Transoxiana

“ The Turkomans were so completely routed that most of them perished on the field; all the wounds that had been effected by the swords at Karshī were now sewn up by the arrow-stitches of vengeance. They sent Mīr Najm and all the Turkoman Amīrs to hell; and the emperor retired, broken and crestfallen, to Hisār.” Bāber now determined on relinquishing his designs on Transoxiana, and, returning to Kābul, he prepared for an easier conquest—that of Hindustān. ”

“ The domination of the Kara-Khitāys in Transoxiana does not appear to have affected the condition of the dwellers in towns, the peaceful Tājiks, who were even allowed to appoint their own tax-collectors and other officials.323 The only classes who suffered at the hands of the invaders were the Ghuz Turks, who were nomads like the Kara-Khitāys themselves, and occupied all the best pasture-grounds. They now found themselves forced to seek fresh fields. ”

“ The importance of Bokhara does not arise from the extent of its territories, but the position in which they stand. The fame which it enjoys as a kingdom is to be traced to the days of the Chaghtyes. It then included all Mawur ool Nuhr, or the country between the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes, extended to Kharasm and the Caspian, and far into Khorasan. That age of splendour has long since passed; but the favourable site of the capital still invests it with a great influence among the natives of Transoxiana. ”

“ The fate of the Turks of Transoxiana was shared by their brethren in Asia and Europe, and new Mongol-Turkish empires arose, of which an outline has been given under MONGOLS. As the Mongol rule grew weaker, there arose in Persia and on the frontiers of Asia Minor the Turkman dynasties of the Ak Koyun-lu, the Kara Koyun-lu, the Zu 1-kadria, and the Ramazan Oglu, whose history is closely connected either with that of the rise of the Ottoman power (see below) or with the history of PERSIA (see vol. xviii. p. 632 s j.) ”

“ But their result is not open to question; for about the year 560 we find the territories of the White Huns divided between the allies. The Turks then became masters of Transoxiana, while the Persians took possession of Balkh and Tokhāristān. The Oxus served as the boundary between their respective spheres of influence.70 Then Bactria, which had been a perpetual31 thorn in Persia’s side, became one of its provinces, and the fate of Pīrūz was fully avenged. Anūshirawān set a seal to his friendship with the Turks by espousing their chief’s daughter ”

“ Turkish adventurers founded the dynasty of Ghaznevids at Ghazni, and there was a Uighur kingdom in the east comprising Kashgar and Khotan. Boghra Khan, the ruler of this kingdom, was converted to Islam at the end of the 10th century, and it continued under various branches of Uighurs until 1120. An interesting memorial of this period is the book Kudatku Bilik (see below) . More important politically is the rise of the Seljuks. They were the princely family of the Kabaks, who were a section of the group of tribes called Ghuzz (Oghuz, Οὔζοι) , and are heard of in Transoxiana about 985. ”

“ In A.H. 398 (1007) they attempted to establish themselves south of the Oxus, but were driven back by Mahmūd of Ghazna, and henceforward their territory was restricted to Transoxiana, Kāshghar, and Eastern Tartary.255
About the beginning of the tenth century a prince of the hereditary house of the Khāns of Kāshghar, named Satuk Boghrā Khān,256 became the first convert in that country to Islām, which he proceeded to force upon his subjects at the point of the sword, in the face of a determined and protracted opposition which prevented its spread beyond the limits of his own territory. ”

“ On the conquest of Transoxiana by Abū-l-Khayr and Shaybānī, both Khānates were simultaneously occupied by the invaders. Subsequently, when Shāh Isma`īl drove Shaybānī out of Khwārazm, he placed a Persian governor in charge of the province, but the Sunni people detested the Shi`ite Shāh, and expelled him in 921.452 During the Khākānship of Kuchunji the Uzbegs193 founded an independent principality in Khwārazm;453 Ilbars, son of a chief named Bereghe, being the first Khān of the new line. ”

