The Tadjiks, the aboriginal inhabitants of all the cities of Central
Asia, are represented still in the greatest number here; hence Bokhara
is the only place where the Tadjik can point to his origin with pride,
assigning as he does, for frontiers to his primitive fatherland,
Khorasan, [Footnote 128] Khoten (in China) to the east, the Caspian
to the west, Khodjend to the north, and India to the south. It is a
pity that this people, in spite of the high antiquity of their origin,
and their {368} grandeur in time gone by, should have attained the
very highest stage of vice and profligacy: if they are to be taken as
a specimen of antique Asia, the cradle of our race, it must, indeed,
have presented in those early ages a sorry appearance.
[Footnote 128: Khor means 'sun,' and son 'district;' hence the whole
word signifies 'district of the sun.']
_Kirghis._
Kirghis [Footnote 129] or Kasaks, as they style themselves, are not
numerous in the Khanat of Bokhara, but we will, nevertheless, record
here a few notes which we have made respecting this people,
numerically the greatest, and by the peculiarity of its nomad life the
most original, in Central Asia.
[Footnote 129: Kir means field, gis or gez is the root of the word
gizmelt (wander). The word Kirghiz signifies, in Turkish, a man that
wanders about the fields, a nomad, and is used to denote all nations
leading the pastoral life. It is also employed to designate a tribe;
but they are only a subdivision of the Kazaks, to be met with in
Khokand in the vicinity of Hazneti in Turkestan.]
I have often, in my wanderings, fallen upon particular encampments of
Kirghis, and whenever I wished to acquire information as to their
number, they laughed at me, and said, 'Count first the sand in the
desert, and then you may number the Kirghis.' There is the same
impossibility in defining their frontiers. We know only that they
inhabit the Great Desert that lies between Siberia, China, Turkestan,
and the Caspian Sea; and such localities to move in, as well as their
social condition, suffice to show how likely we are to err when we at
one time ascribe Kirghis to the Russian dominions, and at another
transfer them to the Chinese. Russia, China, Khokand, {369} Bokhara,
and Khiva, exercise dominion over the Kirghis only so long as the
taxing officers, whom they send, sojourn amongst those nomads. The
Kirghis regard the whole procedure as a _razzia_ on a gigantic scale,
and they are grateful to find that those who commit it are content to
receive merely a percentage or some tax that is tantamount. The
revolutions that have taken place in the world for hundreds, nay,
perhaps thousands of years, have wrought very little influence upon
the Kirghis; it is, therefore, in this nation, which we can never
behold as one mass, but in small sections, that we especially see the
most faithful picture of those customs and usages which characterise
the Turani races of ancient times, and which constitute so
extraordinary a mingling of savage qualities and of virtues.
We are surprised to perceive in them so great a disposition to music
and poetry; but their aristocratical pride is particularly remarkable.
When two Kirghis meet, the first question is, 'Who are thy seven
fathers--ancestors?' [Footnote 130] The person addressed, even if a
child in his eighth year, has always his answer ready, for otherwise
he would be considered as very ill-bred.
[Footnote 130: 'Yeti atang kimdir.']
In bravery the Kirghis is inferior to the Özbeg, and still more so to
the Turkoman. Islamism, with the former, is on a far weaker footing
than with the others I have mentioned. Nor are any of them, except the
wealthy Bays, accustomed to search the cities for Mollahs to exercise
the functions of teachers, chaplains, and secretaries at a fixed
salary, payable in sheep, horses, and camels.
{370}
The Kirghis, even after frequent contact, must still, in the eyes of
us Europeans, appear wonderful beings. We behold in them men who,
whether the heat is scorching or the snow a fathom deep, move about
for hours daily in search of a new spot for their purpose: men who
have never heard bread even named, and who support themselves only
upon milk and meat. The Kirghis look upon those who have settled down
in town or country as sick or insane persons, and they compassionate
all whose faces have not the pure Mongol conformation. According to
their aesthetic views, that race stands at the very zenith for beauty;
for God made it with bones prominent like those of the horse--an
animal, in their eyes, the crowning work of creation.
3. _Arabs_.
These Arabs are the descendants of those warriors who, under Kuteïbe,
in the time of the third Khalif, took part in the conquest of
Turkestan, where they subsequently settled. They retain, however, with
the exception of their physiognomy, very little resemblance to their
brethren in Hedjaz or Arak. I found very few of them who even spoke
Arabic. Their number is said to be 60,000, and they are mostly settled
in the environs of Vardanzi and Vafkend.
{371}
4. _Mervi._
The Mervi are the descendants of the 40,000 Persians transplanted from
Merv to Bokhara by the Emir Said Khan, when about the year 1810 he
took that city by aid of the Sarik. The race sprang originally from
the Turks of Azerbaydjan and Karabag, whom Nadir Shah transferred from
their ancient homes to Merv. Next to the Tadjiks, the Mervi is the
most cunning amongst the inhabitants of Bokhara, but he is far from
being so cowardly as the former.
5. _Persians_.
The Persians in Bokhara are partly slaves, partly such as have paid
their own ransom and then settled in the Khanat. Here, in spite of all
religious oppression--for as Shiites they can only practise their
religion in secret--they readily apply themselves to trade and
handicraft, because living is here cheaper and the gain easier than in
their own country. The Persian, so far superior in capacity to the
inhabitants of Central Asia, is wont to elevate himself from the
position of slave to the highest offices in the state. There are
hardly any governors in the province who do not employ in some office
or other Persians, who were previously his slaves, and who have
remained faithful to him. They swarm even in the immediate proximity
of the present Emir, and the first dignitaries in the Khanat belong to
the same nation. In Bokhara, the Persians are looked upon as men more
disposed to intercourse with the Frenghis; men who have knowledge of
diabolical arts: but the Emir would bitterly rue it if Persia
threatened him with invasion, which it had already thought of; for
with his army in its present state, he could do but little; the chief
commanders, Shahrukh Khan, Mehemmed Hasan Khan, also are Persians; and
their Toptchibashi, chiefs of artillery, Zeinel Bey, Mehdi Bey, and
Lesker Bey, belong to the same nation.
{372}
6. _Hindoos_.
Of Hindoos there are but 500. They form no families, and, scattered
throughout the capital and provinces, they have in some wonderful
manner got all the management of money into their hands, there being
no market, not even a village, where the Hindoo is not ready to act as
usurer. Bowing with the deepest submissiveness, like the Armenian in
Turkey, he nevertheless all the time fleeces the Özbeg in fearful
fashion; and as the pious Kadi for the most part carries on business
in common with the worshipper of Vishnoo, it is rarely that the victim
escapes.
7. _Jews_.
The Jews in the Khanat are about 10,000 in number, dwelling for the
most part in Bokhara, Samarcand, and Karshi, and occupying themselves
rather with handicrafts than with commerce. In their origin they are
Jews from Persia, and have wandered hither from Kazvin and Merv, about
150 years ago. They live here under the greatest oppression, and
exposed to the greatest contempt. They only dare to show themselves on
the threshold when they pay a visit to a 'believer;' and again, when
they receive visitors, they are bound in all haste to quit their own
houses, and station themselves before their doors. In the city of
Bokhara they yield yearly 2,000 Tilla Djizie (tribute), which the
chief of their whole community pays in, receiving, as he does so, two
slight blows on the cheek, prescribed by the Koran as a sign of
submission. The rumour of the privileges accorded to {373} the Jews in
Turkey has attracted some to Damascus, and other places in Syria; but
this emigration can only occur secretly, otherwise they would have to
atone for the very wish by confiscation or death. It is surprising
what a letter correspondence is maintained by them through the Hadjis
proceeding every year from Turkestan to Mecca. My companions also had
charge of many letters, which they everywhere delivered at the
addresses indicated.
_Government._
The form of government in Bokhara has retained very few of the
primitive Persian or Arabian characteristics, the Turco-Mongolian
element predominating, and giving its tone to the whole. Although
powerfully influenced by its hierarchy, the constitution is a military
despotism. At its head stands the Emir, as generalissimo, prince, and
chief of religion.
The military and civil dignitaries are divided into (_a_) Kette Sipahi
(higher functionaries), (_b_) Orta Sipahi (middle functionaries), and
(_c_) Ashaghi Sipahi. To the first two classes it is the rule to admit
only Urukdar (personages of good family), for they are nominated on
account of Yerlik (handwriting), or Billig (insignia). [Footnote 131]
A practice, however, of appointing emancipated Persian slaves is of
old date.
[Footnote 131: Yerlik and Billig are old Turkish words, the former
signifying 'writing'--the root is yer, Hungarian ir, Turkish yaz;
the latter meaning 'mark,' in Hungarian bélyeg.]
{374}
The following list or sketch furnishes a view of the different
functionaries, from the Emir downwards:--
a. Kette Sipahi
1. Atalik.
2. Divanbeghi (Secretary of State).
3. Pervanedji, the 'butterfly man,' as he
is termed at Court, because he is sent about by the Emir in different
directions, on important errands.
b. Orta Sipahi
4. Tokhsabay, properly Tughsahibi (one
who has as a banner a Tugh or horse's tail).
5. Inag.
6. Miakhor (Constable).
c. Ashaghi Sipahi
7. Choragasi, properly Chehre agasi (the
'face-man'), so called because at
the audience he stands facing the Emir.
8. Mirzabasbi (Principal Writer).
9. Yasaulbeghi and Kargaulbeghi.
10. Yüzbashi.
11. Pendjabashi.
12. Onbashi.
Besides these, we have still to mention the officers about the Emir's
person and court. At their head stands the Kushbeghi, or Vizir, the
Mehter, Desturkhandji (steward), and Zekiatchi (receiver of the
customs). The latter, in his quality of finance minister, is also
chief master of the Emir's household. Next come the Mehrem
(chamberlains), whose number varies with circumstances. These are
sent, upon extraordinary occasions, as commissioners into the
provinces. Every subject, if not content with the decision of the
Governor as to his right, can appeal to the Emir, whereupon a Mehrem
is assigned to him, as attorney, who travels back with him to his
province, examines the affair, and lays it before the Emir for his
final decision. There are, besides, Odadji (door-keepers), Bakaul
(provision-masters), and Selamagasi, {375} who on public processions
return, instead of the Emir, the salutation 'Ve Aleïkum es selam.'
These functions and offices exist only nominally under the present
Emir, whose aversion to all display or pomp has made him leave many
vacant.
_The Political Division of the Khanat._
The political division of the Khanat, like that of Khiva, is based
upon the number of its large cities, and Bokhara consists at present
of the following districts, which we here prefer to classify according
to their size and population:--1. Karaköl; 2. Bokhara; 3. Karshi; 4.
Samarcand; 5. Kerki; 6. Hissar; 7. Miyankal, or Kermineh; 8. Kette
Kurgan; 9. Chardjuy; 10. Djizzak; 11. Oratepe; 12. Shehri Sebz. The
latter equals Samarcand in size, but, owing to its continual struggles
with the Emir, cannot be considered as wholly subject to the Khanat.
Governors of the rank of Divanbeghi, or Pervanedjis, have allowed to
them a fixed share in the revenue of the province under their
administration, but in extraordinary emergencies they are obliged to
forego the claim. Under the direct orders of each Governor there is a
Tokhsaboy, a Mirzabashi, a Yasaulbeghi, and several Mirakhor and
Chohragasi.
{376}
_Army._
The standing army of the Khanat is stated to consist of 40,000
horsemen, but can be raised to 60,000. Of these troops Bokhara and
Karshi are said to supply the greater proportion; the former are
especially renowned for their bravery. Such is the account of their
numbers current in Bokhara, but I have found it exaggerated; because
the Emir, in his campaign against Khokand, where his army never
exceeded 30,000 men, was forced to maintain an auxiliary force at a
heavy expense--an expense which the stingy Mozaffar-ed-din never would
have incurred, if the foregoing computation had been correct. The pay,
only made in time of war, consists of 20 Tenghe (about 11_s_. 2_d_.)
monthly, with which the horseman has to keep himself and horse. In
addition to this, half the booty made belongs to the soldiery.
It is really singular that, with the great population subject to him,
the prince sets no greater native force on foot; singular, also, that
he takes no auxiliaries from the 50,000 Ersari who are tributary to
him, but prefers applying to the Tekke, or even taking Sariks into his
service, at a yearly expense of 4,000 Tilla.
