 Indeed, men were frequently exchanged for dogs, but young 
 healthy girls were more highly esteemed. The Oozbegs are 
 said to compute time by the galloping of a horse, while the 
 more domestic Badakhshies in the upper part of the province 
 take for their standard the preparation of soup. The penal 
 code is severe upon donkeys. For a first offence in trespassing 
 upon a neighbour’s lands they get a sound drubbing ; for a 
 second, their ears are slit ; for a third, their ears are cut off, or 
 an eye put out, or their tail docked, and sometimes they are 
 even lamed. 
 
 Throughout that month of January, the thermometer never 
 rose above 48° at noon, and at sunrise was as low as 10°. But 
 the most serious inconvenience to which the upper valley of the 
 Oxus is exposed, is the frequency of severe earthquakes. In 
 1832 a shock was felt from Lahore to Jerm, where 156 
 persons were missing out of 310 inhabiting three hamlets 
 that were overthrown. In the neighbouring valley of Sir 
 Gholam, eighty-three perished out of a population of 155. 
 The mountains are often much shattered, and landslips occur 
 on a formidable scale. 
 
 Passing through Zebak, a considerable village with houses 
 touching one another as in an English street, Captain Wood 
 entered the petty State of Wukhan, after encountering the 
 ‘ Bad-i-Wakhan,’ a piercingly cold wind which blows for six 
 months in the year ; when ‘ it goes to sleep,’ as the local saying 
 has it, the clouds gather from all quarters. Wakhan, the In-po- 
 kien of Hiouen Tsang and the Yocan of Marco Polo, embraces 
 the upper valley of the Oxus for the distance of a three days’ 
 journey from Ishkashm. When visited by Captain Wood, in 
 the depth of winter, it appeared to contain not more than 
 a thousand inhabitants, though five times that number might 
 find within its bounds a comfortable living. 
 
B AD A K IISII AN. 
 
 413 
 
 The people are Sheeahs, and resemble the Tajeeks, but speak 
 a peculiar dialect. They assert of themselves that they are 
 descended from a Macedonian colony, planted by Alexander the 
 Great, and, like the Badakhshies, they have a superstitious dis- 
 like to blowing out a light. They will wave their hand beneath 
 a flame for minutes together, rather than breathe roughly upon 
 it, and they point to some old forts formerly occupied by the 
 Kafirs as ruins of the temples of the fire-worshippers. The men 
 wear woollen chupkuns, some few sport a turban, but the ordi- 
 nary head-gear is a tight-fitting cap. They are a rude and 
 reckless community, and not at all particular as to the con- 
 dition of their garments. The women’s costume is simple, and 
 consists of a long white woollen gown, with a piece of cotton 
 cloth round the head — but this last is not universal. The 
 women clean and spin wool, which the men weave into cloth. 
 
 From the "Wakhan goat is obtained much of the hair-wool, 
 of which Kashmeer shawls are made. A breed of dogs intro- 
 duced from Chitral is much esteemed. They somewhat resemble 
 the Scotch colly, have long ears, a bushy tail, and a slender 
 frame, and are swift, fierce, and combative : their usual colour 
 is black or reddish brown. Barley, pulse, and a little wheat, 
 are grown in the lap of the valley, but not in sufficient quantity 
 to supply the wants of the inhabitants. 
 
 Instead of a central fireplace, the Wakhanies make use of a 
 stove placed against the side of the house, which gives out great 
 heat, though the smoke is apt to be troublesome. When dark- 
 ness approaches, the master of the house pulls down a dry 
 willow branch from the rafters, which he cuts into convenient 
 lengths, and lighting these primitive candles sticks them over 
 the inner lintel of the door. 
 
 A common article of food is a kind of cheese called kooroot. 
 Kew milk, after being curdled, is well churned, and the butter- 
 milk, after it has been thoroughly boiled, is poured into a bag, 
 
414 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 not too close. The whey is then drained off, and the clotted 
 residue is used to flavour soup, whether made of beans or wheat 
 flour. 
 
 The first town coming from the westward is Ishkashm, 
 situated at the elbow formed by the deflection of the Panja in 
 a north-westerly direction.* On the other side of the Panja, and 
 as it were within the elbow-joint, may be seen the excavations 
 which mark the old (Bellas) ruby mines, now quite exhausted 
 and abandoned, and given up to the Ameer of Bokhara. Higher 
 up the river, a small fort surrounded by a group of hovels goes 
 by the name of Kundut. Here there are no stoves, and the 
 hole in the roof serves as a sun-dial. ‘ Before the house-wife 
 begins to prepare the family meal, she looks not up at a clock, 
 but round the walls and upon the floor for the spot on which 
 (the sun’s) golden light is streaming.’ Near this place, Captain 
 W ood came upon an encampment of a hundred Kirghiz families 
 from the Pameer, on their first visit to Wakhan. They had 
 with them 2000 yaks, 4000 sheep, and 1000 Bactrian camels, 
 besides numberless dogs. They seemed healthy, but rugged, 
 and weather-beaten. Their appetite for snuff, which they 
 swallowed by mouthfuls, was insatiable. Even the young men 
 were nearly toothless, which they ascribed to drinking cold 
 water. 
 
 The outside covering of their Kirgahs or tents was ‘ formed 
 of coarse dun-coloured felts, held down by two broad white belts 
 about five feet above the ground. To these the dome, or roof, 
 was secured by diagonal bands, while the felts which formed 
 the walls were strengthened by other bands, which descended 
 
 * M. Stanislas Julien identifies the Ka-li-se-mo of Iliouen Tsang and the 
 Casern, or Scassem, of Marco Polo, with Ishkashm, but Colonel Yule traces 
 the Venetian traveller to Kislnn, a townlet on the right bank of the Mashad, 
 a tributary of the Kokcha. It is a warm sunny spot, a month in advance of 
 Fyzabad. In former times, at least, it abounded with porcupines that were 
 hunted by dogs. 
 
BADAKHSIIAN. 
 
 415 
 
 in a zi"za<; direction between those first mentioned and the 
 ground. Close to the door lay a bag filled with ice — the water 
 of the family. On drawing aside the felt which screened the 
 entrance, the air of tidiness and comfort that met our eyes was 
 a most agreeable surprise. In the middle of the floor, upon a 
 light iron tripod, stood a huge Russian caldron, beneath which 
 glowed a cheerful fire, which a ruddy-cheeked spruce damsel 
 kept feeding with fuel, and occasionally throwing a lump of ice 
 into her cookery 
 
 * The Kirgah had a diameter of fourteen feet, a height of 
 eight, and was well lighted by a circular hole above the fire- 
 place. Its frame- work was of the willow tree, but between it 
 and the felt covering neat mats, made of reeds, the size of 
 wheat-straw, and knitted over with coloured worsted, were 
 inserted. The sides of the tent, lined with variegated mats of 
 this description, not only looked tasteful, but imported a snug 
 and warm appearance to the interior. Corresponding to the 
 outside belts were two within of a finer description, and adorned 
 with needlework. From these were suspended various articles 
 appertaining to the tent and to the field, besides those of orna- 
 ment and the sampler. Saddles, bridles, rings, thimbles, and 
 beads, all had here their appropriate places. One side of the 
 Kirgah had the family’s spare clothes and bedding. In another a 
 home-made carpet hung from the roof, making a recess in which 
 the females dressed, and where the matron kept her culinary 
 stores and kitchen apparatus. The opposite segment was allotted 
 to the young lambs of the flock. A string crossed the tent, to 
 which fifty nooses, twenty- five of a side, were attached, to each 
 of which a lamb was fastened. While we were present, they 
 were taken outside to their dams, and after a time again brought 
 back into* the Kirgah. 
 
 ‘ Three yaks are able to carry the tent and all its contents. 
 One takes the Oostakhan, literally, the bones, or frame- work; 
 
416 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 another, the felts ; and a third, its furniture : besides which, a 
 seat is found upon them for the feeble or young of the family. 
 In one Kirgah which we entered, the children were conning 
 their lessons under the eye of an aged mullah. Some were 
 learning to write, by tracing letters upon a black board with a 
 bit of chalk, while others were humming over the torn leaves 
 of well-thumbed copies of the Koran. Mutilated as was the 
 condition of their books, they were nevertheless highly valued, 
 if we might judge from the strong wooden box appropriated to 
 their preservation.’ 
 
 The Pameer Kirghiz are men of short stature, from five 
 feet two inches to five feet six inches in height. They have 
 deep-seated, elongated eyes, with no ridge between. The fore- 
 head is protuberant, but not high, slanting back abruptly. Their 
 cheeks are large and puffy, and a thin beard sprouts from the 
 chin. They are not by any means a muscular race. The 
 women are rather good - looking, and apparently delicate. 
 Though Soonees, they go about unveiled. They are fond of 
 ornaments, such as beads, gems rudely set in silver, fancy 
 objects of brass, and prettily fashioned articles cut out of the 
 pearl-oyster shell. Both men and women wear round, hollow, 
 brass buttons, obtained from the Chinese, and the latter are 
 partial to a high head-dress, sometimes adorned in front with 
 coloured beads. The Kirghiz women make good wives, being 
 thrifty and industrious. Slaves are rare, except as maid- 
 servants. Female children are highly valued, because a bride, 
 not exceeding fifteen years of age, is often worth £40 to her 
 father. A widow passes on, in the first instance, to her hus- 
 band’s brother, and then to the next of kin, — failing these, she 
 returns to her father. 
 
 The Kirghiz live principally upon milk and game. Cuta- 
 neous diseases are very prevalent among both sexes. The Kirghiz 
 ponies are rough-coated, ugly animals, without much endurance. 
 
BADAKH8IIAN. 
 
 417 
 
 Brood mares are held in estimation, their milk, when acidulated, 
 yielding, in spring-time, the intoxicating beverage called 
 Kumeez. The milk is drawn off in the evening, and churned 
 till sunrise, when it is fit to drink, a very small quantity pro- 
 ducing inebriety. A large appetite is said to attend upon 
 returning sobriety. The chief men affix to their names the 
 epithet Bai-khan, or nobleman. 
 
 27 
 
418 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 PAMEER. 
 
 DARWAZ — ROSHAN — SHIGNAN — VARDOJ VALLEY — KAFIRS OR SIAHPOOSH — 
 CHITRAL — LIEUTENANT HAYWARD ON THE MASSACRES COMMITTED IN 
 YASSIN BY THE DOGRAS— HIS DEATH — GILGIT — CHILAS — BALTISTAN — 
 PAMEER— HIOUEN TSANG — MARCO POLO — COLONEL YULE— OVIS POLI — 
 BAM-I-DUNIAH — LAKE VICTORIA— FOUR CONFLUENTS OF THE ONUS, OR 
 AMOU — THE GREAT GEOGRAPHICAL SWINDLE. 
 
 Before ascending the elevated table-land of Pameer, it may 
 be convenient to complete this brief notice of the petty Slates 
 that occupy the broken mountainous region inclosed between 
 the Karategeen mountains on the north, and the Hindoo Koosli, 
 or, rather, the Himalaya, on the south. North of the Panja, 
 and along the east bank of the Soorkh-ab, are the unexplored 
 districts of TVakhsh — whence the Oxus probably derives its 
 name — and Khotl. Further to the eastward runs the Valley of 
 Darwaz — signifying ‘a door’ — which Colonel Yule identifies 
 with the Kumidha of Hiouen Tsang and, perhaps, with 
 Ptolen^’s Valley of the Comedm. The people are Tajeeks, 
 and Mohammedans in name, but their religious notions appear 
 to be confused on all essential points. They manufacture cotton 
 cloths, which they exchange for grain and gunpowder. Their 
 country is exceedingly mountainous, but if Colonel Yule’s con- 
 jecture be well founded, the Seric caravans from Byzantium, 
 travelling by way of Hyrcania, Aria, Margiana Antioeheia 
 (Merv), and Bactra, must have ‘ wound with toilsome march 
 their long array ’ through this steep and rugged valley. 
 
P AMEER. 
 
 419 
 
 Itoshan comes next, inhabited by 1000 families, and then 
 Sbignan, with only 300, both professing the creed of the 
 Slieeahs, and speaking a peculiar dialect. Shignan is supposed 
 to be Hiouen Tsang’s Chi-ki-ni, peopled by a savage race — 
 perhaps the Sac* — who knew not the difference between right 
 and wrong, brutal, ignorant, caring for nothing but the present 
 moment, and without provocation committing murder in cold 
 blood. On the southern side of the Panja the beautiful table- 
 land of Shewa, containing a small sheet of water, called Sir-i- 
 Kul — a common name for lakes in those parts — was commended 
 by Marco Polo for the refreshing coolness of its climate and the 
 fresh verdure of its pastures. 
 
 South of the Shewa plateau, and westward of Ishkashm the 
 valley of Yardoj, or Wardodj, excited Captain Wood’s enthusi- 
 asm on his return from the bleak Pameer. ‘ As we approached 
 the bottom of the Wardodj valley, everything wore the joyous 
 air of spring. The change was delightful. When we passed 
 up, snow lay everywhere. Now, the plough was in the field ; 
 wild flowers were sparkling amongst the withered hei'bage of 
 the bygone year ; and around the edges of the stones tufts of 
 young grass were everywhere to be seen. The sheep let loose 
 from their sheds were remunerating themselves for the dry and 
 scanty fare of their winter’s quarters. The streams were all 
 unlocked, and we encamped in the open air. The raven, the 
 jay, the lark, the bulbul, or Badakhshan nightingale, were all 
 upon the wing. Numerous insects, too, aroused from their long 
 sleep, began to show themselves ; among them were butterflies, 
 and a most beautifully painted species of gadfly/ In all sub- 
 Alpine regions spring bursts forth as suddenly as Minerva from 
 the brow of Jupiter. By the time Captain Wood again reached 
 Talikhan, ‘ the fine sward was enamelled with crocuses, daffodils, 
 and snowdrops.’ 
 
 The southern spurs of the Hindoo Koosh, westward of the 
 
420 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Beilarn river, are inhabited by a very peculiar people, called, 
 indifferently, Kafirs, or Siakpoosh. Marco Polo mentions their 
 country by the name of Bacian, or Basiam, and notices their 
 singularity of speech, and brown complexions. He accuses them 
 of dealing with enchantments and diabolic arts, but gives them 
 credit for wisdom. They lived upon animal food and rice, and 
 the men wore rings in their ears, and also gold and silver 
 brooches, sometimes set with gems. 
 