“ Tokhtamish Khān, 171, 183 note, 235. Transcaspia—boundaries and physical features, 321; productions and industries, 322; administration, 325; taxation, 336; transport, 337; irrigation methods, 331–34; education, 335; drunkenness, 329; statistics of crime, 327–28; epidemics, 330; Turkomans (see that title) . Transoxiana—Yué-Chi powerful in, 17;443 Ephthalites in, 21; tribes defeated by Bahrām Gūr, 24; Turks masters of, 30; suggested conquest by Anūshirawān, 30 note; Kutayba’s expeditions to, 47–55; Turks driven out, 75; revolt of Nīzek, 56 ”

“ From the period of the Samanides down to modern times, the districts of Talkan, Tokharistan and Zem, although lying partly or entirely on the left bank of the Oxus, have been looked on as integral portions of Bokhara. Our historical researches seem to prove that this arrangement dates from the Samanides, who were themselves originally natives of that part of Khorassan. ... It is almost impossible in dealing geographically with Transoxania to assign definitely an accurate frontier. We can and will therefore comprehend in our definition of Transoxania solely Bokhara, or the khanate of Bokhara ”

“ It will be easily imagined that this conversation on the Russian enterprise is not very pleasing to Sir Francis Trevellyan. Although he says not a word and does not lift his eyes from the plate, his long face flushes a little.
“Well, gentlemen,” said I, “what we see is nothing to what our nephews will see. We are traveling to-day on the Grand Transasiatic. But what will it be when the Grand Transasiatic is in connection with the Grand Transafrican.”
“And how is Asia to be united by railway with Africa?” asked Major Noltitz. ”

“ Turkestan means 'The land of the Turks.' On the maps it is generally divided into Eastern and Western Turkestan, the former lying partly in the Chinese Empire, and the latter covering the vast plain of the Caspian and Aral seas. The population is variously estimated at from eight to twelve millions. Russia has absorbed nearly all of Western Turkestan, and the Russian officials think they have at least eight millions of people in their new possessions. ”

“ Much of the region traversed by the Oxus is a desert, and the only agriculture possible there is by irrigation. In order to increase the area under cultivation, the Turcomans built dams that turned the Oxus in the direction of a vast plain which contains the Aral Sea. Since the occupation of the country by the Russians, it has been proposed to return the Oxus to its ancient bed, and bring it down to the Caspian. ”

“ The nomads, who constitute the vast bulk of the population, have not yet taken kindly to commerce. The people of Merv, indeed, accompany the caravans which still ply between the oasis, Persia, and Khiva, but 3 per cent. only of the merchants and shopkeepers of Transcaspia are Turkomans.658
GENERAL KURAPATKINE
Until 1890 Transcaspia was a province of the Caucasus, but in that year it was constituted a government, and intrusted to the care of General Alexis Kurapatkine.
No living soldier has had a more brilliant career. ”

“ Truxton left a message to be sent to Dangloss in case he could get the wire, and off they started again for the city gates, having lost considerable time by the diverted mile or two.
Not man, woman or child did they encounter as the miles crept by. The country was barren of humanity. Ahead of them was the ascent to be conquered by oxen so old and feeble that the prospect was more than dubious. ”

“ Across the desert a train of the Transcaspian railway was gliding smoothly along toward the city.
MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND. A hearty welcome back to civilized life was given us the next evening by General Kuropatkine himself, the Governor-General of Transcaspia. During the course of a dinner with him and his friends, he kindly assured us that no further recommendation was needed than the fact that we were American citizens to entitle us to travel from one end of the Russian empire to the other. ”

“ In 1417 Itzcoatl succeeded to power in Tenochtitlan; the Aztec had by this time increased considerably in numbers and prosperity, and the new ruler proved himself a man of action and an excellent general. He definitely espoused the cause of the exile, with the result that the latter, aided by the people of Tlaxcala and Uexotzinco, succeeded in recapturing Tezcoco and killing every Tepanec in the city. At the same time Coatlichan was stormed by the Chalca, who had also offered assistance to Nezahualcoyotl. ”

“ Paintings retracing the deluge of Coxcox have been discovered among the Aztecs, Miztecs, Zapotecs, Tlascaltecs, and Mechoacaneses. The tradition of the latter is still more strikingly in conformity with the story as we have it in Genesis, and in Chaldean sources. It tells how Tezpi embarked in a spacious vessel with his wife, his children, and several animals, and grain, whose preservation was essential to the subsistence of the human race. When the great god Tezcatlipoca decreed that the waters should retire, Tezpi sent a vulture from the bark. ”

