THE BIRTH OF YAKOOB BEG AND CAREER IN THE SERVICE OF KHOKAND.
We have now traced the history of Kashgar and of the neighbouring states
down to the year 1860, immediately before the last Khoja invasion under
Buzurg Khan, and the Kooshbege, Mahomed Yakoob. Before giving an account
of that enterprise it is necessary that the reader should know what the
past career of the future Athalik Ghazi had been. The previous chapters
have, it is hoped, thrown some light on the state of Central Asia, and
will assist the student of the question in comprehending how it was that
Yakoob Beg achieved success, and what claims he may have to be
considered a great ruler, for having done a work that is unique in the
annals of modern Asia.
Mahomed Yakoob was born in or about the year 1820, in the flourishing
little town of Piskent, in the khanate of Khokand. His father, Pur
Mahomed Mirza, had, at various periods of his life, filled positions of
responsibility in the government of the towns in which he resided. Thus,
a native of Dihbid, near Samarcand, he had migrated to Khodjent, in the
reign of Mahomed Ali Khan, with the intention of entering the priestly
order. There, although he enrolled himself as a student in a religious
seminary, for some reason or other, he appears to have changed his mind,
and, instead of entering the Church, turned his attention to secular
affairs. He was soon made Kazi of Kurama, a district and town of
Khokand, and married a lady of that place. By this marriage he had one
son, Mahomed Arif, who has since filled several posts of trust in
Kashgar, notably that of Governor of Sirikul; but of late this
half-brother of Yakoob Beg seems to have been, either for incompetence
or some other reason, under a cloud. Pur Mahomed, or Mahomed Latif, as
he was more usually called, changed his residence from Kurama to
Piskent, about the year 1818, and he shortly after his settlement in his
new abode married again, his second wife being the sister of Sheik
Nizamuddin, the Kazi of Piskent. Yakoob Beg was the issue of this
marriage. The family of Yakoob Beg's father seems originally to have
come from Karategin, on the borders of Badakshan, but in the time of the
Usbeg conquest of that district the father of Mahomed Latif, then an
infant, took refuge in Khokand. It is uncertain whether Mahomed Latif
was born before their arrival at Dihbid or afterwards; and it is now
asserted that he claimed descent from Tamerlane. Whether this was a
claim brought forward when his son was advancing in the world or not, it
is impossible to test its accuracy. The parents of Yakoob Beg were
therefore not without some pretensions, and it would seem that the bad
fortune, from which for some generations they had been suffering, was
beginning to disappear before the ability of Yakoob Beg raised it to a
higher point than ever. In addition to the claims of his father and
grandfather as Kazis of an important community, a sister of Yakoob Beg
married Nar Mahomed Khan, Governor of Tashkent; and, as we shall see
later on, this connection was very instrumental in promoting the
interests of the youthful Yakoob.
Piskent, Pskent, or Bis-kent, as it is sometimes spelt, is still a
flourishing little community, fifty miles south of Tashkent, on the road
to Khodjent. Its inhabitants are a thrifty, good-tempered set of people,
who take great pride in the fact that the great Athalik Ghazi, the
supporter of Islam, and the reputed terror of the Russians, was one of
themselves. In this little settlement there are many Tajiks, and this,
doubtless, with other reasons, induced Mahomed Latif, a Tajik himself,
to take up his abode there. To the east of Piskent the mountains begin
to rise, which stretch onward until they become the Tian Shan and the
Kizilyart ranges, and in these elevated regions the Tajik descendants
muster in strong numbers. The Tajiks are Persian in their origin, and
consequently of the Aryan stock, in contradistinction to the Turk or
Tartar ruling class in Western Turkestan. They have, however, for so
many generations been restricted to a limited career in the organization
of the state, that, quite unjustly as it is, they have come to be
regarded as an inferior race. English writers have fallen into this
mistake, and have accepted as correct the definition given by the Turks
of this subject race. As a matter of fact the contrary holds true, and
the Tajik is superior to any of his masters in point of mental capacity.
They are represented to still retain the fine presence and long flowing
beards which distinguish those of Aryan blood from their Tartar
opposite; and in height and strength they quite eclipse every other race
of Central Asia. It was of this race that Yakoob Beg was the
representative, and, although the greater part of his life was passed in
ruling nations almost exclusively Tartar, some of the more prominent
among his supporters, as well as the flower of his army, boasted that
they, too, represented that master race, whose birth-place was to be
found in the Indian Caucasus. The Tajiks still speak a Persian dialect,
and their Iranian origin is thereby rendered almost indisputable.
