705 The local phrase for turban is “salla.” A Russian-made one costs 1½ roubles; the cheapest Manchester turban being 3½, and the dearest 15 roubles.

706 Called “paranji.” It has balloon sleeves meeting at the shoulders.

707 Bokhārā stands in lat. 39° 46′ N., in the same parallel as Northern Spain, Naples, and Philadelphia. It is 1200 feet above sea-level, and exposed to Siberian blasts which make the winter climate very severe. The average winter temperature of London is nearly twice that of Bokhārā. In February heavy rains usher in a springtime as glorious as that which clothes our English woods, but suffocating summer heats follow which are broken by a fortnight’s rain in October. The climate is one of extremes (Khanikoff, Bokhara, chap. v).

708 Bacha, a Persian word signifying the young of any animal.

709 It is a curious fact that M. P. Lessar, while Resident at Bokhārā, anticipated Sir D. Barbour’s financial policy in India by inducing the Amīr to close his mint. The stiffening effect which might have been expected was not attained. Before the great recoinage of 1834 Indian silver underwent similar oscillations. The difference in weight and intrinsic value between rupees of different descriptions gave native brokers an opportunity of feathering their nests. They met in secret conclave periodically, and decided how many copper coins should be exchanged against each species of rupee. A recoinage, or adoption of the Russian monetary system, is the only possible remedy.

710 In 1872 M. Petrofsky, agent of the Minister of Finance, visited Bokhārā in order to study the commercial system. He stated, in the European Messenger for March 1873, that the city was then an entrepôt for English and Afghan wares. Green tea in those days arrived by way of Afghanistān, and was distributed throughout the Khānates from Bokhārā. “Who can guarantee,” he asks plaintively, “that with our carelessness with regard to the Bokhāran market, all the trade with Central Asia will not pass into the hands of the English and Afghans?” This fearful contingency has been obviated by protective tariffs and the Transcaspian Railway.

711 Schuyler, Turkestan, vol ii. p. 90.

712 Schuyler, p. 92.

713 For a detailed account of the curriculum the reader is referred to Khanikoff, chap. xxix.

714 The leader in the serious rising in Farghāna last spring was named Ishān Mohammed `Alī Khalīfa. In July 1898 a Russian was murdered at New Bokhārā, and the life of another was attempted by one of these fanatics.

715 Schuyler retails an old scandal to the effect that the 40,000 roubles which the Madrasas cost were bestowed by the empress on a Bokhāran envoy at her Court after a liaison with him (Turkestan, ii. p. 93).

716 Moser, p. 151; Khanikoff, pp. 101–2.

717 Meyendorff writes: “The lot of slaves in Bokhārā is terrible. Nearly all the Russians complain of being badly fed and severely beaten. I met one whose master had cut off his ears, driven nails through his palms, flayed his back, and poured boiling oil on his arms” (p. 286).

718 “Amīr ul Mu´minīn,” the title adopted by the Caliphs.

719 Fath `Alī, Shāh of Persia, asked a European, who told him that his sovereign’s acts were subject to public approbation: “Wherein lies the pleasure of ruling if one can’t do exactly as one pleases?”

720 Moser, p. 160.

721 A very elaborate description of the old Court régime is given in chaps. xxiv. and xxv. of Khanikoff’s Bokhara.

722 Khanikoff, p. 233.

723 Since the opening of the Transcaspian Railway this has become a staple export, and it has ousted the produce of the United States. The term for unripe cotton is gūza; that for pods ready for export is pakhta.

724 The genealogy of the reigning house is not quite so clear as such matters usually are in Eastern countries. The founder was an Uzbeg general of the tribe of Mangit, named Mahammad Rahīm Bi. He was succeeded by his nephew, Dāniyāl Bi, whose son, Shāh Murād, alias Ma´sūm, commonly styled “Begi Jān,” was a soldier of the type of Chingiz Khān. He conquered Merv in 1784, and raised Bokhārā to a pinnacle of glory to which it had never attained since the spacious days of the Amīr `Abdullah, a contemporary of our own Elizabeth. Murād attained sovereignty in 1796, and died about 1801. His successor, Mīr Haydar, was a capable soldier, and the military caste had things entirely their own way during his reign, which ended in 1826. His successor was Nasrullah, a moody and treacherous tyrant, who gained an infamous reputation in England by the cruel slaughter of our envoys Stoddart and Conolly. His son Muzaffar resembled his father in cruelty and fanaticism. The story of his overthrow by the Russians has already been told.

725 The official figures for each district in 1896 were—

In round figures, 45,000 acres. This is about 5 per cent. of the entire cultivated area of the province of Samarkand, which is officially stated as 364,200 dessiatines.

726 There were, in 1896, twenty, nine of which were worked by steam or oil engines, ten by water, and one by horse-power. Three hydraulic and seventeen hand-screw presses were at work.

727 The exact measurements of this stone are 6′ 4¼″ × 1′ 3¾″ × 1′ 5½″ deep. Round the edge is an Arabic inscription giving Tīmūr’s style and title, his genealogy, and the date of his death,—807 A.H., or 1405 of our era.

