Khoja

“ Ushun Khoja rejoiced at hearing this. Drums rumbled. Golden and bronze trumpets were blown. Large colorful tents were erected. Stallions, male camels and rams were slaughtered. Khoja Bey went out to meet his sons. ”

“ Kashgar fell into his possession by a coup de main, and once more a Khoja prince was seated in the orda at Kashgar. Artosh and Yangy Hissar fell into his possession, and he threatened Yarkand. But everywhere the Chinese garrisons remained unconquered in the forts, biding the exhaustion of their foe and the arrival of reinforcements. After a rule of nearly four months the armies of Wali Khan having been then defeated by the Chinese, the Khoja fled to the remote state of Darwas, where he was surrendered to Khokand by its chief Ismail Shah. ”

“ What will you do with slippers up in the mulberry-tree?"
"O my children!" said the Khoja dryly, "it is good to be provided against everything. I may come upon a road further up."
Tale 4.—The Khoja and the Three Wise Men.
In the days of Effendi Nasr-ed-Deen Khoja there appeared in the world three Sages, who excelled in every science and in all wisdom.
Now it came to pass that in their journeys these wise men passed through the country of the Sultan Ala-ed-Deen, who desired to see them, and to make them partake of his hospitality. ”

“ He has carried off my soap."
"O wife!" replied the Khoja, "let him alone. He wants it more than we do, poor fellow! Our clothes are not half so black as what he has got on."
Tale 10.—The Khoja and the Wolves.
"Wife!" said the Khoja one day, "how do you know when a man is dead?"
"When his hands and feet have become cold, Khoja," replied the good woman, "I know that it is all over then. The man is dead." ”

“ Perceiving this, the Khoja dismounted, and got up again with his face to the donkey's tail.
"O Khoja!" cried the Mullas, "why do you ride backwards?"
"It is the only way in which we can show each other proper civility," replied the Khoja; "for when I ride in the usual fashion, if you walk behind me I turn my back on you, and if you walk before me you turn your backs on me."
Tale 38.—The Students and the Khoja's Wife.
Khoja Nasr-ed-Deen Effendi met a party of students who were walking together. ”

“ Once upon a time the Khoja was travelling in company with a caravan, when they halted for the night at a certain place, and all the horses were tied up together.
Next morning the Khoja could not for the life of him remember which was his own horse, and he was much afraid of being cheated if he confessed this to the rest.
So, as they were all coming out, he seized his bow and arrow, and aimed among the horses at random.
"Don't shoot!" cried the men; "what is the matter?"
"I am desperate," replied the Khoja; "I am determined to kill somebody's horse, so let every one look to his own." ”

“ Now Khoja Nasr-ed-Deen Effendi had a lamb which he brought up and fattened with much care.
Some of his friends were very desirous to get hold of this lamb and make a feast of it. So they came to the Khoja and begged him earnestly to give up the lamb for a feast, but the Khoja would not consent.
At last one day came one of them and said, "O Khoja! to-morrow is the end of the world. What will you do with this lamb on the last day? We may as well eat it this evening." ”

“ Surrounding himself with fanatical Khokandis, he ill-treated and oppressed the [Pg 274] population, enforcing five daily attendances at the mosques, by means of cruel punishments, and forbidding the time-honoured custom of plaiting the hair; he also barbarously murdered the German traveller Adolph Schlagintweit. Thanks to his unpopularity the Chinese army which attacked the usurper met with no resistance, and the Khoja fled back to Andijan, followed, it is said, by some fifteen thousand families. ”

“ In the Turkish collection of jests ascribed to Khoja Nasrú ’d-Dín Efendi26 is the following, which has been [pg 66] reproduced amongst ourselves within comparatively recent years, and credited to an Irish priest:
One day the Khoja went into the pulpit of a mosque to preach to the people. “O men!” said he, “do you know what I should say unto you?” They answered: “We know not, Efendi.” “When you do know,” said the Khoja, “I shall take the trouble of addressing you.” ”

