THE HOUSE OF ASTRAKHAN
Among the Mongol chiefs who struggled for mastery in Eastern Russia at
the epoch of Tīmūr’s intervention[454] was a descendant of Chingiz,
named Kutluk, who rose to fame by defeating Tīmūr’s great rival,
Tokhtamish Khān, near Kiev in 1399.[455] His offspring vegetated in
obscurity for nearly two centuries in the Khānate of Astrakhan, on
the lower reaches of the Volga, and were then driven eastwards by the
growing power of the Russian princes. Thus, towards the close of the
sixteenth century, the head of this ancient line, Yār Mahammad Khān,
sought refuge in Transoxiana, and was received with honour by the
Shaybānides, whose pride in their descent from Tīmūr was flattered by
the exile’s recognition of their claims to kinship. Iskandar Khān gave
his daughter, the sister of `Abdullah, greatest of the Shaybānide line,
in marriage to the Astrakhan chief’s son, Jāni Khān.
The new-comer soon showed that he possessed the warrior’s instincts,
and took a prominent part in his brother-in-law `Abdullah’s campaigns.
And so it came to pass that when the last of the Shaybānides, `Abd
ul-Mū´min, was slain, the nobles of Transoxiana offered the crown to
Jāni Khān. He, being well stricken in years, declined it in favour
of his son Dīn Mahammad, who united the blood of Chingiz and of
the fallen dynasty. He did not long survive to enjoy his fortune;
perishing in battle with the Persians, who attempted to drive the
Uzbegs from Khorāsān. His successor, A.H. 1007 (1598) was his brother
Bāki Mohammad, while Vāli Mohammad, another of old Jāni’s sons, took
possession of Balkh and the country west of the Oxus. A third brother
was murdered in A.H. 1011 (1602) by the Kara Turkomans who dwelt at
Kunduz, and from them Bāki Mahammad exacted a terrible vengeance.
Kunduz was taken by storm, and the entire garrison was put to the
sword. This punishment brought Shāh `Abbās of Persia into the field,
determined to guard his north-eastern frontier from foes who threatened
the existence of his authority. He met with a crushing defeat near
Balkh, and escaped with the greatest difficulty from capture. The
remainder of Bāki Mohammad’s reign was disturbed only by those
insurrections, fomented by kinsmen, from which few Eastern princes were
free. He died in A.H. 1014 (1605), and was succeeded by his brother
Vāli Mohammad, the erstwhile lord of Balkh. Vāli Mohammad’s rule was
brief and inglorious. He wallowed in debauchery, and surrendered all
power to an unscrupulous vezīr, whose fiendish cruelties aroused fierce
resentment, and led to his master’s defeat and death at the hands of a
kinsman, Imām Kulī Khān (1611). The new ruler was of sterner and purer
mould. He courted the society of the learned and pious, and laboured
to secure his country’s prosperity. And so, under his wise and just
régime, Bokhārā regained a share of her ancient glory. She grew rapidly
in wealth, and again became a beacon-light in the darkness of Central
Asia. At length, after a reign of thirty-eight years, the good Imām
Kulī Khān felt himself unequal to the task of governing, and sought
the repose which is the ideal of all true Musulmans. He summoned
his brother Nāzir Mohammad from Balkh and surrendered his realm to
him.[456] Then, taking a pilgrim’s staff, he set out for Medīna, where
he died in the odour of sanctity, leaving traces of his munificence
which have endured to the present day.
His successor (1642) found it impossible to secure a place in his
people’s affections. He was immensely rich, and endeavoured to win
public regard by his largesses; but Bokhārā sighed for the good times
of old Imām Kulī Khān, and the popular feeling found vent in a revolt
which raged in the northern provinces. Nāzir Mohammad sent his son
`Abd el-`Azīz to quell it, but the faithless prince placed himself
at the head of the rebels and marched on Bokhārā. The unhappy father
fled to Balkh, leaving his capital at his unnatural foe’s mercy, and
`Abd el-`Azīz took up the fallen sceptre (1647). Nāzir Mohammad, in
despair, divided the rest of his realms among his sons who had remained
faithful to him--the fourth, Subhān Kulī Khān, receiving in fief the
country round the ford of Khwāja Sālū on the Upper Oxus. But his old
age was still embittered by his children’s contests for supremacy.
Worn out at last by the unequal struggle, he resolved to spend the
brief remainder of his days in the sacred soil of Medīna, and died,
broken-hearted, on his pilgrimage thither.[457] His death served only
to increase the hostility between his sons. Subhān Kulī Khān, who had
established himself at Balkh, became a thorn in the side of his brother
`Abd el-`Azīz of Bokhārā. A third brother, Kāsim Mohammad,[458]
was despatched with an army to reduce him to submission; but he was
defeated, and driven to take refuge at Hisār, and peace was restored on
the masterful Subhān Kulī Khān being recognised as heir to the throne.
