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THE HEART OF ASIA
THE HEART OF ASIA
A History of Russian Turkestan and the Central Asian Khanates from the Earliest Times BY FRANCIS HENRY SKRINE FORMERLY A MEMBER OF H.M. INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE AND EDWARD DENISON ROSS, Ph.D. PROFESSOR OF PERSIAN AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON WITH 19 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SKETCHES BY VERESTCHAGIN NUMEROUS PHOTOGRAPHS AND 2 MAPS METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET, W.C. LONDON 1899...
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
A time when Russia’s movements in the East are being watched by all with such keen interest seems a fitting one for the appearance of a work dealing with her Central Asian possessions. “That eternal struggle between East and West,” to quote Sir William Hunter’s apt phrase, has made Russia supreme in Central Asia, as it has made England mistress of India: and thus it has come to pass that two of the greatest European Powers find themselves face to face on the Asiatic Continent. On the results of
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CHAPTER I Earliest Times to the Death of Alexander
CHAPTER I Earliest Times to the Death of Alexander
The history of Central Asia is that of the cradle of mankind. He who seeks to evolve it from the mass of nebulous tradition is brought into contact with the traces of widely diverse nationalities and religions, and must consult in turn the annals of the Iranians, Greeks, Scythians, Chinese, Turks, and Russians. We propose in the following chapters to review the principal events enacted in that portion of Central Asia which is vaguely styled Turkestān, and is bounded on the north and east by the
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CHAPTER II Bactrians and Parthians
CHAPTER II Bactrians and Parthians
At the epoch of Alexander’s death the satrapy of Bactria and Soghdiana was held by his general, Amyntas. The death of the young conqueror was the signal for a mutiny among the Macedonian soldiers who had remained in that country, which was, however, immediately put down. Amyntas was removed from his satrapy and superseded by Philippus of Elymeus, who, within the space of a year, was appointed to Parthia and succeeded by Stasanor. 15 The latter held his post until B.C. 301, when these provinces p
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CHAPTER III The Huns and the Yué-Chi
CHAPTER III The Huns and the Yué-Chi
It is to Chinese sources that we must turn for an account of the tribes which overthrew Græco-Bactrian rule, and were a constant thorn in the side of the Parthian Empire. These sources, with faint sidelights thrown on an obscure period by allusions to be found in classic authors, enable us to bridge a gap of several centuries replete with events which exercised a lasting influence on the history of Central Asia. The Chow dynasty ruled from B.C. 1122 to B.C. 250. 31 After its fall China split up
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CHAPTER IV The Sāsānides, the Ephthalites, and the Turks
CHAPTER IV The Sāsānides, the Ephthalites, and the Turks
The history of Central Asia during the earlier centuries of our era is bound up in that of Persia, and its course was moulded by the fortunes of the great dynasty called after the grandfather of its founder, the Sāsānide, which governed the empire from A.D. 219 until the Arab invasion more than four centuries later. In the third century ( A.D. 200) of our era the condition of Persia resembled that of France before the power of feudalism was broken by the crafts and iron will of Louis XI . The au
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CHAPTER V The Rise of Islām and Invasions of the Arabs
CHAPTER V The Rise of Islām and Invasions of the Arabs
