CHAPTER XII.

BOKHARA-RUSSIANIZED.

BOKHARA-HISTORY-ASPECT THE ARK-PUBLIC

BUILDINGS-HINDOOS

JEWS-CLIMATE-RUSSIAN SLAVES-SAMARKAND-RUSSIAN OCCUPATION

KARSHEE-KHOJA-SALEH-SHUHR-ISLAM CHARJUI-KARAKUL-SHUHRI-SUBZ- HISSAR - - HISTORICAL SKETCH OF BOKHARA - EXECUTIONS OF STODDART, CONOLLY, AND WYBURD-NUSSER-OOLLAH KHAN-MOZUFFAROOD-DEEN KHAN-ADVANCE OF THE RUSSIANS-PRINCE GORTCHAKOF'S CIRCULAR-BATTLE OF YIRDJAR-FALL OF KHOJEND-CAPTURE OF SAMARKAND-MISSION FROM BOKHARA TO ST PETERSBURG CAPTURE OF KULJA-THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER LINE. d

PRIOR to the Chinese occupation of Central Asia the city of Bokhara, if we may credit M. Vambery, was called Jemkend. Bukhar, it seems, signifies a Buddhist monastery, though, according to Abou'l-Ghazee Khan, that word in the Moghul language means 'a learned man,' while Baron Meyendorf discovers its equivalent in Treasure of Study.' It may, perhaps, be more natural to trace the modern name to a corruption of Bazaria, by which appellation the district, at least, seems to have been known at the time of the Macedonian conquest. However that may be, the capital of the Khanat is now pronounced Boukara by the Toorkomans, and Bokhara by the Persians.

Although we are assured by Sir Alexander Burnes that 'Samarcand and Bokhara have afforded a theme for glowing description to the historians and poets of all ages,' there is much reason to believe that the latter town was in the beginning a mere fishing station in the midst of a reedy marsh in

fested by wild beasts. The fishermen's huts gradually clustered together into a village, which, as time went on, assumed the proportions of a town, and the rude art of fishing became supplementary to the cultivation of the land and the breeding of cattle. The ruins of Bykend, about twenty miles distant, probably cover the site of the original aggregation of huts.

Under the Samanides, Bokhara attained to a degree of luxury and refinement not surpassed at that time by the most opulent city in Europe. Its riches, however, tempted the cupidity of the hordes of Chinghiz Khan, and a long period of desolation effaced the memory of its previous greatness. But the advantages of its situation were too remarkable to be long overlooked. On the highway between Europe and China, and surrounded by an inhospitable desert, it was marked out by nature as a resting-place for the way-worn caravans, and an emporium for the productions and manufactures alike of the East and the West. It rose therefore once more into note under Timour, though Samarkand was the favourite residence of that man of blood,'-and continued to flourish under his descendants.

The Oozbeg chiefs who succeeded the Timourides mostly resided at Bokhara, and the wrath of Nadir Shah was averted by the timely submission of the reigning Khan. From that time to the present day no very important changes or chances have befallen the city, and, though fallen from its once high estate, it is still a place of great resort for the traders of Central Asia, while in the eyes of Mohammedans it retains its claim to the honourable title of El Shereefah, or the Holy.

"The aspect of the city from a little distance,' says Baron Meyendorf, 'is to European eyes very striking. The domes of its mosques, the lofty points of the façades of its medressehs, the minarets, the palaces that tower in the midst of the town, the crenellated wall that surrounds it, a lake situated close to the

walls and encircled with flat-roofed houses, or with pretty rural villas, begirt with crenellated walls, fields, gardens, trees, and the movement that always characterizes the environs of a capital, all contribute to produce a most agreeable effect. But the illusion ceases as soon as you enter the town; for, with the exception of the public baths, the mosques, and the medressehs, there is nothing to be seen but mud houses of a greyish hue, massed without order one beside the other, forming narrow, winding, filthy streets, traced without design.'