 A clear and ample description of Kafiristan and its extra- 
 ordinary inhabitants is to be found in Mountstuart Elphinstone’s 
 ‘ Account of the Kingdom of Caubul.’ According to RenneTs 
 Map of Ilindostan, the district is comprised between Kashkar 
 on the north-east, Badakhshan on the north, Kunduz on the 
 north-west, Anderab, Khost, and Kohistan on the west, and 
 Kashmeer on the east. The peaks of the mountains are covered 
 with snow for the greater part of the year, but their sides are 
 clad with forests of pine, and furrowed by small fertile valleys 
 in which the grape ari'ives at maturity, though both wheat 
 and millet are of inferior quality. Sheep, cattle, and goats 
 constitute the chief wealth of the villagers. The roads are 
 little better than mountain tracks, the ravines being crossed by 
 wooden bridges, or by swinging bridges made of ropes of with}*. 
 The villages are perched on the hill-sides, and are populous and 
 well-to-do. 
 
 Strictly speaking, there is no national name for this people, 
 which is not so much a nation as an aggregation of separate 
 tribes, each dwelling in its own vallej\ By the Mohammedans 
 they are generally called Siah-poosh, or the Black-Tested, 
 though one division is best known as the Speen Kafirs, or 
 White Infidels, from their white cotton garments. They are 
 all fair-complexioned, with blue eyes, and are remarkably hand- 
 some, with a fine open forehead, bushy arched eyebrows, black 
 hair and whiskers, and a lithe active figure. Unlike most 
 
rAMEER. 
 
 421 
 
 Asiatics they prefer a chair to cusliions or carpet, and pride 
 themselves on their supposed Greek descent, though it is pro- 
 bable that they are simply descended from the idolaters whom 
 the Mohammedans drove out of Kandahar. Different but 
 cognate dialects are spoken by the different sections of the 
 community, and all based upon Sanskrit. 
 
 They believe in the Unity of the Deity, though they make 
 to themselves graven images of wood and stone, male and 
 female, on foot and on horseback, to represent great personages 
 who have passed away from this world and now act as mediators 
 and intercessors. In their eyes there is no virtue greater than 
 a liberal and hospitable disposition. The idols are sprinkled 
 with cow’s blood, and fire is used at all religious ceremonies. 
 They erect a stone and say : ‘ This stands for God, but we know 
 not Ilis shape.’ A fire is kindled in front of the stone, and 
 through the flames are thrown flour, butter, and water, while 
 the blood of a victim is sprinkled upon the stone itself. Part 
 of the flesh is burnt, and part eaten by the priests, who are 
 hereditary, but devoid of influence. 
 
 Fish is their abhorrence, but they are partial to goats’ flesh 
 and to game. Their chief diet, however, consists of cheese, 
 butter, milk, bread, and suet pudding. Meat they prefer half 
 raw. Both sexes drink too freely of wine, which is of various 
 qualities, red, white, and dark, with one kind almost of the 
 consistence of jelly, and very strong. They use silver goblets, 
 and possess pottery of curious patterns. 
 
 Men marry at from twenty to thirty years of age, and 
 women at about fifteen or sixteen. A bride is occasionally 
 valued at as many as twenty cows. Marriage is not so much a 
 religious ceremony as an excuse for eating, drinking, singing, and 
 dancing. Polygamy is practised, and all the drudgery is done 
 by women. A mother and her babe are put away into a house 
 outside the village, and are considered impure for twenty-four 
 
422 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 days, at the expiration of which they are brought back with song 
 and dance. 
 
 The costume of the common people consists of four goat- 
 skins, two for a vest and two for a petticoat, worn with the long 
 hair outside, and girded round the waist with a leather belt ; 
 their arms are uncovered. The Siah-poosh go bare-headed, except 
 when they have slain a Moslem. They shave their heads, with 
 the exception of a long tuft on the crown, and a curl over each 
 ear. The beard is suffered to grow to the length of four or five 
 inches, but they pull out the hair from the upper lip, the cheeks, 
 and neck. Rich people wear a shirt beneath the vest, as do 
 also the women, and instead of goat-skins clothe themselves in 
 cotton or black hair cloth, some preferring a white blanket 
 w r oven in Kashmeer, worn something like a Scottish plaid, but 
 reaching to the knee and fastened round the waist by a belt. 
 They likewise indulge in cotton trousers, which, as well as the 
 shirts, are embroidered with flowers in red and blue worsted. 
 The women dress like the men, only that their hair is plaited 
 and twisted round on the top of their head, surmounted by a 
 small cap, round which a light turban is wound. Silver orna- 
 ments and cowry shells are decidedly fashionable. Virgins are 
 distinguished by a red fillet round the head. Both sexes have 
 rings round the neck and in the ears, and are partial to brace- 
 lets of pewter or brass, and especially of silver. 
 
 The houses are built of wood, with cellars for storing cheese, 
 ghee, wine, and vinegar. They usually sit on drum-shaped 
 stools of wickerwork, like the Indian moral), and make use of 
 tables. They are passionately fond of dancing of a vehement 
 character. Their musical instruments are a tabor and pipe, and 
 the dancers keep time with their voices as well as with their 
 feet. Their music is quick, varied, and somewhat wild. 
 
 In hunting and in war, they use a bow fifty-four inches in 
 length, with a leathern thong for string. Their arrows are 
 
PAMEER. 
 
 423 
 
 made from light reeds, and have barbed heads, occasionally 
 poisoned. On the right side they carry a dagger, and on the 
 left a sharp knife. Firearms and swords are still scarce, but 
 are becoming more common than formerly. The greatest glory 
 a Siahpoosh can ever hope to attain is by slaying a Moham- 
 medan. Otherwise, they are represented as a harmless, affec- 
 tionate people, merry and sociable, and as placable as they are 
 passionate. It has been related in a preceding chapter how 
 Timour succeeded in striking awe into these barbarians by lower- 
 ing himself and his troops down by platforms from ridge to ridge, 
 until he reached the level of their narrow valleys. With that 
 one exception, they have always preserved their independence. 
 
 In the Upper Valley of the Beilani or Kunar river lies the 
 considerable district of Chitral, which Colonel Yule is disposed 
 to regard as identical with the Venetian traveller’s Casear, or 
 Cashkar. Moorcroft speaks of an Upper and a Lower Chitral, 
 each with a chief town named Mastuch, or Mastoi. The Raja, 
 who resided chiefly at Yassin, was a Soonee, while his people 
 were Sheeahs. They are Dards and Dungars, and speak a 
 mixed dialeot. Though tall, athletic men, they are of cowardly 
 disposition, and the women are stigmatized as coarse and im- 
 modest. Their heads are of a conical shape, caused by a strong 
 band being tightly bound round them in infancy. According 
 to tradition, Chitral was the Shrab Khana, or Wine Cellar, of 
 Afrasiab. Colonel Yule conjectures that the Pashai province of 
 Marco Polo, described as ten days to the south of Badakhshan, 
 coincided with Chitral, though the Pashai tribe is now settled 
 on the left bank of the Kabul river between that city and Jelala- 
 bad — an aboriginal race, with a dialect similar to that of the 
 Kafirs, and not improbably the Udyana of Northern Buddhist 
 legends. In the thirteenth century they were idolaters, and, 
 according to Marco Polo, ‘ a pestilent people and a crafty, and 
 they live upon flesh and rice.’ 
 
424 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 In the spring of 1870 the compiler of this work, at that time 
 editing a newspaper in Calcutta, received a letter from Lieu- 
 tenant Hayward, dated ‘ Camp, Yassin, March 7/ from which 
 the following extract is taken. A duplicate copy, sent to the 
 editor of a journal at Allahabad, was imprudently published, to 
 the sore prejudice of that courageous and persevering traveller. 
 
 ‘ The countries of Chitral and Yassin have been from time im- 
 memorial under the rule of the ancestors of the present Chief 
 of Chitral, Rajah Aman-i-Moolk, while the present Yassin Chief 
 is descended from a branch of the same family. They claim 
 descent from Alexander of Macedon, through the kings of 
 Khorasan. Certainly they possess a pedigree of high antiquity, 
 and can boast an uninterrupted succession. The elder son of 
 the Chitral ruler takes the name of Shah Katore, which title 
 was assumed by the grandfather of the present Chief, Aman-i- 
 Moolk. The chiefs of Yassin have intermarried so frequently 
 with the family of the Shah Katore, until, apart from a common 
 descent, they have become the same in their feelings and pre- 
 judices. Even Swat can hardly be considered to be more in- 
 accessible to Europeans and strangers from the bigotry and 
 fanaticism of its inhabitants than the countries of Chitral and 
 Yassin. But there is this difference. While the population of 
 Swat owes no fealty to an} r ruler, and acknowledges solely the 
 spiritual authority of the Akhoond, the inhabitants of Yassin 
 and Chitral are as much subject to their respective rulers as 
 any serf in Russia, or fellah in Turkey or Egypt. The ablest 
 and most energetic of these later Yassin chiefs would appear to 
 have been Rajah Goor Rahman Khan, who ruled over Yassin 
 and Gilgit from about 1835 to 1858, a period ever eventful in 
 Indian history. During the reign of this chief, Goolab Singh 
 the Maharajah of Kashmir commenced hostilities against Gilgit, 
 after conquering Ladakh and lhiltistan. While, however, the 
 able Goor Rahman was alive, the Dogras could never obtain 
 
PAMEER. 
 
 425 
 
 any footing in tlie country across the Indus. Dying in 1858, 
 dissensions as to the succession arose amongst his sons, and the 
 present Maharajah of Kashmir, who had succeeded Goolab 
 Sin<rh, was enabled to take advantage of the divided state of 
 the country, to intrigue with members of the family. A large 
 force of Dogras suddenly crossed the Indus at Boonji, and suc- 
 ceeded in establishing themselves in the fort of Gilgit, which 
 position the Court of Jarnoo has maintained solely by force of 
 arms during the last twelve years. 
 
 ‘ Either from ignorance of the event, or from a disinclination 
 to interfere, this act of aggression did not call down the severe 
 remonstrance from the British Government which it so justly 
 merited. In the treaty of 1846 between the British Govern- 
 ment and Maharajah Goolab Singh, it is stated in Art. I. : 
 “ The British Government transfers and makes over for ever in 
 independent possession to Maharajah Goolab Singh and the 
 heirs male of his body, all the hilly or mountainous country, 
 with its dependencies, situated eastward of the river Indus, and 
 westward of the river Ravee, including Chumba and excluding 
 Lahoul, being part of the territory ceded to the British Govern- 
 ment by the Lahore State, according to the provisions of 
 Article IV. of the Treaty of Lahore dated 9th March, 1846 : ” 
 And again in Art. IY. : “ The limits of the territories of Ma- 
 harajah Goolab Singh shall not at any time be changed without 
 the concurrence of the British Government . ” It will be seen 
 that, b}' thus crossing the Indus and annexing territory 
 situated westward of the specified boundary, the Maharajah of 
 Kashmir has signally infringed the Treaty of 1846 with the 
 British Government, and furthermore the Treaty is being per- 
 sistently infringed by the continued aggressions of the Court 
 of Jamoo in the direction of Badakhshan and Yarkund. . . 
 
 ‘After the seizure of the Gilgit Fort the Dogras lost no 
 time in planning a further advance to Yassin, or Hunza. The 
 
426 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Yassin territory offered the greater inducement for a raid, from 
 the country being more fertile and productive, and the ap- 
 proach easier ; whereas the small mountainous tract occupied 
 by the Hunza tribe is not only most difficult of access, but 
 yields no produce which might tempt an invader. With the 
 exception of some petty disputes and acts of reprisal carried on, 
 on both sides, no serious expedition was undertaken until the 
 year 1863. In the spring of that year the Dogras secretly col- 
 lected a force of some 6000 men, with the intention of invading 
 Yassin. So unexpected was this raid that they surprised the 
 Chief and his followers, who, seeing they had no chance of 
 resisting such overwhelming odds, fled with their wives and 
 families to the hill fort of Madoori, some six miles distant from 
 Yassin. The Chief escaped to Chitral, and the Yassin villagers 
 who had fled for safety to the hill of Madoori endeavoured to 
 come to terms with the Dogra leaders. They were assured 
 that no harm should befall them if they would come out of the 
 fort and lay down their arms. They did so in the simple faitli 
 that, as sworn, no injury would be done them A part of the 
 Dogra troops who had gone round the fort then made their 
 appearance amongst the women and children. The men were 
 outside the fort, and unable to protect their wives and little 
 ones, for whom they would doubtless have shed their blood had 
 not treachery beguiled them of their weapons. 
 
 ‘ The Dogras immediately commenced massacring the 
 women and children. They threw the little ones into the air, 
 and cut them in two as they fell. It is said the pregnant 
 women, after being killed, were ripped open, and their unborn 
 babes were cut to pieces. Some forty women, who had been 
 wounded and were not yet dead, were dragged to one spot and 
 were there burnt to death by the Dogras. With the exception 
 of a few wounded men and women who ultimately recovered, 
 every man, woman, and child within the fort was massacred. 
 
P AMEER. 
 
 427 
 
 In all, from 1200 to 1400 of the Yassin villagers were mas- 
 sacred by tlie foulest treachery and wrong. After plundering 
 the place the Dogras retired to Gilgit, carrying off all the 
 cattle, together with some 2000 women and men. Several 
 hundreds of these poor people died from exposure and starva- 
 tion before they had crossed the Indus. Many Yassin villagers 
 are now in confinement in Kashmir, while of others not a trace 
 can be found. Most of the women are in the zenanas of the 
 Dogra leaders and sepoys. 
 
 * I have visited Madoori, the scene of the massacre, and 
 words would be inadequate to describe the touching sight to be 
 witnessed on this now solitary and desolate hill. After the 
 lapse of seven years I have myself counted 147 still entire 
 skulls, nearly all those of women and children. The ground is 
 literally white with bleached human bones, and the remains of 
 not less than 400 men and women are now lying on the hill- 
 side. The Yassin villagers returned to bury their dead after 
 the Dogras had retired, and the skulls and bones now found at 
 Madoori are, presumably, only those of villagers whose whole 
 families perished in the massacre. In one place, where the 
 massacre seems to have centred, are the blackened remains of 
 rafters mixed with charred human bones. In this spot the 
 wounded, who were yet alive, were burnt to death by the 
 Dogra sepoys. I have seen and conversed with many orphans 
 in the Yassin territory, whose fathers, mothers, and brothers 
 all perished. One little girl of eight years of age was brought 
 to me with her right arm severed at the shoulder. At the 
 time of the massacre she was a babe at the breast, aud the blow 
 that severed her little arm, slew her mother. Her father per- 
 ished likewise. Such are the atrocities which have been com- 
 mitted by men in the service of a feudatory of the British 
 Crown. 
 
