Part 2 (2/2)

The invasion of Wali Khan was the last of those Khoja expeditions which took place prior to the Tungan revolt In the thirty-two years that elapsed froir's attempt to that of his son, there had in all been four of the the first; of his elder brother Yusuf, the second; of Yusuf's eldest son, Katti Torah, the third; and of Jehangir's second son, Wali, the fourth Not one of these is in any sense noteworthy, except for the crimes hich it was attended, and none of them didon their own followers, as well as on the people they claiht divine It may also be noticed that with each enterprise there was a decline in ir was infinitely the best of thehts His brother Yusuf was of a more timid mind, but evidently not less imbued with some notion as to the sanctity of hisdescent That prince see his personal coarded all his subjects' complaints at the arbitrary rule of his deputies But Wali Khan, the next of these Khoja kings from ”over the mountains,” excelled his cousin in vice, and tyranny, and utter want of purpose, not to speak of honour, quite as much as Katti Torah surpassed their sires Nor can there bethe fewclipped his flight, he would have surpassed Wali Khan in his own peculiar vices The reader will scarcely be disposed to take much interest in this irredeemable family, mad with the insanity of wickedness But in justice to the Chinese, and to Yakoob Beg, it is only right that the rivals of the former should be made to appear in their true colours All the sanctity that a peculiarly venerable descent froood deeds of some of their ancestors; all the affection that naturally attaches to a native rule, and all the dislike that n, be it never so beneficent; all these things were destroyed by the weakness and ill success that attended the first two Khojas, and by the cruelty, indifference, and licentiousness thatKhan came he found loyalty to the Khoja the heirloom of a few families, not of a people

Had the Chinese restrained their vindictive feelings after the ith Jehangir, and proclaimed a free pardon to every one save the Khokandis, and then devoted their attention with the old vigour to peaceful pursuits, we believe that the Chinese rule would have been perh to have defied Khokand, and to have broken off all intercourse with that state By dis the connection between the two states, the Chinese would have dispelled a danger that was for forty years to be ever before theani also rose, was to overcome them Even clemency after Yusuf's inroad, which was really caused by the Chinese repressions, ht not have been wholly in vain, and would have consolidated their position, when reinvigorated by Zuhuruddin's tenure of power But the Chinese did not appreciate the quality of mercy They could be just and impartial in the ordinary avocations of life, but to those who revolted against their authority they showed no trace of huainst them was certain death; for a people, history tells us, the fate was not far different Nor in dealing with such did they hesitate to suppleth by the most despicable of artifices Garrisons, accorded honourable terms, ruthlessly butchered; princes, who threw theed or tortured out of life: these are frequent occurrences in the history of China, and of her career in Central Asia the tale is identical Yet, while drawing a veil over these blots on an otherwise brilliant surface, should we not desire to conceal them wholly from the view It is necessary that they should be stated to understand what Chinese doreat benefits there can be no doubt, if the people will remain quiescent For fifty years, or for five hundred, China will rule an un people with justice, and lead them into the paths of prosperity and peace; but if they rebel, if they openly defy authority, if they invite a hostile stranger within their borders, the punishher sense, as wrongfully foolish, whether the association of the races may have been for fifty years or five centuries, as it was in the case of Kashgar

There is notthat China will deviate fro, of de ”an eye for an eye” and ”a tooth for a tooth”

CHAPTER VI

THE BIRTH OF YAKOOB BEG AND CAREER IN THE SERVICE OF KHOKAND

We have now traced the history of Kashgar and of the neighbouring states down to the year 1860, i Khan, and the Kooshbege, Maho an account of that enterprise it is necessary that the reader should knohat the past career of the future Athalik Ghazi had been The previous chapters have, it is hoped, thrown soht on the state of Central Asia, and will assist the student of the question in co achieved success, and what clai done a work that is unique in the annals of modern Asia

