Tashkent

“ No objection was made to a journey to Tashkent; Mr. MacGahan and Mr. Schuyler therefore hurried their preparations, stowed their baggage in a waggon, and themselves in a tarantass, and shaking the dust off their feet at inhospitable and suspicious Kasala, took their course along the banks of the Syr-Daria.
This, the ancient Jaxartes, is one of the most eccentric of rivers. It is continually changing its bed, like a restless traveller ”

“ The climate of Tashkent is too unhealthy to be endured in the hot weather. In summer the garrison moves to Chigman, a defile 671 sagenes above sea-level, situated 80 or 90 versts beyond the town on the river Chirchik, where there is a sanatorium for the troops. The families of the officers usually pass the season at the village of Troitzki, 25 versts from Tashkent. Five versts from the city is Nikolski, the first Russian settlement founded in the Syr Daria province. ”

“ The houses are low and made of sun-dried bricks, looking more ruinous than the other cities we visited. Tashkent, it seems, is subject to earthquakes, which probably accounts for its dishevelled appearance, and it is difficult to believe that the population inhabiting it is both large and growing. According to the latest census the inhabitants number over 100,000, so evidently its decadent look is entirely misleading.
We first visited the old tombs of Sheikh Zenedjin-baba and Zenghiata, saints who flourished some centuries ago, and whose tombs are visited by thousands of pilgrims every year. ”

“ For the rest of the time they are like lambs. They are uninterested in everything except small deals in the wares they make or sell. Their wives have rings in their nostrils for adornment—so I observed when the sun shone brightly on their black veils. A strange sight the electric tram which goes from the old town to the new and back again—crowded with men in white turbans and long robes and with Eastern women in their veils.
The foundation of the society of new Tashkent is laid by the regiments quartered there, and the fine shops exist chiefly for the custom of officers and their wives. ”

“ There are no hotels. In early days in the conquest of Turkestan, when the Kazalinsk road served as the only line of communication with European Russia, the town became a busy mart for Orenburg, Tashkent, Khiva and Bokhara; even now the Kirghiz in the district possess 770,000 head of cattle. Trade was obliterated by the advent of the Central Asian railway; but it is hoped that now the Orenburg-Tashkent line has been opened to traffic it may revive. ”

“ Travellers going any distance by carriage continue day and night without stopping longer than for meals and to change horses, but it must require an iron constitution to do this. Nearly every one at Tashkent seemed to ride or drive; in fact we learnt that it was considered quite infra dig to go on foot anywhere in Turkestan.
The town boasts two good new hotels; a fine public library, especially rich in works on Central Asia; an observatory; a museum; two large public schools; an experimental agricultural station and school ”

“ The Russians, under General Kaufmann, took Tashkent about fifty years ago, and have laid out the new town with broad roads planted with fine trees that are watered by irrigation. There are churches, public parks, tram-lines and imposing-looking shops, the considerable Russian population appearing to mix freely with the Sarts, as the inhabitants are termed by the dominant race. In India a white woman of whatever class has a position with the natives, but here the ordinary Russian woman is seemingly on an equality with them, and not infrequently marries [Pg 19] them. ”

“ A Grand Duke, who was banished for giving a Crown jewel to a favourite lady, lives here in exile, but he is an aged man now and receives few guests. High official personages constantly visit the colony, and consequently stay at Tashkent. The whole atmosphere is military, and there is an unusual smartness everywhere. Especially do you notice how well dressed the women are at the theatres and in the gardens, and the men accompanying them nearly all wear the sword. The middle-class Russian is out of sight, and the peasant labourer is rare, owing to the fact that the Sarts work at 9d. ”

“ In 1864, having reached the rank of major-general, he made his famous march with 1000 men across the steppes of Turkestan to Chimkent in Khokand, to meet another Russian column from Semipalatinsk, in Siberia, in conjunction with which he successfully stormed Chimkent, and then unsuccessfully attacked Tashkent, 80 miles farther south. Wintering at Chimkent, he captured Tashkent the following year. ”