For the most part the dwelling-houses stand in court-yards, showing only a blind wall to the street. The best streets barely exceed six feet in width, while the majority are not more than three or four feet wide. As almost everybody rides, the confusion arising from the crowd of camels, horses, and donkeys, jostling one another as they struggle through these narrow defiles, is both bewildering and disgusting. The building materials are earth mixed with chopped straw, poplar posts, four or five inches in circumference, being driven in here and there, and at the corners, for the sake of security. The ceilings are made of a hard wood, generally painted in different colours, and the flooring of bricks, except in the houses of the opulent, where glazed tiles are preferred. On the flat roof earth is plentifully sprinkled, as a defence against both heat and cold.

In the almost total absence of glazed windows, the interior is, in winter, intolerably cold. In the middle of the sittingroom a brazier is accordingly lighted, over which stands a table covered with a wadded quilt. Around this sit the family and their friends, each holding the quilt up to their chins, while their backs and fingers become painfully chilled. The residences of the rich consist of several small houses within a common wall, and are usually surrounded with verandahs.

The aspect of the people is grave to the verge of melancholy. Every man distrusts not only his neighbour, but his

nearest kindred. There are no public fêtes, and very little private festivity. No merry voices, no sounds of music, break the silence of the less frequented streets. A settled gloom broods over the capital.

The principal building is the Ark, or Royal Palace, built by Alp Arslan eight hundred years ago. It stands on a natural mound enlarged by human hands, about 200 feet high, and rather steep. In shape this eminence is a truncated cone, the base measuring from four to five hundred paces in diameter. The palace is surrounded by a mud wall sixty feet in height, pierced for a gateway, erected by Nadir Shah in 1742, on each side of which rises a tower ninety feet high, affording a secure retreat for the storks in the breeding season. The palace, built of earth, is altogether an unsightly edifice. Inclosed within the outer wall are three mosques, the offices of the ministers, the house of the Kooshbegie, guard-houses, menial offices, and dungeons, one of which is called the Kana Khaneh, because swarming with ticks, which are supplied with raw meat when there is no prisoner to be thrown to them.

At the foot of this mound is a spacious square known as the Registan, lined on two sides with mosques and other public buildings, while the fourth side is planted with trees and cooled by a fountain. This is the favourite resort both of citizens and strangers, who recline in the grateful shade, or inspect the varied wares laid out for view in smart tents or booths. Here also is held the daily market for fruit, vegetables, grain, cotton, and fuel. And here, too, executions take place, and human heads are exposed on stakes, or laid out on the ground, at the foot of the gallows. During Baron Meyendorf's brief stay in Bokhara at least six Persian slaves and two Tajeeks were hanged for theft, and he became familiarized with the ghastly spectacle of the heads of Khivans, Toorkomans, and others.

For all that, so holy a place is Bokhara El Shereefah that

light there ascends from the earth, instead of descending from above as in less favoured lands. Samarkand, says the proverb, is the paradise of the world, and Bokhara the strength of the religion of Islam. Indeed, it boasts of 360 mosques, the largest capable of containing 10,000 worshippers, while the minaret of Mirgharab, ascribed to Alp Arslan, but certainly rebuilt by Timour, towers to a height of 180 feet, gradually tapering away, and formed of bricks artistically arranged in pleasing patterns.

The medressehs, or Mohammedan seminaries, exceed one hundred in number, some no doubt very small, but others large enough to accommodate from sixty to eighty students. They are built like caravanserais, and have little to recommend them from an architectural point of view. They are for the most part well endowed, and maintain a considerable number of professors and resident students in listless indolence. The course of instruction is purely theological, and even more puerile than the disputations of the schools in ancient Christendom. However, for six months in the year the medressehs are closed, to enable the scholars to earn their livelihood by industrial pursuits.

Besides these considerable buildings, there are sixteen public baths of considerable magnitude, and fourteen caravanserais for the use of travellers. 'Asiatics who travel,' writes Mr Shaw, 'do so from one of three motives, and they can understand no other. Their journeys are either religious, commercial, or political. They will cross the whole continent to visit a shrine; they will peril their lives on a trading trip; and envoys are constantly threading their way from one distant chief to another.' The erection of caravanserais has therefore always been regarded as a meritorious work, and no prince is more highly esteemed even by posterity than one who has associated his name with resting-places for man and beast, in a