At the end of the sixth century the western shore of Arabia was inhabited by tribes of Semitic descent, who possessed a complex religion and some literary culture. The capital was Mekka, to the north of Arabia Felix, 73 an ancient city which nestled round a temple called the Ka`ba, or Cube. In this holy of holies was a black stone, probably a meteorite, which served as a tribal fetish, and attracted hosts of pilgrims from the southern provinces of the peninsula. The family who had charge of the
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CHAPTER VI The First Eastern Campaigns of Kutayba ibn Muslim
CHAPTER VI The First Eastern Campaigns of Kutayba ibn Muslim
The arrival of Kutayba on the scene marks a new epoch in the history of Mohammedan conquests in Central Asia. Though the Arabs had been for many years masters of Khorāsān, with an established capital at Merv, 105 their hold on the country beyond the Oxus was very slight. The expeditions which they had hitherto made into Bokhārā 106 and other parts of Transoxiana were mere raids, and their authority in those countries departed with the main body of their army. Kutayba was the first Arab leader wh
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CHAPTER VII Kutayba’s Last Campaigns
CHAPTER VII Kutayba’s Last Campaigns
Among Kutayba’s followers was a certain noble named Nīzek, prince of Bādghīs, and a minister of Jighāya, ruler of Tokhāristān, who was in all probability attached temporarily to his court as a prisoner on parole. Nīzek had watched Kutayba’s campaigns with keen interest, in the fond hope that he might receive a serious check, and that Transoxiana and Khorāsān might be emboldened to throw off the Arab yoke. The great leader’s success in Bokhārā convinced the moody rebel of the folly of such antici
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CHAPTER VIII Kutayba’s Fall and Death
CHAPTER VIII Kutayba’s Fall and Death
The realm of Arabic literature contains no more vivid picture of contemporary life and manners than that given us by Tabari in his account of Kutayba’s fall. 137 Many circumstances conspired to effect his ruin. The unbounded arrogance arising from uniform success, and the many acts of perfidy of which he was guilty, had weakened the attachment of his followers, which was based rather on greed for booty than devotion to a cause. His friend and constant patron Hajjāj had died in A.H. 94. The new C
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CHAPTER IX Kutayba’s Successors
CHAPTER IX Kutayba’s Successors
On the death of Kutayba, Wakī`, who had been a ringleader in the revolt, took upon himself the direction of affairs in Khorāsān. After a lapse of nine months, however, a new governor arrived, in the person of Yezīd ibn Muhallab, and Wakī` was placed under arrest, while his partisans were subjected to punishment. According to the Persian translation of Tabari, Yezīd this year “began a series of expeditions beyond the frontiers of Khorāsān, to countries where Kutayba had not penetrated,” 141 but t
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CHAPTER X Nasr ibn Sayyār and Abū Muslim
CHAPTER X Nasr ibn Sayyār and Abū Muslim
In A.H. 120 (737) 162 Asad died, and was succeeded by Nasr ibn Sayyār, one of the ablest rulers and generals ever sent to the East in Mohammedan times. He was as generous as he was strong, and seems to have won the affection of those under him. During the nine years of his governorship his position was by no means an easy one, for he had to contend with the growing influence of the `Abbāsid faction, 163 and to support, with a loyalty worthy of a better cause, the last degenerate representatives
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CHAPTER XI Khorāsān under the First `Abbāsids
CHAPTER XI Khorāsān under the First `Abbāsids
The Umayyad Caliph at last recognised the gravity of the situation, and sent all the forces he could muster to oppose Kahtaba. But the Hāshimite troops carried all before them. They defeated a large Syrian army near Isfahān, and captured the important stronghold of Nahāvend, A.H. 132 (749). Then Kahtaba started for Kūfa, making a slight detour to avoid Ibn Hobayra, who was encamped at Jalūlā. On reaching the Euphrates, Ibn Hobayra came up with him, and a battle ensued at nightfall near Kerbelā.