 ‘ The Dogras have twice attacked Hunza, but unsuccessfully. 
 
428 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 since they have been driven back with heavy losses. In the 
 autumn of 18G6 they invaded the country of Dilail, lying on 
 the right bank of the Indus opposite Chilas. Fortunately, the 
 villagers had time to place their families in safety, and no 
 women were massacred. Some 120 of the Dilail peasantry 
 were, however, seized and immediately hung, the sepoys cut- 
 ting at them with their tulwars, while they were hanging and 
 yet alive. On returning from Dilail to Gilgit the Dogra force 
 were caught in a heavy snow-storm on the Choujar Pass, where 
 nearly 150 sepoys perished from the cold. No active aggres- 
 sions have since occurred, but the Maharajah of Kashmir has 
 pensioned a brother of the Yassin Chief, an unscrupulous villain 
 who has already murdered an uncle, a brother, and the whole 
 of that brother’s family, and who is now in Gilgit petitioning 
 for troops to take Yassin and rule there on behalf of the 
 Dogras. . . 
 
 ‘ It is, I believe, well known that Russian agents have been 
 well received in Kashmir. At least, this is known to those 
 who have had opportunities of ascertaining the fact, and view- 
 ing the system of policy pursued by the Court of Jamoo. I 
 may even hint at agents of the Maharajah who are now in 
 Central Asia, of agents in Tashkend and in Bokhara, all sent 
 secretly by the most loyal feudatory of the Viceroy of India. 
 The late annexation of the district of Kolab to Ivhokand brings 
 Russian influence to within little more than 200 miles of the 
 Pass at the head of the Yassin and Gilgit valleys. That the 
 Maharajah is now intriguing with Russia through Bokhara 
 cannot be doubted, nor is it less clear that, should he be allowed 
 to continue his present policy, he will shortly involve the 
 British Government in what may be most serious complications 
 in Central Asia. . . "When this loyal feudatory was lately 
 
 paying his respects to the Duke of Edinburgh at the Lahore 
 Durbar, amidst all the tinsel and glitter that Oriental pomp 
 
PAMEER. 
 
 42 <J 
 
 and splendour could throw around him, would that those heaps 
 of human skulls and bones could have been there to tell their 
 silent tale of treachery and bloodshed. . 
 
 * For my expedition, I may mention that I have reached 
 Yassin, and have met with a friendly reception from the Rajah 
 Meer AYulli Khan, the Chief of the country. I have explored 
 nearly all the country in the basin of the Gilgit and Yassin 
 rivers, and have now just returned from the foot of the Darkote 
 Pass leading over into Wakhan and the basin of the Oxus. 
 The Pass, as well as the Shundur Pass leading into Chitral, is 
 now closed by the snow, and I find there is no chance of getting 
 laden animals across until the month of June. Once across on 
 to the Pamir, and I am very sanguine of being able to explore 
 the whole country. The Yassin Chief has promised to assist in 
 every way, and altogether everything promises well for the 
 final success of the expedition. . . As it is somewhat risky 
 
 staying in Yassin until the Passes open, I am returning to 
 Gilgit, with the intention of passing straight on to the Pamir 
 as soon as the Passes open.’ 
 
 To this interesting communication was appended the fol- 
 lowing Postscript, dated March 22nd, Camp, Gilgit Yalley : — 
 ‘I have just returned to Gilgit, most fortunately. The Kash- 
 mir officials here have caused a report to be spread that I had 
 been plundered in Yassin (on the contrary, I have been par- 
 ticularly well treated), and the Kashmir force has marched out 
 towards Gilgit with the intention of invading Yassin. They 
 are now hurrying back, but not before I have become acquaint- 
 ed with the facts of the case, and the deep scheme to forward 
 their own views by such an act of faithlessness. Had I re- 
 mained in Yassin and they had invaded, such an act would 
 have been fatal to the whole Pamir expedition. The Yassin 
 people could but have connected the aggression with my pre- 
 sence there.’ 
 
430 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 No man can avoid his fate. On renewing his attempt to 
 reach the upper valle} r of the Oxus, Lieutenant Hayward was 
 brutally murdered in the Yassin territory at the foot of the 
 Darkote Pass. He was aware of his danger and had kept 
 watch all night, revolver in hand. Towards the dawn, over- 
 come by fatigue and anxiety, he appears to have relaxed his 
 vigilance, perhaps to have fallen into a doze, when he was sud- 
 denly seized, dragged some distance from the tent, and slain 
 with his own sword while uttering a prayer. 
 
 The Maharajah of Kashmeer, the vassal of the British Crown, 
 affected much sorrow at this tragical event, but finding that 
 the Indian Government was more intent on imposing a vexa- 
 tious and oppressive income-tax upon its subjects than on aveng- 
 ing the death of a British officer, a martyr in the cause of 
 science, he soon conformed to the supineness that prevailed at 
 Simla. After all, it might have seemed fastidious to make 
 much fuss over the murder of a solitary Englishman, after 
 having sold the country and all that was therein to the present 
 Chief’s predecessor for three quarters of a million sterling. 
 Traffic in human beings is an atrocious and horrible thing — 
 unless it be done on a sufficiently wholesale and extensive scale. 
 To barter an individual, or even a family, for gold and silver 
 is held a crime equivalent to piracy, but to dispose of a whole 
 nation for a good round sum is an act of statesmanship and a 
 step towards a Peerage. 
 
 For the rest, the petty State of Gilgit, on the right bank of 
 the Indus, may measure 100 miles from north to south, with a 
 mean breadth of 26 miles. Its inhabitants are Dardoos, — (he 
 Daradas of Sanskrit geography and the Daradoe of Strabo. 
 The chief town, consisting of three or four hundred houses, is 
 nestled in a narrow valley, pleasantly wooded, and hemmed in 
 by lofty mountains. Grapes, mulberries, figs, pomegranates, 
 walnuts, and melons arrive at great perfection, and wine even 
 
PAMEER. 
 
 431 
 
 is made, — the people being nominally Sheeahs, but not strict 
 observers of any particular system of religion or morality. 
 The chief currency is in the form of gold dust, found in the 
 sands of a little river that flows through the valley, and fi - om 
 which the Rajah collects a small royalty. 
 
 To the south-west, and on the banks of the same stream, 
 lies the Chilas valley, whose inhabitants, formerly sincere Kafirs, 
 are now insincere Mohammedans. South-east of Gilgit the 
 mountainous and little known region of Baltistan occupies the 
 upper valley of the Indus, extending sixty miles in length, and 
 thirty-six in breadth. The chief town is named Skardo, and 
 the people are probably the same as Ptolemy’s Bultai. Xot 
 improbably this may have been the Po-lou-lo of the Buddhist 
 Pilgrim, who reviles the inhabitants as brutal, regardless of 
 justice and humanity, mean-looking, and devoid of religion. 
 Though several convents existed, the monks were indolent and 
 averse from study. At a later period, the name of Bolor seems 
 to have been given to this district, whence it was transferred to 
 an imaginary chain of mountains supposed by Humboldt and 
 Ritter to have been the meridional axis of Asia. 
 
 It is time, however, to return to Captain Wood, whom we 
 left at Kundut on the south side of the Panja. Crossing that 
 river a little higher up, he reached the village of Langar-Kaish 
 at an elevation of 10,800 feet, the last inhabited place he met 
 with before he stood upon the table-land of Pameer. Instead 
 of a fanciful meridional axis, he found himself upon an immense 
 knotted mass of mountains, marking the convergence or point 
 of bifurcation of two enormous ranges ; of the Tian Shan to the 
 north-east, and of the Himalayahs, with their parallel chains, 
 the Karakoram and the Kuen Lun, to the south-east. 
 
 The mountain-land between the Upper Oxus valley and the 
 basin of Eastern Toorkestan is, according to Colonel Yule, one 
 of the least known regions of the surface of the globe. So 
 
432 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 recently as 1864 it was commonly believed that the distance 
 from Fyzabad to Kashgar did not exceed 200 miles, whereas it 
 is now ascertained to be more than 350. Between Yarkund and 
 the western side of this rugged plateau there are no settled 
 towns or villages. It was formerly reported, indeed, that there 
 existed a town named Karchu, but it now turns out that Kar- 
 chu was an erroneous transliteration of Hatchut or Ketchut in 
 the Chinese tables of the later Jesuit surveyors, and which was 
 intended to indicate Kanjut or Hunza near Gilgit. 
 
 Hiouen Tsang describes Po-mi-lo as a bleak waste situated 
 between two snowy mountains, icy cold, subject to violent winds, 
 and where snow falls night and day, even in spring and sum- 
 mer. The soil is so impregnated with salt, and so covered with 
 pebbles, that corn and fruit refuse to grow. Even shrubs are 
 rarely seen, nor are there any inhabitants. In the centre is a 
 great lake full of dragons (Nagahrada), but the water is pure 
 and clear as crystal, and unfathomable. It has a sweet 
 and pleasant flavour, though abounding with crocodiles, tor- 
 toises, and other ungainly monsters. The dark blue surface is 
 all alive with cranes, geese, ducks, and wild fowl. Enormous 
 eggs are found on the plains and marshes, and sandy isles. A 
 river runs out of the western extremity, and flows into the Po- 
 tsou (Oxus), while another river issues from the eastern ex- 
 tremity, and joins the Si-to beyond Kashgar. 
 
 The Venetian traveller, relating his personal experiences, 
 is on all main points corroborated by Captain Wood, the only 
 European who has since visited that singular country, until its 
 recent exploration by Colonel Gordon and his party. * There 
 are,’ he says, ‘ numbers of wild beasts of all sorts in this region. 
 And when you leave this little country (Wakhan) and ride 
 three days north-east, always among mountains, you get to 
 such a height that ’tis said to be the highest place in the world. 
 And when you have got to this height you And [a great lake 
 
PAMEER. 
 
 433 
 
 between two mountains, and out of it] a fine river running 
 through a plain clothed with the finest pasture in the world ; 
 insomuch that a lean beast there will fatten to your heart’s con- 
 tent in ten days. There arc great numbers of all kinds of wild 
 beasts ; among others, wild sheep of great size, whose horns are 
 good six palms in length. From those horns the shepherds 
 make great bowls to eat from, and they use the horns also to 
 enclose folds for their cattle at night. [Messer Marco was told 
 also that the wolves were numerous, and killed many of those 
 wild sheep. Hence quantities of their horns and bones were 
 found, and these were made into great heaps by the way-side, 
 in order to guide travellers when snow was on the ground.] 
 The plain is called Pamier, and you ride across it for twelve 
 days together, finding nothing but a desert, without habitations 
 or any green thing, so that travellers are obliged to carry w T ith 
 them whatever they have need of. 
 
 ‘ The region is so lofty and cold that you do not even see any 
 birds flying. And I must notice also that, because of this great 
 cold, fire does not burn so brightly, nor give out so much heat 
 as usual, nor does it cook food so effectually. Now, if we go on 
 with our journey towards the east-north-east, we travel a good 
 forty days, continually passing over mountains and hills, or 
 through valleys, and crossing many rivers and tracts of wilder- 
 ness. And in all this way you find neither habitation of man nor 
 any green thing, but must carry with you whatever you require. 
 The country is called Bolor. The people dwell high up in the 
 mountains, and are savage idolaters, living only by the chase, 
 and clothing themselves in the skins of beasts. They are in 
 truth an evil race/ 
 
 With regard to fire not burning well at a great height, 
 Major Montgomerie informed Colonel Yule that this was a mis- 
 take. The real difficulty is in procuring a sufficient supply of 
 good fuel. It is true, however, that water does not boil pro- 
 
 28 
 
434 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 perly at a greater elevation than 15,000 feet, and consequently 
 a cup. of good tea is out of the question, neither do rice, dhal, 
 and potatoes, become as soft as might he wished. 
 
 ‘ The old pictures of Eden,’ Colonel Yule observes, ‘ figure 
 the four rivers as literally diverging from a central lake to the 
 four quarters of the earth ; and no spot so nearly realizes this 
 idea as the high table-land of Pameer in the centre of the Asiatic 
 world ; upon whose lofty plains a tussock of grass decides the 
 course of the waters, whether with the Oxus to the frontier of 
 Europe, or with the Yarkund river to the verge of China ; 
 whilst the feeders of the Jaxartes and Indus from the borders 
 of the same treasury of waters complete the square number, and 
 the lakes that spot the lofty surface lend themselves to round 
 the resemblance.’ Lieutenant Hayward, however, ascertained 
 by personal investigation that the Yarkund does not descend 
 from Pameer, but from a glacier a little to the north-west of 
 the Karakoram Pass, and there is reason to question the pre- 
 vious impression that any of the true Pameer drainage descends 
 into the basin of Eastern Toorkestan. 
 
 The plateau is said to be at least 180 miles in length from 
 north to south, and 100 in breadth from east to west. ‘ It con- 
 sists,’ says Colonel Yule, ‘chiefly of stretches of tolerably level 
 steppe, broken and divided by low rounded hills, much of it 
 covered with saline exudations, but interspersed with patches of 
 willow, and thorny shrubs, and in summer with extensive tracts 
 of grass, two or three feet in height, the fattening properties of 
 which have been extolled by travellers from Marco Polo to Faiz 
 Buksh. Many lakes are scattered over the surface of the 
 plateau from which streams flow. M ild fowl abound upon 
 these lakes in summer to an extraordinary degree ; and in the 
 vicinity of water deer of some kind are 'very numerous, and the 
 great sheep ( oris Poll) apparently all over the plateau. In 
 1 809 a murrain amongst these latter is said to have killed 
 
PAMEER. 
 