Mahomed Yakoob's early years were passed at his home at Piskent, and it
is said that it was intended that he should follow the profession which
his father had repudiated. As a youth he was too wayward to submit to
any check on his impulses, and the design of educating him as a
"mollah," if it was ever seriously entertained, was abandoned long
before he arrived at man's estate. He appears to have passed the first
twenty years of his life in an idle, uneventful manner at Piskent, and
then suddenly to have resolved to seek his fortune as best he might in
the troubled waters of Khokandian politics. In 1845, we find him in the
train of the newly seated khan, Khudayar, as "mahram," or chamberlain,
and shortly afterwards, by the influence of his brother-in-law, the
Governor of Tashkent, nominated a Pansad Bashi, a commander of 500. This
was in 1847, about which year he married a Kipchak lady of Zuelik, a
village in the district of Ak Musjid. He had three sons, of whom we
shall hear more hereafter, by this marriage--Kooda Kul Beg, Kuli Beg,
and Hacc Kuli Beg. Later on, in the year 1847, he was raised to the rank
of Koosh-Bege, or "lord of the family"--more intelligibly described as
vizier--and entrusted with the charge of the important post on the Syr
Darya, called Ak Musjid, "White Mosque." This post he held with credit
for six years, until 1853, when the Russians commenced that forward
movement, of which we have not yet seen the close. At that time, Russia
had not acquired one of the numerous strategic points now in her
possession. The Syr Darya then was as far off from her frontier as the
Oxus is now. Ak Musjid, built in the lower reaches of the river, and
representing a Khokandian outpost of exceptional importance, was the
grand obstacle in the path of the Russians operating from Kazalinsk, at
the mouth of the Syr Darya. It was resolved, therefore, that this post,
which, doubtless, encouraged all the marauders in the neighbourhood to
continue their depredations against the Russian caravans, should be
wrested from the hands of its owners, and either razed to the ground or
converted into a Russian stronghold. General Perovsky was entrusted with
this undertaking. The distance from Kazalinsk, or Fort No. 1, to Ak
Musjid is not much over 200 miles, along the banks of the Syr Darya. Not
many commissariat arrangements were necessary, nor did the distance to
march require much time to delay the Russian officer in beginning his
operations against the fort. The army with which he appeared before the
walls may not have been large in numbers when compared with the armies
of modern times, but, in all that makes a disciplined force formidable,
it was exceptionally well supplied. The artillery was in greater
strength than is usually considered necessary, and the expedition was
still more efficient in engineers and cavalry. The garrison of Ak Musjid
was, on the other hand, ill supplied, both in provisions and in
ammunition, and the fort itself presented, neither in its position nor
in its construction, any feature that an engineer officer would have
considered calculated to make it capable of sustaining the attack of
artillery for twenty-four hours. The Russian lines were constructed in
the most approved method; but twice were their approaches destroyed, and
twice their mines counter-mined. During twenty-six days the Russian
bombardment was fast and furious, and during all that time the
Khokandian defence was stubborn and persistent. But all the efforts of
the garrison to break through the beleaguering lines were unavailing,
and after so long a cannonade little more resistance could be expected
from ramparts which were pierced in several places by wide and gaping
breaches. The resolute commandant, who had done everything required by
the most exacting code of military honour, confessed that there was
nothing to be gained by a continued defence, and as it was known that
the Russians were making preparations for an early assault, a messenger
was despatched without delay to the Russian commander, expressing the
willingness of the garrison to capitulate on honourable terms. General
Perovsky, who had expected an easy triumph here, and possibly some more
extended triumph in farther regions, was indignant at the resistance
opposed to him by a paltry place like Ak Musjid, and received the
messenger from the fort with ill-concealed impatience. Scarcely
bestowing any attention on the letter, couched in humble terms as it
was, of the commandant, General Perovsky petrified the astonished
emissary with the declaration that on the morrow the fort would be taken
by assault. This arbitrary assertion of his power, which was carried
into practice, of course successfully, the next day, on an occasion when
magnanimity ought to have been shown by the successful general, does not
redound to the credit of the officer in question, and throws an
instructive light on the latitude left to Russian generals in their
instructions, and on the opinion felt for Central Asiatics by the
civilizing representatives of the White Czar. To say that General
Perovsky was urged to this act of gratuitous tyranny by a desire to
obtain a cross of either St. Anne or St. George, is, after all, only to
magnify the offence, and that Ak Musjid has taken the name of its
conqueror, Fort Perovsky, is the means of perpetuating, not his fame,
but his infamy, and the courageous conduct of the defenders. In the
winter following its fall Yakoob Beg, with Sahib Khan, brother of the
Khan of Khokand, attempted to retake the fort, but the _coup_ proved
abortive, and the Russians have never receded from their new
acquisition.