_Short Outline of the History of Bokhara._
Efrasiab, the great Turani warrior, and one of the greatest heroes of
ancient Iran, is regarded as the founder of Bokhara. Extravagant
fables form the basis of its earlier history. Of the accounts which
they embody, we only accept the following fact, that the incursions of
the Turkish hordes were from the oldest times the terror of those
districts whose Persian population had separated themselves from their
brethren in Iran so early as the epoch of the Pishdadian. The first
thread of real history, properly so called, only begins at the epoch
of the occupation by {377} the Arabs; and we can only regret that
these daring adventurers have not transmitted to us more notices than
those which we find scattered in the pages of Tarikhi Taberi and some
other Arabian authorities. Islam did not so easily as in other
countries strike its roots in Mavera-ül Nehr (the land between the
Oxus and the Jaxartes), and the Arabs found, on their return to the
different cities after an absence of any duration, that the work of
proselytism had ever to be begun afresh. Up to the time of its
conquest by Djenghis Khan (1225), Bokhara and Samarcand, as well as
the city, at that time considerable, of Merv (Mervi Shah Djihan or
Merv, 'king of the world'), Karshi (Nakhsheb), and Belkh (Um-ül Bilad,
'mother of cities'), were regarded as belonging to Persia, although
the government of Khorasan, as it was then called, was the subject of
an extraordinary firman of investiture from Bagdad. On the invasion of
the Mongols, the Persian element was entirely supplanted, the Özbegs
everywhere seized the reins of government, and Timour, the lame
conqueror from Shehri Sebz (green city), was satisfied with nothing
less than making Samarcand the capital of all Asia. The design
perished with him, and the special history, properly so called, of
Bokhara begins with the house of the Sheïbani, whose founder,
Ebulkheir Khan, broke the power of the descendants of Timour in their
hereditary dominions. A grandson of the last Sheïbani Mehemmed Khan
enlarged the limits of Bokhara from Khodjend to Herat; and when he
ventured to attack Meshed also, he was defeated by Shah Ismael, and
perished in 916 (1510), in the battle. One of the ablest amongst his
successors was Abdullah Khan (born 1544). {378} He conquered
Bedakhshan, Herat, and Meshed afresh, and, from his efforts in favour
of civilisation and commerce, deserves to be placed at the side of the
great sovereign of Persia, Shah Abbas II. In his time the routes of
Bokhara were provided with karavanserais and fine bridges, the ways
through the deserts with cisterns for water; and the ruins of all his
constructions of this description still bear his name. His son, Abdul
Mumin Khan, 1004 (1595), was unable to retain long his seat on the
throne; he was murdered; and after the invasion of the Kirghis chief
Tököl, who laid all the country waste, fell even the last offspring of
the house of Sheïbani.
In the long disturbance and civil war that ensued, the candidates who
disputed the throne were especially Veli Mehemmed Khan (a remote
collateral representative of the Sheïbani), and Baki Mehemmed Khan;
and as the latter, 1025 (1616), fell in battle at Samarcand, the
former founded his dynasty, which is said to have survived at the time
of Ebul Feïz Khan, who, in 1740, was compelled to implore Nadir Shah
for peace. In the period that succeeds, the sovereigns who have most
distinguished themselves have been Imamkuli Khan, and Nazir Mehemmed
Khan. By their liberal support of the Ishan class, they have
contributed much to the religious fanaticism that exists in Bokhara,
and which has reached there, as well as throughout Turkestan, such a
point as was never before attained by Islam in any age or country.
Ebul Feïz was treacherously murdered by his own Vizir Rehim Khan, as
was also his son after him. Subsequently to the death of the murderer,
who had governed under the title of Vizir, but with independent
authority, Danial Beg, of the race of the Mangit, seized the reins of
government. He was succeeded by the Emirs Shah Murad, Said Khan, and
Nasrullah Khan.
{379}
As the history of the three last-mentioned sovereigns has been already
handled by Malcolm, Burnes, and Khanikoff, and as we can adduce no
fresh materials, we leave that period untouched. But we propose in a
subsequent chapter to treat of the war waged by Bokhara with Khokand
during the last three years.
{380}
CHAPTER XIX.
KHANAT OF KHOKAND.
INHABITANTS
DIVISION
KHOKAND TASHKEND
KHODJEND
MERGOLAN
ENDIDJAN
HAZNETI TURKESTANA
OOSH
POLITICAL POSITION
RECENT WARS.
Khokand, or Fergana as the ancients style it, is bounded on the east
by Chinese Tartary, on the west by Bokhara and the Jaxartes, on the
north by the great horde of Nomads, and on the south by Karateghin and
Bedakhshan. Its superficial extent we cannot positively affirm; but it
is certainly larger than the territory of either Bokhara or Khiva. It
is also better peopled than the latter Khanat.
Judging by the number of cities and other circumstances, Khokand, at
the present day, may be said to contain more than three millions of
inhabitants, consisting of the following races:--(1) Özbegs form that
part of the population having fixed habitations; and, as I remarked
when I spoke of Khiva, they have a type quite distinct from the Özbegs
either of that Khanat or of Bokhara. As the Özbegs have been for
hundreds of years the dominant race in Turkestan, and adopted the
institutions of Islam earlier than any other nomad people of these
parts, the name itself has become invested with a certain prestige of
{381} breeding and _bon ton_, so that the Kirghis, Kiptchak, and
Kalmuk, from the moment that they settle in cities, generally abandon
their several nationalities, and assume the denomination of Özbegs. In
Khokand this has been also long the case, and it may be affirmed,
without exaggeration, that half of those who so style themselves are
to be regarded merely as a mixture of the nomad races just referred
to.
Judging from his outside appearance, as he presents himself in his
clumsy loose clothes, the Özbeg of Khokand seems a very helpless
person. We had many opportunities of witnessing his unexampled
cowardice, and had it not been for the protection of the nomads, his
cities would have long fallen under the dominion of China, Russia, or
Bokhara.
(2) Next to the Özbegs come the Tadjiks, who, although they may not
constitute a more numerous, still form a more compact population here
than in the Khanat of Bokhara, and, as is nowhere else the case,
people entire villages and towns. Accordingly, the city of Khodjend,
the villages Velekendaz and Kisakuz (near Khodjend) are exclusively
inhabited by this primitive Persian race, and the important cities of
Namengan, [Footnote 132] Endigan, and Mergolan, are said to have
belonged to them more than four hundred years ago.
[Footnote 132: These three words respectively signify (1)Nemengan
(originally Nemek kohn), salt mine; (2) Endekgan, from Endek, small;
and (3) Murghinan, hen and bread. These etymologies I learnt from my
friends; perhaps they are not to be received as absolutely correct,
but their Persian origin is unquestionable.]
{382}
As far as their national character is concerned, the Tadjiks of
Khokand are not much better than those of the same race in Bokhara.
The sole circumstance I find noticeable is that their language, both
in its grammatical forms and its vocabulary, is purer than that of the
other Tadjiks. This is particularly the case in Khodjend, the
inhabitants of which make use of a dialect that has retained many of
the forms of expression observable in the writings of the oldest
Persian poet Rudeki, by birth a Bokhariot. In the other cities of
Khokand, particularly in those on the Chinese frontiers, Tadjiks are
rarely met with. (3) Kasaks form the majority in the Khanat. They lead
a nomad life in the mountainous districts between the lake of
Tchaganak and Tashkend, and pay to their prince the same amount of
tribute as they do in Khiva to the Khan. Amongst the Kirghis of
Khokand some are in affluent circumstances, possessing in Hazreti
Turkestan, or in other places, houses, which, however, they do not
themselves inhabit. In other respects, in spite of their superiority
in number, the Kirghis have, owing to their want of bravery, little
influence in the Khanat. (4) Kirghis--or the Kirghis properly so
called, a tribe of the great Kasak horde--live in the southern part of
the Khanat between Khokand and Sarik Köl, and from their warlike
qualities are always made use of by the different factions to carry
out their revolutionary projects. Their tents are said to be fifty
thousand in number, consequently they are about as numerous as the
Tekke Turkomans. (5) The Kiptchak are, in my opinion, the primitive
original Turkish race. Amongst all the branches of this great family,
spread from Komul to as far as the Adriatic Sea, the Kiptchaks have
remained most faithful in {383} physiognomy and character, language
and customs, to their ancestral type. The name, the etymology of which
has been clouded with fables by Rashideddin Tabibi, has little
interest for the reader. There is said to have been formerly a mighty
nation bearing the same designation, and the Kiptchaks of the present
day, although counting only from five to six thousand tents, pretend
that Deshti Kiptchak, [Footnote 133] as Turkestan is named in the
documents of Oriental history, was conquered, and peopled by their
ancestors. Notwithstanding their small numbers, the Kiptchaks continue
to exercise, even at the present day, the greatest influence upon
political affairs in Khokand. They nominate the Khans, and sometimes
even dethrone them; and often five hundred of their horsemen have
taken possession of a city, without the Khan daring to resist them. I
have not been able to detect, in the Turkish that they speak, a single
Persian or Arabic word, and their dialect may be regarded as the best
point of transition from the Mongolian language to that of the
Djagatai. The same remark may be made respecting the type of their
physiognomy as of their language; for these stand in a similar
relation to those of the other races of Central Asia. In their
slanting eyes, beardless chins, and prominent cheekbones, they
resemble the Mongols, and are for the most part of small stature, but
extraordinary agility. In bravery they stand, as was remarked before,
superior to all nations of Central Asia, and form, incontestably, the
truest specimen remaining to us of the immense hordes that
revolutionised all Asia.
[Footnote 133: Deshti Kiptchak as far as the frontiers of Bolgar (in
Russia?) is the denomination most in use.]
{384}
With respect to its divisions, the Khanat of Khokand falls into
different districts, designated here, too, only by the names of the
most remarkable cities. Its capital is Khokand, [Footnote 134] or
Kokhandi Latif ('enchanting Khokand'), as it is termed by the natives.
It lies in a beautiful valley, and is in circumference six times as
large as Khiva, three times as Bokhara, and four times as Teheran. The
southern portion of the city, in which the Khan has his palace, was
not, until recently, surrounded by a wall. The northern part is open.
The number of inhabitants and houses is proportionately small. The
latter are surrounded by large orchards, so that one often requires a
quarter of an hour to pass by ten or fifteen houses. As for the
architecture, the Khokandi is in the habit of admitting the
superiority of that of Bokhara; and from this circumstance one may
easily form an idea of the architectural beauty of the city. Only four
mosques are of stone, as is also a small portion of the extensive
bazaar. In this they expose for sale, at low prices, exclusively
Russian merchandise, and the native silk and woollen manufactures;
besides which tasty articles in leather, saddles, whips, and
equipments for riding, made in the capital, enjoy a high repute.
[Footnote 134: The word Khokand is said to be derived from
Khob-kend, 'beautiful place' or 'village.']
After Khokand, Tashkend deserves to be mentioned. It is the first
commercial town in the Khanat, and, as I heard on all sides, is at
present the residence of many affluent merchants, having extensive
trading relations with Orenburg and Kizildjar (Petropavlosk).
Tashkend, which has the transit trade between Bokhara, Khokand, and
Chinese Tartary, is one of the most {385} important cities of Central
Asia; and at the same time the object towards which Russia is quietly
striving, and from which her most advanced frontier (Kalè Rehim) is
within a few days' journey. Once in possession of Tashkend, a place
important also in a military point of view, Russia would find little
difficulty in possessing herself of the Khanats of Bokhara and
Khokand, for what might prove difficult for the Russian bayonet would
be facilitated by intestine discord, the flames of which the Court of
St. Petersburg never ceases to foment between the two Khanats.
After Tashkend the following are the most remarkable places: Khodjend,
that has about 3,000 houses, many manufactories for Aladja (a sort of
cotton stuff), eighteen Medresse, and twice that number of mosques;
Mergolan, a large city, the principal city of Khokandi learning and
the present residence of the Khodja Buzurk, chief of the order of the
Makhdum Aazam. This dignitary refused his blessing to the present Emir
of Bokhara on his triumphant entry into the city, and the latter did
not venture, nor was he in fact able in any way to punish him.
Endidjan, where the best Atresz (heavy substantial silks) in the
Khanat are manufactured; Namengan, about which the Kiptchaks are
located. The following also deserve mentioning:--Hazreti Turkestana
with the grave there, in high repute, of Khodj Ahmed Jaszavi, the
author of a book (Meshreb) [Footnote 135] upon morals and religion,
which is even at the present day a favourite work both amongst the
nomads and the settlers in Khokand; {386} Shehri Menzil and Djust,
where the famous knives are manufactured which, after those of Hissar,
fetch the highest price in Turkestan; Shehrikhan, a place where the
best silk is produced; and Oosh, on the eastern frontier of the
Khanat, called Takhti Suleiman, Suleiman's throne, which is visited
yearly by a great number of pilgrims; the place of pilgrimage itself
consists of a hill in the city of Oosh where, amidst the ruins of an
old edifice built of large square stones and ornamented by columns,
the visitor is first shown, not only a throne hewn out of marble, but
the place where Adam, the first prophet (according to the teachings of
Islam), tilled the ground. The latter fable was introduced very
_apropos_, as the inventor wished to accustom the nomads to
agriculture through the medium of their religion.
