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NOTES ON WESTERN TURKISTAN.
SOME NOTES ON THE SITUATION IN WESiEEN TUEKISTAN.
BY
G. E. ABERIGH-MACKAT. ^\v\^
" Bien souvent durant les derniferes anndes on s'est plu h assignor pour
" mission k la Russie de civiliser les Contrdes qui I'avoisinent sur le Continent
*' Asiatique."— Prince Gortchakow's Circular of 1864.
CALCUTTA
THACKBR, SPINK So CO.,
Pnblisi^Ers ta tfje ffialctttta ©.niijErsitg.
BOMBAY : THACKER, VINING & CO. MADRAS : HIGGINBOTHAM & CO.
LONDON: W. THACKER AND CO.
1875.
CALCUTTA :
A. ACTON, CALCUTTA CBNTEAI, PBESS COMPANT, MMITED,
5, COFNCIl HOUSE STEEET.
C (tyf^t^nXuiri
PEEFACE.
An attempt is made in the following pages to put
together in a convenient form some information regarding the
three great Khanates of Central Asia.
Some of the text has already been published in the
Times of India.
G. R. A.-M.
Delhi, January 9th, 1875.
6C4TS9
TO THE READER.
The circumstances under which this Aperqu of the Central Asian ques-
tion was written and published precluded the possibility of its receiving
that scrutinizing revision with which every wnter would desire to purge
his work. It was put together i.i brief interval, of leisure, prepared for
the press under still greater pressure of time, and printed at a distance
of nearly a thousand miles from the compiler. Many typothetical
errors must remai.i ; and a still greater number of omissions and inaccu-
racies will call for the forbearance of the reader. There are three passages,
however,-inserted in haste, and inadvertently left-which must not be
considered as forming part of the book : they are -that regarding Lord
Granville, on the 60th page ; and those ou the 65tli page, quoted fiom
the Voyage, &c., of M. Anquetil du Perron. The «11«^7^\^. , 7'^^^,^
articles, moreover, the compiler wishes to add to his bibliography .
On the Road to Khiva : by David Ker, of the Daily lelegraph, Loud.,
1874. Russia's Advance Eastward: Lieut. Stumm. Loud., iM4.
The quarterly Reviexv, March, 1873 (p. 36); July 1813 (p. 3bb) ;
August 1810; October 1815; January 1821. Historical Account of
Discoveries and Travels in Asia : by H. Murray. Ldin.; 18iU.
CONTENTS.
Chapter. Page.
1. — Natural Features ... ... ... ... ... 1
2.— Historical Sketch ... ... ... ... ... 12
3. — Russian Advances ... ... ... ... ... 17
4.— Khokand ... ... ... ... ... 22
5.— Bukhara ... ... ... ... ... 30
6.— Khiva ... ... .., ... ... ... 37 »
7. — England and Russia ... ... ... ... 55
APPENDICES.
A. Chronicle •-• .•• ... ... ••• 79
B. Works and Articles ... ... ... ... 81
C. Times of India on Central Asian question ... ... 90
D. Neutral Zone ... ... ... ... ... 90
E. The Pamir Steppe ... ... ... ... 91
F. Maps ... ... ... ... ... ... 91
NOTES ON WESTERN TDRKISTAN.
CHAPTER I.
NATURAL FEATURES.
* " It Is ratlier more than 30 years ago since the advance of Russia from the
Siberian wilds and of England to the confines of India removed, to a certain extent,
the darkness which had previously rested for many ages on the mysterious regions
of Central Asia ; and since those days more and more light has gradually spread over
these huge tracts."— TAe Times, May 27, 1874.
" This region which, in the days when Rome was Sovereign on
the Orontes as well as on the Tiber, contained the
from^rSi. ''°"^''' highways by whichf commerce toiled painfully
from the far East to the West, comprises part of
* " This great portion of the surface of the earth, which forms one of its main divisions, may
be said to extend from the mouths of the Ural to the ranges that separate China from Thibet,
and from the mass of the lofty Altai — perhaps the Imaus of ancient tradition — to the vast and
irregular lines of mountains which unite the Hindoo Kush with the Caspian. The Northern
section of this prodigious spase, which spreads from Russia in Europe to the verge of China,
comprises the inhospitable Kirghiz Steppes, the impenetrable centre of classical Scythia, and, in
all ages, has been a land viewed by the settled world with wonder and dread. Parts of this
desolate region form the arid bed of the inland sea, which in praehistoric times connected the
Caspian with the Arctic Ocean; parts of it stretch out in wastes of sand — worlds of solitude
where the face of Nature seems smitten with a never-ceasing blight ; and parts compose oases
where, on broad plains unmarked by a tree or the boundary of man, wander the tribes and flocks
of the barbarian nomades, who for countless centuries have held these wilds. These vast tracts in
winter are congealed in frost, and in summer are parched by a relentless heat, and swept by storms
which blot out the landscape ; yet civilization has in places tamed what seemed to be the im-
passable desert ; and Russian forts, rising along the rivers, which at distant intervals divide the
Steppe, and Russian wells, sunk in selected spots, mark the progress of the arms and commerce of
Europe from Orenburg to the Sea of Aral." — The Times.
An article on Central Asia in The Quarterly Review for October 1866 contains an excellent
summary of the results of recent geographical exploration in the countries bordering on the
Jaxartes and Oxus.
f The late Mr. Eeinaud, President of the Soci^t^ Asiatique, published, first in the Journal
Asiatique, and afterwards in a separate form, an interesting treatise on the—" Eelatioufl, Politiques,
B
2 Natural Features.
Russian Turkistan and the two Khanates of Bukhara and Khiva, once
the seats of a power which, at different times, menaced India to the
banks of the Ganges, and Europe to the stream of the Vistula, but now
virtually Russian dependencies. The most striking characteristic of
this enormous tract is, that it is traversed, at wide intervals, bj two
water lines of ancient renown, which, in bygone ages, perhaps formed
the avenues by which the tribes of Scythia found their way to the plains
of Poland and Germany, and which in our days have led the sons of
Japhet in turn to the habitations of the children of Shem." — The Times.
The following is from the Introduction to Vambery's History of
Bukhara : —
*'As regards its physical conformation,* Transoxiana or the
northern half of the tract of country vaguely
PhT:"Kio^t'^ '' tnown as 'Central Asia,' is chiefly a plain
country, extending from that eastern chain of
hills, which, as the extreme spurs of the Thien-Shan, reach nearly
to Samarkand, and sink with a rapid declension down to the shores
of the Caspian. With the exception of a few table-lands and some
bits of hard clay or loam, the soil consists chiefly
of black or yellow sand, and the only land really
fit for cultivation is that lying on the slopes of the hills or on the banks
of rivers or canals. As is the case throughout Asia, Nature, left to
herself, produces scarcely anything, and ten years of warlike dis-
turbance are sufficient to turn the most fertile neighbourhood into a
desert. Even the most persevering industry often proves a failure,
especially where there is a strip of sand all the
deeper for being narrow. These strips of sandy
soil intersect all the cultivated districts, and are to be found in the
immediate neighbourhood of the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand ; on
the road between these two places the traveller passes through several
miles of a sandy waste — the desert of Melik, lying in the heart of a
cultivated district ; there is a tradition that 300 years ago a salt lake
existed here. In spite of this, the fertility of Bukhara and of the two
other Khanates has passed into a proverb, for their products are both
excellent and various. Bukhara has grain, fruit, silk, cotton, and
et commerciales de I'Empire Eomain avec I'Asie Orientale." The Apolloniua of Tyana, of
Mr. Priaulx, (Lend. 1878) may also be consulted on tMs subject.
* Mawer-ul-nahr.
Natural Features. 3
dyes — all unrivalled of their kind. The same may be said of its cattle,
Katoral products.
for besides their horses, which are celebrated
throughout Asia, their camels surpass all the
other sorts of this most useful domestic animal in the south and west
of Asia; and their mutton, finally, is equal to any in the world.
^. . The hilly country east and south of Samarkand
is rich in minerals, which have, however, hitherto
been neglected and unknown. Even Belkhi, however, mentions iron,
ammoniac, quicksilver, tin, slate, gold, naphtha, pitch, vitriol, and
coal, which has lately been re-discovered by the Russians in the same
neighbourhood."
The Caspian* Sea occupies the lowest hollow in one of the
, „, „ . greatest depressions of the earth's surface, its level
t The Caspian. .
being 82*8 p. f. below the level of the Sea of Azov.
It was accurately surveyed for the first time between the years 1858
and 1862 under the direction of Post-Captain N. Ivashintsof. He
determined astronomically forty leading points on the coast, and con-
nected them longitudinally by means of chronometrical observations
taken on board different steamers. The superficial area is laid doAvu
at 407'075f square versts. Arrowsmith computes it to be 1,118,000
square g. miles. With the Caspian, however, we are less concerned
than with the Sea of Aral,§ into which, at the
present day, at any rate, flow both the Oxus and
the Jaxartes. This sea has a superficial area of 1,267 square miles, and
is fifty-seven German miles long, || and forty miles wide. Great diversity
of opinion exists regarding its level ; but we find it stated in Colonel
* The Kok-kuz of the Turkomans; the Kuzghan Benizi {i.e., Eaven Sea) of the Turks;
the Daria-i-chyzyr (or sea of Kharazm) of the Persians. Vide Eennell's Geog. of Herodotus,
Vol. i, p. 255. The Hyrcanian Sea of Strabo.
t The Russians in Central Asia. Von Hellwald, p. 21. V. Malte Brun, p. 632.
X 1 Russian square verst = 0'4394 English square mile.
§ The Sea of Kharazm of the Arabian, the Oxiana Falus of the ancients.
II This statement of its dimensions is exceedingly uncertain ; for we find it elsewhere stated to
be 1,240 and 2,100 square miles. Vide Russians in Central Asia, Hellwald, p. 25. In Colonel
Walker's map we find it is represented as about 180 English miles from east to west and 250
from north to south. Herodotus puts the length of the Caspian down as fifteen days' navigation
for a swift-oared vessel, and the breadth eight days. The former measurement Eennell estimates
at about 600 miles. Eratosthenes and Strabo give the length as 515 miles. Alexander and all
the geographers from his time to that of Delisle regarded the Aral as part of the Caspian. This
was also, probably, the opinion of Herodotus, The knowledge that the Caspian was disconnected
4 Natural Features.
Walker's (of the Great Trigonometrical Survey, India) map at 117 feet
above the level of the Caspian and 33 feet above the Black Sea
and Ocean. " In the regions of the Aral and
Hciiwaid on the Kise Caspian lowlands, the foUowinor opinion has pre- m
and Fall of the Aral and / '_ ^ ^ ^ ^
Caspian. vailed for centuries, namely, that the level of
the Aral and Caspian Seas periodically rises
and falls, a period varying from twenty-five to thirty j-ears being
computed for the Caspian, and from four to five years for the Sea
of Aral. According to observations that have been made, the level
of the Sea of Aral has, in the course of thirty-two years, sunk
about 11*3 English feet; and the wndth of the line of coast gained
by the receding of the water during a period of ten years,
namely, from 1847 to 1858, may be estimated at nearly 0*3 to 0*6
geographical miles. Connected^ wdth the present undeniable diminu-
wii th s a of Aral ^^^^ ^^ ^^® quantity of water in the Aral arises
ever disappear entirely ? one of the most interesting qucstious in Physical
Geography, namely, will not the Sea of Aral entirely disappear in
course of time ?"
Sir H. Rawlinson draws an analogy between the Sea of Aral in
Physical Geography and the variable stars in
Eawlinson'a view of its '' r-. i ./
fluctuations. astronomy. Humboldtf (in his work on Central
Humboldt's. Asia) has not corroborated the theory of the dis-
appearance of the sea. Colonel Yule and Sir R. Murehison believe
Col. Yule end Sir K. (J«"^°^^ ^- ^-^'^ ™- XXXVIL, pp. 134 and 136)
Murehison. that the relative condition of the Aral and Cas-
pian Seas has never undergone a marked change.
from the Northern Ocean was lost in the time of Eratosthenes, Strabo, and Pliny ; but Ptolemy
restored it to its proper form as a lake, but in such a way as to show that the Aral was mistaken
for a part of it. Rennell's Geography of Herodotus, Vol. I, p. 253. — Vide Heeren's Historical
Eesearches, Vol. II., p. 32.
* Between 1300 and 1500, Missions were frequently despatched from European Courts to
the Mongols of Central Asia, and envoys generally wrote accounts of their journeys. Colonel
Yule has collected many of these in his Cathay and the Way Thither, but none of these accounts
mention the Sea of Aral, although many of the routes described led across it, or by it. De
Euysbroeck stated that the lower Jaxartes lost itself in a marsh ; and the Polos, who are supposed
in their first journey to have travelled direct from the mouths of the Volga to Bukhara, do not
seem to have come across this sea ; for Marco Polo makes no mention of it.
t " Numerous learned authorities have gone still further, such as Vivien de St. Martin, Malte
Brun, Hugh Murray, Baillie Fraser, and Burnes, who assert that such a variation is quite impos-
sible, since the Oxus and Jaxartes have never changed their course, and have from time immemorial
Natural Features. 5
In* an anonymous Persian manuscript acquired by Sir H. Rawlinson,
dating from ]417, and presumably written by Shah Rukh Sultan, the
famous Khan of Herat, the following* passage occurs : " In all ancient
books the Sea of Kharazm is represented as the
discharge its waters into great basiu that received the waters of the Oxus,
^^^'^ but now (1417) the sea no longer exists, for the
Jaihun (Oxus) has hollowed out a fresh course to the Caspian sea,
which it enters near Karlawa/'
From 600 B.C. till from 500 to 600 A.D. the sea of Aral was
„ , , entirely unknown. The descriptions of Herodotus
The sea of Aral un- •' '■
known between 500 B. c. and Strabo spcak of a continuous series of marshes
and 500 A.D. ^ ,
fed by the inundations of the Jaxartes. The
explorations of Alexander the Great resulted in the opinion that both the
Jaxartes and Oxus fell into the Caspian. f From the year 600 to 1300
all the Arabic writers concur in fixing the mouths
of both the Oxus and the Jaxartes in the Sea| of
Aral. In 1559 the English traveller Jenkinson spoke of the Oxus
as having formerly issued into Krasnovodsk Bay in the Caspian ; but
having been drawn off for purposes of irrigation, it ceased to reach the
sea during the heats of summer. He added that the Turkmans,
wishing to retain some water in the bed at that season, constructed a
dam at its mouth, but that eventually the old bed became choked up,
and that in his time the river had its present destination. § Abul
as at present, discharged themselves into the Aral Sea. But, on the contrary, a host of not less
important authorities, headed by Sir H. Eawlinson, maintain that these fluctuations in the Aral
Sea have actually existed." — Zimmerman has examined the fluctuations of the Caspian in his work
on Khiva: (translated by Morien; published by Madden, 8, Leadenhall Street).
* Sir B,. Murchison, without, it is generally believed, sufficient reason, cast discredit upon
the authenticity of this MS.
f An opinion, says Von Hellwald, held in estimation among all the ancients, and one that
entirely agrees with the commercial route used for the con veyance to Europe of the produce of
Eastern Asia. This commercial route started from the Hindu Kush, utilised the Oxus as far as the
Caspian; it then went up the river Kur (Cyrus), and descended the Eion (Phasis) to the Black Sea.
" In all the works of the European Geographers, as well ancient as modern, to the present
century, the Aral Sea must be understood to be included in the Caspian, since they knew of but
one expanse of water in that quarter, for the Cyrus, and Araxes, the Oxus and Jaxartes, were all
supposed to fall into the same sea. The Arabian and Persian geographers, on the contrary, descri-
minated them from the earliest times." — Rennell, Vol. I, p. 174, note 3.
J " El-Istakhri and Ibn Haukal are the first writers who give certain and reliable information
regarding the Aral." — ^Von Hellwald, p. 33.
§ Vide article Journal de St. Petersburg, 21st November 1869. Abul Ghazi Khan, when
describing the expedition of Sofiam Khan against the Turkomans on the banks of the Oxus, said
6 Natural Features.
Ghazi, of Khiva, speaks of the river as still flowing into the Caspian in
Abul Gh • f Khi ^^^ sixteenth century, but being turned off about
1575 by this same Turkman dam we so often
hear of. As even now during floods the river penetrates some fifty
miles into the desert in the direction of the Caspian, it is possible that
in the Khan's time a small stream may have actually reached the
Caspian when the river overflowed its banks.
veiTin Bukim'^^Voi. iT., Burnes* believed what is spoken of as Hhe old
jjp. 187-188. j|jgjj» ^^ hdive been the remains of f a canal; but a
writer in the Quarterly Review of April 1874 believes it to be too deep,
M, N", Mouravief. wide, and irregular to allow of that supposition.
^M^Zie^'intiZenfen The Turkmans told Mouravief in 1819 that the
undCMwa;Faris,\^2^.) ^\^^^^q ^as eff'ected by an earthquake, and he
believed that there were traces of volcanic action about the Ust-Urt.
Vambery makes no doubt of the Oxus having formerly discharged
Vamh^ry (Travels in ^^^ Water into the Caspian, and ascribes its present
Central Asia, p. 106.; course to a diversion caused by irrigation canals.
In his Travels in Central Asia, he describes what he unhesitatingly
pronounces to be ^'the ancient bed of the Oxus," called the Doden
by the nomads of the district.^
It is the alleged practicability of again turning the Oxus into the
Caspian that makes the discussion relative to its
The practicability of di- _ , . . _
verting the Oxus into the lormcr coursc SO extremely interesting. Upon this
subject the Times recently expressed itself as
follows : —
" It would certainly revivify Central Asia if water communication
The Times could be opened from the Caspian to the foot of
the Hindoo Kush ; but there seems to be the
that the river after having passed Urgunj flowed near the eastern side of Mount Abul Khan,
thence for some distance southward, so as to take a western direction to empty itself into the
Caspian towards Urghurtcha. Abul Ghazi says in another part of the same work that the Oxus left
its bed spontaneously in 1540.
* " After an investigation of the subject and the traditions related to me, as well as much
enquiry among the people themselves, I doubt the Oxus having ever had any other than its
present course. There are physical obstacles to its entering the Caspian south of Balkan, and
Borth of that point its more natural receptacle ia the lake of Aral" — ^Bumes's Travels in Bukhara,
Vol. II, pp. 187, 188.
t " I conclude that the dry river beds between Astrabad and China are the remains of some
of the canals of the Kingdom of Kharazm." — Ibid.
I The subject is carefully examined by Abbott in his charming " Narrative of a Journey from
Herat to Khiva." 2nd Ed., Lond. 1856, Vol. II., Appendix, pp. 30i— 308.
Natural Features. 7
strongest reason for doubting whether the object in view could be
attained without extensive excavations of the sand, which has drifted
into the old bed of the Oxus, nor without closing the canals which
absorb so much of the river water, but are absolutely necessary to the
continuance of cultivation in Khiva."
The Turhistan Gazette has repeatedly asserted that the diversion
of the Oxus into its old channel leading to the
The TurTcistan Gazette. n . , i ^ i • ^ • •
Vide (especially) art. 16th Caspian Hiust sooucr or later be carried into
January 1872. exCCUtion.
The Source of the Oxus. * The Oxus takes its rise in Sir-i-kul, a Pamir
( t e appen ix.) \2i\iQ^ 15,600 feet abovc the sea. This lake is des-
cribed by Wood : —
" We stood upon ' the Roof of the World/ while before us lay
stretched a noble but ' frozen sheet of water' from whose western end
* The Amu of the Persians, and Jaihun (" flood") of the Arabs. The fertilising properties of
the Amu as well as its great excellence for drinking have been alluded to by nearly every writer
on Central Asia : — " According to calculations that have been made, the amount of its discharge
in its lowest course is 3,000 cubic metres (French) per second, whereas that of the Rhine is
2,500 and that of the Ehone 2,000." — Von Helhoald. Burnes gives th« average depth at 9 feet
cf. Abbott, Vol. II., p. 309.
" The translator of the Istakhri's Geography cites Jaihun as an example of the enduring
vitality of oriental names. But there is, I believe, no trace of the application of Jaihun to the
Oxus, or of Saihun to the Jaxartes, before Mahomedan times. The name Saihun (often applied
by Mahomedan writers to the Indus also) is probably Phison corrupted to a jingle by the Arabs
as they made Cain and Abel into Kabil and Habil. M. Garrez supposes that the river was called
Jaihun by the Arabs, because "it encompassed the land of Kush," i.e., of the Kushan of
Haiathalah confounded with the Kush of scripture." — Jour. Asiat. Ser. VI., torn. 13, p. 181.
Our subject suggests the beautiful lines of Mr. Arnold :—
" But the majestic river floated on,
Out of the mist and hum of that low land,
Into the frosty starlight, and there moved,
Bejoicing, through the hush'd Chorasmian waste.
Under the solitary moon;— he flow'd
Bight for the polar star, past Orguaj^,
Brimming, and bright, and large ; then sands begin
To hem his watery march, and dam his streams.