Khudayar Khan had been elevated to the throne of Khokand in 1845, by the
energy of Mussulman Kuli, a Kipchak chief, of singular astuteness, and
aptitude for business. During his tenure of the post of Wazir, Khokand
was peacefully and beneficently governed; but, as on every similar
occasion in Central Asia, the ruler soon became jealous of the
popularity acquired by his minister, although his own position was in
reality confirmed by the wise measures of the very man to whom he had
conceived a covert hostility. So with Khudayar Khan, the effeminate, and
his minister, Mussulman Kuli, in the decade of which we are now
speaking; as with Buzurg Khan, the debauchee, but correct representative
of the Khojas, and his general and vizier, the Kooshbege, Mahomed
Yakoob, in the following. In 1858, Mussulman Kuli was seized by order of
Khudayar Khan, and barbarously murdered; and from that occurrence the
decadence of this unfortunate ruler of Khokand can be traced until, at
last, he became a mere pensioner on the bounty of the Russians. Although
Yakoob Beg became, to a certain extent, notorious for his gallant
defence of Ak Musjid, it would appear, from his being styled after that
event simply "Mir," or chief, that he had sunk in grade in his official
status. It is probable that the chief cause of this was his failure to
retake it, and not his ill success in defending it. He was, however,
entrusted with the charge of the Kilaochi fort, a post which he held
down to the murder of Mussulman Kuli.
Khudayar Khan had an elder brother, Mullah Khan, who had been passed
over by Mussulman Kuli, when the state was put in order after the
dissensions that arose on the death of the great ruler, Mahomed Ali.
Now, on the death of Mussulman Kuli, who had given vitality to the
regime of Khudayar, Mullah Khan and his partisans began to intrigue once
more. Several Kipchak and Kirghiz leaders joined his cause, and Yakoob
Beg at once became one of his most active supporters. Khudayar Khan was
deposed, and retired into temporary seclusion. For his services to the
new ruler Yakoob Beg was made Shahawal, an officer corresponding to a
chamberlain or court intendant. He was soon restored to his old rank of
Kooshbege, and appointed governor of the frontier fort of Kurama, the
same place of which his father had been Kazi. And in 1860 he came still
more to the front, when he was summoned to Tashkent to assist Kanaat
Shah, the Nahib of Khokand, in making preparations in case the Russians,
who had for some time seemed to be threatening Khokand, should cross the
frontier. Mullah Khan was murdered at this time, having held the reins
of power but for the brief space of two years, and Khudayar Khan emerged
from his hiding place. He was welcomed both by Kanaat Shah and Yakoob
Beg; and in return for their support he consented to forget the past.
Yakoob Beg, as his reward, received the governorship of Kurama. It was
during these troubles that Alim Kuli, a Kirghiz chieftain, appeared upon
the scene. He possessed many of the attributes that distinguished his
predecessor Mussulman Kuli, and his successor, in the eyes of the
people, Yakoob Beg. He had undoubtedly a great capacity for intrigue,
but was inferior to the former in administrative capacity, and to the
latter in military skill. He now set Shah Murad, grandson of Shere Ali
Khan, up as a claimant to the throne, and was speedily joined by Yakoob
Beg, who once more abandoned the cause of Khudayar Khan, who, it must be
remembered, had always treated Yakoob Beg in a friendly way, and who in
their early days had been his boon companion. This conspiracy was
unsuccessful, and Yakoob Beg, who had yielded up Khodjent, with the
defence of which he had been entrusted by Alim Kuli, on the approach of
the forces of Khudayar Khan, took refuge in Bokhara. Here he was
favourably received, and resided as a noble attached to the court. In
1863 the Ameer of Bokhara, Muzaffur Eddin, marched a large army into
Khokand for the purpose of restoring his brother-in-law, Khudayar, to
the throne, for he had again been deposed by the intrigues of Alim Kuli;
Yakoob Beg accompanied this force, and once more appears, for the last
time, on the troubled arena of Khokandian politics. The Bokhariot army
was soon recalled, and Khudayar Khan was left to face the difficulties
of his position unaided. In a few months an arrangement was come to
between Alim Kuli and Yakoob Beg and other leading nobles against
Khudayar. Sultan Murad, who had first been supported and then murdered
by Alim Kuli, having been thus effectually removed, this king-maker had
set up Sultan Seyyid in his place. Yakoob Beg so far profited by this
new confederacy that he was restored to his old offices and
perquisites, and sent once more to hold his former post as governor of
Kurama. He collected as many allies as he was able, and brought them