[Footnote 135: I was able to bring back with me to Europe a copy of
this very original book written in Turkish, which I hope to publish
with a translation.]
Anyhow, Oosh is not without interest to our antiquarians.
The ruins themselves, and particularly the
columns, as they were described to me, lead to the
suspicion of a Grecian origin; and if we were searching
for the most eastern colony founded by Alexander,
we might readily suppose Oosh to be the very spot
where the daring Macedonian marked by some monument
the most easterly frontier of his gigantic empire. [Footnote 136]
[Footnote 136: Appian mentions (De Rebus Syriacis, lvii.) many
cities founded by the Greeks and by Seleucus, amongst others one
[Greek text], of which Pliny (vi. 16) seems to speak when he says:
'Ultra Sogdiana, oppidum Tarada, et in ultimis eorum finibus
Alexandria ab Alexandro magno conditum.' That point or its vicinity
seems to have marked the extreme limit of progress on that side of
all the great conquerors of classical antiquity; for there, says
Pliny, were altars placed by Hercules, Bacchus, Cyrus, Semiramis,
and Alexander: 'Finis omnium eorum ductus ab illâ parte terrarum,
includente flumine Jaxarte, quod Scythae Silin vocant.' And indeed
with respect to the city 'Alexandreschata' Arrian (_Exped. Alexand_.
1. iv. c. i. 3, and c. iv. 10), agrees with Pliny, telling us that
this great hero intended it as a barrier against the people on the
further bank of the river, and colonised it with Macedonian
veterans, Greek mercenaries, and such of the adjacent barbarians as
were so disposed. This city was built on the banks of the Jaxartes,
and most consider it to be the modern Khodjend. What if Oosh should
have been the spot where stood the columns of Alexander (_Curtius_,
vii. 6)? And yet the supposition that Alexander firmly possessed
himself of any land beyond the Jaxartes is hardly consistent with
the account of Arrian. Curtius (1. vii. 9) describes the remains of
the altars of Bacchus as 'monuments consisting of stones arranged at
numerous intervals, and eight lofty trees with their stems covered
with ivy.']
{387}
With respect to the political position of the Khanat of Khokand, its
independence dates as far back as that of Bokhara and Khiva. The
present reigning family pretends to descend in a direct line from
Djenghis Khan, which is very improbable, as his family was dethroned
by Timour; and after Baber, the last descendant of Timour in Khokand,
the Sheïbani, as well as other chieftains from the races Kiptchak and
Kirghis, seized alternately the reins of government. The family at
present on the throne, or perhaps, I should rather say, now disputing
its claim to it with Bokhara, is of Kiptchak origin, and has only been
80 years at the head of affairs. The institutions in Khokand bear very
slight traces of Arabian or Persian elements, and the Yaszao Djenghis
(code of Djenghis) is the legal authority which they follow. Here also
a singular ceremonial deserves notice. The Khan at his coronation is
raised in the air upon a white felt, and shoots arrows to the north,
south, east, and west. [Footnote 137]
[Footnote 137: It is singular that this custom exists even in the
present day at the coronation of kings in Hungary. The king on the
Hill of Coronation, on horseback, and invested with all the insignia
of royalty, is required to brandish his sword respectively to the
four points of the compass.]
{388}
A.
THE WAR BETWEEN BOKHARA AND KHOKAND IN THE TIME OF THE EMIR NASRULLAH.
The animosity between Khokand and Bokhara is of ancient date. After
the Sheïbani family began to take the head of affairs in Turkestan,
Khokand, with the exception of some cities still held by the
Kiptchaks, was incorporated into the Khanat of Bokhara. It tore itself
away again afterwards, and during its independence attached itself to
its neighbours, Kashgar, Yarkend, and Khoten, then also still
independent; but after these latter States had been themselves
incorporated by the Emperor of China into his dominions, Khokand, as
its enemies to the east seemed too powerful, thought itself bound to
recommence its differences with Bokhara, and the war that was going on
during our stay in Central Asia was only a continuation of the
struggle that Mehemmed Ali, Khan of Khokand, and his rival the Emir
Nasrullah, had begun.
Mehemmed Ali Khan is termed by the Khokandi their greatest monarch in
recent times. Whilst this prince, by extending the frontiers and by
advancing internal prosperity, had on the one hand contributed much to
lend a certain splendour to his Khanat, yet on the other he had in the
same degree stimulated the envious cupidity of the wicked Emir
Nasrullah. {389} But what most displeased the latter was that the Khan
should have formed a friendly alliance with Khiva, the principal enemy
of Bokhara, and should have given a friendly reception to the Emir's
own uncle and rival, who had fled to Khokand for safety. Others also
assign as an additional cause the hospitality they had shown to
Captain Conolly; but in any case abundant ground of dissension
existed, and a rupture was regarded as inevitable.
In 1839, Mehemmed Ali, having defeated the Russians at Shehidan,
[Footnote 138] considered a contest with the Emir as near at hand;
and, himself preferring to be the assailant, marched towards the
frontiers of Bokhara in the vicinity of Oratepe, and was already
threatening Djizzak and Samarcand, when the Emir, after vainly trying
intrigues, marched against him with a superior force of Özbeg horsemen
and 300 of the newly-formed militia (Serbaz), under the conduct of
their chief and organiser Abdul-Samed Khan. Upon this Mehemmed Ali
held it prudent to retreat. Nasrullah laid siege to Oratepe, which,
after three months, he took; but his treatment of the inhabitants made
them his bitterest enemies: and scarcely had he returned to Bokhara,
when, having a secret understanding with Mehemmed Ali, they fell upon
the Bokhariot garrison and massacred all, soldiers as well as
officers.
[Footnote 138: According to the account of this affair given by the
Khokandi, a strong detachment of Cossacks, after having gone round
Hazreti Turkestan from the right bank of the Jaxartes, had advanced
towards Tashkend, and on their march were surprised and dispersed by
the Khokandi with great loss.]
{390}
As soon as the intelligence of this event was conveyed to Nasrullah,
he in the greatest haste, and in still greater anger, called together
all his forces and marched against Oratepe. Mehemmed Ali again
retreated, and was accompanied by a great part of the inhabitants who
feared the incensed Emir; but this time escape was impossible: his
enemy followed him step by step until he could retreat no further. In
the battle which then took place at Khodjend, he was defeated, and the
city became the prize of the conqueror. The Khan again retreated, but,
finding himself still pursued and even his capital menaced, he sent a
flag of truce to his victorious enemy. A peace was concluded at Kohne
Badem, by which Mehemmed Ali bound himself to cede Khodjend with many
other places. That such conditions were little calculated to lead to a
sincere reconciliation is easily intelligible. The malicious Emir,
intending still further to offend his vanquished enemy, named as
governor of the conquered province the brother and rival of Mehemmed
Ali, who had previously fled to Bokhara. But nevertheless he was here
wrong in his calculation. The mother of the two Khokandi princes
reconciled them, and before the Emir had got wind of what had
occurred, Khodjend and the other cities united themselves again with
Khokand, and he had now to measure himself with two enemies instead of
one.
The fury of the Bokhariot tyrant knew no bounds, nor is it difficult
to understand that his thirst for revenge would prompt him to make
extraordinary armaments. In addition to his ordinary army, consisting
of 30,000 horsemen and 1,000 Serbaz, he took into his pay 10,000
Turkomans of the Tekke and Salor tribes, and hurrying with forced
marches towards {391} Khokand, he took Mehemmed Ali so by surprise
that he was even obliged to fly from his own capital, but, overtaken
and made prisoner near Mergolan, he was, with his brother and two
sons, executed ten days afterwards in his own capital. [Footnote
139]After him most of his immediate partisans fell by the hands of the
executioners, and their property was confiscated. The Emir returned to
Bokhara laden with booty, having first left Ibrahim Bi, a Mervi by
birth, with a garrison of 2,000 soldiers in the conquered city.
[Footnote 139: To excuse this act of shame, Nasrullah spread the
report that Mehemmed Ali had married his own mother, and had
consequently been punished by death.]
Three months had scarcely elapsed when the Kiptchaks, who had until
now observed a neutrality, weary of the Bokhariots, took the city,
made its garrison prisoners, and set on the throne Shir Ali Khan, son
of Mehemmed Ali. [Footnote 140] In order to prevent being a second
time surprised as before, the Khokandi now conceived the idea of
surrounding a portion of the city, where the residence of the Khan
was, with a wall; the plan {392} was soon carried out by the forced
labour of the prisoners of war, who had formed part of the Emir's
garrison. It was to be anticipated that the Emir would seek his
revenge; no one, therefore, was surprised to see soon after this
occurrence 15,000 Bokhariots, under the conduct of a Khokandi
pretender to the throne, an old _protegé_ of Nasrullah, make their
appearance before Khokand. But even on the march Musselman Kul (so he
was named) appeared to have reconciled himself with his countrymen;
the gates of the city were soon opened to him; and although Nasrullah
had sent him hither with the promise of making him Khan, his first
step was to turn his arms against that prince, and, joining with his
countrymen, to put to flight the Bokhariots who had escorted him
thither.
[Footnote 140: The genealogy of the reigning house in Khokand,
beginning with Mehemmed Ali, is as follows:--]
Mehemmed Ali (1841).
|
Shir Ali
|---------------------------------
| |
(a) By first Wife. (b) By second Wife.
| |
Mollah Khan. ----------------------------------
Sofi Beg. | | |
Sarimsak. Sultan Murad. Khudayar.
| |
Shah Murad. Several young children.
The Emir, although now four times overreached, still would not give
way, but again sent an army under the command of Shahrukh Khan, who
already held the rank of commander-in-chief. [Footnote 141] But the
latter did not advance beyond Oratepe, for the news that the Emir had
fallen sick at Samarcand, and had subsequently returned to Bokhara,
put an end to the whole campaign. A few days after the illness had
attacked the prince, the world was freed by his death of one of the
greatest of tyrants.
[Footnote 141: The infamous Abdul Samed Khan, the murderer of
Conolly, Stoddart, and Naselli, had in the meantime been overtaken
by a righteous punishment. The Emir, who had sent him to
Shehri-Sebz, was at last convinced of his treason, and, not being
able to reach him by forcible means, sought to employ artifice to
get possession of his person. Abdul Samed evaded his fate a long
time, but finally fell into the snare laid for him, and, aware of
the presence of the executioner in the ante-room, he rent up his
belly with his own poniard, to irritate by his death a master so
like himself in character.]
{393}
I heard from good authority that the death of the Emir Nasrullah was
solely owing to a paroxysm of rage at the constant ill success that
attended his campaigns against Khokand, and the unprecedented
obstinacy with which the city of Sheri-Sebz [Footnote 142] resisted,
for although he had taken the field thirty times against it, and had
been then besieging it six months, it was all without effect. Upon
this occasion his adversary was a certain Veliname, whose sister he
had married to obtain by the connection a faithful vassal in the
brother of his wife. Now it happened that the news of the capture
reached the Emir when on his deathbed; although half senseless, the
tyrant ordered his rebel brother-in-law to be put to death with all
his children. But as circumstances prevented him from feasting his
eyes with that spectacle of blood, in the evening, a few hours before
his death, he summoned to his presence his wife, the sister of
Veliname; the unhappy woman, who had borne him two children, trembled,
but the dying Emir was not softened--she was executed close to his
couch, and the abominable tyrant breathed his last breath with his
glazing eye fixed upon the gushing blood of the sister of his detested
enemy.
[Footnote 142: Sheri-Sebz, previously named Kesh, is the native city
of Timour, and renowned for the warlike character of its
inhabitants.]
{394}
B.
THE WAR BETWEEN BOKHARA AND KHOKAND WAGED BY THE EMIR MOZAFFAR-ED-DIN.
In the meantime affairs in Khokand had taken a different turn.
Musselman Kul had been put to death, and in his place Khudayar Khan
had been raised to the 'white felt.' At his first accession, the
latter showed great ardour and activity. He was engaged victoriously
in several combats with the Russians, who were pressing on from the
Jaxartes. Whilst he was thus occupied on the frontiers, Mollah Khan
was nominated Khan in his capital; but as he had only inconsiderable
forces to oppose to those of his rival, he thought it better to fly to
Bokhara, and seek the aid of the Emir Mozaffar-ed-din for the recovery
of his throne. This prince, immediately after the death of his father,
besieged the city Sheri-Sebz, which, in spite of the vengeance of
which it had already been the object, and the blood that had flowed
there, was again in open revolt. He was before the walls of
Tchiragtchi, a stronghold belonging to Sheri-Sebz, when the
intelligence reached him that the governor of Oratepe, a native of
Sheri-Sebz, had allied himself with the Khokandi, and that Mollah Khan
was already marching at their head against Djizzak.
