Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Turkestan
TURKESTAN
Meaning of term Central Asia.THE terms “Turkestan” and “Central Asia” are often used indiscriminately to describe the whole of the immense territory to the east of the Caspian, comprised between Siberia on the north and Khorasan (Persia), Afghanistan, and Tibet on the south, or to designate separate, sometimes arbitrarily determined, parts of the same region. In the beginning of the 19th century the whole of the territory just named, with its great variety of altitudes, climate, inhabitants—these last differing as much in their history as in their present characteristics—was comprised under the vague denomination of High Tartary, or High or Interior Asia. After the appearance of Humboldt’s first draft of Asie Centrale in 1831, the term “Central Asia” came into favour. But Humboldt’s limits of Central Asia were too mathematical (from 3912° to 4912° N. lat.), and were further unsatisfactory because influenced by his erroneous conception of the mountains of Central Asia, which he supposed to run either along parallels or along meridians. Richthofen made an attempt to limit the sense of the term, proposing to apply it only to that region—embracing the Tarim drainage area and the Gobi—which has no outlet either towards the ocean or to the Sea of Aral and Lake Balkash (Balkhash), and which constitutes the Hang-hai of the Chinese and the supposed bed of the Tertiary Asiatic Mediterranean. But this terminology, besides the drawback of including within Central Asia the steppes of the Gobi as far east as Transbaikalia and the Great Khingan, notwithstanding the broad differences by which they are distinguished from the drainage area of the Tarim, was open to another objection, which has been pointed out in M. Mushketoff’s Turkestan. It excluded from Central Asia Turkestan proper, which nevertheless has had the same recent geological history as the Tarim region, and therefore has so many features in common with it as regards soil, climate, flora, fauna, population, and even civil history. On the other hand, if Central or Interior Asia were to include West Turkestan, and its limits to be determined by those of the drainage-areas which have no outlet to the ocean, the basins of the Volga and Ural,—that is, territories purely European in character,—would have to be comprised under the same denomination. The fact is that in Asia, as so often elsewhere, hydrographical considerations alone furnish no sound basis for geographical delimitations, and that these last must result from a complicated variety of considerations, chiefly orographical, inasmuch as orographical are indicative of other physical characters, such as geology, climate, flora, fauna, and so on. Such were the views of Ritter and Humboldt, and we are now brought back to their conceptions, but corrected into accordance with improved knowledge of the Asiatic continent. The name Central Asia can still be used with great advantage to designate that immense portion of the continent to the east of the Caspian and the Ust-Urt plateau which is limited on the north by the important climatic and geo-botanic boundary of the Irtish and Aral water-parting and the Great or Ektagh Altai, on the east by the eastern Gobi, and on the south by the northern border of the Khor plateau (Attyn-Tagh and Kuen-Lun), the Hindu-Kush, and the Kopet-Dagh. Extensive as it is, this territory has its own climatic and geo-botanic features; it forms a distinct part of the continent, when the orography of Asia is broadly viewed; and its inhabitants have a number of common characteristics resulting directly from the physical features of the territory. But this immense area must be subdivided; and its subdivisions become apparent as soon as the orographical features are grasped.
Great Asiatic Plateaus.Two great plateaus constitute the two backbones, as it were, of the orographical structure of Asia,—that of eastern Asia, an immense triangle stretching north-eastwards, having the Himalayas for its base and the peninsula of the Tchuktchis for its apex; and that of western Asia, which extends at right angles to the above, from the lower Indus to the Black Sea. The Hindu-Kush connects these two massive swellings, both continents of the oldest formation in Asia. Both are fringed on their northern edges by lofty chains of mountains. The Tian-Shan, the Altai, the Sayan, and the Vitim Mountains rise in a long succession on the borders of the former, while a series of chains, which might be described under the general name of Kopet-Dagh, continued into the Transcaucasian chains, rise on the north-eastern edge of the western plateau.
An immense trapezoidal depression occupies the angle on the west where the great plateaus meet, and this depression is West Turkestan. Its south-eastern limits are the Hindu-Kush and the Tian-Shan; on its south-western edge it has the Iranian plateau; and its north-west and north-east boundaries correspond with the edge of the Ust-Urt and the Irtish and Aral water-parting, which separates it from Siberia. The trapezium is 1100 miles long from south-west to north-east, and 900 miles wide from south-east to north-west. It thus includes, not only the depression at the junction of the two plateaus, but also the girdle of alpine tracts which fringes them, and in whose deep and sheltered valleys the Turkish and partly Iranian population of Turkestan find a fertile soil and plenty of water for their fields, while their herds graze on the rich alpine meadows in the very heart of the Tian-Shan. Not orographically only but also in respect of its recent geological past, its climate, flora, fauna, and inhabitants, this region forms a geographical domain by itself, quite distinct from the steppes of south-eastern Russia, the prairies of Siberia, and the two great plateaus by which it is inclosed; and, although it is easily subdivided into two parts—the dry lowlands of the Transcaspian depression and the plains and highlands of Turkestan proper—it presents one geographical whole when contrasted with the surrounding regions. Some doubt may arise as to the propriety of including in it the plateau of Pamir; but its flora and fauna are so closely connected with those of the Tian-Shan that, although better treated as a separate sub-region, like the Transcaspian Turcoman steppes, it cannot be separated from the above. For the orographer, the “Roof of the World” is merely a succession of the wide syrts or alpine plateaus that are characteristic of the Tian-Shan. Most of this territory has within recent years been annexed to the Russian empire. Bokhara, with its vassal khanates in the gorges of the Pamir slopes, and Khiva, although they are still described as independent, are in reality rapidly becoming dependencies of Russia, and the railway from the Caspian, which is about to connect Merv with Samarkand, will complete the annexation of Bokhara. West Turkestan, therefore, is often called Russian Turkestan, as distinguished from Chinese or East Turkestan.
The expression Central Asia thus includes the following countries. (A) West Turkestan, comprising the Tian-Shan highlands, the Balkash plains, and the Aral-Caspian lowlands, politically divided into Russian Turkestan (the general-governorship of Turkestan and the Aral-Caspian slope of Turgai and Akmolinsk), the Chinese oasis of Kulja (Kuldja), the Transcaspian region, Khiva, Bokhara and its vassal khanates, and parts of Afghan Turkestan. (B) East Turkestan, comprising the Tarim region as far east as Lob-Nor. (C) Dzungaria, limited on the north-east by the Tarbagatai, Altai-Nauru, Irdyn-ula, and Artsa-bogdo Mountains.
West Turkestan.
General physical features.
As comprised within the above limits, West Turkestan has an area of nearly 1,680,000 square miles, and a population of nearly 8,500,000.[3] It presents a very great variety of aspects, including the lonely plateau of Pamir, in height second only to that of Tibet; the immense complex of alpine tracts described under the general name of Tian-Shan (three times as long as the Alps of Europe), which lift their snow-clad peaks four and nearly five miles above the sea, and feed huge glaciers, while their deep valleys and gorges partake of almost every variety of climate and vegetation; rich prairies and still wider lowlands descending below the level of the ocean; and deserts where the winds, burning hot or icy, but always dry, have free scope to modify the surface, which is bare of vegetation.
Highland region.
TURKESTAN 633 ridge, running W.S.W. to E.N.E. on the edge of the great plateau of eastern Asia. This plateau is fringed on its outer side by a complex of shorter ranges, which mostly run parallel to the border-ridges and send off a series of isolated chains, due to a later system of upheaval, through the plains and steppes in a north-western direction. Down to the middle of the 19th century these highlands were almost absolutely unknown, and the orography of Central Asia as shown on our maps was quite hypothetical. Numer ous surveys by Russian and British explorers have, how ever, recently disclosed the real structure of those regions ; and it has now become possible to discriminate the leading features of the orographical conformation of the country. The Hindu-Rush, with its snow-clad summits of 18,000 and 20,000 feet, limits the highlands of Turkestan to the south-east. It appears now to be settled that this ridge runs from north-east to south-west, as far at least as the latitude of Cabul, and possibly still farther south ; and the last Russian surveys of the Pamir show that it extends north-east as far as Tash-Kurgan (37 45 N. lat, 75 E. long.). At the foot of its north-western slope it has the Pamir plateau of Pamir the "Roof of the World," with an area plateau. O f about 37,000 square miles. A series of chains, gently sloping and dome-shaped, rising 4000 or 5000 feet above the level of the plateau, traverse it from south-west to north-east, with a remarkable parallelism, dividing it into a series of broad parallel flat-bottomed grooves or valleys, which do not sink below 10,000, and sometimes 14,000, feet above sea-level. Thus the features of the lower plateaus of north-eastern Asia reappear here on a greater scale, hav ing the same characters and the same direction in the plaitings of the earth s crust. Nearly 150 miles to the north-west of the Hindu-Rush lies the north-western border of the Pamir, fringed by the lofty Trans -Atai Mountains. Their crest, covered with snow, rises nearly 4 miles above the sea (Raufmann Peak 23,000 feet) ; but the traveller approaching them from the south would hardly guess their height, because their southern slope towards the wildernesses of the plateau, themselves 13,000 feet high, is very gentle. The great elevation of the border-chain is only realized when it is seen from the Atai valley on the north, where its steep and deeply furrowed sides tower up like a dark wall, from 1 1,000 to 14,000 feet high, above the high and broad valley of the Rizil-su. The geological structure of the Atai valley must not be inferred from its orographical features, otherwise we should describe it as longitudinal. It is watered by the Rizil-su, which flows towards the west- south-west and joins the Amu-Daria under the name of Vaksh (or Wakhsh). On the north it has the lofty Atai- Tagh range, also partially snow-clad. On our best maps the Trans- Atai Mountains are figured as an isolated range, some 120 miles in length; and it cannot yet be affirmed with certainty which chains of the Tian-Shan, possessing the same border-ridge characters, ought to be considered as its continuations. Further research is needed to determine whether it is continued south-west by the Darvaz, or Lahor, Mountains, where the group of lofty Sel-tau peaks feed the extensive Fedtchenko glacier, or by the Hoja-Mahomet chain on the left bank of the Amu-Daria. 1 Thus the real north-western limits of the Pamir are still unsettled. As for the north-eastern continuations of the Trans-Atai, the present writer is inclined to trace them, not in the Rokshat-tau, but in the Terskei Ala-tau and the high mountains of Sary-yassy, where the Rhan-Tengri lifts its snow-clad granitic cap 24,000 feet above the sea, and is surrounded by numerous vast glaciers (SemenofFs and MushketofTs Muz-art). It would thus separate, broadly speaking, the drainage area of the Tarim from those of 1 See G. Grum-Grzimailo, iii Izvestia. of Russ. Geog. Soc., vol. xxii., 1886. Lake Balkash and the Sea of Aral. Thus the border-ridge of the Central Asian plateau would have a length of more than 1000 miles from the Amu to Rulja, and the valleys of the upper Naryn and Tekkes would therefore be homologous with that of the Atai. A girdle of alpine tracts, from 150 to 180 miles in Alpine width, which fringes the outer edge of the Pamir plateau, tracts - consists of shorter chains running parallel to the border ridge and ranging from 11,000 to 17,000 and 20,000 feet in altitude. They are separated by deep valleys, mostly with three separate foldings of Azoic rocks. Some of these ranges are covered with perennial snow and feed great glaciers, among which Schurovsky and Fedtchenko glaciers around the lofty Rok-su group are especially worthy of mention. These subsidiary chains all belong to the oldest system of upheavals, which have had a north-east direction, and which at four different places are modified by more modern ones having a north-western direction. In lat. 47 N. the orographical structure becomes more complicated, the alpine region being pierced by the broad Dzungarian trench, which leads from the lowlands of the Irtish to the heights of the Central Asian plateau. A high ridge the Tarbagatai continued in the Tchinghiz (Jinghiz) and Rarkaralinsk Mountains, branches off north-westwards, separating Turkestan from Siberia. Further east the Tian- Shan is continued on our maps in an eastern direction ; but our knowledge of it still remains very imperfect. 2 A series of deep depressions, Balkh, Ferghana, Issyk- Lacus- kul, and Rulja, sinking to low levels amidst the Tian-Shan * rin . e highlands follow one another in a north-east direction. That T ^ n " of Issyk-kul is occupied by the lake of the same name g uan . (5000 feet above the sea), while the second and fourth, now desiccated, are lacustrine basins. A great number of smaller lacustrine basins, mostly filled with Tertiary con glomerates, occur higher up in the mountains. For the orographer and the geologist they are homologous with those of the Altai and east Siberia (Bukhtarma, Us, Irkut, Bar- guzin, and others). The rivers that issued from the high alps had to pierce many parallel ridges in order to reach the plains, and they frequently expanded into wide lakes before cleaving through the chains of mountains the narrow and deep transverse gorges by which they descended to the lower terraces. Like the highlands of Siberia, those of Turkestan are Lowland fringed by a girdle of plains, having an altitude of from plains. 1000 to 1500 feet, and these again are skirted by an im mense lowland area reaching only 400, 300, and 150 feet, or even sinking below the level of the ocean. These plains and lowlands cover nearly 650,000 square miles. Some geographers divide them into two portions, the higher plains of the Balkash (the Ala-kul and Balkash drainage areas) and the Aral-Caspian depression, which occupies nearly two-thirds of the whole and has been ably described by M. Mushketoff under the appropriate name of Turanian basin, the Rara-tau Mountains being considered as the dividing line between the two. The Balkash plains, more than 1000 feet above the sea, and covered with clay, with a girdle of loess at their foot, are well watered by the Hi and other feeders of Lake Balkash (see SEMIRYETCHENSK) and on their rich prairies are the homes of numerous Rirghiz. In the south-west the clayey soil becomes saline. There is the Famine steppe (Bek-pak-data), while in the Ak-kum steppe, which surrounds Lake Rara-kul, large areas are covered -with sands, partly shifting. A gulf of clayey plains penetrates up the Ili into the in- 2 The present writer is inclined to consider the " Eastern Tiau-Shan " of our maps, which runs east-south-east to Bagratch-kul, as a separate chain belonging to the more modern system of north-western upheavals, meeting at its eastern extremity a chain which trends towards the north-east. XXIIL 80 634 TURKESTAN [WEST. terior of the mountains, and its thick layers of loess form the Kulja oasis. Another gulf, penetrating much more deeply into the highlands up the trench occupied by Lakes Ebi-Nor and Ayar, and joining the trench of the upper Irtish, leads by an imperceptible gradient up to the plateau of Central Asia. It is known as the " Dzungarian Gate," and a gate it has been since the dawn of history for whole nations of nomads who have migrated from the rapidly desiccating plateau down to the grassy prairies of Siberia and Russia. The plains and lowlands of the Turanian basin are subdivided by a line drawn from north-east to south-west along a slight range of hills running from the sources of the Ishim towards the south-east corner of the Caspian (Bujnurd and Elburz edge of Khorasan). This low range, which most probably separated the lowlands of the Aral-Caspian region (submerged during the Post-Plio cene period) from the higher plains which had emerged by the end of the Tertiary period, now divides the Transcas- pian steppes from the somewhat different higher plains (see TRANSCASPIAN REGION). In the Turanian basin the contrast between desert and oasis is much stronger than in the Balkash region. Fertile soil, or rather soil which can be rendered fertile by irrigation, is limited to a narrow terrace of loess along the foot of the mountains (see SYR- DARIA), and is surrounded by barren deserts. Even where the loess spreads over terraces at some distance from the mountains, as in the south-east Transcaspian region, it can be cultivated only when irrigated. The dryness of the climate is excessive : rain falls only where the hills cause the clouds to condense, the soil elsewhere being moistened only occasionally by a few showers. Two rivers only the Syr and the Amu succeed in crossing the desert and reaching the Sea of Aral. But their former tributaries no longer run their full course : the glacier-fed Zerafshan dries up amidst the gardens of Bokhara soon after emerging from the highlands ; and the Tejen, the Murghab, and the Andkho lose themselves amidst the fields of the Turcomans. The only tributaries which the Amu retains are those which have the whole of their course in the highlands. In the north such formerly important tributaries of the Syr-Daria as the Tclm, with its subtributary the Sary-su, now dry up some hundreds of miles distant from the main stream. The arid desert absorbs every drop of running water which reaches its borders. Desicca- The whole area is now undergoing geological changes on tion of a vas ^ sca i e Rivers have changed their courses, and lakes Turk- tue i r outlines. Far away from their present shores the estau. geologist finds indubitable traces of the recent presence of the lakes in the shells they have left amidst the sands. Traces of former rivers and channels, which were the main arteries of prosperous regions within the period of written history, have now disappeared. Of the highly developed civilizations which grew up and flourished in Bactriana, Bokhara, and Samarkand the last traces are now under going rapid obliteration with the desiccation of the rivers and lakes. The great " Blue Sea " of Central Asia, the Sea of Aral, which at a recent epoch (Post-Glacial) extended south-west to Sary-kamysh, and the shells of which are found north and east of its present shores from 50 to 200 feet above its present level (162 feet above the ocean, and 245 above the Caspian), now occupies but a small portion of its former extent. It covers a shallow depression, some 23,000 square miles in area, which is drying up with as tonishing rapidity, so that the process of desiccation can be shown on surveys separated only by intervals of ten years ; large parts of it, like Gulf Aibughir, have dried up since the Russians took possession of its shores. Steamers regularly ply on its waters and ascend both its tributaries. The whole country is dotted with lakes, which are rapidly disappearing under the hot winds of the deserts ; and the clayey takyrs of the steppes give evidence of thousands of lakes which have quite recently ceased to exist, leaving beds of clay kept wet by the condensed moisture of winter and the few rain-showers of early spring. Like the highlands of eastern Asia, those of Turkestan are mostly Geology, built up of Azoic gneisses and metamorphic slates, resting upon granites, syenites, old orthoclase porphyries, and the like. These upheavals date from the remotest geological ages ; and since the Primary epocli a triangular continent having its apex turned to wards the north-east, as Africa and America have theirs pointing southward, rose in the middle of what now constitutes Asia. It is only in the outer foldings of the highlands that Primary fossiliferous deposits are found, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Penno-Carbonic. Within that period the principal valleys were excavated, and their lower parts have been filled up subsequently with Jurassic, Creta ceous, and Tertiary deposits. One of the most striking instances of this is the very thick Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits which cover the bottom of the valley of the Vaksh (right tributary of the Amu) and are continued for about 300 miles to the north-east, as far as the Afoi valley, probably along the edge of the Paniir plateau. The deposits of the Secondary period have not maintained their hori zontal position. While upheavals having a north-eastern strike continued to take place after the Carboniferous epoch, 1 another series of upheavals, having a north-western strike, and occasioned by the expansion of diabases, dolerites, melaphyres, and andesites, occurred later, subsequently at least to the close of the Tertiary period, if not also before it, dislocating former chains and raising rocks to the highest levels by the addition of new upheavals to the older ones. Throughout the Triassic and Jurassic periods nearly all Turkestan remained a continent indented by gulfs and lagoons of the south European Triassic and Jurassic sea. Immense fresh-water lakes, in which were deposited layers of plants (now yielding coal), filled up the depressions of the country. Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits occur extensively along the edge of the highlands. Upper and Middle Cretaceous, containing phosphates, gypsum, naphtha, sul phur, and alum, attain thicknesses of 2000 and 5000 feet in Hissar. Representatives of all the Tertiary formations a re met with in Turk estan ; but, while in the highlands the strata are coast - deposits, they assume an open sea character in the lowlands, and their rich fossil fauna furnishes evidence of the gradual shallowing of that sea, until at last, after the Sarmathian period, it became a closed Medi terranean. During the Post-Pliocene period this sea broke up into several parts, united by narrow straits. The connexion of Lake Balkash with the Sea of Aral can hardly be doubted ; but this por tion of the great sea was the first to be divided. While the Sea of Aral remained in connexion with the Caspian, the desiccation of the Lake Balkash basin, and its break-up into smaller separate basins, were already going on. The Quaternary epoch is repre sented by vast morainic deposits in the valleys of the Tian-Shan. About Khan-Tengri glaciers descended to a level of 6800 feet above the sea, 2 and discharged into the wide open valleys or syrts. It is most probable that, when allowance has been made for the oblitera tion of glacial markings, and the region has been better explored, it will appear that the glaciation of Turkestan was on a scale at least as vast as that of the Himalayas. In the lowlands the Aral-Caspian de posits, which it is difficult to separate sharply from the later Tertiary, cover the whole of the area. They contain shells of molluscs now inhabiting the Sea of Aral, and in their petrographical features are exactly like those of the lower Volga. The limits of the Post-Pliocene Aral-Caspian sea have not yet been fully traced. It extended some 200 miles north and more than 90 miles east of the present Aral shores. A narrow strait connected it with Lake Balkash. The Ust- Urt plateau and the Mugojar Mountains (see TUUGAI) prevented it from spreading north-westward, and a narrow channel connected it along the Uzboi (see p. 512 supra) with the Caspian, which sent a broad gulf to the east, spread up to Volga, and was connected by the Manytch with the Black Sea basin. Great interest, geological and historical, thus attaches to the recent changes undergone by this basin ; but much still remains to be done before the numerous questions arising in connexion with it can be settled. Since the theory of geological cataclysms was abandoned, and that of slow modifications of the crust of the earth accepted, new data have been obtained in the Aral-Caspian region to show that the rate of modi fication after the close of the Glacial period, although still very slow, was faster than had been supposed from the evidence of similar changes now going on in Europe and America. The effects produced by desiccating agencies are beyond all comparison more powerful than those which result from the earthquakes that are so frequent in Turkestan. All along the base of the highlands, from Khojend to Vyemyi, earthquakes are frequent ; 3 but, however destructive of life, their effects lie beyond the scope of our observational methods. 1 Mushketoff s Turkestan (pp. 35, 681) seeius to justify this con clusion. 2 See I. Ignatieff, in Izvestia of Russ. Geogr. Soc., vol. xxiii., 1887. 3 For a list of them, see Izvestia of Russ. Geogr. Soc., vol. xxiii., 1887 ; also Orloff, in Mem. of Kazan Naturalists, 1873, iii. WEST.] TURKESTAN 635 Ulimate. The climate of West Turkestan is exceedingly dry and con tinental. Although the country is comprised within the lati tudes of Sicily and Lyons, it has a south Norwegian January and a Persian summer. Temperatures of more than 100 Fahr. in the shade are common, and the heat is rendered still more unbearable by the reflexion from a soil destitute of vegetation. The winter is for the most part so cold that the average temperature of January is below the freezing point, and even reaches Fahr. Snow falls for several months on the lower Syr-Daria, and, were it not blown
- i ay by the winds, sledge-communication would be possible. This
river is frozen for an average of 123 days every year in its lower parts, and nearly 100 days at Perovsk. At Tashkend there is snow during two months and temperatures of 10 Fahr. have been measured. In 1876, on 24th October, almond-trees, vines, and cotton crops were buried under a heavy snowfall. To the south of Khojend the winter becomes more clement. Absence of rain is the distinctive feature of the climate. Although it rains and snows heavily on the mountains, only 11 inches of rain and snow fall throughout the year at Tashkend, at the base of the highlands ; and the steppes of the lower Amu have less than 3 inches. A few showers are all that fall from the almost invariably cloudless sky above the Transcaspian steppes. The following table will illus trate the climate of Turkestan : Lati tude. Height in feet. Average temperature. Rain in inches. Year. January. July. Akmolinsk 51 12 7 50 24 48 37 45 45 44 33 43 51 42 27 41 28 41*19 40 GO 1 38 21 1020 590 300 160 -30 2100 215 325 1480 -70 4120 28-8 270 21 8 45 5 51-2 48 7 53 -0 55 58-3 59 8 54-2 o-o -0-7 3-4 10 6 25-0 14-4 19 -4 29 V -0 36-3 21 -2 69 2 72-5 76 -2 78 -0 78-0 76-5 79"6 77 V 5 83 2 81 7 9-2 7-7 6-1 7-9 2-9 2-4 11-3 Semipalatinsk Kazalinsk Alexandrovsk Xukus Petro- Alexandrovsk Taslikend Yarkaml(EastTur.).. The fauna of Turkestan belongs to the great zoo-geographical domain of northern Asia, and is only differentiated by the presence of species which have disappeared from the peripheric parts of the Old World and now find a refuge in the remotest regions of the uninhabited plateau. From the great Palaoarctic region it is distinguished by the presence of Himalayan sj>ecies. The distinct ive animal of the Pamir plateau is the magnificent Ovis poll (con jectured to be the ancestor of our common sheep), mentioned by Marco Polo and rediscovered by Syevertsotf. It breeds by thousands on the Pamir, climbing the highest ridges, which it prefers to the valleys. The region to which it is confined has the shape of an ellipse, with its longer axis running south-west to north-east. The animal is rare on the upper Naryn, and never penetrates to the west of Sel-su. In the alpine tracts of the Tian-Shan, on the borders of the Pamir, their horns and skulls are frequently met with, but there the place of the species is now taken by Ovis karelini. The wild horse, which occurred in Poland a few centuries ago, has been discovered by Prejevalsky in the highlands of Dzungaria and described as Equus prjevalskii by Polyakoff. The wild camel in habits the lonely plateaus south of the Ala-Shan ; but no descrip tion of it has been published. The other mammals of Turkestan are mostly those which are met with elsewhere in north Asia. The large light -coloured Himalayan bear (Ursus isabellinus) has its home on the Pamir, and the smaller, strong, white-clawed Leueonyx up to the highest levels on the Tian-Shan. Antelopes, Lepus lehmanni, Lagomys rutilus, various species of Arvicolae, and the Himalayan long-tailed marmot (Arctomys caudatus), the most char acteristic inhabitant of the alpine meadows, are the only mammals of the Pamir proper. In the alpine region are found the badger (Meles taxus), the ermine (Fcstorius ermineus) and six other Miis- telidse, the wild dog (Canis alpinus), the common and the black- eared fox (C. melanotis), while the corsac fox (C. corsac) is met with only on the plains. Two species of lynx, the cheetah (Felis jubata), Fells manul, and Felis irbis, this last extending westwards as far as the Persian Gulf and eastwards as far as the river Amur, must be added to the above. The tiger is met with only on the lower Amu-Daria, except when it wanders to the alpine region in pursuit of the maral deer (Cervus maral). The jackal is charac teristic of the steppes ; it banishes the wolves and foxes. Hares are represented by several species, Lepus lehmanni being the most characteristic. Both the common and the long-tailed marmot (A. baibacinus and A. caudatus) are found at the foot of the mountains, as also four species of Spermaphilus, three of voles, two of the mouse, and three of the hamster. The Meriones (four species) and the jerboa (five species) are only met with in the steppe region. Of ruminants, besides the sheep (0. poll, 0. karelini, 0. nignmontana, 0. Iteinsii), we find one mufflon (Musimon vignei), formerly known only in the Himalayas, the Chinese antelope (Antilope subgutturosa) and the saiga antelope in the steppes, the Siberian ibex and another goat, the yak, the zebu or Indian ox, the common ox, the camel, and the dromedary. The wild boar is common in the reed thickets along the rivers and lakes, where it stays during the winter, migrating to the highlands in summer. The hedgehog and porcu pine are common in the plains. It would be impossible to describe in a few words the avifauna. No fewer than 385 species are recorded, most of them being middle- European and Mediterranean. A large number were formerly known only in the Himalayas, or in Persia, while others have their origin in east Asia. The commonest are mostly European acquaintances. As for the very rich insect fauna, of which full descriptions are now accessible, it is worthy of note that among the Lepidoptera of the Pamir there is an interesting mixture of Tian-Shan with Himalayan species. M. Grum-Grzimailo found on the Pamir the Colias nastcs, a species characteristic of Labrador and Lapland ; like the alpine plants which bear witness to a Glacial period flora in the Himalayas, this butterfly is a survival of the Glacial period fauna of the Pamir. 1 As a whole the flora of Turkestan belongs to that of Central Asia, Flora, which was formerly continued by geo-botanists as far west as the steppes of Russia, but which must now be considered as a separate region subdivided into two, the Central Asian proper and that of the Gobi. It has its own habitus, notwithstanding the number of species it has in common with Siberia and south-east Russia on the one hand and with the Himalayas on the other, and this habitus is due to the dryness of the climate and the consequent changes undergone by the soil. Towards the end of the Glacial period the Tian-Shan Mountains had a flora very like that of northern Caucasus, combining the characters of the floras of the European Alps and the Altai, while the prairies had a flora veiy much like that of the south Russian steppes. During the Stone Age the human inhabit ants lived in forests of maple, white beech, and apple trees. But the gradual desiccation of the country resulted in the immigration from the Central Asian plateau of such species as could adapt them selves to the diy climate and soil, in the disappearance of Eurojieaii and Altaic species from all drier parts of the region, in the survival of steppe species, and in the adaptation of many of the existing species to the needs of an arid and extreme climate and a saline soil. 3 At present the flora of Turkestan has a variety of characters, depend ing on the various physical aspects of the separate regions, the Pamir vegetation and that of the Aral -Caspian steppes constituting two types with numberless intermediate gradations. There is no arboreal vegetation on the Pamir, except a few willows and tamarisks along the rivers. Mountain and valley alike are covered with soft carpets of grass, various species of Festuca predominating almost to the exclusion of all others. In the immediate vicinity of water the ryang (Carex physoides) grows, and a few patches are covered with Allium. To these may be added a few Ranunculaceae, some Myosotis, low Scabiosae, the common Taraxacum, one species of Chamomilla, and a few Leguminosse. In the north and west the Stipa of the Russian steppes supersedes Festuca and affords splendid pasture for the herds of the Kara- Kirghiz. In the gorges and on the better-watered slopes of the mountains the herbaceous vegetation becomes decidedly rich. Be sides the above-named there are many other Graminese, such as the beautiful Lasiagrostis splendcns, and whole seas of ScabiossR. Eremurus, of a variety of colours and 6 to 7 feet in height, forms thickets along with the tall Scorodosma foetida. The northern slopes of the Atai chain are richer in trees. Up to 12,000 feet full- grown specimens occur of the artcha (Juniperus pseudo-Sabina), characteristic of the whole northern slopes of the Turkestan high lands, the poplar, a veiy few birches (B. Sogdiana), and a rich underwood of shrubs familiar in European gardens, such as Rhodo dendron chrysanthum, Sorbus aucuparia (rowan), Berberis heteropoda (berberry), Lonicera Tatarica (honeysuckle), and Crataegus (haw thorn). Farther east and north comes the Turkestan pine (Picea Schrenkiana), while at lower levels there grow numerous willows, black and white poplars, tamarisk, large Celtis, as well as shrubs of Elazagnus (wild olive), Hippophae rhamnoides (sallow thorn), Rubus fruclicosus (blackberry), Prunus spinosa (blackthorn), and P. Ar- meniaca (apricot). The characteristic poplar, Populus dii-ersifolia, which does not seem to have found yet the shape of leaves best suited to the climate, and therefore produces them in most striking variety, and the dwarf Acer Lobelii veiy different, however, from the European maple also occur. The above applies to most of the highlands of the Tian-Shan. The drier southern slopes are quite devoid of arboreal vegetation. i For ampler information, see SyevertsofTs "Vertical and Horizontal Distri bution of Turkestan Animals," in Izvestia of the Moscow Soc. of Amateurs of JjJ,]KUltlUll , JWUWXUU o WJ111L11. fl A* UIVU3, III JiJCIII/. J*> 1 c.t-1 *.*-., . x., 1879 ; and the journeys of Borschoff, Semenoff, Syevertsoff, Osten-Sacken (Sertum Tian-Shanicum), Regel, Prjevalsky, and many others. Cf. also for the southern parts of the region Reports of the Afghan Boundary Commission.
- See M. Krasnoffs researches in Izvestiaot Russ. Geogr. Soc., vol. sxiii., 1887. 636
TURKESTAN [WEST. On the northern slopes, at the higher levels, only the Junijxrvs pscudo-Sabina grows on the mountains, and rich meadow grasses cover the syrts. Lower down, at about 7500 to 8000 feet the conifer zone begins, characterized by the Picca Sckrenkiana, which furnishes the inhabitants with timber and fuel. Of course the artcha and a few other deciduous trees also occur. The richest zone is that which conies next, extending downwards to 5000 and 4500 feet. There woods of birch, several species of poplar, the maple (Acer Semeiwvii), and a rich underwood spread over the mountain slopes. Orchards of apple and apricot surround the villages. The meadows are covered with a rich vegetation, numberless bright Pseonise, variegated Scnbiosas, large Convolvulacex, all kinds of CamjMnulsR, dark-coloured Eremurus, splendid UmbellifcrsR, yellow-flowered Gal lium, a mass ofJRosaccx, Althese, Glycyrrhizse, high -stemmed Scorod- osma fcetida, and tall Cframincte. But, as soon as the soil loses its fertile humus, it produces only a few of Phlomis, Alhagi camclorum, Psammee, Salsolaceie, Artemisise, Pcganum, and some poppies and Chamomillse, but only in the spring. The invading steppe plants appear everywhere in patches in the Turkestan meadows. Veiy often almost invariably on the drier southern slopes of the mountains the steppe vegetation climbs xip to the level of the alpine. Nowhere, perhaps, is the effect of various soils loess, clay, salt clay, and sand upon vegetation better observable than in the recently-emerged and arid regions of Turkestan. The "culture " or " apricot " zone is followed by the prairie belt, in which black-earth plants (Stipa and the like) struggle for exist ence against invading Central Asian forms. And then come the lowlands and deserts with their moving sandy barkJians, slwrs, and taJcyrs (see TRANSCASPIAN REGION). Two species of poplar (P. jmiinosa and P. diversifolia), Elseagnits angustifolia, the ash, and a few willows grow along the rivers. Large areas are wholly destitute of vegetation, and after crossing 100 miles of such a desert the traveller will occasionally come upon a forest of saksaul ( Anabasis Ammodendron). Contorted stems, sometimes of consider able thickness, very hard, and covered with a grey cracked bark, rise out of the sand, bearing green plumes of thin branches, with .small greyish leaves and pink fruit. Sometimes the tree is a mere Icnot peeping above the sand with a crown of thin branches. But even these fantastic growths are rapidly being destroyed by the Kirghiz herdsmen, who use them for fuel. 1 In spring, however, the steppe assumes quite another aspect, being covered, except where the sands are shifting, with a rich vegetation. Persian species penetrate into Bokhara and the region of the ipper Amu. Vege- As already stated (p. 635), the climate of Turkestan varies con- table pro- siderably from north to south. In Akmolinsk and Semiryetchensk ducts. most of the kinds of corn which characterize Middle Russia are grown. South of the Tchu and the Syr-Daria gardening is a considerable industry ; and, although rye and wheat continue to be the chief crops, the culture of the apple, and especially of the apricot (uryuk), acquires importance. Attempts are also made to cultivate the vine. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood of Tash- kend and Samarkand, as well as those of the much more northern but better sheltered Kulja oasis, add the cultivation of the almond, pomegranate, and fig. Vines are grown and cotton planted in those districts. Finally, about Khojend and in Ferghana, where the climate is milder still, the vine and the pistachio tree cover the hills, while agriculture and horticulture have reached a high degree of perfection. Successful attempts are now being made to grow the tea-plant in the Transcaspian region. Agri- The arable land, being limited to the irrigated terraces of loess culture, already spoken of, occupies less than a fiftieth of the whole area of West Turkestan, even when the Transcaspian deserts are left out of account. The remainder is nearly equally divided between pasture land and desert (sandy steppe and barren mountain). Owing to a very equitable distribution of irrigation water in accord ance with Moslem law, agriculture and gardening have reached a high stage of development in the oases. Two crops are usually taken every year. 2 Wheat, barley, millet, pease, lentils, rice, sorghum, lucerne, and cotton are the chief agricultural products. Carrots, melons, vegetable marrows, and onions are extensively grown. Rye and oats are cultivated in Kazalinsk and Kopat. Corn is exported. Owing to the irrigation, total failure of crops and consequent famines are unknown, unless among the Kirghiz shepherds. The kitchen gardens of the Mohammedans are, as a rule, admirably kept. Potatoes are grown only by the Russians. The cultivation of cotton is rapidly extending (32,000 acres in 1886), as also is sericulture, which is chiefly carried on in Ferghana, whence silk cocoons are an important item of export. Cattle-breeding is extensively pursued, and in Russian Turkestan alone recent estimates show 400,000 camels, 1,600,000 horses, 1,200,000 cattle, and 11,000,000 sheep. This last figure, however, is but a very rough estimate, the flocks t>n the Kirghiz steppe being so large that the proprietors themselves do not know their 1 See Ol<a Fedtclienko and Prof. Sorokine s drawings of saksaul forests in Album of Views ofRuss. Turkestan also Bull. Soc. Nat. Most., 1884, No. 1. 2 See MiddendorflTs very valuable sketches of agriculture in Ferghana in Idem. Acad. Sc. ofSt Petersburg, 1881. exact numbers. Murrains are of frequent occurrence ; a recent one resulted in a terrible famine among the Kirghiz. Live cattle, hides, wool, camel-hair, tallow, felt, and leather are exported to a considerable extent. The mineral wealth of Turkestan is considerable. Traces of Minerals auriferous sands have been discovered at many places, but the per centage of gold is too poor to make the working remunerative. Silver, lead, and iron ores occur at several places ; but the want of fuel is an obstacle to their exploitation. The vast coal-beds of Kulja and several inferior ones in Turkestan are not yet seriously worked, the total yearly output being only some 120,000 cwts. The naphtha wells of Ferghana and the layers of graphite about Sairani-Nor are also neglected. There are abundant deposits of gypsum, alum, kaolin, marble, and similar materials. Notwith standing the salt springs of Ferghana and Syr-Daria, the salt lakes of the region, and the rock-salt strata of the Alexaudrovsk Mountains, salt is imported. Turkestan has no manufacturing industry carried on by means Industry of machinery, except a few distilleries and two establishments for and dressing raw cotton. But there is a great variety of artisan work, trade, which, however, has been for some time declining and now stands at a rather low level. 8 Trade is very actively carried on. Its importance may be judged by the fact that in 1876 27,900 camels were used for the transport of wares to Tashkend. This town and Bokhara are the chief commercial centres, the principal articles of export to Russia, via Orenburg and Semipalatinsk, being raw cotton and silk, cattle and their products, while manufactured wares are imported in return. There is also an import and export trade to and from Urumtchi and China, via Kulja and Ak-su. Turkestan has been the theatre of so many migrations and con- Ethno- quests that its present population could not fail to be very mixed, graphy. Both Aryans and Mongols (especially the Ural-Altaic branch) have their representatives there, the former settled for the most part, the latter chiefly nomad. The Ural-Altaians, or Turanians, are numerically the predominant element, and consist of Turcomans, Kirghiz, Uzbegs, and Sarts. The Turcomans inhabit chiefly that part of Turkestan which is now known as- the TRANSCASPIAN REGION (q.v.). They number less than one million. The Kara- Kalpaks ("Black Bonnets") may number about 50,000 in Turke stan, and some 300,000 in the Russian empire altogether. Very little is known of their history. They are supposed to be but recent immigrants to Syr-Daria, having come from the former Bulgarian empire on the middle Volga. Their language and habits are the same as those of the Kirghiz ; but for the last century and a half they have had some acquaintance with agricul ture. Their pacific temper exposed them to the raids of the Kirghiz, who compelled them first to settle in Dzungaria, then to change their dwellings several times, and ultimately (in 1742) to recognize the sovereignty of Russia. Even since that time they have been driven by the persecutions of their old enemies to cross the Aral-Caspian steppes and seek refuge near Astrakhan. The real masters of the steppes and highlands of Turkestan are the Kirghiz, of whom there are two branches, the Kazak (Cossack) Kirghiz and the Kara (Black) Kirghiz or Burnt (see KIRGHIZ). The Uzbegs, who played a predominant political part in Turkestan before the Kussian conquest, are of Turco-Tartar origin and speak a pure Jagatai dialect ; but they are mixed to a great extent with Persians, Kirghiz, and Mongols. They are subdivided into clans and lead a semi-nomadic life, preserving most of the attractive features of their Turkish congeners especially their honesty and independ ence. When settled they are mostly designated as Sarts a name which has reference more to manner of life than to anthropological classification, although a much stronger admixture of Iranian blood is evident in the Sarts, who also speak Persian at Khojend and Samarkand. Tarantchi or Taranji ("labourer" in Chinese) is the name given to those Sarts who were settled in the Kulja region by the Chinese Government after the rising of 1758. They constitute about two-fifths of the population of Kulja. After defeating the Dzungans in the year 1865, they took the political power in Kulja into their own hands, offering shelter to the Kirghiz who made inroads on the Russian dominions. This was made a pretext for the annexation of Kulja by Russia in 1871 ; but it has been since restored to China. The origin of the Dzungans is somewhat prob lematical. They number nearly 20,000, and inhabit the valley of the Hi in Kulja and partly are settled in Russian Turkestan. They are Mohammedans, but have adopted Chinese manners of life. The Mongolian branch is represented in Turkestan by Kalmucks and Torgoutes (Torgod) in the north -east and in Kulja, where they are mixed with Solons, Sibos, and Chinese. The Aryan Tajak (see TAJAK), the aborigines of the fertile parts of Turkestan, were subdued by the Turco-Mongolian invaders and partly com pelled to emigrate to the mountains, where they are now known as Galtchas. The) constitute the intellectual element of the country and are the principal owners of the irrigated land, the Uzbegs being their labourers, merchants, and mollahs or priests. They are Sunnite Mussulmans. The other representatives of Aryan See N. Mayefl"s Turkestan Exhibition of 1886, Tashkend, 1886. EAST.] TURKESTAN 637 race in Turkestan are a few Persians, mostly liberated slaves ; Indians, who carry on trade and usury in the cities ; a few Gipsies ; and the Russians. Among these last two distinct elements must be noticed, the Cossacks, who are settled on the borders of the Kirghiz steppe and have assumed many Kirghiz features, 1 and the peasant-settlers who are beginning to colonize the valley of the Hi and to spread farther south. Exclusive of the military, the Russians number about 75,000, nearly two-thirds being in Semiryetchensk (Cossacks and peasants). Sties. Turkestan has no lack of populous cities, which, notwithstanding recent vicissitudes, continue to be important for their trade, while several others are widely famous for the part they have played in history. KnoKAND, 2 MARGHILAN, Namangan, and Andijan in Ferghana ; TASHKEXD and KHOJEND in Syr-Daria ; SAMARKAND in Zerafshan; BOKHARA and KHIVA in the independent khanates have each from 30,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. General Populous cities adorned with fine monuments of Arabian archi- coiidi- tecture, numerous ruins of cities decayed, grand irrigation canals tion of now lying dry, and written monuments of Arabian literature testify the to a time when civilization in Turkestan stood at a much higher country, level than at present. This period was during the first centuries after its conversion to Islam. Now all is in decay. The beautiful mosques and madrasas are dilapidated ; no astronomers watch the sky from the tops of their minarets ; and the scholars of the madrasas waste their time on the most deplorably puerile scholas ticism. The inspiration of early belief has disappeared ; the ruling motive of the mollahs (priests) is the thirst for personal enrichment, and the people no longer follow the khojas (see p. 639 below). The agricultural labourer has preserved the uprightness, diligence, and sobriety which characterize the Turkish peasant in Asia as well as in Europe ; but the richer inhabitants of the cities are grossly sensual. Centuries of wars, followed by massacres and cruel vengeance, an unceasing civil strife between parties disputing for supremacy in the name of religion, conspiracies, appeals to foreigners, and endless intrigues have hastened the decay of Mohammedan civilization in the khanates of Turkestan and paved the way for Russian conquest. Effects of It remains, however, an open question whether the Russians will Russian be able to bring new vigour to the country and awaken intellectual influence, life. They have failed to do so in eastern Russia, at Kazan, and elsewhere, where both civilizations the European and the Asiatic remain as thoroughly estranged from one another as they were three centuries ago. This estrangement is not merely religious, but social and economical. The followers of Islam, whose common law and religion know only of a temporary possession of the land, which belongs wholly to the Prophet, cannot accept the principles of unlimited property in land which European civilization has borrowed from Roman law ; to do so would put an end to all public irrigation works, and to the system by which water is used according to each family s needs, and so would be fatal to agricul ture. When taking possession of Turkestan, the Russians began to grant deeds establishing property rights over land in accordance with Roman law. But a study of the Mohammedan system soon put an end to so erroneous a policy, and Mussulman law is still respected. The Russians have abolished slavery in Turkestan ; and their rule has put an end to the interminable intestine straggles, which had weakened and desolated the whole region. The barbar ous tortures and executions which rendered Khiva notorious in the East are no longer heard of; and the continual appeals of the khojas for "holy" war against their rivals find no response. But the Russian rule has imposed many new taxes, in return for which Turkestan only gets troops of Russian merchants and officials, who, instead of becoming the exponents of what is best in European civilization, too often accept the worst features of the depraved Mussulman civilization of the higher classes of the country. New tribunals and new justices of the peace are about to be introduced (1887) ; schools are being diligently spread ; but the wants of the natives are set behind those of the children of the Russian officials and merchants and the supposed necessities of Russification. A consulting hospital for Mohammedan women has recently been opened by women graduates in medicine at Tashkend.
EAST TURKESTAN.
As already stated, by this name we designate that vast depression in the great plateau of eastern Asia which lies between the Tian-Shan Mountains in the north-west ; the steep slopes of the Pamir and of the Tibet plateau, bordered by the Kuen-Lun, in the south-west and south ; the Attyn-Tagh in the south-east as far as Lake Lob-Nor ; and in the north-east the still imperfectly known mountains Bound aries. 1 See Collection of Papers on Turkestan, St Petersburg, 1876, by MM. Syevertsoff and Khoroshkin. - Each of these towns in small capitals is described in a separate article. which run east-south-east from the Tian-Shan, having the Bagratch-kul on their northern slope. 3 Farther east the Kuruk-Tagh and the steep slope of the Gashufi Gobi separate East Turkestan from the higher terrace of the plateau, so that about Lob-Nor the Tarim depression is narrowed to a width of about 100 miles ; and on the 98th meridian, at Lake Tchin-shen-ho, the steep edge of the Gobi meets the spurs of the Nan-Shan Mountains. 4 This region has been and still is designated by a variety of names, such as the Tangut Plain, West Gobi (a most in appropriate name, as already pointed out by Bitter), Alty- shar or Jity-shar (the land of six or seven cities), Little Bokharia, Kashgaria, and so on. In its physical features it forms a connecting link between the Chinese territories and the Aral-Caspian depression. It covers about 465,000 square miles, but has hardly more than 1,000,000 inhabit ants. Although lying at a high altitude (Kashgar 4000 feet Physical and Yarkand 4120 feet), it has the character of a depres- fcatures - sion in comparison, not only with the mountains, but also with the lofty plateaus which surround it, Tibet, Pamir, and the Tian-Shan syrts. It has a general slope towards the east, and its lowest portions (formerly occupied by a great lacustrine basin) are only 2600 feet above the sea. 5 At its north-east edge, i.e., at the foot of the remotest offshoots of the Tian-Shan, M. Prjevalsky measured an altitude of only 2600 feet. Its average altitude ranges from 3100 to 3700 feet, increasing to 4200 at its outer rim. No mountains or hills diversify its surface, which is that of a high plain. All the mountains which enclose it rise to considerable heights, far above the snow line. The steep slopes of the Pamir culminate in Tagharma Peak (25,360 feet). In the north the snowclad Kokshat-tau and Kirghiznyn Ala-tau form a series of uninterrupted chains, which reach a height of 24,000 feet in the Khan- Tengri and have at their southern base the broad and high alpine plateaus, or syrts, of which the Yufduz, dotted with lakes, has acquired historical fame as the meeting- place of the armies of Timur before his Dzungarian march. On the southern borders of East Turkestan, in the Kuen- Lun and Karakorum Mountains, is the Dapsang one of the highest peaks of the globe ; and farther east the Attyn- Tagh and the Nan -Shan (with Humboldt and Hitter ranges), which are among the highest mountains of Asia, separate it from the lofty Chaidam or Tsaidam plateau. 6 East Turkestan is thus secluded by high mountains and plateaus from the rest of the continent. Even the few Passes, passes which lead to it climb to altitudes of 14,000 feet. It is open only towards the east, where it is connected with the Gobi depression. Its position as the highway from China to West Turkestan and the Dzungarian empire has made it known, though only very imperfectly until lately, through Chinese documents, the narratives of the journeys of Buddhist missionaries, and the travels of Marco Polo, Rubruquis, and a few Jesuits. From a remote antiquity it was crossed by caravans going from China to Lake Balkash, Ferghana, and the Oxus. The route, after crossing the Gobi, proceeded either to the Dzungarian Gate, or, via Kashgar, to the high passes of Terek-Davan and Muz-art, which led to Ferghana and Issyk-kul. Both passes have a wide renown in Central Asia, the latter especially, on account of its difficulties, one of which is a 3 See the map of Asia, by A. Petermann, in Stieler s Ha No. 58, where the orography of Asia is represented, in the present writer s opinion, in a more trustworthy manner than on other maps of Asia. 4 See map to Prjevalsky s fourth journey in Izvestia of Russ. Geogr. Soc., 1887. 5 Barometrically observed, the possible error being about 300 feet. 6 Prjevalsky, Reisen in Tibet und am oberen Laufe des Gelben Fhisses, Jena, 1884. 638 TURKESTAN [EAST. huge glacier, which has to be ascended with the help of the ice axe. River One river only, the Tarim now lost in the marshes of Tarim. Lob-Nor and its tributaries, water this region. It is formed by the confluence of several rivers flowing from the semicircle of mountains which fence in East Turkestan on the south, west, and north. The Kashgar-Daria rises under the name of Kizil-su on the Atai. The Yarkand- Daria has its origin in a high valley between the Kuen- Lun and Karakorum Mountains, at the base of Dapsang, from several streams, such as the auriferous Zerafshan, which is fed by the glaciers of the Karakorum pass ; after piercing the Kuen-Lun, it enters the plain, where its waters are soon diverted to the fields and gardens of the Yarkand oasis. The Khotan-Daria rises farther east in the same valley, and also pierces the Kuen-Lun, its two branches the Kara-kash and Urung-kash being renowned for their " black " and " white " jade. This river only reaches the Tarim during the summer. The Tian-Shan Mountains contain the sources of several feeders of the Tarim ; but some of them no longer reach the main stream. The Kizil-Kunghei disappears after having watered Utch-Turf an (Uj -Turf an) ; the Ak-su meets the Khotan-Daria at its junction with the Tarim; but the Baidu-gol and the Kutcha are lost in Lakes Baba-kul and Sary-kamysh. From the Yutduz plateau comes the Haidu-gol, which flows past Kara-Shar and enters the Bagratch-kul Lake, whence it issues under the name of Kontcha-Daria, and, crossing the east of East Turkestan from north to south, joins the marshes of Lob-Nor ; thus the long-doubted con nexion between these two lakes the northern and the southern really exists. The Tarim is navigable for steamers from the confluence of the Yarkand and Khotan Deserts, rivers all the way to Lob-Nor. 1 These rivers, however, do not bring life to the immense deserts, the aspect of which recalls partly the Aral-Caspian depression and partly the Mongolian Gobi. Their undulating surface is covered with a gravelly soil, out of which all the finer particles have been winnowed by the wind, and it resounds under the hoofs of the passing hordes ; grass covers it only in the beginning of spring. Here and there occur clayey deposits with an efflorescence of salt, which is hard in summer but impassable after rains. Then come immense areas of loose sand, which is raised in clouds by storms of wind, and the hills of which, moving on like waves, invade the cultivated fields that have been conquered by laborious effort from the desert. The features with which the traveller in the Sahara, or on the plateau of eastern Iran about Lake Zareh (Hamun) is familiar, are here reproduced on the same large scale. The Takla-makan desert north of Khotan covers 93,000 square miles an area nearly equal to that of Great Britain. As one approaches Lob-Nor, and thus touches upon territory that has emerged at a still more recent epoch, the desert becomes still drearier and still less passable on account of the shifting sands. Lob-Nor now consists of two basins ; but the largest of them, although it has an area four times as large as that of the Lake of Geneva, can hardly be called a lake, since its greatest depth is less than 20 feet, while reeds rise 20 feet above the thin film of water and extend far beyond its shores. In fact the whole of the region, notwithstanding its considerable altitude above the ocean, has but recently emerged from under water. During the later portion of the Tertiary period it was covered with an immense Mediterranean sea, and even during the Post -Pliocene period was occupied by a lake. But, as we see on a smaller scale in Finland and Sweden, where the higher 1 At the confluence the Tarim has at low water a depth of 3 to 5 feet and a width of 190 yards ; towards Lob-Nor the depth increases to 14 feet (Prjevalsky, in Izvestia of Russ. Geog. Soc., 1887). lacustrine depressions are more advanced in the process of desiccation than those situated at lower levels, so in Central Asia the more elevated Tarim region is more advanced in its desiccation than the Balkash basin, and this latter again is in a more advanced stage of the same process than the Aral -Caspian depression. The desiccation of East Turkestan must have gone on, however, within historical times at a much more rapid rate than geologists seem pre pared to admit. East Turkestan has not always been the desert it now is. Many cities, in which Greek and Byzan tine coins have been found, lie buried beneath the sands, and in one of these Buddhist statues have been discovered. Indeed it is very probable that the great migration of the first centuries of our era resulted from the necessity of abandoning East Turkestan. The climate is severe : a cold winter follows a burning summer. Climate. A few showers slightly moisten the surface in spring ; but the summer and autumn are rainless. The air is continually charged with dust, and often with sand. The vegetation of the interior of East Turkestan is very poor, Flora, being the same as that of the steppes of West Turkestan. On the sandy hills are some tamarisks and Elseagnus, rapidly being used up as fuel ; along the rivers are copses of poplars, which have diffi culty in maintaining themselves, because no humus gathers in their shade, the dry leaves being blown away by the storms and scattered as dust over the desert ; and, finally, along the old beds of rivers and lakes grow dense and rank beds of reeds, where the wild boar has his habitat. Immense areas are covered with Salsolaceee, and the gravelly ground is clothed in spring with a rich carpet of grass. The oases possess all the plants which are cultivated in West Turkestan, the mulberry, walnut, pear, apple, apricot, olive, and vine. Cotton, rice, maize, millet, and wheat are grown ; and MiddendorfFs 2 remark, that on the edge of the desert we find the best cultivated fields and the richest gardens" is still more appli cable to the oases of East than to those of West Turkestan. But outside the oases desolation reigns. Wind freely modifies the sur face, carrying away the finest particles of the gravelly soil, breaking down the barkfuins as soon as man has destroyed the vegetation which grew on them, and lifting the sand into the air and whirling it along in columns of the most fantastic shapes. As a rale, the mammals are not numerous, and the fauna closely Fauna, resembles that of the Tian-Shan. It seems to be owing to the loneliness of its deserts that East Turkestan has preserved the wild ancestors of our domestic animals. Besides the wild ass (Equ-us hemiomis), Prjevalsky discovered in the Dzungarian steppes the wild horse the real ancestor of our domestic horse and on the plateau of Tsaidam the wild camel and the wild yak. 3 Raw cotton and silk are exported to a considerable amount ; but Indus- of manufactured cottons only a rough mala is sent to Semiryetchensk tries and for the Kirghiz. Some silk wares, carpets, and silk "grain" are minerals, exported from Khotan, leather-ware from Yarkand, polished and copper ware from Ak-su, and small iron ware from Kutcha. Stock- breeding is of paramount importance, and cattle, asses, camels, and sheep are reared in considerable numbers. Mineral resources are not wanting, but the mining industiy is in a primitive condition. Gold is obtained from alluvial deposits at Kiria, coal at Kashgar, jade in Khotan, and sulphur and saltpetre at Utch-Turfan. It is only along the base of the mountains, where there is a fringe Oases, of loess, and where streams bring the necessary moisture, that human settlements have sprung up, or rather maintained them selves until now. The series of oases skirts the base of the Tian- Shan and the Kuen-Lun. Kashgar stands at the apex of the angle made by those two ranges, while Yanghi-hissar, Yarkand, Khotan, and Kiria lie along the Kuen-Lun, and Utch-Turfan, Ak-su, Bai, Kutcha, Kurta, Karashar, and Turfan along the Tian-Shan. Many miles of desert separate these oases from each other ; and their population could be, and has been, much greater than it is, for there is no lack of water in the streams which rise beneath the snow covering of the mountains. The various oases, which are named after their chief towns, have always been nearly independent of each other. Still, in the course of their much disturbed history, Khotan, Yarkand, Kashgar, and Ak-su, one after another acquired a kind of supremacy over the rest. At present Yarkand and Kash gar are the most important. The city of Yarkand has nearly 60,000 inhabitants ; it is surrounded by walls, and has a separate fort, Yanghi-hissar ; ruins of old settlements are scattered around. Its Chinese merchants carry on an active trade, and the Turkish popu lation are breeders of cattle on an extensive scale. Wheat, barley, rice, beans, sorghum, mulberries, and a variety of fruit trees are 2 Op. cit. 8 Prjevalsky, Reisen in Tibet, &c. ; and Wilkins (naturalist of M. Kuropatkin s expedition) in the Russian periodical Priroda, 1887, No. 3. EAST.] TURKESTAN 639 grown in the gardens. KASHGAR (q.v. ), surrounded by a series of ]>opulous villages, is the chief commercial centre, owing to its posi tion on the highway to Lake Issyk-kul. It is surrounded by forts, one standing at the confluence of the Kashgar and Yarkand rivers. KHOTAN (q.v.) or Iltchi (also Yu-thian), a very populous city under the Han dynasty of China (206 B.O.-1 A.D.), has much declined of late. It is renowned for its gold mines, and especially for its jade and its musk. Copper kettles, carpets, some silk, and felt ware are manufactured. Sanju (7000 houses), Kilian, Pialma, Guma, Kargatyk, and Posgan, on the sloj>es of the Kuen-Lun between Yarkand and Khotan, are the richest parts of the region. Naya, Kiria, Tchira, all on small rivers flowing from the Kuen-Lun, con tinue the line of oases towards the east, terminating in Tchertchen, which now consists of but a few score of houses. The oases at the base of the Tian-Shan are Utch-Turfan (Ust-Turfan), Ak-su (formerly the capital of Sairam), Bai, Kutcha with Shah-yar, Bugur, Kurta, Karashar, and Turfan. Their inhabitants grow corn to a consider able amount, and keep numerous herds of cattle and flocks of sheep. The chief exports are wool, fowls, and the horns of the maral deer. Ou the lower Tarim, where a few settlements, supported chiefly by fishing, continue to struggle against the encroaching desert, the ruins of formerly populous towns testify that the region was not always the dreary waste it now is. The population is mixed, Aryans and Turanians being thoroughly intermingled. On the slopes of the Pamir, about Sary-kol, there is a purely Aryan population of Persian Galtchas. Kirghiz and Kara- Kirghiz inhabit the slopes of the Tian-Shan. Kalmucks occur in the north-east ; and in the central parts the population consists of Turkish Sarts and Uzbegs and of Persian Tajak, the Mongolian clement increasing towards the north-east The language is Turkish, like that spoken in West Turkestan, with several varieties of patois and a considerable addition of Chinese words. As a rule, the inhabitants of East Turkestan have an air of jioverty. There are no rich mosques in their towns, such as those of Samarkand and Bokhara ; the houses are of unbaked brick and poorly furnished. The dress is that customary in West Turkestan. But the habits of the people differ to some extent and the women enjoy greater liberty than in other Mohammedan countries : they go in the streets unveiled ; free marriages, contracted for short terms, are not un- frequent. As a rule, the position of women is more independent a feature noticed even by the earliest travellers in the country. The aggregate population of East Turkestan, estimated between 575,000 and 1,500,000 in 1825, is now (1887) hardly more than 1 ,000,000. Kuropatkin estimates it at 1,200,000, Forsyth at 600,000. The population of the chief towns may be stated approximately as follows Yarkand, 60,000 ; Kashgar, 50,000 ; Khotan, 40,000 ; Sanju, 35,000 ; Ak-su, 20,000 ; Kiria, 15,000 ; Yanghi-hissar, 10,000 ; Kargatyk, 10,000 ; Kurta, 6000. It appears very probable that at the dawn of history East Turke stan was inhabited by an Aryan population, the ancestors of the present Slavonic and Teutonic races, and that a civilization not inferior to that of Bactriana had already developed at that time in the region of the Tarim. l Our knowledge, however, of the history of the region is very fragmentary until about the beginning of the Christian era. When the Huns (Hiong-nu) occupied west and east Mongolia in 177 B.C., they drove before them the Yue-chi (Yutes, Yetes, or Ghetes), who divided into two hordes, one of which in vaded the valley of the Indus, while the other met the Sacse in East Turkestan and drove them over the Tian-Shan into the valley of the Hi. Thus by the beginning of our era the Tarim region had a mixed population of Aryans and Ural-Altaians, some being settled agriculturists and others nomads. There were also several inde- lendent cities, of which Khotan was the most important. One portion of the Aryans emigrated and settled in what is now Wakhan (on the Pamir plateau), the present language of which seems very old, dating anterior to the separation of the Yedic and Zend languages. In the 1st century the Chinese extended their rule westwards over East Turkestan as far as Kashgar. But their dominion seems to have been merely nominal, for it was soon shaken off. By the end of the 5th century the western parts fell under the sway of the "White Huns" or Ephthalites, while the eastern parts were under Tangut (Thygun) dominion. The Chinese, how ever, still retained the region about Lob- Nor. Buddhism penetrated into the country at an early date ; but in East Turkestan there were also followers of Zoroastrianism, of Nestorian Christianity,
- ind even of Manichseism. An active trade was carried on by means
i Such is the conclusion reached by Lassen (Indische Alterthttmskiinde), and supported by M. Grigorieff (Hitter s Asien in Russ. transl. ; Addenda to "East Turkestan," in Russian). In connexion with the objection based upon the sub-boreal character of the regions which were the cradle of the Aryans, as I roved by the so-called palaeontology of the Aryan languages, it may be ob served that by the end of the Glacial, and during the earlier Lacustrine (Post- (Macial) period, the vegetation of Turkestan and of Central Asia was quite different from what it is now. It was Siberian or north European. The researches by M. Krasnoff (see above, p. 635) as to the characters of the former flora of the Tian-Shan, and the changes it has undergone in consequence of the extremely rapid desiccation of Central Asia, must be carefully borne in mind in all speculations founded upon the testimony of language as to the original home of the Aryans. of numerous caravans. The civilization and political organization of the country were dominated by the Chinese, but were also in fluenced to some extent by Gneco-Bactrian civilization. Buddhism spread rapidly in the south-west, and the study of Pali became widely diffused. Our information as to the state of the country from the 2d century to the first half of the 7th is slight, and is chiefly derived from the Journeys of the Buddhist pilgrim Fa-hien in 399, Song-yun in 518, and Hwen-t sang in 629. By this time Buddhism had reached its culminating point : in Khotan there were 100 monasteries and 5000 monks, and the Indian sacred literature was widely diffused ; but already there were tokens of its decay. Even theil the eastern parts of the Tarim basin seem to have been growing less and less populous. To the east of Khotan cities which were prosperous when visited by Song-yun had a century later fallen into ruins, while their inhabitants had migrated westwards. Legend has it that all the inhabitants of Go-lao-lo-tsia were buried in a sandstorm, and this seems to be but a poetical way of represent ing a phenomenon which was steadily going on in East Turkestan. Little is known about these regions during the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries. In the 7th century the Tibetan king, Srong-btsan, with the help of the western Turks, subjugated the western part of the Tarim basin. During the following century the Mohammedans under Kotaiba, after several excursions into West Turkestan, took Samarkand, Ferghana, Tashkend, and Khokand (712-713), and invaded East Turkestan, penetrating as far as Turfan and China. The Chinese supremacy was not shaken by these invasions. But, on the outbreak of internal disturbances in China, the Tibetans took possession of the western provinces of China, and intercepted the communications of the Chinese with Kashgaria, so that they had to send their troops through the lands of the Hui-khe (Hoei-ke, or Hoei-hu). In 790 the Tibetans were masters of East Turkestan ; but their rule was never strong, and towards the 9th century we find the country under the Hoi-he. Who these people were is somewhat uncertain. According to Chinese documents, they came from the Selenga ; but most Orientalists identify them with the Uigurs. In the opinion of M. Grigorieff, whom we follow in this sketch, 2 the Turks who succeeded the Chinese in the western parts of East Turkestan were the Karluk Turks, who extended farther south-west up to Kashmir, while the north-eastern parts of the Tarim region were subdued by the Uigurs. Soon Mongolian hordes, the Kara-Kitais, entered East Turkestan (llth aentury), and then penetrated into West Turkestan, Khiva falling under their dominion. During the following century Jenghiz Khan overran China, Turke stan, India, Persia, Kussia, and Hungary; Kashgaria fell under his rule in 1220, though not without strenuous resistance followed by massacres. The Mongolian rule was, however, not very heavy, the Mongols merely exacting tribute. In fact, Kashgaria flourished under them, and the fanaticism of Islam was considerably abated. Women again acquired greater independence, and the religious toleration then established permitted Christianity and Buddhism to spread freely. This state of affaire lasted until the 14th century, when Tughlak Tiinur, who extended his dominions to the Kuen- Lun, accepted Islam. He transferred his capital from Ak-su to Kashgar, and had a summer residence on the banks of Issyk-kul. His son reigned at Samarkand, but was overthrown by Timur-lang (see TIMTJE), and the reign of the great conqueror was a fertile source of suffering to the region. To put an end to the attacks of the wild Tian-Shan tribes, he undertook in 1389 his renowned march to Dzungaria, which was devastated ; East Turkestan also suffered severely. The re-introduction of Islam was of no benefit to the Tarim region. In the 14th and 15th centuries Bokhara and Samarkand became centres of Moslem scholarship, and sent great numbers of their learned doctors to Kashgaria. Rubruquis, who visited East Turkestan in 1254, Marco Polo between 1271 and 1275, and Hois in 1680, all bore witness to great religious tolerance ; but this entirely disappeared with the invasion of the Bokhariau mollahs. They created in East Turkestan the power of the khojas, who afterwards fomented the many intestine wars waged between the rival factions of the White and the Black Mountaineers. In the 17th century a powerful Kalmuck confederation arose in Dzungaria, and extended its sway over the Hi and Issyk-kul basins, having its capital on the Hi. To this power or to the Kirghiz the "Whites " and "Blacks" alternately appealed in their struggles, in which Yarkand supported the latter and Kashgar the former. These struggles paved the way for a Chinese invasion, which was supported by the White khojas of Kashgar. The Chinese entered Dzungaria in 1758, and there perpetrated a terrible massacre, the victims being estimated at one million. The Kalmucks fled and Dzungaria be came a Chinese province, with a military colonization of Sibos, Solons, Dahurs, Chinese criminals, and Moslem Dzungars. The Chinese next re-conquered East Turkestan, marking their progress by massacres and transporting 12,500 partisans of independence to the Hi valley. Hereupon the dissentient khojas fled to Khokand and there gathered armies of malcontents and fanatic followers of 2 See Hitter s Asien, " East Turkestan " (Russ. trans.), ii. 282 ; also Kurnjiat-
kin s Kashgaria. Islam. Several times they succeeded in overthrowing the Chinese rule in 1825, in 1830, and in 1847 but their successes were never permanent. After the “rebellion of the seven khojas” in 1847 nearly 20,000 families from Kashgar, Yarkand, and Ak-su fled to West Turkestan through the Terek-Davan pass, many of them perishing on the way. In 1857 another insurrection broke out; but a few months later the Chinese again took Kashgar (for the details see Kashgar). In the course of the Dzungarian outbreak of 1864 the Chinese were again expelled; and Yakub Beg became master of Kashgar in 1872. But five years later he had again to sustain war with China, in which he was defeated, and East Turkestan once more became a Chinese province.
Bibliography.—The literature on Turkestan has of late years become very voluminous, especially in the form of papers scattered through the periodicals published by the European Geographical Societies and other scientific bodies. The reader is referred to the following works as fitted to facilitate research. Vols. vi. and vii. of Elisée Reclus’s Géographie Universelle contain maps showing the routes of the chief explorers. Prof. Mushketoff’s Turkestan (in Russian, vol. i. 1886) contains an excellent critical analysis of all explorations of Turkestan and works thereupon, and the information they contain with regard to the physical geography and geology of West Turkestan. Prof. Grigorieff’s addenda to Ritter’s Asien embody the whole of the older and more modern researches into the geography and history of East Turkestan down to 1873. Amu and Uzboi (Saratoff, 1879), by the chief of the Amu-Daria expedition, and Bogdanoff’s Review of Expeditions and Explorations in the Aral-Caspian Region from 1720 to 1874 (St Petersburg, 1875) are most useful works. Prof. Lenz’s paper "Ueber den früheren Lauf des Amu-Daria", in Mem. Acad. Sc. St Petersburg, discusses valuable information borrowed from ancient sources. Mezhoff’s Turkestanskiy Sbornik is a catalogue of the Central-Asian library at Tashkend, and his annual "Index" contains full classified lists of Russian geographical literature. Of works of a general character, with descriptions of both regions (apart from travels), the following, arranged in chronological order, are worthy of mention:—Semenoff’s "Tian-Shan," being vol. i. of Ritter’s Asien (Russ. trans., 1856); Grigorieff’s "East Turkestan," forming two vols. of Ritter’s Asien (Russ. transl., 1869 and 1873); Syevertsoff’s "Vertical and Horizontal Distribution of Mammalia in Turkestan," in Izvestia Lub. Est. of Moscow, 1873; Wenjukoff’s Die Russisch-Asiatischen Grenzlande (trans. from Russian by Krahmer, Leipsic, 1874); Hellwald’s Centralasien, 1875; Petzholdt’s Umschau im Russ. Turk., 1877; Kuropatkin’s Kashgaria, 1879 (partially translated into French); Kostenko’s Turkestanskiy Krai, 3 vols., 1880, very copious translations from which are embodied in Lansdell’s Central Asia, but unhappily too intimately combined with less useful information; Schlagintweit’s Reisen in Indien und Hochasien, vol. iii., East Turkestan; Prjevalsky’s three journeys to Central Asia (the first two translated into English; all three in German); Olga Fedtchenko’s Album of Views of Russ. Turk., 1885; Nalivkin’s History of the Khanate of Kokand (in Russ.), Kazan, 1885; Vambéry’s Das Türkenvolk, 1885; Roskoschny’s Afghanistan u. angrenz. Länder (for Afghan Turk.); and Mushketoff’s Turkestan, vol. i. (in Russian), 1886. (p. a. k.)
- ↑ In the map (issued October 1887) embodying the results of Prjevalsky’s fourth journey, East Turkestan is plainly demarcated from the Gobi. This last falls by a steep slope towards the Tarim depression, which narrows to the east of Lob-Nor and terminates about Añ-si, some 4800 feet above sea-level.
- ↑ See also the following maps:—Himalaya, vol. xi. Pl. XVI.; Siberia, vol. xxii. Pl. I.; and Tibet, Pl. IV. above.
- ↑ Separate portions of it are described under Afghanistan, Bokhara, Khiva, Oxus, Syr-Daria, Semipalatinsk, Semiryetchensk, Transcaspian Region, Zerafshan.