with him to assist in the capture of Khodjent. On this important town
being secured the regent Alim Kuli passed through Kurama on his way to
seize and settle the capital, Tashkent. He appointed a connection of his
own, Hydar Kuli, with the title of Hudaychi, as governor of Kurama, and
took Yakoob Beg in his train to Tashkent. Shortly after their arrival at
Tashkent, news came of the Russian occupation of Tchimkent, and the
survivors of the force driven out by Tchernaief soon appeared with a
confirmation of the intelligence. This was in April, 1864, and until
October of that year, when the Russians appeared before the town, Yakoob
Beg was engaged in strengthening the fortifications of the capital. When
the army of General Tchernaief did appear in the neighbourhood, Yakoob
Beg, with a rashness that cannot be too strongly condemned, went forth
to encounter it in the open. As might have been expected, the Russians
were victorious, and Yakoob Beg was compelled to seek refuge with his
shattered forces within the walls of Tashkent. The Russians themselves
had suffered some loss, and either awed by the bold demeanour of their
old antagonist, or, as is more probable, encountering some difficulty in
bringing up supplies, and being unprovided with a siege train, thought
the more prudent policy would be to retire to Tchimkent until
reinforcements and other necessaries should arrive. Alim Kuli, in the
course of a few days after this reverse, arrived at Tashkent in person
with a large body of troops, and employed all his energies in
strengthening the defences before the return of the Russians. It is very
certain that on this occasion, the first on which Yakoob Beg had a
command of any consequence, he permitted his natural impetuosity to get
the better of his discretion, and that it was the height of madness on
his part to enter into an engagement in the open with the disciplined
and formidable forces of Tchernaief, when, by leaving that general to
undertake the siege of Tashkent, he might have had it in his power to
inflict a serious, and for the time conclusive, blow against the
Russians when the reinforcing army of Alim Kuli came up. With half his
army discouraged by defeat, Alim Kuli found himself restricted to a
policy of inaction, through the over-hastiness of his lieutenant. The
Russians did not return until after the departure of Yakoob Beg for
Kashgar, but when they did they found that Alim Kuli had made every
preparation in his power to receive them. On the first occasion they
were again forced to retreat after a skirmish which the Khokandians
claim as a victory; but in 1865 they appeared before the walls in
greater force. Alim Kuli, with a gathering vastly superior in numbers to
the Russians, attacked them a few miles to the north of Tashkent, and
the fortunes of the day hung in the balance, until the fall of Alim
Kuli, who, whilst boldly leading a charge of Kirghiz cavalry, was
pierced in the chest by a musket ball. He was carried from the field by
a faithful officer, and expired that night in Tashkent. Alim Kuli
appears to have been actuated to some extent by a disinterested
patriotism, as much as by more personal motives. With his fall, and the
departure of Yakoob Beg for another sphere of operations, all hope of a
continued state of independence for Khokand was dissipated. After this
severe defeat the Russians laid close siege to Tashkent. The Khokandians
in their distress applied to Bokhara for aid, and the Russians hastened
to occupy Chinaz to intercept it. The Bokhariot army was routed by the
Russian army under General Romanoffski at the battle of Irjar, in May,
1866, eleven months after Tashkent had been occupied by Tchernaief. It
was during this period of anarchy, with a hostile Russian and an allied
Bokhariot force on his soil, that Khudayar Khan once more supplanted the
nominee of Alim Kuli, Sultan Seyyid, and at the close of the campaign
Khudayar was left in possession of the southern portion of Khokand. This
Khan appears to have been of an unambitious nature, for, during his
various exiles, he devoted himself to private business with an energy he
had never shown in the management of the public affairs, and when he at
last sank into private life and became a pensioner of the Russian Court,
on the complete annexation of his state, he is said to have acquired not
only a happiness, but many virtues unknown to him in his more elevated
lot. The unfortunate Sultan Seyyid, after wandering for some years out
of Khokand, was, when he ventured to return in 1871, executed. Many of
the partisans of Seyyid on the defeat by the Russians, and on the
overthrow of his rivals by Khudayar, sought refuge in the mountains of
the Kizilyart, whence they proceeded to join Yakoob Beg in Kashgar,
where they arrived at a most opportune moment as will be seen.