And split his currents ; that for many a league,
The shorn and parcell'd Oxus strains along
Through beds of sand and matted rushy isles ;
Oxus, forgetting the bright speed he had
In his high mountain cradle in Pamere,
A foil'd circuitous wanderer till at last
The long'd for dash of waves is heard, and wide
His luminous home of waters opens, bright
And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bathed stars
Emerge and shine upon the Aral Sea."—
Sohrab and Baitam,
8 Natural Features.
issued the infant river of the Oxus. This fine lake Sir-i-kul lies in the
form of a crescent about fourteen miles long from east to west by an
average breadth of one mile. On three sides it is bordered by swell-
ing hills about 500 feet high, while along its southern bank they
rise into mountains 3,500 feet above the lake, or 19,000 feet above the
sea, and covered with perpetual snow, from which never-failing source
the lake is supplied." — Marco Polo crossed the Pamir passing this
famous lake out of which the Oxus flows. — Captain John Wood, Indian
Navy. Journey to the Sources of the Oxus, 1838.
* From the Sir-i-kul lake the Oxus flows in a westerly direction^
and waters with its southern affluents the northern provinces of Affghan-
istan ; then, in a direction almost parallel with the Jaxartes, it flows
through Bukhara and Khiva.
" When it reaches lat. 42° 12', long. 60'' 15', between the towns
_ „ , ^ of Kipchak and Khodiaili, it begins to bifurcate,
The course of the Oxus ^ _ j t n ^
(Captain Trench's Kusso- after which its two streams again branch off
Indian Question.) . i . i r> • i ^L m.
into the several arms which form its delta. Ine
centre of this portion of the basin forms a sort of depression, into
which the waters of all the main branches, emptying themselves,
spread out into a series of wide, shallow lagoons covered with reeds.
These again discharge their surplus waters by different channels
into the Sea of Aral." According to Admiral
The navigahleness of ^ no pi i r» ^
the Oxus. Admiral Bou- Boutakoff, none of thesc channels are fit for na-
vigation, owing to the shallowness of the water
and the fact of the main channels of the streams continually shifting.
* Vambd ' view Vambery, in his Sketches^ of Central Asia^ has
the following : — '' The Oxus has scarcely the capa-
bilities of becoming the powerful artery for traffic and commu-
* The Eusso-Indian question, by Capt. Trench, p. 42.
t Pages 142-3.
" The Oxus is supposed to be for the most part navigable, though as yet it is very imperfectly
explored, and it for hundreds of miles of its course goes through \?ildemesses of barren sand, and
no doubt forms an important line leading near the edges of our Indian Frontier." — The Times.
Vambdry, pointing out the importance of considering the capabilities of the Oxus for navigation,
Bays : — " With steamers on the Oxus, the Etissians would not only have been able to keep the
Khanate of Khiva in check garrisons Kungrad, Kipchaka, and Hazarash, but they would have
had the power of introducing, with the greatest ease, a strong corps d'armee by Karakul into
Bukhara, and thus into the heart of Central Asia, had aot the extraordinary physical difficulties
of this route rendered such a scheme impracticable."
Natural Features. 9
nication in Central Asia which politicians, when speaking of the future
of Turkistan, seem to expect."
*' The reports on the navigableness of the river differ considerably ;
Heiiwaid on the Navi- sotiie assert that it is difficult of navigation for
gableness of the Oxus. .1 , i- r- •- . t t • •
the greater portion or its course, in Lenz s opinion
for boats, and in Vambeiy's in every respect ; the whole of its upper
course is ice-bound during winter, and even the lower course is
frozen over in a severe winter. The width of the Oxus in its middle
course varies from 2,100 to 2,400 p. f., and its depth from six to
twenty-four feet. Just before falling into the Sea of Aral, it forms a
marshy delta, which is entirely overgrown with reeds ; the centre of
this delta is slightly depressed, and its arms having only two or three
feet of water, are undergoing a constant change, as was pointed out by
Humbold in his great work on Central Asia."
* *' The Jaxartes, or Sir Daria of modem times, descends from.the
distant highlands of Khokan, at first to water
The Jaxartes : its course. 11/. , • 1 , 1 , • , , ^
lands or comparative plenty ; but, as it trends
northwards, it passes through what is now for the most part a vast
desert, until it loses itself in the Sea of Aral, in a wild delta of swamps
and thickets. This stream forms the main line by which the legions of
the Czar advanced to the conquest of Russian Turkistan, and as it is
firmly occupied by Russian forts, and leads to the cities of Tashkend
and Khojend, once centres of Asiatic commerce, it certainly opens to
an invader a way into the recesses of Central Asia." — The Times.
" The possession of the Oxus is of as much importance to the Russians as that of the Indus
is to the English; it is the artery which vivifies the territories of the great Tatar hordes through
which it flows, who are otherwise unapproachable on all sides by reason of the steppes and deserts
of shifting sands. Once masters of this river, it would be easy for the Russians to subjugate the
tribes on its banks, from the Aral to Badakshan. The Russian army could readily ascend the
Oxus in the boats of the country, within two parasangs of Balkh, where it first ceases to be navi-
gable." — Ferrier, p. 459.
" It is to be remembered that its (the Oxus') banks are peopled and cultivated ; it must there-
fore be viewed as a navigable river, possessing great facilities for improving the extent of that
navigation. The Oxus presents many fair prospects, since it holds the most direct courses,
and connects, with the exception of a narrow desert, the nations of Europe with the remote region
of Central Asia." — Burne's Travels to Bukhara, Vol. II., p. 197.
* The Saihun of the Arabs, Arxanthes and Araxes of some of the classical writers. The
historians of Alexander the Great call it the Tanais erroneously, the Massagetae 8ilia. It is
now commonly called by the Persian name Sir. But I have avoided using the terms Sir and
Amu, preferring the more familiar Jaxartes and Oxus.
C
10 Natural Features.
The Jaxartes is navigable (see a very interesting letter in the
Laily Neios of September 2nd, 1874,from a corres-
pondent at Petro Alexandrovsk) for a consider-
able distance"^ from a point a good way above the Sea of Aral. In
1853 the Russian Grovernor-General of Orenburg brought over from
Sweden the materials of two small gun-boats, and put them together
on the Jaxartes, and the largest of these played an important part in
the conquest of Western Turkisttm.
Von Hellwald says of this river : — " The length of its course is
Von Hellwald' fc Computed at about 400 German miles, of which
of the Jaxartea. gQO are navigable. The first light thrown upon
the topography of the Sir was as lately as 1863, when thef Russian
Rear- Admiral Butakov undertook an exploration of the river from Fort
Perofsky as far as Baildyr-Tugai. Its sources, however, were in 1869
first discovered by Baron Kaulbars, whose surveys embraced the different
chains of the Thian Shan mouutain system, extending from the frontier
of the Khanate of Khokand and the valley of the Aksai on the south-
vrest to the Tengri Khan on the north-east. By means of these surveys
^ ,^ ^^ the source of the Naryn was also determined, which
Soxirce of the Naryn. _ "^ ^ '
is the most easterly and important affluent of
* Certainly as far as Ak Masjid, to which one of the gunboats penetrated in 1852. Vide
Trench's Eusso-Indian Question, p. 41.
f " Nowhere along the banks of the Jaxartes did Butakof find human habitations. In
ancient days, however, it was navigable, and teemed with transports for the conveyance of
merchandise. The Admiral found on its banks the ruins of cities, such as Otrar, where Tamerlane
died, and Tungat, which that powerful ruler destroyed."
NoTB. — The Jaxartes. — Herodotus and Strabo both speak of the Jaxartes as " the Araxes."
yide Eennell's Geography of Herodotus, 2nd edition. Vol. I, p. '2,'lQ-'2,'72. Herodotus spoke of it as
the only considerable river known to him on the east of the Caspian sea. " The Araxes separates
itself into forty mouths, all of which, except one, lose themselves in the fens and marshes ; the
largest stream of the Araxes continues its even course to the Caspian. The Caspian is bounded
on the east by a plain of prodigious extent, a considerable part of which formed the country of
the Massagetae, against whom Cyrus meditated an attack ; he advanced on the Araxes, threw a
bridge of boats over it, passed it with his army from his own territories into those of the enemy,
and advanced beyond it." These passages are taken from Herodotus' account of the expedition
of Cyrus the Great against the Massagetas, Clio, 20-211. In this account the Jaxartes and Oxus
are evidently confounded together, as it contains particulars that apjily to each respectively ; or the
confusion may have arisen from a branch of the Jaxartes flowing, as some suppose to have been
the case, into the Oxus, " The Sir is rejoined near its mouth by the Konvan through a little brook.
It is much smaller than the Amu, but is said to be more rapid. In summer it is fordable, and in
winter it is covered with ice, sometimes two yards thick, over which the caravans pass." — Malte
Brun and Balli, new edition, p. 776.
Natural Features. 11
the Sir; it was found to springy from a glacier in the Ak-shirak
mountain. Little is yet known of its upper course beyond Khokand
as far as Baildyr-Tu^ai, distant 807 versts from Ak-Masjid. The
confluence of the Grulistan with the Naryn near Khokand unites their
waters into one stream;" &c., &c.
The* Zerafshanf (or Kohik) has a course of 87J German miles.
As the result of General Abramof's combined
military and scientific mission, it was discovered
in 1870 that this river rose in a glacier nearly 1\ German miles almost
under the meridian of Khokand, at tlie line of perpetual snow on the
Fan mountains. Beyond Panjkand (five villages — Persian) the river
enters a wide valley that opens out into an extensive plain below
Samarkand. To the west of Bukhara it turns suddenly to the south
and falls into the small lake of Karakul. " Numerous canals have
„, ^ . J 1, been constructed, which are fed by the Zeraf-
The country watered by ' •'
the Zerafshan. shan.§ This river waters the city of Bukhara,
and also Samarkand (the Marcanda of the Greeks). The land
between these two cities is partially under excellent cultivation. From
tlie comraeucement of the valley nearly to Bukhara there stretches
almost an unbroken chain of settlements along the level, fertile plain,
which has been forsaken by the waters of the Zerafshan, that must
have formerly possessed a much more abundant supply. Here the
* Hellwald.
f Persian, — the gold-scatteror. The Folymetns of the Greeks. — Vide Malte Brun, p. 776.
J 1 German rQile=:4'610 English statute miles.
§ " The Zerafshan region contains a denser population than any part of Eussia, and hardly
cedes in that respect to the most crowded of fertile cities in Europe." — Turkistan Gazette, 3rd
February 1871.
For many centuries Samarcand bore the Chinese name of Shin. Its present name signifies
the city of Samar, — the Arab Samar who, in 643, introduced Mahomedanism. In 1219 Jhenghiz
Khan conquered it. Some 200 years afterwards it became the splendid capital of Taimur, and it
still holds all that was mortal of that mighty conqueror. — Cf. Eoyal Geographical Society's
Journal, 1841, Vol. X, pp. 2-3.
In the fifth or sixth century there was a resident Christian (Nestorian) Bishop in Samarcand.
Marco Polo quotes a letter written by Prince Sempad, high constable of Armenia in 1246 or 1247,
in which that personage says he found " Many Christians scattered all over the East, and many
fine Churches, lofty, ancient, and of good architecture, which have been spoiled by the Turks."
The Christians, however, wore protected in a measure by Jhenghiz Khan and his immediate succes-
sors.
Clavijo, the Spaniard, was in Samarcand in 1404 ; a Eussian noble Khoklav, in 1623 ; and
Lchmann and Khamukof in 1841.
12 Historical Sketch.
villages belonging to these settlements are spread out, together with
their orchards and mulberry groves, for the culture of silk, and here also
the well-cultivated fields produce cotton, gourds, water-melons, wheat,
barley, and maize. On the other side, however, there is a marked
contrast in the barrenness of the adjacent desert of Milik. But
farther to the east the country is luxuriantly fertile. A wide tract
of land, extending along the Zerafshan as far as the district of Samar-
kand, is covered with fields of rice.''
" The possession of the Jaxartes and Oxus not improbably secures
The Oxus, Jaxartes, * widespread supremacy throughout the interior
and Zerafshan. of Central Asia, though it is still most uncertain
whether either stream could be made the basis of future conquests ;
and the Oxus, along its upper course, is as yet in no sense of the
word Russian. The remaining parts of these interior regions, beyond
the reach of the two great streams, are, for the most part, stony
and sandy tracts, exposed to alternations of fierce heat and cold, and fl
with difficulty passable by the foot of man; but in one wide tract the
waters of the Zerafshan scatter plenty over the lowlands and places,
whence rise the walls of the once famous cities of Bukhara and Samar-
kand. In these provinces the wealth of nature is still seen in profuse
abundance, but the influence of the Crescent, now waning before the
advancing power of the Russian Cross, has left on the landscape a look
of desolation." — Times.
CHAPTER II.
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
The belief in a very early empire in Central Asia, coeval with the
institution of the Assyrian monarchy, was common
An early empire in "^ •> '
Central Asia. among the Greeks long anterior to Alexander's
expedition to the East; and it receives confirmation from "the earliest
memorials of the Iranian division of the Aryan race. It Avould,
however, be too serious an undertaking here to give even an outline of
events that would bring us back probably to the year 2,000 B.C., and
it must suffice to state that from about 700 B.C. to 300 A.D. a suc-
cession of Scythian tribes crossed the Jaxartes and
700B.C.-300A.D. ^ •[ ^ .• P » .
swept over the western portion of Asia ; and that
from the fourth century to the tenth a continuous stream of Turkish
Historical Sketch. 13
hordes poured in from that qfficina ! . -tt- t -i t n
Lrimea. Kasan was conquered by Ivan, after a
bloody battle, in 1552 ; it had, however, been subject to the Czars from
Astrakhan, 1554. time to time ever since 1487. Astrakhan, in the
Bashkirs, 1556. north, fell in 1554, and the Bashkirs were subju-
gated in 1556, and at the same time a firm footing was gained in the'
Kabarda on the Kuban. The Cossacks Yermakf and Timofeyev opened.
Discovery of Siberia, iu the last year of Ivan's reign, through the dis-
^^^*' covery of Siberia, a new continent to their father-
land, and laid the foundation of Russia's Asiatic
' * power. In 1587 Tobolsk was founded. In 1727
Russia obtained, through a treaty with Persia, those provinces which
were four years previously conquered by Peter the Great, viz., Daghes-
Fersian Provinces on tan, Shirvau, Ghilau, and Mazendcrau ; that is to
westcoa8tofCaspian,1727. ^^^^ ^j^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^f ^^^ Q^^pj^^^^ g^^ .
Persian Provinces res- but in 1734 they had to be restored. The last
two of these provinces are the only territories
* In the 17th and 18th centuries Siberia was slowly overrun and colonized, and Sussiaa
settlements are still being' continually formed in the more fruitful tracts of this vast and far-
spreading region, controlling the wild inhabitants of the Steppos, and reducing them more and!
more to subjection. Meanwhile the conquests of Peter the Great had brought liussia into colli-
sion with Persia, and before his death he had obtained a hold on the Provinces of the Shah'
around the Caspim, which, though afterwards in part lost, nevertheless gave Russia the command
of that sea, and opened the Caucasus to her future efforts. The arms of Catharine were rather
directed towards the Danube and the realms of the Sultans than against the dynasties and tribes
of Asia; but possibly one of the visions of Tiisit was a project of triumphs in the far East; and
after the events of 1812-14 had relieved Russia from fears in the West, her attention was turned
again towards the lands that formed her growing Asiatic Empire. For several years the advance
of her rule was marked only by new colonization and the discoveries of scientific travellers who
explored and mapped out a variety of points between the Ural and the Chinese frontier ; and in-
this manner her power moved forward almost imperceptibly, but at a steady rate, from about 1820
to 1840. — The Times. — Fraser's Magazine, April 1864, " Russia and her Dependencies," should be
referred to.
f "The author appears here to be in error, for a certain Ermak Timothew, Ataman
(Hetman) of the Cossacks of the Don, was the conqueror of Siberia." — Colonel Wirgman.
20 Russian Advances.
which this empire once possessed, lost, and has not refrained. In 181?
Daghestan and Shirvan the Persians Were obliged to restore Daghestaa
' ' and Shirvan, the important province of Darbend
_ havinor been already in the hands of the Russian*
Darbend. . " -^ , .
since 1806. A new war with Persia at length ex-
Peace of Turkmanchai, tended the territory of this gigantic state beyond
the Araxes, and as far as the Ararat ; and at the
Peace of Turkmanchai, in 1828, the province of Arran was acquired."
From"^ 1828 until the Afghan war (1838), Russia declares that,
while she was suspected by England of a syste-
1 828— —1838.
matic policy of encroachment towards India, she
was in reality exclusively occupied with the consolidation of her hold
upon the Kirghiz Steppe, and with measures directed to the development
of her commerce in Central Asia, filer diplomacy
macy.^^^* ^ ^"^^ ^^ °' ^^ Persia, where she certainly promoted the expedi-
tion of Mahomed Shah against Herat, merely
aimed, she asserts, at the improvement of her position in that country ;
and the activity of her agents in the Uzbeg Khanates is explained by a
reference to the efforts of the Indian Government in the same direction.
She considered that her geographical position gave
trL^rSZrJS!' °' lier a claim to the monopoly of the tradej in
Central Asia, and she resented, as an invasion of
* Quarterly Review, October 1865.
t See Quarterly Beview, Vol. 64, No. CXXVII., June 1839, " Eussia, Persia, and England,"
pp. 149-153.
X A useful report on the trade and resources of this region was drawn up in 1862 by Mr.
Davies (now Sir H. Davies, Lieut. -Governor of the Punjab) under instructions from Sir H. Montgo-
mery, Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab. In Part III., p. 80, of this state paper, the following^
passage occurs : — " It has frequently been debated whether British India can compete with Eussia
in trading with the countries of Central Asia. Time has already begun to solve this question.
Although the Volga, the Caspian, the Aral, and the Oxus afford great facilities of water communi-
cation, it seems certain from Mr. Atkinson's accounts that the trade with Bukhara is still (1862)
carried on by means of caravans to Orenburg and other frontier towns. The journey occupies from
45 to 60 days, and 28 days more to Nijni Novgorod. It has been shown that from Peshawar to
Bukhara only takes 45 days, and from Peshawar to Eurrachee is, taking boat at Attock, 1,107
miles ; or, proceeding by land as far as Multan, 1,188 miles. Again from Kurrachee to Yarkand is
only 74 marches."
" So far as distance is concerned. Captain Montgomery's remark would appear to be just, that
a glance at the map is sufficient to show that British goods from India have a very fair chance of
•underselling Eussian goods in Eastern and Central Afghanistan, and also in Eastern Turkistan or
Little Bukhara, and in the more easterly towns of Western Turkistan, or Bukhara Proper." — Vido
also appendices of ibid., p. CXLIV. " Eoute from Cabul to Bukhara by the Hindu Kush."
Russian Advances. 21
Kussian rights, the proposed participation of England in that trade. The
travels of Moorcroft and Trebeck, Arthur Conolly,
bg sStcior'"'" '''"'*' ^^^^'^ Fraser, Alexander Burnes, and the mission-
ary Wolff, excited in her the gravest suspi-
cions.
" Now it is certain" says a writer in the Quarterly Review irora
whom I have already quoted " that England
England's claims to in- jjj^g alwavs Considered, and does still consider,
fluence in Central Asia. j 7 7
that she is entitled to exercise a fair amount of
influence in Central Asia, and to enjoy a fair access to the markets
of Bukhara and the other markets of that region equally with
Russia ; but it is also certain that she has never taken any active
measures to assert or realise her right, and that the apprehensions
of Russia, therefore, on this score, which urged
England's apprehen- •, . j • j. i* il iU
sious. her on to an armed mtervention, were altogether
unfounded. What England really dreaded, thirty
years ago, and what she had a perfect right to impede by all the means
in her power, was that Russia would gradually absorb, or would, at any
rate, extend her influence, either by treaties or by political pressure,
over the independent countries intermediate between the Caspian and
India, and would thus complicate our position in the latter country.
The mainsprmgs of action in the English and Russian movements in
Central Asia from this time forward were a feel-
PoHtical jealousy. ,. t • 1 • i
ing of political jealous}'- on the one side and a
spirit of commercial^ rivalry on the other. When Lord Auckland,
for instance, persisted in marching an army across the Indus in
1838, notvvithstanding that the object for which the expedition was
originally organised, the relief of Herat, had been already accom-
plished by the retirement of the Shah^s forces,
ghanVarf°* o t e - ^j^^er the pressure of our demonstration in the
Persian Gulf, it was avowedly to prevent the
spread of Russian influence towards India.''
* Cf. Supplement to the Gazette of India, Eussian trade with India, November 26th, 1870.
Among the state papers published in 1870 for the information of Parliament, I find the following : —
Prince Gortchakow to Mr. Forsyth: " There is not the least intention of interfering with British
trade with the countries of Central Asia, and as regards imports into Eussian Turkistan, only such
duties will be imposed as are necessary to protect Kussian manufactures." Cf. Von Sarauw's
Brochure, translated by the Indian Foreign office.
22 Khokand.
CHAPTER IV.
KHOKAND.