Mahomed Yakoob was born in or about the year 1820, in the flourishi+ng little town of Piskent, in the khanate of Khokand His father, Pur Mahomed Mirza, had, at various periods of his life, filled positions of responsibility in the government of the towns in which he resided Thus, a native of Dihbid, near San of Maho the priestly order There, although he enrolled hiious seed histhe Church, turned his attention to secular affairs He was soon made Kazi of Kurama, a district and town of Khokand, and e he had one son, Mahoar, notably that of Governor of Sirikul; but of late this half-brother of Yakoob Beg seems to have been, either for incompetence or some other reason, under a cloud Pur Mahoed his residence from Kurama to Piskent, about the year 1818, and he shortly after his settle the sister of Sheik Niza was the issue of this inally to have coin, on the borders of Badakshan, but in the ti conquest of that district the father of Mahoe in Khokand It is uncertain whether Mahomed Latif was born before their arrival at Dihbid or afterwards; and it is now asserted that he claiht forhen his son was advancing in the world or not, it is i were therefore not without some pretensions, and it would seeenerations they had been suffering, was beginning to disappear before the ability of Yakoob Beg raised it to a higher point than ever In addition to the clairandfather as Kazis of an i married Nar Mahomed Khan, Governor of Tashkent; and, as we shall see later on, this connection was very instru the interests of the youthful Yakoob

Piskent, Pskent, or Bis-kent, as it is so little community, fifty miles south of Tashkent, on the road to Khodjent Its inhabitants are a thrifty, good-tereat pride in the fact that the great Athalik Ghazi, the supporter of Islam, and the reputed terror of the 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 To the east of Piskent the in to rise, which stretch onward until they becoes, and in these elevated regions the Tajik descendants in, and consequently of the Aryan stock, in contradistinction to the Turk or Tartar ruling class in Western Turkestan They have, however, for so enerations been restricted to a lianization of the state, that, quite unjustly as it is, they have colish writers have fallen into this iven by the Turks of this subject race As a matter of fact the contrary holds true, and the Tajik is superior to any of his masters in point of mental capacity

They are represented to still retain the fine presence and long flowing beards which distinguish those of Aryan blood froth they quite eclipse every other race of Central Asia It was of this race that Yakoob Beg was the representative, and, although the greater part of his life was passed in ruling nations al his supporters, as well as the flower of his army, boasted that they, too, represented that master race, whose birth-place was to be found in the Indian Caucasus The Tajiks still speak a Persian dialect, and their Iranian origin is thereby rendered almost indisputable

Mahomed Yakoob's early years were passed at his home at Piskent, and it is said that it was intended that he should follow the profession which his father had repudiated As a youth he was too ard to sub him as a ”mollah,” if it was ever seriously entertained, was abandoned long before he arrived at man's estate He appears to have passed the first twenty years of his life in an idle, uneventful manner at Piskent, and then suddenly to have resolved to seek his fortune as best he ht in the troubled waters of Khokandian politics In 1845, we find him in the train of the newly seated khan, Khudayar, as ”mahram,” or chamberlain, and shortly afterwards, by the influence of his brother-in-law, the Governor of Tashkent, nominated a Pansad Bashi+, a commander of 500 This was in 1847, about which year he e in the district of Ak Musjid He had three sons, of e shall hear , and Hacc Kuli Beg Later on, in the year 1847, he was raised to the rank of Koosh-Bege, or ”lord of the faibly described as vizier--and entrusted with the charge of the important post on the Syr Darya, called Ak Musjid, ”White Mosque” This post he held with credit for six years, until 1853, when the Russians commenced that forward movement, of which we have not yet seen the close At that tiic points now in her possession The Syr Darya then was as far off from her frontier as the Oxus is now Ak Musjid, built in the lower reaches of the river, and representing a Khokandian outpost of exceptional irand obstacle in the path of the Russians operating from Kazalinsk, at the mouth of the Syr Darya It was resolved, therefore, that this post, which, doubtless, encouraged all the hbourhood to continue their depredations against the Russian caravans, should be wrested froround or converted into a Russian stronghold General Perovsky was entrusted with this undertaking The distance from Kazalinsk, or Fort No 1, to Ak Musjid is notthe banks of the Syr Darya Not ements were necessary, nor did the distance to inning his operations against the fort The army hich he appeared before the walls e in numbers when compared with the armies of modern times, but, in all that makes a disciplined force formidable, it was exceptionally well supplied The artillery was in greater strength than is usually considered necessary, and the expedition was still arrison of Ak Musjid was, on the other hand, ill supplied, both in provisions and in ammunition, and the fort itself presented, neither in its position nor in its construction, any feature that an engineer officer would have considered calculated tothe attack of artillery for twenty-four hours The Russian lines were constructed in the most approved method; but tere their approaches destroyed, and twice theirtwenty-six days the Russian bo all that time the Khokandian defence was stubborn and persistent But all the efforts of the garrison to break through the beleaguering lines were unavailing, and after so long a cannonade little more resistance could be expected froaping breaches The resolute co required by thecode of ained by a continued defence, and as it was known that the Russians were er was despatched without delay to the Russian coarrison to capitulate on honourable terms General Perovsky, who had expected an easy triumph here, and possibly sonant at the resistance opposed to hier fro any attention on the letter, couched in humble terms as it was, of the commandant, General Perovsky petrified the astonished emissary with the declaration that on the morrow the fort would be taken by assault This arbitrary assertion of his pohich was carried into practice, of course successfully, the next day, on an occasion when eneral, does not redound to the credit of the officer in question, and throws an instructive light on the latitude left to Russian generals in their instructions, and on the opinion felt for Central Asiatics by the civilizing representatives of the White Czar To say that General Perovsky was urged to this act of gratuitous tyranny by a desire to obtain a cross of either St Anne or St George, is, after all, only to nify the offence, and that Ak Musjid has taken the name of its conqueror, Fort Perovsky, is the , not his faeous conduct of the defenders In the winter following its fall Yakoob Beg, with Sahib Khan, brother of the Khan of Khokand, attempted to retake the fort, but the _coup_ proved abortive, and the Russians have never receded from their new acquisition