To return to Yakoob Beg. After his defeat before Tashkent he was
employed under Alim Kuli in repairing the defences of that town and
collecting troops from the whole district, but his reputation had been
lowered by that reverse. There was a certain jealousy between the
Kirghiz chief and the Tajik soldier of fortune. Yakoob Beg saw in Alim
Kuli an obstacle to his further promotion, and Alim Kuli recognized in
the Kooshbege a possible rival and successor. Any excuse therefore to
keep Yakoob Beg in the background, or indeed to get rid of him
altogether, would be very welcome to Alim Kuli. We hear little more of
the unsuccessful general until his departure for Kashgar a few months
afterwards. He had to wipe out in other regions and against other foes
the stain he had incurred in his encounters with the Russians.
While these events were in progress at Tashkent, an envoy arrived there
from Sadic Beg, a Kirghiz prince on the frontiers of Ili and Kashgar. He
brought intelligence that his master had availed himself of the
dissensions among the Chinese, to seize the city of Kashgar, and he
requested the Khan of Khokand to send him the heir of the Khojas, in
order that he might place him on the throne. As the facts really stood,
Sadic Beg had only laid siege to Kashgar, and, finding that he was met
with a strenuous resistance, had recourse to the plan of setting up a
Khoja king to strengthen his failing efforts, but of the true state of
affairs in Kashgar it is evident that everybody in Tashkent was
primarily ignorant. The Khokandian policy had always been, however, to
maintain their interests intact in Eastern Turkestan, and to weaken in
every possible way the credit of the Chinese. An envoy bringing news of
a fresh revolt in Kashgar was, therefore, sure of a friendly reception
at Tashkent, even if he did not return with some more striking tokens of
amity. But on this occasion the danger from Russian movements was so
close at hand, and all the efforts of the state were so concentrated in
preparations for defence, that Alim Kuli, whatever he may have thought
of its prospects, and however much he may have sympathized with its
object, was unable to give the Kirghiz emissary any aid in his
enterprise. When, however, Buzurg Khan, the only surviving son of
Jehangir Khan, either of his own free will, or instigated, as some say,
by Yakoob Beg, offered to assert his claims on Kashgar, Alim Kuli
expressed his approval of the design, and gave his moral assistance so
far as was compatible with no active participation therein. He, however,
gave Buzurg Khan the services of Kooshbege Mahomed Yakoob to act as his
commander-in-chief, or Baturbashi. Thus did Alim Kuli free himself from
his troublesome subordinate, and despatched on an errand which seemed
likely to end in disgrace and defeat, but which really led to empire,
the only native whom he dreaded as being capable of supplanting him.
Yakoob Beg had up to this point given little promise of future
distinction. He had, indeed, earned the reputation of being a gallant
soldier, if a not very prudent one; and in the intrigues that had marked
the history of his state for twenty years, he had borne his fair share.
But no one would have dreamt of prognosticating that he possessed the
ability necessary to win campaigns against superior forces, and then to
erect a powerful state on the ruins that fell into his possession. The
most favourable opinion would have been, that he would have died
manfully as a soldier, and as a true Mussulman. When he embarked in the
enterprise of conquering Kashgar, he was no longer in the first flush of
youth, but was a man who covered his fiery spirit and great ambition
with a cloak of religious zeal and diplomatic apathy. Twenty years'
experience in the most intriguing court in Central Asia had placed every
muscle at his complete command, and even in the most disastrous moments
in his career, he is always represented as being calm and
collected--calm in his belief in Kismut, and collected in a persuasion
of his own resources. One fact that will account for the slowness with
which he advanced into notoriety is that he was entirely dependent on
his own capacity for promotion. He had no wealth, no large following,
and in the two leaders, Kipchak and Kirghiz, Mussulman and Alim Kuli, he
had competitors of almost equal merit with himself, while they each
possessed personal power and family connections that placed them far
beyond the reach of the hardy soldier and court chamberlain. Some of his
detractors had availed themselves of his impecuniosity to circulate
stories of his having had dealings with the Russians; but these,
although invested with circumstances originating in non-Russian
quarters, are probably without any truth. The chief charge, to be taken
for what it is worth, is, that the weakness of his defence of the Ak
Musjid district, after the fall of the fort, was owing to his having
received a large bribe from the Russians. Another is, that in 1863,
after his return from Bokhara, he neglected to retard the Russian
movements for a pecuniary consideration. In both cases the sum mentioned
is very large; and besides the apparent falseness of these rumours, we
have only to consider that he was not worth a bribe, and that his
