CHAP. XIX. WAR BETWEEN BOKHARA AND KHOKAND. 445

with all his children. But, as circumstances prevented him from feasting his eyes with that spectacle of blood, in the evening, a few hours before his death, he summoned to his presence his wife, the sister of Veliname; the unhappy woman, who had borne him two children, trembled, but the dying emir was not softened. She was executed close to his couch, and the abominable tyrant breathed his last breath with his glazing eye fixed upon the gushing blood of the sister of his detested enemy.

B.

THE WAR BETWEEN BOKHARA AND KHOKAND WAGED

BY THE EMIR MOZAFFAR-ED-DIN.

In the mean time affairs in Khokand had taken a different turn. Mussulman Kul had been put to death, and in his place Khudayar Khan had been raised to the "white felt." At his first accession the latter showed great ardor and activity. He was engaged victoriously in several combats with the Russians, who were pressing on from the Jaxartes. While he was thus occupied on the frontiers, Mollah Khan was nominated khan in his capital; but, as he had only inconsiderable forces to oppose to those of his rival, he thought it better to fly to Bokhara, and seek the aid of the Emir Mozaffar-ed-din for the recovery of his throne. This prince, immediately after the death of his father, besieged the city Shehri Sebz, which, in spite of the vengeance of which it had already been the object, and the blood that had flowed there, was again in open revolt. He was before the walls of Tchiragtchi, a strong-hold belonging to Sheh

ri Sebz, when the intelligence reached him that the governor of Oratepe, a native of Shehri Sebz, had allied himself with the Khokandi, and that Mollah Khan was already marching at their head against Djizzak.

The Emir Mozaffar-ed-din, urged on by his guest and protegé, Khudayar Khan, could not restrain himself. He abandoned his position before Shehri Sebz, although he was pressing it hard, and rushed at the head of 15,000 men against Khokand, whose khan (Mollah Khan) threatened, from his acknowledged ability, to prove a formidable antagonist. Adopting the unscrupulous policy of his father, Mozaffared-din caused him to be assassinated in a conspiracy which the emir had himself set on foot. In the great confusion that ensued he next made himself master of the capital, and then set Khudayar at the head of the government, after the legitimate heir, Shahmurad, had fled to the Kiptchaks.

Khudayar Khan had scarcely exercised four months the royal functions so new to him, when the Kiptchak, with Shahmurad at their head, assailed, and forced him a second time to fly to Bokhara. The emir, seeing himself so slighted and mocked at in his character as protector, hastily assembled all his forces to wreak his vengeance upon Khokand in some exemplary manner; and after having sent on before him Shahrukh Khan with 40,000 men, and Mehemmed Hasan Bey with thirty pieces of artillery, he hastened after them himself, escorted by a few hundred Tekke, with the fixed design not to return until he had reduced under his sceptre all as far as the frontiers of China.

CHAP. XIX.

KHUDAYAR KHAN.-CIVIL WARS.

447

In Khokand the firm intention of the young emir was well known, so also was his cupidity; and he met, accordingly, with the most resolute resistance. The ulemas pronounced the emir, who was invading their country, to be kafir (an unbeliever), and preached against him the djihad (war of religion). All flew to arms, but in vain. The emir attached to his own dominions not only Khokand, but all the territory as far as the Chinese frontiers. The greatest resistance which he met with was from the Kiptchaks, under their chieftain Alem Kul. These were attacked by the Turkomans; and the combat that ensued must have proved highly interesting, for two of the most savage of the primitive races of Tartary stood there face to face. After the death of the Alem Kul in the battle, his wife set herself at the head of the horde. The war was continued; but at last a peace was made with the emir. The khanat, from which the conqueror had sent all the cannon, and immense stores of arms and treasures, to Bokhara, was divided into two parts. Khokand fell to the share of Shahmurad, the darling of the Kiptchaks, Khodjend to Khudayar Khan. Mozaffar-ed-din returned to his capital. I met him on his way thither on August 15, 1863.

Since this time, yet so recent, Khokand has probably experienced several other changes. Similar dissensions formerly occurred between Kashgar, Khoten, and Yarkend; and as those continued until all their territory was incorporated by China, so is it here probable that Russian occupation will soon put an end to these miserable civil wars.

CHAPTER XX.

CHINESE TARTARY.

APPROACH FROM THE WEST.-ADMINISTRATION.-INHABITANTS.-CITIES.

THE traveler who journeys on during twelve days in an easterly direction from Oosh will reach the Chinese territory at the point where stands the city of Kashgar. The way thither leads him over a mountainous country, where the Kiptchaks are wandering about with their herds. No villages, it is said, ever existed in this district, except in the time of Djenghis Khan, and then only here and there. At the present day it is not possible to trace even their ruins. Places blackened by fire and heaps of stones indicate the spots used by travelers and caravans for their stations. Although the Kiptchaks are wild and warlike, they do not attack solitary travelers. Large caravans coming from China are bound to pay a moderate tribute; in other respects, no one is disturbed. At the distance of a single day's journey from Kashgar one arrives at a block-house, the first post of the Chinese, occupied by 10 soldiers and an accountant. No one is permitted to proceed unless furnished with a pass drawn up by the aksakal in Namengan, who acts as a sort of paid agent for the Chinese. After the traveler has exhibited his pass, he is interrogated in detail respecting every thing that he has seen and heard in

СНАР. ХХ.

CHINESE TARTARY.

449

foreign parts. The accountant makes two copies of the report; one is given to the nearest post, to be compared with the answer to a similar interrogation there: this document is forwarded to the governor whom it concerns. According to the statements of Hadji Bilal and my other friends, in Chinese Tartary it is most advisable, on such occasions, to employ the formula "Belmey-men" (I know not).* It is not the practice to force a man to reply in detail, and, indeed, no one has power to compel him to do so, and the accountant himself prefers the shorter answer, which lightens the functions he has to perform.

Under the name of Chinese Tartary we generally understand that angular point of the Chinese Empire that stretches away to its west toward the central plateau of Asia, and which is bounded on the north by the great hordes of Kirghis, and in the south by Bedakhshan, Cashmere, and Thibet. The country from Ili to Kohne Turfan is said to have been subject to the sovereignty of China for several centuries; but it is only 150 years since Kashgar, Yarkend, Aksu, and Khoten have been incorporated. These cities had been continually at war with one another, until several of the leading personages, with the Yarkend chief, Ibrahim Bey, at their head, desirous to put an end to * The Chinese have besides a proverb quite in accordance with this rule, for they say,

"Bedjidu yikha le

Djidu shi kha-le."

"I know not, is one word; I know, is ten words;" that is to say, "Saying "I know not,' you have said every thing; but saying 'I know,' your interrogator will put more questions, and you will have necessarily more to say."

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