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CHAPTER XII The Caliphates of El-Mansūr, El-Hādi, and Hārūn er-Rashīd
CHAPTER XII The Caliphates of El-Mansūr, El-Hādi, and Hārūn er-Rashīd
El-Mansur’s troubles did not end with the defeat of `Abdullah and the murder of Abū Muslim. The rebellious Mesopotamians, under their leader Mulabbab esh-Shaybāni, more than once repulsed the troops sent against them by the Caliph, and not till A.H. 138 (755) was order restored by Khāzim ibn Khuzayma. 185 In the meantime a “Magian,” or Zoroastrian of Nīshāpūr, named Sinbad, 186 disgusted at the murder of his patron Abū Muslim, rose in rebellion to avenge the blood of the fallen general. 187 He s
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CHAPTER XIII Decline of the Caliphs’ Authority in Khorāsān. The Tāhirides
CHAPTER XIII Decline of the Caliphs’ Authority in Khorāsān. The Tāhirides
On the death of Hārūn er-Rashīd, A.H. 193 (809), a serious dispute arose between his two sons, Amīn and Ma´mūn. The former, probably on the advice of his vezīr, Fadhl ibn Rabī`a, 205 ordered the army, which was at Tūs, to return to Baghdād. This act was not only unfriendly towards his brother, but was also in direct contravention of his father’s will. Ma´mūn, in retaliation, put a stop to all postal communication between Baghdād and the East, and assumed the title of Caliph over a kingdom which
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CHAPTER XIV The Saffārides and the Rise of the Sāmānides
CHAPTER XIV The Saffārides and the Rise of the Sāmānides
During the Caliphate of Mutawakkil 218 the government of the province of Sīstān was usurped by a man named Sālih ibn Nasr, who, under the pretext of putting down a rising of the Khārijites, had gathered round himself a large body of adherents. The then governor of Khorāsān, Tāhir II., hearing of the disorders in Sīstān, took the field in person in order to put an end to the hostilities between the Khārijites and Sālih’s adherents. This he succeeded in doing, but scarcely had he returned to his r
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CHAPTER XV The Sāmānides
CHAPTER XV The Sāmānides
On the death of Nasr ibn Ahmed, A.H. 279 (892), Isma`īl became the acknowledged lord of Transoxiana and Khwārazm, with Bokhārā as his capital. His succession was furthermore confirmed by a royal patent from the Caliph Mu`tadhid. The first recorded act of Isma`īl’s reign was the ghazā , or Holy War, which he conducted against the Christian settlement of Tarāz. 230 The undertaking, according to Narshakhi, 231 cost him no little trouble; but finally “the Amīr and many of the Dihkāns embraced Islam,
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CHAPTER XVI The Kara-Khānides, or Uïghūrs
CHAPTER XVI The Kara-Khānides, or Uïghūrs
While the Sāmānides were thus harassed by the powerful Daylamites in the west, by the growing power of Sabuktagin in the south, and the fear of insubordination in their own states, a force still more formidable had arisen on their northern frontier, where a Turkish state had been founded which extended from Kāshghar to the Sea of Aral. The relations of this state with its southern neighbours were at first of a peaceful and even friendly character; but when the nomads perceived that Iranian autho
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CHAPTER XVII The Ghaznavides and the Rise of the Seljūks
CHAPTER XVII The Ghaznavides and the Rise of the Seljūks
The struggles between Mahmūd of Ghazna and Ilik Khān of Kāshghar continued till the year A.H. 401 (1010), when the latter, owing to a quarrel with his brother Toghān, was obliged to withdraw his troops, and a long period of peace ensued, with but slight interruptions, during which the Oxus continued to be regarded as the frontier of their respective realms. Before the actual downfall of the Sāmānides the province of Khwārazm, 269 which lay between the states of the Turkish Khāns and the Ghaznavi
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CHAPTER XVIII The Seljūks
CHAPTER XVIII The Seljūks
Toghrul Beg’s career of conquest is admirably epitomised by Gibbon in the 57th chapter of his immortal work. After driving the Ghaznavides back to India, he overthrew the powerful dynasty of the Būyides, 281 and with their fall the whole of Persia passed into the hands of the Turks. “By the conquest of Āzerbāyjān, or Atropatene, he approached the Roman confines, and the shepherd presumed to despatch an ambassador or herald to demand the tribute and obedience of the Emperor of Constantinople.” 28
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CHAPTER XIX Sultan Sanjar and the Kara-Khitāys
CHAPTER XIX Sultan Sanjar and the Kara-Khitāys
The country of Khwārazm 300 was one of the first conquests of the Seljūks. On becoming masters of Khorāsān, the `Irāks, Persia, and Syria, they chose men from among their Turkish slaves whom they placed in charge of the various provinces. The governor thus set over Khwārazm was named Balkategin, who was Tasht-dār , or Grand Ewer-bearer, 301 to Sultan Melik Shāh, who exercised paramount authority in that country. He had under him a Turkish slave whom he had purchased, named Nūshtegin, who by his
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CHAPTER XX The Khwārazm-shāhs
CHAPTER XX The Khwārazm-shāhs