“ The length of the course is a heavy strain on the resources of a family, but many of these people, living in mean surroundings and with no outward pomp, are possessors of considerable wealth. In Tashkent the Government is offering free education for boys in the Russian schools, in order to attract the Sarts to send their sons to them, and the lessons are given both in Russian and in Sart, half and half. ”

“ Chernaieff advanced from Tashkent with 14 companies of infantry, 6 squadrons of Cossacks, and 16 guns as far as Jizāk, a fortress barely 60 miles from Samarkand. But the population was hostile, supplies failed, and he was obliged to retreat on his capital. Retrograde movements in the face of Asiatic forces are always pregnant with disaster. General Chernaieff’s was interpreted by the Bokhārans as a confession of weakness. Crowds flocked to the Amīr’s standard, and he moved on Tashkent with 40,000 men. ”

“ Piskent, Pskent, or Bis-kent, as it is sometimes spelt, is still a flourishing little community, fifty miles south of Tashkent, on the road to Khodjent. Its inhabitants are a thrifty, good-tempered set of people, who take great pride in the fact that the great Athalik Ghazi, the supporter of Islam, and the reputed terror of the [Pg 78] Russians, was one of themselves. In this little settlement there are many Tajiks, and this, doubtless, with other reasons, induced Mahomed Latif, a Tajik himself, to take up his abode there. ”

“ General Kurapatkine, while governor of Transcaspia, had detailed surveys made for a line between Merv and Orenburg. A strong faction advocates one which would commence at Tashkent and run by way of Chimkent, Turkestān, Turgai, Nicholaievsk, and Troitzk to Chelyabinsk, the starting-point of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Another party urges the superior advantages of a route viâ Turkestān, Albasar, Kokchetav, and Petropavlovsk to Ishim. ”

“ Prince Khilkoff, the Director of Ways and Communications, favours a railway starting from Tashkent, and traversing Verni, Semipalatinsk, and Barnaul, to end at Tomsk. The country which would thus be opened up presents no serious obstacles to the engineer. It has great fertility, and abounds in coal and other forms of mineral wealth. ”

“ The friendship of English and Russians in Central Asia must mean a larger, stronger life for both Empires. And the development of Asia can mean much to the home Russians; they, as we, are inclined to take their own land and their capital cities as the only places of interest in the world. Already, reading some of the Moscow and Petersburg newspapers, you may alter Kipling’s phrase and ask: “What do they know of Russia who only Moscow know?”
Tashkent is the capital of Russian Central Asia, and is a well-built city extending over an enormous area. ”

“ The cost of construction, estimated at 70,000 roubles [4] per verst, has been materially lessened by these means—a reduction of 24 versts equally divided between the Orenburg and Kazalinsk, Kazalinsk and Tashkent sections having been effected. By comparison with the old post-road the railway is much the shorter of the two lines of communication, the advantage in its favour amounting to 134 versts on one section of the road alone; the actual length between Tashkent and Kazalinsk being by post-road 9531⁄4 versts and by railway 8191⁄4. ”

“ Traveling is very cheap here; from Tashkent to Kinel, a distance of 1314 miles, the tickets are approximately first class, £4, 5s. 0d., second class, £2, 10s. 3d., third class, £1, 9s. 0d., fourth class, 14s., but then the train goes like a snail, and stops perpetually. ”

“ If a criminal, being a Russian subject, takes refuge on Bokharan territory, he shall be arrested by the Bokharan authorities and delivered over to the nearest Russian authorities.
(15) In order to maintain direct and uninterrupted relations with the supreme Russian authorities in Central Asia, the Amir of Bokhara shall appoint one of his intimate counsellors to be his resident envoy and plenipotentiary at Tashkent. Such envoy shall reside at Tashkent in a house belonging to the Amir and at the expense of the latter. ”

“ Samarcand and Bukhara
Russian Central Asia has ten million inhabitants and an area twelve times as large as the British Isles. The part which is called Turkestan extends between Eastern Turkestan and the Caspian Sea, the Kirghiz Steppe, Afghanistan, and Persia. The greater part is occupied by blown sand, the "Red Sand" and the "Black Sand." Right through the desert flow the two rivers, the Syr-darya and Amu-darya. Two railway lines cross Turkestan, one from the Kirghiz Steppe to Tashkent, the other from the Caspian Sea to Tashkent and Ferghana. ”