Prince* Gortchakow's Circular, November 21st, 1864. " The position of Russia
in Central Asia is that of all civilized tribes which are broag'ht into contact with half
savage, nomad populations, possessing no fixed social organization. In such case*
it always happens that the more civilized state is forced, in the interest of the security
of its frontier and its commercial relations, to exercise a certain ascendancy over
those whom their turbulent and unsettled character makes most undesirable neighbours.
****»# Suc]i have been the reasons which have
vance to the Jaxartea. * ^^^ ^^^ Imperial Government to take up at first a position
resting on one side on the Syr-Daria, on the other on tha
Lake Issyk-kaul, and to strengthen these two lines by advanced forts, which, little
by little, have crept into the heart of these distant regions, without however succeed-
ing in establishing on the other side of our frontiers that tranquillity which is
* " That Khanate (of Khokaad) was the particular patrimony of the branch of Taimur's
family, that waa made illustrious by the career of Baber; but, from the date when he was
expelled therefrom by the Usbegs under Shaibani. it had merged in the monarchy of which,
under the Shaibanides, and the Astarkhanides after them, the capital was Bukhara. In 1775 A.D.,
while as yet the last of the Astarkhanides was allowed a nominal sovereignty, and before
the Wazir of the House of Manghit finally set him aside, a Khokandi, thirteenth in descent
from Baber, re-asserted the independence of his native country. His grandson much extended
the limits of the Khanates, which up to the time had been confined to the Upper Valley of the
Jaxartes, and pushing along the right bank of the river, brought Tashkand and Chamkand
within the circle of the dominions, ending in 1814 with the acquisition of Hazrat Sultan on the
confines of the Black Desert. This brought the Khokandis into direct dealings with the Kirghiz
of the Little Hordes." — Qtiarterli/ Eeview, No. 272.
*' Khokand. or Ferghanah, the country of the celebrated Sultan Baber, the founder of the
Moghul Empire in India, lies north-east of Bukhara, from which it appears to be separated by the
Ak-tagh or Asperah Mountains. It occupies the upper affluents of the Jaxartes, and is a'
much smaller territory than Bukhara. The country is celebrat«d for its silk, and its other
produce is much the same as Bukhara. Its capital is Khokand, an open town on the Jaxartes,
about half the size of Bukhara; the ancient capital is Marghilan, still a large and fine city some
miles to the south-east of Khokand. Andijan is likewise a town of considerable note. Tashkand,
an ancient and flourishing city, 86 miles N. N. W. of Khokand, is described by the Siberian
merchants who visit it as a large town of 80,000 inhabitants. Unaccustomed as they are to
extremes of climate, these travellers complain bitterly of the oppressive heat of Tashkand. Its
whole wealth consists in the produce of the soil ; yet that soil would soon be annexed to the
desert were it not for the industry of the inhabitants. Every vegetable substance grown in
Tashkand, the mulberry trees to feed the silk worms, the fruit trees, even the trees reared for fuel,
are, with the humbler vegetables, all planted in gardens watered by canals, which flow from the
little river Cherchik at 12 miles distance.
" The staple article of produce is cotton, in the manufacture of which more than half the
population is employed ; but owing to the rudeness of their processes, the Russians, notwith-
standing the long land carriage, can supply them with manufactured goods at a cheaper rate than
Kliohand. 23
indispensable for tlieir security. The explanation of this unsettled state of things
is to be found, first, in the fact that, between the extreme points of this double line,
there is an immense unoccupied space, where all attempts at colonization or caravan
trade are paralyzed by the inroads of the robber tribes ; and, in the second place, in
the perpetual fluctuations of the political condition of those countries, where Tur-
kistan and Khokand, sometimes united, sometimes at variance, always at war, either
•with one another or with Bukhara, presented no chance of settled relations, or of any
regular transactions whatever."
The Russian frontier"'*" of 1730, passing from the Caspian to
Orenburg, thence by Orsk, Petro-Paulousk, Omsk
The Orenburg Line, 1730. jo •ii'i.r>iT. -i j
and bemipolatmsk to Bukhtarmmsk, was advanc-
ed in 1848 to a line of forts that formed an intermediate stage between
The Intermediate line, ^^^^ ^^ Orenburg Line and the long-coveted fron-
^^*^- tier of the Jaxartes. The most important of these
forts were the Karabutalskoi, the Uralskoi on the river Irghiz, and tlie
Orenburgskoi on the Tnrgai. In 1847 the founda-
' ■ tions were laid of Fortf Aralsk, near the mouth of
the Jaxartes. Simultaneously with the erection of this fort, the Russians
The Aral Flotilla. 1847- prepared to launch a smallj flotilla on the Sea of
48. {Quarterly Beview, « i a. r '^•J. l n en , t> ,^
October 1865, p. 549.) Aral to lacilitate the turther ascent ot the
they can make them. Turkistan is a town of 1,000 mud houses, defended by a fort and ditch
15 feet deep. Uch, at the foot of the Takht-i Suliman Mountaiu, is a town frequented by numer-
ous pilgrims, who come to pay their devotions at a small square building at the top of the moun-
tain. Tradition asserts that Solomon sacrificed a camel on this spot, where the blood is still shown
on a stone that is quite red. Khojand, on the banks of the Jaxartes, is a fortress surrounded with
fields and gardens like Bukhara." Malte Brun and Balbi. — New Ed. Lond., 1859, p. 780.
" The country of Ferghana is situated in the fifth climate, on the extreme boundary of the
habitable world. Ferghana is a country of small extent, but abounding in fruits and grain ; and
it is surrounded with hills on all sides, except On the west, and on that side alone can it be entered
by foreign enemies. The river Saihun, which is generally known by the name of the river of
Khojend, comes from the north-east, and after passing through this country flows to the west. It
then runs on the north of Khojend and south of Finakat, which is now better known as Shahrik-
hia ; and thence, inclining to the north, fl^ows down towards Turkistan, and meeting with no other
river in its course is wholly swallowed up in the sandy desert, considerably below Turkistan, and
disappears." — Baber, by Erskine and Leyden, p. 1 ; vide also Introductory Memoir by Waddington,
p. Ixiii.
* Consult sketch map of Russian encroachments in Quarterly Beview, October 1865, p. 552.
f I find it stated in Vamb^ry's Hist., Bukhara, p. 396, that this Fort was built in 1847 ; but
Von Sarauw and Von Hellwald both say 184S.
J This Flotilla seems to have disappointed the expectations that were formed of it ; for in
1870, the Russian Government were trying to dispose of it to a private Company. The tortuosity of
the Jaxartes, the un-navigability of the mouths of the Oxus, and the shallowness of the sea itself
were the reasons assigned for this measure. — St. Petersburgli News, 7th March 1870.
24 Khohand.
Jaxartes. Three small vessels, built at Orenburg and transported orer-
laud to the Jaxartes, were the first to carry the Russian flag upon this sea.
Afterwards two iron steamers^ built in Sweden and
den*T852" ^ * ^^ ^^' brought in pieces via St. Petersburg to Samara on
the Volga, and afterwards to Aralsk, were added to
the above in 1852.* It was now the avowed object of Russia to establish
a line of forts along the Jaxartes to the point where
thf JaiarLs.^ ^°'*' *^°''^ ^^^ Kara-tau range sinks into the desert, and from
thence, either by the old frontier of the Chu or by
the more southern line of the Talas, to establish other links which
should connect the Jaxartes Forts with the eastern settlements in
the neighbourhood of the Issik-kulf Lake. In making this advance
Russia recognised no territorial encroachment, as her own KirghizJ
already camped on the right bank of the Jaxartes, and the Chu had
been adopted long ago as the southern frontier of the Steppe ; but,
nevertheless, the Usbegs of Khokand, already in possession of the
* The total cost of these two ressels, including their conveyance to the Jaxartes and the
salaries of the artisans employed in constructing them, amounted to no more than £7,400 !
Note. — The above events are thus recorded by Vambery.
" General Peroffsky, Governor- General of Orenburg, had caused the fort Aralsk to be built by
Captain Schultz at the mouths of the Jaxartes in 1847. As this fort, afterwards called fort 1,
proved a good point of departure, it was easy to predict that forts 2, 3, and so on, would shortly
follow, and that the advancing Russian columns would soon come into collision with Khokand as
the power which, nominally at least, raled over these territories. At first the garrison of tbe
Khokand fortress of Ak Masjid took upon itself the ungrateful task of obstructing the outposts of
the northern Colossus by attacking now the Russians themselves, now the Kirghizes placed under
their protection ; but, as usual, they were repulsed with heavy losses. Their skirmishes lasted for
years; the Khokanders mostly had to deal with small detachments of the Russian army, so that
they never were sufficiently impressed with the immense superiority of the enemy, whilst the
Russians, on the other hand, becoming accustomed to the various stratagems and general local
habits of conducting war in these parts, went through a most valuable preparation for their con-
quest of Turkistan. Meantime, the steamers intended for the navigation of the tiver had arrived
on the dark green waters of the old Kharezmian Lake, having been transported by land from
Sweden to the Aral For want of coal the wood of the gnarled shrubs, called saksaul, had to be
used for fuel. — Vambety's History of Bukhara, p. 396.
f Issik-kul (the " warm lake"). In the famous Catalan map of 1374, giving the caravan
route pursued by the Polos from the Caspian to China, an Armenian Monastery is noticed to the
north of the lake in the position of Vernoe, said to contain the body of St. Matthew ! — Mr. J.
Mitchell has translated a series of valuable papers on this region by Semenofi", Goleshof, Abramof,
and Veniukof. These are now published in the 31st and 32nd vol. of the R. G. S's Journal.
X According to a calculation aiade by Humboldt {Asie. Centrale, tom., II, p. 129, note 2) the
entire Kirghiz population amounted to 2,400,000 in 1843. Cf. Michell's Russians in Central
Asia, pp. 89, and 103; also introduction by Erskine to his edition of Baber's autobiography.
Khokand. 25
river, considered the Russian approach as a direct invasion. Their
apprehensions were not without foundation ; for in 1852, the Russians,
having completed their preparations at the new base, determined to
proceed with their design and advance farther up the river.
The principal fort of the Khokandis on the Jaxartes is Ak-Masjid,
built in the year 1817, at a distance of some three
Ak-Masjid. i p i t t
hundred miles from the mouth of the J axartes. It
is regarded by the Usbegs as a place of great strength. The operations
of the Russians against this fort are thus described by Vambery in his
History of Bukhara, p. 396.
" In the year 1852, Colonel Blaramberg set out with a corps on a
reconnoisance towards the fortress of Ak-Masjid,^
AkSasjiMssa. ^^"^^ ^^^ penetrated with a handful of men under tlie
very walls of the fortress ; this daring act, for
* It consisted of 2,168 men, including officers, with 2,442 horses, 3,038 camels, and 2,280 oxen,
used for transport.
" In 1847 the Russians established themselves on the Sea of Aral by the construction of fort
Aralsk at the mouth of the Syr-Daria. The principal fort was situated about three hundred
miles from the mouth of the river, and belonged to the Khokandis. It was named Ak-Masjid, or
the white mosque. It had been constructed in 1817, and had ever since dominated the river, and
was regardefd by the Usbegs as a place of considerable strength.
"The capture of Ak-Masjid is a mark in the history of Russian advance in Central Asia.
For eight years this place was apparently the extreme point reached by Russia ; and during that
period she seems to have been content to hold her own without provoking further hostilities. It
is a curious fact, as illustrative of the political hostility between Khokand and Bukhara at this
period, that the Amir of Bukhara congratulated the Russians on the conquest of Ak-Masjid —
a circumstance which the Russians brouglit forward in after years when occasion served. — Sum-
mary of affairs in the Foreign Department. — J. Talboys Wheeler.
" From the Governor- General of Orenburg to the Commander
Russian summons to sur- of the fortress of Ak-Mechet.
render addressed to the Kho- i t. i /.
kandis defending Ak-Masjid. 1*7 Order of my master the Emperor of all the Russias, I have
come here to take possession of the fortress of Ak-Mechet which the
Khokandians have erected on Russian territory for the oppression of the Kirghizes, subjects of
His Imperial Majesty.
" Ak-Mechet is already taken, although you are inside it, and you cannot fail to perceive that
without losing any of my men, I am in a position to destroy every one of you.
" The Russians have come hither not for a day, nor yet for a year, but for ever. They will
not retire.
" If you wish to live, ask for mercy ; should you prefer to die in Ak-Mechet, you can do so.
I am not pressed for time, and do not intend to hurry you. I here repeat that I do not come here
to offer you combat, but to thrash you until you open your gates.
"All this I would have told you on the first day of my arrival, when I approached the walls
of your fortress unarmed, had you not traitorously opened fire on me, which is not customary
among honorable soldiers." — Russians in Central Asia, p. 348. — Michell.
Bussians in Central Asia. — Von Hellwald, p. 130. ^.js^y*"*''-^*'^ r
26 Khohand.
.J
■vvbicli he had ventured 250 leacrues away from the Russian frontiei^'
led to no immediate result ; but the grand attack of the followiag- year
■was all the more successful. This expedition was planned on a much
larger scale. The Russians in an unusually warm spring pushed across
the most barren part of the great Steppe of Orenburg as far as fort 1,
intending thence to reach Ak-Masjid on the right bank of the Jaxartes.
The Steamer Perofpsky followed up the river.
Expedition, 1853. -kt • i i • , i i
JN either the intense neat nor the swarms ot orrass-
hoppers and locusts sufficed to intimidate the hardy northerners. Ak-
Masjid was invested, and the struggle for this, the first fortress on
Turkistan ground, commenced."
The Khokanders, being summoned to surrender, replied that so
long as they had a graiu of powder in their flasks, or a clod of earth
to fling at their enemies, they would not surrender. They held out,
accordingly, with surprising obstinacy, and it was not until their com-
mander and the greater part of the superior officers were killed that
the Russians were able to effect an entrance. Ak-Masjid is the greatest
fortress in Central Asia, and while the Russians
^^^^ ' were well occupied in the Crimea, the Khokanders
made repeated and desperate attempts to re-occupy it. They were, how-
ever, invariably unsuccessful ; and notwithstanding a deal of good advice
and urgent remonstrance on the part of the Porte, the different Maho-
medan States* that had fallen under the shadow of the Russian eacrles,
made no effort durinir the Crimean war to drive back the advancinor
Power. Russia, therefore, as soon as her troubles in Europe had come to
an end, resumed in Asia her scliemes of conquest. In 1859 Cholek was
„, , , _.„ taken, and two years later, Yentjhi Kurahan.t
Cholek, 18o9. ' "^ _ , o >
The town of Hazreti Turkistan J was captured in
the month of June 1864 ;§ and Tashkend (the ancient ||Shash) about
* Khiva, instead of assuming the offensive, sent Envoys to Ak-Masjid with professions of
frendship. At Bukhara Nasrullah took advantage of her weakened condition to invade Ehokand.
— Yamhery, p. 400.
f Or Yani Kurghan — the new fort — the seat of a band of Khokandi robbers, situated among
the Kipehak Kirghiz.
X Here the tomb of Khoja Ahmed Yesevi fell into the hands of the infidels, and sent a thi-ill
of pious horror through the people of Mawar-ul-Nahr.
§ In the same month Auheta, to the north of the Karatagh range, Was taken, the Russian
loss being three men slightly wounded, while no less than 370 of the guirisoa were killed and
390 wouuded.
II See Erskine's Introduction to Memoirs of Baber, p. XI.
Kliohand. 27
a year afterwards. Meanwhile, on the eastern side of the Ural
mountains, the Hussians had been gradually advancing into the posses-
sions of the " Great Horde." In 1852 a fort had been erected at
Kopal, and in 1854 at Vernoe, which is now a
Vernoe, 1854. ^ ' ,
great emporium or trade. In order to connect
these places'^ with the Jaxartes, the Khokandi forts of Tokmek and
Pishpek were seized, and a fort was built on the eastern slopes of the
Karatagh range, at Julek.
In November 1864, Prince Gortchakow issued a circular, de-
scribiug the embarrassment of a civilized Govern-
cuTatise^!'"''^''''"'''''''" n^ent when it finds itself flice to f\ice with barbar-
ous nations, whose depredations, necessitating severe
and frequent chastisement, are at length the cause of a weakness and
Taskhand (Vide D'Herbelot Art. Aksikefc.) An article in the Quarterly Review of April 1874
gives the following account of the siege of Tashkand: — "In the middle of May 1865, after
two days' investment, Cherniayeff captured the fort that guards the water supply of the city,
and, by cutting the channels, reduced the inhabitants to such distress that they promised to fall on
the garrison as soon as the Russian force attacked the walls. But the accomplishment of this
plan was prevented by the arrival in the city of Alim Kul himself, with a large force, which he
straightway led out against the Russians. His troops were however driven back with loss, and
he himself was mortally wounded. In him died the last Khokandi who had spirit or ability
enough to offer resistance to the Russian arms ; but his death only added strength to the Bukhara
faction, which he had always bitterly opposed ; and, as the Amir was known to be approaching,
the party in favour of opening the gates to the Russians was intimidated. Cherniayeff then sent
a detachment to the other side of the city to capture the fort of Chinaz, which guarded the nearest
passage of the Jaxartes from the side of Bukhara. The possession of this little place enabled
him to cut the Taskhandis off from their supply of food, and, after six weeks' investment, he
escaladed the walls one night. This was an especially daring attempt, seeing that he had with
him only 1,950 men, while the city was supposed (erroneously, however) to contain a population
of over 150,000 souls, and the defenders were believed to number 30,000. And in fact, after the
walls had been mastered, it was not till after two days of street fighting that resistance was finally
overcome."
Vide Erskine's Baber, Introduction, p. XL, and a good article in McCulloch's Geog. Die.
Vol. III., p. 91.
" Tashkand, with a population of 300,000, is the centre of commerce, and Islamism covers an
area of nearly twelve versts, and lies literally in a forest of fruit trees. The town is irregularly
built. The inhabitants are peaceably inclined, and fond of commercial speculations. Living is
extremely cheap. The town, even at that time a place of considerable traffic, might some future
day become the chief emporium of Central Asia; for here assemble merchants from the whole of
Asia, not excepting the most distant parts of India." — Von Hellwald. See also Lumley's Report
on the Russian Trade with Central Asia, p. 283.
* By an Ukase of the 30th July 1864, the Russian frontier was then declared to be the
line of forts established along the north of the Karatagh range from Vernoe to Yani Kursrhan.
When, however, the news of this decree had reached the army, the line of frontier had advanced
. 100 miles further into Khokand territory.
28 Khohand.
demoralisation ^vhiell induce them to seek protection against tlie
violence of totally unsubdued and hence more formidable tribes beyond.
His Highness goes on to deplore the consequent necessity of a civilized
nation, in that plight, being obliged from year to year to advance its
frontier ; and ends with the announcement, that hencefortli the boundary
of the Czar's Empire shall be the line of the lower Jaxartes, diverging
t to Chamkand, and passing alonor the north of the
The Frontier of 1864. ^ , ' r i ? -n.
Karatgah range to Lake Issik-knl. Before, how-
ever, this decree reached the newly-fixed frontier, Tashkand was taken,
and the cii'cular of the Chancellor was stultified.
The principal places of Khokand had now all fallen into the hands
of the Russians, and the puppet ruler slij^ped awa}' from under the
shadow of Bukhara to the protection of Russia. " He had to surrender
the valleys of the Jaxartes from Mehrem onwards
Tlie end of Khokand -, n ^ ^ i» xi • j. i •
as an independent state, down the whole coursc 01 tlic river ; to open nis
cities to Russian subjects, and give security for
their property ; and over and above all this to pay over to the Russian
territory a war indemnity, which will most undoubtedly cripple him for
years to come. His power is reduced to a perfect shadow ; and at his
death the whole of this, the easternmost Khanate, will, as a matter of
course, be incorporated with the dominions of the Russian Empire !"
Mr. Talboys Wheeler, in his summary of affairs in the Foreign
Department; 1864-69, gives us the following table indicating the
modern liistory of Khokand : —
JMaliomed All Khan opened communication with Russia in 1835.
Deposed and executed by the Bukhara Amir, 1821-41. Ibrahim, Lieu-
tenant, from Bukhara, who was driven out by a general insurrection,
1841. Shere Ali Khan mnvdered, 1841-1844. Murad Beg I. assassinated
after 17 days, 1844. Khudayar Khan, 1st reign. Advance of Russia
to the Syr-Daria. Khudayar Khan compelled to fly to Bukhara,
1844-1859. Malle Khan — treaty with Bukhara, 1860. Advance of
Russia towards Tashkand, 1859-1861. Murad Beg II., deposed by
Khudayar Khan and the Bukhara Amir, 1861. Khudayar Khan, 2nd
reign, a vassal of the Bukhara Amir, 1861-1862. Syed Mahomed Khayi,
a mere boy, who reigned with the assistance of the Minister Alam
Khohand. 29
Kill, 1862-1865. Klmdayar Khan, 3rd reign, deserts Bukhara and
becomes the vassal of Russia, 1865-1868.