On the death of Melik Shāh in A.H. 485 (1092) a civil war broke out between the brothers Berkiyāruk and Mohammad, which resulted in the formation of separate semi-independent states, under various branches of the Seljūks, in different quarters of the dominions of that family. Chief among their representatives were—the Seljūks of Kirmān, A.H. 433–583 (1041–1187); the Seljūks of Syria, A.H. 487–511 (1094–1117); the Seljūks of `Irāk and Kurdistān, A.H. 511–590 (1117–1194); the Seljūks of Rūm (or As
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CHAPTER XXI Chingiz Khān
CHAPTER XXI Chingiz Khān
It is not within the scope of the present work to trace in any detail the meteor-like path of Chingiz; for we are concerned with it only in so far as it affected the internal affairs of Central Asia. His career has exercised a peculiar fascination for students of Oriental history, though by no means all the available evidence has yet been marshalled in elucidation of the controversies which still rage round that mighty name. 347 “All that can safely be said about the early history of the Mongols
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CHAPTER XXII Mongol Invasion of Central Asia
CHAPTER XXII Mongol Invasion of Central Asia
Tāi Yāng Khān , king of the Christian tribe of Naimans, alarmed at the growing power of the young ruler, sent Alakush-Tekin, chief of the Onguts, or white Tatars, an invitation to join him against the ambitious Mongol. Alakush-Tekin immediately informed Chingiz of the Naimans’ intentions, assuring him at the same time of his own friendly feeling. Chingiz promptly marched against Tāi Yāng, who descended from the Altai to the foot of the Khanggai Mountains, attended by many allies, among whom was
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CHAPTER XXIII The Line of Chaghatāy
CHAPTER XXIII The Line of Chaghatāy
“The Mongol armies,” writes Mr. S. Lane-Poole, “divided into several immense brigades, swept over Khwārazm, Khorāsān, and Afghanistān, on the one hand; and on the other, over Āzerbāyjān, Georgia, and Southern Russia; whilst a third division continued the reduction of China. In the midst of these diverging streams of conquest Chingiz Khān died in A.H. 624 (1227), at the age of sixty-four. The territory he and his sons had conquered stretched from the Yellow Sea to the Euxine, and included lands o
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CHAPTER XXIV Tīmūr, the Great Amīr
CHAPTER XXIV Tīmūr, the Great Amīr
In the year A.H. 733 Kazān Khān 392 mounted the throne of the western Chaghatāy family. He is described by his contemporaries as a cruel and tyrannical villain, who inspired so general a terror that when his nobles were summoned to a Kurultāy , or general assembly, they made their wills before leaving their homes. 393 To such a pitch did the dissatisfaction of his nobles rise, that in the year A.H. 746 (1345) they banded together under the leadership of a certain Amīr Kazghan, and broke into ope
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CHAPTER XXV The Successors of Tīmūr
CHAPTER XXV The Successors of Tīmūr
The method taken by Chingiz Khān of assuring the continuance of sovereignty in his house was inspired by statesmanlike prescience. It is well-nigh impossible for a single individual to maintain intact an empire inherited from a father who has won it by the sword. Its founder may, indeed, say with far greater truth than the scion of a long line of kings, “the State is Myself”; but his hour of triumph is embittered by the reflection that possessions amassed by ruthless greed are apt to melt away w
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CHAPTER XXVI THE SHAYBĀNIDES
CHAPTER XXVI THE SHAYBĀNIDES
The Mongol dynasty, established in China and known as the Yuen, founded by Kubilāy Khān 423 cir. 1260, began to decline very soon after his death (1294); and in 1353 a native of humble birth, named Chu Yūan Chang, succeeded in overthrowing the alien line, and, in 1368, originated the famous dynasty of Ming. The nomads’ rule was again confined to the steppes of Mongolia. Eastern and Western Turkestān continued, in the Ming period, to constitute the dominions of the Chaghatāys. 424 This so-called
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CHAPTER XXVII The House of Astrakhan
CHAPTER XXVII The House of Astrakhan
Among the Mongol chiefs who struggled for mastery in Eastern Russia at the epoch of Tīmūr’s intervention 454 was a descendant of Chingiz, named Kutluk, who rose to fame by defeating Tīmūr’s great rival, Tokhtamish Khān, near Kiev in 1399. 455 His offspring vegetated in obscurity for nearly two centuries in the Khānate of Astrakhan, on the lower reaches of the Volga, and were then driven eastwards by the growing power of the Russian princes. Thus, towards the close of the sixteenth century, the h
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CHAPTER XXVIII The House of Mangit
CHAPTER XXVIII The House of Mangit
The family thus raised to royal rank by the ambition of Rahīm Bi 466 belonged to the great Uzbeg tribe of Mangit, which had been brought from the north-east of Mongolia by Chingiz, and had settled on the lower reaches of the Oxus and around Karshī, a Bokhāran citadel 140 miles south-east of the capital. Their warlike spirit had placed them at the head of the Uzbeg clans; and while the Astrakhanide sovereigns retained any real power, the loyalty of the Mangits was as conspicuous as their courage.