opposition to the Russians was marked by all the want of foresight of
religious zeal. All these considerations make such rumours appear in
their true light; and although we are aware that a follower of Yakoob
Beg confirmed, if he did not originate, these charges, it seems to us
that the Russians, if there had been truth in the report, would long ago
have placed the fact before the peoples of Asia, and required Yakoob Beg
when Ameer of Kashgar to have acted in a more friendly way towards his
former employers. But the simple reason that Yakoob Beg could not have
rendered any service to the Russians worth the thousands of pounds he is
said to have received, ought to demolish the whole fabrication. If
Yakoob Beg's life proves one thing more than another, it was that he was
a most fanatical Mussulman, and as such hating the Russians, as the most
formidable enemy of Islam, with the most intense hate his fiery nature
was capable of. This man's whole life must have been the greatest
hypocrisy if he was not genuine in his religious intolerance, and that
intolerance rendered any connivance with Russian measures an
impossibility. Owing to his early connection with the church, and his
maternal grandfather's high position therein, Yakoob Beg was always
distinguished for the strict orthodoxy of his views. Through all his
life he seems to have made it his chief object to keep the church on his
side. When he was reduced to the most desperate straits in his after
life in Kashgar, when some of the most faithful of his followers fell
off from him, and when even Buzurg Khan, the man whom he had placed upon
a throne, declared him a rebel and a traitor, he never lost heart so
long as the ministers of the church held by him; and, on the other
hand, they, recognizing the fidelity of their champion, supported him
through good and ill repute. Whilst residing at Bokhara "the holy" he
had attached to his person several of the most distinguished preachers
of Islam throughout Asia, and he had taken all the vows that give a
peculiar sanctity to the relations that connect the layman with his
priest. It was here that he publicly announced his intention of going on
pilgrimage to Mecca; an intention which he repeated on several occasions
during his rule of Kashgar, but was obliged, by the position and
precarious existence of that state, always to perform by deputy. When he
had established himself as ruler, his first measure was to re-enforce
the Shariat and to endow several shrines that had been erected to the
memory of the chief Khoja saints. It was by such means that he at every
crisis of his life had striven to make his interests identical with
those of his religion, and when he became a responsible and successful
prince his past life stood him in such good stead, that he easily came
to be regarded throughout Asia as the most faithful and redoubtable
supporter of Islam.
At this period of his life he is described by one who knew him as being
of a short but stoutish build, with a keenly intelligent and handsome
countenance. He had, during the vicissitudes of his career in Khokand,
been so often near assassination, or execution, that the result of the
morrow had, to all external appearance, become a matter of secondary
consideration to him, and his features, schooled to immobility by a long
career of court intrigue, appeared to the casual observer dull and
uninteresting. When, however, the conversation turned on subjects that
specially interested him, such as the advance of Russia, the future of
Islam, or the policy of England, he threw aside his mask, and became at
once a man whose views, with some merit in themselves, were rendered
almost convincing by the singular charm of his voice and manner. He was
honourably distinguished at all times by the simplicity of his dress,
and his freedom from the pretension and love of show characteristic of
most Asiatics; and at the very highest point of his power he was only a
soldier, occupying a palace. As was well said of Timour, the Athalik
Ghazi placed the "foot of courage in the stirrup of patience," and he
evidently set himself to copy the great lessons of military success that
might be learnt from the careers of Genghis Khan, Timour, and Baber.
Such is some account of the commander-in-chief to the expedition of
Buzurg Khan. The Khoja, himself, was a man about the same age as his
lieutenant, but in every other respect as different as he well could be.
Personally a coward, fond of show and every kind of luxury, and of the
treacherous, fickle nature that marked his race, he had done nothing
during his past life to compensate for the want of the most ordinary
virtues. Although he participated in the expedition of Wali Khan, he
showed no possession of merit, and in the subsequent occupation that the
Khojas maintained in Kashgar during a few weeks, he, perhaps more than
any other of his kinsmen, disgusted the people by his open and unbridled
licentiousness. Such were the two men who, in the latter days of 1864,
set out from Tashkent for the recovery of a kingdom. Of their chances of
success few would have ventured then to predict a settlement in their
favour; none, certainly, such as was obtained by Yakoob Beg. It is now
time for us to relate how they fared in Eastern Turkestan.