 435 
 
 them off in multitudes. A goat culled Hang, affording a line 
 shawl wool, is found on the steppe ; also a kind of lynx, whose 
 fur is valued. Foxes and wolves frequent Pameer ; bears and 
 tigers are occasional visitors. The wild yak, according to Faiz 
 Buksh, is also found there ; if this be true, Pameer is its west and 
 north limit. Pameer was at one time the summer haunt of a 
 large nomad population of Kirghiz with their numerous flocks ; 
 but the depredations of the Shighnis (regarded also with horror 
 by the Kirghiz as Shiah heretics), and other kidnapping neigh- 
 bours, are said to have driven them to the eastern valleys, cr to 
 the Kokan territory, and the only summer visitors now are 
 about one thousand families, who frequent the shores of Rang- 
 kul in Little Pameer.’ 
 
 In Moorcroft’s time the Kirghiz still pastured their flocks 
 on these lofty grazing grounds, and mention is made of a chief 
 named Gillim Bai, whose possessions comprised 30.000 sheep 
 and goats, 500 yaks, and 200 camels. This patriarch dwelt in 
 a house surrounded by a hundred cottages, but as a rule the Kir- 
 ghiz clung to their ancestral tents. The surface of the plateau is 
 occasionally broken by peaks that rise to a considerable height, 
 one near lake Victoria attaining an altitude of 19,000 feet above 
 the sea. Difficulty of respiration is experienced in all parts, 
 garlick, leeks, and dried fruits being used as an antidote. The 
 eastern boundary is formed by a belt of lofty mountains, up- 
 wards of 20,000 feet above the sea level, from which steep 
 rugged spurs run down into Eastern Toorkestan. The Kizil- 
 Yart branch of this range — the Trans- Alai chain of the late 
 Professor Fedchenko — traverses the plateau north of Karakul, 
 and separates Pameer from the Dasht or Steppe of Alai. As it 
 runs to the west, grass grows at a greater elevation. The 
 medium height, according to that lamented savant, exceeds 
 18,000 feet, with peaks not less than 25,000 feet — altogether, 
 a very grand chain of mountains. 
 
436 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 The Alai Steppe runs from west to east, and is drained by 
 the Karategeen Soorkh-ab. It extends forty miles in one 
 direction, and from seven to fourteen in the other. At the 
 western extremity it is about 8000 feet above the sea, but at 
 the eastern it rises to 12,000. The Kizil Yart Pass from near 
 Karakul into the Alai Steppe does not present many difficulties, 
 and two or three accessible passes lead from the steppe into 
 Ivhokan. The Taimurum Pass leads north-east into the Terek 
 Pass, the principal communication between Kashgar and Ush. 
 The northern boundary of Pameer — still following the sure 
 guidance of Colonel Yule — is the rugged region between the 
 Karategeen and Khokan, enclosing the comparatively unknown 
 Tajeek States of Macha and Ignao. To the south towers the 
 tremendous barrier of the Hindoo Koosh, traversed, however, 
 by nineteen passes. On these mountains no timber trees are to 
 be found from Pameer to Koh-i-Baba, north-west of Kabul, 
 except a dwarf fir called Archa. Poplars are planted near 
 rivulets, and the almond and pistachio nut are indigenous in 
 many parts of the range. Several varieties of willow also grow 
 as high as 13,000 feet above the sea, but are mere shrubs. The 
 chief fuel is a scrubby furze-bush without much fibre, but ex- 
 cellent charcoal is made from the almond trees. 
 
 The wild sheep, locally called kutch-kar, is described as a 
 noble animal, with a venerable beard, and two magnificent 
 horns of great weight that curl round. A pair of these horns, 
 jwesented bj r Captain Wood to the Royal Asiatic Society, 
 measured round the curve four feet eight inches in length, and 
 fourteen and a quarter inches round the base, the distance 
 between the tips being three feet nine inches. Even when out 
 of condition a single carcase is a good load for a pack-horse, 
 such as are used in the hill country. The meat in winter is 
 tough and ill-tasted, but in the autumn is said to resemble 
 venison. The wool is of a dun colour. The kutch-kar, or 
 
PAMEER. 
 
 437 
 
 oris Po/i, wanders over the steppe in flocks of five or six hun- 
 dred, which are much worried by wolves. The horns are still 
 used to mark off inclosures, and are piled in heaps to indicate the 
 snow-covered track. There is another description of sheep, if 
 it do not rather belong to the deer tribe, called Rass, with 
 straight spiral horns, and with redder wool than that of the 
 kutch-kar. 
 
 The Pameer table-land is known to Asiatics as the Bam-i- 
 Duniah, or roof cf the world; the idea being suggested by the 
 flat terraced roofs of Oriental houses. Its mean elevation is 
 from 15,000 to 10,000 feet above the sea. It may be said to 1 e 
 the central boss between India, Eastern Toorkestan, Russian 
 Toorkestan, and Ivhokan. From a small lake on this plateau, 
 situated in 37° 27' N., and 73° 40' E., issues the Panja, now 
 diplomatically accepted as the main branch of the Amou or 
 Oxus, though the south branch traced by Major Montgomerie’s 
 Meerza to Pameer Kul, at an elevation of 13,300 feet, is some- 
 what longer than the northern branch traced by Captain Wood 
 to Sir-i-Kul, at an altitude of 15,500 feet. 
 
 This lake, sometimes called the Lake of Great Pameer, and 
 sometimes Sikandari-Kul, or Alexander’s Lake, is now recog- 
 nized by European geographers as Lake Victoria. It is four- 
 teen miles in length from east to west, and about one mile in 
 breadth. On three sides it is bordered by hills about 500 feet 
 high, but which on the south side rise to the height of 3500 
 feet above its banks, or 18,800 feet above the sea level, and are 
 covered with perpetual snow. Indeed, at the time of Captain 
 Wood’s visit, the whole country was buried in snow, with a 
 dark angry sky overhead, not a breath stirring, not a bird or a 
 beast within sight. The water of the lake was frozen to the 
 depth of thirty inches, and ‘ owing to the great rarity of the 
 atmosphere a few strokes of the pick-axe produced an exhaust- 
 ion that stretched us upon the snow to recruit our strength.’ 
 
438 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 The lake itself was not more than nine feet deep in the centre, 
 and the water was of a reddish colour, with a slightly fetid 
 smell ; the bottom being oozy and tangled with weeds. An 
 attempt to measure the breadth of the lake by the carriage of 
 sound entirely failed through the tenuity of the atmosphere. 
 ‘ A musket loaded with blank cartridge, sounded as if the 
 charge had been poured into the barrel, and neither wads nor 
 ramrod used. When ball was introduced the report was louder, 
 but possessed none of the sharpness that marks a similar charge 
 in denser atmospheres. The ball, however, could be distinctly 
 heard whizzing through the air.’ Conversation could not be 
 kept up. A run at full speed for a distance of fifty yards pro- 
 duced pain in the lungs, and prostration that lasted for some 
 hours. Some of the party were dizzy with headache, and any 
 sort of muscular exertion became very soon distressing. The 
 pulse rose in some instances to 124 beats in the minute, and in 
 none was less than 110. 
 
 The line of perpetual snow is here a little over 17,000 feet. 
 By the end of June the ice is broken up and the hills clear of 
 snow, when the surface of the lake is covered with aquatic birds. 
 * The grass of Pameer they (the Kirghiz) tell you is so rich that 
 a sorry horse is here brought into good condition in less than 
 twenty days ; and its nourishing qualities are evidenced in the 
 productiveness of their ewes, which almost invariably bring 
 forth two lambs at a time. Their flocks and herds roam over an 
 unlimited extent of swelling grassy hills of the sweetest and 
 richest pasture, while their yaks luxuriate amid the snow at no 
 great distance above their encampment on the plains.’ 
 
 The Amou, or Oxus, in its \ipper course is formed by the 
 confluence of four rivers, traced by Colonel Yule with charac- 
 teristic conciseness and lucidity. I. The Surkli-ab, or Kizil-su — 
 literally, lied Water — rises in the Alai steppe which it drains, 
 receiving from the left the river Muk, and rushes through the 
 
PAM EE It . 
 
 439 
 
 almost unknown Karategeen district, in a deep channel between 
 narrow gorges. The population of this state is estimated at 
 100,000 souls, of the Galelias race, speaking Persian. No 
 trade of any kind seems to be carried on. The Khan claims 
 descent from Alexander the Great, and the country is supposed 
 to have been formerly peopled by the Paroctac® or Parcctaccni. 
 It was conquered in the early part of the present century by 
 the Khan of Danvaz, who expelled the native princes, but it 
 appears that they have since recovered their ancient possessions. 
 Horses and cattle are bred in considerable numbers, and sufli- 
 cient corn is grown for home use. Gold washing, working the 
 salt mines, and the manufacture of very tolerable iron, furnish 
 employment for those who are not engaged in agricultural pur- 
 suits. Leaving Karategeen the Surkh-ab flows through Kulab, 
 coincident with the old provinces of Wakhsh and Kotl, and 
 which in the palmy days of the Arabs was full of trade and in- 
 dustry, both of which are now neglected. The Surkh-ab then 
 joins the Panja above the junction of the Kokeha, near the 
 little town of Kurghan Tapah or Tippah. 
 
 II. The Panja is formed by the confluence of two streams 
 near Fort Panja, 10,000 feet above the sea. These streams 
 descend from Pameer : the one, named Darah-i-Sir-i-Kul, issues 
 from Lake Victoria, whence it hastens down for sixty-five to 
 seventy miles, till it joins Captain Wood’s ‘ Stream of Sarhad,’ 
 coming from the Sarhad Wakhat, or Wakhan Alarehes, and 
 proceeding from a lakelet known as the Barkat, or Pool, of 
 Yassin. The course of this stream is about 100 miles in length, 
 passing through a very narrow valley, well peopled towards the 
 lower end, the inhabitants living in contiguous houses of stone 
 or mud, warmed by stoves — the Po-mi-lo valley of Hiouen 
 Tsang. From the Panja Fort, the river of that name flows for 
 sixty-six miles through a valley varying in width from a few 
 hundred yards to a mile. At the western extremity of Wakhan 
 
440 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 the Fanja makes an elbow, enclosing the ruby mines, and then 
 turns to the north, skirting Shighnan, Foshan, and Darwaz. 
 
 III. The Kokcha, a less considerable stream, deriving its 
 name from the colour of its waters — ‘ Kok ’ in Toorkee signify- 
 ing ‘blue’ — is formed above the Fyzabad defiles by the con- 
 fluence of two little rivers from the Jerm and Yardoj valleys. 
 It then forces its way through a narrow gorge, called the Tangi, 
 or Strait of Badakhshan, and receiving several tributaries falls 
 into the Amou near the fertile plain of Cha-ab. 
 
 IY. The Aksarai, called, also the Surkh-ab for some distance 
 from its source, descends from the Bamian Pass. Near Ghori 
 the valley opens out, and at Kunduz the river takes the name 
 of Aksarai, and joins the Amou about 160 miles above Khoja- 
 saleh. 
 
 The respective courses of these different rivers are thus 
 estimated by Colonel Yule. I. The Surkh-ab. from its pro- 
 bable source in the Karategeen highlands to the mouth of the 
 Aksarai, 400 miles. II. The Fanja, from the Barkat Yassin 
 to the same point, 425 miles. III. The Kokcha, from the pro- 
 bable source of the Jerm river, 225 miles. IY. The Bamian 
 Surkh-ab, or Aksarai, 220 miles. The entire length of the 
 Amou from Barkat Yassin to the Aral is thus about 1400 miles, 
 allowing 200 miles for windings. 
 
 The difficulty raised by the Court of St Petersburg to the 
 adoption of the Fanja as the line of demarcation between 
 Central Asia afid the dependencies of Afghanistan may be 
 partly, perhaps principally, traced to an extraordinary geo- 
 graphical swindle apparently perpetrated by the learned orien- 
 talist Klaproth. On the 14th August, 1806, the archives of 
 the Russian War Office were enriched by elaborate maps, with 
 thirty astronomical determinations of position, together with 
 the journal of a certain Freiherr Georg Ludwig von — (the 
 name being left blank), who pretended to have been deputed by 
 
PAMEER. 
 
 441 
 
 the Indian government at the close of tlie last century to pur- 
 chase horses in Toorkestan. For Anglo-Indian readers the 
 bare statement carries its own contradiction, but the Russian 
 government found it convenient to be credulous, and, seemingly 
 without further inquiry, adopted the geographical reports of 
 this anonymous and apocryphal traveller. 
 
 In 1821, Julius Henry Von Klaproth translated the itinerary 
 of a Chinese traveller through Eastern Toorkestan, harmonizing 
 with Freiherr Georg Ludwig’s ‘ personal ’ observations. At a 
 somewhat later period Lord Strangford discovered in the Fo- 
 reign Office in Downing Street a manuscript report of a Russian 
 expedition through Central Asia to the frontiers of India accom- 
 plished in the beginning of this century, and which had been 
 secretly purchased from Klaproth. Subsequently it was ascer- 
 tained that these three several narratives were evidently written 
 to illustrate a Chinese map constructed by the Jesuit mission- 
 aries in square blocks, one of which, containing TVakhan, Bad- 
 akshan, Pameer, Roshan, and Shighnan, had been accidentally 
 placed the wrong way, the horizontal sides being turned vertical, 
 or 90° degees out of their proper position. Since the exposure 
 of this error by Sir Henry Rawlinson and Colonel Yule, the 
 Russian government, as well as our own, has been compelled to 
 acknowledge the inaccuracy of its maps, and to replace these 
 districts where nature originally fixed them. M. Veniukof 
 would liardty now declare that ‘ whoever is ruler of Bolor and 
 Badakhshan is in a position not only to dictate to the Chinese 
 at Kashgar and Yarkund, but also is master of the road that 
 leads to India.’ 
 
442 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE KHIVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 COLONEL MARKOSOF’s RECONNAISSANCE IN 1872 — DIPLOMATIC CORRESPOND- 
 ENCE — ADVANCE OF GENERAL GOLOF’S CORPS — A GRAND DUKE UNDER 
 FELT — FRIENDLINESS OF THE BOKHARIANS— SKIRMISH WITH TOORKO- 
 MANS — REPULSE OF THE KHIVANS— PASSAGE OF THE AMOU — OCCUPA- 
 TION OF HAZARASP — FALL OF KHIVA — GENERAL VEREFKIN’s MARCH — 
 COLONEL LOMAKIN’S MARCH — COLONEL MARKOSOF’S DISASTER — SUBMIS- 
 SION OF THE KHAN — PEACE — DISTRIBUTION OF HONOURS — SIR HENRY 
 LAWRENCE ON A RUSSIAN INVASION OF INDIA— SIR THOMAS MUNRO ON 
 OUR TREATMENT OF THE NATIVES — CONCLUSION. 
 