Khudayar Khan had been elevated to the throne of Khokand in 1845, by the energy of Mussulular astuteness, and aptitude for business During his tenure of the post of Wazir, Khokand was peacefully and beneficently governed; but, as on every similar occasion in Central Asia, the ruler soon becah his own position was in reality confirmed by the wise measures of the very man to whom he had conceived a covert hostility So with Khudayar Khan, the effeminate, and his minister, Mussul; as with Buzurg Khan, the debauchee, but correct representative of the Khojas, and his general and vizier, the Kooshbege, Maho In 1858, Mussulman Kuli was seized by order of Khudayar Khan, and barbarously murdered; and from that occurrence the decadence of this unfortunate ruler of Khokand can be traced until, at last, he becah Yakoob Beg becaallant defence of Ak Musjid, it would appear, fro styled after that event sirade in his official status It is probable that the chief cause of this was his failure to retake it, and not his ill success in defending it He was, however, entrusted with the charge of the Kilaochi fort, a post which he held down to the murder of Mussulman Kuli

Khudayar Khan had an elder brother, Mullah Khan, who had been passed over by Mussulman Kuli, when the state was put in order after the dissensions that arose on the death of the great ruler, Mahoiven vitality to the regiue once hiz leaders joined his cause, and Yakoob Beg at once became one of his most active supporters Khudayar Khan was deposed, and retired into temporary seclusion For his services to the new ruler Yakoob Beg wasto a chamberlain or court intendant He was soon restored to his old rank of Kooshbege, and appointed governor of the frontier fort of Kurama, the same place of which his father had been Kazi And in 1860 he came still more to the front, when he was summoned to Tashkent to assist Kanaat Shah, the Nahib of Khokand, inpreparations in case the Russians, who had for so Khokand, should cross the frontier Mullah Khan washeld the reins of power but for the brief space of two years, and Khudayar Khan e place He elco; and in return for their support he consented to forget the past