The Emir Mozaffar-ed-din, urged on by his guest and _protegé_,
Khudayar Khan, could not restrain himself. He abandoned his position
before Sheri-Sebz, although he was pressing it hard, and rushed at the
head of 15,000 men against Khokand, whose Khan (Mollah Khan)
threatened, from his acknowledged ability, to prove a formidable
antagonist. Adopting the unscrupulous policy of his father,
Mozaffar-ed-din caused him to be assassinated in a conspiracy which
the Emir had himself set on foot. In the great confusion that ensued,
he next made himself master of the capital, and then set Khudayar at
the head of the government, after the legitimate heir, Shahmurad, had
fled to the Kiptchaks.
{395}
Khudayar Khan had scarcely exercised four months the royal functions
so new to him, when the Kiptchak, with Shahmurad at their head,
assailed, and forced him a second time to fly to Bokhara. The Emir,
seeing himself so slighted and mocked at in his character as
protector, hastily assembled all his forces to wreak his vengeance
upon Khokand in some exemplary manner; and after having sent on before
him Shahrukh Khan with 40,000 men, and Mehemmed Hasan Bey with thirty
pieces of artillery, he hastened after them himself, escorted by a few
hundred Tekke, with the fixed design not to return until he had
reduced under his sceptre all as far as the frontiers of China.
In Khokand the firm intention of the young Emir was well known, so
also was his cupidity; and he met, accordingly, with the most resolute
resistance. The Ulemas pronounced the Emir, who was invading their
country, to be Kafir (an unbeliever), and preached against him the
Djihad (war of religion). All flew to arms, but in vain. The Emir
attached to his own dominions not only Khokand, but all the territory
as far as the Chinese frontiers. The greatest resistance which he met
with was from the Kiptchaks, under their chieftain Alem Kul. These
were attacked by the Turkomans; and the combat that ensued must have
proved highly interesting, for two of the most savage of the primitive
races of Tartary stood there face to face. After the death of the Alem
Kul in the battle, his wife set herself at the head of the horde. The
war was continued; but at last a peace was made with the {396} Emir.
The Khanat, from which the conqueror had sent all the cannon, and
immense stores of arms and treasures, to Bokhara, was divided into two
parts. Khokand fell to the share of Sahmurad, the darling of the
Kiptchaks, Khodjend to Khudayar Khan. Mozaffar-ed-din returned to his
capital. I met him on his way thither on August 15, 1863.
Since this time, yet so recent, Khokand has probably experienced
several other changes. Similar dissensions formerly occurred between
Kashgar, Khoten, and Yarkend; and as those continued until all their
territory was incorporated by China, so is it here probable that
Russian occupation will soon put an end to these miserable civil wars.
{397}
CHAPTER XX.
CHINESE TARTARY.
APPROACH FROM WEST
ADMINISTRATION
INHABITANTS
CITIES.
The traveller who journeys on during twelve days in an easterly
direction from Oosh, will reach the Chinese territory at the point
where stands the city of Kashgar. The way thither leads him over a
mountainous country, where the Kiptchaks are wandering about with
their herds. No villages, it is said, ever existed in this district,
except in the time of Djenghis Khan, and then only here and there. At
the present day it is not possible to trace even their ruins. Places
blackened by fire and heaps of stones indicate the spots used by
travellers and karavans for their stations. Although the Kiptchaks are
wild and warlike, they do not attack solitary travellers. Large
karavans coming from China are bound to pay a moderate tribute, in
other respects no one is disturbed. At the distance of a single day's
journey from Kashgar one arrives at a blockhouse, the first post of
the Chinese, occupied by 10 soldiers and an accountant. No one is
permitted to proceed unless furnished with a pass drawn up by the
Aksakal in Namengan, who acts as a sort of paid agent for the Chinese.
After {398} the traveller has exhibited his pass, he is interrogated
in detail respecting everything that he has seen and heard in foreign
parts. The accountant makes two copies of the report, one is given to
the nearest post to be compared with the answer to a similar
interrogation there; this document is forwarded to the governor whom
it concerns. According to the statements of Hadji Bilal and my other
friends, in Chinese Tartary it is most advisable on such occasions to
employ the formula 'Belmey-men' (I know not). [Footnote 143] It is
not the practice to force a man to reply in detail, and indeed no one
has power to compel him to do so, and the accountant himself prefers
the shorter answer, which lightens the functions he has to perform.
[Footnote 143: The Chinese have besides a proverb quite in
accordance with this rule, for they say:
'Bedjidu yikha le
Djidu shi kha-le.'
'I know not, is one word; I know, is ten words,' that is to say,
'Saying "I know not," you have said everything; but saying "I know,"
your interrogator will put more questions, and you will have
necessarily more to say.']
Under the name of Chinese Tartary we generally understand that angular
point of the Chinese Empire that stretches away to its west towards
the central plateau of Asia, and which is bounded on the north by the
great hordes of Kirghis, and in the south by Bedakhshan, Cashemir, and
Thibet. The country from Hi to Köhne Turfan is said to have been
subject to the sovereignty of China for several centuries; but it is
only 150 years since Kashgar, Yarkend, Aksu, and Khoten have been
{399} incorporated. These cities had been continually at war with one
another, until several of the leading personages with the Yarkend
chief, Ibrahim Bey, at their head, desirous to put an end to the
dissensions, called in the Chinese, who, after long hesitating,
assumed the sovereignty, and have governed these cities upon a
different system from that in force in the other provinces of the
Celestial Empire.
_(a.) Administration._
As I heard from an authentic source (for as I have stated, my friend
and informant, Hadji Bilal, was the chief priest of the governor),
each of these provinces had two authorities, one Chinese and military,
the other Tartar-Musselman and civil. Their chiefs are equal in rank,
but the Tartar is so far subordinate to the Chinese that it is only
through the latter that one can communicate with the supreme authority
at Pekin. The Chinese officials inhabit the fortified part of the
city, and consist of
1. Anban, who is distinguished by a ruby button on his cap, and by a
peacock feather. His yearly salary is 36 Yambu, [Footnote 144] about
£800. Under him are the
[Footnote 144: A Yambu is a massive piece of silver with two ears or
handles, in form like our weights. In Bokhara it is taken for forty
Tilla.]
2. Da-lui, secretaries, four in number, of whom the first has the
superintendence of the correspondence, the second the administration
of the expenditure, the third the penal code, and the fourth the
police.
3. Dji-zo-fang, keeper of the archives.
{400}
The court of the supreme Chinese officer is denominated Ya-mun, and is
accessible at all times to every one who wishes to prefer his
complaint against any subordinate officer for maladministration, or in
any other case of supposed failure of justice. And here we meet with a
characteristic trait of Chinese government. Immediately before the
gate of the court stands a colossal drum; this every plaintiff strikes
once if his desire is to summon a secretary, whereas he must beat
twice if his intention is to see the Anban himself. Whether it be day
or night, summer or winter, the sound of distress must be attended to,
or at least very rarely is it neglected. Even in Europe such a mode of
summoning, I think, might be desirable in the case of many a drowsy
functionary of justice.
The Tartar-Musselman corps of officials intrusted with the
administration of justice in civil cases, with the collection of the
taxes and customs, or other such functions touching their domestic
concerns, and which do not devolve upon the Chinese authorities, are
as follows:--
1. Vang, or Hakim, upon the same footing as the Anban, both as to rank
and pay.
2. Haznadji, or Gaznadji as he is designated by the Tartars, who has
the control and inspection of the revenue.
3. Ishkaga (the word signifies doorkeeper), a sort of master of
ceremonies, chamberlain, and chief intendant.
4. Shang Beghi, a kind of secretary, interpreter, and functionary,
serving as medium between the Chinese and Musselman authorities.
{401}
5. Kazi Beg, the kadi or judge.
6. Örtengbeghi, postmaster, responsible for all the post-houses
existing in his district. The system of posts in the country has much
resemblance with the Persian Tchapar; the Government farms out certain
roads, and it is the duty of the postmaster to take care that the
farmers of them everywhere provide good horses for the public service.
The distance from Kashgar to Komul is reckoned 40 stations, which the
Örteng performs generally in 16, but on extraordinary emergencies, in
12 or even 10 days. From Komul to Pekin is counted 60 stations, which
may also be performed in 15 days, consequently the whole distance from
Kashgar to Pekin, which is a journey of 100 stations, is usually
performed by the courier in about a month. [Footnote 145]
7. Badjghir, collector of customs.
[Footnote 145: It is remarkable that the postilions, almost always
Kalmuks, are able to accomplish these sharp rides, consisting each
of thirty days and thirty nights, several times each year. With us
such a performance on horseback would be regarded as something
extraordinary. The ride of Charles XII. from Demotika to Stralsund,
and that of the Turkish courier, from Szigetvar (in Hungary, where
Solyman the Magnificent died) to Kutahia in eight days, are famous
in history. For the first see Voltaire's 'Life of Charles XII.,' and
for the second 'Saadeddin Tadj et Tevarikh.']
_(b.) Inhabitants._
The greater part of the population of Chinese Tartary, that is to say,
of the four provinces, occupy fixed habitations, and busy themselves
with agriculture. With respect to nationality, they style themselves
Özbegs, but the first glance detects their Kalmuk {402} origin.
Özbegs, in the sense understood in Bokhara and Khiva, have never
existed in Chinese Tartary. When the word is used here, it signifies a
mixed race that has sprung from the union of Kalmuks, who invaded the
country from the north, and of Kirghis, with the original inhabitants
of Persian race; and it deserves particular mention, that in places
where the ancient Persian population was thicker (now it has entirely
vanished), the Irani type is more dominant than in the contrary case.
Next to these pseudo-Özbegs come the Kalmuks and the Chinese. The
former are either military or lead the life of nomads; the latter, who
occupy themselves with commerce and handicrafts, are merely to be
found in the principal cities, and there only in insignificant
numbers. Lastly, we must also name the Tungani or Tongheni, who are
spread over the country from Ili to far beyond Komul. In nationality
they are Chinese; in religion, however, Musselmans, and belonging all
to the Shafeï sect. [Footnote 146] Tungani or Tongheni means, in the
dialect of Chinese Tartary, converts (in Osmanli Turkish, dönme), and,
as is confidently asserted, these Chinese, who count a million of
souls, were converted in the time of Timour by an Arabian adventurer,
who came with the above-named conqueror from Damascus to Central Asia,
and roamed about in Chinese Tartary as a wonder-working saint. These
Tungani distinguish themselves not only by their gross fanaticism, but
by their hate for those of their countrymen who are not Musselmans;
and in spite of their constituting the most advanced post of Islam on
the side of the East, they nevertheless send every year a strong
contingent of Hadjis to Mecca.
[Footnote 146: The Sunnites number four Mezheb (sects) amongst
themselves, i.e. Hanifeï, Shafeï, Maleki, and Hambali. All four
stand in equal estimation, and to give the preference to any one is
regarded as a sin.]
{403}
As for the general character of the population, I found the Chinese
Tartar honest, timid, and, to speak plainly, bordering upon stupidity;
his relation to the inhabitants of the other cities in Central Asia is
about the same as that of the Bokhariot to the Parisian or the
Londoner. Extremely modest in their aspirations, my fellow-travellers
have yet often delighted me by the enthusiastic terms which they used
when they spoke of their poor homes. The splendour and lavish
expenditure discernible in Roum and Persia, and even Bokhara,
displease them; and although they are governed by a people differing
from themselves in language and religion, still they prefer their own
to the Musselman government in the three Khanats. But it would really
seem as if they had no cause to be dissatisfied with the Chinese.
Every one from the age of fifteen years upwards, with the exception of
Khodjas (descendants of the Prophet) and Mollahs, pay to Government a
yearly capitation tax of five Tenghe (three shillings). The soldiers
[Footnote 147] are enlisted, but not by compulsion; and the Musselman
regiments have besides the advantage of remaining unmixed and forming
a single body, and, except in some little external points, [Footnote
148] are not in the slightest degree interfered with. {404} But the
higher officials do not escape so easily; they are obliged to wear the
dress prescribed to their rank, long moustaches, and pigtail; and,
most dreadful of all, they must on holidays appear in the Pagodas, and
perform a sort of homage before the unveiled portrait of the emperor,
by touching the ground three times with the forehead. The Musselmans
assert that their countrymen filling high offices hold on such
occasions, concealed between their fingers, a small scrap of paper,
with 'Mecca' written upon it, and that by this sleight of hand their
genuflection becomes an act of veneration, not to the sovereign of the
Celestial Empire, but to the holy city of the Arabian Prophet.