“ Sarimsak, the only member of the Khoja family surviving the massacre by the Chinese, had fled, as a child, into the impenetrable recesses of Wakhan. From thence, in later years, he had gone to settle in Khokand, where he married. This prince had three sons—Yusuf, Bahanuddin, and Jehangir, the youngest and best known. In 1816, the first outbreak against [Pg 65] Chinese authority occurred, when a small rising took place in Tash Balik, a town to the west of Kashgar. ”

“ With the fall of each pretender, too, hopes of an improvement became fainter in the breasts of the people; and when the successors of the Khoja saint showed themselves [Pg 39] not less amenable to the errors and frailties of their predecessors than any past ruler had been, it was to some extraneous circumstance, we may feel sure, that the people looked for aid. There is an old saying in this part of the world, that when "the people's tithe of bricks is full, then comes a Moses in the land;" ”

“ The Khoja was sent to Pekin, where, after many indignities, he was executed and quartered as a traitor. The Chinese punished all open rebels with death, and as a precaution against the recurrence of rebellion they removed 12,000 Mohammedan families from Kashgar to Ili, where they became known as the Tarantchis, or toilers. They also took the very wise step of prohibiting all intercourse with Khokand, and if they had adhered to this resolution they would have saved themselves much serious trouble. ”

“ The Dulanis, whom we met in the Merket Oasis below Yarkand, are another tribe of importance in the province. Their origin is called in question, but they are akin to the Kirghiz, although they differ in appearance owing to their sedentary life in a forest-covered country. Their name is said to have been given them by a Khoja monarch, who termed them his dulan or “two shoulders.” They live in miserable shanties made of wood and are poor cultivators, relying more on their flocks than on the produce of their land. ”

“ Badakshan, with its dependent district of Wakhan, from the Sarikal (Wood’s Lake) on the east, to the junction of the Kokcha river with the Oxus (or Penjah) , forming the northern boundary of this Afghan province throughout its entire extent.
“ (2) Afghan Turkestan, comprising the districts of Kunduz, Khulm, and Balkh, the northern boundary of which would be the line of the Oxus from the junction of the Kokcha river to the post of the Khoja Saleh, inclusive, on the high road from Bokhara to Balkh. Nothing to be claimed by the Afghan Amir on the left bank of the Oxus below Khoja Saleh. ”

“ The whole country between this and Khojak, though entirely devoid of timber, and even brushwood, in the spring and autumn months is covered with a rich pasture, and supports vast flocks of goats and sheep. During the summer and winter months the country is almost entirely deserted, owing to the excessive heat of the one season, and rigorous cold of the other, as well as the scarcity of pasture. I was told by a merchant engaged in the trade, that the average export of wool from Kandahar to Karáchí for the past ten years has been about five thousand candies (kaodí) annually. ”

“ Tale 49.—Hare-soup.
One day there came a man from the village who made the Khoja a present of a hare.
The Khoja brought him in, treating him with all honour and hospitality, and gave him some rich and excellent soup.
In a week's time the man called again; but the Khoja had forgotten him, and said, "Who are you?"
"I am the man who brought the hare," he replied. The Khoja entertained him as before, though the soup was not quite so rich.
After a few days came some men who desired to be guests to the Khoja.
"Who are you?" said he.
"We are neighbours of the man who brought the hare," said they. ”

“ Woe to the Christian dog who presumed to shirk getting off his horse and standing at the salute when the Seyyid rode by; it was an unmerited favour that he should be allowed to ride a horse at all!
Of course, there are gibes against the clan in plenty: for the more grossly superstitious a man is, the more impossible he finds it to keep his tongue off the Church which nevertheless he dares not disobey. When all else is bound, it is hard if speech is not free!
Thus we are told how Khoja Nazr-ed-din was sent out by his wife one day to buy egg-plants for dinner. ”

“ Under the name of Khojas the sect multiplied considerably in Sind, Kach’h, and Guzerat, whence they spread to Bombay and to Zanzibar. Their numbers in Western India are now probably not less than 50,000 to 60,000. Their doctrine, or at least the books which they revere, appear to embrace a strange jumble of Hindu notions with Mahomedan practices and Shiah mysticism, but the main characteristic endures of deep reverence, if not worship, of the person of their hereditary Imám. ”

