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CHAPTER IV.

FROM ASHKABAD TO MERV.

As to the Russians, they chose Ashkabad, a word literally meaning the abode of love, for the new centre of administration. It became the gathering place of the leading officers as well as of the mercantile world, following in the track of the invading army. The merchants, mostly Caucasians, Mohammedans and. Christian Armenians, able to converse with the Turkomans-for the Turkish spoken by the Turkomans differs but slightly from the dialect spoken in the Caucasus were decidedly the best means of communication between the natives and the foreign conqueror. They could penetrate unmolested even to the far outlying parts of the Akhal country, for the Turkoman, once vanquished and sincerely submitting, would not touch any of the solitary travellers. These merchants enlarged upon the greatness and might of the Russians, spoke of the charity of the Czar, and bridged over smoothly and quietly the wide gulf existing but a short time ago between the dreaded

Russ and the Turkoman. As to commercial affairs, they were in the beginning unimportant, and most of the customers came from the ranks of the Russian army; but gradually the Turkomans, too, began to purchase sundry articles, and in particular took very quickly to the shops of the spirit-vendors, whose trade soon became most flourishing. In the course of two years six different whisky distilleries were opened in Ashkabad and the adjacent country; and so rapid was the spread of European civilisation à la Russe, that even playing-cards, known formerly under the name of the koran of the Muscovites," had found their way to the tent of the simple Turkoman.

Of other phases of the new era of civilisation I will not speak suffice to mention that the Turkomans very soon delighted in wearing big brass medals on their breasts and adorning their shoulders with epaulettes, and only the female population and the older people were anxious to retain their ancient national character, and avoid any closer intercourse with the foreign conqueror. Kismet, i.e., fate, or properly speaking, an absolute reliance upon the decrees of the Almighty, proved anew its efficacy; and all the more natural was this effect with the Turkomans, whose national bard, called MakhdumKuli, predicted nearly a hundred years ago the events which had just now come into fulfilment.

In a poem entitled "The End of the World," the Turkoman poet relates, in his plain but impressive language, how the towns and countries (of course within the sphere of his geographical information) will perish, how the various nations will disappear off the face of the earth, and at the end of his poem he says:

"It is the Russ who will engulf the Moslem world,

Whilst the Russ will be swallowed by the Anti-Christ.”

This place,

But let us return to Ashkabad. made the centre of the Russian administration, as well as of the new cultural and commercial, movement, very soon attracted not only those Turkomans who were already under the sway of the Russians, but also such members of that community as still enjoyed their independence-I mean to say Turkomans from Merv, from the Tedjend oasis, nay, even from the Salor and Sarik tribes, who, prompted partly by curiosity, partly by trading purposes, resorted to this place in order to see the new master of the country. I can fully imagine the surprise of these Turkomans upon finding themselves safe in the very midst of the dreaded conquerors; for according to their own notions of the mutual relations between belligerents, the only chance that could have awaited a foreigner would have been death or

slavery. I say the surprise must have been extraordinary; it discarded all fear, nay, turned to a certain extent into sympathy for the new cause.

It was Merv, in particular, that sent a large contingent of trading and sight-seeing guests to Ashkabad! Merv, the head-quarters of the yet independent and larger portion of the Tekke Turkomans; for it must be borne in mind that whilst the number of the Akhal-Tekke Turkomans is computed to be about 150,000 souls, that of the Merv-Tekkes is estimated at 250,000. I spoke about sight-seers from Merv, but I must add at the same time, that the Russians were no less anxious to get a peep at Merv, and to see the " Queen of the World," this being the pompous title given to the miserable heap of ruins by Oriental writers. In antiquity, or properly speaking during the pre-Mongolian era, Merv really was a great centre of culture and trade in this outlying part of Persia; and old Arab geographers speak of hundreds of gates, of hundreds of mosques, of thousands of palaces, baths, of miles of bazaars, of spacious caravansaries, etc., for which Merv was famous. Abstracting the poetical flavour of Oriental geographers, we may assume that Merv had really been a large town in bygone times; for, situated on the banks of the Murghab river, and richly watered, it was the best halting place for caravans trading

between Bokhara and Persia. But its splendour, as I said before, has long since passed away; the army of Djenghis turned it into a heap of ruins; and all later efforts to rebuild it have proved hopeless and futile.

Yet Russia, always alive to her interests, very well knew what Merv was worth. Soon after having settled at Ashkabad, she coveted it, for it was in her line of policy, and only to avoid the charge of greediness she thought it advisable to adopt quiet measures and to feign moderation. In the beginning the rumour was propagated that Merv, having been in olden times an integral part of the khanate of Khiva, which had been really the case, this last stronghold of the Turkomans would be handed over to the Khan of Khiva; and it was even added that the Turkomans themselves were longing after their former state of suzerainty to the khanate on the lower course of the Oxus. I read this news in a Persian paper, and was highly amused at the ingenious idea the Russians entertained, of using the Khan of Khiva as a catspaw in the troublesome affair of Merv. Soon afterwards this rumour turned out to be untrue. Röhrberg was removed on grounds which have remained unknown to us, and General Komaroff took his place; the latter a genuine Russian of unadulterated Muscovite extraction, a man certainly fitter

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