[Footnote 147: I am told, that there are at present in the four
districts of Chinese Tartary about 120,000 soldiers, forming the
garrisons of the four principal towns. One part of them, armed with
spear and sword, is called _Tchan-ping_, the others, who bear
muskets, are known by the designation of _Shüva_.]
[Footnote 148: Such, for instance, as (1) the robes being made to
reach the kaees, and of blue linen, a costume regarded by the
Musselmans with abhorrence as distinctive marks of the Chinese; (2)
the permitting the moustache to grow, whereas Islam rigidly enjoins
that the hair covering the upper lip shall be cut close.]
In social matters it is easy to conceive how two such discordant
elements as the Chinese and Musselmans live together. Warm friendly
relations seem, under the circumstances, impossible; but I fancy that
I can discern, nevertheless, that no peculiar animosity exists between
the two classes. The Chinese, who are the minority, never allow the
Tartars to feel that they are rulers, and the authorities distinguish
themselves by the greatest impartiality. As conversion to the dominant
religion is singularly displeasing to the Chinese, it is not
surprising that their efforts carefully tend not only to make the
Musselmans exact in the performance of their religious duties, but to
punish severely those who, in this respect, offend. Does a Musselman
omit to pray, the Chinese are wont to say {405} to him, 'Behold how
ungrateful thou art; we have some hundreds of gods, and, nevertheless,
we satisfy them all. Thou pretendest to have but one God, and yet that
one thou canst not content!' Even the Mollahs, as I often had occasion
to observe, extol the conscientiousness of the Chinese officials,
although they deal with their religion in the most unsparing terms.
So, also, the Tartars are never tired of praising the art and
cleverness of their rulers, and there is no end to their laudatory
strains when they once begin to speak upon the subject of the power of
the Djong Kafir (great unbelievers), i.e., the genuine Chinese.
[Footnote 149]
[Footnote 149: The taking of Pekin by the Anglo-French army has not
remained hidden from them. When I asked Hadji Bilal, how that was
reconcilable with the boasted omnipotence of the Chinese, he
observed, that the Frenghis had employed cunning, and had begun by
stupefying all the inhabitants of Pekin with opium, and then had
naturally and easily made their way into the slumbering city.]
And is it not again most astonishing that all the followers of
Islamism, including those who are farthest to the west, as well as
those to be found on its most distant eastern boundaries, whether
Turks, Arabs, Persians, Tartars, or Özbegs, ridicule and mock at their
own faults just in the same degree as they praise and extol the
virtues and merits of the nations not Mohammedan? This is the account
I heard everywhere. They admit that taste for the arts, humanity, and
unexampled love of justice are attributes of the Kafir (unbelievers),
and yet you hear them, with their eyes glancing fire, using an
expression like that attributed to a Frenchman, after the battle of
Rosbach, 'God be praised that I am a Musselman! [Footnote 150]
[Footnote 150: 'El hamdü lilla ena Müszlim.']
{406}
_(c. ) Cities._
Amongst the cities, of which we give a list in the account of routes
in Chinese Tartary, the most flourishing are Khoten and Yarkend. The
largest are Turfan Ili and Komul; and the objects of most pious
veneration, Aksu and Kashgar. In the last, which boasts 105 mosques
(probably, however, only mud huts destined for prayer), and twelve
Medresse, there is the venerated tomb of Hazreti Afak, the national
saint of Chinese Tartary. Hazreti Afak means 'his highness the
Horizon,' a phrase by which is meant to be expressed the infinity of
the talents of the saint. His actual name was Khodja Sadik. He
contributed much to form the religious character of the Tartars. It is
said that Kashgar originally was more considerable, and that its
population was more numerous, than is the case at present. This decay
is owing alone to the invasion of the Khokandi Khodja, who every year
surprise the city, drive the Chinese into their fortifications, and
remain there plundering and despoiling, until the besieged garrison
have despatched their formal interrogatory to Pekin, and have obtained
official permission to assume the offensive. The Khokandi Khodja, a
troop of greedy adventurers, have thus for years been in the habit of
plundering the city, and yet the Chinese never cease to be Chinese.
{407}
CHAPTER XXI.
COMMUNICATION OF CENTRAL ASIA WITH RUSSIA, PERSIA, AND INDIA
ROUTES IN THE THREE KHANATS AND CHINESE TARTARY.
Of all the foreign countries with which Central Asia is in relation,
Russia is that with which it has the most active correspondence.
(_a_) From Khiva the karavans proceed to Astrakhan and Orenburg,
whence many wealthy merchants reach Nishnei Novogorod, and even St.
Petersburg.
(_b_) From Bokhara an uninterrupted correspondence--particularly
active in summer--is kept up with Orenburg. This is the most usual
journey, and is performed in from fifty to sixty days. Extraordinary
circumstances may, indeed, render it longer or shorter; but except in
times of unusual disturbances amongst the Kirghis, even the smallest
karavans undertake it.
(_c_) From Tashkend karavans go to Orenburg and Kizil Djar
(Petropavlosk). They reach the first in from fifty to sixty days, and
the latter in from fifty to seventy. These are always the most
numerous karavans, the district they traverse being the most
dangerous.
{408}
(_d_) The route from Namengan and Aksu to Pulat (Semipalatinsk) is
frequented for the most part by Khokandi karavans, which proceed under
strong escort, and arrive at their destination in forty days. Solitary
travellers may pass among the Kirghis unmolested. Of course, I mean
when they travel like Dervishes. Many of my fellow-travellers had
performed the journey to Mecca by Semipalatinsk, Orenburg, Kasan, and
Constantinople.
Thus far I have spoken of the communications of Central Asia towards
the north. Towards the south they are far less important. Khiva is
accustomed to send one or two small karavans to Persia by the way of
Astrabad and Deregöz. Bokhara shows somewhat more activity; but no
karavans have passed by Merv to Meshed during the last two years, the
Tekke having interrupted all communication. The most frequented route
is by Herat, at which city the karavans separate, accordingly as they
proceed to Persia or Afghanistan and India. The way by Karshi and
Belkh to Kabul is only of secondary importance, because the
difficulties of surmounting the Hindukush offer constant and serious
obstacles, and during the last two years this route has not been much
frequented.
Besides the above-named communication on a great scale, we must
mention the slender thread of correspondence maintained by single
pilgrims or beggars from the most hidden parts of Turkestan with the
remotest parts of Asia. Nothing is more interesting than these
vagabonds, who leave their native nests without a farthing in their
pockets to journey for thousands of miles in countries of which they
previously hardly know the names; and amongst nations entirely
different from their own in physiognomy, {409} language, and customs.
Without further consideration, a poor inhabitant of Central Asia,
[Footnote 151] following the suggestions of one sole dream, betakes
himself to Arabia, and even to the most westerly parts of the Turkish
Empire. He has nothing to lose. He seeks to see the world, and so
follows blindly his instinct. The world I say, but I mean his world,
beginning with China, and ending with the limits of the Turkish
Empire. As for Europe, he admits, indeed, that it may be beautiful,
but he regards it as so filled with magic and diabolical arts that he
would never venture thither, even though he held in his hand the
surest thread to guide him on his way through so perilous a labyrinth.
[Footnote 151: I say poor, for the rich rarely submit to the toil
and inconvenience of a pilgrimage; but they have an expedient, for
they find deputies. Their representatives supplied with the
necessary funds are sent on to Mecca, where in their prayers they
substitute the name of the sender for their own, but the latter only
so far profits that he has the honour after his decease of having
engraved upon his tomb the affix to his name, 'Hadji.']
Experience convinced me that the farther we advance in Turkestan, the
greater is the disposition to perform these annual pilgrimages and
toilsome journeys. The number of the Hadjis proceeding yearly from
Khiva is, on an average, from ten to fifteen; from Bokhara, thirty to
forty; but from Khokand and Chinese Tartary, between seventy and
eighty. If we add thereto the rage of the Persians for pilgrimages to
the holy places in Meshed, Kerbela, Kom, and Mecca, it is impossible
not to be surprised at the great zeal in favour of such ramblings
still prevalent in Asia. The seed from which sprang the migration of
its ancient races, continues still to {410} exist, and but for the
civilisation of the West and its mighty influence, that press closely
upon Asia on all sides, who knows what revolutions might not already
have taken place!
THE ROUTES IN THE THREE KHANATS.
A.
Routes in the Khanat or Khiva and the adjacent Country.
1. _From Khiva to Gömüshtepe._
(a) Ortayolu, the middle of the three routes indicated by me in the
commencement of my work, and which I myself took, has the following
stations, and can be traversed easily on horseback in fourteen or
fifteen days.
1. Akyap.
2. Medemin.
3. Shor Göl (lake).
4. Kaplankir.
5. Dehli Ata.
6. Kahriman Ata.
7. Koymat Ata.
8. Yeti Siri.
9. Djenak.
10. Ulu Balkan.
11. Kitchig Balkan.
12. Kören Taghi (a mountain chain).
13. Kyzyl Takir.
14. Bogdayla.
15. Etrek.
16. Gömüshtepe.
(b) The route termed Tekke Yolu can be traversed on horseback in ten
days, and is said to consist of the following stations:--
1. Medemin.
2. Döden.
3. Shahsenem.
4. Ortakuju.
5. Alty Kuyruk.
6. Chirlalar.
7. Chin Mohammed.
8. Sazlik.
9. Etrek.
10. Gömüshtepe.
{411}
This route seems infested by the Turkoman Alamans; the reason appears
clear, because by the ordinary way they can go so rapidly over large
tracts of land.
2. _From Khiva to Meshed._
The routes are two: the one by Hezaresp and Deregöz southwards through
the desert (the traveller can perform this journey on horseback in
twelve days); the other way passes by Merv, and has the following
principal stations or wells:--
1. Dari. [Footnote 152]
2. Sagri.
3. Nemekabad.
4. Shakshak.
5. Shur ken.
6. Akyap.
7. Merv.
[Footnote 152: Dari is reached on the first day from Khiva.]
3. _From Khiva to Bokhara (a high road)_.
From To Farsz. Parasangs [2-4 miles]
Khiva Khanka 6
Khanka Shurakhan 5
Shurakhan Ak Kamish 6
Ak Kamish Töyeboyun 8
Töyeboyun Tünüklü 6
Tünüklü Utch udjak 10
Utch udjak Karaköl 10
Karaköl Bokhara 9
60
{412}
4. _From Khiva to Khokand._
There is a route through the desert without touching Bokhara. At
Shurakhan, one leaves the Khanat of Khiva, and reaches Khodjend
ordinarily in from ten to twelve days inclusive. The journey may,
however, be shortened by turning off to Djizzak. This was the route
taken by Conolly in company of a Khokandi prince, whom he had met in
Khiva.
5. _From Khiva to Kungrat and the Shore of the Aral Sea._
From To Tash or Farsz
Khiva Yenghi Urgendj 4
Yenghi Urgendj Görlen 6
Görlen Yenghi Yap 3
Yenghi Yap Khitai 3
Khitai Manghit 4
Manghit Kiptchak 1
Kiptchak Kamli 2
Kamli Khodja Ili 22 (desert)
Khodja Ili Kungrat 4
Kungrat Hekim Ata 4
Hekim Ata Tchortangöl 5
Tchortangöl Bozatav 10
Bozatav Shore of the Sea 5
Making together 73 Tash, a distance which, when the way is not in bad
condition, may be travelled in twelve stations.
6. _From Khiva to Kungrat, by Köhne._
From To Tash or Farsz.
Khiva Gazavat 3
Gazavat Tashhaus 7
Tashhaus Köktcheg 2
Köktcheg Kizil Takir 7
Kizil Takir Porsu 6
Porsu Köhne Urgendj 9
Köhne Urgendj Khodja Ili 6
{413}
And thence to Kungrat, as already mentioned, there are four Tash,
making together 44 Tash, a nearer way, consequently, than the one by
Görlen, but less eligible and less frequented. First, it is not safe;
and secondly, it is wearisome, on account of the desert and the route
itself.
7. _From Khiva to Fitnek._
From To Tash or Farsz.
Khiva Sheikh Mukhtar 3
Sheikh Mukhtar Bagat 3
Bagat Ishantchepe 2
Ishantchepe Hezaresp 2
Hezaresp Fitnek 6
16
Adding to this number the 73 already given in the sum of the distances
in route marked (5), we see that the greatest distance traversed by
the Oxus in the Khanat is not more than 89 Tash or Farszakhs.