Notes. — The following somewhat romantic incident is worth being put upon
record : —
" la August 1867, the wife of the Russian General at Tashkand paid a visit
to Khudayar Khan, the ruler of Khokand, attended by
An Ambassadress. eighteen Cossack horsemen and six Russian females. A
party of Khokand officials, together with a hundred horse
and foot, were sent by Khudayar Khan to escort tlie lady into the capital. In this
„ . „ . . manner the lady entered the city of Khokand b\' the
Summary of Affairs m
the Foreign Department Bukhara gate, and on arriving at the royal fort and palace
f ^•*^^oiT°Io'■""'°"' °^ was welcomed with a salute of fifteen guns, on which she
India, 1864-69. _ ° '
presented the gunners with a hundred ratiskas, about eight
rupees and a half. Khudayar Khan received her at the gate of the fort, and
welcomed her in Oriental fashion with joined hands. The lad}' returned his salute,
shook hands with him, and enquired after his health in the Russian style, and was
conducted to a seat in the public hall. Her hair was intertwined with gold thread,
and decked with bunches of pearls ; her cap was of the famous Bukhara lamb-skin
with gold border; tlie buttons of her coat were of gold ; her gown was of China
silk, and she wore a purple neckerchief. While visiting the Khan's harem, she present-
ed four strings of pearls with an attar dhan to his principal wife, which she placed
round her neck with her own hands. She also gave to the Khan's mother a gold
chain studded with precious stones, with a picture of the Empress attached. She
also gave presents of Russian cloths to the otlier ladies of the harem. The lady
conveyed to the Khan salutation from the General, and stated that tlie General
considered the Khan to be his right-hand man. She added that she had seen the
Khan's picture at Orenburg, and was happy now to behold him in person," &c., &c.
"Khokand is about 300 miles from Bukhara. The 'Khan Hazrat,' as the chief
who boasts a descent from the Emperor Baber st3'les him-
self, receives (1862) by permission of tlie Chinese Govern-
The Khan. . ,. ,
^ ment the customs duties realized on the dealin"-s of
Commerce. =>
Mahomedans at Yarkand and Kashghar, and is thus
interested in the preservation of commerce. The rulers of this state have shown
themselves less bigoted and exclusive than those of Bukhara. They have occasionally
sent envoys to Constantinople, Pekin, and India, colonies
foreigners. of Jews have found refuge under them, and have introduced
Bazars and Colleges. the art of dyeing. The exiles of Badakshan also formerly
^ , sought the same asvlum from the tyranny of Murad Bee of
People. Tr ' ^ "• • •' •! o
Kunduz. The capital is well populated and adorned with
spacious bazars and colleges. Wheeled carts or arahahs are common. The people
of the districts consist of Kirghiz, Kazaks, and Kipchaks. The revenue of tlie state
is estimated at about 27 lakha of rupees." — Trade Report by Mr. H. H. Davies.
30 Bukhara.
CHAPTER V.
BUKHARA.
The Czar to Mr. Forsyth : — " It is not Russia's fault that she has been drawn
on to Bukhara."
The Amir* declinedf to afford that protection to Russian mer-
chants which the Czar demanded, nor would he
1834-1840. . . ' .
release the Russians known to be in captivity in
Bukhara. And, at length, when all apprehensions of an English
invasion had been removed by our disasters in Affghanistan — a few
, „ „ weeks after the execution of Stoddart (see Ferrier,
Stoddart and ConoUy. ^ ^ '
p. 129) and Conolly, — the Russian representative
was dismissed with circumstances of marked discourtesy. Five years
later the Russians built the fort Aralsk, already spoken of, in order that
they might thus be able to stretch out a protecting arm to their
trading caravans. In the meanwhile Russia came into collision
with Khokand, and hostilities, interrupted indeed by the Crimean war,
lasted until 1865, when Bukhara, foolishly interfering in the affairs of
her hitherto more unfortunate neighbour, came once more face to face
with the armies of the Czar. In the autumn of this year General
Cherniayeff commandinof the advanced Russian
Cherniayeff. i /. i • m
forces, ten days after having captured Tashkand,
feeling convinced — as he had every reason to feel — of the inimical
designs of the Amir of Bukhara, who was near at hand with a con-
siderable and lately victorious army, arrested all the subjects of His
Hio-hness in Russian Turkistan, and prevented an ambassador proceed-
ing to St. Petersburg.! A little later, however, the General having
deputed four civil and military officers to arrange matters with the
* " M. De Necri was sent with presents and a letter from the Emperor Alexander to the
Amir. The incidents of the mission, with much valuable infortaation regarding Bukhara, wejo
recorded by his companion Baron Von Myendorf in an interesting work that has lately been
translated by Capt. Chapman, 'S..K"— Quarterly Review, April 1874, p. 401.— See Beisen in
Bukhara : Khanikoff, 1863.
+ " A curious commentary on this is the following from Perofski's Narrative of the Eussian
Military Expedition to Khiva. " Bukhara had ever been eager, even since the mission of
Benevene, sent there by Peter the Great in 17291, to sustain a commercial intercourse with Russia."
X The eminent astronomer Colonel Von Struve was Chief of this mission, and published an
account of it. The portion relating to Geography was translated into French in the Bulletin de
la Societe de Geographic, September 1866, pp. 265-296.
Bukhara. 3 1
Amir, was placed in tlie awkward predicament of having bis envoys
imprisoned until bo should accept the alternative of permitting the
TT f 1 J-.- Amir's Ambassador to cro on bis way.* Cberniayeff,
Unsuccessful expedition o j ./ -
against Bukhara, Janu- bifrblv cnrajred, led a force of 1.700 men across tbe
ary-Februray 1866. o ./ rs 7
desert lying between tbe Jaxartes and tbe nearest
cultivation on tbe side of Bukbara ; but finding, too late, tbat tbis little
army was insufficient to procure, even vi et armis, forage and provisions,
be was obliged to return, and for tbe failure of tbe expeditionf was punisb-
ed by tbe loss of bis command. He was succeeded
CheraiayeE ^ ^^^^'^^ ^ ^Y Romanovski,| wbo found tbe wbole force in
Turkistan under bis command less tban 13,000, tbe
administration greatly disorganised, and tbe Amir§ of Bukbara close at
band witb a great army. On tbe 19tb of May, bowever, witbin a
few weeks of bis arrival, tbe new Russian General, baving massed
all bis available troops, attacked the Amir's en-
20th 1866? ^^'^^' ^^ trenched camp at Irjar, and utterly routed au
Army of 40,000 well equipped Bukbariot soldiers.
Guns, treasure, and camp equipage fell into his bands, and 1,000 1| of
the enemy lay dead on the field. Following up his success, be at once
* Vide " La Russia et L'Angleterre dans L'Asie centrale," Revue des Detus Mondes, 1867,
pp. 693-696.
f The Earl of Clarendon to Sir A. Buchanan : — " Prince Gortchakow replied that he could
take no exception to any thing I had said, and particularly with regard to the military command-
ers (Lord Clarendon had said that England well knew " how difficult it was from a great distance
to control the ambition of military commanders") who had all exceeded their instructions, and who
constantly, one after the other, had been recalled ; and he made special allusion to General
Cherniayeff, whose talents and bravery were remarkable "
X Author of "Notes on the Central-Asiatic Question" (in Russian), St, Petersburg, 1868.
§ Throughout the war with Bukhara, the Russian losses were absurdly small. The Bukharians
got the credit of being cowards among the Asiatics. In 1872 a melee took place in the Amir's palace
and half a dozen Afghans in Shere All's suite are said to have put the whole bodyguard to flight. -"
II The Russians had 12 men wounded only, according to some accounts.
" A decisive battle was fought at Irjar on the left bank of the Jaxartes, some miles north-west
of Khojend ; the Russian artillery opened up a way through the serried ranks of the Ozbeg cavalry,
and when the handful of Russians charged, their mere appearance was enough to throw the enemy
into confusion and cause a precipitate flight southward. The whole camp, including the Amir's
magnificent tent, and the entire park of artillery, was abandoned, and Mozuffar-Uddin himself
escaped with difficulty to Jizzak. The loss of the Bukharians amounted to about 1,000 men, the
Manghits of Karshi, the elite of the army, suffered most severely of all ; but the Tlnssian killed
and wounded were only about 50. This battle of Irjar proved the Ca7inae of Turkistan, for it cost
her her independence as a country, which she had successfully asserted during a thousand years,
and tlie whole cause of Islamism in Central Asia may be said to have received a deadly blow,"—
Vamberi/.
Terms of Peace.
32 Bukhara.
took the fort of Nau ; and a week later the great commercial emporium
Khojand (Vambery, p. of Kliojaud, on the Jaxartes. The Amir uo\v sent
back the Russian envoys, released the Russian
traders, and wanted to know on what conditions Romanovski would
make peace. That he should acknowledge the
sovereignty' of Russia over the region receutly con-
quered, reduce* the rates on Russian merchandize to those levied in Russia
on that from Bukhara, and tinally pay some £50,000 as an indemnity
for the cost of the late campaign, were the conditions offered in reply.
To the last of these the Amir's envoy objected, whereupon the Governor-
Geueralf of Orenburg, who had lately arrived on the scene of action,
_ , , „ gave him ten days to pav the indemnity, and
•Enhanced Terms. i i i . .
added, I among fresh terms, that he must give his
consent to the establishment of a Russian Consul in Bukhara, the erec-
tion of rest-houses expressly for the use of Russian traders, and the
equalisation of the imposts upon traders. These conditions not being
complied with at the expiration of the fixed period, the Russian columns
marched from the Jaxartes, bombarded and took the strong foi-ts of
Ura-tippa and Jizakh — the latter commanding
Ura-tippa and J izakn. i i i • i • i
the narrow pass that leads mto the rich valley of
Samarkand — and seized the little stronghold of Yani Kurghan at the
southern mouth of the defile. Having gone so far, the Russian
commander issued a proclamation to the people of
Pacific Proclamation. -r, , , c , . . , . , i-w .
Bukhara,^ repudiatmg the notion that Russia
* " No agent has been found more apt for the progress of civilization than commercial relations.
Their development requires everywhere order and stability; but in Asia it demands a complete
transformation of the habits of the people. The first thing to be taught to the populations of
Asia is, that they will gain more in favoring and protecting the caravan trade than in robbing
them {sic). These elementary ideas can only be accepted by the public whore one exists ; that
is to say, where there is some organised form of society and a Government to direct and represent
it. M^e are accomplishing the first part of our task in carrying our frontier to the limit where
the indispensable conditions are to be found." — Prince Gortchakow's Circular, Nov. 21, 1864.
•f Kryjanovski.
X The enhanced terms were justifiable, as it was known that the Amir was attempting to
profit by delay, and making warlike preparations.
§ Judging from official proclamations and declarations, it would appear that nothing was
further from the intentions of Kussia than territorial aggrandisement. When General
Komanovski took command in Turkistan, his instructions included the following: — " While
striving undeviatingltf to avoid the extension of absolute dominion in Central Asia, it is not
advisable that we should refrain from such operations and ai-rangemcnts as might be indispensably
necessary ; and, generally, the true interests of Bussia should be kept in view."
Bukhara. 33
entertained any designs on the independence of the Khanate, and adding
tliat another period would be acceded to the Amir for the fulfilment of
the conditions of peace.
In the autumn of 1866, the Amir of Bukhara sent to Calcutta a
distinguished member of the priestly order to beg
toSSa,*i8^66T ''"'* fo^ ^^^ against Russia. In the years 1864 and
1865 similar missions had been despatched from
Khokand. *Sir John Lawrence returned in each case the same
answer, that our Government would not interfere, and that his
advice was that they should accede to the reasonable demands of
Russia. From Calcutta, the Bukhara envoy went to Constantinople ; it
beino- the opinion of the Amir that a word from the Sultanf could
arrest the advance of Russia. But from Turkey no more encourage-
ment was received than from India. Despairing of help, the Amir
made one other desperate effort to shake off his unwelcome neighbours,
and sent a considerable army against the Russian outpost at Yani
Kurg-han. This force dissolved without showinor
1867. * . .
fight, at the first shots fired. While this army
was marching forth with all the bravery of kettledrums and religious
war-crieSj a Bukhariot envoy was toiling alone the road to Orenburg,
sent to discover what demands the Russian Governor-General still per-
sisted in. Nothing came of this mission,^ but a Bukhariot fort having
fired on a Russian force, whose approach it supposed to be hostile, the
T, . . , . Russian Government determined to add, in the
JtCussian victory m '
front of Samarkand, 1868. ghape of a fine, another item to its demands.
{Vtde p. 179, Von. Hell- ^ '
waid's Russians in Cen- The Bukhara populace were frantic with raore.
tral Asia.) ^ ^ °
Kaufmann began to advance towards Samarkand,
and at the river he found the army of Bukhara drawn up on the oppo-
* With reference to Lord Lawrence's answers, Mr. J. W. S. Wyllie's articles in the Quarterly
and 'Fortniglitly Reviews should be consulted. — See Quarterly Review, January 1867, " Foreign
Policy of Sir J. Lawrence." — The Fortnightly Review, March 1st, 1870, "Mischievous Activity."
— The Fortnightly Review, December 1st, 1869, " Masterly Activity."
t The Sultan being the head of Islam,
X "The Sussian detachments, and the Kirghiz under their protection, were continually
harrassed along the whole line of the Jaxartes by bands of plunderers, who had started into being
on the break-up of the Khokandian and Bukhariot regular armies ; accordingly, in 1868, a small
body of Russians was sent to seize one of the principal seats of those robber bands at Ukhum,
on the northern slope of the JS'ura-Lagh hills. After succeeding in this object, they went on to
the small Bukhariot fort of Nura-Tagh, the commander of which fired on them and drove them
off." — Quarterly Review.
34 Bukhara.
site bank. In the face of an ill-directed fire he forded the stream,
captured 21 guns, and utterly routed the Asiatic host with an incon-
siderable loss* on the part of his own forces. The citizens of Samar-
Samarkand ceded to the kand shut the gates on their flying countrymen ;
and on the next day opened them to the victorious
Russians. Samarkand was ceded to the Czar, an indemnity of £40,000
was promised, the duties on Russian merchandize were reduced, andf
free trade between Bukhara and Russia was finally established. The
Czar,} however, directed the speedy evacuation of Samarkand, and
issued orders that the people of Bukhara should be assured of his pacific
intentions, and of his determination to push Russian territory no
further. Kaufmann was unwilling, however, to give up a plaC/e§ that
* The Russians had 3 killed and 30 wounded.
t Vide Augshurger Allgcmeine Zeitung, 1869, No. 26, and 1872, No. 325.
X In the meanwhile the Amir was involved in fresh troubles with his son and the Governors of
Hissar, Deh-i-nan, and Kulab, who went into revolt. Eventually, however, they were all subdued.
§ Agriculture in Bukhara entirely depends on Samarkand, because the upper course of tho
Zerafshan, which supplies the fields and gardens of Bukhara with water, flows through Russian
territory.
Samarkand. — " On May 14th, 1868, the Russian Christians took possession of Samarkand,
the once-splendid capital of Timour, the birth-plHce and the grave of so many men distinguished
in the annals of Islam, and the brilliant centre of old Mahomedan learning. With Samarkand
the best part of Transoxania was transferred from the hands of the Ozbeg dynasty of Manghifc
to the house of Romanoff. The first conqueror of the country, so far as we know, was Alexander
(the Macedonian), and another Alexander (II. of Russia) has been the last. Two thousand yeara
ago Samarkand paid tribute to a small country in the south of Europe, now it is governed from
a northern capital of the same continent, and if we take into consideration all it has gone
thi-ough in the interval during the struggles of so many different dynasties at the hands of Greeks,
Arabs, Turks, Mongolians, and Ozbegs, it would be diflicult to find another spot in Asia with so
chequered a history of sunny and stormy days to compare with it."
Prince Gortchakow to the Earl of Claiendon, September 3, 1869 (officially recorded conversa-
tion) : — " Prince Gortchakow then proceeded to say that I was right in thinking that Bukhara might
at any moment be taken, because it depended for its supply of water upon Samarkand, which was
in the possession of Russia, but that it was the intention of the Emperor not to retain Samarkand,
and he could give no better proof of His Majesty's determination not to proceed farther southwards ;
certain arrangements had to be made and were not yet completed with the Amir of Bukhara. It
was the intention, however, of the Russian Government to demand 1,000,000 roubles for the
expenses of war, and to allow ample time for payment, about which no difficulty was anticipated,
as the revenue of Samarkand was 300,000 roubles per annum." Prince Gortchakow to Sir
A. Buchanan, December 1st, 1869 : — " I (Sir A. B.) expressed a hope that the Emperor's intention
of retiring from Samarkand would be carried out, as such a measure would have a powerful
influence in promoting tranquillity in Central Asia ; but when I pressed him for an answer on this
point, he spoke of the necessity of first obtaining guarantees against aggression in future from
Bukhara, adding that he hoped, as the Bukhariot envoy now there had convinced himself of the
power of Russia and of her desire to live on friendly terms with the Amir, that a satisfactory
arrangement might be made on Lis return."
Bukhara. 35
commanded the water-supply of Bukhara, and as the indemnity was not
Samarkand remains in paid, Samarkand remained, and still remains, in
the hands of Russia. ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ j^^^^j^^ j^ ^g^ ^ Kaufmann handed
over to Bukhara the troublesome but fertile little Begship of Shahr-i-
Sabz,* Almost simultaneously three districts on the upper waters of
the Zerafshan were annexed by Kaufmann, thus bringing Eussian
Karategin. {Vide " Cair territory up to the borders of the hill State of
Hist dJ Timur Bec!""^! Karategiu. One cannot doubt but that this little
I., pp. 174—184.) principality will (if this has not occurred already)
share the fate of its neighbours, and be eventually "assimilated." When
this happens, Russiaf and Aflfghanistan will be conterminous.^
Notes on Bukhara.
Vide. — Voyage d'Orenbourg a Bukhara fait en 1820, &c. M/endorff, Paris, 1826,
pp. 167 and 168. Barnes. Vol. I , pp. 272-276. Moorcroft Vol. II., p. 502.
" Bukhara itself, the capital, the seat of Government, and of all learning, and the
centre of considerable trade and manufactures, is one of
Bukhara. the dirtiest and most unhealthy places in all Asia, ntimber-
ing at the outside 30,000 inhabitants" (cf. Burnes II., p.
* Shahr-i-Sabz had for two or three years previously maintained a pretarious existence, and
had even ventured to afford shelter to the enemies of Russia.
f Having now completed their embrace of Khokand territory.
J Russia being then in almost immediate contiguity with the Afghan outposts in Shignan,
at the head of the Oxus.
Note. — The arms of the power of the north were next turned against the neighbouring Prince
of Bukhara, and after a brief and successful struggle the sacred city of Samarkand was taken, the
Russians attained the banks of the Oxus, and the vanquished Khan is now a mere vassal of the
mighty potentate who rules on the Keva. The characteristic feature of all this contest was that
the discipline and skill of the West overpowered without difficulty the vain resistance of the once
formidable Tatar races ; and though the hardships of the conquerors were great, and they
displayed their well-known endurance and courage, they fouud no foemen worthy of their steel,
and a few hundred Russians could always scatter thousands of their ill-trained and ill-armed
antagonists. — The Times.
'' And for the rest, the Russians are doing their utmost to settle down as quickly as possible,
and trying to make themselves comfortable in Central Asia. Even at present they feel quite at
home in Turkistan, Tashkand now boasts of its casinos, balls, and soirees musicales just Uke any
European town. Coal mines of a very promising character have been opened. Energetic
measures have been taken to lay down a Railway from Samara to Orenburg and from thence to
Tashkand and Khokand." — Hellwald.
Churches and Clubs have been opened at Tashkand, Khodjend, and Samarkand : in the
first named city there is even a newspaper {Turkistan News), and the melancholy monotony of
the muezzin's chant is broken by the cheerful sounds of the bells
of the Greek Churches. A Russian hospital and store-house is
established in the once-splendid palace of Timour, whither in olden times embassies from all the
36 Bukhara.
184 Myendorff's estimate is 2,478,000 ! ), "of which the larger proportion still belong
to the Iranian race, which has maintained so far the commercial and industrial reputa-
tion of the city. The only traces of former splendour are to be found in the founda-
tions of a few mosques and remains of the palace, dating from the pre-Islamite period.
Karshi. Vide Moorcroft, Karshi is the second city of the Khanate, both for trade and
ol. II., p. 502. manufactures, and also for the number of its inhabitants.
Next to Karshi, Samarkand, which is rich in ruins, used to be pointed out especially
g , , as the resting place of many hundred saints. It is celebrat-
ed for fruitjTor leather and cotton manufactories, for cream,
and for skilfully-enamelled wooden saddles. According to Fedjenko's estimate, it
„ _ , contains 30,000 inhabitants and eighty-six mosques, 23
colleges, 1,846 shops, and 27 caravanserais. But Samarkand
and Kette Karghan, where the best boots in the Khanate are manufactured, have both
fallen under foreign dominion, so that Kerminah must now
^'™^° ■ be reckoned the third in rank of the cities of Bukhara.
^.^^ A few others have a certain reputation, for example,
Hissar for its excellent cutlery — particularly knives and
Chihaijm. sword blades ; Chiharjui for its horse-fairs ; Karakol for its
extensive market for Persian slaves. — Vamhery's History
of Bukhara.