Hardly had the clouds of civil war been dissipated ere Bokhārā became
the prey of foreign invasion (1663). Khiva had long been a province of
the southern Khānate, but its prince, Abū-l-Ghāzi, a man whose life had
been one long romance, determined to throw off the hated yoke. He drove
the Bokhārans from the Lower Oxus, and carried the war into the enemy’s
camp. Defeated with great slaughter by `Abd el-`Azīz near Kerminé,
he escaped with a grievous wound by swimming across the great river.
Nothing daunted, he soon took the field again, and carried his ravages
to the very gates of Bokhārā.
His son and successor, Anūsha Khān, was still more venturesome. He
invaded `Abd el-`Azīz’s territory at the head of a great force, A.H.
1076 (1665), and actually gained possession of the capital during
the sovereign’s temporary absence at Kerminé. The latter hastened to
his people’s aid. With only forty devoted followers he hewed his way
to the citadel, and summoned his subjects to oust the invader. The
call was but too eagerly obeyed: all classes rose as a man against
the abhorred Khivans. The Sicilian Vespers were repeated, and but few
escaped to tell the tale of disaster. This splendid heroism exhausted
`Abd el-`Azīz’s stock of mental vigour.[459] He determined to abdicate
in favour of his brother Subhān Kulī Khān, and seek the secure refuge
which Medīna offered to those oppressed with the carking cares of life.
His temperament, indeed, predisposed him in favour of a course which
had become traditional in his family. It was a rare mixture of the
adventurous and the contemplative. Daring in battle, prompt in action,
`Abd el-`Azīz inherited a tendency to asceticism, and was wont to
withdraw himself from worldly affairs and remain plunged in prolonged
meditation on the ineffable goodness of his Maker. Without regret he
laid down his crown and betook himself as a humble pilgrim to the Holy
City, which is the goal of every true follower of the Prophet.
Subhān Kulī Khān assumed the insignia of royalty on his brother’s
departure; but gratified ambition brought with it no accession of
happiness. The Astrakhanides, with many virtues, were deficient in
filial love, and Subhān Kulī’s heart was wrung by the jealousy and
disrespect of his children. His neighbour of Khiva, too, did not take
to heart the terrible lesson taught him in the preceding reign. In
A.H. 1095 (1683) he invaded Bokhārā, and, though defeated by a loyal
chief named Mohammad Bi, he repeated his incursions in the following
year. In A.H. 1100 (1688) his successor advanced to the very gates of
Bokhārā; but he, too, was soundly beaten by Mohammad Bi, and Khiva
fell for a time under Subhān Kulī Khān’s dominion. This age witnessed
the apogee of Bokhārā’s greatness in the estimation of the Mohammedan
world. Aurangzīb, the narrow-minded zealot who sat on the throne
of Akbar, sent thither ambassadors with elephants and other costly
gifts; and Ahmad II. of Turkey, whose lust for conquest far exceeded
his military genius, did not disdain to address his Bokhāran brother
a grandiloquent epistle describing mythical successes against the
Frankish unbelievers.[460]
In spite of endless trouble with rebellious nobles, Subhān Kulī Khān
found a leisure to cultivate the Muses; and he was also the author of a
book on medicine which epitomises the lore of Galen, Hippocrates, and
Avicenna, but suggests nostrums in the shape of prayers and talismans
of which none of those worthies would have approved. He was now eighty
years of age, and felt that a time had come when he must bid adieu to
ambition. He called around him his nobles, and publicly designated
his son Mukīm Khān, who ruled at Balkh, as his successor. Then he
peacefully resigned his breath after a reign of twenty-four years, A.H.
1114 (1702).
Mukīm Khān found an obstacle in his path in the person of his elder
brother `Ubaydullah, and a civil war broke out in which the great Uzbeg
nobles of Bokhārā found their account. The faithful Mohammad Bi took up
the gauntlet for Mukīm, while the elder pretender’s cause was espoused
by Rahīm Bi, the chief of the powerful Mangit tribe. It lasted for
five years, when, thanks to his nominal vassal’s support, `Ubaydullah
triumphed. He chafed under the dictation of the Mangit king-maker, and
was promptly suppressed by poison; another brother named Abū-l-Fayz
being elevated to the throne in his stead, A.H. 1130 (1717).
The new sovereign’s character was wholly deficient in the strength
of purpose so needful in one who aspires to rule his fellow-men, and
he owed to his utter insignificance his recognition by the turbulent
nobles who surrounded him. It is the fate of all long-lived dynasties
to end miserably with a succession of _rois fainéants_; and the
Astrakhanides were no exception to the rule. Not only did Abū-l-Fayz
meekly submit to the dictation of Rahīm Bi; he bowed the neck to a
foreign potentate, and disgraced his country in the eyes of Islām.