{414}
B.
ROUTES IN THE KHANAT OF BOKHARA AND THE ADJACENT COUNTRY.
1. _From Bokhara to Herat._
From To Tash or Farsz.
Bokhara Khoshrobat 3
Khoshrobat Tekender 5
Tekender Tchertchi 5
Tchertchi Karahindi 5
Karahindi Kerki 7
Kerki Zeid (Well) 8
Zeid Andkhuy 10
Andkhuy Batkak 5
Batkak Maymene 8
Maymene Kaisar 4
Kaisar Narin 6
Narin Chikektu 6
Chikektu Kalé Veli 6
Kalé Veli Murgab 4
Murgab Derbend 3
Derbend Kalè No 8
Kalè No Sertcheshme 9
Sertcheshme Herat 6
Total 108
This distance can be travelled on horseback in from 20 to 25 days.
2. _From Bokhara to Merv._
The traveller must here first go to Tchardjuy, from which city there
are three different routes.
(_a_) By Rafatak. There is one well, and its distance is 45 Farszakhs.
{415}
(_b_) By Ütchhadji. Two wells, and distance 40 Farszakhs.
(_c_) By Yolkuyu. This is the route most to the east; the distance is
50 Farszakhs.
3. _From Bokhara to Samarcand (usual road)._
From To Farsz. Parasangs
Bokhara Mezar 5
Mezar Kermine R. 6
Kermine R. Mir 6
Mir Kette Kurgan 5
Kette Kurgan Daul 6
Daul Samarcand 4
32
This journey is performed by two-wheeled loaded carts in six days.
Mounted on a good horse, one may accomplish it in three: the couriers
take but two days, but they travel night and day.
4. _From Samarcand to Kerki._
From To Farsz.
Samarcand Robati Haus 3
Robati Haus Nayman 6
Nayman Shurkuduk 4
Shurkuduk Karshi 5
Karshi Feizabad 2
Feizabad Sengsulak 6
Sengsulak Kerki 6
32
{416}
5._From Samarcand to Khokand by Khodjend._
From To Farsz.
Samarcand Yenghi Kurgan 3
Yenghi Kurgan Djizzag 4
Djizzag Zamin 5
Zamin Djam 4
Djam Savat 4
Savat Oratepe 2
Oratepe Nau 4
Nau Khodjend 4
Khodjend Karaktchikum 4
Karaktchikum Mehrem 2
Mehrem Besharik 5
Besharik Khokand 5
46
This journey takes eight days in a cart (two-wheeled), and may be much
shortened by going straight from Oratepe to Mehrem, which requires
only eight hours, so that there is a gain of six Tash.
6. _From Samarcand to Tashkend and the Russian Frontiers._
From To Tash
Samarcand Yenghi Kurgan 3
Yenghi Kurgan Djizzag 4
Djizzag Djinas 16
Djinas Zenghi Ata 4
Zenghi Ata Tashkend 6
33
Five days' journey farther on from here is, as I learnt from the
accounts of many different persons, the first Russian fort and post of
the Cossacks.
{417}
ROUTES IN THE KHANAT OF KHOKAND.
1. _From Khokand to Oosh (a straight road)._
From To Tash
Khokand Karaultepe 5
Karaultepe Mergolan 5
Mergolan Sherikhan 4
Sherikhan Endigan 3
Endigan Oosh 4
19
The journey can be performed in two-wheeled carts in four days.
2. _From Khokand to Oosh (by Namengan)_.
From To Tash
Khokand Bibi Uveida 3
Bibi Uveida Sehri Menzil 2
Sehri Menzil Kirghis kurgan 4
Kirghis kurgan Namengan 4
Namengan Üsch kurgan 3
Üsch kurgan Gömüshtepe 5
Gömüshtepe Oosh 4
25
Besides these two principal roads, there is a mountainous route from
Tashkend to Namengan; offering, however, many perilous places, which
entail the necessity of much laborious exertion. Although the distance
is only 45 miles, one requires ten days to {418} traverse it. It
passes by the following places: Toy Tepe, Karakhitai Tilav, Koshrobat,
Mollamir, Babatarkhan, Shehidan (where the Russians were defeated by
Mehemmed Ali Khan), Kamishkurgan, Pnngan, Haremseray, Uygur, Pop,
Seng, Djust, Törekurgan, Namengan.
D.
ROUTES IN CHINESE TARTARY.
The distance from _Kashgar_ to _Yarhend_ is reckoned 36 miles (Tash),
journeyed over by karavans and carts in seven days. On the third day
from Kashgar, the traveller reaches a place called Yenghi Hissar,
which is occupied by a strong garrison of soldiers.
From _Kashgar_ to _Aksu_, the distance is 70 miles; a karavan takes to
perform it twelve days.
From _Aksu_ to _Ushturban_, lying to the south, the traveller requires
two days.
Proceeding still farther to the east, we reach Komul in twenty-eight
days, as follows:--
From To Days' Journey
Aksu Bay 3
Bay Saram 1
Saram Kutcha 2
Kutcha Shiar 2
Shiar Bögür 4
Bögür Kurli 3
Kurli Kohne Turfan 8
Kohne Turfan Komul 3
26
Adding twelve days for the journey from Kashgar to Aksu, this makes,
for the whole distance from the latter city, forty days.
{419}
CHAPTER XXII.
GENERAL VIEW OF AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADE.
AGRICULTURE
DIFFERENT KINDS OF HORSES
SHEEP
CAMELS
ASSES
MANUFACTURES
PRINCIPAL SEATS OF TRADE
COMMERCIAL ASCENDANCY OF RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA.
_(a.) Agriculture._
Taken altogether, it is incredible how fertile all the cultivable land
is in these three Khanats, which rise like oases out of the monstrous
deserts of Central Asia. In spite of the primitive system of culture
adopted, fruit and corn are luxuriantly abundant, one might even say,
in many places, superabundant. The excellence of the fruit in Khiva
has been already mentioned; and although Bokhara and Khokand cannot be
placed, in this respect, in the same rank with Khiva, the following
produce of those Khanats deserve, nevertheless, mention, e.g., the
grapes, of extraordinary excellence (of which there are ten kinds),
the 'magnificent pomegranates,' and particularly the apricots, which
are exported in immense quantities to Persia, Russia, and Afghanistan.
Corn is met with everywhere in the three Khanats, and is of five
kinds: wheat, barley, Djugheri (Holcus saccharatus), millet, (Tarik),
and rice. The best wheat and Djugheri are {420} said to be found in
Bokhara and Khiva, a genial soil; whereas Khokand is in high repute
for millet. Barley is nowhere of very good quality, and is made use
of, either alone or mixed with Djugheri, as fodder for horses.
In cattle-breeding the inhabitants of Turkestan concentrate their
attention on three animals alone, namely, the horse, the sheep, and
the camel.
The horse is regarded by the Central Asiatic as his _alter ego_.
Different races are met with here, possessing too different qualities
and excellences. Volumes might be written to show how it is reared,
and what are its varieties; but this not being my province, I will
confine myself to a few observations. As countless as the stocks and
branches of the nomads themselves, so countless are the races and
families of their horses. The following classification deserves to be
noted:--
(1) The Turkoman horse: and here a main distinction exists between the
Tekke and the Yomut breeds. The former, of which the favourite races
are the Körogli and the Akhal, are distinguished by extraordinary
height (sixteen to seventeen hands). They are slightly built, have
handsome heads, majestic carriage, wonderful speed, but no bottom. The
latter, those of the Yomuts, are smaller, finely formed, and unite
speed with unparalleled endurance and strength. [Footnote 153] In
general, the Turkoman horse is distinguished by a slender barrel, thin
tail, handsome head and neck (it is a pity that the mane is cut off),
{421} and a particularly fine and glossy coat; the latter quality is
owing to its being kept covered, summer and winter, with several
housings of felt. With respect to the value, a good Turkoman horse may
be had at a price varying from one hundred to three hundred ducats,
but never under thirty ducats.
[Footnote 153: I have seen many horses of this description which had
carried each his Turkoman rider with a slave behind him in the
saddle at a constant rapid gallop for thirty hours.]
(2) The Özbeg horse resembles the Yomut, but its form is more compact,
and denotes more power; its neck short and thick, rather suited, like
our hacks, for journeys than serviceable in war or Alamans.
(3) The Kasak horse, in a half wild state, small, with long hair,
thick head, and heavy feet. He is seldom fed by hand, but is
accustomed to seek himself his subsistence, summer and winter, in the
pastures.
(4) The Khokandi sumpter or cart-horse is a cross between the Özbeg
and the Kasak breeds, and is remarkable for its great strength. Of
these four races, the genuine Turkoman horses have only been exported
to Persia, and the Özbeg horses to Afghanistan and India.
The sheep is everywhere of the race with fat tails; the finest are met
with in Bokhara. Its flesh is the best I have tasted in the East.
There are three kinds of camels, the one-humped and the two-humped,
the latter called by us the Bactrian, and only met with amongst the
Kirghis, and the Ner, of which we have already spoken when treating of
Andkhuy.
Finally, I must not omit to mention the asses. The finest are those of
Bokhara and Khiva. Of these the Hadjis export yearly many to Persia,
Bagdad, Damascus, and Egypt.
{422}
_(b.) Manufactures._
Two hundred years ago, when Turkey was less accessible to our European
commerce than is the case at the present day, the native manufactures
of Engürü (Angora), Broussa, Damascus, and Aleppo were certainly more
active. Central Asia is even now far more remote from us than was
Turkey in the times alluded to; our trade there is still very weakly
represented--the consequence is that the greater part of the articles
requisite for clothing or household purposes are the produce of native
industry, of which we will give in this place a short account.
The principal seats of Central Asiatic manufactures are Bokhara,
Karshi, Yenghi Ürgendj, Khokand, and Namengan. Out of these cities
come the different stuffs, whether of cotton, silk, or linen, as well
as the articles manufactured from leather, which supply the native
demand. The principal and most widely-diffused material is the
so-called Aladja, a stuff employed for the dresses of man and woman.
In Khiva it is woven of cotton and raw silk, in Bokhara and Khokand of
cotton alone. As there are no distinct tailors' shops, the
manufacturer busies himself also with the scissors and the needle, so
that a great part of the produce consists in ready-made clothes. When
we were in Bokhara, the high prices of clothing were a general
complaint. The following were those then current:--
{423}
[Prices in Tenghe]
Dresses 1st Class 2nd Class 3rd Class
Khivan 30 20 8
Bokhariot 20 12 8
Khokandi 12 8 5
Besides the Aladja, they fabricate stuffs of silk, woollen shawls for
turbans, linen, for the most part very coarse and bad, and from the
latter a sort of calico, with dark red figures, used as coverlets for
bedding throughout Turkestan and Afghanistan.
In the manufacture of leather they are famous; they excel us in the
preparation of shagreen ('Sagri' in the Tartar language), which, as is
well known, is green, with little elevations like bladders. With the
exception of Russia leather--which they import from that country, and
employ in fashioning their water-skins--their coverings for the feet,
and their harness and accoutrements for horses, are manufactured of
native leather. Bokhara and Khokand produce these articles of the best
quality. Khiva has only one kind of thick yellow leather, employed
both for soles and upper leather. Of fine leather they prepare the
Meskh (under-shoes like stockings); and of the coarser kinds, the
Koush, or upper galoshes.
Paper manufactured in Bokhara and Samarcand enjoys a high repute
throughout Turkestan and the adjoining countries. It is made of raw
silk, is very smooth and thin, and well adapted for the Arabic {424}
writing. Articles of iron and steel, as the raw material is wanting,
are only weakly represented. The rifled guns from Hezaresp, the swords
and knives from Hissar, Karshi, and Djust, are in great renown.
An important manufacture of Central Asia, which reaches us in Europe
by way of Persia and Constantinople, is that of carpets, which is,
however, the exclusive product of the industry and skill of the
Turkoman women. Besides the beautifully pure colouring and solidity of
the texture, what most surprises us is how these simple nomad women
preserve so well the symmetry of the outline of figures, and even
betray often a better taste than many manufacturers in Europe. One
carpet gives work always for a number of girls and young women. An old
woman places herself at their head as directress. She first traces,
with points, the pattern of the figures in the sand. Glancing at this,
she gives out the number of the different threads required to produce
the desired figures. In the next place, the workers in felt demand
notice, but the Kirghis women here distinguish themselves most.