Yakoob Beg, as his reward, received the governorshi+p of Kurahiz chieftain, appeared upon the scene He possessed uished his predecessor Mussulman Kuli, and his successor, in the eyes of the people, Yakoob Beg He had undoubtedly a great capacity for intrigue, but was inferior to the former in administrative capacity, and to the latter in randson of Shere Ali Khan, up as a clai, who once more abandoned the cause of Khudayar Khan, who, itin a friendly way, and who in their early days had been his boon co, who had yielded up Khodjent, with the defence of which he had been entrusted by Alim Kuli, on the approach of the forces of Khudayar Khan, took refuge in Bokhara Here he was favourably received, and resided as a noble attached to the court In 1863 the Ae ar his brother-in-law, Khudayar, to the throne, for he had again been deposed by the intrigues of Ali accompanied this force, and once more appears, for the last time, on the troubled arena of Khokandian politics The Bokhariot army was soon recalled, and Khudayar Khan was left to face the difficulties of his position unaided In a few e and other leading nobles against Khudayar Sultan Murad, who had first been supported and thenbeen thus effectually re- so far profited by this new confederacy that he was restored to his old offices and perquisites, and sent once overnor of Kuraht them with him to assist in the capture of Khodjent On this ient Alih Kurama on his way to seize and settle the capital, Tashkent He appointed a connection of his own, Hydar Kuli, with the title of Hudaychi, as governor of Kura in his train to Tashkent Shortly after their arrival at Tashkent, news came of the Russian occupation of Tchimkent, and the survivors of the force driven out by Tchernaief soon appeared with a confirence This was in April, 1864, and until October of that year, when the Russians appeared before the town, Yakoob Beg was engaged in strengthening the fortifications of the capital When the arhbourhood, Yakoob Beg, with a rashness that cannot be too strongly condeht have been expected, the Russians were victorious, and Yakoob Beg was coe with his shattered forces within the walls of Tashkent The Russians themselves had suffered some loss, and either awed by the bold deonist, or, as isup 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 e the defences before the return of the Russians It is very certain that on this occasion, the first on which Yakoob Beg had a command of any consequence, he peret the better of his discretion, and that it was the height of ement in the open with the disciplined and foreneral to undertake the siege of Tashkent, he ht have had it in his power to inflict a serious, and for the ti ared by defeat, Alim Kuli found hih the over-hastiness of his lieutenant The Russians did not return until after the departure of Yakoob Beg for Kashgar, but when they did they found that Alim Kuli had made every preparation in his power to receive theain forced to retreat after a skirmish which the Khokandians claim as a victory; but in 1865 they appeared before the walls in greater force Ali vastly superior in numbers to the Russians, attacked them a few miles to the north of Tashkent, and the fortunes of the day hung in the balance, until the fall of Alihiz cavalry, was pierced in the chest by a musket ball He was carried froht in Tashkent Alim Kuli appears to have been actuated to some extent by a disinterested patriotism, as much as by more personalfor another sphere of operations, all hope of a continued state of independence for Khokand was dissipated After this severe defeat the Russians laid close siege to Tashkent The Khokandians in their distress applied to Bokhara for aid, and the Russians hastened to occupy Chinaz to intercept it The Bokhariot army was routed by the Russian army under General Romanoffski at the battle of Irjar, in May, 1866, eleven months after Tashkent had been occupied by Tchernaief It was during this period of anarchy, with a hostile Russian and an allied Bokhariot force on his soil, that Khudayar Khan once more supplanted the nominee of Alin Khudayar was left in possession of the southern portion of Khokand This Khan appears to have been of an una his various exiles, he devoted hiy he had never shown in the ement of the public affairs, and when he at last sank into private life and became a pensioner of the Russian Court, on the complete annexation of his state, he is said to have acquired not only a happiness, but many virtues unknown to him in his more elevated lot The unfortunate Sultan Seyyid, after wandering for some years out of Khokand, hen he ventured to return in 1871, executed Many of the partisans of Seyyid on the defeat by the Russians, and on the overthrow of his rivals by Khudayar, sought refuge in the mountains of the Kizilyart, whence they proceeded to join Yakoob Beg in Kashgar, where they arrived at a most opportuneAfter his defeat before Tashkent he was e the defences of that town and collecting troops from the whole district, but his reputation had been lowered by that reverse There was a certain jealousy between the Kirghiz chief and the Tajik soldier of fortune Yakoob Beg saw in Alim Kuli an obstacle to his further proe a possible rival and successor Any excuse therefore to keep Yakoob Beg in the background, or indeed to get rid of hiether, would be very welcoeneral until his departure for Kashgar a few ainst other foes the stain he had incurred in his encounters with the Russians

While these events were in progress at Tashkent, an envoy arrived there frohiz prince on the frontiers of Ili and Kashgar He brought intelligence that histhe Chinese, to seize the city of Kashgar, and he requested the Khan of Khokand to send hiht place hi had only laid siege to Kashgar, and, finding that he was met with a strenuous resistance, had recourse to the plan of setting up a Khoja king to strengthen his failing efforts, but of the true state of affairs in Kashgar it is evident that everybody in Tashkent was prinorant The Khokandian policy had always been, however, to maintain their interests intact in Eastern Turkestan, and to weaken in every possible way the credit of the Chinese An envoy bringing news of a fresh revolt in Kashgar was, therefore, sure of a friendly reception at Tashkent, even if he did not return with so tokens of aer from Russian movements was so close at hand, and all the efforts of the state were so concentrated in preparations for defence, that Aliht of its prospects, and however ive the Kirghiz e Khan, the only surviving son of Jehangir Khan, either of his own free will, or instigated, as soar, Aliave his moral assistance so far as was compatible with no active participation therein He, however, gave Buzurg Khan the services of Kooshbege Mahomed Yakoob to act as his commander-in-chief, or Baturbashi+ Thus did Alim Kuli free himself from his troublesome subordinate, and despatched on an errand which seerace and defeat, but which really led to e capable of supplanting hiiven little promise of future distinction He had, indeed, earned the reputation of being a gallant soldier, if a not very prudent one; and in the intrigues that had marked the history of his state for twenty years, he had borne his fair share