In 1736 Nādir Shāh of Persia, whom Vambéry styles the last of the
Asiatic conquerors of the world,[461] after crushing the Ottoman power
in Georgia, turned his eagle glance on the states on his north-eastern
frontier. A host under his son Rizā Kulī Khān was hurled against
Andakhūy and Balkh, and soon the Sun and Lion of Persia waved over
both citadels. Flushed with victory, Rizā Kulī Khān crossed the Oxus
and fell upon Abū-l-Fayz Khān’s dispirited legions. But Ilbars, the
lion-hearted ruler of Khiva, came to the rescue, and the forces of
the two Khānates gained the day in an encounter with the invaders at
Karshī. Nādir Shāh, who had far deeper designs at stake, recalled
his impetuous son, and informed the Khāns of Central Asia that the
expedition had been undertaken without his consent, and that he wished
to live in amity with the descendants of Chingiz. Meantime Persian
gold was brought into play. Rahīm Bi and other Uzbeg chiefs were won
to his side, and a breach was produced by the jealousy between Bokhārā
and Khiva. Then, secure from attack from his dreaded foes of Khiva,
Nādir Shāh invaded India, A.H. 1152 (1739), took Delhi with fearful
slaughter, and bent his steps homewards with booty valued at eighty
millions sterling.
When the news of this successful raid reached Abū-l-Fayz he sent an
embassy to the conqueror, who was resting on his easily won laurels at
Peshawar. “I am the last off-shoot,” he wrote, “of an ancient line. I
am not powerful enough to withstand a monarch so redoubtable as thou,
and so I keep myself apart, offering prayers for thy welfare. If,
however, thou shouldst deign to honour me by a visit, I will show thee
the regard due to a guest.”[462] The fatuous prince at the same time
sought to associate his neighbour of Khiva in his abasement, but his
overtures were received with outspoken contempt.
Nādir Shāh saw in the submission tamely offered by Bokhārā (1740) a
means of crushing his inveterate enemy, Ilbars Khān, and he accepted
Abū-l-Fayz’s invitation.
He marched from Peshawar to Herāt with three hundred elephants, a tent
embroidered with pearls, and the famous Peacock Throne, ravished from
the Hall of Private Audience at Delhi.[463] Thence he travelled to
Karki on the Oxus frontier of Bokhārā, where he was met by Rahīm Bi
with presents and supplies for his locust-horde of followers. Thence
he fared to Charjūy, and traversed the mighty river by a bridge which
he threw across it in three days. Leaving half his army to protect
the priceless baggage, he moved on to Karakūl, a fortress one day’s
march from the capital. Here he was met by Abū-l-Fayz, attended by
his nobles, courtiers, and clergy, bringing a present of beautiful
Arab horses. The titular sovereign of Bokhārā presented himself as a
suppliant, but was given a seat by Nādir Shāh. Clad in a robe of state
and crowned, the imperious guest carried his complaisance so far as to
address his host as “Shāh.” But further honours were in store for the
obsequious Abū-l-Fayz. Nādir deigned to accept his lovely daughter as a
wife, bestowing her sister, at the same time, on his nephew. He created
Mohammad Rahīm Bi, to whose influence he owed his reception, Khān, and
gave him command of 6000 chosen troops levied in Turkestān. Having thus
brought Bokhārā to heel, Nādir Shāh turned his attention to Khiva. He
sent an envoy to Ilbars Khān, demanding his instant submission. The
Khivan was a man of ungovernable temper, and his reply was to put to
death those who held out to him the olive branch. This breach of the
usages of Islām sealed his fate. He was attacked by Nādir Shāh with an
overwhelming force, and closely invested in his fortress of Khanka.
After undergoing a cannonade for three days, the proud Ilbars was
forced to throw himself upon the mercy of a man whose fearful butchery
of the population of Delhi showed that he was insensible of the softer
feelings; and against him pleaded the children of the slaughtered
envoys, whose blood cried aloud for vengeance. He was put to death,
and twenty-one of his principal officers shared his fate.[464] Having
thus rid himself of a perpetual thorn in his side, Nādir Shāh returned
to Charjūy, whence he sent back to her father the young princess whom
he had lately wedded. He then returned to Khorāsān by way of Merv,
and fell a victim to a conspiracy among his followers, provoked to
extremities by his insane cruelty, A.H. 1160 (1747).
The news of his death led the all-powerful Mohammad Rahīm Bi to throw
off the semblance of loyalty to his effete master.[465] He entered
Bokhārā with a strong force, seized the person of the wretched
Abū-l-Fayz, confiscated his treasure, and finally put him to death.
With him virtually ended the dynasty of the Astrakhanides, which
had exhibited many virtues, neutralised, however, by an absence of
will-power and a bias towards the mystic side of their religion. Their
age was one of profound decadence. Its architectural remains, which
reflect the spirit of an era much more closely than is generally
supposed, are insignificant. They are, indeed, limited to the great
college known as Shīr Dar, which was built at Samarkand in 1610, and
a few other public edifices which do not shine by contrast with those
dating from Tīmūr’s happier days. But Bokhārā was destined to wallow
in a yet deeper abasement under the uncouth Uzbegs, who supplanted the
cultured sovereigns of the Astrakhan line.