Travels in Central Asia Part 20

[Colonel Dolmage]

Half an hour after my arrival, I paid a visit to Colonel Dolmage, who filled many important offices here for the Prince-Governor, and stood in high estimation everywhere. He was still engaged in his official place of business, when his servants summoned him to me; they announced me as a singular Dervish from Bokhara. He hastened home, regarded me fixedly for a long time, and only when I began to speak did he recognise me, and then his warm embrace and tearful eye told me that I had found not only a European, but a friend. The gallant Englishman offered me his house, which I did not reject, and I have to thank his hospitality that I so far recovered from the hardships of my journey as to be able, in spite of the winter, in a month's time to continue my journey to Teheran.

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[Prince Sultan Murad Mirza]

Colonel Dolmage introduced me also, during my stay in Meshed, to the Prince-Governor, Sultan Murad Mirza, the uncle of the reigning Shah.

This prince, the son of that Abba Mirza, whose English predilections are so well known, is surnamed 'the kingdom's naked sword;'

[Footnote 89] and he deserves the t.i.tle, for it is to be ascribed only to his constant watchfulness and energy that Khorasan, under his administration, has not suffered more from the incursions of the Turkomans, and that the roads begin everywhere to a.s.sume an appearance of bustle and animation. I paid him several visits, and was always received with particular kindness and affability. We conversed for hours together respecting Central Asia, upon which subject he is tolerably well informed. His delight was great when I related to him how the bigoted and suspicious Emir of Bokhara, who styles himself, to the disgust of all the Shiites, 'Prince of the true believers,'

[Footnote 90] had suffered himself to be blessed by me.

[Footnote 89: 'Husam es Saltanat.']

[Footnote 90: Emir-ul-Muminim, a t.i.tle ascribed by the Shiites to Ali alone.]

To the praises rightly bestowed upon Sultan Murad Mirza by M. de Khanikoff and Mr. Eastwick, I will only add that in point of energy, sound judgment, and patriotism, there are few who resemble him in Persia, or scarcely even in Turkey; but, alas! it is not a single swallow that makes a summer, and his abilities will never find a worthy field of exertion in Persia.

[Author avows who he is to the Serdar of Herat]

On account of the scantiness of my European wardrobe, I was obliged to continue my turban as well as my Oriental dress, both in Meshed and during the remainder of my journey to Teheran; but, as the {292} reader will very well understand, I had said adieu to all disguise as a Dervish. My acquaintance with the European officer above mentioned had already told my fellow-travellers sufficiently who and what I was.

My character and mission afforded a field to the Afghans for the most varying and extravagant conclusions, and, as it was easy for me to perceive that they would soon inform the young Prince of Herat of the fact, I thought it better at once myself to antic.i.p.ate them, and make, in the customary form, my own communication. In a letter to the young prince, I congratulated him on his perspicacity, and told him that, although not an Englishman, I was next door to one, for that I was a European; that he was an amiable young man, but that I would advise him another time, when any person was obliged by local circ.u.mstances to travel incognito through his country, not to seek publicly and rudely to tear off his mask.

[Shahrud]

After having pa.s.sed Christmas with the hospitable English officer whom I have mentioned, I began, on the day following (December 26), my journey to Teheran without either joining any karavan, or having any companion except my friend the Mollah. We were both mounted on good horses, my own property, as were also other articles that we took with us, consisting of culinary vessels and bedding, and, in fact, every possible travelling convenience; and in spite of my having, in the middle of winter, to perform twenty-four stations, I shall never forget the pleasure that I experienced in the journey that brought me, each step that I advanced, nearer to the West, that I loved so well. I even performed without escort the four stations from Mezinan to Shahrud, where {293} Persians, from fear of the Turkomans, proceed accompanied by pieces of artillery. In the last city I met, in the karavanserai, an Englishman from Birmingham, who was stopping there to purchase wool and cotton. What was the astonishment of the Briton when he heard a man in the dress of a Dervish, with an immense turban on his head, greet him in this distant land with a 'How do you do?' In his amazement his countenance a.s.sumed all hues; thrice he exclaimed, 'Well, I--,' without being able to say more. But a little explanation rid him of his embarra.s.sment; I became his guest, and spent a famous day with him and another European, a well-informed Russian, who acted there as agent for the mercantile house of k.a.w.kaz.

From Shahrud I took ten days to reach the Persian capital. Towards evening on the 19th of January, 1864, I was at a distance of two leagues, and, singular to say, I lost my way at the village Shah Abdul Azim, owing to the obscurity; and when, after searching about a long time in all directions, I at last reached the gate of the city, I found it shut, and I was obliged to pa.s.s the night in a karavanserai at the distance of only a few paces. The next morning I hastened, to avoid being noticed by any one in my droll costume, through the streets of Teheran to the Turkish Emba.s.sy.

