Houses of mud, wood and mats, and a roofed bazaar
Editorial contextBehind its famous mosques, Bukhara was built of humble materials. Most houses had one storey, a few more than two, made of mud, wood and mats. The great roofed bazaar built by the late king, with its long straight line of shops hung with Chinese porcelain and Russian bottles, impressed him most.
The houses are mostly of one story high; some of them of more than two; they are neatly constructed of mud, wood, and mats, which prevent the falling of the dust from the roof. … The large bazar, which is roofed, has a very striking appearance.
About Uzbek-ruled Bukhara
Continue in this sourceMohan Lal's journey from Delhi to Balkh, Bukhara and Mashhad1830 to 1849 · 8 passagesRussia is Gog and Magog
Editorial contextIn a caravan leaving Bukhara, a Turkmen told Wolff that Russia would conquer the world, having built a fort in the sea near Khiva. A dervish added that the great mullahs of Samarkand said Russia was Gog and Magog, the destroying peoples of the end times.
A Turkomaun present said, "The Russians shall be the conquerors of the world. They have now built a strong castle almost in the midst of the sea, not far from Khiva. … A derveesh sitting among us made the following remark ; "The great mullahs of Samarcand assert that Russia is the Jaaj-Majooj, i. e. Gog and Magog
About Dervishes and Turkmens
Keep in mind
A prophecy repeated in conversation, reflecting fear of Russian expansion.
Bukhara burned because it was built of wood
Editorial contextRetelling the Mongol sack of Bukhara from Persian historians, Pétis explains why the fire was so complete: most buildings were of wood, because stone was hard to get around Bukhara. Only public buildings such as the mosques and caravanserais, built of brick, escaped. It is a clear statement of what one of Central Asia's great cities was built from.
all Parts of the Town were strait on fire, the greatest part of the Building being made of Wood, because of the difficulty of getting Stone in the Country round Bocara. … and all the Houses became a Prey to the Flames, except some publick Buildings, such as the Mosques and Caravansera's, which were made of Bricks.
About Mongols of Genghis Khan
Keep in mind
Marginal source notes are mixed into the OCR here and have been dropped. Compiled five centuries after the event.
Bukhara burned: wood gone, brick left standing
Editorial contextIn his history of Bukhara, Fraser writes that Genghis Khan ordered the city burned when he found enemy officers hidden there. Because most houses were of wood, he says, nothing survived except mosques and public buildings of brick. He adds that Genghis's son Ögedei rebuilt the city.
as the greater part of its habitations were constructed of wood, its destruction was complete ; the sun, which rose upon its rich and crowded bazars, and thickly inhabited edifices, went down at night upon a waste of smoking ashes, among which, there was not one house standing, except some mosques and public buildings, that being built of brick, remained unburned.
About Mongols under Genghis Khan
Keep in mind
A retelling from Persian histories, not an eyewitness account.
Entering Bukhara: earth houses and a brick palace
Editorial contextThe Russian embassy entered Bukhara through a tall gate and narrow streets of gloomy, flat-roofed earth houses to the great square with its mosques and colleges. The palace was reached through a vaulted brick corridor lined with soldiers, and the audience hall had white plaster walls and a painted plank ceiling.
after passing the gate which was very lofty, we continued our route through a narrow winding street, of gloomy houses, built of earth, and flat roofed. At last we arrived at the great square, surrounded with mosques, colleges or madrissa, and the enclosure of the palace. After dismounting, we entered a vaulted corridore built of brick
About Uzbek emirate of Bukhara
Continue in this sourceThe Russian embassy's march from Orenburg to Bukhara1820 to 1821 · 14 passagesA street full of 'Tatars' of every kind
Editorial contextAs Wolff rode into Bukhara in his clerical robes, crowds lined the streets and rooftops. His list of onlookers shows how many different peoples could be called 'Tatar' in one city: Nogai Tatars from Russia, Kazakhs and Kirghiz from the steppe, and a 'Tatar' from Yarkand in Chinese Turkestan.
It was a most astonishing sight ; people from the roofs of the houses, the Nogay Tatars of Russia, the Cassacks and Girghese from the deserts, the Tatar from Yarkand or Chinese Tartary, the merchant of Cashmeer, the Serkerdeha or grandees of the king on horseback, the Affghauns, the numerous water-carriers, stopped still and looked at me
About Nogai Tatars, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Turkic people of Yarkand, Uzbeks, Jews, Afghans
Continue in this sourceJoseph Wolff's mission to Bukhara to find two missing British officers1843 to 1845 · 14 passagesRussia's Tatars are 'Nogais' to the Kazakhs; 'Tatar' is a cursed name
Editorial contextIn a footnote to his chapter on ruins Levshin notes that Kazakhs call the Tatars living in Russia only 'Nogais'. The word 'Tatar' itself they did not use; in their view it belonged to some base people cursed by a Muslim prophet. Bukharans and Khivans thought the same. The same story was reported by Rychkov seventy years earlier (W175).
The Kirghiz-Kazakhs call the Tatars living in Russia nothing but Nogais. The (word) Tatar itself is not used by them at all, and in their opinion belongs to some base people cursed by a certain Muslim prophet. The Bukharans and Khivans think the same, and also call the Russian Tatars Nogais.
Working translation
Original wording
Киргизъ-Казаки иначе не называютъ Татаръ въ Россіи живущихъ, какъ Ногаями. Само Татары совсѣмъ у нихъ не употребительно, и принадлежитъ по ихъ мнѣнію какому то подлому народу, проклятому однимъ Магометанскимъ пророкомъ. Бухарцы и Хивинцы тоже думаютъ, и также называютъ Татаръ Россійскихъ Ногаями.
About Tatars of Russia (as seen by Kazakhs, Bukharans and Khivans)
Keep in mind
'Само' is as printed in the OCR; the word 'слово' (word) seems to be implied or garbled.
Bukhara, the greatest city of Tartary
Editorial contextMohan Lal calls Bukhara the largest, most populous and richest city 'in the whole region of Tartary', and says it had 360 mosques and colleges, though he was not impressed by the students' Persian and Arabic. Shops opened only after the owners had finished their morning tea and closed at three, when trade moved to the Registan square.
Bokhara is the largest and most populous and wealthy city in the whole region of Tartary. The splendid mosques and magnificent colleges, which are 360 in number, contain students who are unqualified both in the Persian and Arabic languages, but they write a very good hand.
About Uzbek-ruled Bukhara
Keep in mind
The figure of 360 is a traditional round number rather than a count.
In Bukhara and Khiva, 'Tatar' was an insult
Editorial contextRychkov questioned Muslim scholars and Russian envoys sent from Orenburg to Khiva and Bukhara about the names 'Scythians' and 'Tatars'. He concludes that no people there called itself Tatar. The word meant a lawless, inhuman people supposed to live somewhere in far Siberia, and calling someone a Tatar was like calling him a barbarian or a worthless peasant.
for I am fully certain that in all those parts there is not one people that calls itself Tatars. By the name Tatars they understand a very lawless and inhuman people, which they suppose lives in the Russian, and above all in the most remote Siberian, places … And they regard the name Tatar as very dishonourable and abusive, as if to say barbarian, serf, and good-for-nothing.
Working translation
Original wording
ибо я совершенно увѣренъ, что во всѣхъ тамошнихъ сторонахъ ни одного народа нѣтъ, которой бы Татарами имяновался. Подъ именемъ Татаръ разумѣютъ они народъ весьма беззаконной и безчеловѣчной, признавая, якобы жительствуетъ онъ въ Россійскихъ, а паче въ самыхъ отдаленныхъ Сибирскихъ мѣстахъ … И имя Татаръ почитаютъ они за весьма безчестное и поносное, такъ какъ бы сказать, Варваръ, Смердъ, и ни къ чему годной человѣкъ.
About Peoples of Central Asia; Tatars as a label
Keep in mind
Based on Rychkov's interviews with Muslim scholars and returning envoys, not on travel of his own to Khiva or Bukhara.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Bukhara's brick bazaars and the Registan
Editorial contextBurnes describes Bukhara as a city of lofty, arched brick bazaars, each trade in its own quarter, massive colleges, mosques and minarets, twenty caravanserais and about a hundred ponds and fountains of squared stone. People believed the tallest minaret, about 150 feet, reached the level of Timur's Samarkand. In the Registan square a visitor could meet Turkmen, Kalmyks and Kazakhs from the deserts.
when the traveller passes its gates he winds his way among lofty and arched bazars of brick, and sees each trade in its separate quarter of the city; here the chintz sellers, there the shoemakers; one arcade filled with silks, another with cloth. Every where he meets with ponderous and massy buildings, colleges, mosques, and lofty minarets.
About Uzbeks and the peoples of Central Asia
Continue in this sourceAlexander Burnes's journey from India to Bukhara, 1831 to 18331831 to 1833 · 14 passagesBukhara's houses of raw brick and timber
Editorial contextFraser's informants described Bukhara's houses as two or three storeys of raw (unfired) brick strengthened with timber frames, with poorer houses of timber filled with mud and broken brick. The city's roughly eighty colleges, by contrast, were mostly of stone and lime.
The houses in Bockhara are in general two and even three stories high, built of raw brick, and often strengthened by wooden frame work ; those of inferior description are constructed of the same frames of timber, filled up with mud and fragments of brick.
About Townspeople of Bukhara
Keep in mind
Second-hand description.
Not savages: a defence of the Uzbeks
Editorial contextElphinstone argues that the European picture of the Uzbeks as ferocious barbarians comes from confusing them with the Kalmyks (the garbled word in the scan) and 'other rude Tartar tribes' further north. He does not hide the slave trade in Bukhara, but on the word of Afghan and Tajik travellers he calls the Uzbeks 'as good a people as any in Asia'. The rest of the page, badly scanned, says that anyone who imagines the Uzbeks as savages will be surprised to learn that Bukhara rivals Peshawar in population, has numerous colleges and caravanserais, and tolerates all religions.
of the Uzbeks, appear to be unjust, and is probably owing partly to our confounding them with … other rude Tartar tribes between them and Russia … men are sold in Bokhaura like cattle; but in other respects, by all that I can learn, both from Afghaun travellers, and from Taujiks of Bulkh and Bokhaura, I have reason to think the Uzbeks as good a people as any in Asia.
About Uzbeks
Keep in mind
Second-hand; he names his sources as Afghan travellers and Tajiks of Balkh and Bukhara.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Five 'kingdoms of the Tartars' on the road to Bukhara
Editorial contextIn a late summary of his travels, Jenkinson says he went forty days beyond the Caspian through five kingdoms 'of the Tartars' and the lands of the Turkmen and 'Zayatay' (Chagatai) to the great city of Bukhara. The editors' note names the five as Mangishlak, Vazir, Urgench, Kath and Bukhara. Here 'Tartar' covers the Muslim Turkic states of Central Asia.
of the Tartars, and all the land of Turkenian and Zayatay, and so to the great citie of Boghar, in Bactria, not without great perils and dangers sundry times.
About Turkmen and Uzbek khanates of Central Asia
Keep in mind
The sentence begins on the previous page ('passed through 5. kingdomes').
Kimmiz and horse flesh among the Uzbeks
Editorial contextFraser's informants told him the Uzbeks were fond of kimmiz (kumiss), fermented mare's milk shaken in a skin for hours, and often got drunk on it in season. He also heard, and heard denied, that they preferred horse meat to beef.
it is said they are fond of horse flesh, which they prefer to beef : I have heard this denied ; but I do not know which statement is the true one. There is no doubt of their fondness for the national and intoxicating drink, called kimmiz, prepared from mares’ milk, by shaking it violently in a skin for several hours.
About Uzbeks
Continue in this sourceJames Baillie Fraser's journey into Khorasan and the Turkmen frontier1821 to 1822 · 18 passagesBukhara's sun-dried brick and arched bazaars
Editorial contextQuoting Burnes's figures, Wolff describes Bukhara's massive buildings, the Khan's fortress-palace, houses of sun-dried brick, narrow dirty streets and lofty arched bazaars where each trade had its own section.
It has massive buildings, three hundred and sixty mosques, three hundred schools, the Khan's palace, or rather fortress ; houses built of bricks dried in the sun ; very narrow and dirty streets ; lofty arched bazaars, in which the different trades have their distinct sections ; and ponds and fountains for the supply of water.
About Uzbek emirate of Bukhara
Keep in mind
Taken from Burnes, as the page says.
Uzbek 'black houses' of felt
Editorial contextIn his appendix on Bukhara, Fraser reports that the tents of the country Uzbeks were like those of the Turkmens: a lath frame under thick black felts, called kara-ui ('black house') or kirgah, with a lattice smoke hole that could be covered with felt when it rained.
The tents, or rather houses, of the Oozbecks resemble those of the Toorkomans, of which a description has already been given, a frame work of thin laths covered with thick, black felts, and they are called karaooees (black houses) or kirghahs. The floors of the rich are spread with carpets and numuds, those of the poor with a blanket or mat of camels' hair
About Nomadic Uzbeks of the emirate of Bukhara
Keep in mind
From informants, not seen by Fraser.
The Uzbeks sweep south and take Bukhara
Editorial contextElphinstone explains who the Uzbeks were: a people who crossed the Jaxartes (Syr Darya) around 1500 and drove the heirs of Tamerlane out of Bukhara, Khwarazm and Ferghana. The next sentence is badly damaged in the scan, but it seems to say that the Uzbeks belong to the great division of mankind known in Asia as Turks, who together with the Moguls (and a third people whose name is illegible) 'compose what we call the Tartar nation'. So for him 'Tartar' is a European umbrella word for Turks and Mongols together.
The Uzbeks first crossed the Jaxartes about the beginning of the sixteenth century, and pouring on the possessions of the descendants of Tamerlane, soon drove them from Bokhaura, Khoarizm, and Ferghauna, and spread terror and dismay to the remotest parts of their extended empire.
About Uzbeks
Keep in mind
Page is heavily garbled; the words after this sentence can only be read in part.
Bukhara, a century after the Tartars
Editorial contextBukhara, the chief city beyond the Oxus, had still not recovered, Ibn Battuta says, from being ravaged by the Tartars more than a century earlier. He found nobody there with any learning. Here 'Tartars' means the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan.
then, after one stage, we came to Bokhara, which is the principal city of the country beyond the Gihon. After it had been ravaged by the Tartars, it almost entirely disappeared : I found no one in it who knew any thing of science.
About Mongols of Genghis Khan ('the Tartars')
Keep in mind
Bukhara was sacked again by Ilkhanid Mongol troops in 1273, so not all the damage he saw dated from 1220.
A city of clay and a citadel on a man-made hill
Editorial contextBukhara, three to four versts across, was ringed by a clay wall with loopholes; its streets were so narrow that a laden camel scraped the houses. Most houses were of clay, richer ones partly of brick, one or two storeys high, flat-roofed and windowless to the street. The khan's citadel, the Ark, stood on a clay hill about 60 feet high which Eversmann calls a colossal work of human hands, brick-faced below and clay above, with a palace of glazed brick on top. He does not call Bukhara a Tatar city; it is included here for its plain account of how a great Central Asian city of the time was built.
The dwelling houses are mostly built of clay, the richer ones partly of brick too, of one and two storeys, but no higher. … The khan's castle (called the Ark) stands high on a great clay hill about 60 feet high, which is a colossal work of human hands; it takes almost half an hour to walk round it; the lower half is of brick, at least on the outside, the upper of clay
Working translation
Original wording
Die Wohnhäuser sind grösstentheils von Lehm aufgebaut, reichere auch zum Theil von Ziegelsteinen, von einem und zwei Stockwerken, aber nicht höher. … Die Burg des Chans (Aerk genannt) liegt erhaben auf einem grossen gegen 60 Fuss hohen Lehmhügel, der ein kolossales Menschenwerk ist; man braucht fast eine halbe Stunde dazu, ihn zu umgehen; die untere Hälfte ist, wenigstens ausserhalb, von Ziegelsteinen, die obere von Lehm
About Bukharans (Uzbek-ruled emirate)
Keep in mind
Bukhara was an Uzbek emirate, not a 'Tatar' state; Eversmann uses 'Tatar' only for the Russian merchants there and for the language.
The rumour that Wolff had been to Tartarus
Editorial contextWolff found a rumour running through Bukhara that he knew 72 languages and 72 religions, had spoken with 72 nations, and had even visited the 'land of darkness', which he glosses as Tartarus. The word play between Tartary and Tartarus here comes from Wolff's own gloss.
A report was spread abroad, I found, throughout the whole country of Bokhara, that Mullah Joseph Wolff, the grand derveesh from England, was acquainted with seventy-two languages, with seventy-two religions, and had conversed with seventy-two nations of the earth. That, further, I had been in Sulmistaun, i. e. the ' land of darkness," Tartarus
About People of Bukhara
Keep in mind
Gossip about Wolff himself; the 'Tartarus' gloss is his.
Uzbeks replace the 'Turks or Tatars'
Editorial contextWolff says that after the 'Turks or Tatars' were driven out, the Uzbeks became the ruling people, brought to the Oxus by Shaybani Khan with their first centre at Urgench in Khiva. He treats 'Turk' and 'Tatar' as one name for the earlier rulers.
Since the expulsion of the Turks or Tatars, the Usbecks are the dominant people. Sheybek Khan brought them to the country of the river Amoo in the year 1498, when they had the centre of their empire at Organtsh, in Khiva.
About Uzbeks under Shaybani Khan
Keep in mind
Wolff's date is approximate; Shaybani Khan's conquest of Transoxiana is usually dated to about 1500 to 1507.
Turkmen elders who could advise but not punish
Editorial contextWolff describes his Turkmen guides as truly 'masterless': their greybeards (aqsaqals) could give advice and lead raids, but had no power to punish anyone.
The Turkomauns my guides were, in the strictest sense of the word, masterless : for their Aga Sakals, ' lords with the beard,' have only a right to give advice, and to conduct them on their plundering expeditions, but they have no power to punish.
About Turkmens
Continue in this sourceJoseph Wolff's mission to Bukhara to find two missing British officers1843 to 1845 · 14 passagesThe Tatar caravanserai of Bukhara
Editorial contextEversmann entered Bukhara through the gate as a merchant and lodged in the Tatar caravanserai (p. 65). He explains that each trading nation kept to its own serai: Indians in the Indian serais, Tatars in the Tatar one, merchants of Kokand and Kashgar in the 'Chinese' one. Caravans from Troitsk, Orsk, Orenburg and from Astrakhan by way of Khiva brought English and Russian cloth, calico and metalware, handled mostly by Bukharans, Russian Tatars and Armenians.
For the most part these various nations keep together as much as possible; so, for example, in the so-called Indian serais live almost only Indians, in the Tatar serai Tatars, in the Chinese one merchants from Kokand and Kashgar, and so on. … The people trading are mostly Bukharans, then (Russian) Tatars, and from Astrakhan, Armenians
Working translation
Original wording
Meistentheils halten sich diese verschiedene Nationen so viel wie möglich beisammen; so wohnen z. B. in den sogenannten indischen Seraien fast nur Indier, im tatarischen Serai, Tataren, im chinesischen, Kaufleute aus Kokan und Kaschkar, etc. … Die handelnden Personen sind grösstentheils Bucharen, dann (russische) Tataren, und von Astrachan, Armenier
About Russian Tatars as merchants; Indians, Kokandis, Kashgaris, Armenians
Continue in this sourceEversmann's journey from Orenburg to Bukhara, 1820 to 18211820 to 1821 · 10 passagesGenghis Khan takes Bukhara
Editorial contextIn a later addition to the book Wolff notes that Genghis Khan besieged Bukhara in 1219 and took it in 1220, and repeats a tradition that thousands of Jews then fled to China. He adds that the city's houses were mostly of mud.
The town of Bokhara is situated one day's journey to the north of the river Jehoon or Amoo ; Ghengis Khan besieged it in 1219, and took it in 1220. Thousands of Jews emigrated at that time to China. The houses are mostly built of mud.
About Mongols under Genghis Khan; Jews of Bukhara
Keep in mind
The Jewish migration to China is Wolff's claim, probably from Bukharan Jewish tradition, not a documented event.
Uzbek speech: a Persian-laced variety of 'Tatar'
Editorial contextCounting the peoples of Bukhara, Eversmann reckons Uzbeks at a quarter and Tajiks at three quarters of the townspeople. He calls the Uzbeks' language a variety of Tatar, known as Türki, which the Tatars can understand, though heavily mixed with Persian; Persian is the main language of the city. It shows how a Tatar-speaker from Siberia heard the Turkic languages of Central Asia as one family.
The language of the Uzbeks is a variety of the Tatar language which is called Türki, so that the Tatars can understand it: but it is much mixed with Persian words. The Tajiks speak Persian, and this is the main language here, for when an Uzbek speaks with a Tajik, Persian is spoken.
Working translation
Original wording
Die Sprache der Usbeken ist eine Abart der tatarischen Sprache, welche Türki genannt wird, so dass die Tataren sie verstehen können: sie ist aber sehr mit persischen Wörtern gemischt. Die Tadschiken sprechen persisch, und dieses ist hier die Hauptsprache, denn wenn ein Usbek mit einem Tadschik spricht, so wird persisch gesprochen.
About Uzbeks, Tajiks and Jews of Bukhara; Tatars of Russia
Keep in mind
The same page carries a harsh tirade against the Bukharans' character: prejudice, not observation.
Frozen half-moon dumplings for winter journeys
Editorial contextPart 2 of Weber's work prints an account 'Of Tartarian Bukhara' by an author who says he had been in Little Bukhara himself. He notes that the men's dress differs little from the Tartar, that they eat with their fingers and wooden spoons, drink tea with milk, salt and butter, and fill half-moon-shaped pastries with chopped meat, which they freeze and carry in a sack on long winter journeys to boil into soup.
They fill a kind of pastry, shaped like a half moon, with it. On long journeys, especially in winter, they take a good supply of these pastries with them and carry them in a sack. When this food has first frozen thoroughly in the air, it is cooked in boiling water, and a fairly good soup is made of it.
Working translation
Original wording
Sie füllen mit denselben eine Art Pasteten, die wie ein halber Mond gestaltet sind. Auf weiten Reisen, insonderheit in Winter, nehmen sie einen guten Vorraht von diesen Pasteten mit, und tragen sie bey sich in einem Sakke. Wenn nun diese Speise vorher an der Luft rechtschaffen durchgefroren ist, so wird sie in einem siedenden Wasser gekocht, und eine ziemlich gute Suppe davon gemacht.
About Bukharans of Little Bukhara (Turkic Muslims of the Tarim oases, then under Zunghar rule)
Keep in mind
The author is not named; he says he had visited Little Bukhara.
'Yusbek': a hundred lords, or 'he is the lord'?
Editorial contextChardin gives two etymologies for the Uzbeks. Persians derived it from 'yuz' (a hundred) and 'bek' (lord), mocking a land split among a hundred petty princes; the Uzbeks rejected that and said it meant 'he is the lord'. He adds that Tartar and Turkish are one language, Turkish being a dialect of it.
They are called Yusbecks, at least if the Persian Etymology be true, by reason of the great number of Sovereign Princes by which the Tartars are Govern'd; for Yus, as well in the Language of the Tartars as Turks, which is but a Dialect of it, signifies a hundred, and Bek, Lords
About Uzbeks, whom Chardin calls the Tartars of Lesser Tartary
Continue in this sourceChardin's journey through Crimea and the Caucasus to Persia1660 to 1679 · 13 passages