728 M. Schuyler states this man’s name as Mir Seid Belki Shaikh, and the date of his death as two years after Tīmūr’s, i.e. 1407 (ii. p. 253).

729 Schuyler, ii. p. 252. Tilā = gold.

730 Khanikoff, p. 134. In a note he adds that a Russian named Efremoff, who visited Samarkand in 1770, saw this gigantic book.

731 Schuyler’s Turkestan, i. p. 250.

732 This Philistinism has its parallel in India. We believe it to be a fact that a Viceroy proposed the sale of the Tāj Mahāl at Agra to serve as a quarry for marble. The same Vandal had a vast number of seventeenth-century cannon at Allahabad broken up and disposed of as old metal.

733 Not, however, in 1323, as Schuyler asserts (i. p. 247), for he was not born till fourteen years afterwards.

734 M. Simakoff, a distinguished Russian archæologist, and the author of Central Asian Art, has arrived at the conclusion that the Persian ornamentation, which has hitherto been considered original, is but an imitation of that introduced by the Mongols into Central Asia. Moser, A Travers l’Asie Centrale, p. 118.

735 Three versts and 100 sajenes in circuit (Khanikoff, Bokhara, p. 131).

736 For a detailed account of this splendid feat of arms the reader is referred to Schuyler’s Turkestan, i. p. 224.

737 Schuyler gives a very brief biography of this excellent man at p. 267 of his Turkestan. Like Kurapatkine, he was equally great in war and in civil life, and of that very high type of officials produced only in the Panjāb and Turkestān. The earnestness and keen sympathy with the people which characterised Henry Lawrence, Montgomery, and Herbert Edwardes shine conspicuous in the “Chernaieff school,” so called from an illustrious soldier and statesman who inspired his lieutenants with his own devotion. His unmerited disgrace, which followed a display of splendid moral courage, and his old age spent in the cold shade of imperial neglect, are not the most creditable episodes in Central Asian annals.

738 Nestorius, a Syrian priest, became Patriarch of Constantinople in the fifth century; but his views as to Christ’s personality were declared heretical by a General Council held at Ephesus in 431. He was deposed from his high office, and his followers were driven from Europe.

739 Afrāsiyāb is synonymous in Persian legend for anything of extreme antiquity.

740 Moser was present when the Russian researches began. Every stroke of the spade, he says, revealed new treasures. Enamelled bricks of the finest designs, coins, a lamp like those exhumed at Pompeii, but covered with brilliant enamel, an urn splendidly adorned, and many other discoveries worthy to occupy a savant, were made in twenty-four hours (p. 116).

741 No attempt has yet been made to exploit these regions; but the Russian Government is ready and willing to encourage prospectors. An Englishman is now engaged in searching for the precious metals, and has met with every possible assistance from the authorities.

742 During Mr. Skrine’s stay at Samarkand a large gang started for this remote destination. Most of them were native bandits, who regarded their expatriation with true Oriental phlegm. But among the group who squatted on the station platform in their sheep-skin cloaks, from which their heavy manacles protruded, were several who inspired more sympathy: a young European girl, who clung piteously to her only treasure—a China teapot; a middle-aged man, evidently belonging to a higher social stratum than the rest, was deeply moved by the prospect of exile. The cause was but too apparent, for a little son clung to him, a sharer in his grief; while among the silent crowd, which was kept at a distance by a ring of soldiers with fixed bayonets, was his unhappy wife, come with her three young daughters to bid him a long farewell.

743 Khanikoff enumerates 13 as grown in his time (Bokhara, p. 156).

744 The local term is Chāy Kâbūd, or blue tea, a more faithful rendering of the colour. Like that drunk in Bokhārā, it is imported from China by steamer and rail; and absorbed from porcelain bowls, whence the spent leaves are deftly thrown on the floor by a practised jerk.

745 See the description of ancient Samarkand by the Emperor Bāber in Schuyler’s Turkestan, p. 239.

746 Colonel Kulchanoff now holds these functions. He is a Tartar from Orenburg, and is a perfect mine of information on the history and usages of the province. Though a Mohammedan, he lives in European style, and associates freely with his colleagues. Madame Kulchanoff presides at table, and converses with a charming grace with strangers who know Russian.

747 Lord Cornwallis encountered similar difficulties in fixing the demand on which the Permanent Settlement in Bengal was based. An eminent Hindu reformer, who at that period (1793) was head native officer in the district of Rangpur, is said to have received a bribe of a lakh of rupees (£10,000) for omitting a cipher in the reported gross revenue of a single estate.

748 By far the best work done by the Civil Service of India is that which is known as Settlement, i.e. the land valuation on a vast scale. The Russians would gain enormously could they obtain the service of a few of the younger men who have taken up this branch of executive duty.

749 The dimensions of some of the ancient works in Samarkand are stupendous. In one case the wells attain a maximum depth of 420 feet, and are connected by a tunnel in which a man can walk upright.

750 See a very interesting note at pp. 258–9, vol. ii. of Schuyler’s Turkestan.

751 Lord Curzon’s great work on Central Asia is considered by the Russians themselves as a text-book, though they vigorously combat his views on their policy.

752 See Appendix, p. 425.