12$ INDEPENDENT TARTARY. 



them, by the same kind of barter, from Great Bucharia, and the 

 southern parts of the country. 



The Tartars of Great Bucharia arer a very commercial people: 

 their caravans travel through a great part of Asia, and traffic with 

 Persia, Tibet, China, and Russia. Their principal marts in the latter 

 country are Tomask and Orenburg. 



Government. ...The Kirguses and Usbecs are subject to princes 

 called khans, whose power is despotic over their several hordes and 

 tribes. In Great Bucharia, the khan of Tamarcand in the north, and 

 the khan of Balk in the south, are, it is probable, the principal sove- 

 reigns of the country. 



Religion. ...The religion of almost all the Tartars of these coun- 

 tries is the Mahometan, according to the tenets of the sect of the 

 Sunnis. 



Learning.. ..The reader may be surprised to find this article in an 

 account ol the Tartars ; yet nothing is more certain, than that under 

 Zingis Khan and Tamerlane, and their early descendants, Astracan 

 and the neighbouring countries were the seats of learning and polite- 

 ness as well as empire and magnificence. Modern luxury, be it ever 

 so splendid, falls short of those princes; and some remains of their 

 taste in architecture are still extant, but in spots so desolate, that 

 they are almost inaccessible. The encouragement of learning was 

 the first care of the prince, and it was generally cultivated by his own 

 relations or principal grandees. They wrote in the Persian and Ara- 

 bic tongues. The name of Ulug Beig, the grandson of the great 

 Timur, is well known to astronomers ; and Abulgazi, the khan of 

 Karism, wrote the history of his country. Samarcand was a celebra- 

 ted university for eastern science ; and even in the last century was 

 still a flourishing school for Mahometan literature. 



Antiquities. ...These consist of the ruins of edifices erected by 

 Zingis Khan, Timur, and their successors. Remains of ditches 

 and ramparts are frequently met with, which heretofore either sur- 

 rounded small towns, now quite demolished, or were designed for the 

 defence of camps, forts, or castles, the vestiges of which are often 

 to be discovered. Many of them are still in tolerable preservation. 

 In the uncultivated tracts, occupied by the Kirguisians, are many re- 

 lics of opulent cities. Some gold and silver coins have likewise been 

 found, with several manuscripts neatly written, which have been car- 

 ried to Petersburg. In 1720, there was found in Calmuc Tartary a sub- 

 terraneous house of stone, some urns, lamps, and ear-rings; an eques-* 

 trian statue ; an image of an oriental prince with a diadem on his 

 head ; two women seated on thrones ; and a roll of manuscripts, which. 

 was sent by Peter the Great to the Academy of Inscriptions at Paris, 

 and proved to be in the language of Tibet. 



History.. ..The country of Usbec Tartary was once the seat of a 

 more powerful empire than that of Rome or Greece. It was not on- 

 ly the native country, but the favourite residence of Zingis or Jenghis 

 Khan, and Timur or Tamerlane, who enriched it with the spoils of 

 India and the eastern world. 



The former, about the year 1200, made himself master of those re- 

 gions which form at this day the Asiatic part of the Russian empire ; 

 and his son, Baton Sagin, conquered Southern Russia, and peopled it 

 with Tartar colonies, which are now confounded or blended with the 

 Russians, It was not until the time of Ivan III, who ascended the Rus« 