[Teheran, and Welcome there by the Turkish Charge d' Affaires, Ismael Efendi; Kind Reception by Mr. Alison and the English Emba.s.sy]

The reader will easily understand in what tone of mind I again entered that edifice which, ten months before, I had left with my head full of such vague and adventurous plans. The intelligence that my benefactor Haydar Efendi had left Teheran affected me very much, although his successor, Ismael Efendi, accredited as _Charge d'affaires_ at the Persian Court, {294} gave me an equally kind and hearty reception.

This young Turkish diplomatist, well known for his particularly fine breeding and excellent character, rendered me by his amiability eternally his debtor. He immediately vacated for me an entire suite of rooms at the Emba.s.sy, so that the comforts I enjoyed during two months in Teheran made me forget all the hardships and sufferings of my most fatiguing journey; indeed, I soon found myself so strong again that I felt capable of commencing a similar tour. No less kindness and favour awaited me at the English Emba.s.sy. The distinguished representative of the Queen, Mr. Alison, [Footnote 91] as well as the two secretaries, Messrs. Thompson and Watson, really rejoiced at the happy and successful termination of my journey; and I have to thank their kind recommendations alone, that on my arrival in England, to publish the narrative of my travels, I met with so much unhoped-for, and I may add, too, so much unmerited support. Nor can I omit here also to offer my acknowledgments for the courtesy shown to me by the Imperial _charge d'affaires_, the Count Rochechouart.

[Footnote 91: This gentleman had, by an act of great generosity, the same winter that I returned to Teheran, caused much sensation in the Persian capital. Such a lesson is the best that can be given to Orientals, and far more meritorious and pregnant of consequence than all the hypocritical morality of which others make a vaunt.]

[Interview with the Shah; The Kavvan ud Dowlet and the Defeat at Merv]

The King having expressed a desire to see me, I was officially presented by Ismael Efendi. The youthful Nasr-ed-din Shah received me in the middle of his garden. On being introduced by the minister for foreign affairs and the chief adjutant, I was much astonished to find the ruler of all the countries of Iran {295} watching our approach with an eye-gla.s.s, attired in a simple dress, half Oriental and half European. [Footnote 92] After the customary salutations, the conversation was directed to the subject of my journey. The King enquired in turn about all his royal brethren in distant places, and when I hinted at their insignificance as political powers, the young Shah could not refrain from a little gasconade, and made an observation aside to his Vizir. 'With fifteen thousand men we could have done with them all.' Of course, he had quite forgotten the exclamation after the catastrophe at Merv: 'Kavvam! Kavvam! redde mihi meas legiones.' [Footnote 93] The subject of Herat was also touched upon. Nasr-ed-din Shah questioned me as to the state in which the city was then. I replied that Herat was a heap of ashes, and that the Herati were praying for the welfare of His Majesty of Persia. The King caught at once the meaning of my words, and, in the hasty manner of speaking usual with {296} him, which reminded me of the fox in the fable, he added, 'I have no taste for such ruined cities.' At the close of my audience, which lasted half an hour, the King expressed his astonishment at the journey I had made, and left me, as a mark of especial favour, the ribbon of the fourth cla.s.s of the Order of the Lion and the Sun, after which I was obliged to write for him a short summary of my travels.

[Footnote 92: The under garments retain for the most part the native cut, the over ones alone follow European fashions--a real picture of our civilisation in the East.]

[Footnote 93: The unfortunate campaign against Merv, really (as I observed) directed against Bokhara, was commanded by an incapable Court favourite, bearing the t.i.tle Kavvam eddowlet ('stability of the kingdom'). The disastrous defeat there suffered by the Persians at the hands of the Tekke is only to be ascribed to this officer's incompetency. He looked upon the Turkomans at Merv with the same contempt with which Varus had contemplated the Cherusci in the woods of the Teutones, but the Persian was too cowardly to face the death of the Roman General. Neither was his sovereign an Augustus. He exclaimed, it is true, 'Redde mihi meas legiones,' but he nevertheless allowed himself to be appeased by a payment of 24,000 ducats; and the base coward, even at the present day, fills a high post in Persia.]

[Return by Trebisond and Constantinople to Pesth]

On the 28th March, the very same day on which, in the previous year, I had commenced my journey through Central Asia, I quitted Teheran on my route to Trebisond by Tabris. As far as the latter city we had the finest spring weather, and it is unnecessary for me to say what my feelings were when I called to mind the corresponding date in the past year. Then each step in advance took me further towards the haunts of savage barbarism, and of unimaginable dangers; now, each step carried me back nearer to civilised lands, and my own beloved country. I was very much touched by the sympathy which, on my way, I received from Europeans, as in Tabris, from my distinguished Swiss friends, Messrs.

Hanhart & Company, and Mr. Abbot, the English Vice-consul; in Trebisond, from the Italian Consul Mr. Bosio, and also from my learned friend, Dr. O. Blau, and particularly from Herr Dragorich, the former the Prussian, the latter the Austrian Consul. All these gentlemen, by their obligingness and friendly reception, bound me to them eternally.