“ TREBIZOND, in Greek Trapezeus, a city of Asia Minor, situated on the Black Sea, near its south-eastern angle, from the time of its foundation as a Greek colony to the present day has always been a considerable emporium of commerce, and at one time was for two centuries and a half the capital of an empire. Its importance is due to its geographical position, because it commands the point where the chief and most direct trade route from Persia and Central Asia to Europe, over the tableland of Armenia by Bayazid and Erzeroum, descends to the sea. ”

“ Transcaspia is the official name given to the territory east of the Caspian which was annexed by Russia in 1881 shortly after the accession of Alexander III. The country was inhabited by the Turcomans—a branch of the Turkish race—who have been identified with the old Parthians. They were a brave but wild and lawless people, bands of whom would frequently sweep down upon a peaceful village, kill the men, and carry off the women and children to be sold as slaves in Bokhara and Khiva. ”

“ The Tschutski, it is well known, inhabit the North Eastern part of Siberia; their country is a small tract of land, bounded on the North by the Frozen Sea, on the East by the Eastern Ocean; on the South it borders upon river Anadyr, and on that of Kovyma to the West. The N. E. cape of this country is called Tschukotskoi-Noss, or the promontory of the Tschutski. Its inhabitants are the only people of Siberia who have not yet been subdued by the Russians.
The anonymous author agrees with Mr. Muller in supposing, that America advances to within a small distance of the coast of the Tschutski ”

“ Map of Lake Tezcoco. they marched forward with a buoyant step, as they felt they were treading the soil of Montezuma. They had not advanced far, when, turning an angle of the sierra, they suddenly came on a view which more than compensated the toils of the preceding day. It was that of the Valley of Mexico, or Tenochtitlan, as more commonly called by the natives; which, with its picturesque assemblage of water, woodland, and cultivated plains, its shining cities and shadowy hills, was spread out like some gay and gorgeous panorama before them. ”

“ O foolish men, do you think that you shall be spared when by your aid Tenoctitlan is a ruin and the Aztecs are no more a people? I say to you never. The sticks that the Teules use to beat out the life of Tenoctitlan shall by them be broken one by one and cast into the fire to burn. If the Aztecs fall, then early or late every tribe within this wide land shall fall. They shall be slain, their cities shall be stamped flat, their wealth shall be wrung from them, and their children shall eat the bread of slavery and drink the water of affliction. Choose, ye people of the Otomie. ”

“ The Greenland animal is a distinct race (O. m. wardi) , distinguished by white hair on the forehand; and it is suggested that the one from Grinnell Land forms a third race. As proved by the discovery of fossil remains, musk-oxen ranged during the Pleistocene period over northern Siberia and the plains of Germany and France, their bones occurring in river-deposits along with those of the reindeer, mammoth, and woolly rhinoceros. ”

“ In the first place, where is Turkestan? It is a tract of country in Asia, lying on the east of the Caspian Sea, and having Persia and Afghanistan on the south. On the north, is that inland sheet of water known as the Sea of Aral, into which runs the river Oxus or Amu Daria. Near the left bank of this river, which drains Turkestan, is situated Khiva, the capital of the country. We should have heard little of this obscure Asiatic region but for the possibility of the Russians some day pushing their conquests onward through Afghanistan to India. ”

“ In Turkey, Egypt, and Arabia the Moslem woman who leaves her face uncovered commits an act of great impropriety, but this is not the case in Turkestan. Many of the women are quite pretty in their youth, but their good looks do not last long. The men are of good height and figure, and their manners are grave and dignified. The hair and beard are dark, and the complexion may be set down as a light shade of brown."
Frank asked how many tribes and people were included in Turkestan or Central Asia, and how great was the population. ”

“ In the eighth century they crossed the Oxus, drove hordes of Huns back into the depths of Asia, captured the rich cities of Bokhara and Samarkand, and made Mohammedans of all the people all the way to the Indus. So Uzbeks and Turkomans and Kirghiz and Afghans and the others obtained a religion which suited their temperament, and there was comparative peace and trade throughout all Turkestan and Persia for many a long year. ”