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CHAPTER IX.

THE TURCOMANS.

FAR and wide, although no longer so far or so wide as formerly, over the waste expanse of Kara Kum there roam tribes who are independent of all earthly authority, whose hand is against every man, and who are known as Turkmen or Turcomans. The great desert of Kara Kum, extending from the Caspian to the Oxus, and from Khiva to Persia, has been their home for centuries; and they are still to be found there in the same wild state of independence as their fathers were seven centuries ago. Their irregular confederacy has stood the test of time far better than some more regular modes of government, and so far as matters have yet progressed they appear to be better able to defend their rights than the other States and nationalities of Central Asia. The practical importance of the Turcomans in the present phase of the Central Asian Question cannot be over-estimated. They are evidently the next opponent with which Russia will come into contact, and to some degree the contest may

be said to have already begun. Before entering upon the consideration of any of the numerous topics suggested by the aspect of political affairs, it will be instructive to consider the past history and present condition of these tribes.

When the Persian province of Khorasan extended to Merv the Turcomans were Persian subjects, when the Khan of Khwaresm was strong they were Khivan; but at all other times they have been independent. They themselves trace their origin back to the Mongols, and D'Herbelot states, on the authority of Mirkhond, that they look upon Oghuz Khan, grandson of Moghul Khan, as their great ancestor. A more recent authority says that the Turcomans are the Ghuz of Oriental history, who crossed the Oxus with the Seljukians about the year 1030. These continued to be for two centuries the dominant Turk tribe of Western Asia. Colonies of these Turcoman Ghuz, as they are called by contemporary historians, are still to be found in Persia, Anatolia, and Syria, the descendants probably of the original settlers. The main body has always held the country between the Oxus and the Caspian, that is to say, Turcomania. From the earliest times

it had been their custom to break into Persia or the countries of the Oxus at any moment of internal anarchy, and the havoc they thus wrought has been untold. Timour inflicted severe punishment upon them, and for a time they were more disposed to follow a peaceful career. Although claiming a Mongol origin their resemblance to the Turks earned them the name of Turcoman, which means "resembling (mánind) the

Turk," and the Turcomans both of Kara Kum and of Asia Minor derive their name from the same cause. In both cases it is morally certain that they are the descendants of military settlers, who, separated from their main stem, have not possessed the necessary numbers or organization to become great conquerors, although they have never lost their warlike proclivities and ambition.

It is probable that most of the Turcomans of Kara Kum participated in the wars of Timour, although their kinsmen in Asia Minor suffered severely at his hands; but it was not until the time of Nadir Shah that we find them possessing any real sympathy with a great ruler.

Shah Abbas the Great endeavoured to curb effectually and for ever the turbulence of the Turcomans by settling a belt of Kurd colonists along the frontier, principally at Bujnoord, Kooshan, and Dereges. During his reign and that of several of his successors the plan worked well. The Kurds effectually checked the Turcomans; and the Khorasan frontier was for that space of time settled. The Persians benefited by the scheme, but soon the Kurds combined with the Turcomans, and then it is difficult to say whether there was greater danger from Turcoman hostility or from Kurd treachery. So recently as the year 1832 the Persian Government had to wage a regular war with the Kurds in order to compel them to revert to their allegiance. This the prince royal Abbas Mirza accomplished, but since that time the old state of things has revived, and quite recently there was much uncertainty with

regard to the sentiment of the Kurds. In modern times the efforts of Nadir Shah to settle this question have been the most successful. Nadir Shah, as one of themselves—a Turcoman of the tribe of Affshar-had claims upon their sympathy such as no other ruler ever possessed, and consequently we find that during his life-time they were not only remarkably tranquil, but also ardent in the support they afforded him in his numerous enterprises. But considering that Nadir Shah himself was in his earlier days the leader of a band of robbers, it is safe to assume that the condition of the Khorasan frontier was not then greatly different to what it is at present. From a robber chief Nadir soon became the leader of a small but organised band of Turcomans; and this was the beginning of that army with which, composed of many nationalities, Turcoman, Persian, and Afghan, he afterwards achieved such remarkable triumphs.

During his life-time the Turcomans were well content to share in his success, and the alteration of his capital from Isfahan to Meshed, and the construction of the strong fortress of Khelat-i-Nadiri in the Turcoman country, made his power most vigorous and firmly established in that region which had before been most disturbed. But upon his death they relapsed into their old habits, and again became a thorn in the side of their more peaceful neighbours, whether Persian or Khivan, but more especially the former. From the death of Nadir to the close of the eighteenth century the Turcomans carried on their raiding expeditions into Khorasan, sometimes penetrating still farther into the country to

Irak and Seistan. It is said that they even dared, in parties of twenty or thirty, to molest the dwellers in the suburbs of Isfahan.

But in the last years of the century they incurred the enmity of the Persian ruler, Aga Mahomed Khan, not, indeed, through their marauding propensities so much as by an act of personal hostility. Although the Turcomans had been on sympathetic terms with Aga Mahomed and his father, they murdered the former's brother when he fled to them for refuge from the pursuit of Zuckee Khan, brother of the Shah Kurrum Khan. For that act Aga Mahomed resolved to exact the most ample reparation, and he accordingly collected a large army at Astrabad, in the neighbourhood of which place the offending Turcomans dwelt. His operations were completely successful, and the Turcomans who were probably either Goklans or Yomults-paid bitterly for their treachery. So severe were the retaliatory measures adopted by Aga Mahomed, and so resolutely did he carry out his plan of revenge, that the Turcomans were thoroughly cowed, and for a long time afterwards the frontier near Astrabad was more settled than it had ever been before since the days of Nadir. Aga Mahomed carried a large number of prisoners into captivity, and in addition obtained hostages for the future behaviour of the tribe. But the lesson which was then read the Turcomans was only an exceptional occurrence, and has never been repeated. For a time it tranquillised the border, but in order to have been permanently effectual it should have been followed up.