_(c.) Trade._
As it was before mentioned, in the chapter respecting the mode of
communication, that Russia maintains the most extensive and regular
relations with Central Asia, so also must it be stated that it is
Russian trade which deserves to be styled the most ancient and the
most considerable. It is a trade ever on the increase, and, at least
in this field, remains without a rival. The extraordinary progress
which it has made in these regions is best seen from the following
most {425} authentic data. M. de Khanikoff [Footnote 154] states, in
his work published in 1843, that every year a number of from five to
six thousand camels is employed in the transport trade; that goods are
imported into Russia from Central Asia to the value of from three to
four millions of roubles; and that the export trade, which in 1828
amounted to £23,620, had risen, in 1840, to £65,675 16_s_. This
estimate applies to the years from 1828 to 1845. Her Majesty's
Secretary of Embassy at St. Petersburg, Mr. T. Saville Lumley, in his
Report upon the Russian trade with Central Asia, drawn up with great
industry and ability, informs us that, in the period from 1840 to
1850, the export trades rose to £1,014,237, and the import trade to
£1,345,741. [Footnote 155]
[Footnote 154: See the English translation of his work by the Baron
Bode, 1850. Madden.]
[Footnote 155: The Report above alluded to furnishes itself all the
necessary details: we have appended them as given by Mr. Lumley
himself.]
_Table of the Trade between Russia and the Countries of Central Asia
for the Decennial Period from 1840 to 1850._
EXPORTED.
[Amounts in Pounds Sterling]
Bokhara Khiva Kokan Total
Specie, gold and silver 213,969 15,210 375 229,554
Copper 45,776 1,856 2,043 49,675
Iron, hardware, various metals 82,127 9,331 10,979 102,437
Cotton, manufactures in 156,707 58,915 7,559 223,181
Wool, ditto 50,467 25,869 1,976 78,312
Silk, ditto 10,550 4,799 71 15,420
Leather 81,543 37,921 4,069 123,533
Wooden ware 8,595 460 826 9,881
Dye-stuffs and colours 48,635 17,904 693 67,232
Miscellaneous goods 85,416 27,567 2,031 115,012
Total 783,785 199,830 30,622 1,014,237
{426}
Even without these data, a glance alone at the bazaars of Bokhara,
Khiva, and Karshi would suffice to convince us of the importance of
this branch of Russian trade; and it is by no means any exaggeration
to assert that there is no house, and even no tent, in all Central
Asia where there is not some article of Russian manufacture. The most
important trade is carried on in cast iron, for the most part
consisting of kettles and water cans, and imported from South Siberia;
but particularly from the manufactories in the Ural Mountains. In the
trade with Bokhara, Tashkend, and Khiva alone, more than three
thousand camels are employed in the transport of this one article.
After cast iron come raw iron and brass, Russian cotton goods,
cambric, muslins, tea-kettles, army and miscellaneous cutlery.
IMPORTED.
[Amounts in Pounds Sterling]
Bokhara Khiva Kokan Total
Cotton, raw and twist 333,177 76,255 2,718 412,150
Cotton, manufactures in 498,622 88,960 14,180 601,802
Silk, raw, and
manufactures in 17,443 3,088 160 20,691
Wool, manufactures in 428 1,322 52 1,802
Madder 7,351 26,201 7 33,559
Furs, lamb-skins 151,773 6,297 1,995 160,065
Precious stones and pearl 17,856 703 ... 18,559
Fruit, dried 27,784 2,147 16,883 44,814
Shawls, Cashmere 24,242 ... ... 24,242
Miscellaneous goods 19,664 4,452 3,941 28,057
Total 1,096,380 209,425 39,936 1,345,741
For further details see 'Reports by Her Majesty's Secretaries of
Embassy and Legation on the Manufactures, Commerce, &c.,' 1862, No. V.
p. 313.
{427}
Cloth, from its high price, meets with few purchasers, and is seldom
found. The before-named articles are transported from Bokhara and
Karshi, not only to the remaining parts of Turkestan, but to Maymene
and Herat, and even as far as Kandahar and Kabul. The latter two
cities are, indeed, nearer to Peshawur and Karatchi; but give,
nevertheless, the preference to the Russian merchandise, although far
inferior to that of England.
The circumstance may seem surprising to the reader, and yet the
reasons are simple. Orenburg is just as distant from Bokhara as
Karatchi, which, being in the Indian territory of Great Britain, might
form the outpost of English commerce. The route thence by Herat to
Central Asia would be far more practicable and more convenient than
that leading through the desert to Russia. That the English trade is
here supplanted by the Russian is, in my humble opinion, to be
ascribed to the following causes:--(1) The commercial relations of
Russia with Tartary are now several centuries old, and in comparison
with it that of England deserves to be denominated new, and it is
notorious how tenaciously Orientals cling to old usages and customs.
(2) The Russians occupying adjoining frontiers, in matters affecting
the taste and requisitions of the Central Asiatics, are more
experienced than the English manufacturers of Birmingham, Manchester,
and Glasgow, &c., an evil only to be remedied by European travellers
being able to move about more freely in these regions than is the case
at the present day, when journeys, not only in Bokhara, {428} but even
in Afghanistan, are attended by so much risk and peril. (3) The Herat
route, in spite of its possessing every element of convenience, has
very much to deter foreign merchants, in consequence of the organised
system of what may be styled bandit governments, as may be seen from
what was before said upon the subject. [Footnote 156]
[Footnote 156: See Chapter XIV.]
Besides these commercial relations with Russia, Turkestan maintains
also others, almost uninterruptedly, by the way of Herat with Persia,
whither it sends lambs' wool, dried fruit, materials for red
colouring, and certain native stuffs, receiving in exchange a great
quantity of opium [Footnote 157] from Meshed, some English wares
through the house of Ralli & Company, sugar and cutlery. There is a
route from Meshed to Bokhara which can be performed in ten days, but
the karavans are forced to take the circuitous way by Herat, which
requires thrice as much time. From Kabul is exported to Bokhara a sort
of cotton shawl, with blue and white stripes, called by the Tartars
Pota, and by the Afghans Lunghi. It is used universally for summer
turbans, and looks like an English manufacture, which may perhaps be
imported by way of Peshawar; it is the only article having a good
sale, because in accordance with the national taste. The Kabuli
besides bring indigo and different kinds of spices, receiving in
return Russian calicoes, tea, and paper. {429}
[Footnote 157: Opium, called here Teryak, is prepared in the
south-eastern part of Persia as follows:--The head of the poppy has
incisions made in it lengthways on three of its sides at a fixed
time in the evening, and when only half ripe. The next morning after
it has been so cut a dew-like substance shows itself at the place;
this must be removed before sunrise, and, after having been boiled,
the resulting product is the Teryak. It is singular that from the
three places where the poppy has been cut issue substances of
different quality, and of these that in the middle is most
esteemed.]
With China there is only an insignificant trade in tea and porcelain;
but these articles are quite different from those seen in Europe. The
Chinese seldom set foot over the frontier, the communication here
being almost entirely kept up by Kalmucks and Musselmans.
Lastly, let me not omit to allude to the trade carried on in Persia,
India, Arabia, and Turkey, by the Hadjis. The reader may think that I
am jesting; but still my experience justifies me in saying that this
also merits the name of commercial transaction. The fifty or sixty
Hadjis who came with me from Central Asia to Herat transported with
them about forty dozens of silk handkerchiefs from Bokhara, about two
thousand knives, thirty pieces of silk stuff from Namengan, a large
quantity of Khokandi Dappi (caps upon which the turban is wound), &c.
These were the Hadjis upon one route only. As for the imports, account
must also be held of the Hadjis; for it is very easy to understand
that the largest part of the European cutlery that finds its way to
Central Asia has been introduced by them.
{430}
CHAPTER XXIII.
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL POLITICAL RELATIONS OF CENTRAL ASIA.
INTERNAL RELATIONS BETWEEN BOKHARA, KHIVA, AND KHOKAND
EXTERNAL RELATIONS WITH TURKEY, PERSIA, CHINA, AND RUSSIA.
_(a.) Internal Relations._
From what I have said in the previous pages upon the subject of the
recent history of Khiva and Khokand, one may form a tolerably good
idea of the terms upon which the different Khanats live with each
other. I will, nevertheless, here collect a few facts to render it
easier to appreciate the whole situation.
Let us begin with Bokhara. This Khanat, which, even previously to the
introduction of Islamism, played a capital part, has, notwithstanding
all the revolutions that have since occurred, always preserved its
superiority, and it is regarded at the present day as the cradle of
the civilisation of Central Asia. Khokand and Khiva, as well as the
other small Khanats to the south, and even Afghanistan itself, have
never ceased to recognise its spiritual supremacy. They praise and
extol the Mollahs as well as the Islamite learning: of the 'noble
Bokhara;' but their love of it extends only thus far, for all attempts
made by the Emirs of {431} Bokhara to make use of their spiritual
influence to increase their political power have failed of success,
not only in the Khanats but even in the respective cities.
Near-sighted politicians might infer, from the wars carried on by the
Emir Nasrullah with Khiva and Khokand, that Bokhara, from apprehension
of a Russian invasion, is disposed to organise an alliance by means
gentle or foul. But this is not the case. Bokhara had never any such
plans. The campaigns of the Emir are but predatory expeditions; and I
am firmly convinced that should Russia proceed actively to carry out
her designs on Central Asia, the three Khanats, so far from giving
each other any mutual support in the moment of peril, would by their
dissensions furnish the common enemy with the very best arms against
themselves. Khiva and Khokand are then to be regarded as the constant
enemies of Bokhara: still Bokhara does not look for any serious danger
in those quarters, and the only rival that she really fears in Central
Asia is one that is day by day becoming more formidable to
her--Afghanistan.
That this fear reached its highest point during the victorious march
of Dost Mohammed Khan towards the Oxus, need scarcely be mentioned.
Emir Nasrullah was well aware that he should never be forgiven by the
aged Afghan for his infamous jest played upon him, or rather his son,
when the latter sought his hospitality in Bokhara; [Footnote 158] and
as it was affirmed that Dost Mohammed had been reconciled with the
English, and had become even an English mercenary, the apprehension of
the Emir was still further increased by the {432} suspicion that he
was but a tool in the hands of the English to avenge the bloody deaths
of Conolly and Stoddart. Dark, indeed, must the pictures have been of
the future destiny of his Khanat, that the Tartar tyrant carried with
him into his grave. Not less was the apprehension entertained by his
son and successor, the reigning Emir, on his accession.
Mozaffar-ed-din was in Khokand when the intelligence reached him of
the death of Dost Mohammed. The messenger received a present of 1000
Tenghe; the very same day a festival was improvised, and in the
evening the Emir, to complete the number of his legal wives, took to
his bed his fourth spouse, the youngest daughter of Khudayar Khan. The
great dread has, indeed, passed away, but a feeling of 'respect'
continues still to exist; for in Bokhara it is very well known that
the Afghans, as fruit of the alliance with England, can now dispose of
some thousands of well-drilled regular troops.
[Footnote 158: See Ferrier's 'History of the Afghans,' p. 336.]
Conscious of the superiority of the Afghans, and its own inability to
cope with them, it is the policy of Bokhara to do them as much harm as
possible by their intrigues. As the Afghans have allied themselves
with England it is not difficult to decry them throughout Turkestan as
apostates from Islam, and consequently during the last few years the
commercial intercourse with Kabul has much diminished. As before
mentioned, the Tekke and Salor stand constantly in the pay of Bokhara.
At the siege of Herat it was a matter of great surprise to the aged
Dost that, in spite of all the presents which he made to them, the
Turkomans continued to molest him, and to carry off prisoners even
from his own army. He had quite forgotten his real enemies--the gold
pieces of Bokhara; for the sympathies of the Turkomans are ever with
those that pay best. Thus far of the internal policy of Bokhara.
{433}
Khiva has been much enfeebled by the continual wars it has had to
maintain with its own tributaries--who are ever ready to renew the
contest--the Yomuts, Tchaudors, and Kasaks. The superiority of numbers
is on the side of Bokhara; and if the Emir has hitherto been unable to
conquer Khiva, the sole cause is the bravery of the Özbeg population.
Allahkuli was, as I heard, the first who sent an ambassador to Bokhara
and Khokand (probably it was at the suggestion of Conolly), in order
to organise a system of mutual aid and defensive alliance against that
power of Russia which was ever on the increase. Not only did Bokhara
decline to enter into such alliance, but it even evinced a disposition
to enter into relations with Russia. Khokand, on the other hand, as
well as Shehri Sebz, and Hissar (cities which were then at war with
the Emir), declared their readiness to adhere to the proposition of
Khiva. But this union never assumed any other form but that of a wish,
never was carried into effect; and how difficult its realisation would
be is best shown by an ancient Arab proverb, adopted by the Central
Asiatics as descriptive of their own national character, and which is
to the following effect: 'In Roum are blessings, in Damascus
beneficence, in Bagdad science; but in Turkestan nought but rancour
and animosity.' [Footnote 159]
[Footnote 159: 'El bereket fi Rum el muruvet fi Sham el ilm fi
Bagdad, el togz ve adavet fi Mavera ül-nehr.']