“ The letter was a [Pg 191] very dignified piece of writing, such as one European sovereign would have sent to another in the Middle Ages. "He did not deny," he said, "either the power or the resources of Russia, but as a brave man he placed his trust in God, and he would never shirk the contest, because all he aspired to was to die for his faith." This letter produced a great impression at Tashkent, and it was resolved to send an ambassador to Kashgar. ”

“ Often it was difficult to imagine where the few people visible at the stations had sprung from, especially to the south of Orenburg. This is one of the only two important places between Kinel and Tashkent, and is the principal town of the province of the same name. There are four mission stations in the Orenburg diocese, and twenty-seven Mohammedans were [172] baptized last year. To the south of Orenburg the land becomes more and more desolate-looking, and the vegetation is so sparse that one can hardly believe it is possible for anything to subsist upon it. ”

“ Though General Chernaieff had made himself master of Tashkent, and had Kokand at his mercy, he received a haughty summons to evacuate his conquests, accompanied by a threat of a Holy War.519 His reply was couched in language equally peremptory, and a struggle began which closed in the deep humiliation of the proud Amīr.
It remains for us to trace the origin of a Power which was destined to play a part of the first importance in the history of Central Asia, and to repeat the conquests of Chingiz and Tīmūr. ”

“ From thence the writer returned to Tashkent, then diverged to Aulié-Ata, on the rapid river Talas, which town was taken by storm by General Kaufmann in June 1864, that being the commencement of the campaign of that year, and which resulted in the Russian conquest of nearly the whole of Central Asia.
The subsequent journey through Kuldja was one of painful interest, as in many parts it led through scenes of ruin and devastation, caused by the late insurrection. On every side were dried-up canals, unfilled fields, burned forests, and dismantled and ruined cities. ”

“ Not only did he then annex Kashgar and Khoten, but he crossed the Pamir into the province of Ferghana, and in a short period brought Bokhara, Samarcand, and Tashkent under his dominion. This extensive empire was of very brief duration however, and civil war was waged for more than half a century after the first successes of Gorkhan, in which Khiva, or Khwaresm, and the Kara Khitay fought for supremacy. A chief of the Naiman tribe of Christians, Koshluk by name, then entered the lists against the aged Gorkhan, who was, after some hard fighting, defeated and captured. ”

“ The Atalik’s defence of Ak Masjid and his action before Tashkent have already been mentioned and were not forgotten by the Russians, who in 1866 dismembered Khokand and defeated Bokhara. The establishment of his power at Kashgar caused the Russians much anxiety, [Pg 283] and their frontier officials were at first instructed not to recognize Yakub Beg, but, at the same time, to be conciliatory, in the illusive hope that this line of action would induce the Atalik to make overtures. ”

“ The Russians themselves had suffered some loss, and either awed by the bold demeanour of their old antagonist, or, as is more probable, encountering some difficulty in bringing up supplies, and being unprovided with a siege train, thought the more prudent policy would be to retire to Tchimkent until reinforcements and other necessaries should arrive. Alim Kuli, in the course of a few days after this reverse, arrived at Tashkent in person with a large body of troops, and employed all his energies in strengthening the defences before the return of the Russians. ”

“ The Russians in Tashkent have never ceased to hope and to believe that they could advance upon India through Balkh and from the Pamir ; and they have indulged in those hopes and beliefs chiefly for the reason that if they are not founded on fact they must give up all claim to the foremost part in any proposed invasion of Hin- dostan. Given the requisite number of troops, and the due amount of roubles, and Russia can always advance against India from Khorasan and the Atrek ”

“ Socially Samarcand is an exceedingly dull place. The Governor, General Yafimovitch, formerly an officer in the Chevalier Gardes of St. Petersburg, is a hipped and discontented valetudinarian, with a young wife, who does little or nothing in the interests of society; whilst his second in command, Colonel Poukoloff, is a heavy, middle-aged officer, who served under General Kaufmann at the capture of Tashkent, in 1865, and has been vegetating and rusting at Samarcand since 1869. ”