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CHAPTER XXIX Amīr Nasrullah, a Bokhāran Nero
CHAPTER XXIX Amīr Nasrullah, a Bokhāran Nero
In writing of the monkish Haydar’s successor, Vambéry appositely quotes an old Uïghūr proverb, “The princes of an age are its mirrors.” 485 Nasrullah Khān epitomised the vices which flourished unchecked in Bokhārā. The passion for low intrigue, the lust and cruelty, the self-righteousness and hypocrisy so often associated with the Mohammedan character, were found in him in their highest development. As the third son of Haydar, he had small chance of succeeding to the throne; but he kept that goa
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CHAPTER I The Making of Russia
CHAPTER I The Making of Russia
During the long dark centuries whose annals we have endeavoured to reconstruct, the tide of conquest ran westwards. It was checked at times by the might of civilisation or fanaticism, but its flow was tolerably steady and quite beyond control. Had it not been for the evolution of a still greater force on her eastern borders, the whole of Europe would have been enveloped in the coils of a Mongolian invasion. The world was saved from this calamity by the unconscious agency of Russia. It remains to
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CHAPTER II Crossing the Threshold of Asia
CHAPTER II Crossing the Threshold of Asia
The Ural range had hitherto been the eastern boundary of Russia. Beyond lay a region of steppes and rivers, peopled towards the polar seas by tribes of Tartar and Esquimaux origin, employed in hunting; and on the southern frontier, by Kirghiz and Kalmak nomads. Under Vassili III. (1505–1533) the Western Urals were annexed to the nascent empire, and peopled by Yaik Cossacks, a race addicted to raiding and pillage. 532 These freebooters recognised no natural barriers. Crossing the mountain-chain,
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CHAPTER III The Struggle with the Khānates
CHAPTER III The Struggle with the Khānates
Thus was a third stage reached in Russia’s advance. Her Siberian frontier extended from the north-eastern shore of the Caspian to the borders of China. It had been pushed forward to the edge of the plateau of Samarkand, then a province of Bokhārā, and lay within striking distance of the three Central Asian states which still maintained their independence. A sense of common danger united the forces which had hitherto been hostile: Kokandis, Bokhārans, and Khivans felt instinctively that the hour
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CHAPTER IV Turkomania and the Turkomans
CHAPTER IV Turkomania and the Turkomans
The reduction of Khiva marks a new era in the history of the Russian advance. The last semblance of organised opposition to the movement had disappeared, and the Tsar saw himself the unquestioned suzerain of the great Khānates. Westwards, his base was planted securely on the Caspian, where the port of Krasnovodsk, founded in 1869 by General Stolietoff, 560 was connected with the Russian colonies in the Mangishlāk peninsula by a chain of strong places. The Amū Daryā, that ancient boundary of nati
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CHAPTER V The Last Step in Advance
CHAPTER V The Last Step in Advance
The ignominious campaign of 1861 was the last organised effort put forward by Persia to protect her northern provinces. Secure in a splendid strategic position, 609 the Tekkes extended their devastations far and wide. When, in 1871, a fearful famine 610 more than decimated the population of Khorāsān, bands of Tekke horsemen took advantage of their neighbours’ weakness to sweep the entire province with their marauding parties. It would have been an easy task to check the aggression which depopula
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CHAPTER VI The Central Asian Railways
CHAPTER VI The Central Asian Railways
The conception of a railway between the Caspian and the heart of Asia took shape, as we have seen, during the campaign of Geok Teppe, when a little portable line between the base and a point thirteen miles inland was of good service to the transport. The new railway battalion redoubled its efforts after the fall of the Tekke stronghold, and before the close of 1885 the line had been carried as far inland as the large Turkoman village of Kizil Arvat, 135 miles from the Caspian. A mighty impulse w