They knew the hardships that attend travelling in the East, and their acknowledgment of them is the sweetest reward that can fall to the lot of the traveller.

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As, after having been in Kurdistan, I was no longer able to distinguish in the countenance of the Osmanli anything Oriental, so now I could see in Stamboul nothing but, as it were, a gorgeous drop curtain to an unreal Eastern existence. I could only indulge myself with a stay of three hours on the sh.o.r.e of the Bosphorus. I was glad, however, still to find time to wait upon the indefatigable savant and diplomat Baron von Prokesh-Osten, whose kind counsels with reference to the compilation of my narrative I have kept constantly before my eyes. Hence I proceeded to Pesth by Kustendje, where I left behind me my brother Dervish [Footnote 94] from Kungrat, who had accompanied me all the way from Samarcand; for the joy of tarrying long in my fatherland was not allowed me, as I was desirous, before the close of the season, of delivering an account of my journey to the Royal Geographical Society of England--an object furthered and obtained for me by the kind recommendations of my friends. I arrived in London on the 9th of June, 1864, where it cost me incredible trouble to accustom myself to so sudden and extreme a change as that from Bokhara to London.

[Footnote 94: It is needless for me to picture to the reader how this poor Khivite, transplanted by me to the capital of Hungary instead of being permitted to proceed to Mecca, was amazed, and how he talked! What most astonished him was the good-nature of the Frenghis, that they had not yet put him to death, a fate which, drawing his conclusions from the corresponding experience amongst his countrymen, he had apprehended.]

Wonderful, indeed, is the effect of habit upon men! Although I had advanced to the maximum of these extremely different forms of existing civilisation, as it were, by steps and by degrees, still everything appeared to me here surprisingly new, as if what I had {298} previously known of Europe had only been a dream, and as if, in fact, I were myself an Asiatic. My wanderings have left powerful impressions upon my mind. Is it surprising, if I stand sometimes bewildered, like a child, in Regent Street or in the saloons of British n.o.bles, thinking of the deserts of Central Asia, and of the tents of the Kirghis and the Turkomans?

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PART II.

TURKOMANS KHIVA BOKHARA KHOKAND CHINESE TARTARY ROUTES AGRICULTURE AND TRADE POLITICAL RELATIONS RUSSIANS AND ENGLISH

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CHAPTER XVI.

BOUNDARIES AND DIVISION OF TRIBES NEITHER RULERS NOR SUBJECTS DEB ISLAM CHANGE INTRODUCED BY THE LATTER ONLY EXTERNAL INFLUENCE OF MOLLAHS CONSTRUCTION OF NOMAD TENTS ALAMAN, HOW CONDUCTED PERSIAN COWARDICE TURKOMAN POETS TROUBADOURS SIMPLE MARRIAGE CEREMONIES HORSES MOUNDS, HOW AND WHEN FORMED MOURNING FOR DEAD TURKOMAN DESCENT GENERAL POINTS CONNECTED WITH THE HISTORY OF THE TURKOMANS THEIR PRESENT POLITICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL IMPORTANCE.

_Non se urbibus tenent et ne statis quidem sedibus. Ut invitavere pabula, ut cedens et sequens hostis exigit, its res opesque sec.u.m trahens, semper castra habitant; bellatrix, libera, indomita._--Pomp. Mela, de Situ Orbis, 1. ii. c. 4.

THE TURKOMANS IN THEIR POLITICAL AND SOCIAL RELATIONS.

Boundaries and Divisions.

The Turkomans or Turkmen, [Footnote 95] as they style themselves, inhabit for the most part that tract of desert land which extends on this side of the river Oxus, from the sh.o.r.e of the Caspian Sea to Belkh, and from the {302} same river to the south as far as Herat and Astrabad. Besides the partially productive soil which they possess along the Oxus, Murgab Tedjend, Gorghen, and Etrek, where they actually busy themselves a little with agriculture, the country of the Turkomans comprises that immense awful desert where the traveller may wander about for weeks and weeks without finding a drop of sweet water or the shade of a single tree. In winter the extreme cold and the thick snow, in summer the scorching heat and the deep sand, present equal dangers; and storms only so far differ from each other in these different seasons, as the graves that they prepare for the karavans are dry or moist.

[Footnote 95: This word is compounded of the proper name Turk, and the suffix _men_ (corresponding with the English suffix _ship, dom_); it is applied to the whole race, conveying the sense that the nomads style themselves pre-eminently _Turks_. The word in use with us, Turkoman, is a corruption of the Turkish original.]

To describe with more exact.i.tude the divisions of the Turkomans, we will make use of their own expressions. According to our European ideas, we name their main divisions, stocks or tribes, because we start from the a.s.sumption of _one_ entire nationality. But the Turkomans, who, as far as history records, never appear united in any single body, mark their princ.i.p.al races by the name Khalk (in Arabic _people_), and designate them as follows:--

I. Tchaudor.

II. Ersari.

III. Alieli.

IV. Kara.

V. Salor.