B U C H A R I A. 



Bucharia. rhubarb, and great droves of sheep and horses ; for 

 t.i ,-"J which they receive in return, cloth, leather, hard- 

 ware, beads, indigo, cochineal, and furniture for their 

 horses. To Pekin they carry large cornelians of a beau- 

 tiful red colour, rough diamonds and other kinds of 

 jewels, also gold dust and musk ; which they ex- 

 change for fox and beaver skins, sable and other 

 furs, damasks, cotton, and European cloths. They 

 buy also tea, tobacco, and great quantities of earthen 

 ware. The towns of Bucharia are also frequented 

 by the merchants of Russia, Persia, India, and the 

 northern provinces of China ; but the merchandise 

 which they bring there is very inconsiderable, and 

 they sometimes even remain two years before it is 

 disposed of. Persian coins are current in this coun- 

 try, and the highest piece of money that is struck in 

 Bucharia, is the tanga, equal nearly to a crown of 

 our money. It is of very fine silver, round, having 

 the name of the khan on the one side, and on the 

 reverse the name of the country, with the year of the 

 hegira. The other coins are small brass pieces of 

 different values. 



History. The e?rly history of this country is involved in 



great obscurity and uncertainty, particularly for some 

 centuries after its subjugation by the Scythians; and 

 for an account of the transactions in which it was en- 

 gaged before that period, we refer our readers to the 

 articles BACTRIA and SOGDIANA. The Scythians first 

 took possession of Bucharia about 120 years before 

 the Christian aera ; and their kings held the dominion 

 of this country during the reigns of the Roman Ern- 

 perors Adrian, Antoninus Pius, and Valerian. They 

 were, however, expelled in their turn, by a division 

 of the Huns, who, being driven from their native 

 seats in the north, by the arms of the Sicupi and the 

 policy of the Chinese, sought in the western world 

 for some remote country, inaccessible to the power 

 of their inveterate enemies: (See HUNS.) Before the 

 end of the first century, they had established their 

 dominion in Sogdiana, where they still preserved their 

 original appellation, with the epithet Ephthalites, or 

 Nephthalites. By a long residence of twelve centuries 

 in this mild and fertile country, and by their conver- 

 sion to the religion of Islam, their manners had been 

 softened, and their features insensibly improved ; and 

 the white Huns, as they were called, from the change 

 of their complexions, had forgot the servitude and 

 the pastoral life of their ancestors. Their king lived 

 in all the splendour, and enjoyed all the authority of 

 an eastern monarch, and his power extended from the 

 Persian Gulf to the borders of India and Turkistan. 

 Wealthy and populous cities pervaded the whole of 

 Maweralnahr, and supplied him with a powerful ar- 

 my ; and their bravery and discipline established him 

 the first of the Moslem princes. But in the begin- 

 ning of the thirteenth century, the pride and cruelty 

 of Sultan Mohammed hastened his downfal, and the 

 destruction of his country. A caravan of three am- 

 bassadors, and one hundred and fifty merchants, had 

 been dispatched by the great Zengis, Emperer of 

 the Moguls, to establish a friendly and commercial 

 intercourse with the sovereign of Bucharia. His of- 

 fer was rejected with scorn, and his caravan arrested 

 and murdered at Otrar, by the command of Moham- 

 med. Zengis knew the strength and discipline of 



his enemy ; and it was not till after a demand and de- Bucharia. 

 nial ofjustice, that he determined to revenge the in- 

 sult offered to his person and to his subjects. Seven 

 hundred thousand Moguls advanced to the reduction 

 of Bucharia, and encountered on the plains of Tur- 

 kestan the army of Mohammed, consisting of 400,000 

 Moslems, ihe first battle was suspended by the 

 night ; but the Moslems were routed, with the loss 

 of 160,000 soldiers. The native fierceness of the 

 Moguls was exasperated by the pretence of justice, 

 and the incensed Zengis indulged the rapine of his 

 followers. The strongest cities were unable to with- 

 stand their fury. They overran and desolated a tract 

 of many hundred miles, adorned with the habitations 

 and labours of the Buchanans ; and the country re- 

 ceived the name and the dominion of Zagatai, the se- 

 cond son of the Emperor Zengis. 



For more than a century, the successors of this 

 prince reigned in Bucharia ; but the extinction of 

 the royal line, and the domestic feuds of the emirs, 

 offered their country an easy conquest to the khan 

 of Cashgar, who, with an army of Calmucks, soon 

 established his dominion in Maweralnahr. His suc- 

 cess, however, was but of short duration. Tamer- 

 lane had appeared at the head of the Bucharian emirs, 

 and, after expelling the Calmucks from his country, 

 was invested, in a general diet, with the imperial 

 command, and seated on the throne of Zagatai. In 

 secure possession of a great empire, Tamerlane dis- 

 dained the repose of peace ; and though he laboured 

 to cultivate and adorn the country of his birth, yet 

 the restless energies of his mind found their suitable 

 employment only in desolating and subduing the na- 

 tions of the earth. He soon united to his empire the 

 countries of Kharism and Candahar, and turning to- 

 wardsPersia. hedid not stop until he had reduced twen- 

 ty-seven kingdoms to his authority, and established 

 Samarcand the first capital of the world. Indulging 

 in a short repose from the toils of conquest, he em- 

 ployed his riches in the building of palaces and tem- 

 ples, and he displayed his magnificence and power to 

 the ambassadors of Tartary, India, Egypt, Arabia, 

 Persia, and Spain. But China was still unsubdued ; 

 and the aged monarch, with a select army of 200,000 

 veteran soldiers, again unfurled his standard for the 

 invasion of that distant kingdom. The severity of 

 winter could not retard his departure. He passed 

 the Sihon on the ice, and after marching 300 miles 

 from his capital, pitched his camp for the last time in 

 the neighbourhood of Otrar. A fever, with which 

 he had been seized on his journey, was accelerated by 

 cold and fatigue ; and the conqueror and scourge of 

 Asia expired in his tent, in the seventieth year of his 

 age. His death arrested the expedition ; China was 

 saved ; and with his life expired the glory of Samar- 

 cand. His children were unable to uphold such a 

 mighty empire. They soon became the enemies of 

 each other, and the oppressors rather than the pro- 

 tectors of the people ; and before the end of a cen- 

 tury, the descendants of Tamerlane were expelled 

 from Bucharia by the Usbeck Tartars, who, in 

 1494, founded a powerful monarchy in that country. 

 Successive princes wielded the sceptre from 1494 to 

 1658, when this extensive and fertile kingdom was 

 soon after broken into several governments, under nu- 