But no one would have drea that he possessed the ability necessary to win caainst superior forces, and then to erect a powerful state on the ruins that fell into his possession The most favourable opinion would have been, that he would have died manfully as a soldier, and as a true Mussular, he was no longer in the first flush of youth, but was a reat aious zeal and diplomatic apathy Twenty years'

experience in thecourt in Central Asia had placed every muscle at his complete command, and even in the most disastrouscalm and collected--calm in his belief in Kismut, and collected in a persuasion of his own resources One fact that will account for the slowness hich he advanced into notoriety is that he was entirely dependent on his own capacity for pro, and in the two leaders, Kipchak and Kirghiz, Mussulman and Alim Kuli, he had competitors of almost equal merit with himself, while they each possessed personal power and family connections that placed them far beyond the reach of the hardy soldier and court chamberlain Some of his detractors had availed themselves of his is with the Russians; but these, although invested with circu in non-Russian quarters, are probably without any truth The chief charge, to be taken for what it is worth, is, that the weakness of his defence of the Ak Musjid district, after the fall of the fort, ing to his having received a large bribe from the Russians Another is, that in 1863, after his return frolected to retard the Russian movements for a pecuniary consideration In both cases the sue; and besides the apparent falseness of these rumours, we have only to consider that he was not worth a bribe, and that his opposition to the Russians was ious zeal All these considerations h we are aware that a follower of Yakoob Beg confires, it seems to us that the Russians, if there had been truth in the report, would long ago have placed the fact before the peoples of Asia, and required Yakoob Beg when Aar to have acted in a more friendly way towards his for could not have rendered any service to the Russians worth the thousands of pounds he is said to have received, ought to de's life proves one thing more than another, it was that he was athe Russians, as the most formidable enemy of Islam, with the most intense hate his fiery nature was capable of This reatest hypocrisy if he was not genuine in his religious intolerance, and that intolerance rendered any connivance with Russianto his early connection with the church, and hiswas always distinguished for the strict orthodoxy of his views Through all his life he seems to have made it his chief object to keep the church on his side When he was reduced to the ar, when some of the most faithful of his followers fell off fro Khan, the man whom he had placed upon a throne, declared hi as the ministers of the church held by hi the fidelity of their chaood and ill repute Whilst residing at Bokhara ”the holy” he had attached to his person several of the hout Asia, and he had taken all the vows that give a peculiar sanctity to the relations that connect the layman with his priest It was here that he publicly announced his intention of going on pilgrie to Mecca; an intention which he repeated on several occasions during his rule of Kashgar, but was obliged, by the position and precarious existence of that state, always to perform by deputy When he had established himself as ruler, his first measure was to re-enforce the Shariat and to endow several shrines that had been erected to the memory of the chief Khoja saints It was by such means that he at every crisis of his life had striven to ion, and when he became a responsible and successful prince his past life stood hiarded throughout Asia as the most faithful and redoubtable supporter of Islam

At this period of his life he is described by one who knew hi of a short but stoutish build, with a keenly intelligent and handso the vicissitudes of his career in Khokand, been so often near assassination, or execution, that the result of the morrow had, to all external appearance, become a matter of secondary consideration to hi career of court intrigue, appeared to the casual observer dull and uninteresting When, however, the conversation turned on subjects that specially interested him, such as the advance of Russia, the future of Islaland, he threw aside his mask, and became at once a man whose vieith so by the singular charuished at all times by the simplicity of his dress, and his freedom from the pretension and love of show characteristic of hest point of his power he was only a soldier, occupying a palace As ell said of Tie in the stirrup of patience,” and he evidently set hiht be learnt frohis Khan, Timour, and Baber

Such is some account of the co Khan The Khoja, hie as his lieutenant, but in every other respect as different as he well could be

Personally a coward, fond of show and every kind of luxury, and of the treacherous, fickle nature thathis past life to coh he participated in the expedition of Wali Khan, he showed no possession of merit, and in the subsequent occupation that the Khojasa feeeks, he, perhaps usted the people by his open and unbridled licentiousness Such were the two men who, in the latter days of 1864, set out frodom Of their chances of success feould have ventured then to predict a settlement in their favour; none, certainly, such as was obtained by Yakoob Beg It is now time for us to relate how they fared in Eastern Turkestan

CHAPTER VII

THE INVASION OF KASHGAR BY BUZURG KHAN AND YAKOOB BEG