 In the autumn of 1872, a small Russian force, consisting of 
 1000 foot, 300 horse, and six guns, under the command of 
 Colonel Markosof, marched out from Krasnovodsk, on the 
 Caspian, and advanced without molestation to the borders of 
 the Khivan territories. The object of this expedition was 
 simply to elfect a reconnaissance, and it so far succeeded that it 
 obtained practical experience of the suddenness of Toorkoman 
 onslaught. Too contemptuous of the enemy to send out 
 skirmishers, Colonel Markosof found himself in a moment in 
 the midst of a cloud of cavalry, and was glad to escape with 
 the loss of 150 camels and nearly all his horses. The numbers 
 of the killed and wounded are seldom published by the Russians, 
 and never correctly. 
 
 The question of peace or war, if not previously determined, 
 was necessarily decided by this repulse, for in the East a dis- 
 aster can never safely be allowed to pass unremedied and 
 unavenged. At the same time there can bo no doubt, notwith- 
 standing Prince Gortchakof’s protestations and denials, that 
 
THE KIIIVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 443 
 
 military operations against Khiva on an extensive scale were 
 meditated, if not actually arranged, by the Court of St Pcters- 
 burgh in I860. And it must be frankly admitted that hostili- 
 ties were fully justified by the persistence of the Khivans in 
 carrying off Russian subjects, and selling them into captivity. 
 The new establishment at Krasnovodsk, however, was declared 
 to be merely a trading factory, ‘ protected by a small armed 
 force,’ but which could not be correctly spoken of as a fort. 
 ‘ Something/ also, was to be done ‘ to ascertain the feasibility 
 of opening up the old course of the Oxus to the Caspian,’ and 
 it was confidently asserted that there were ‘ no physical diffi- 
 culties to prevent a military force from marching from the sea 
 to the river/ 
 
 In March, 1872, M. Stremooukof, director of the Asiatic 
 department of the Russian Chancery, informed Lord A. 
 Loftus that the Khan of Khiva treated with contempt and 
 insult General Kaufmann’s letters of expostulation, and obstin- 
 ately refused to hold friendly relations with the Governor of 
 Toorkestan. In reply to an inquiry from Lord Loftus, M. 
 Stremooukof charged the Khan with being in community with 
 the nomadic tribes who pillaged the caravans, with sheltering 
 the marauders and participating in the booty. ‘ The difficulty 
 we have in dealing with Khiva,’ continued the Russian diplo- 
 matist, ‘ is the fact of its being so weak. If we were to chastise 
 the Khan, the whole fabric would fall like a pack of cards.’ 
 He added that ‘ a reconnaissance had alreadj' been made on 
 both sides of Khiva, from the side of the Caspian and from 
 Tashkend, and that the occupation of Khiva would offer no 
 strategical difficulties.’ 
 
 At a somewhat later period the Khan became alarmed b} r 
 these military reconnaissances from opposite directions, and ex- 
 pressed a wish to send an envoy to St Petersburg. lie was 
 naturally required, as a preliminary step, to liberate all Russians 
 
444 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 held in bondage within his territories, but he would neither 
 comply with this just demand nor hold direct intercourse with 
 General Kaufmann, Governor-General of Russian Toorkestan. 
 No alternative remained, hut to submit to constant outrages, or 
 to inflict such a severe chastisement as would not easily be for- 
 gotten. The latter course was inevitably adopted, and a con- 
 siderable force, equipped with a completeness that betrayed the 
 length of the preparations, was rapidly organized for the 
 subjugation of the Khanat. 
 
 Including all arms, the total strength of the three divisions, 
 or five detachments, ordered to concentrate upon Khiva, was 
 probably between twelve and fourteen thousand men, with 
 sixty or seventy guns. The Toorkestan division under the 
 supreme command of General Kaufmann was divided into two 
 columns. One of these, under General Golof, assisted by 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Baron von Kaulbars, left Kazaly or Kaza- 
 linsk, near the mouth of the Syr, on the 22nd March, and pro- 
 ceeded nearly due south to the Boukan Hills. The second 
 corps, called the Jizzak column, under General Golovatchof, 
 accompanied by His Imperial Highness Prince Eugene Maximili- 
 anovich Romanofsky, Duke of Lcuchtenberg, may be said to have 
 started from Fort Perofsky, though its head-quarters were at 
 Tashkend. The van of this column left Tashkend on the 13th 
 March, and the entire Eastern, or Toorkestan, division was 
 concentrated at Khala-ata or Khalaat, ninety miles east of the 
 Amou, on the 24th April, when General Kaufmann took the 
 command into his own hands. 
 
 Ilis Imperial Highness, the Grand Duke Nicholas Constan- 
 tinovieh, being associated with the fortunes of General Golof, a 
 few rays of ‘ the fierce light that beats upon a throne/ have 
 gilded the earlier movements of the Kazalinsk corps. General 
 Romanof, the military correspondent of the Goloss — who subse- 
 quent^ committed suicide — was on the Staff of the Grand 
 
THE KHIVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 445 
 
 Puke, and thus describes His Imperial Highness’s first experience 
 of campaigning in the desert : — ‘ We cat, live, and sleep in a 
 large kebitka (the cupola-shaped tent of the nomads of Central 
 Asia). To the left of the entrance is placed the bedstead of the 
 Grand Puke ; next to it, opposite the entrance, is mine in a 
 line with mine and to the right of the entrance is that of Pr 
 Moreff, and next to him, nearer to the entrance, on the floor, 
 sleeps Baron Kaulbars. In the middle of the round kebitka is 
 placed a little iron stove, with an iron chimney let through the 
 roof; between the stove and my bedstead there is a folding-up 
 table on which we take our meals, write our letters, &c. Near 
 the bedsteads and beneath them are piles of saddles, bags, 
 parcels, and portmanteaus. The walls of the tent are hung 
 with our overcoats, caps, revolvers, and swords. The above is 
 a description of our nomad abode, near to which stands a similar 
 kebitka for our servants, furnished with an iron cooking stove, 
 on which our tea and dinner are prepared. In this tent are 
 located the Grand Puke’s footman, the Court huntsman, Pmitry 
 Babur ; his Highness’s Cossack, Ignatius Tobolsky ; my mili- 
 tary servant, Alexander ; the Cossacks of his Ilighness’s escort ; 
 and the people who have charge of our horses. Both these 
 kebitkas, with their sides, stoves, and coverings, are packed on 
 three camels, and accompany us everywhere. They are put up 
 and taken to pieces in half an hour. On arriving at the halting- 
 place, or the night encampment, Alexander’s first duty is to take 
 my copper kettle off his pack and fill it with any kind of water 
 he can get, generally brackish or tainted, place it on the fire 
 made by the Cossacks of the escort of all kinds of steppe plants, 
 such as wormwood, camel’s thorn, tamarisk, &c. Tea is then 
 put into the copper kettle, and notwithstanding its evident 
 dirtiness we drink it with great satisfaction out of metal tum- 
 blers. The bad taste of the tea is counteracted by a slice of 
 lemon, extract of cranberry, or acid wine.’ 
 
446 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 For the first 150 miles, all went well with this corps. Out 
 of 3000 camels not above a hundred had given in. The 
 health of the troops, 2000 of the lower grades, was satisfactory, 
 and their daily rations consisted of half a pound of fresh meat, a 
 little wine, and one pound of tea for a hundred men. Every 
 man had a sheepskin and a piece of felt to lie upon, and ten 
 kibitkas were allowed to each regiment, besides one for the 
 officers and one for the sick. In three days the ‘ arid loose 
 sands ’ of the Kizil Eum, between sixty and sevent y miles in 
 extent, were safely traversed, though not without great fatigue 
 to men and beasts. Casks containing in all 2300 gallons of 
 water, in addition to what each man carried, were slung on 
 camels, and proved sufficient until they reached the deep wells 
 of Kizil-Kak. On the 2nd April, General Golof had reached 
 the Boukan Hills, where he received instructions from General 
 Kaufmaun to push on into the territories of Bokhara. 
 
 By that time the heat at mid-day had become intolerable, 
 though the nights were still piercingly cold. On the 24th 
 April a junction was effected with the Toorkestan, or Jizzak, 
 column, which had suffered considerably in crossing the steppe. 
 Owing to the general excellence of the arrangements water, in- 
 deed, never failed the troops, but the}’ were much harassed by 
 storms of wind, dust, and cold rain beating in their faces, with 
 the thermometer at night as low as 5° Reaumur. Although 
 great exertions were made by the sappers to clear the road of 
 obstructions, the guns had to be lowered down Ihe steep descents 
 by ropes, while the camels gave much trouble by their fastidious- 
 ness as to the weight and adjustment of their burdens. Both 
 the Ameer of Bokhara and the Khan of Khokan had their re- 
 presentatives in General Kaufmann’s camp, charged to render 
 him all the assistance in their power, just as a pack of wolves 
 will turn upon and tear to pieces any one of their number that 
 may be sick or wounded. 
 
THE K II IVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 447 
 
 At the well of Balta Saldyr, the Governor of Nourata, 
 ‘ dressed in a brocaded dressing-gown and green Cashmere shawl, 
 and mounted on a handsome horse,’ rode forward to pay his 
 respects to the Russian General, and placed 100 camels at his 
 disposal, while the nomads opened a sort of fair, and offered for 
 sale, fuel, cakes, tobacco, raisins, &c. The Governor also enter- 
 tained the General and his Staff at an oriental repast, at which 
 tea, pillao, and confectionery were plentifully served. He further 
 presented the detachment with a thousand bundles of clover. 
 ‘Beyond Balta Saldyr,’ writes a correspondent of the Invalid e, 
 * the wide expanse of the desert offers a most dreary aspect. 
 Nothing but sand, with just a few thistles and absinth plants 
 to relieve the dire monotony of the scene. The further you 
 penetrate the less vegetation there is, and the higher the sand- 
 hills become. Sometimes the water is excellent, on other oc- 
 casions it is slightly salt, though, as a rule, very tolerable, and 
 fit to drink. The wells of the steppe are carefully dug, some of 
 them reaching a depth of 100 feet, with a diameter of five feet 
 and more. The inside is lined with stones, and the mouth pro- 
 tected from sand by an elevation of stones and trunks of trees. 
 A bucket of goatskin attached to a rope is let down, and acts 
 so well that even if there is but little water and the bucket 
 touches the bottom, it never brings up any mud. We live 
 chiefly upon biscuits and preserved food. As to the horses, 
 they have to content themselves mostly with barley.’ 
 
 The united Toorkestan division may be taken at about 5000 
 combatants, 1400 horses, 9000 camels, thirty-two guns, four 
 mortars, and four iron ferry-boats. The Khan of Khiva, tardily 
 coming to his senses, sent to the Russian camp twenty-one 
 Russian subjects who had been kidnapped within the previous 
 four years, and expressed his readiness to negotiate. General 
 Kaufmann, however, merely accepted the prisoners, and prose- 
 cuted his march. Water now becoming scarce, an advanced 
 
44S 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 guard was pushed forward under Major-General Bardofskv, pre- 
 ceded by a platoon of riflemen, and in front of these a patrol of 
 eight Cossacks, while a short distance a-head of these again rode 
 a small party of horsemen, consisting of Lieutenant-Colonels 
 Ivanof and Tichmenief, four Cossacks, and nine Kirghiz 
 guides. Late in the evening, a body of Toorkomans suddenly 
 swooped down upon their prey, cutting down the leading guide, 
 and at the first discharge wounding the two officers, the four 
 Cossacks, and three of the Kirghiz. They feared, however, to 
 come to close quarters, notwithstanding their overwhelming 
 numbers and the comparatively disabled condition of this gallant 
 little band. The sound of the firing brought up the patrol 
 at the gallop, and the riflemen at the double, and the Toorko- 
 mans retreated with three killed and six wounded. This 
 petty skirmish was a fair illustration of the entire campaign, so 
 far as fighting was concerned. Beyond natural obstructions the 
 invaders experienced no opposition worthy of the name. 
 
 The real object of General Bardofsky’s separation from the 
 main body was to dig as many wells as possible at Adam 
 Kriglan, and when he had excavated twenty General Kaufmann 
 set out from Khalaat. On the loth May he made a fresh start 
 from Adam Kriglan, but, owing to the delay caused in loading 
 the camels and leading them down the steep hillocks of loose 
 sand, very little progress was made, and water again running 
 short the main body moved on to Alty-Kuduk, while General 
 Bardofskv returned to Adam Kriglan and occupied three daj’s 
 in sinking forty more wells and in filling his casks and bottles. 
 While thus engaged he was attacked by a small body of Toork- 
 omans, who were, however, easily repulsed without any casual- 
 ties on the Russian side. The camels now began to perish by 
 hundreds. Of the 2800 camels belonging to tho train before 
 leaving Khalaat, only 1240 survived when General Bardofsky 
 returned to Alty-Kuduk. It became necessary, therefore, still 
 
Til K K II IVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 449 
 
 further to subdivide the small force collected at that spot. 
 General Ivaufmann accordingly pushed on, on the 21st, with ten 
 companies of infantry, ten guns, and one sotnia of Cossacks. 
 