" The Khanate of Bukhara contains some 5,600 square miles, lying between the
37th and 43rd degrees of N. Lat., and the 80th and 88th
Extent of Khanate. ^^ i /. • i i i
degrees E. Long. Only five or six hundred square miles are
inhabited by a stationary population ; the remainder consists of steppe or desert, ou
which the wandering Uzbegs pitch their felt Kibitki, and
tend their flocks of horses or sheep. The total population
is estimated at two millions. It is composed of Uzbegs of vaiious clans, some of
whom live in villages and others are nomad ; of black-skinned Arabs, who are chiefly
engaged in breeding sheep ; of the aboriginal Tajiks, chiefly
inhabiting the city of Bukhara ; and of the descendants
of the Persians formerly transported from Merv. The Uzbegs greatly preponderate,
and the ruling family is of this tribe. The capital (Lat. 89° 40, N. ; Long, 64°
. , • 45'E.) in past ages successively destroyed by Jhengiz Khan,
The capital. . . .
restored by Taimur Lang, and spared by Nadir Shah, is about
15 days' journey from Khiva. It has a religious celebrity among the Mahomedans,
contains numerous double-storied colleges, with open quad-
rangles, in which the study of the Law, and of the hikmah
(worldly wisdom) is pursued under the superintendence of lecturers. About half the
land revenue is alienated in behalf of these institutions." — Trade Beport of Mr.
JR. S. Davies. Khanikoff" estimates the population at
opu a ion. between 60,000 and 70,000 souls : Burnes puts it down at
150,000 : McCuUoch at from 100,000 to 150,000.
princes of Asia came to do homage and bring offerings, whither the proud King of Castile himself
sent his ambassadors humbly to sue for friendship."
KJiiva. 37
" Bukhara, wbich is the richest, most populous, and most powerful (of the three
_^ ,^ ^ Khanates), is an isolated kingdom of small extent in the
Malte-Brun. -j /. j
midst of a desert. It is an open champaign country of
unequal fertility. In the vicinity of its few rivers the soil is rich, but beyond them
it is barren and unproductive. On the banks of the Oxus, the Zohik and the river
of Karshi, lies the whole cultivable soil of the kingdom." — Malte-Brun, p. 778.
ef. Erskine's Baber, Introduction, p. XXXVI. — Athenceum, January 25th, 1873.
CHAPTER VI.
KHIVA.*
Despatch to Lord Clarendon from Sir A. Buchanan, December 1st, 1869 :—" I
(Sir A. B.) spoke to Prince Gortchakow yesterday of the alleged intention of the
Russian Government to despatch a military expedition to Khiva, and he denied posi-
tively the existence of any such intention, repeating what he had formerly stated as to
the proposed establishment of a factory protected by a small garrison at Krasnovodsk,
for the purpose of at once opening a shorter commercial route to Central Asia, and
of acting as a warning to the Khan of Khiva that he is within reach of punishment
if he renews his intrigues among the Kirghiz ; but unless such provocation is
given, there is no idea, His Excellency said, of going to war with him, and much less
of occupying his country, the possession of which would be only an embarrassment
to the Government. In support of this statement, he read a despatch to the same
effect, which he had written to Baron Brunnow. Prince Gortchakow's language
was so apparently sincere, that, notwithstanding the strong grounds which exist for
believing that an expedition is preparing against Khiva, I shall endeavour to hope^"
&c., &c.
In 1700 and 1703 Khivan chiefs offered homage to the Czar.
Eleven years later, Peter the Great, desirous of
EultLtSl'ilr opening a channel for Russian trade through
Central Asia with India, ordered Prince Bekovitch
* Khiva, ia the twelfth century of our era under the Khwariziman princes who revolted
successfully against the Seljukides, played a very important part in the history of Asia. The
dominion of these rulers extended over Bukhara, Khorassan, and part of Persia. The Moghal
invasion, however, obliterated nearly every vestige of their greatness. Early in the sixteenth
century, the Khanate passed into the hands of four brothers, whose descendants, the Maks, held
patriarchal sway over the four tribes (descendants of the adherents of these brothers) among which
the Khivans are divided. They, however, acknowledged the supremacy of Bukhara. Abulghazi,
in the seventeenth century, repudiated this supremacy, and though repeatedly forced to
re-acknowledge it, his successors never ceased to re-assert their independence. The last of this
38 Khiva.
Cherkaski to lead to KlnVa an army of 6,000 men,* ia order to estab-
lish that supremacy which had been already admitted by the rulers
of Khiva, Khan Shaniaz and Khan Aran-Naamet. Accordingly, in
1717, after preparations which lasted for three
years, a Russian force started from the north-east
shore of the Caspian, and found itself, after a few months of difficult
marching, on the confines of the Khanate. Here, however, " notwith-
standingt this indisputable claim of Russia to Khiva, and that the Rus-
sian Government only sought to obtain one thing, that is, protection for
the Russian trade in Central Asia," the Khivans behaved in the most
unfriendly manner, attacked the Russian columns with considerable
ferocity, afterwards deluded Bekovitch into accepting peaceful overtures,
and, finally, having distributed his half-starved troops among a number
of villages, where food was promised, murdered them almost to a man.
dynasty was killed in 1740 by Nadir Shah, and the four rival tribes passed under the sway of the
neighbouring Kirghiz chieftain leader of that portion of the " Little Horde" who call themselves
the " Eazzaks of the Urst-Urt." A Kirghiz representative was now stationed at Khiva. After
many struggles, however, the Khivans, towards the end of the eighteenth century, shook off the
authority of the nomads, and even ventured on an expedition against Bukhara, which had
attempted to re-impose its supremacy. They were led by an able commander, who had usurped
the kingly office, a man of courage and great force of character. Although defeated in this
enterprise, this usurper succeeded in establishing that djmasty, which through unparalleled scenes
of bloodshed and cruelty preserved the independence of Khiva until the arrival of the Russians.
* In addition to this object, Bekovitch received instructions to explore the Oxus.
t Perofski's Narrative, p. 39.
Note a. — " Khiva is poorly cultivated, and inhabited chiefly by TTzbeg and Turcoman hordes,
who, clothed in coarse linen or woollen, subsisting on a little com, millet, and milk, and mounted
on the high-bred horses of the Turcoman steppes, are notorious for the length and rapidity of
their plundering expeditions. Abbott reckons the area of the State at 450,000 square miles, and
the population at 2,450,000 souls. The journey from Khiva to Orenburg occupies from 25 to
30 days. Tbe manufactures of Khiva consist of inferior felts, swords, and daggers. — Trade Eeport,
Mr. K. H. Davies."
Note b. — " Thus from the very commencement of the 13th century, the Khivans had chosen five
Khans who were Russian subjects. In 1700 Khan Shah Niaz paid voluntary homage to Eussia,
in 1703 Khan Aran Na-amet did the same. Abul Khair Khan and his son Nur Ali both Russian
subjects ruled over Khiva till 1750, and Khan Kaif, another Russian subject, held the same
position from 1770 to 1780. Hence arises the prescriptive right of Btissia to the Khanate
of Khiva." Narrative of Russ. Exped. to Khiva, translated by J. Michell.
2fote c. — " The Khanate of Khiva, more generally called Orgunje by its inhabitants, lies about
200 miles W. N. W. of Bukhara. It is a small but fertile territory occupying the delta of the Oxus
and surrounded hf deserts. It claims the dominion of the deserts which border the Caspian, and
has of late years established its supremacy over the Turcoman hordes south of the Oxus. It is
tbe ancient Kharisn, and is mentioned by Arrian under the name of the "country of the
Chorasmii." It contains only two places of note. New Orgunje and Khiva ; the former of which is
Khiva. 39
A* quarter of a century afterwards, Khiva came to be closely
associated Avith certain Kirghiz tribes ; and one
ceSn KiSftribes.'''^^ ^^ j-i-
phical Depot 1 : 4,200,000. that all the results of the scientinc expeditions undertaken
1873^^'prtcri'EJubL^°^ ^^'^'^^^ *^® ^^^^ ^®° ^^^'^^ ^^^^ ^^^"^ embodied in !t. " Due
account has been taken of Fedchenko's journey to the Alai
Steppe, of Abramof's inquiries concerning Karategin, of Kaulbar's and Scharnhort's late
journey to Kashghar, of the exploration of Eastern Turkistan by English travellers, of
Matusovski's travels in Zungoria, of Markozof's and Stebnitzki's reconnaissances from
Krasnovodsk, &c., and the new post-roads established by the Russian Government.
Colonel Walker, of the Great Indian Trigonometrical Survey, has brought out
Colonel Walker's Map » J^^w edition of his magnificent Map, in four sheets, of
of Central Asia. Central Asia.
Vamt^ry.
Hellwald.
Khiva. 51
See Vambery's Travels in Central Asia, pp. 410-413,
Khivan routes.
See Von Hellwald's Russians in Central Asia, pp.
197-213, The operations against Khiva.
Daily Telegraph, Jan- See Daily Telegraph, January 13th, 1873. Eus&iau
uarj 13th, 1873. motives and pretext for invasion of Khiva.
The TurJcistan Gazette states that Khiva has an area
Turkistan Gazette. p^,^^ ., ,,. „„„,
of 2,100 square miles, a population of 300,000 {%. e., 133
to the square mile).
A Russian officer of the Etat Major, M, Glukhovski, wrote a series of letters
V, ^, . I 1 •, X ii. in 1869 on Russian trade with Central Asia, which were
M. Glukhovski 8 Letters, '
No. IV. 1869. translated by Mr. Michell, our consul at St. Petersburg,
This writer states that the Khivans are very enterprising, and have all the qualities that
go to make good navigators. In 1865 he saw two Khivans at Fort No. 1, who had come
from Khiva by boat through the Aral and up the Jaxartes, bringing timber and corn
for sale. When the projected line of railway from the Caspian to Khiva is carried out, a
very great stimulus will, M. Glukhovski thinks, be given to all trade in Central Asia.
The Journal de St. Petersburg, December 19th, 1872, gives a clear and welU
Journal de St. Peters- arranged historical summary of Russian relations with
hurg, 19th December 1872. Khiva.
The Turkistan Gazette of August 13th, 1870, had an article on the Khivan ques-
The Turkistan Gazette, ti^n, in which the following occurs : — " Central Asiatic
August 13th, 1870. Khanates cannot be brought to a sense of the advantages of
Savage isolatioa of friendly, commercial, and state relations, and they cannot be
Usbeg Khanates. brought from Out of their isolation but by means of severe
lessons learned through a sacrifice of blood. Khokand and Bukhara have at last rea-
lized the impossibility of a hostile bearing towards Russia, their nearest and strongest
„, . . ., ,, neighbour. Khiva alone continues from time to time to assert
Khiva irreconcileable. ....
herself through an injurious influence over the neighbouring
Kirghiz and Turcomans. Khiva, the only remaining slave market in Asia, holds the
embouchure and all the lower course of the Oxus, which are peculiarly essential to
rr., -rr j i i Russla, If tho KrasHovodsk route is to be recognized as a
The Ejasnovodsk route. ; _ ,
convenient and profitable highway for commerce and mili-
tary purposes. But be it again observed, the necessity for exploring the channel of
the Oxus does not at all point to the necessity of making any conquests in the basin
of that river ; what was formerly achieved through an unavoidable shedding of blood
can now be attained by means of Russian influence^ which is steadily gaining strength
The aim of Eussian con- ^^ Central Asia. The aim of all the acts of the Russian
^^^^ ' administration in the Turkistan province, with reference to
the neighbouring provinces, is to enable Russian men of science and traders to travel
without hindrance and in perfect safety over all Central Asia. Tf it has hitherto been
necessary to employ shot and bayonets for the achievement of this object, it may be
hoped that that mode of operation will now be less and less frequently resorted to."
52 Khiva.
" Since the campaigns of Alexander of Macedon across the Turcoman deserts and
^ . „ . the deserts of Kerman, one might seek in vain for so
Bussian Votce.
difficult a military expedition as that which on the 29th of
May ended so hrilliantly, hy the taking of the town of Khiva. . . . The enemy
endeavoured to resist ; it was incalculably more numerous than our troops, was better
acquainted with the localities, was more used to them — was, in short, at home, and had
all the time and means to organize an obstinate resistance — and, in spite of all that,
could not hold its own. The brilliancy of the glorious expedition of 1873 forces the
checks of 1737 and 1839 into oblivion, and justifies the belief of the inhabitants of
Central Asia that ' The arm of the white Tsar is long, and can reach as far as he
pleases.' The campaigns of the French in Egypt and Syria, the English expedition
to Abyssinia, so remarkable nevertheless, seem something secondary in comparison to
this difficult enterprise of the Eussians, who have, besides, accomplished it as though
it were a common occurrence, and one that could not but be done as a very simple
episode of their military history." — The Voice, July 1873.
Khiva is known among Oriental geographers as Khwarizm, and the Khivans
_^ _, . are the Chorasmii of the ancients. In Ouseley's Oriental
The name Khiva. •'
Geography of Ibn Haukal, p. 278, we find Khaiwah used
in connection with Khwarizm. Colonel Yule believes it to be the ' Choja' of the
Catalan map of 1375. Jeukinson does not " appear to have touched at any place
bearing that name on his way to Bukhara, vid the Caspian, A.D. 1558. It seems,
however, to be identical with the Khayuk of Abu-1-Ghazi Khan, a century later.
Geographcal K e V i e w, According to Mr, Webber, then our Ambassador at St.
July 1873. Petersburg, the * Tartars of Khiva' was a term used by the
Russians under Alexander Bekowitz to designate the ' Uzbeks of Karazm,' when the
former invaded Turkistan, and mention is made of the
1718
' Khivan Kingdom' in Urtsen's Noorden Oost Tartaryen,
the first edition of which was published in the reign of Peter the Great. In Vambery's
Chagatai Dictionary, ' Khiva' is stated to be ' the capital of the so-named Khanate,
and of ancient ' Kharezm.' "
A tradition exists among the Mahomedans that Khiva was shown, in vision, to
the Prophet by the Angel Gabriel, on his night journey to
paradise. The Angel promised it as a glorious acquisition,
adding, with reference to its conquest fron the infidels, that all believers, who should
thereafter die in their beds on the banks of the Oxus, should, at the resurrection,
receive the reward of martyrs.
" The most complete account of the history and geography of Khiva that has
Herr Larch's work on jet appeared has just been published in a brochure from the
Khiva German press at St. Petersburg, by Herr Lerch." (This is,
I suppose, what was originally published in the BussischeUewxe, Vol. II., pp. 445-484.)
•'who himself has formerly made a close personal acquaintance with the country.
From a brief review of it by Arminius Vambery, we learn that the Oriental historians
of Middle Asia— Arabian, of course, chiefly— have never before been ransacked to such
Khiva, 53
good effect as concerns this khanate. Herr Lerch undertakes, among other parts
of his task, to disprove the theory of Rawlinson as to the former drj-ing up of the
Aral ; but his reviewer judges that he here fails. The latter part of the history
is greatly abbreviated, but this is a direct consequence of the absence of any
proper records during a period of constant petty commotions and revolutions. The
present abject poverty of the khanate and its patent causes — the unruliness of the
Uzbegs and the raids of the Turcomans— are clearly though shortly explained by Herr
Lerch." — Pall Mall.
" The natural capabilities of the oasis of Khiva are said to be considerable ; but
„ ^ J -r, ■ a long interval must elapse before the profits of Khivan
Saturday Bevteio. ° _ ^ '^
commerce or industry would pay the expense of conquest.
The Russians have hitherto sought in Central Asia, not terminal stations, but rights
of way to more distant regions, and Khiva lies between the territory of the Empire
and the newly acquired dependency of Bokhara. — Saturday Review^ Jan. l^th,
J 873.
"General Kauifmann's report on the Khiva expedition, which has now been
published by the Russian papers, contains an interesting
Kauffmann's Eeport on account of the occupation of the Khivan capital by the
occupation of Khiva.
Russian troops. At daybreak on the 29th of May, the
General's detachment left its bivouac at Yangi-Arik, and by eight o'clock in the morn-
ing it reached the gardens which lie close to the walls of Khiva. Here the General
was received by the principal public functionaries of the country, who came out of
the town to greet him. Among them was Sayed Amir Ul-Umar, uncle of the Khan,
Ata-Jan, brother of the Khan, and Inak-Irta-Sali, one of his more distant relatives,
who had visited General Kauffmann the day before. These personages made some pre-
sents to the General, at the same time informing him that as the Khan had left his
capital and had not returned, the inhabitants had liberated his brother Ata-Jan, whom
he had kept in confinement for seven months, and had proclaimed him Khan under the
regency of his uncle Sayed Amir Ul-Umar. The latter, an old man of seventy, is the
representative of the peace party in Khiva, and had always urged the necessity of
maintaining friendly relations with Russia, whicli caused him to fall into disgrace
with the Khan. General Kauflfmann then ordered the other detachments to cease
firing ; and at two in the afternoon the troops marched into the town with bands
playing and colours flying. The four gates and the citadel were first garrisoned, and
the remainder of the troops halted in the fortress on the square in front of the palace.
Here General Kauffmann congratulated the troops, in the name of the Emperor, oa
the successful results of the expedition, and thanked them for their services, after
which he withdrew to the palace, where he received various deputations of citizens,
merchants, &c. The alarm and confusion which were at first caused by the presence
of the Russian troops speedily abated ; the people in the town and in the adjoining
villages returned to their houses, the bazaar and shops were again opened, and trade
became as brisk as ever. All pillage was strictly forbidden by order of General
Kauffmann, and everything that the troops required was regularly bought and paid
54 Khiva.
for. On the 1st of June the General addressed a latter to the Khan. The latter was
then amono: the Yomads, with whom it was said he was preparing to attack the
Eussians ; hut the General, not giving much credit to this report, simply requested
the Khan to meet him at Khiva. The Khan came on the following day, and the
General then informed him tliat he would be permitted to continue to rule the country.
General Kauffmann adds that the troops under his command are in excellent health and
spirits, and show no traces of their laborious march through 1,000 versts of steppe.
A number of military parties are to be sent in various directions during the stay of
the troops at Khiva to assist in asti'onomical and topographical research. One of
these parties had already left, at the date of the General's report, to explore the
district between Khiva, Sheik-Aryk, Shurakan, Khanki, and New Urganj, and
measures had been taken to collect geographical, statistical, and ethnographical data
about the country." — Pall-Mail.
At length, '' England seems to have seriously appreciated the dangers of the
_j, , , , „ . situation. The possession of Khiva would not only round
off the territories of Russia on the right bank of the Oxus,
but put her in possession of the mouth of that river, which is one of the principal
channels of communication in Central Asia, and the nucleus of the roads which lead
to the south. Por the territory known as Khiva comprises not only the small
country of that name on the Lower Oxus, but also the whole of the steppe which,
extends to the north of Persia ; and it has for centuries had a legal claim to Merv
and to the territory which exists in the immediate vicinity of Herat, that northern
gate to India. Tashkand, Khodjand, Samarcand, Bukhara, and Khiva are insepar-
able links in the long chain of Russian conquest, which will certainly be continued to
Herat and Kandahar ; and there would be no rashness in predicting that the Russians
will be close to India in five years at the latest." M. Vambery thinks that in such
a case India would not be so safe against a Russian invasion as some suppose. " It
is true," he says, " that the Indian railways would enable an army to be sent to the
northern frontier in a very short time ; but it must not be forgotten that India is
separated from England by a vast strech of sea, while Russia would be connected
with the Indian frontier by an uninterrupted chain of her own possessions." — The
Lloyd of Pesth : Mr. Vambery.
The Torgovoy Zbornik published an article in the early part of 1873, ridiculing
the idea of Khiva being a rich country, and offering on that
Khiva a poor country. account a tempting bait to the cupidity of Russia. The
The Torgovoy Zbornik. _ . r j
Khivans, says this journal, are wretchedly poor, hardly able
to wring from the soil the barest necessities of life.
*' How can diplomatists and journalists talk about opening commercial relations
with Khiva, and thereby developing Russian commerce in Central Asia ? Our people
do not even know how to open up countries which are really rich in natural resources ;
in Turkestan, for instance, millions are thrown away on the administration and the
garrisons. We may be quite sure that if Russia annexes Khiva there can be but one
result — that she will have 200,000 beggars to provide for." — Torgovoy Zbormilc.
England and Russia, 55
" The Eussian papers continue to discuss the question what is to be done with
■ What is to be done with Khiva. The Bourse Gazette, replying to an article in the
^"■'^'^^^ Z)ai/y iVezi;*, says that Russia wants no English authoriza-
tion for annexinsf Khiva. After having shed Russian blood to conquer Khiva, Russia
wishes to profit by her efforts, without regard to British commercial interests. The
article concludes by remarking that England ouj^ht to remember that Russia is not
Persia. The Berlin correspondent of the Daily News telegraphs on Tuesday : — The
evening journals, without exception, look on the latest news from Khiva as confirming
the intention of Russia not to release her hold on that State, but ultimately to annex
it. It is not believed (the telegram proceeds) that the betrothal of the Duke of
Edinburgh Avill affect the relations of the two countries. The National Zeitung
observes that the marriage will not help England to endure the conquests which
Russia is daily making in Central Asia, and, above all, the annexation of Khiva,
which now seems certain. On the other hand, a telegram from St. Petersburg says
that, according to further advices from trustworthy sources at Tashkand, the
approaching return of General Kaufmann's army is to be regarded as indicating the
intention of Russia to evacuate Khiva." — The Pall Mall.