{434}
Khokand, owing to the continual dissensions between the Kiptchaks,
Kirghis, and Kasaks, is a prey to the same evil as Khiva. When we add
to this the unexampled cowardice of its Özbeg inhabitants, it will no
longer appear surprising if, in spite of its having the greatest
population and the most extensive territory of the three Khanats, it
has, nevertheless, been continually conquered by Bokhara.
_(b.) External Relations._
In its political relations with foreign countries, Central Asia, comes
only in contact with Turkey, Persia, China, and Russia.
The Sultan of Constantinople is regarded as Chief of Religion and
Khalif, and as it was the practice in the middle ages for the three
Khanats of Turkestan to receive, as badges of investiture from the
Khalif of Bagdad, a sort of court office, this old system of etiquette
has not been abandoned even at the present day; and the princes, on
their accession to the throne, are wont still to solicit, through the
medium of an extraordinary embassy to Stamboul, these honorary
distinctions. The Khan of Khiva assumes his rank as Cupbearer, the
Emir of Bokhara as Reis (guardian of religion), and the Khan of
Khokand as Constable. These courtly functions have always been in high
estimation, and I have been informed that the different functionaries
fulfil formally once every year the corresponding duties. But the bond
that unites them with Constantinople goes thus far, and no farther.
The Sultans cannot exercise any political influence upon the three
Khanats. The inhabitants of Central Asia, indeed, are in the habit of
associating with the word Roum (as Turkey is here called) all the
power and splendour of ancient Rome, {435} with which, in the popular
opinion, it is identified; but the princes seem to have seen through
this illusion, nor would they be disposed to recognise the paramount
grandeur of the Sultan unless the Porte associated its 'Firman of
Investiture,' or its 'Licences to Pray,' with the transmission of some
hundreds or thousands of piastres. In Khiva and Khokand these Firmans
from Constantinople continue to be read with some demonstration of
reverence and respect. The former Khanat was represented in
Constantinople during a period of ten years, by Shükrullah Bay; the
latter, during the reign of Mollah Khan, had only four years ago an
ambassador, Mirza Djan, at the court of the Sultan. These envoys were,
in accordance with ancient usages, sometimes maintained for long
periods of years at the cost of the State, a charge not altogether
convenient as far as its budget for foreign affairs was concerned, but
nevertheless altogether essential and necessary to the pretension to a
spiritual superiority in Asia.
The Ottoman Empire could only have gained effectual political
influence in these remote regions of the East when it was roused from
its slumbering Oriental existence before the time of Peter the Great.
In its character of Turkish dynasty, the house of Osman might, out of
the different kindred elements with which it is connected by the bond
of common language, religion, and history, have founded an empire
extending from the shore of the Adriatic far into China, an empire
mightier than that which the great Romanoff was obliged to employ not
only force but cunning to put together, out of the most discordant and
heterogeneous materials. {436} Anatolians, Azerbaydjanes, Turkomans,
Özbegs, Kirghis, and Tartars are the respective members out of which a
mighty Turkish Colossus might have arisen, certainly better capable of
measuring itself with its greater northern competitor than Turkey such
as we see it in the present days.
With _Persia_, its nearest neighbour, Khiva and Bokhara interchange
ambassadors but rarely. The fact that Persia avows the principles of
the Shiite sect, forms in itself just such a wall of separation
between these two fanatical nations as Protestantism created between
the two great classes of Christians in Europe three centuries ago. To
this feeling of religious animosity let us add, also, the traditional
enmity between the Iranian and Turanian races that has become matter
of history, and we may then easily form an idea of the gulf that
separates the sympathies of nations that nature has made inhabitants
of adjoining countries. Persia, which, according to the natural course
of events, should form the channel to convey to Turkestan the benefits
of modern civilisation, is far from producing there even the slightest
effect. Powerless to defend even her own frontiers from the Turkomans,
the disgraceful defeat she sustained, as before mentioned, at Merv, in
an expedition directed, in fact, against Bokhara, has utterly
destroyed her prestige. Her power is the object of very little
apprehension in the three Khanats, for the Tartars affirm that God
gave the Persians head (understanding) and eyes, but no heart
(courage).
{437}
With respect to _China_, its political relations with Central Asia are
so rare and insignificant, that they scarcely merit any mention. Once,
perhaps, in a century a correspondence takes place. The Emirs are in
the habit of sending occasionally envoys to Kashgar, but the Chinese,
on their side, never venture so far into Turkestan as Bokhara. With
Khokand negotiations take place more frequently, but it sends only
functionaries of inferior rank to the Musselman barbarians.
With _Russia_ political relations are upon a very different footing.
Having been for centuries in possession of the countries that border
upon the deserts of Turkestan on the north, an extensive commercial
intercourse has rendered Russia more observant of what is going on in
the three Khanats than their other neighbours, and has caused a series
of efforts of which the only possible termination seems to be their
complete occupation. The very obstacles which nature has interposed
have rendered, indeed, the progress of Russia slow, but perhaps her
progress is only on that account the more certain. The three Khanats
are the only members now wanting to that immense Tartar kingdom that
Ivan Vasilyevitch (1462-1505) imagined, and which he began actually to
incorporate with his Russian dominions, and which, since the time of
Peter the Great, has been the earnest though silent object of his
successors.
In the Khanats themselves this Russian policy has not passed entirely
unnoticed. Princes and people are well aware of the danger that
threatens them, and it is only Oriental indifference and religious
enthusiasm that lull them in the fond sleep of security. {438} The
majority of the Central Asiatics with whom I conversed upon this
subject, contented themselves by observing that Turkestan has two
strong defences: (1) the great number of saints who repose in its
territory, under the constant protection of the 'noble Bokhara;' (2)
the immense deserts by which it is surrounded. Few men, and these only
merchants, who have resided long in Russia, would regard a change in
their government with indifference, for although they have the same
detestation for everything that is not Mohammedan, yet, at the same
time, they never cease to extol the love of justice and the spirit of
order that distinguish the 'Unbelievers.'
{439}
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE RIVALRY OF THE RUSSIANS AND ENGLISH IN CENTRAL ASIA.
ATTITUDE OF RUSSIA AND ENGLAND TOWARDS CENTRAL ASIA
PROGRESS OF RUSSIA ON THE JAXARTES.
Rivalry between England and Russia in Central Asia I heard in England,
on my return, affirmed to be an absurdity. 'Let us,' it was said,
'hear no more of a question so long ago worn out and out of fashion.
The tribes of Turkestan are wild, rude, and barbarous; and it is a
matter upon which we congratulate ourselves, if Russia takes upon
herself the onerous and meritorious task of civilisation in those
regions. England has not the slightest cause to watch such a policy
with envy or jealousy.'
Full of horror at the scenes of cruelty witnessed by me in Turkestan,
of which I have endeavoured to give a faint sketch in the preceding
pages, I long argued over the question with myself, whether these
political views which men sought to instill into me were really in
every respect well founded. It is clear, and, indeed, has long been
so, to my mind, that Christian civilisation, incontestably the noblest
and most glorious attribute that ever graced human society, would be a
benefit to Central Asia. The part, however, of {440} the question that
has a political bearing I could not so easily dispose of; for although
I regard the subject in all its different points of view, and drive my
conjectures ever so far, I can never entirely realise the idea that
England can behold with indifference any approach of Russia to her
Indian dominions.
The epoch of political Utopias is past. We are far from being so
inspired with a Russophobia as to regard the time as at hand when the
Russian Cossack and the English Sepoy shall knock their noses together
while acting as sentinels upon their respective frontiers. The drama
of a collision of the two great colossi in Central Asia, which
political dreamers imagined years ago, continues still far from actual
performance. The question moves, it is true, slowly, but still always
in a forward direction. Let me, following the natural course of
events, without undue warmth endeavour to acquaint the reader with the
motives that influence me when I disapprove of the indifference of the
English to the Russian policy in Central Asia.
In the first place, let us enquire whether Russia is really pressing
on towards the south; and if so, what, up to the present moment, has
been the extent of her actual advance. Until twenty-five years ago,
very little attention had been devoted to Russian policy in Central
Asia. The occupation of Afghanistan by the English, and the
Russo-Persian alliance and expedition against Khiva, were the causes
that first led to the subject of Turkestan being touched upon in the
diplomatic correspondence between the cabinets of St. Petersburg and
London. Since that time a tolerable calm has ensued. England,
discouraged by {441} the failure of her plans, withdrew at once, but
Russia still keeps silently advancing, and essential changes have
taken place with respect to her frontiers on the side of Turkestan. On
the western part of Central Asia--for instance, on the Sea of Aral and
its shores--Russian influence has considerably increased. With the
exception of the mouth of the Oxus, the entire west of the Aral Sea is
recognised Russian territory. Upon that sea itself there are, at this
day, three steamers to which the Khan of Khiva has given permission to
advance as far as Kungrat. [Footnote 160] It is given out that they
are there to protect their fisheries; but they may probably have
another destination, and every one in Khiva knows that the recent
revolutions in Kungrat, as well as other frequent skirmishes between
Kasaks and Özbegs, have a certain connection with these fishing boats.
But these are only secondary plans. The real line of operations is
rather to be sought along the left bank of the Jaxartes. Here we find
the Russian outposts supported by an uninterrupted chain of forts and
walls, pushed on as far as Kale Rehim, distant thirty-two miles from
Tashkend, which city may, as I have remarked, be regarded as a key to
all conquests in Central Asia. This route, which traverses fewer
deserts than any other, is also in different respects {442} well
chosen. An army would be here exposed, indeed, to more surprises; but
these can be resisted more easily than the fury of the elements. On
the eastern frontiers of Khokand also, beyond Namengan, the Russians
continue to move nearer and nearer; and in the time of Khudayar Khan
many collisions had already taken place there between the Khokandi and
the Russians.
[Footnote 160: That the Russian vessels do not pass higher up the
Oxus is alone attributable to the numerous sandbanks in that river,
which rapidly shift their places. I am astonished that Barnes
expresses himself so lightly respecting its navigability. Boatmen
who have passed all their lives on the Oxus assured me that the
sandbanks change position so often that the experience and
observation of one day are useless for the day that follows.]
The continued progress of the Russian designs in Central Asia is then
beyond all doubt. As I before said, the interests of civilisation make
us wish the most entire success to the Russian arms; but still the
remote consequences of an acquisition once made suggest a highly
important and complicated enquiry. The question whether Russia will
content herself even with Bokhara, or will allow the Oxus to become
the final boundary of her influence and of her designs, is difficult
to answer. Without plunging into any deep considerations of policy, I
may remark that it seems very probable that the court of St.
Petersburg, in return for her persevering policy of sacrifices pursued
across deserts for years and years, at great expense and labour, will
seek some richer compensation than is to be found in the oases of
Turkestan. I should like, indeed, to see the politician who would
venture to affirm that Russia, once in possession of Turkestan, would
be able to withstand the temptation of advancing, either personally or
by her representatives, into Afghanistan and Northern India, where
political intrigues are said to find always a fruitful soil. At the
time when the Russian columns, under the orders of Peroffsky, threw
their ominous shadow from the west shore of the Aral Sea as far as
Kabul--at the {443} time when the spectre of Vitkovitsh [Footnote
161] appeared in that city and in Kandahar, the possibility of such
complications as those alluded to was foreseen. And cannot that which
has once occurred, when the necessity arises, occur a second time?
[Footnote 162]
[Footnote 161: This was the name of the Russian agent sent by the
court of St. Petersburg to Afghanistan in 1838, with large sums of
money to be employed in intrigues against England.]
[Footnote 162: Whilst I write the above, a St. Petersburg
correspondent of the _Daily Telegraph_ (10th October 1864) sends the
intelligence that the Russians have already taken Tashkend. The
authenticity of the statement may perhaps be doubted, but that the
Russians are in movement in that quarter is certain.]
Without, therefore, lending to the question the foul colouring of envy
or jealousy, I consider myself justified in disapproving of England's
indifference to the plans of Russia in Central Asia. Such is my humble
opinion; but whether the British Lion is to come in direct hostile
collision with the Russian Bear in those regions, or in brotherly
fashion they are to share and share alike, is a question which, in
accordance with the precept, 'Ne sutor ultra crepidam,' I in my
character of a Dervish, devoted to philological studies, will not
venture nearer to approach.
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