Tash Kurghan: domed houses of clay and sun-dried brick
Editorial contextMoorcroft describes the Uzbek-ruled market town of Tash Kurghan: about 20,000 one-storey houses of clay and sun-dried brick, domed 'in the usual fashion of the country', each in its own walled yard with fruit trees, along straight streets that crossed at right angles with water running down them.
Tash Kurghan is about three miles in circumference, and may comprise about twenty thousand houses. They are built of clay and sun-dried bricks, of one story, with domes in the usual fashion of the country, and each stands by itself in a walled enclosure, often containing fruit-trees.
About Uzbeks and Tajiks
'Tartar cookery' on the road to Ladakh
Editorial contextMoorcroft saw his Lahouli porters cook a sheep that had died in the night: skinned, cut up and boiled whole in a big cauldron with all the innards, together with cakes of flour mixed with the blood. He calls it 'Tartar cookery' and admits he did not care to join in.
We had an opportunity here of witnessing Tartar cookery on a more sumptuous scale than usual, but it was not of a character to invite a participation in the meal. A sheep belonging to some of the carriers having died in the night, the carcase was skinned and cut up, and boiled in a large cauldron, together with all the viscera
About Lahouli carriers (Tibetan-speaking, called Tartars)
Kalmak Tatars moved to Ili as horse breeders
Editorial contextFrom merchants' reports Moorcroft learned that many 'Kalmak Tatars' had once lived around Khotan but had been deported by the Chinese to the Ili valley, where some 200,000 families bred cattle, camels and horses and paid one head in a hundred as tax. They brought ten to twenty thousand geldings a year to Ili for sale.
A considerable portion of the population of Khoten consisted formerly of Kalmak Tatars, but it is said that when the Chinese subjugated the province, they deported the Kalmaks to the cities which collectively constitute the modern city of Ila, on the river of the same name, and to the adjacent districts.
About Kalmak Tatars (Oirats) under Qing rule
Keep in mind
Secondhand information; the population figure is a trader's estimate.
Murad Beg of Kunduz, 'a Tartar' and a robber
Editorial contextIn his preface Wilson blames the failure of the expedition on Murad Beg, the Uzbek chief of Kunduz, whom he calls 'a Tartar of activity and ambition, but a barbarian and a robber'. Moorcroft's own journal (T0023, n459, p.446) quotes Murad Beg answering a plea to keep his word: 'What have I, what has an Uzbek to do with character?' Here 'Tartar' means an Uzbek.
His death, and the dissensions which ensued amongst his sons, transferred the ascendancy to Murad Beg, a Tartar of activity and ambition, but a barbarian and a robber.
About Uzbeks (Qataghan) of Kunduz
Keep in mind
The editor's judgment, written from Moorcroft's papers and hostile to Murad Beg.
The people of Spiti are 'completely of Tartar appearance'
Editorial contextOn his side trip to Spiti (Piti), Trebeck described the people as 'completely of Tartar appearance in form and face', then went on to their dress, drinking, and the braided hair of the women decorated with amber and coral. It shows 'Tartar' used by British travellers for any Tibetan or Central Asian looking highlander.
The people of Piti are completely of Tartar appearance in form and face; the men are less robust and better grown than those more to the north, and the women are far from good looking.
About Spiti people (Tibetan-speaking)
Keep in mind
A physical stereotype, not an ethnic identification.
Reading Gibbon on Genghis Khan to an Uzbek holy man
Editorial contextSheltering with a respected Uzbek pir (khaja) at Talikan, Moorcroft tried to translate into Persian the chapters of Gibbon's Decline and Fall about Genghis Khan and Timur. His host corrected the Persian style, was surprised a European knew so much about the 'Moguls', and admitted many facts were new to him. A European history of the Mongols thus travelled back to Central Asia.
Whilst under his protection, I attempted to render into Persian, for his use, the chapters of Gibbon which treat of Jangez Khan and Timur, in which the khaja took much interest, and corrected the style of the translation. He was much surprised that a European should have known so much of the history of the Moguls, and admitted that many of the facts were new to him
About Uzbeks