CHAPTER VII.
ENGLAND AND RUSSIA.
The Emperor of Eussia " I liope we shall always be good neigbbours."
to Mr. (Sir D.) Forsyth. __rj.j^^ ^^^^, ^^ ^^,^ Forsyth.
" The Czar said there was no intention of extending the Russian
dominions, but it was well known that in the East it is impossible
always to stop when and where one wishes." — The Czar to Mr,
Forsyth.
" He had no ambitious views, and he had been drawn by eircum-
_, ^. . ^ , stances farther than he wished into Central Asia."—
lo Sir A. Buchanan.
The Czar to Sir A. Buchanan.
The Emperor to the British Ambassador, St. Petersburg, February
26th, 1869 : — "Her Majesty's Government will believe, I trust, that I
have no feeling of covetousness in Central Asia ; but they must know
from their own experience in India that our position there is one of
extreme difficulty, in which our actions may not depend so much upon
our own wishes, as upon the course pursued towards us by the Native
States arouad us. I earnestly hope, however, that no new difficulties
5ff England and Russia.
may arise on our eastern frontier, and tbat arrangements may be made
for the maintenance of tranquillity, but should new conflicts arise with
our restless neighbours, they will not be of our seeking."
" The Imperial Cabinet takes as its guide the interests of Russia.
Prince Gortchakow, the ^^^ ^^ believes that, at the same time, it is pro-
ChanceUor. moting the interests of humanity and civiliza-
tion. It has a right to expect that the line of conduct it pursues and
the principle which guides it will meet with a just and candid apprecia-
tion." — Prince Gortchakow^ November 1864.
"• But he (Prince Gortchakow) admitted that unless we now come to
some friendly understanding, there is quite enough of combustible
matter in the intriguing character of the Asiatic nations intervening
between our respective countries in the east, which might act upon the
suspicions of Russians and English, so as to lead us into considerable
discord." — Prince Gortchakow to Mr. Forsyth.
Lord Clarendon, in writing to Sir Andrew Buchanan, the British
Ambassador at St. Petersburg, stated that he had repeatedly broached
the subject of Russia's advances in conversation with Baron Brunnow,
Baron Brunnow, Russian and that the latter '* had always replied that the
Ambassador at Court oi _ .
St. James'. policy of his Government was to restrict rather
than to extend its possessions southward in Asia."
The following is a translation by the Berlin Correspondent of the
The Moscow Gazette. Times of an article in the Moscow Gazette.
We confess that in our opinion England derives very questionable
(Prince Gortchakow's advantage from her protectorate over Afighanis-
organ) tan. Still, were she to think it expedient to sub-
ject the Amir of Cabul to her dictates even more completely than is
the case now, would she listen to any remonstrance on our part ? And
what reply would Russia have received had she ventured to protest
ao-ainst the annexation of the Punjab and the reduction of Cashmere?
In all probability the English would have laughed us to scorn had we
taken any such step without the fixed resolve to go to war in case our
demand were negatived ; or they would have armed against us had
they known us to be bent upon bringing matters to a crisis. And could
Russia act differently were she placed in the like dilemma? Could
Russia enter into any obligations binding her to remain stationary at
Englmid and Russia. 57
any given point on her Asiatic frontiers ? Standing upon our rights we
confess we are comparatively indifferent to what the English may say
or think of our doings. The extension of our influence in Turkistau
is, after all, the most natural thing in the world. If our efforts have
been lately crowned with success, we have worked long and patiently
to bring about this result. We are now reaping the fruit of previous
toil ; and to renounce this reward of our labour merely to please foreign
politicians would be conceding a little too much to extraneous influences.
We will reap where we have sown, and to compass this we shall be
guided by what has been the ruling principle of English politics in
India — the determination to get back two roubles in return for every
one invested.
The Moscow Gazette, of the 20th February 1869, said that the idea
of a Russian army mai'ching to India could not be realized without
frightful sacrifices which Russia could only undergo if the supreme law of
self-preservation obliged her to do so. " The appearance of a small
military force amidst populations, retaining the traditions of former
redoubtable invasions, would be a real danger to English power in
India."
On the 2()th of February, another article in the same journal ex-
pressed the followi;2g sentiments : —
" To demand of RHssia that she should by some kind of treaty
respect the independence of AfFghanistan, or that she should declare
the neutrality of AfFghanistan, Eastern Turkistan, or any other Central
Asian territory, would be such an incongruity that it is not Avorth-
while serious consideration. Every diplomatic allusion to the affairs
of Russia, which are not subject to international European right, would
only be an insult to her dignity. Besides, what force and whose
influence could compel Russia or England to respect any guarantee in
Central Asia, if the necessity of defence, in the event of war, would
require their violation ?"
Again, on the 21st of February, we read in the same paper : — " The
position of Russia in Central Asia strengthens her along the whole line
of her national interests, and it is strange to suppose that she should
herself abandon the political and strategic advantages of her position.^'
The Moscow Gazette of April 17th has the following : — " Central
Asia is for Russia a strong strategical point against England, in the
1
58 England and Russia.
event of an eastern war, though Russia of her own accord has no
motives for threatening the interests of England in India."
In the same journal of the 16th December of the same year (1869),
we find the following : —
" In England's eastern possessions there are a great many elements
of discontent ; almost every year military expeditious are made against
the mountain tribes ; therefore such a neighbour as Russia would neces-
sarily lower the prestige of England."
The Vest of May 5th, 1869, speaks of the advance of Russia in
Asia inspiring England with grave appi'ehensions,
" not because she fears the invasion of India, but
because the proximity of Russian dominion will have a strong influence
on the minds of the Indians, who already see with joy the approach
of an European power to which they can apply for assistance in case of
necessity."
The St. Petersburg Exchange Gazette makes the following declar-
ation : — " It is oidy in the event of European
The ExcJiatiffe Gazette. , • i . i
misunderstandings, through wiiich we might be
forced into a war with England, that we would take advantage of our
position in Central Asia to damage England's influence iu the East."
" So long ago as the year 1840, England, being utterly ignorant
m, ^ , p o^ T> 1 of the state of aff'airs in Central Asia, and fearing
The Golos of St. Peters- ' =
burg, February 1873. that the proximity of Russia might lead to the
loss of the British possessions in India, determined on crossing the
Indus in order to stop us at the Hindii-Kush, where we never intended
to go. It was in pursuance of the same policy that England concluded
a treaty in 1857 with the Amir of Cabul, by virtue of which she
bound herself to pay him £120,000 a year, and he engaged in return to
have an army of 18,000 men ready to march against Russia. But
even this did not seem enough to make England feel safe ; for she began
in 1859 to address Russia, who had never threatened her, about the
necessity of establishing a neutral zone, and strove as much as possible
to obtain Russia's consent to such an arrangement. This zone, accord-
ing to the view of the English Cabinet, was to include, not only
Affghanistan, but also Bactriana, that is, all the territories watered by
the afiluents of theOxus. But if England will not allow her Indian
England and Russia. 59
subjects to be aroused by the approach of Russia, Russia has just aa
much right to demand that the influence of England shall be entirely-
absent among the populations of Turkistan. Russia will, therefore,
never accept the theory of an ' Upjier Oxus State' as it has hitherto
been enunciated by England." — The Golos.
The foregoing extracts will enable the reader to form some
notion of the attitude assumed by Russia towards England with respect
The attitude of En • -r. • i
Kusso-Persian armj^, or Russian only, are, with-
out doubt, serious ; but they may be said to exist far more in the
character of the people of AfFghanistan and the Tatar states than in
the scantiness of the resources of the countries through which the
expedition would be obliged to pass — their poverty and the difficulties
of the ground have been greatly exaggerated. Let me add, however,
that the English have a chance of victoriousl}'' repulsing the attack,
althongh, to obtain this success^ incessant vigilance is imperatively
England and Ritssia. 6'ir
necessary, and an European war might imperil the wliole question." — ■
Pages 457-458.
Captain^ Von Sarauw, of the Danish Armj, has published an
interesting brochui*e on Russia's Commercial Mission in Central Asia,
from which 1 extract the following passage : — " If
the Russians are deprived of the help of other
great nations in carrying out the colossal work that we have indicated
in the above pages, the entire undertaking will devolve upon them,
just as the impulse was originally, without doubt, given by them.
It is impossible to measure the benefit to trade, and consequently to
civilization, which will ensue. Ev^en already Russia deserves the thanks
of Europe for what she has done in the present day towards fiicilitating
trade with the neighbouring regions of the globe. To cause European
culture and European influences to dawn on those countries, and especi-
ally on Central Asia, is Russia's mission. That she will, in the end,
accomplish it, is vouched for by what she has already achieved."
In February 1873 a number of the Journal des Debats gave
expression to the following opinions upou the
The Journal des Debats. , . , p
Central Asian question, with reference to the
now abandoned proposal for a neutral zone to keep asunder England
and Russia in Asia : —
*' We are bound to consider what will be the practical consequences
of setting up this neutral territory, occupied as it will be by semi-
barbarous tribes, between the possessions of the two empires. Russia
undertakes not to outstep the boundary assigned to her. Good ! But
if she is attacked by Khiva, Bukhara, Badakshan or Wakhan, in the
persons of her commercial representatives — and these tribes will be
more than ever tempted to do so because they will feel assured of impu-
nity, — what must infallibly take place ? Russia will not put up with
such aggressions, and, if she is forbidden to repress them herself, she
will assuredly make England responsible for the damage done. Eng-
land, in fact, will have to maintain order in the intermediate zone, from
whieii she has insisted upon excluding the northern Powei*. This will
be a task by no means easy of accomplishment, and one cannot help
* This brochure gives a valuable account of the projected lines of Railway, by means of which
Russia hopes to strengthen her hold on her new possesaions.
68 Jingland and Russia.
feeling that she lias assumed a very heavy responsibilit}'^ and a very
onerous duty. It is very possible that, instead of having simplified
the nature of the relations between England and Russia, Lord Granville
has rendered them much more complicated, and increased those very
occasions of conflict between the two empires •which recent nego-
tiations professed to provide against. In any event, the Central Asian
question is not terminated, as the English newspapers are themselves
obliged to admit ; it has merely entered npon a new phase, which, there
is every reason to fear, may prove as critical as the previous one."
At the beginning of 1873 an article appeared in ^eue treie Presse
by Herr Karl Blind, from which the following
The Neue Freie Fresse.
passage is extracted : —
" The dominion of the English over 200,000,000 Asiatics reposes
in a great measure on prestige, on a belief in England's power. If this
belief is once shaken by the approach of Hussia, elements of hostility,
wliich were hitherto restrained in India, will suddenly become active,
and then it will require unceasing exertions to keep them down."
In January 1873 the Augsburg Gazette re-
"^ ' commended to England the annexation of Cash-
mere.
The AW resent position of Bussia in the
East. — Madras ed., 1838, p. 120. Khiva, Moscow, Petersburg : Abbott. Lond., 1856, pp. 203—
209. Selected writings of Lord Sirangford, Vol. II., p. 274.
' ° England and Russia.
Is this the tone of Empire P here the faith
That made us rulers ? this, indeed, her voice
And meaning, whom the roar of Hougoumont
Left mightiest of all peoples under heaven ?
What shock has fooled her since, that she should speak
So feebly ? wealthier— wealthier— hour by hour !
The voice of Britain, or a sinking land,
Some third-rate isle half-lost among her seas ?
The loyal to their Crown
Are loyal to th^ir own far sons, who love
Our ocean-empire with her boundless homes
For ever broadening England, and her throne
In our vast Orient, and one isle, one isle.
That knows not her own greatness : if she knows
And dreads it, we are Mien.— 7"enni/son.
APPENDIX A.
CHRONICLE OP IMPORTANT EVENTS IN WESTERN TURKISTAN.
Successive Scythian immigration from ... •«. ••• B.C. 700-A.D. 300
Turkish tribes pour in from the Altai ... ... ... A.D. 300-900
Nestorian Bishopric of Samarkand established before ... ... A.D. 52Q
Armies of Islam enter Western Turkistan about ... ... ... 666
Mahomedanism firmly established in Bukhara, and death-blow given to the
creed of the Fire-worshippei-s about ... «t. ... 710
Mokanna, " Veiled prophet of Khorassan," appears on scene ... ... 767
Samanide Monarchy founded about »- ... ... ... 845
Samanide Dynasty closes ... .«. ... ... ... 901
Seljukide Monarchy founded .. ... ... ... 1004
Seljukide Monarchy ends ... ... ... ... ... 1134
Jhenghiz Khan emerges from Gobi with his Mongols m. ... 1218
*Giovanni Carpini travels in Central Asia ... ... ... 1245
Kubruquis and Bartolomeo visit Central Asia ... ... ... 1252
Timur the Tatar ... ... ... ... 1364-1405
Sheibani expels Baber ... ... ... ... ... 1499
Benedict Goes visits Central Asia ... ... ... ... 1594
Astarkhanide Monarchy founded ... ... ... ... 1597
Khivaa chiefs offer homage to the Czar ... ... ... 1700
Bekovitch's disastrous attempt on Khiva ... ... ... 1717
Treaty with Persia confirms annexation of Caspian Provinces ... ... 1723
Karakalpaks ofier allegiance to Russia ... ... ... ... 1723
The entire southern shore of the Caspian becomes Russian ... ... 1729
Chinese provinces of Zungaria and Eastern Turkistan conquered by China ... 1756
The independence of Khokand asserted ... ... ... ... 1775
Astarkhanide Dynasty closes ... ... ... ... 1784
Two futile attempts made by Russia to chastise Kirghiz subjects of Khiva... 1809
Tashkand (in the year 180G, capital of a separate Khanate) conquered by
Khokand ... ... ... ... ... 1810
Treaty with Persia, by which Russia gains an accession, of Territory ... 1813
Ak-Masjid constructed by Khokandia . .»• .... m. 1817
M. N. Mouravief visits Khiva ... ... ... ... 1819
M. de Negri sent with presents and letter from Caar to Amir of Bukhara ... 1820
Sir A. Burne's Travels in Central Asia ... ... ... ... 1832
Russian Ofiicers despatched to Bukhara to procure release of slaves ... 1834-35
* Vide Keyue des Deux Mondes, February 15tb, 1872, pp. 800-832, Art. by Dora d'Istria.
80 Appehdia.
Attempt to levy tax on Russian Kirghiz creates disturbances ... ... 1836
Lieut. J. Wood visits the source of the Oxus ... ... ... 1838
Disastrous failure of Perofski's attempt on Khiva ... ... ... ■
Khiva induced by Captain Richmond Shakespeare to realese 416 Russian
slaves, October ... ... ... ... ... 1840
Stoddart and Arthur Conolly executed in Bukhara ... ... ... 1842
Treaty of peace and commerce concluded between Russia and Khiva .•. -
Russia allowed to trade in Hi. Treaty concluded at Kulja between Russia
and China, August 6th ... ... ... ... 1851
Unsuccessful attempts made by Russia on Ak-Masjid ... ... 1852
Ak-Masjid falls ... ... ... ... ... 1853
Two small steamers launched on Jaxartes ... ... ... ■
A Bukhariot envoy (No. 1) comes to Calcutta ... ... ... 1854
Hi devastated by Mongol hordes ... ... ... ... 1855
Chulak Kurghan taken and destroyed by the Russians ... ... 1859
Khokandi forts of Tokmek and Pishpek taken ... ... ... 1860
Fort built at Julek, and Yani Kurghan shelled and destroyed ... ... 1861
Invasion of Khokand, and Gortchakow's Apologetic Circular ... ... 1864
Great Mahomedan rising of the Dunganis ... ... ...
A Bukhariot envoy (No, 2) comes to Calcutta ... ... ... ■
Khokand subdued by Russia ... ... ... ... 1865
Bukhara applies for aid and advice to Constantinople ... ... ■
Khokand, with Tashkand* as capital, constituted Russian provinces by
Imp. Ukase ... ... ... ... ... 1866
A church built in Tashkand ... ... ... ... ■
Chernyaef's unsuccessful demonstration against. Samarkand ... ... ■
Battle of Irjar. Bukhariot axmy defeated by Russia, May 20th ... ■
Russians capture Nau, May 26th ... ... ... " ... — —
Khojand surrenders to Romanovski, June 6th ... ... ... — — »
Russians take Uratippa by Storm, October 2nd ... ... ... «
Russians take Jizzak by storm, October 18th ... ... ... — ^
Bukhariot envoy (No. 3) arrives in India ... ... ... ■
Deputation from Tashkand, Uratippa, Jizzak, and some Kirghiz, come to
St. Petersburg to offer allegiance to Czar, March ... ... 3867
Administration of Russian Turkistan reformed by Imp. Ukase, July ... •
Yakub Beg completes his conquest of Eastern Turkistan ... ... — —
Battle of Samarkand; Russia defeats Bukhara,! 13th May ... ... 1868
Treaty concluded between Russia and Bukhara, June 18th ... ... — —
Envoy of Khudayer Khan of Khokand received by Czar, November ... •
* For an interesting account of Taskhand, see Journal de St. Petersburg, November 2l3t
and December 3rd, 186o.' Art. by Governor- General of Orenburg.
t The precise date of this battle is still uncertain. The above is, however, that given by the
invalids Bu$se of June 17th, 1868.
Appendix. S!
Russian Agent, Captain Reinthal, visits Atalik Ghazi ... ...
Amir of Bukhara sends bis son with embassy to St. Petersburg ... 1869
Mr, R. B. Shaw visits Eastern Turkistan ... ... ...
Insurrection of Cossacks, Kalmaks, and Kirghiz ... ... ...
Bussian military station established by Colonel Stoljetov, at Krasnovodsk,
November 10th ... ... ... ..• •.•
Envoys from Atalik Ghazi arrive in Cashmere and India ... ...
A Russian Newspaper, Turkistan News, started in Tasbkand ... ... 1870
Source of Zarafshan discovered, May 25th ... ... ...
Persia cedes territory on the Attrek to Russia (May p) ... ...
Kitab, capital of Shahr-i-sabz, taken by Russians, August 14th ...
♦Vernacular supplement ( in Kirghiz language) to Turkistan Gazette pub-
lished, by General Kauffmann ... ... ... ...
Mr. Forsyth conducts a mission (No. 1) to Yarkand .. ...
Kulja captured, and Hi made a Russian province, July 4th ... ... 1871
A second envoy from Atalik Ghazi arrives in India ... ... — —
Hostilities commenced with Khiva on Caspian, November ... ...
Baron Kaulbers conducts a political mission to Kashghar, May... ... 1872
Colonel Markasof conducts a reconnaissance from Krasnovodsk into Trans-
Caspian Steppes, October ... ... ... ...
Khivans stir up Kirghiz ; and Khan invades Russian territory ... ...
Aminudin, envoy of Khan of Khiva, has an interview with Viceroy of India,
September Sth ... ••• ... ... ... — —
Mr. Forsyth conducts a mission (No. 2) to Eastern Turkistan ... ... •
Krasnovodsk detachment of Khivan expedition starts, March 20th ... 1873
Khiva taken by the Russians, May 29th ... ... ... — —
Khan of Khiva abolishes slavery, June 24th ... ... ...
Mission from Atalik Ghazi arrives in Russia, August ... ... <^ —
Evacuation of Khiva by Russian troops commences, August 2l8t ...
Right bank of Oxus (with the Delta) from Sea to extreme western arm
incorporated with Russia, October ... ... ... .., ■■■ .
APPENDIX B.
WORKS AND ARTICLES.
The following list of works and articles, drawn up at random for my own guid-
ance, I publish in the hope that it may prove useful to some of my readers
who desire a more thorough acquaintance with Central Asia than my little book
can afford. The list, as a glance will show, has no pretensions either to ex-
haustiveness or arrangement.—
Khiva and Turkistan. Translated from Russian by Captain Spalding: Lond., 1874.
» Vide Auslamd, 1870, p. 144.
S2, Appendix.
Memoire sur la Partie Meridionale de 1' Asie Centrale : par Nicholas de KhanikoflF.-
Paris, 1862.
Russians in Central Asia. Translated from the Russian hy J. and R. Michell.
A Narrative of the Russian Military Expedition to Khiva under General Perof*
ski. Translated by J. Michell, 1865. (A new edition of the Russ. work was
published" last year).
A Journey to the Sources of the Oxus, in 1838. By Capt. J. Wood, Indian
Navy.
Travels in Central Asia, in 1863. By A. Yambery.
Sketches of Central Asia. By A. Vambery.
The Russians in Central Asia, by A. Vambery.
The Rivalry of the Russians and English in Central Asia. By A. Vambery.
History of Bukhara. By A. Vambery.
Central Asia, and the Anglo-Russian Frontier Question. By A. Vambery.
The Russians in Central Asia. By F. Von Hellwald. Translated by Colonel Wirg-
man.
Summary of Affairs in the Foreign Department, India (1864-J869). By J. Tal-
boys- Wheeler.
Romano vski's Notes on the Central Asian Question, St. Petersburg, 1868. Trans-)
lated by the Indian Foreign Office.
