Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1 / Page 288 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

0288	Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1

thousand men at Achí, captured all their chiefs, except Abdurrahmán Kirghiz and S. T.
Isrár Culí Kapchák, who escaped with their followers and joined Bukhárá Culí at Mádí.
Here Beg Muhammad Mingbáshí, Mirzá Ahmad Dastúrkhwánchí, Syad Beg Kapchák,
Sadie Beg Kirghiz, and the Khoja brothers, Esán Khán Tora, Walí Khán Tora,
and Kichik Khán Tora, with a number of others, held a consultation, and decided on
retiring with their artillery by way of Caflán Kol to Gulsha, and there holding out and
barricading the approaches. From this, as will be seen in the sequel, they all
joined Yákúb Beg at Káshghar.

Meanwhile Khudáyár at Osh wrote as an humble servant to Muzaffaruddín,
reporting the aspect of affairs and awaiting orders. The Bukhárá Amír, uneasy
at the proximity of the Russians and unwilling to be embroiled in the troubles of
his neighbour, summoned Khudáyár back to Khokand, and setting him in the
government there, returned to his capital by Khujand, whence he sent a
minatory message to the Russian General at Tashkand demanding his evacuation of
the city and retreat to Chamkand.

But the Russian General, on the contrary, with the consent of an influential Rom.
party of the citizens, who on the 30th September presented him with an address of
congratulation and an appeal to be taken under the protection of the Ak Pádsháh
or Czár, annexed the whole territory of Táshkand to Russia for ever. Its limits are
on the east Isigh Kol="Hot Lake," and Uch Kurghán="Three Forts" to the
Syr Daryá or Jaxartes; on the north, the same from Ila to Akmasjid and Fort Raim;
on the west, from the beginning to the end of the Syr Daryá with its left bank and
fort of Chárdarra; and on the south, the same extent along the Syr Daryá from
beginning to end.

Following this, in January 1866 came General Chernayeff's unsuccessful expe-
dition as far as Jizzák to release the Russian envoys detained at Bukhárá, and his
retreat to the Syr Daryá below Chirchik. The rupture, accelerated by this hostile
conduct of the Amír Muzaffaruddín, led to the advance of the Russians under General
Romanoffski who, on the 20th May 1866, exactly a year after the defeat and death
of Alim Culi, gained his signal victory over the whole Bukhárá host at the famous
battle of Irjár; when he put the Amír to flight, routed his army in disorder, and
captured all his camp and equipage.

Following up this success, the Russians next bombarded Khujand and captured it
on the 5th June. And so great was the immediate effect of their triumphs, that
Khudáyár voluntarily congratulated their General on the success of his arms, and
declared himself the friend and ally of Russia. Orátappa and Jizzák were taken
in the October following, and a treaty of friendship and protection was concluded with
Khudáyár; whilst Muzaffaruddín was warned to prepare for war, unless he restored
the refugee Sultán Murád, paid one hundred thousand tilá = six hundred thousand
rupees (counting the tilá at six) as war indemnity, and opened out his country to
Russian traders.

The subsequent negotiations with the Bukhárá Amír not proving satisfactory led
to the active prosecution of the war, to his own speedy subjection to the Russian
protectorate, and to the occupation by Russia of the sister city of Samarcand in
August 1868—a position which brought them into direct contact with the
little States of Karátatkin, Darwáz, and Shighnán on the upper waters of the
Oxus; and into communication with their Tajik populations, cognate in birth and speech,
and confederate in creed and polity, with their Aryan brethren of Badakhshan and
Wakhán and the other petty independent hill States on the southern slopes of the
Hindú Kúsh Range down to Kabul on one side and Kashmír on the other. A fact of
no small importance, and notable, too, as bringing Russian influence beyond the pale
of Uzbek and Tártár polity in Central Asia into the sphere of the great Aryan
element of the Indian continent south of the mountains.

Whilst this succession of events and transfer of governments was taking place
on the west of the Bolor Range, a hardly less important revolution had been brought

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Citation Information

OCR Text

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books