Akdu Kid on our frontier. So scrupulous is our regard for the status quo, that whole tribes have cast themselves on our protection in vain. The Piruzkuhis, Khezaris, and Jamshidis have crossed our borders in troops of as many as 1000 families, but we have always repatriated such refugees. There have been similar cases in our dealings with Persian subjects. The whole population of Khelat, in Khorāsān, came to us with entreaties to protect them against the oppression of the Shah's officers. Our reply was the despatch of troops who conducted them across the frontier, but we took diplomatic steps to assure a pardon for those to whom we had been obliged to refuse our protection. Turkestan proper has been free from war since the occupation of Farghāna-twenty-one years ago. The Bokhārā frontier has remained intact since the capture of Samarkand in 1868. It is true that within the last few years the Pamirs Question has been reopened, and slight modifications have been made in our boundaries towards Afghanistān; but, as far as we are concerned, the operations have been carried out against our wishes-I may almost say, under compulsion. For the Amir 'Abd er-Rahman infringed the terms of the arrangement entered into between England and ourselves in 1873, when it was agreed that the Afghans should not cross the Oxus, by pushing his boundary beyond that river and occupying Shugnan and Roshan on its right bank. The last complication on the Persian frontier dates from 1829-nearly seventy years ago. Throughout our frontier conterminous with China we have had no disturbance for more than a century. I am led to mention these significant facts in order to show that our policy in Asia is essentially a peaceful one, and that we are perfectly satisfied with our present boundaries. And I may claim to speak with authority, apart from my official position, for I have been personally concerned in all our important military and political movements in Central Asia for many years past. In 1868, when only twenty, I took part in the storming of Samarkand. In 1875 I was employed in the reduction of the Khanate of Kokand. In 1880 I led the advance guard in the conquest of Farghāna; and in 1881 I commanded the reinforcements sent to General Skobeleff from Turkestan, in his struggle with the Tekke tribes, and led one of the assaulting columns at the capture of Geok Teppe." INDEX ABBAS THE GREAT, Shah, 267. 'Abd el-Jabbar, revolt against El- 'Abd el-Melik, 43-44. 'Abd er-Rahman (brother of Kutayba), 'Abd er-Rahman ibn Muslim (see 'Abd ul-Ahad, 257. 'Abd ul-Kerim, cited 204 note, passim. 'Abd ul-Latif the Uzbeg, 191 note. 'Abdullah ibn Tahir, 100, 101. 'Abdullah (uncle of Abu-l-'Abbās), 85, 'Abdullah 1., 191 note. 'Abdullah II., genealogy of, 190; Abramoff, General, defence of Yani Abū Bekr, 36. Abū Dā'ūd Khālid ibn Ibrāhim, 88, Abu Ja'far (see El-Mansur). Abu-l-Ghazi Khan (grandson of Abu- Abū Muslim, early life, 81; black Afrāsiyāb identified with Būkū Khăn, Agha Mohammad, 267. 'Ala ud-Dawlé, war with Ulugh Beg, 429 'Ală ud Din Mohammad, revolt Alakush-Tekin, 155. Alexander the Great, conquest of Alexander II., Tashkent captured con- Alexandria, 7, II. |