Moorcroft's Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab.
Myendorf's Bukhara. Voyage d' Orenbourga Bukhara fait en 1820. Paris, 1816.
Russian Trade with India. Supplement to the Gazette of India, Novr. 26th, 1870.
Journey to the North of India overland from England by Russia, &c. By Lieat.
Arthur Conolly. Lond., 1834.
The three questions of the moment. Count Gereftezoff, 1857.
Notices of certain Tribes and Countries in the central part of Asia. By Nazaroff,
employed on an Expedition to Khokand in 1813 and 1814. 8vo. St. Petersburg.
Progress and present position of Russia in the East. By M'Neill.
Zimmerman's Memoir on the Countries about the Caspian and Aral. Lond., 1840.
Travels of the Russian Mission through Mongolia to China in 1820-21. By George
Timkowski. Lond., 1827.
On the designs of Russia. By Col. De Lacy Evans. Lond., 1828.
A few words on our relations with Russia, with Criticism on " Designs of Russia."
By a Non-alarmist. Lend., 1828.
D. Herbelot's Bibliotheque orientale. Art. Genghis and Timour.
History of the Huns, Des Guignes.
Discourse on the Tatars. Sir W. Jones' Works Vol. 1. 4to Ed.
Piukerton's Geography (Vol. II.)
Pritchard on the Ethnography of Upper Asia. Transactions of R. Geogl.
Society, Vol. IX.
Tooke's view of the Russian Empire.
Ouseley's translation of Ebn. Haukal's Geography,
Petis de la Croix's Hist, de Timur Bee.
Appendix. 83
Voyage aux Indes Orientales. Par le P. PauHn de S. Bartblemy, Missionaire ;
traduit de I' Italien, par M. * * * avec les observations de MM. Anquetil du
Perron, J. E. Forster, et Silvestre de Saey ; etune Dissertation de M. Anqnetil sur
la Propriete individuelle et Fonciere dans 1' Inde et en Egypte. 3vol. 8vo. a Paris,
1808.
Historical Researches. By A. H. L. Heren. Lond., 1846 (Vol. II. c. i. Scy-
thians.)
The Bukhara Victims. By Capt. Grover, F-R.S. 8vo. Lond., 1845.
Correspondence relating to Persia and AfFghanistan, laid before Parliament, 1839,
and ibid, 1869.
Clarke's travels in Russia, Turkey, and Tartary. Lond., 1816-1824.
Halcluyt's Voyages (Vol. I.)
Petis de la croix's Life of Gengis Can.
White's translations of the Institutes of Timour.
Abulghazi Khan's Gen. Hist, of the Turks, &c. Lond. Svo. 1730.
Keene's Moghal Empire.
Catrou, Hist, du Moghal.
The Russo-Indian question. By Capt. Trench, F.R.G.S., 20th Hussars, Lond. 1869.
Russia's Commercial Mission in Ceatral Asia. By Capt. C. Vou Sarauw (Danish
Army). Leipzig, 1871. Translated by Indian Foreign Office.
Trade Routes of Central Asia. Translated from the Russian Nautical Magazine,
July 1862.
Memorandum on Trade with Central Asia. By D. Forsyth, 13th March 1871.
Printed by Indian Foreign Office.
Cathay and the way thither by Col. H. Yule, C- B., Lond., 1866. Hakluyt Society,
Barnes' Cabul ; being a personal, &c., &c. Lond., 1842.
The book of Sir Marco Polo, the Venetian. Ed. Col. H. Yule, C.B., Lond., 1871.
Report on the Trade and Resources of the Countries on the N. W. boundary of
British India. Lahore-Government Press, 1862, complied by Mr. R. K. H.
Davies, Secretary to Government, Punjab.
Burnes' Travels in Bukhara. Lond., 1834.
Atkinson's Travels in the Regions of the Upper and Lower Amoor.
Humboldt, Asie Centrale.
Campaigning on the Oxus, and the Fall of Khiva. By J. A. Macgahan, Correspon-
dent of the New York Herald. London: Sampson Low and Co., 1874.
Bell's History of Russia.
Elphinstone's Embassy to Cabul.
Kaye's AfTghan War. Lond., 1857. . ,
General Ferrier's Travels. Ed. Seymour. Lond., 1856.
From the Indus to the Tigris. By Dr. Bellew. Lond., Trlibner and Co., 1874.
A. Political Survey. By Mr. Grant Duff. (Chapter on Central Asia.)
Capt. Mouravief's Journey to Khiva, through Turcoman country, 1819-1820.
Bonn. 1824.
Life of Baber. % R. M. Caldecott. Edin., 1844,
84l Appendix.
Baber's Memoirs. Edited by Leyden and Erskine, 1826.
A Retrospect of the Affghau War, with reference to passing events in Central Asia.
By Sir Vincent Eyre, 1869.
History of Persia. By Sir John Malcolm.
Voyage d'Orenbourg, a Boukhara fait en 1820: redige par Myendorf.
Persia. By J, Eraser. Edin,, 1834.
Rawlinson's : — and Renael's Herodotus. Lend., 1830.
Briggs's Ferislita.
Memoires relatifs a 1' Asie, By Julius Klaproth. Paris, 1824.
Melanges Asiatiques, J. P. A. Remusat. Paris, 1825.
Edrisi. Trad, par Am^dee Saubert. Recueil de voyages et de Mem. Paris, 1836-1840.
Voyages d' Ibn Batoutah par Defremery et Sanguinetti. Paris, 1853-58.
Narrative of the Tungani Insurrection in Eastern Turkistan, in 1863. By Capt.
MoUoy, Officiating Settlement Commissioner, Ladakh.
BecoUections of the Tdtar Steppes. Mrs. Atkinson. London, 1863.
Thibet, Tdtary and Mongolia. Prinsep. London, 1852.
The Travels of Ebliza Effendi ; translated by Hammer and Purgstall, containing
Travels in Turkistan in the 17th century.
The Travels. of Ibn Batuta. By the Rev. S. Lee, B.D., Professor of HeKrew, University
of Cambridge.
The Mulfuzat Timuri, or autobiographical memoirs of the Moghal Emperor Timur,
in Jhagatai Turki ; translated into Persian by Abu Talib Hussaini ; and translated
into English by Major Charles Stewart, H.E.I.C.S., with a map of Transoxiana :
in demi-quarto.
The Tezkereh al Vakiat, or private memoirs of the Moghal Emperor Humayun ;
translated from the Persian of Joucher by Major Charles Stewart.
Autobiography of the Emperor Jehangir ; translated from the Persian by Major
David Price, of the Bombay Army.
History of the AfFghans ; translated from the Persian of Neamet Allah by Bernhard
Dorn.
M^moire sur I'Ethnographie de la Perse par M. Khanikoff.
Histoire des Samanides, Defrdmery.
Tarikhi Baihaki ; edited by W. H. Morley and Captain W. Nassau Lees in the
Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta, 1862.
Babernameh ; translated by Pavet de la Courteille, Paris, 1871.
Shedjre-i-Turki (Turkish Genealogy). By Abulghazi Bahadur Khan : published by
Count Romanzoff at Kasan in 1825.
Hammer's History of the Oottoman Empire.
Creasy 's History of the Ottoman Empire.
Wanderings and Adventures in Persia, Pesth. 1867. Vamb^ry.
Descriptions des Hordes et des steppes des Kirghiz»Kazaks : Lewchine, — trad du Basse
par F. da Pigny. 8vo. Paris, 1840.
Becueil de Voyages et de Mdmoires; par J de Plano-Carpini. —
Mongolischen Volker. Pallas.
Appendix. 85
The Oriental Geofrrapliy (a Translation of Suru-1 Buldan, compiled from Istahhri and
Ibn Haukal) by Sir W. Oiiseley.
Masson's Travels in Affghanistan, &c.
De Rebus Indicis. Gilderaeister.
La Geog. de 1 'Asie Centrale. Abel Rdmusat.
Erdkunde von Asien : (vol. Hocb Asieu.) Carl Ritter.
Historia Saracenica: Elmacin.
History of the Saracens : Ockley.
Anciennes Relations des Indes, et de la Chine, &c., &c. par M, 1' Abbd Renaudot,
Geographia Nubiensis (of Muzhtau '1 Mushtak al Idrisi) id est accuratissima totius
orbis in septem climata divisi descriptio continens, praesertim exactam universae
Asiae et Africae, in Latinum versa ; a Gabriele Sionita, et Joanne Hesronita.
Zimmerman's Khiva, translated by Morier, published by J. Madden, 8, Leadenhall
Street.
The Masalik of Shababu-d-din (five of the twenty volumes of the original work)
is in the Bibliotheque Imperiale at Paris. M. Quatremere published, in Tome
XIII of the Notices and Extraits des Mss., a description and specimens of the
work.
Pinkerton's Geography, Art. Tartary.
Astley's Voyages (Vol. IV).
The Indus and the Oxus. By Major Evans Bell.
Stritteri memoriae Populorum, olim ad Danubium, Pontum Euxinum, Paludem Mceot.,
Caucasum, Mare Caspium, et inde magis ad Septemt. Incolentium (Gothorum,
Vandalorum, Longobard, Hunn, &c.) 4 vols., Petropoli, 1771-79.
Baer und Helmersen ; Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Bussischen Reiches und der
angranzenden Lander Asiens, Vol. XVII, 8vo., maps and plates. St. Peters-
burg, 1839-52.
Histoire des Kosaques. Lesur 2 vols., Paris, 1814.
Travel* from St. Petersburg to Ispahan, 1715-18. By J. Bell, Glasgow, Foulis, 1763.
Historia de Cosas del oriente ; descripcion de Asia, historia de los Tartaros, &c.,
Amaro Centeno. Cordova, Diego Galvan, 1595.
Viaggi divisi in tre parti : la Turchia, la Persia, e I'lndia, Delia Valle, 4 vols.,
sm. 4to. Roma, 1650-63.
Souvenirs d' un voyage dans la Tartaric, le Thibet, et la Chine en 1844-46. Huq
2 vols., 8vo., Paris, 1850.
DenkwUrdigkeiten iiber die Mongolei, aus dem Euss : Hyakinth, Berl, 1832,
Schott iiber die achten Kirgisen, Berlin, 1865.
Diplomatic Transactions in Central Asia, through which the barriers of India have
been sacrificed to Russia. By David Urquhart, 4to. 1841.
Voyages chez les Kalmucks, traduit de 1' allemand Bergmann, 8vo. Chatillon sur
Seine, 1825.
Ssanang Ssetsen Chungtaidschi, Geschichte der Ost-Mongelon und ihres Fiirstenhauses.
Mongolish und Deutscli, Schmidt, Petersb., 1829.
Asiatic Researches, Vol. XVIII, part 2, 16 papers on the Geology of Central Asia.
/
36 Appendix.
Antiquity Geograpbi'que de 1' Inde et de plusieurs autres contrdes de la Haute Asie,
4to., Paris, 1775.
Bibliotheque Orientale (D'Herbelot) par Visdelen et Galaud, avec les additions de
Schultens. La Haye, 1779 ^82).
Abulgasi, Histoire Gdndalogique des Tatars, traduite du MS. Tdtare ; avec des
remarques sur l' Asie Septentrionale, 2 vols., 12 mo., 1726.
Voyages en difFerentes Provinces de 1' Empire de Russie et dans I'Asie septentrionale
Pallas : traduits de 1' alleraand par Gauthier de la Peyronie, 5 vols in 4to. and
folio atlas, Paris, 1788-93.
Travels of ApoUonius of Tyana, and the Indian embassies to Rome from Augustas
to Justinian, Priaulx, Lond., 1873.
Strablenberg, das Nord und Oestliche Theil von Europa und Asia, das Russische
Reich, Siberien und die grosse Tartarey. Stockholm, 1730.
Zuverlassige Gescbichte der englischen Handlung durch Russland iiber die Caspische
See nach Persien, der Tartarey und Turkey, Armenien und China. J. Hanway,
Leipzig, 1769.
Voyages en Moscovie, en Tartarie, en Pevse aux Indes, et en plusieurs autres pais
etrangers, J. Struys, 3 vols., Amsterdan, 172G.
Tartarie, Beloutschistan, Boutan et Nepal par Dubeux et Valmont, Paris, 1848.
Histoire des Mongols depuis Tschinguiz Khan jusqu a Timour Bey ou Tamerlan
d'Ohsson, 4 vols., Amsterdam, 1842.
Magni Tamerlanis Scytharum imperatoris vita. P. Perondini, Florentini, 1553.
Bikey et Maolina, ou les Kirghiz-Kaissaks, de Folomrey, Paris, 1845.
The Geography of Herodotus ; J. Talboys Wheeler, Lond., 1854.
Voyage scientifique dans I'Altai oriental et les parties adjacentes de la Prontiere de
Chine, de Tchihatchoff, Paris, 1845.
Grammatik der tatarischen sprache, Chalfin (Russisch) Kasan, 1869.
Grammar of the Turk Language, Boyd, Lond.' 1842.
Moeurs et usages des Turcs, Guer, Paris, 1747.
Dictionnaire turc — oriental, destind principalement a faciliter la lecture des ouvrages
de Baber, &c., Paris, Imprim, impdr, 1870.
Keise von Orenburg nach Buchara. Mit Afghan Wortverzeichen, naturhistor,
Eversmann, Berlin, 1823.
Nachrichten iiber Chiwa, Buchara, Chokand. St. Petersburg, 1843-52, G. Von
Helmersen.
Historia Tatarorum ecclesiast, Jo. L. Mosheim, Helmst, 1741.
Noord-en Oost-Tatayen : Witsen, Amsterdam, 1785.
Voyages faits en Asie dans le XII. — XV., sidcle par Benjamin Tudele I.du Plan.
Carpim, N. Ascelin, Guil. de Rubruquis, Marc Paul, Venet, Haiton, J. de
Mandeville et. .Ambi. Contarini. Accompagn. de I'hist. des Sarasins eb des
Tatares. P. Bergeron. La Haye, 1735.
Bukhara, its Amir and its people. Translated from the Russian of Khanikoff, bj'
Baron a De Bode., Lond., 1845.
Allgemeine Zeitung, 1872, No. 325. — Russia and the Central Asian Khanates.
AppendiiH' 87
^ Russian Scientific Expeditions in 1864 and 1865 in Turkistan. Dr. Marthe (Zeits-
chrift fiir allgemeine Erdkunde), Berlin, 1867.
Das siidliche Ufer des Kaspischea Meeres oder die nordprovinzen Persiens, Leipzig,
1868, 8vo.
Unsere Kenntnisse uber den friiheren Lauf des amu. Darja St. Petersburg, 1870.
R. Lenz.
Travels through the Kirghiz Steppe to Khiva Basiner. St. Petersburg, 1848.
Botanical results of a journey in the central portion of the Thiau Shan Mountains.
Baron F. von der Osten-Sackea and F. I. Rupr^cht, 1849, 4to.
Visits to high Tdtary, Yarkand, and Kasghar, and return journey over the Karakoram
Pass, Lond. 1871, 8vo. By Robert Shaw.
The Retention of India.— A. Halliday, Lond., 1872. C. IIL
Ueber die echten Kirghisen. — W. Schott, Berlin, 1865.
La vie des steppes, Kirghizes, descriptions, rdcits, et contes. — Zalesky, Paris, 1865.
Reisen in den steppeu und Hochgebirgen Siberien's uud der augrenzeuden Central
Asians, Leipzig, 1864, 8vo.
Khiva oder Kharezin. — Lercb, 1874.
The annual of Turkistan for 1874, in addition to numerous articles re-printed from tho
Turkistan Gazette, has an account of the Upper Zerafshan, with a map and a
bibliography of books and articles relating to Central Asia in Russia since 1693
(Russian).
Geographical and Statistical Information about the Zerafshan District (Russian),
Sobolef, 1874. (Received the gold medal of the Russian Geographical Society).
Terentief's Statistical Sketch of Central Asia, 1874. (Russian.)
Petrofsky's Trade Statistics of Central Asia, 1874. (llussian).
The Russian Policy in Central Asia. By Prof. Grigorief (formerly Governor of the-
Kirghiz at Orenburg), an essay published in Bezobrazof's Essays on Political,
Science, 1874.
^' Quarterly Review, Vol. XXIX., 1819, Marsden's Ed. M. Polo, April 1822. Ma-
zaroff's book. No. 48, Art. III., p. 334, June, 1827. Myendorff and Mouravief
August 1834. ConoUy's book, November 1834. Burnes' Travels, April 1865.
X Vambery's Travels, October 1865, Central Asia, October 1866. Central Asia,
*July 1868.— Aprilt 1874. W. Turkistan —
The Quarterly Review, June 1839. — '" Russia, Persia, and England."
Revue des Deux mondes, vols. 65, 67, and 69, pp. 699-701 ; and art. February 15th,
1872, July 1832 art, Marco Polo.
Allgemeine Zeitung. Arts, by Vambery. 1869, No. 38, supple. 364. No. 361.
Russ. designson E. of Casp. Vamb. No. 308. New Turn in C. A. question. 1870,
Nos. 9, 34, 71, 296. 1872, Nos. 51, 68, 70, 75 and 325. 1873, Nos. 25, 26 and 29.
Neue Freie P^-esse, Septr. 5th, 1867. Novr. 19th, 1868' Jany. 24th, 1869.
Nouveau journal Asiatique. Art, Old Bed of the Oxus." Deer. 1833.
* Sir H. Eawlinson, K.C.B.
t H. LePoer Wynoe, Esq., Jiate Under-Secy., Ind. F.O.
8S Appendix.
Journal de St. Petershourg, 1865, Deer. 3rd, July 16th, 1867, February 28th ; 1869,
Octr. I4th, Novr. Ist and 2lst ; 1871, Jany. 8th, May 16th, July 7th, Octr. 18th ;
1872, Novr. 21st and Deer. 19th ; 1873, Jany. 23rd, Feby. 7th.
Moscow Gazette, 1869, 20th, 21st, and 26th Feby., 25th Oct, 25th Deer.
Jnvalide Russe. Deer. 1869, E. Turkistan. 17th Jany. 1870.
The Ausland^ March 11th, 1872, Art. by Hellwald.
The Russian World, June 1873, Art. on advantages to Eussia of possession of
Khiva, probably written by General IgnatiefF.
Turkistan Gazette, statistics of the Province Jany. 1871. — Aug. 13th, 1870, Art.
Central Asian Khanates — Oct. 21st, 1870, Arts, on Kashghar and Western
China. — 29th Jany. 1871, Art. on Yakub Beg and Dunganis.
The Saturday Review, 1873, January 18th ; February 1st ; April 5th and 26th ;
May 10th, 17th, and 31st; June 28th ; August 2nd and 9th.
Tall Mall Budget, 187ii, January 2nd, 10th-17th (3 Articles) ; February 14th
and 21st ; April 2nd and 25th ; November 7th ; December 5th. — 1874, May 8th,
15th, and 29th ; June 12th ; July 10th.
Calcutta Review, Vols. III. and IV. 1825, Mir Izzet Vllah's Journey. Trans.
S. H. Wilson.
Fraser's Magazine. — " Russia and her dependencies." — April 1864. — " On the present
state of Russia," October 1863.
The Edinburgh Review, January 1867. — Sir J. Lawrence's policy, by J. W. S. Wyllie;
and Jany. 1872.
T\xei Edinburgh Review, Swa& IS27 ; (Erskine's Baber) July 1834; (Conolly's Tra-
vels) January 1835 ; (Burnes' Travels) (Foreign Policy of Sir J. Lawrence.)
By J. W. S. Wyllie. Jany. 1868.
The Edinburgh Review, April 1874. Eastern Turkistan. By H. LeP. Wynne.
Blackwood^ s Magazine, 1842. — Richmond Shakespear on Russian Invasion of India.
Fortnightly Review, September 1st, 1869. — "Ancient and Modern Russia," Karl
Blind, December 1st, 1869.— " Masterly Inactivity," March 1st, 1870 "Mis-
chievous Activity." J. W. S. Wyllie.
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. X., (1841) pp. 2-3;
-Vol. XXXVIL, (1867) pp. 134-166; Vol. XL, (1867) No. 3, p. 116; Vol.
XXXVI., (1866) Geog. pos. Yarkand. Montgomery.
proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. XL, c. 1., pp. 6-14. Johnson's
Journey from Leh to Ilchi. By Sir H. Rawlinson.
Bulletin de la Societe de Geographic, Paris, 1861, Vol II, 1865., Vol. I., p 438,
1868. September, p. 265. — Captivite en Boucharie, <^c.
Globus, 1865, Vol. VIII. Fahrten auf dem Jaxartes, Batakov, 1868, Vol. XIII ; 1866,
Vol. X ; 1867, Vol. XL Vambdry. " Among the Turcomans," 1863, IV. p. 257.
Revue Internationale, 1868, p. 2, pp. 141-149 "The inhabitants of Turkistan."
Robert Von Schlagintweit.
Mr. C. Markham's " Ocean Highways" has constantly had of late most interesting
articles on Central Asian Geography, by Vambery, Yule, Badger, and other
authorities; aod the back numbers of 1872 aod 1873 will well repay a search.