 The country between Alty-Kuduk and the Amou is de- 
 scribed as a succession of mounds or huge billows of loose dry 
 sand, excessively fatiguing, and affording shelter to the enemy’s 
 skirmishers. Throughout the whole night of the 22nd the camp 
 was harassed on three sides, and the troops deprived of the rest 
 so much needed. At dawn on the 23rd — to follow General Kauf- 
 inanh’s Report to the Military Department at St Petersburg 
 — ‘the detachment resumed their march, being still surrounded 
 by the enemy. Two companies of Turkestan Rifles marching 
 right and left of our van formed a continuous chain of skir- 
 mishers, who kept the enemy at a distance. The van was im- 
 mediately succeeded by horse artillery, who had riflemen, sap- 
 pers, and mitrailleuses, on their right, and infantry in loose 
 order, with mountain guns, on their left. The next in the order 
 of march were the train and beasts of burden, who were entirely 
 surrounded by four companies of skirmishers, supported by two 
 mountain guns. Five sotnias of cavalry and a rocket battery 
 brought up the rear. Hardly had our troops begun to move 
 when the enem\-, suddenly opening fire, began to close in on all 
 sides at once. But all their efforts were in vain. Marching 
 with the same regularity which they had been taught on the 
 parade ground, our troops, firing along the whole line, effectively 
 checked the advance of the enemy. The natives, soon recognizing 
 their utter impotence, gave a peculiar yell and decamped, to 
 hide behind the nearest rising ground. After a while they re- 
 appeared and fired a volley, which did not cost us a single man. 
 Thus the game went on for three or four versts, when the 
 enemy, despairing of hindering our advance, determined to try 
 their luck against our train. Even before this Major-General 
 Golovatcheff, the commander of the force, who personally 
 
 29 
 
450 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 directed the operations of the day, had ordered Colonel Gla- 
 vatzki, the chief of the cavalry, to send one half of his men to 
 the right and the other to the left flank of our baggage. A 
 little later, the enemy having disappeared on our left, the whole 
 cavalry was concentrated on our right, which movement the 
 natives mistook for a prepared attack, and they went howling 
 away even before they had time to injure any of our camels. 
 General von Kaufmann having strictly forbidden any pursuit or 
 interruption of the march to the Amou by any more fighting 
 than was indispensably necessary, our troops took no advantage 
 of the enemy’s retreat, but steadily marched on. The artillery 
 fired but a single grenade, which, bursting in the midst of the 
 hostile mob, created no little terror and confusion.’ 
 
 No further resistance was offered, though there could not 
 have been fewer than 3500 Toorkomans, Kirghiz, and Khivans, 
 hovering round the Russian advanced guard. They even deserted 
 their camp and fled to Shourakhan, but the Cossack horses were 
 too much exhausted to keep up the pursuit for more than a few 
 miles. * When General von Kaufmann reached the summit of 
 the hills whence he could see the Amou flowing in the distance, 
 all he discovered of the enemy were some stragglers moving in 
 the rear of the main force.’ A vessel laden with cattle and pro- 
 visions was the immediate and welcome reward of this successful 
 skirmish, though it is not pleasant to read that * the crew tried 
 to save themselves by swimming, but were nearly all drowned 
 or shot whilst struggling in the water.’ The Khivans must 
 have been a little puzzled to distinguish the difference between 
 humanity as practised by the Russians and inhumanity as per- 
 petrated by themselves. 
 
 On the 25th General Kaufmann was again on the march, 
 and on the 28th dispersed some Khivan troops stationed on 
 the Pitniak hills, on the opposite side of the river. Two days 
 later he crossed the Amou at Sheik- Aryk, with very slight op- 
 
TI1E KH I VAN' EXPEDITION 
 
 431 
 
 position, though the passage occupied four days. On the 2nd 
 June a strong reconnoitring body was pushed forward toward 
 Hazarasp, probably the strongest town in the Ivhanat, and sus- 
 tained a smart attack, smartly repelled. On the following day, 
 after a slight skirmish outside the walls, Hazarasp opened its 
 gates and submitted to the invaders. Here the column rested 
 three days to give the Commissariat time to collect a train of 
 native carts, as the camels were unfit for further service, and on 
 the 8th resumed its march upon the capital. 
 
 At eight a.m. on the 10th June General Kaufmann arrived 
 before the walls of Khiva, but only in time to learn that the town 
 was already in possession of the combined Orenburg-Manghish- 
 lak corps under General Yerefkin. This corps, after repulsing 
 a spirited attack by some 3000 Toorkomans on the 8th, had en- 
 camped in the environs on the 9th and planted a battery close 
 to the outer or town wall. The Khan had by this time made his 
 escape into the desert, but a desultory musketry fire was still kept 
 up at intervals, to which the Russiaus responded by an hour’s 
 bombardment. At sunrise on the morning of the 10th the fire 
 from the walls re-commenced, whereupon General Yerefkin blew 
 in one of the outer gates, and, without further resistance, estab- 
 lished himself in the outer town. On the previous day he had 
 received a slight wound on the head, and had two men killed 
 and five officers and forty-five rank and file wounded. At two in 
 the afternoon General von Kaufmann, attended by their Imperial 
 Highnesses the Grand Duke Nicholas and the Duke of Leuch- 
 tenburg, made his triumphal entry into the capital of Khiva, 
 and four days later the Khan surrendered himself a prisoner. 
 
 It is now time to trace the progress of the two corps from 
 Orenburg and the Caucasus. The former detachment comprised 
 nine companies of the Orenburg Infantry of the Line, a corps 
 of sappers, 609 Orenburg Cossacks, six pieces of mounted artil- 
 leiy, six rocket apparatus, four mortars — 20-pounders, two 
 
452 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 rifled guns for defence of forts to be constructed, a battery of 
 artillery and ammunition transport, and some two-horse sledges, 
 in all about 3000 men. With so much care and foresight had all 
 the arrangements been made that it was calculated this column 
 would arrive before the gates of Khiva on the 8th of June, and 
 the calculation erred by onty a single day. The real start was, 
 of course, from the Emba Post, which the advanced guard quit- 
 ted on the 8th April, the main body being four days later. At 
 first the troops suffered a good deal from the exti’eme cold, and 
 the horses cut their feet with the ice that coated the surface of 
 the snow, but by the 18tli April they found themselves on ‘a 
 good road in completely summer weather ; the grass was every- 
 where verdant, and here and there the wild onion and field tu- 
 lips were seen.’ General Verefkin, the commander of this 
 corps, appears to have experienced far less difficulty than had 
 been anticipated in traversing the dreary solitude of the Ust 
 Urt. Neither was he at all molested by the Kirghiz, whose 
 leader, Isset Kutebar, the famous son of a famous father, made 
 his submission at an early period of the expedition. 
 
 Not far from Kungrad General Yerefkin was opportunely 
 joined by the Manghislak detachment of the army of the 
 Caucasus under Colonel Lomakin. The van of this fine body 
 of men — probably 2500 of all arms — started from Kindcrli, on 
 the eastern coast of the Caspian, about the 12th April, a fort- 
 night in advance of the main body. The latter had waited too 
 long. At Kuyandi, only twenty miles from their starting-point, 
 they entered upon the open steppe, an arid waste, with the 
 thermometer at 40° Reaumur, while a suffocating wind blew 
 over the treeless plain. ‘ Overpowered by the heat and dust ’ — 
 says a correspondent of the Moscow Gazette— ‘ man and beast 
 soon lay prostrate on the burning soil, to be forced up again by 
 a sensation as though they were being roasted alive on the 
 scorching sand. Many suffered from sunstroke.’ The supply 
 
THE K II IVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 433 
 
 of water, too, threatened to fail, and it was after sore toil and 
 travail that the Seneka wells were reached, and the expedition 
 saved from destruction. The rest of the march across the Ust 
 Urt was comparatively easy. 
 
 Colonel Lomakin had intended in the first instance to join 
 General Yerefkin at the Aibugir Lake, but actually effected a 
 junction at Kungrad. The lake, it may be mentioned, had 
 turned into dry, or at least marshy, land, owing to the de- 
 siccation of the Laudan branch of the Amou. The junction 
 seems to have been opportune. Although Kungrad had at 
 once recognized the futility of offering any resistance to 
 General Yorefkin’s column, the Khivans had apparently re- 
 solved upon giving battle under the walls of Khoja-Ili. It is 
 not likely, indeed, that they would long have held their ground 
 against the steady advance and obstinate courage of the llussian 
 troops, but they could hardly have failed to inflict some loss of 
 life, and for no advantage to either side. 
 
 Kungrad itself, situated at the extremity of the cultivated 
 and settled district, on the Taldyk branch of die Amou, is de- 
 scribed in the Turkestansky Vedomcsty as a town ‘ surrounded 
 by a wall about four versts in circumference, and of double 
 thickness in some places. Part of the town wall facing the 
 river is nearly washed by its waters. The inhabitants number 
 about 8000, consisting of Uzbeks, Tadjiks, Kirghize, and a few 
 Persian slaves. The inhabitants of Kungrad pay the Khan of 
 Khiva’s taxes on their property and on the cultivation of the 
 soil. This tax is two-fold, in kind and in money. The rich 
 farmers paid before sowing from three to five tingres (2s. to 
 3s.) per tanap (about an acre) according to the facilities for 
 irrigation. Any one unable to pay before sowing gave up a 
 third of the yield at harvest-time. Owing to its geographical 
 position, it may become an important administrative centre for 
 the government of the tribes on the Lower Amou. The en- 
 
454 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 virons of Kungrad from the walls of the town itself present a 
 continuous cultivated district limited by the inundated land, 
 which is overgrown with tall, thick canes. There • is hardly 
 any meadow or pasture land, so that the cattle of the towns- 
 people must depend on the scanty herbage in 'the dried water- 
 courses. The nearest meadow land is fifteen versts ofF, near 
 the hill of Tiube Tau, fifty versts along the Taldvk, in the dis- 
 trict of the nomad Kirghize. The want of meadow and pasture 
 land in the neighbourhood compels the inhabitants to sow 
 grass. The environs of Kungrad will support a garrison of 
 from 1000 to 1800 men.’ 
 
 The combined detachments from Orenburg and Kinderli ad- 
 vanced in two parallel columns towards Khoja-Ili, slightly ha- 
 rassed on their flanks. In front of the town a fortified camp 
 had been established, defended b} 7 6000 infantry, six guns, and a 
 considerable body of light horse. • The enemy, however, were 
 intimidated not only by the junction of the two columns, but 
 also by the defection of Kalbin Beg, who had gone over to the 
 Russians with 2000 Kirghiz and Toorkoman tents. While the 
 Kinderli or Caucasian detachment made a slight circuit threaten- 
 ing to intercept the retreat of the Khivans, General Verefkin 
 with his Orenburgers marched straight against the town, and 
 was met at the gate by the elders, who tendered their submis- 
 sion. The Russians then- advanced to the camp, but only to 
 find it so completely deserted that the only traces of the enemy 
 were the freshly constructed earthworks, a small quantity of 
 flour, and a solitary gun stuck fast in a garden. The only loss 
 sustained was through the fire opened by the Khivans from the 
 opposite bank, by which, though the river is there 700 yards 
 wide, two Russian soldiers were wounded, one of whom fell 
 into tho river and was carried away by the current. 
 
 After resting two days in the captured camp, the troops con- 
 tinued their advance through a succession of jungles and swamps 
 
THE KIIIVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 455 
 
 intercepted by canals, which might easily have been rendered 
 impassable. As it was, a body of 3000 foot, with three guns, 
 and supported by a cloud of the Yumood Toorkomuns, made two 
 or three swoops upon the train, and at Mangit sixteen Russians 
 are acknowledged to have been wounded. The town was conse- 
 quently stormed and committed to the flames, — another illus- 
 tration of Muscovite civilization. On the 2nd June the march 
 was resumed, sometimes through a reedy jungle, at other times 
 through fields of tall grain, and on one occasion a small body of 
 Yamooods made a dash at the train, but were easily repulsed. 
 Again we are brought face to face with the barbarous character 
 of Russian warfare. From Kitai Colonel Skobelef was des- 
 patched with two sotnias and a rocket battery to destroy every 
 Yamood village within a circuit of several miles. After halting 
 a few days at Kitai, the combined detachments pushed forward 
 to Ivhiva, which they reached on the 9th June, after sustaining 
 a sudden onslaught of some 3000 Toorkomaus on the previous 
 day. At sunrise on the 10th, as already related, General 
 Yerefkin occupied the outer wall, and held the town at hi3 
 mercy. 
 
 The part borne by the Aral flotilla in these military oper- 
 ations was quite insignificant. The squadron consisted of the 
 two steamers, Pcrofaki and Samarkand and three long boats. 
 On the 10th May the Samarkand silenced the guns of the 
 Akkala Fort on the Ulkun Darya, though not before a shell 
 penetrated her forecastle, and in bursting wounded her com- 
 mander and seven marines. By the 14th the flotilla had 
 ascended to within thirty-five miles of Kungrad, where it was 
 brought up by want of water. An ensign and five marines 
 having been sent out to reconnoitre, and, if possible, open a 
 communication with the land forces, were cut off by the enemy. 
 
 A third detachment from the west, starting from Chikislar 
 on the Caspian, under the command of the same Colonel Mar- 
 
456 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 kosof, who conducted the unfortunate reconnaissance of 1872, 
 was compelled to return without glory, if without disgrace. 
 This corps, about 2000 strong, left Chikislar about the 5th 
 April with two months’ supply of provisions, and not oidy 
 reached the Igdy Wells without much difficulty, but had made 
 several successful raids upon the Toorkoman encampments, and 
 carried off upwards of 1000 camels, which afterwards proved of 
 inestimable value. The sufferings of the column commenced 
 on the very day they resumed their march from Igdv. The 
 heat was so intolerable that bv eight o’clock in the morning a 
 halt had become absolutely necessary. Towards the evening 
 the troops got over a further distance of eight miles, but with 
 extreme difficulty. According to the official report to the 
 Minister of War, ‘ camels dropped down dead, horses refused to 
 advance, and the men, completely exhausted, soon drank up all 
 the water which had been served out to them at their morning 
 halt.’ The consequences of this impatience of thirst and want 
 of self-denial were very serious. Owing to the dryness of the 
 atmosphere, the water, even in casks, evaporated to the extent of 
 fully one-third in four-and-twenty hours. The nights being as 
 close as the day, the men awoke unrefreshed and even weaker 
 than when they laid them down to sleep. Delay, however, 
 would have been fatal, and at sunrise the advance was renewed, 
 with still greater suffering than on the previous day. The 
 horses were so completely knocked up that the Cossacks were 
 compelled to dismount and lead them by their bridles, and the 
 400 men constituting this arm of the force were scattered over 
 a distance of five or six miles, but fortunately without being 
 attacked by the Toorkomans. 
 