“ Add half a dozen pale-skinned ‘Khojahs,’ tricky-faced men with evil eyes, treacherous smiles, fit for the descendants of the ‘Assassins,’ straight, silky beards, forked after the fashion of ancient Rustam, and armed with Chinese umbrellas. ”

“ Our Afghan escort, I observed, spread their thick felts on the snow, and went to sleep rolled up in their fur cloaks.
The hill above Churza is called Puras, and it is crossed by three paths, all very steep, and difficult at the best of times, but particularly so now. To the west, at a short distance, is a very narrow gully, down which flows a tiny little stream. This is the usual pass, but it was now blocked with drifted snow. A party of Achakzai were consequently sent off to clear a way through it for us, and next day we crossed the Khojak by it. ”

“ Bordering the west of our camp is a great sheet of water, crowded with vast numbers of water-fowl of all sorts. It is formed by the overflow of a great canal that branches off from the Kohak Rúd, or Mádariáb (which we crossed at Kimak) , and passing Banjár, goes on to Jalálabad, and irrigates the country north of the Atashgáh ridge near Kimak.
Due west of our camp, standing out very distinctly on the plain, at twenty miles off, is the Koh Khojah. It is an isolated black block with a flattened summit. ”

“ They created in East Turkestan the power of the khojas, who afterwards fomented the many intestine wars waged between the rival factions of the White and the Black Mountaineers. In the 17th century a powerful Kalmuck confederation arose in Dzungaria, and extended its sway over the Hi and Issyk-kul basins, having its capital on the Hi. To this power or to the Kirghiz the "Whites " and "Blacks" alternately appealed in their struggles, in which Yarkand supported the latter and Kashgar the former. ”

“ To the northward the valley is bounded by the Khwájah Amrán range, which runs north-east towards the Sufed Koh, which it joins to the eastward of Ghazni. Its several spurs to the southward have different names, [110] which are, from west to east, as pointed out to us, Khojah, Arnbí, Toba, and Surkháb. To the north of the Toba spur is the Sehna Dág or flat of the Sehn section of Kákarrs. ”

“ So they filled two saddlebags, and mounted their mares, and came to Choti town, inquiring as they went along. There they made themselves out to be merchants, and alighted at an old woman's house, and unloaded their baggage, and went into the town in the guise of Khojas. [5] They got some silk and women's goods, and began selling them in the town; and, seeking as they went, they arrived at last at the Chūrīgars' ward, and there made this proclamation: "We deal in silk, and in beads, and in thread; who'll buy?" ”

“ After the “rebellion of the seven khojas” in 1847 nearly 20,000 families from Kashgar, Yarkand and Ak-su fled to West Turkestan through the Terek-davan pass, many of them perishing on the way. In 1857 another insurrection broke out; but a few months later the Chinese again took Kashgar. In the course of the Dzungarian outbreak of 1864 the Chinese were again expelled; and Yakub Beg became master of Kashgar in 1872. But five years later he had again to sustain war with China, in which he was defeated, and East Turkestan once more became a Chinese province. ”

“ The continuation south-west from Toba, is the Khwájah Amrán, which ends at Shorawak, where is the shrine whence the range takes its name. Over it are the Khojak, Rogháni, and Ghwája passes. The two first are kotals or “hill passes,” and are very difficult; the last is a darra or “defile,” and is easily traversed by laden camels; it is the road usually taken by caravans. To the west of Khwájah Amrán is the plain of Shorawak, held by the Bárech tribe. It is continuous with the Kandahar plain, and both are separated from the desert by a high coast-line of sand-cliffs. ”

“ Here the Tungani, having somewhat recovered from their trepidation, made a desperate stand, and with the reinforcements that had arrived from Turfan presented a sufficiently formidable appearance. The ruling authorities in Kucha were Khojas, who in the time of the Chinese had the custody of a shrine sacred to the memory of a Mahomedan saint, but who at the outbreak of disturbances left the temple for the council chamber, and the offering up of prayers to the memory of the saint for the more difficult task of issuing edicts for the management of a people. ”

“ With the work amongst the Khojahs and his other followers devolving upon him at so early an age his studies are, of course, liable to be interrupted, and it is hardly possible for him to devote himself to his books—Oriental and English—as much as he would wish to do. He is not yet married, nor does he seem inclined to marry early. ”