* Appendix. 89
Petermaiin's Geog. Mittbeilungen is another geographical periodical that has, at any
rate, found in Von Hellwald a careful student. The Gotha Doctor, however,
used to be rather unfavourably known to our geographical world. His
loose and wild views about a polar basin and extraordinary suggestions at the
time of the Franklin Search (he proposed that in the middle of winter an
expedition should sail across the Polar Sea from Spitzberg to Nova Zembla !) are
remembered by the R. G. S. In 1841 it was he who prepared the Map in Hum-
boldt's Asie Centrale.
Numerous articles on our subject have also appeared in Behm's " Geographisches
Jahrbuch."
Translations of Russian works on Central Asia and original articles frequentl3' appear
in the Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Paris.
Narrative of a Journey from Herat to Khiva, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. By
Major James Abbott. London, 1856.
The History of the Golden Horde : Hammer. Purgstall.
The Zafernameh (The Book of Victories) by Sherefeddin All Yezdi ; translated into
French by Petis de la Croix, Paris, 1722, 4 vols. 12 mo. (Histoire de Timur Bee).
Vide Elliot's History of India, vol. III., p. 478.
A Translation of part of the Zafar Nama by Major HoUings was published in 1862,
in the Delhi Archa3ological Journal.
Sheibani Nameh ; published by Berezin, with a Russian translation.
Histoire de la ville de Khoten. Abel Rdmusat.
Relations Politiques et Commerciales de l' Empire Romain avec l' Asie Orientale.
Paris, 1863.
Observations sur le Kirghis: M. Radloff. Journal Asiatiqne, extrait No. 9, 1863.
Weil's Geschiche de chalifen (History of the Caliphs) Mannheim. 1856.
History of the Mongolians in Persia ; by Rashideddin ; translated by Quatremere.
Portraits of Great Moslem Rulers ; Hammer, Purgstall.
Observations sur 1' Histoire des Mongoles Orientaux de Sannang Letzen. Paris
Imprim Roy. 1852.
Tchagataian, Studies (Cagitaische Sprachstudien) of Languages. V<>mbdry.
Histoire des Khans Mongols du Turkistan ; Journal Asiatique, tome XX. Defrdmery.
Narrative of the Embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo to the Court of Timour at
Samarkand. A. D. 1403—6; translated by Clements R. Markham, F.R.G.S.,
Lond. Hakluyt Society. 1859.
A Mahommedan History by Major David Price.
The Religions of Central Asia. By Count Gobineau.
M
so Appendix. *
APPENDIX C.
FROM ARTICLE IN " TIMES OF INDIA" ON TEE CENTRAL
ASIAN QUESTION, BY THE AUTHOR.
At present the entire firmy in Turkistan is computed at less than 40,000 men.
The Russian army in ^^ is spread over a vast area, garrisoning forts on the
Turkistan. Jaxartes, strongholds among the fastnessess of the Thian
Shan, and occnpying a hundred cities and villages from the desolations around Khiva
to the pleasant shores of tlie Zerafshan. The cost of maintaining these troops in-
creases as they are distant from the Caspian ; and for many years to come the force
in Southern Turkistan must be kept at the lowest mark. "NVhat has been conquered
must still be held by tlie sword ; and the army which could be now set free for further
conquests is altogether inconsiderable — not exceeding, perhaps, the garrison of a first
class divisional station in India. The battle of Irjar was on a larger scale than any
other engagement during the conquest of Turkistan, and on that occasion General Roma-
novski's force did not number 4,000 men. At present, though the entire army under
General Kauffinann is a more formidable one than that at the disposal of his pi-ede-
cessor, it has infinitely more on its hands ; and unless very considerable reinforce-
ments arrive from the Caucasus, it is difficult to see how Russia can at present
Russians aiding Yakub afford material assistance to Yakub Beg in his anticipated
^^S- collision with China. A Russian invasion of India will, for
many years to come, be an absolute impossibility. Russian subalterns are said to
A Russian invasion of indulge in this pleasing dream, but that it has ever been
^^^^0- seriously entertained b}' the Government at St. Petersburg
is highly improbable. If England, near a great basis of operations, with soldiers,
arms, and all the materiel of war rolling to the front by rail, will ever seriously fear
a flying column of Russian troops toiling across the all but insurmountable barrier
interposed by Nature, the sooner she leaves India the better. Under the most favor-
able circumstances (for Russia) the force that could cross the prodigious mountains of
the north would form the most inconsiderable European enemy against which Eng-
The Russians in ^^ndi. was ever matched. A few mountain batteries, some
Iii^'a- irregular cavalry, and a demoralised foot-sore infantry, all
surcharged with munitions of war, would represent Russia at the northern terminus
of the Peshawur Railway.
APPENDIX D.
THE NEUTRAL ZONE.
" The nomad tribes, which can neither be seized or punished, nor effectually kept in
The principle of Russian order, are our most inconvenient neighbours ; while, on the
aggression. other hand, agricultural and commercial populations attached
to the soil, and possessing a more advanced social organization, offer us every chance
of gaining neighbours with whom there is a possibility of entering into relations.
Appendix. 91'
Gonsequentlj , our frontier line ought to swallow up the former, and stop short at
the limit of the latter." — Prince Gortchakow, Nov. 2\st, 1864.
" I was sure, judging from our own Indian experience, that Russia would find the
same difficulty as England had experienced in controlling its own power, when exer-
• cised at so great a distance from the seat of Government as
Reasons for proposinsf i -i c i ll c • -x-vi ii,
the establishment of a to make reference home a matter ot impossibility ; there was
Neutral Zone by Lord always some frontier to he improved, some broken engage-
Clarendon.
ment to be reimired, some faithless ally to be punished,
and plausible reasons were seldom wanting for the acquisition of territory. Unless
stringent precautions were adopted, we should find, before long, that some aspiring
llussian General had entered into communication with some restless Or malcontent
Indian Prince, and that intrigues were rife, disturbing the Indian population on the
frontiers. It was in order to prevent such a state of things that I earnestly recom-
mended the recognition of some territory as neutral between the possessions of England
and llussia, which should be the limit of those possessions, and be scrupulously
respected by both Powers." — The Earl of Clarendon to Sir A. Buchanan, March
27 th, 1869.
*' The idea expressed by Lord Clarendon, of keeping a zone between the posses-
The suggestion approved sions of the two empires in Asia to preserve them from any
bj the Czar. contact, has always been shared by our august Master." —
Prince Gortchakow to Baron Brunnoic, Feb. 2Uh, 1869.
" You may then, my dear Barou, repeat to Her Britannic Majesty's Principal
Affghanistan proposed Secretary of State the positive assurance that His Imperial
by Eussia. Majesty looks upon Affghanistan as completely outside the
sphere within which Russia may be called upon to exercise her influence." — Ibid.
"The Secretary of State for India had arrived at a decided opinion that
Affghanistan rejected by Affghanistan would not fulfil the conditions of a neutral
England. territory. It was, therefore, thought advisable to propose
that the Upper Oxus should bq the boundary line, which neither Power should
Upper Oxus proposed. permit their forces to cross." — The Earl of Clarendon
to Mr. Rumhold, April 11 th, 1869.
" The Prince Gortchakow went on to say that, considering our relations with
Grotchakow holds us Shere Ali, it was to be hoped that we should use our influence
responsible for the behavi- yj\Wy tJjat Chief to keep him within his bounds. As he was
our of Affghanistan. -i i i • i
indebted to us for support ot a very tangible kind, we
should, in the general interests of peace in that quarter, seek to moderate his
ardour." — Mr. Jtiuinbold to the Earl of Clarendon, June 1th, 1869.
APPENDIX E.
THE PAMIR STEPPE.
The Pamir table-land (around Siri-i-kol) is 15,600 feet high (62 feet lower than
the top of Mout Blanc). The surrouudiug mauutuius are assumed by Wood to rise
•^^ Appendir,
3,400 feet higher. The plain has a width of about three miles. The lake has been
sounded, but the spot selected, being probably the top of a subaqueous ridge, only
showed a depth of nine feet. The bottom was found to be oozy and tangled with grasey
weeds, and the water emitted a somewhat fetid smell, and exhibited a reddish hue.
An attempt was made to measure the width of the lalce by sound, but the report of a
musket, loaded with blank cartridge, sounded so faint owing to the rarity of the atmos-
phere that no satisfactory results were obtained from the experiment. The human
voice was likewise affected, and conversation could not be sustained without consider-
able effort. Wood's pulse (that of a spare man) registered 110 on the Pamir, while
that of a stout Cabuli was found to be galloping at the alarming rate of 124 throbs per
minute. The height of the snow line in this parallel is above 17,000 feet. Wood
■was here in winter, but he learned that by the end of June the ice upon the lake
was broken up, and that the lake and surrounding country became a favorite resort of
the Kirghiz — " Their flocks and herds roam over an unlimited extent of swelling
grassy hills of the sweetest and richest pasture, while their yaks luxuriate amid the
snow at no great distance."
With regard to the fauna of the Pamir, Wood learned that great numbers of
aquatic birds haunted Lake Victoria in summer, gradually retiring to warmer regions
on the approach of winter. But the most interesting facts recorded about the live
stock of this remote region relate to the wild sheep, called after Marco Polo, " Oves
Poll" (Blyth). This great traveller writes : — " In this plain there are wild animals in
great numbers, particularly sheep of a large size, having horns three, four, and even
six palms in length. Of these, the shepherds form ladles and vessels for holding their
victuals, and with the same material they construct fences for enclosing their cattle,
and securing them against the wolves, with which, they say, the country is infested.
The horns and bones of these sheep being found in large quantities, heaps are made of
them at the side of the road, for the purpose of guiding the traveller at the season when
it is covered with snow." Wood sent a specimen of this animal's* horns to the Asiatic
Societj', which measured as follows : — Length of one horn, on the curva, four feet eight
inches ; round the base fourteen and a quarter inches; distance of tips, apart, three
feet nine inches. Burnes was told that foxes bred in them, and that the carcase of
the sheep formed a load for two animals. The horns are said, moreover, to supply
the Kirghiz with horse shoes. The KutchJcar, however, is an almost equally fine
species of wild sheep peculiar to these parts. It is said to stand as high as a two-
year-old colt, to have a venerable beard and splendid curling horns which with the
head give a man enough to do to lift. Its flesh is tough and ill-flavored in winter,
but is reported by the Kirghiz to be delicious in autumn — " The only other quadru-
peds we (I quote Wood) observed were wolves, foxes, and hares, and of birds we saw
but one. It was, however, a regal bird — a fine black eagle, which came sailing over
the valley, flapping his huge wings as if they were too heavy for his body."
* This is the animal termed rass by the Kirghiz, of which Burnes beard that the horns
were so heavy that a man could not lift a pair.
Appendix. 93
The Pamir is a kind of ganglionic focus, from whence the great mountain ranges
of Central Asia diverge.
** See Rdmusat's *' Foe koue ki," p. 36. In the Brahminical Cosmogony, which is
" given in the 6th canto of the Mahahharata, Mount Meru, explained hy Wilson as the
" highland of Tatary, takes the place of the central lake of the Buddhists, and the
^* Bhadrasoma, which Humholdt strangely enough identifies with the Irtish, is sub-
"stituted for the Siuton or Indus. — See Humboldt's Asie Centrale, torn. I, p. 4." — The
" Quarter!;^ Review, October 1866.
The Pamir, or " Roof of the World," is a region supposed by some to answer to
the Mosaic description of the Paradise of our first parents, as well as to the Puranic
Aryan Eden of the Brahminical Cosmogony. The term Pamir is believed by Burnouf
to be a contraction of " Upa Meru" — "the country above Mount Meru" — an etymo-
logy that confirms the theory of its being the fountain bead of the Aryan race. With
regard to its being the home of Adam and Eve, Colonel Yule says : — " Here is the one
locality on the earth's surface to which, if some interpretations be just, the Mosaic
narrative points, in unison with the traditions of Aryan nations, as the cradle of our
common race. If Oxus and Jaxartes be not in truth rivers of the Adaraic paradise,
the names of Jaihun and Saihun show at least that they have been so regarded of old.
The old pictures of Eden figure the four rivers as literally diverging from a central
lake to the four quarters of the earth ; and no spot so nearly realizes this idea as the
high table land of Pamir in the centre of the Asiatic world, upon whose lofty plains
a tussock of grass decides the course of the waters, whether with the Oxus to the fron-
tier of Europe, or with the Yarkand river to the verge of China, whilst the feeders of
Jaxartes and Indus from the borders of the same treasury of waters complete the
square number, and the lakes that spot the surface lend themselves to round the re-
semblance." The Chinese pilgrims,* Hwen Thsang and Sung Yun, who crossed this
elevated tract in A.D. 518, bear testimony to the great altitude of the plateau. These
high lands of the Tsang Lang were commonly said to be, they inform us, midway
between Heaven and Earth. As regards the existence of one lake, at any rate, we have
equally good evidence of great antiquity. Hwen Thsang came over the Pamir about
A.D, 644 on his return to China. He says of it — "This valley is about 200 miles
from east to west, by 20 from north to south, and lies between two snowy ranges in
the centre of the Tsang Lang mountains. The traveller is annoyed by sudden gusts
of wind, and the snow drifts never cease, spring or summer. As the soil is almost con-
stantly frozen, you see but a few miserable plants, and no crops can live. In the mid-
dle of the valley is a great lake. This stands in the centre of Jambadwipa (the
Buddhist Oikoumene) on a plateau of prodigious elevation. An endless variet}' of
creatures people its waters. The lake discharges to the west and east." Benedict
Goes crossed the Pamir in 1603, and speaks of the great cold, desolation, and difficulty
of breathing. Abdul Mejid gives us the following account of it : — " Fourteen weary
days were occupied in crossing the steppe : the marches were long, depending on uu-
* This traveller calls the Pamir " Po-mi-lo" in his book entitled " Pien-i-tien."
H
Appendix,
certain supplies of j^rass and Water, which sometimes wholl}' failed ; food for man and
beast had to be carried with the party, for not a trace of liuman liabitation is to be
met with. The steppe is interspersed with tamarisk jungle and wild willow, and in
the summer with tracts of high grass."
Marco Polo, who came by this interesting tract of country some six centuries ago,
gives us the following : — " Upon leaving Wakhan and proceeding for three days, still
in an E.N.E. course, ascending mountain after mountain, you at length arrive at a
point of the road where you might suppose the surrounding summits to be the highest
land in the world. Here, between two ranges, you perceive a large lake, from which
flows a handsome river that pursues its course along an extensive plain covered with
the richest verdure." The good old traveller then goes on to dilate on the quality of
this grass. It will make sorry cattle sleek in the course of ten days, he says. This is
corroborated by Captain John Wood, who tells us that the ewes of the Kirghiz almost
invariably bring forth two lambs at a birth when pastured here. AVood's account of the
Pamir is by far the best we now have. It is written in so vivid and picturesque a
style that it whets our appetite for the results of Colonel Gordon's recent visit. My
readers will find it in Chapter XXI of that invaluable work — " A Journey to the
Source of the Oxus."
Note. — See Yule's Marco Polo, pp. 163-168, vol. 1, for a very interesting account of the
Pamir. — Cf. Peschel, Gesehichte d^r Erdkunde, p. 159.
Pet«rmann's Geogr. Mittheilungen, 1872. C. V., p. 161. — ledchenko. — Von Hellwald,
p. 81.^ — Journal of the B. G. S., 1861. " On the Pamir and the sources of the Amu-Daria."
APPENDIX F.
Colonel ThuilUer, C.S.I., F.B.S., has kindly placed this list at my disposal.
LIST OP THE MAPS OF CENTRAL ASIA AND TURKISTAN IN THE
(INDIAN) SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE.
TiTLB or Map.
Author.
Scale.
Year.
EEMAEK3.
Cekteal Asia.
Central Asia, comprising Bu-
J. Arrowsmith...
Miles Inch
1834,
Published in Lon-
khara, Citbool, Persia, tlie
70=1
don bv J. Arrow-
lliver Indus, and countries
snutli, 16th June
easiward of it, construct-
1831.
ed from numerous authentic
documents, but principally
from the original survevsof
Lieut. Alexr. Burnes, f .B.s.
Hap of Central Asia (French)
M.J. Elaproth...
About
Miles Inch
20=1
1836
Published in Paris.
Appendix.
95
TiTLB OF Map.
H. Kiepeit
Map of Wt^tern Asin, Wiip
No. 28 of Kiepert's New
Hand Atlas (German), com-
prising Pprsia, Arabia, Tiir-
kistan, Affgltaiiistan, &c.
Map of part of Central A-sia,
siiewint; the Russian Forts
and couimimications.
Man of the Kirghiz Steppe
(Regions of tiie Oienburg
and Siberian Kirghizes and
of Semipaltinsk and Tiir-
kistan), and of the coun-
tries conterminous witli
the Central Asiatic Fosses-
eions.
Map of a portion of Central
Asia, coniprisin<; the coun-
tries between the Russian
possessions and British
India.
Map of part of Central Asia,
shewing the Russian pos-
sessions and the conterin'u-
ons countries, compiled
from Russian sources and
from Colonel Walker's Map
of Turkistan, &c.
Map of Central Asia (Rus-
sian).
Map of the country of the ! Wood ?
Upper Oxus.
Author.
Copied from a
llu'sian map
at the Tovio-
grapliical War
Office, Lon-
don.
E. G.Ravenstein,
Topogl. Dept.,
War Office, Lou-
don.
Topogl. Dent, of
.the War Office,
London.
Eine General KarteVon Cen-
tral Asieu (Map of the Ge-
neral Map of Central Asia).
Tdekistan.
Karta Tourkistanskago (Rus-
sian jnap of tlie General
'Government of Turkistan.)
Constrncted by
the Imperial &
Royid Geogra-
iihical Institute,
Vienna.
Scale.
About
Miles Inch
128=1
Miles Inch
110=1
About
Miles Inch
70=1
Miles Inch
50=1
About.
Miles Inch
70=1
Ditto
Miles Inch
50=1
Year.
Versts Inch
50=1
1855
1866
1873
1866
Correct-
ed up to
1873
1862
Correct-
ed up to
1873
1871
Bemabes.
Published in Berlin.
Lithographed in
tlie Surveyor Ge-
neral's Office, Cal-
cutta, 1867.
Lithographed in
the Topographi-
cal War Depart-
ment, London,
and Fiioto- litho-
graphed in tlie
Surveyor Gene-
ral's Office, Cal-
cutta, 1867.
Lithographed afc
the Topgl. Dept.
of the War
Office, London.
Ditto ditto.
Published by John
Murray, Lon-
don.
Published by Ge«
rold, Vieiuia.
Published afc
Petersburtr.
St.
9G
Appendix.
Title of Map.
Author.
Scale.
Year.
Eemaees.
Sketcli Map of Enstern Tur-
Geo. J. W. Hay-
Miles Inch
1870
'
kistan, sliewinj: the Hjdro-
ward.
16=1
grnpliv of ihe Piunir to tlie
east, the true courses of tlie
Yai'kfind and Karakash Ri-
vers, with all the routes
from Ladak across Kara-
korani and adjaceut ranges.
*Map of Turkistau (in four
Colonel Walker,
Miles Inch
1873
Pnblished in the
sheets.
Supdt., G. T.
Survey.
32=1
Olfice of the
Supdt., Great
Trijil. Survey,
Dehra-Doou.
* Note on the alterations and additions in the Re-prints of Sheets Nos. 1 and 3 of the 2nd edition
of the Map of Turkistan, which were published in the Office of the Great Trigonometrical
Survey of India in November 1873.
It has been thought desirable to incorporate into Sheets Nos. 1 and 3 of the Turkistan map
(2nd edition) the information which was appended to them in a separate " Addendum" when they
were published, — in April last — and which was not received in this office until after they had been
passed through the press.
(2.) The opportunity has been taken to make some alterations in the delineation of the
boundaries of Persia in accordance with information received since the issue of the map. It must
be understood, however, that any delineation of this and of other boundary lines, which have not
been determined and surveyed, can only be considered as an approximation to serve as apis aller
until conclusive results are obtained from actual survey.
(3.) The hills in the basin of the Atrek River and its affluents have been taken from the
latest edition of the London War Office map of Khiva ; further details of the Sir-Daria District
have also been added from recent maps of the Russian Topographical Department.
(4.) Major Lovet, ll.E., who was employed on the Sistan Boundary Commission, has fur-
nished a list of a few errata in the routes from Shiraz to Bam and from Nasirabad to Diijand.
In ranking the requisite corrections, a serious error was discovered in the positions of Birjand and
Kain, and all places on the road between them ; the data by which they had been laid down — on
sheet No. 3 — were the latitudes and longitudes which are given in Major Evan Smith's Tabular
Itinerary of the march of the Sistan mission from Bunjar to Mashad ; but the longitudes there
given of Birjand, Kain, and all intermediate places are found to be half a degree too great or too
much to the east, by comparison with the details of the distances and bearings which are given
in the Itinerary, and with Major Lovett's map of the route. These errors have been corrected in
the re-print.
(?d.) J. T. Walkee, Colonel, It. E.,
Supdt., Great Trigonometrical Survey of India.
Dkhra-DooN, oth January 1874.
/ ^
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