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CHAPTER VII Transcaspia in 1898
CHAPTER VII Transcaspia in 1898
The intense activity displayed in railway construction did not imply neglect of the primary duty of a civilised state towards subject peoples—that of giving them peace and order. The problem before the Russian administration bristled with difficulties, for lawless habits were ingrained in the population of Turkomania. The lesson taught by Geok Teppe was the first step in the civilising process, for it inspired the Tekkes, who outnumber all other tribes combined, with a wholesome dread of the whi
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CHAPTER VIII Askabad and Merv
CHAPTER VIII Askabad and Merv
Krasnovodsk , the western terminus of the Transcaspian Railway, stands on the northern side of the Balkan Bay, through which the Oxus once discharged into the Caspian. It is protected from the groundswell by a natural breakwater of jagged rock which stretches nearly twenty-five miles southwards; and from icy Siberian blasts by a range of barren limestone hills. The little town which nestles in this bleak amphitheatre is of recent origin, for it was only in 1897 that it superseded Uzun Ada, a sha
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CHAPTER IX Bokhārā, a Protected Native State
CHAPTER IX Bokhārā, a Protected Native State
The 141 miles which separate Merv from the Bokhāran frontier were the costliest and the most depressing section of the Transcaspian Railway. It includes that terror of Russian engineers known as the Sandy Tract, 684 and no trace of cultivation is met with until the weary eye finds solace in the restful green which marks the course of the mighty Oxus. The border stronghold, Charjūy, crowns a hill to the south of the railway line, and bears in its rugged outlines a faint resemblance to Edinburgh C
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CHAPTER X SAMARKAND
CHAPTER X SAMARKAND
Samarkand is 150 miles by rail from Bokhārā. The line follows the course of the Zarafshān, and passes through a carefully tilled country, a large proportion of which is under cotton. 725 Rather less than two-thirds is grown from acclimatised American seed ( gorsypium hirsutum ) introduced by the Russians, whose persistent aim it has been to render their mills independent of the United States. The seed is sown in April, on soil which has been well ploughed and harrowed, the proportion allowed bei
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CHAPTER XI Friends or Foes?
CHAPTER XI Friends or Foes?
It has been acutely observed that we bring back from foreign countries no more than we take thither. In other words, we view them through the medium of our own personality, which is the growth of heredity, education, and environment. It is almost impossible for an Englishman to judge the subjects of the Tsar dispassionately. Forty-five years ago a friendship which had lasted for centuries was shattered by that greatest blunder of the century, our Crimean campaign; and the fierce passions which i
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APPENDIX I
APPENDIX I
Translation of Prince Gortschakoff’s Circular to the Great Powers, dated St. Petersburg, 21st November 1864. “The Russian newspapers have described the military operations which have been carried out by a detachment of our troops in the regions of Central Asia, with remarkable success and vast results. It was inevitable that these events should excite attention in foreign countries, and the more so because their theatre lies in regions which are hardly known. “Our august Master has directed me t
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APPENDIX II
APPENDIX II
The present Minister of War, General Kurapatkine, delivered an address at Askabad, on the 25th November 1897, to some members of a party of English tourists, which is really a remarkably frank enunciation of the policy of his Government in Central Asia. The full text runs as follows:— “The policy of our Government in Central Asia, since the accession of the late Tsar, has been eminently one of peace; and recourse has never been had to arms until every other means of gaining a given object had fa
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