 A halt was called at 11 a.m., when ‘the thermometer 
 (Reaumur, marked up to 55°) showed 52° of heat, and about 
 mid-day burst.’ At half past four in the afternoon the cavalry 
 again started, though the heat was still intense. ‘ Three versts 
 
Till: Kill VAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 457 
 
 from their halting-place the character of the country changed, 
 the high sand hills were replaced by still higher and still 
 steeper hills, composed of the finest hot lime dust, in which 
 men and horses sank up to their knees. In the absence of the 
 least breath of wind this dust remained stationary in the air, 
 rendering breathing difficult, and covering the horsemen with 
 a thick layer of dust. The situation of the cavalry detachment 
 now became worse at every step they took. The horses were 
 constantly falling and could hardly rise again ; the exhaustion 
 of the men reached its extreme limits ; some unable to sit on 
 their horses fell off in a kind of swoon ; others on foot could 
 not walk any further. It became necessary to have recourse to 
 medical assistance to strengthen the weakest,.’ 
 
 At midnight, the wells of Orta-Koil being still invisible. 
 Colonel Markosof had no choice but to stop where he was till 
 daylight, three men being sent forward to discover the exact 
 position of the wells. As hours passed and uo tidings arrived, 
 thirty of the least exhausted Cossacks were despatched to the 
 advancing infantry to obtain a supply of water. The foot 
 soldiers had fared no better than the cavalry. Although they 
 had a sufficiency of water, ‘ they fainted from the unusual heat 
 and dryness of the air ; some of them, losing all their strength, 
 dropped down, unable any longer to keep up with their echelon, 
 which was scattered over ten versts.’ The main body of the 
 Cossacks, retracing their steps in the track of the thirty, bore 
 up bravely until the sun had once more risen above the horizon. 
 Then, indeed, they gave way altogether, * and the detachment 
 became a line of stragglers, hardl) r able to move, many even 
 were without their horses, and could hardly keep their feet ; 
 others, hardly able to stand, led their wasted horses by the 
 bridles. The men swooned away at each step, and several lost 
 all consciousness.’ At last about ten o’clock they were met by 
 ten camels laden with water, the distribution of which Colonel 
 
433 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Markosof prudently took into his own hands. It was not, how- 
 ever, of good quality, and had become heated, so that the relief 
 it afforded was slight and temporary. Both infantry and 
 cavalry were speedily reduced to the verge of exhaustion, and 
 destruction seemed imminent, when the joyful intelligence 
 arrived that the wells of Bala-Ishen, not above ten miles distant, 
 had not been tampered with, and would yield a sufficient supply 
 of tolerably good water. 
 
 Cheered by hope, a handful of Cossacks made a desperate 
 and successful effort to reach the wells, whence a string of 
 camels was sent back with a load more precious than silver. 
 Had Colonel Markosof, instead of falling back, pushed forward 
 to the wells of Orta-Koii, which turned out to be only six or 
 seven miles from his midnight halting-ground, his troops would 
 have been spared much suffering, and it is possible that the 
 Chikislar column might have contributed to the fall of Khiva. 
 It is also evident from the minuteness of detail which charac- 
 terizes this report, that it was the desire of the war department 
 to exonerate the unlucky commander froqi all blame for his 
 second failure, and to allay the feeling of humiliation and dis- 
 appointment which must have been experienced by the brave 
 fellows who shared his misfortune. So great had been the loss 
 of camels and horses, and so thoroughly prostrated were the 
 men of all branches of the service, that it was at last wisely 
 resolved to return to Krasnovodsk. This was accomplished in 
 safety, though not without much distress, and the last echelon 
 had occasionally to return the desultory fire of the Toorkomans. 
 
 Had the enemy possessed the slightest courage or energy, 
 not a Russian would have survived to tell the tale, but the 
 nomad tribes have almost a superstitious dread of artillery, 
 while their horses become ungovernable with terror at the noise 
 and wayward flight of rockets. What was the real loss sus- 
 tained by this column will probably never be known, but there 
 
THE KI1IVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 459 
 
 can be no question as to its having finally straggled into the 
 fortified post at Ivrasnovodsk in an utterly demoralized con- 
 dition, many of the foot soldiers having flung away their arms 
 and accoutrements. 
 
 On the lltli of June, the anniversary of the birthday of 
 Peter the Great, divine service was performed in the great 
 square of the capital of Khiva, and three days later Seid 
 Mohammed Raheem Khan, accompanied by his Ministers, 
 appeared in person before General Kaufmann and surrendered 
 at discretion. Only twenty-five years of age, and of a weak, 
 fickle disposition, the Khan threw the blame of his misconduct 
 more truly than generously upon his advisers, but fortunately 
 had not to deal with a Xadir Shah. Instead of being: told that, 
 if he was unfit to govern his handful of subjects, he was unfit 
 to live, he was treated with more consideration than he deserved, 
 and finally received back his Khanat as a tributary of the Tzar. 
 
 All the country to the right of the Amou was, however, 
 taken from Khiva, and annexed to Bokhara in acknowledgment 
 of the Ameer’s loyalty and good services throughout the cam- 
 paign. The Khan renounced the right of entertaining direct 
 relations with neighbouring sovereigns and Khans. lie en- 
 gaged to be guided solely and entirely by the supreme Russian 
 authorities in Central Asia. The navigation of the Amou was 
 ceded exclusively to Russia, even Khivan and Bokharese vessels 
 requiring a licence for that purpose. The Russians also re- 
 served the right of constructing harbours and piers on the left 
 bank of the river, of establishing factories and farms, and of 
 holding land, under the immediate protection of the Khan’s 
 government. Transit duties of every kind as regards Russian 
 merchandise were absolutely abolished. A war indemnity, or 
 fine, to the amount of two million two hundred thousand roubles 
 — £330,000 — payable by instalments running over twenty years, 
 was further imposed upon the humbled and impoverished 
 
4G0 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Klianat. The liberation of all slaves and the abolition of all 
 traffic in human beings were likewise announced in the follow- 
 ing proclamation in the name of the Khan : — 
 
 ‘ Penetrated by veneration for the Emperor of Russia, I 
 declare all slaves in the Empire of Khiva to be free, and the 
 slave trade abolished for ever. I command the immediate 
 execution of this order, and severe punishment will be inflicted 
 in case of refusal. All liberated slaves enjoy equal rights with 
 my other subjects, and are permitted to remain in the Khanate. 
 Should they wish to return to their native country, special 
 measures will be taken. The liberated slaves are to assemble 
 at the nearest market towns and to present themselves to the 
 authorities, who will inscribe their names on lists, and inform 
 the Khan of the number of those so liberated.’ 
 
 The evacuation of the Klianat, with the exception of the 
 two places retained as pledges, was at once commenced, and 
 the major part of the expedition gladly set out on their home- 
 ward march. The Yamood Toorkomans, however, who had 
 neglected every opportunity of attacking the Russians when 
 exhausted by heat and thirst, suddenly appealed to arms on 
 being summoned to pay 300,000 roubles as their share of the 
 war indemnity. A considerable force was accordingly de- 
 tached to bring them to their senses, and several sharp skir- 
 mishes ensued, in which they are said to have lost 800 men — 
 the usual reticence being observed with regard to casualties on 
 the part of the Russians. The Yamoods at length yielded to 
 the superior arms and discipline of the Muscovite troops, while 
 the Karakalpaks and Kirghiz inhabiting the delta of the 
 Amou-Darya sent a deputation to General Kaufmann, request- 
 ing the introduction of the system of administration that was 
 established on the Syr-Darya. 
 
 Thus, with the exception of the ill-starred expedition from 
 
THE KII IVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 461 
 
 Chikislar, the campaign liad proved successful at all points ; 
 and nothing more remained to be done but to distribute the 
 honours and rewards that had been earned so well. The 'Khan 
 of Khokan is henceforth to be addressed as * Your Serene IIi<rh- 
 ness,’ instead of as ‘Your Honour,’ the title which he had pre- 
 viously enjoyed in common with ordinary Russian merchants. 
 A silver medal, bearing the inscription, ‘ For the Khiva expe- 
 dition of 1873,’ and supported by a riband worked in the colours 
 of the Orders of St George and Yladimir, was awarded to all 
 who took part in that brief and memorable campaign. Generals 
 Vereflun and Golovatchef each received the cross of the order 
 of St George of the third class, and Colonel Lomakin was pro- 
 moted to the rank of Major-General, while an Imperial Rescript 
 recognized the merits of the Commander-in-chief in terms of 
 high and merited laudation : — 
 
 ‘ To our Aide-de-Carnp General, Lieutenant-General Con- 
 stantin von Kaufmann, Commander of the Troops of the Turk- 
 estan District and Governor-General of Turkestan. 
 
 ‘ The hostile relations between the Khanate of Khiva and 
 Russia compelled us at the beginning of spring of the present 
 year to take decisive steps against the Khanate. The general 
 command of all the troops destined for these operations was 
 given to you. You were at the same time instructed to take 
 the necessary measures to establish peace and order for the 
 future. Under your guidance the troops, after undergoing in- 
 credible hardships and privations, and overcoming with admir- 
 able firmness all natural impediments, brilliantly achieved our 
 object. You have fully justified our confidence by the wisdom 
 and foresight displayed in the conduct of operations, and as a 
 token of our acknowledgment of your merits we are pleased to 
 appoint you a Knight of the second class of our Imperial Order 
 of the Great Martyr and Victor St George, the insignia of 
 
4G2 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 which accompany this rescript, and we command you to wear 
 them according to order. 
 
 ‘ ALEXANDER. 
 
 ‘ Czarskoe-selo, Aug. 3, 1873.’ 
 
 To General von Kaufmann is undoubtedly due the chief 
 credit for the remarkable efficiency of the entire force, the 
 admirable organization of the expedition, and the marvellous 
 precision of the pre-ordained combinations. It evinced no 
 ordinary powers of calculation to estimate with such nicety the 
 exact date at which five corps should concentrate upon a given 
 point in the heart of a hostile country, defended by nature with 
 barriers^ previously deemed impassable by an army. From 
 Kasalinsk to Khiva is a distance of 520 miles, from Fort Perov- 
 sky to the same point 550, from Jizzak 575, from Manghislak 
 620, from Chikislar 650, and from Orenburg to Kohne Ur- 
 ghunj 1000 miles. It is true that only four of the five detach- 
 ments became united within the walls of Khiva, but the Com- 
 mander-in-chief can in no way be held accountable for the 
 disaster that overwhelmed Colonel Markosof’s column. It 
 cannot, therefore, be denied, that the recent campaign was justly 
 undertaken, skilfully conducted, and triumphantly concluded. 
 
 The jealousy very generally entertained and expressed in 
 this country at the commencement of the Khivan campaign as 
 to the ulterior designs of Russia, gradually diminished with 
 every fresh success of the Russian arms, and seemed to have 
 entirely disappeared even before the Khan had consented to 
 become a vassal of the White Tzar. It is not easy to account 
 for this singular phenomenon. The betrothal of his Royal 
 Highness the Duke of Edinburgh to the only daughter of the 
 Emperor Alexander II., may possibl)’ have had something to do 
 with this sudden subsidence of the very natural anxiety excited 
 by the approach of Russia towards the frontiers of British 
 
TIIE KHIVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 463 
 
 India. But a more potent cause may unhappily be found in 
 the apathetic indifference manifested by the British public with 
 respect not only to Central Asia, but even to the political rela- 
 tions of Hindostan. It may be that no serious apprehensions 
 of invasion from Khiva, Bokhara, or Kashgar, need disquiet 
 the minds of Anglo-Indian statesmen ; nor is there much occa- 
 sion to bewail the diversion of the trade of Central Asia into 
 Russian channels. As a fact, neither the Indian Government, 
 nor the British manufacturer or merchant, has ever attached 
 much importance to the pedlar-like traffic of those regions, and 
 it is, to say the least, an undignified proceeding to begrudge 
 the Russians what we never took any trouble to secure for our- 
 selves. The snappish surliness of the dog in the manger is 
 scarcely a bearing, or policy, worthy of a great nation. At the 
 same time we must not close our eyes to the fact that in the 
 event of actual hostilities between Great Britain and Russia, 
 the possession of any one of these Ivhanats by the latter power 
 will compel the British Government to maintain a larger force 
 upon the north-western frontier of India than may consist with 
 vigorous operations in Europe. 
 
 Within a very few years a comparatively easy and rapid 
 communication will be established between Orenburg, Khiva, 
 Bokhara, Samarkand, and Kashgar, and consequent^ the 
 blockade of the coasts of the Euxine and of the Sea of Asof 
 will lose much of its past importance, and would only slightly 
 affect even the army of the Caucasus. That point would 
 naturally be the base of operations in any attempt upon India, 
 but even from Astrabad to Herat is a distance of forty marches. 
 Too much stress, perhaps, should not be laid upon distances. 
 The rapid advance of the Russian columns upon Khiva, not- 
 withstanding the horrors of the deserts, must henceforth abate 
 all sense of security arising only from that consideration. Be- 
 sides, the construction of railways will be an immense advantage 
 
404 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 to Russia, especially if Meshed be brought within the meshes of 
 the iron network. As time glides on, Mery will certainly 
 emerge once more from obscurity, and become a link in the 
 strategical chain of military posts connecting the extreme fron- 
 tiers of the Russian Empire with Moscow and St Petersburg. 
 Russia, it must be remembered, never advances with the wild 
 bounds of the tiger, but rather with the cat-like stealthiness of 
 the cheetah, and seldom springs till she is sure of not missing 
 her prey. In any case, it is not so much an actual invasion of 
 India that need be apprehended, as the concentration of con- 
 siderable forces at advantageous points, ready to avail them- 
 selves of any opportunity that may be afforded by weakness or 
 supineness, and, as it were, paralyzing one arm of her opponent 
 by compelling the maintenance in India of at least 70,000 
 British soldiers. 
 
