JOURNAL 



OF 



THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



JVo. 32.— August, 1834. 



I. — Memoir on the U'sbek State of Kokan, properly called Khokend, (the 



Ancient Ferghana,) in Central Asia. By W. H. Wathen, Esq. Persian 



Secretary to the Bombay Government, &,-c. 5^ 



[Read at the Meeting of the 6th August.] 



During the last few years, circumstances have taken place which have 

 caused the Muhammedan inhabitants of Central Asia, and even of 

 Chinese Tartary, to prefer, in performing their pilgrimage to Mecca, 

 the circuitous route of Bokhara or Samarkand, Kundiiz, Taush Kurgaun, 

 Balkh, Kabul, Kandahar, and Kelauti-Nasir, and Bela, to Somniany, 

 whence they pass in boats to Bombay, and from the latter port to 

 Judda, to either the road through Russia round the Caspian via Astra- 

 khan, or the more direct one through Persia. 



The causes which have led to this change of their accustomed route, 

 which was through Russia, are said to be — first, some misunderstanding 

 betwixt the Cossac tribes, under the influence of Russia, and those of 

 the Kokan prince, in consequence of which, the Russian government 

 is said to have stopped the communication through its territory. With 

 regard to Persia, the bigotted feelings of its inhabitants, who are Shiahs, 

 against the Tartars, who are of the opposite sect of the Sunis, has 

 long deprived the pilgrims from Tartary of all access to its territory, 

 so that there remains no other way of performing the pilgrimage except 

 through the Afghan provinces. 



These circumstances have led to the resort of pilgrims to Bombay, 



from countries situate in the very heart of Asia. I calculate that within 



the last two years, at least three hundred zealots of this description 



have arrived at Bombay from the cities of Bokhara, Samarkand, 



2 B 



