BOKHARA. 



BOKHARA. 



10 



The difficulties which oppose the progress of vessels near Cape 

 Bojador was the reason why the Portuguese navigators in the begin- 

 ing of the 15th century employed eighteen years in discovering the 

 coast between Cape Nun and Cape Bojador. Though the former had 

 been doubled in 1415, it was not till 1432 or 1433 that Gilianes suc- 

 ceeded in passing the second. The name Bajador is Portuguese, and 

 means ' a round cape.' 



(Barros, History of Asia and the India, i. 24 ; Rennell's Invuti- 

 gativn of the Currents ; Jackson's Account of Afarocco.) 



BOKHA'RA, a country situated in Central Asia between 36 and 

 42 N. lat., 63 and 70 E. long., was by the Greeks and Romans 

 called Sogdiana or Transoxiana, and by Persian and Arabian authors 

 Mawaralnahr. It is bounded N. by the desert of Kizil Koom and 

 the khanat of Khokand, E. by Kunduz and Badakshan, S. by Cabul, 

 and W. by the desert of Kharism, which extending on both sides of 

 the Oxus joins the desert of Kizil Koom, and separates Bokhara from 

 Khiwa. The area is estimated at 235,000 square miles, and the popu- 

 lation at 2,500,000, of whom 1,500,000 are Uzbeks. 



Surface. Bokhara forms the south-eastern corner of that remark- 

 able depression which extends northward to Saratow on the Volga in 

 Southern Russia, and southward to the Hindu-Koosh. The surface 

 of this extensive depression, which occupies all the countries to the 

 north and east of the Caspian Sea and those surrounding the Sea of 

 n all sides to a great distance, is nearly a desert, the soil of 

 which is commonly a stiff clay of great aridity, covered here and 

 there by sandy hills of small elevation. Bokhara partakes of the dis- 

 advantages of such a soil, but being surrounded by high mountain 

 ranges at a short distance on the east and south, it enjoys a conside- 

 rable supply of water, by means of which the industry of the inhabit- 

 ants has changed considerable tracts into fertile fields and beautiful 

 gardens. 



Nfitherthegreat range of mountains which bonier* the high table- 

 land of the Chinese province of Thian Shan Nanlu on the west, and 

 on our map* is called Bolor-Tagh (but ought to be called Tartash- 

 Dagh), nor the range of the Hindu-Koosh, advances to the boundary 

 of Bokhara. They remain at the distance of sixty miles and upwards 

 from it ; but some offsets of the Tartash-Dagh enter the country. 

 Such are the Akh-Tagh (White Mountains), which advance to the 

 neighbourhood of Samarcand north of the river Zar-afshan, and the 

 Kara-Tagh (Black Mountains), which extend to the south of the same 

 river about the same distance, if not farther, west. These ridges and 

 a few others of less magnitude make at least one-fourth of Bokhara 

 rather mountainouR, and supply the remainder of it with the water 

 Decenary to agriculture. The remainder is an open plain, on which 

 small isolated hills rise to the height of from eight to twenty feet, with 

 a length varying from a few yards to one or two hundred yards. These 

 hills as well as the plain on which they stand are composed of clay, 

 covered with moving sand which also forms hills in some places, but 

 these hills are of a different form and still lower. The plain is 

 uncultivated except along the banks of the rivers, along which the 

 fields and gardens extend from half a mile to ten miles in width. 



Xireri. The three principal rivers, along which perhaps nine-tenths 

 of the cultivated lands are situated, run from east to west, and are 

 the Zar-afshan, the Kashka, and the Oxus or Amoo. 



The Zar-afthan, called also Kuhik and formerly Sogd, rises in the 

 high mountains where the Akh-Tagh and Kara-Tagh branch off from 

 them at a distance of about two hundred miles east of Samarcand, 

 and first traverses the valley formed by these two ranges. Near 

 Samarcand it enters the plain, and between that place and the town 

 of Bokhara it fertilises the Meeankal, the most populous, rich, and 

 fertile district of the whole country. Before it reaches Bokhara it 

 divides into two branches, of which the northern, called Vafkend, 

 after having fertilised the country along its banks for many miles, is 

 at last exhausted and lost in the clayey sand. The southern branch 

 passes the town of Bokhara to the north at the distance of six or 

 seven miles, then declines to the south, and terminates at a distance 

 of about twenty miles from the Oxus in the lake of Kara-kool. This 

 lake, which is about twenty-five miles in circumference, is surrounded 

 on all sides by sand-hills. It is very deep and its water is salt, though 

 its only feeder is a fresh river. It is connected with the river Amoo 

 by canals of irrigation which terminate in the river near Chard- 



JMM 



The Ktuhkrt, or Kunhee, rises in the Kara-Tagh nearly in the 

 meridian of Samarcand, and passes through Shuhr-i-Subz and Kur- 

 shee, below which it is exhausted and lost in the desert. The district 

 of Shiilir-i-Sub/ yields rich crops of rice and cotton, and the neigh- 

 bourhood of Kurshee is covered with gardens and orchards. 



The Oxut (which is now called Amoo and Jihoon), after forming 



with iU feeder the Khulum, a part of the boundary towards Badak- 



shan ami Kutiduz, nms first westward, leaving the city of Balkh 



I'TiilJy to the south, and then towards the north-west, and 



enters the khanat of Khiva a little south of 40 N. lat. [BADAKSHAN ; 



The fertile lands along the Zar-afshan extend from Moodjan east of 

 Samarcand to Chard-jooee, upwards of two hundred miles, and those 

 along the Kashka probably more than sixty miles : along the Amoo 

 they are not continuous, but frequently interrupted by uncultivated 

 lands. The most fertile district in the basin of the Oxus is that 



which surrounds the town of Balkh, where the river Balkh, a tribu- 

 tary of the Oxus, is divided into numerous canals. [BALKH.] 



These cultivated tracts offer a very pleasing aspect. Few lauds 

 are better cultivated than these plains, covered with houses, orchards, 

 and fields divided into small squares called ' tanab,' of which the edges 

 are formed by a fine turf raised about a foot above the plain for the 

 purpose of retaining the water which has been introduced into them. 

 The numerous canals, as well as the roads, which are very narrow, 

 have commonly rows of large trees planted alongside them. As the 

 water of these canals does not run on the same level they form at 

 their junction small falls, all which taken together render these tracts 

 a very agreeable country. . 



Climate. The climate is regular and constant. The summer com- 

 mences at the beginning of March and lasts till October. In this 

 season it does not rain : the thermometer rises in the cultivated 

 grounds to about 90, and in the deserts to 100. The nights are 

 cool. October is the first season of rain, which continues for two or 

 three weeks. In November and December it begins to freeze a little, 

 and sometimes a small quantity of snow falls ; but even in the latter 

 month some fruits, as melons, are left in the gardens. The coldest 

 month is January, in which the thermometer generally falls to 27 

 Fahrenheit, and sometimes to 6. Occasionally the snow covers the 

 ground for a fortnight. The rains begin again in February, and last 

 to the end of this month. They are followed by a considerable 

 degree of warmth, and in a few days vegetation has attained its full 

 vigour. The mildness of the climate shows that the surface cannot 

 be at any considerable elevation ; probably not more than 500 feet 

 above the level of the sea. In winter and in summer violent storms 

 blow more especially from the north-west, which raise a great quantity 

 of fine sand, by which the atmosphere is so filled that it assumes a gray 

 hue like a fog, and distant objects become invisible. In the desert 

 travellers are not able to distinguish objects which are only a few 

 steps distant. To these winds may be attributed the frequency of 

 ophthalmia among the inhabitants. In other respects the climate is 

 healthy. 



Product!. The industry of the natives is most conspicuous in the 

 cultivation of their lands. The larger and the smaller canals, both of 

 which are numerous, must have required a good deal of labour when 

 they were first made, and they are still kept up at a considerable 

 expense. Besides this the agricultural labour is rather more difficult 

 than in Europe. The irrigation of the fields can only be effected in 

 winter, from December to the middle of March, and in summer when 

 the rivers are supplied with water by the melting of the snow on the 

 mountains. Kven the Zar-afshan is dry for three or four months in 

 summer. 



Rice is only cultivated in the Meeankal and in Shuhr-i-Subz. Wheat 

 is sown in autumn, and cut in July ; and directly afterwards the 

 ground is prepared for peas, which give a crop the same season. The 

 other grains which are cultivated are barley and jawaree. As there 

 are no natural pastures in Bokhara, trefoil and the jawaree are grown 

 for green feeding. Of pulse, peas, beans, and haricots are raised in 

 great quantity. Cotton, which forms one of the principal exports of 

 this country, is carefully cultivated everywhere. Hemp also is 

 grown, but only to produce an inebriating drug, called in India 

 ' bang,' and from its seed oil is pressed. Oil is also obtained from 

 the seed of cotton and sesainum. Silk is a staple article in Bokhara, 

 and is raised in considerable quantities, especially along the banks of 

 the Amoo. 



On the low hills near Kurshee and Balkh is a small yellow flower 

 called ' esbaruck,' which is used as a dye, and produces a better colour 

 than the rind of the pomegranate. The creeping roots of the vine 

 yield a colour that is dark-red, and is as much used as madder, which 

 is also grown. Indigo is imported from India. Sugar is not grown, 

 but a saccharine gum exudes from the camel's thorn, which is col- 

 lected and used as sugar very extensively. Tobacco is cultivated in 

 many places ; that of Kurshee is the best. The vegetables raised are 

 turnips, carrots, onions, radishes, brinjals, and a variety of greens ; 

 the beet-root is cultivated in extensive fields. 



Bokhara is celebrated for its fruits, but more for quantity than 

 quality. The orchards contain the peach, plum, apricot, cherry, 

 apple, pear, quince, walnut, fig, pomegranate, mulberry, and grape. 

 There are several sorts of grapes, and some of a very fine flavour. 

 The raisins prepared here are not inferior to any in the world ; but 

 the wines of Bokhara have little flavour, owing to the defective mode 

 of making them. Mulberries are dried like raisins, and a syrup is 

 extracted from them as well as from grapes. 



In the gardens great quantities of melons, pumpkins, and cucumbers 

 are grown. Of melons there are two different species, and some of 

 them grow to be four feet in circumference. A kind of molasses is 

 extracted from melons : Bokhara appears to be the native country of 

 this fruit. 



The mountainous portion of the country yields timber, which is 

 floated down the Zar-afshan as far as Bokhara and Kara-kool in rafts. 

 In the plain only willows and poplars are found ; the latter are used 

 for house-building. 



Animals. Sheep and goats constitute one of the principal riches of 

 Bokhara. The sheep have large tails. Sheep with a jet-black curly 

 fleece is peculiar to the district of Kara-kool, and cannot be transplanted 