 It is well nigh twenty years ago that the justly lamented 
 Sir Henry Lawrence indicated the surest and only means of 
 averting all peril to India from without. ‘ Insensibly,’ he said, 
 ‘ and almost by coup- de-main , the Russian Empire has been 
 extended for 13,000 miles across the whole continent of Europe 
 and Asia, and for twenty degrees over America. Curbed to the 
 south and west, Russia has not waited an hour to push forward 
 her soldiers, her sailors, her savans, her engineers, and her 
 labourers to the Caspian, to the Aral, and even to the mighty 
 Amoor. Her old policy will now (1856) more vigorously than 
 ever be pursued, and, though the dreams of a century will never 
 be realized, her position in Persia will speedily be strengthened, 
 and postswill be established in Central Asia, and even in China. 
 Bomarsunds, if not Sebastopols, will arise at Orenburg, Astra lean, 
 and Astrabad, perhaps even at Balkh and Herat. The wave 
 has receded, to return with redoubled force, though at a differ- 
 ent angle. Such has ever been and will be Russia’s policy. 
 There will be no Russian invasion of India, nor probably will 
 
THE KlIIVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 4G5 
 
 the tribes be impelled on us. . . There will be no foolish raid, 
 as long as India is united, in tranquillity and contentment, under 
 British rule. . . A small Russian army could not make good 
 its way through Afghanistan, a large army would be starved 
 there in a week. The largest army that could come, with 
 Afghanistan and Persia in its train, would be met at the outlet 
 of the only two practical passes, and while attempting to de- 
 bouch would be knocked into pieces. . . Herat is no more 
 the key to India than is Tabreez, or Khiva, or Kokan, or Meshed. 
 The chain of almost impenetrable mountains is the real key to 
 India. . . England’s dangers are in India, not without ; and 
 we trust that it will be in India they will be met, and that 
 there will be no third Afghan campaign. Such a move would 
 be playing Russia’s game. We are safe while we hold our 
 ground and do our duty. Russia may tease, annoy, and 
 frighten us by her money and by emissaries. She may 
 even do us mischief, but she will never put her foot in libi- 
 dos tan.’ 
 
 There is a marked distinction, however, to be drawn between 
 invasion with an idea to conquest, and invasion with an idea to 
 molestation. It may, perhaps, be safely conceded that the 
 former contingency is little likely to happen until the decadence 
 of the British Empire has approached the hour of dissolution. 
 The transport of a disciplined army of 100,000 men — and a 
 smaller force would insure defeat and destruction— with artillery, 
 ammunition, and commissariat stores, across Persia and Afghan- 
 istan, is an undertaking that would tax to the uttermost even 
 the colossal resources of Russia. But expeditions for the pur- 
 pose of annoyance, and of diverting to the East the aggressive 
 power of Great Britain, are quite within the bounds of proba- 
 bility. Even were Persia and Afghanistan to preserve a strict 
 neutrality, the rulers of Eastern Toorkestan and Bokhara would 
 
 in vain protest against the violation of their respective terri- 
 
 30 
 
46G 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 tories, in the event of a Russian force being directed towards 
 Kashin eer or Nepaul, the postern gates of British India. 
 
 The latter kingdom is still an unknown land. The Indian 
 Government has hitherto tamely submitted to a degree of ex- 
 clusiveness that was not so patiently endured in the case of 
 either Japan or China. A British Resident, it is true, is 
 stationed at Katmandoo, but he might as well he stationed at 
 Timbuctoo. lie holds no intercourse with the people, and is 
 not even permitted to ride or drive about the country. His 
 very attendants are spies upon his daily proceedings, and his 
 sayings and doings are duly reported to the Xepaulesc Govern- 
 ment. Maharajah Juug Bahadoor, indeed, has avoided coming 
 into collision with the power of England, and at the time of the 
 Sepoy Mutiny he even rendered some sort of assistance, though 
 not until it was no longer necessary. But it cannot be doubted 
 that the feeling of the Nepaulese authorities is rather adverse 
 than amicable, and that fear rather than friendliness has pre- 
 vented the renewal of the hostile relations which existed less 
 than sixty years since. The Maharajah of Kashmeer, again, is 
 a tributary, and, by himself, impotent to harm, but it would 
 not be through his own good will or exertions that his terri- 
 tories would be closed against a Russian force threading the 
 valley of Chitral, or turning the flank of the Karakoram range 
 on its way to Ladakh and the valley of the Indus. 
 
 England’s danger and England’s safety, however, in India, 
 lie within and not beyond her own frontiers. There is little to 
 apprehend from without, so long as the people of India are con- 
 tented with British rule. But submission must not be mistaken 
 for satisfaction. Asiatics are by temperament patient, reticent, 
 and long-suffering, but this apathy is only an outward show, 
 for inwardly they treasure up the memory of their wrongs, real or 
 imaginary, and wait for the hour of vengeance, without making 
 a sign. It is commonly asserted that the natives of India enjoy 
 
THE KII IVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 4G7 
 
 greater happiness under the British administration than ever 
 fell to their lot under either Hindoo or Mohammedan dynasties. 
 The position may be questioned. It is, of course, undeniable 
 that security of life and property now prevails where formerly 
 a man’s life was not worth a year’s purchase, and where ‘ the 
 good old rule, the simple plan ’ was the order of the day, ' that 
 he should take who hath the power, and he should keep 
 who can.’ But happiness is by no means synonymous with 
 * good government.’ It is not enough that all men should be 
 equal before the law, or that the law itself should be theoretic- 
 ally and logically sound ; it must also be conformable to the 
 character of the people upon whom it is imposed. To be accept- 
 able to a nation its laws must be of its own framing, must have 
 grown with, and out of, its own growth, — must have been de- 
 manded before they were enforced. 
 
 This obvious truism has been too much overlooked by 
 British legislators with regard to India. Their motives have 
 been unexceptionable and generally benevolent, but they have 
 reasoned from premises that did not apply to the case under 
 consideration. They have been guided by analogies rather than 
 by actual knowledge, the result of careful investigation. They 
 have never carried their mind beyond the meridian of Green- 
 wich, and while in the flesh at Simla or in Calcutta, they have 
 remained in the spirit in the purlieus of Westminster. There 
 has been quite enough of good intentions, but very much too 
 little of true statesmanship. One great fault has been the 
 strange omission to invite the co-operation of the natives them- 
 selves. The idea has been that a paternal government was 
 essential to a people in a state of pupillage, who could not 
 be expected to know what was best for them. This evil is of 
 long standing. The growing jealousy of the native gentry, and 
 the supercilious treatment to which they were being more and 
 more subjected, was a constant subject of regret and remon- 
 
468 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 strance on the part of both. Sir John Malcolm and Sir Thomas 
 Munro. 
 
 ‘ The main evil of our system,’ said the latter, * is the de- 
 graded state in which we hold the natives. . . We treat them 
 as an inferior race of beings. Men, who, under a native 
 government, might have held the first dignities of the State — 
 who, but for us, might have been governors of provinces, are 
 regarded as little better than menial servants — are often no 
 better paid, and scareety permitted to sit in our presence. We 
 reduce them to this abject state, and then we look down upon 
 them with disdain, as men unworthy of high station. Under 
 most of the Mohammedan princes of India, the Hindoos were 
 eligible to all the civil offices of government ; and the}' fre- 
 quently possessed a more important share in them than their 
 conquerors.’ In another place he wrote, ‘ the ruling vice of 
 our government is innovation ; and its innovation has been so 
 little guided by a knowledge of the people, that, though made 
 after what was thought to be mature discussion, it must appear 
 to them as little better than the result of mere caprice.’ Upon 
 the whole, Sir Thomas was of opinion that the natives had lost 
 more than they had gained by passing under British rule. 
 ‘ One of the greatest disadvantages of our government in India,’ 
 he added, ‘ is its tendency to lower or destroy the higher ranks 
 of society, to bring them all too much to one level, and, by de- 
 priving them of their former weight and influence, to render 
 them less useful instruments in the internal administration of 
 the country.’ 
 
 To the same purport is the evidence of Lord William Ben- 
 tinck, who declared that ‘ in many respects the Mohammedans 
 surpassed our rule ; they settled in the countries which they 
 conquered ; the interests and sympathies of the conquerors and 
 conquered became identified. Our policy, on the contrary, has 
 been the reverse of this — cold, selfish, and unfeeling. The iron 
 
TIIE KHIVAN EXPEDITION. 
 
 4G9 
 
 hand of power on the one side — monopoly and exclusion on the 
 other/ 
 
 Moved by the same spirit, Sir John Malcolm wrote in 1824, 
 
 ‘ Our present condition is one of apparent repose, but full of 
 danger. With the means we had at our command the work of 
 force was comparatively easy ; the liberality of our government 
 gave grace to conquest, and men were, for the moment, satisfied 
 to be at the feet of generous and humane conquerors. Wearied 
 with the state of continued warfare and anarchy, they hardly 
 regretted even the loss of power ; halcyon days were anticipated, 
 and men prostrated themselves in hopes of elevation. All these 
 impressions made by the combined effects of power, humanity, 
 and fortune, were improved to the utmost by the character of 
 our first meusures. The agents of government were generally 
 individuals who had acquired a name in the scene in which they 
 were employed ; they were unfettered by rules, and their acts 
 were adapted to soothe the passions and accord with the habits 
 and prejudices of those whom they had to conciliate, or to 
 reduce to obedience. But there are many causes which operate 
 to make a period like this, one of short duration ; and the 
 change to a colder system of policy, and the introduction of our 
 laws and regulations into countries immediately dependent upon 
 us, naturally excite agitation and alarm. It is the hour in 
 which men awake from a dream. Disgust and discontent suc- 
 ceed to terror and admiration ; and the princes, the chiefs, and 
 all who had enjoyed rank or influence, see nothing but a system 
 dooming them to immediate decline and ultimate humiliation.’ 
 
 During the last half-century many important changes have 
 been made, and great progress has been achieved in the intro- 
 duction of a ‘ counterfeit presentment ’ of western civilization. 
 If European ideas and modes of thought have not actually taken 
 root in the land, a shadowy resemblance may here and there be 
 traced in political formularies, and social expressions. If we 
 
470 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 have not yet succeeded in producing patriots, we have done 
 something towards the propagation of parrots, and a Bengalee 
 Baboo will imitate with marvellous precision the rounded 
 periods of Johnson, or the declamatory rhetoric of Burke. Ilis 
 hands may be the hands of Esau, but his voice is the 
 voice of Jacob. It is further worthy of note that the 
 generation that had suffered from the misrule and oppres- 
 sion which preceded the establishment of British ascendancy 
 has long since been gathered to its fathers, and the sense of 
 liberation has been replaced by a consciousness of subjugation. 
 At the same time a not ignoble ambition to take an active part 
 in public affairs, has naturally been evolved from even the im- 
 perfect education that has yet been imparted. It is gradually 
 coming to be understood that ideas are something more than 
 mere figures of speech, and that Liberty, Patriotism, and 
 National Life are realities, for the attainment of which every 
 true man must he willing to toil, suffer, and, if need he, die. 
 
 At present this popular awakening is principally confined 
 to the Anglicized Bahoos, who arc seldom men of action, but ns 
 they spread themselves, in search of employment, through the 
 remotest provinces of the empire, they cany with them these 
 germs of discontent and engraft them on manly vigorous races, 
 clamorous for a career. And it is greatly to be regretted, that 
 at the very moment the Bengalees, at least, seem willing to lay 
 aside their old prejudices, adapting themselves to European 
 habits and usages, a chilling coldness and want of sympathy on 
 the part of British officers, both civil and military, are becoming 
 painfully manifest. The attraction of the nutives is thus 
 counteracted by the repulsion of the Europeans, and a wide 
 and dangerous gulf threatens to yawn between the two races. 
 Much has unquestionably boon done to enlarge the sphere of 
 native usefulness, and Indian gentlemen administer laws, sit on 
 the bench, and govern large tracts of country. Wherever con- 
 
THE K II I VAN EXPEDITION 1 . 
 
 471 
 
 fideuce has been reposed in their integrity they have shown 
 themselves worthy of the trust, while their local knowledge has 
 given them, in difficult emergencies, an immense advantage over 
 their European colleagues. 
 
 Having proved themselves an honour to the magistracy, the 
 bar, and the bench, it is not surprising that they should now 
 look yet further afield, and insist upon their right, as well as 
 their competence, to take part in the framing of the laws under 
 which they are compelled to live. More particularly they ask 
 for Consultative Councils elected by themselves, to which all 
 financial measures shall be submitted for consideration, discus- 
 sion, and revision. They who have to find the money, reason- 
 ably ask to have a voice in settling the mode in which it is first 
 of all to be raised, and afterwards in regulating its distribution. 
 
 The independent princes, again, murmur at the tutelage in 
 which they are held, contrary to the spirit of treaties, and pro- 
 test against the constant irritating interference of Political 
 Agents, not unfrequently subalterns, and almost invariably 
 military officers trained only to command soldiers. Above all, 
 the ancient nobles and landed gentry complain with too much 
 reason that they are regarded either with contempt or with dis- 
 trust. Their heartfelt desire is to follow the profession of arms, 
 but in the British service there is no opening for a native gentle- 
 man. The Saxons of England under the Plantagenets were 
 scarcely treated with greater insolence and suspicion than are 
 exhibited towards the living representatives of the oldest and 
 noblest families of Hindostan. They who best know these men 
 speak in the warmest terms of their courage, manliness, and 
 thorough loyalty. 
 
 In all times, in all countries, among all races and ranks of 
 mankind, confidence has been found to beget confidence. If 
 once we can satisfy the natural chiefs and leaders of Indian 
 society that their interests are identical with our own, that 
 
472 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 — 
 Trojan and Tyrian shall start fair, and on equal terms, in the 
 race of public life, and that we regard them from our hearts as 
 friends and fellow-subjects, — then it will little matter to us a; 
 what river in Central Asia the Cossack waters his panting horse, 
 or from what snow-clad height the Russian sentinel looks down 
 upon the scorched and withering plains below. But, again in 
 the words of Sir Ilenry Lawrence, ‘legitimate outlets for 
 military energy and ability in all ranks and among all classes 
 must be given. The minds of Subadars and Ressildars, Sepoys 
 and Sowars, can no more with safety be for ever cramped, 
 trammelled, and restricted as at present, than can a twentv-feet 
 embankment restrain the Atlantic. It is simply a question of 
 time. The question is only whether it is to be gracefully con- 
 ceded or violently seized. Ten or twenty years must settle the 
 point.’ 
 
 The extreme period has nearly elapsed, and the solution of 
 the question is still undecided. It cannot, however, be longer 
 deferred without serious injustice and grave peril. Concessions 
 will avail nothing when the enemy is at the gates. Time 
 presses, and the free spontaneous offer that will now be re- 
 ceived with gratitude, will hereafter be spurned with derision 
 when it is wrung from necessity and fear. Union is strength, 
 but union is only possible where there is a community of 
 interests and the enjoyment of equal rights and privileges. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 aw*** 
 
 rnflr^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD