Slave caravans on the road to Khiva
Editorial contextAbbott travelled alongside caravans that had carried grain south and were returning to Khiva with captives, many from Herat. He describes the women riding with their captors and the men walking the whole way, chained by the neck at night.
They had brought grain from Khiva, and are returning thither laden with slaves, many of whom are natives of Heraut. … But the men are chained together by the throats at night, so that rest is scarcely possible, whilst the contact of the frozen iron with their skin must be torturous. For them also no carriage is found, they walk the whole way
About Turkmen traders and their captives from Herat
Continue in this sourceA British officer's winter ride from Herat to the Khan of Khiva1839 to 1840 · 15 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.
A Turkmen tent that travels on two camels
Editorial contextInvited into a Turkmen home at Sarakhs, Burnes found a khirgah (felt tent) twenty-five feet across with lattice sides, a roof of laths springing from a hoop three feet wide, and floors spread with felt and velvety carpets woven by the women. His host told him the whole house could go on one camel and its furniture on another.
The tent or khirgah was spacious, and had a diameter of about twenty-five feet. The sides were of lattice-work, and the roof was formed
About Turkmen (Salor)
Keep in mind
The description continues on the next page (n83, p.60), where the host says the house and furniture travel on two camels.
Villages emptied by 'the Tartars'
Editorial contextNear Mashhad the caravan passed villages wrecked by Turkmen raiders. At Tibris, which Mohan Lal says was 'harassed by the Tartars', most of the people had been carried off as slaves, and the survivors ran up weeping to ask the travellers for news of their captive families. Here 'Tartars' simply means the Turkmen slave-raiders.
Tibris, a fine walled village, contains very few inhabitants, who are harassed by the Tartars. Some time ago it was destroyed by the Alamans, and most of the residents made slaves. On our approach, the villagers ran up to us, shedding a flood of tears
About Turkmen raiders (alamans), here called Tartars
Continue in this sourceMohan Lal's journey from Delhi to Balkh, Bukhara and Mashhad1830 to 1849 · 8 passagesTurkmen 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 passagesTurkmens pray without mosques
Editorial contextOn his first journey Wolff noted that the Turkmens had no mosques, praying alone in the open or in their tents and gathering twice a year in the desert for common prayer. He also records a claim by the Jews of Turkestan that the Turkmens descend from the biblical Togarmah.
All the Jews of Turkistaun assert that the Turkomauns are the descendants of Togarmah, one of the sons of Gomer, mentioned in Genesis x. 3. The Turkomauns have no mosque; they pray apart from each other, either in the field or the tent. Twice in the year they assemble in the desert, and prefer their prayer.
About Turkmens
Keep in mind
The biblical ancestry is a Jewish tradition Wolff repeats.
At Merv, only the burnt brick survived
Editorial contextFraser doubts the tales of marble palaces at Merv. His informants said the main surviving ruins were a mosque and college credited to Timur, the tomb of the Seljuk sultan Sanjar and an arsenal, which lasted because they were built of fired brick.
there are no ruins to prove the existence of the marble palaces, and baths, and tombs, which have been vaguely attributed to it ; the chief remains are those of a fine large mosque, with a medressa, built by Timoor Shah ; of the mausoleum of Sooltaun Sanjer, and of a fine arsenal, all of which having been constructed of burnt brick, have partly escaped
About Former Seljuk and Timurid rulers; Merv then under Bukhara
Keep in mind
From informants. On the same page a footnote doubts the huge death tolls given for the Mongol sack of Merv.
Merv abandoned when its dam broke
Editorial contextAbbott gives a short history of Merv: founded, he says, by fire-worshippers, long Persian, and fought over by Turkic tribes. He explains that the old city emptied when the dam on the Murghab river was neglected and swept away during decades of disorder, leaving a deserted ruin beside a new village of mud huts.
Merv was one of the most ancient cities of Asia. … Merv has probably changed masters as often as any city in the world. … During the misrule and anarchy of the last sixty years the ancient dam of the Moorghaub was neglected and carried away. The city in consequence became uninhabitable, and was utterly abandoned.
About Turkmens under the Khan of Khiva
Keep in mind
The founding by fire-worshippers is local tradition that Abbott repeats; the abandonment story is what he learned on the spot.
