Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 26 - AUS-CHI.pdf/322

 BOKHARA — BOLIVAR 288 with several glaciers, rises to 24,000 or 25,000 feet. Only thiee the Transcaspian railway, 155 miles by rail W. of Samarpasses, very difficult, are known through it. _, _ kand, 39° 47' N. lat. and 64° 27' E. long.; alt. 640 feet. The bekdom of Darvaz, vassal to Bokhara, is situated on both The city is surrounded by a stone wall 28 feet high and sides of the Panj, near its sharp bend westwards, and is limited in 8 miles long, having 131 half-circular towers and 11 the south by the Badakshan (Pamir), and on the west by Baljeran and Kulab, both belonging to Bokhara. It is covered with high gates of little value as a defence. It was begun in mountains, and only in the lower parts of the valleys is agriculture 830, destroyed by Chenghiz - khan, and rebuilt subsepossible. The population, about 35,000, consists chiefly of Moslem quently. The water-supply is very unhealthy. The city Tajiks (Galcha), and its chief town is at Kala-i-khum on the Panj, has no less than 360 mosques and as many streets, nearly at an altitude of 4370 feet. Finally, the Roshan, another bekdom vassal to Bokhara, is on the Pamir. Its population (also Tajiks) 40 caravan-serais, and 50 market-places. Nearly 10,000 is estimated at 5000 families, and its chief town is Kala-i-Vamar, pupils receive education in its 103 medresses, primary at the junction of the Murghab with the Panj. schools (mektebs) are kept at most mosques. Of its The chief river of the khanate is the Amu, which waters its eastern portion, and flows along its south-west border, attaining at numerous squares the Raghistan is the principal. It has the spot where it is spanned by the railway bridge the width of on one side the citadel erected on an artificially made mile; it is navigated from the mouth of the Surkhan, and eminence about 40 feet high, surrounded by a wall one steamboats ply on it up to Kerki. Of its tributaries, the Zerafshan, mile long, and containing the palace of the emir, the the water of which is largely utilized for irrigation (43 main canals, houses of the chief functionaries, the prison, and the having an aggregate length of 660 miles, are drawn from it), is water-cisterns. The houses are mostly one-storeyed and lost in the sands 20 miles before reaching the Amu. Of the other right-bank tributaries of the Amu—the Surkhan, Kafirnagan, Vaksh, built in unburned bricks. Some of the medresses and Aksu, &c.—only the first-named is navigated to some extent. mosques are of a very fine architecture. Of the former Finally, the Kashka-daria, which flows westwards out of the glaciers the most notable is the Mir-arab-i-Zariryan, with its of Hazret-sultan, supplies the Shahri-sabs (properly Shaar-sabiz) beautiful lecture-halls; the chief mosque of the emir is oasis with water, but is lost in the desert to the west of Karshi. The climate of Bokhara is extreme. In the lowlands a very hot the Mejidi-kalyan, or Kok-humbez, close by which stands summer is followed by a short but cold winter, during which a the brick minaret, 203 feet high, from the top of which frost of - 20° Fahr. may set in, and the Amu may freeze for a the state criminals used to be thrown up to 18/1. couple of weeks. In the highlands this hot and dry summer a remote antiquity Bokhara was a centre of pagan learning is followed by four months of winter ; and, finally, in the regions andFrom worship. It retained the same position when it became above the 8000-feet level, one sees a great development of snow- Mussulman, only having a rival in Samarkand, under Timur. And fields and glaciers; the passes are buried under snow, ^pd the other cities, like Balkh, Merv, and Samarkand, lost their short summer is rainy. The lowlands are sometimes visited by while and religious importance with the fall of their political terrible sandstorms from the west, which exhaust.men and kill educational Bokhara has fully retained it up till now. The Bokhara the cotton trees. Malaria is widely spread, and in some years, power, learned Mussulmans took a lively part in the collection of the holy, after a wet spring, takes a malignant character. about the prophet, and later in the compilation of The population is estimated at from 2,000,000 to perhaps traditions books which systematized his teachings. The mysticism which 2 500 000. About 300,000 live on the lower Zerafshan, 500,000 the hold on Persia in the Middle Ages, also spread at Bokhara in the Shaar-sabiz and its neighbourhood; 200,000 in the Hissar took later, when the Mongol invasions laid waste Samarkand region, and about 500,000 on the Amu. Another 500,000 may and other Moslem cities, Bokhara, remaining independent, conbe scattered in the highlands. The population is of both Turkish and to be the seat of learning. It is still the main stronghold and Iranian origin. The dominant nationality are the Uzbegs, tinued Islam and a centre of Mussulman learning for.all the Russian who are fanatic Moslem Sunnites, despise work and their Iianian of dominions. Its book-market is small, and contains nothing but subjects, and maintain their old division into tribes or kins. The the current text-books, written, lithographed, or printed m India, Turkomans (chiefly Ersaris) and the Kirghiz are also of Turkish Persia, or Kazan; the medresse too, some of which were origin ; while the Sarts, who constitute the bulk of the population very rich, have been scattered andlibraries, or confiscated by emirs, or in towns, are a mixture of Turks with Iranians. The great bulk of have perished in conflagrations. lost, But there are still treasures of the population in the country is composed of Iranian Tajiks, .who literature concealed in private libraries, and Afghan, Persian, are Sunnites by name and Shiites in reality. Afghans, Persians, Armenian, and Turkish bibliophiles come continually to Bokhara Jews, Arabs, Armenians, &c., must be added to the above. Nearly to buy rare historical, geographical, medical and other books. 20 per cent, of the population are nomads and about 15 per cent, Besides, owing to the custom existing among learned men to half-nomads. their libraries to the emir, his library is said to be very On the irrigated lowlands rice, wheat, and other corn are grown, bequeath As a whole, Bokhara is thus the chief book-market of sufficient to be exported to the highlands, and only a small rich. Asia. The population is estimated variously, but is quantity is imported from Russian Turkestan. Cotton is widely Central by Russian travellers not to exceed 50,000 or 60,000. grown and exported (500,000 cwts.). The silkworm culture is supposed however, of late years in decay. Cattle-breeding is widely spread For its trade, interior and exterior, Bokhara is the chief city ot all in Hissar and the highlands generally. Cotton, silks, woollen GeNew Bokhara, or Russian Bokhara, a Russian town near the cloth, and felt are largely fabricated, also boots, saddles, hardware, railway station, is rapidly growing on a territory conceded by the pottery and various oils. Salt, as also some iron and copper, and emir. Population, 2000. (P- A. K.) small quantities of gold are extracted. The internal and the external trade are both very animated. The exports to Russia (raw. Bolgrad, a town of South Russia, government of cotton, raw silk, lamb-skins, carpets, &c.) attain the value of Bessarabia, district and 30 miles E. of Izmail. It was £1 200,000, and the imports of manufactured goods, sugar, &c., attain £1,000,000. The imports from India (cottons, tea, shawls, founded at the beginning of the 19th century as a colony of indim) reach £550,000, and from Persia about £50,000, while the Bulgarians. It has now a population of 12,390, gymnasia exports are £50,000 and £200,000 respectively. There are very few for boys and for girls, and is a depot for trade in corn. roads in Bokhara, the goods being transported on camels, or on Boliy the chief town of a sanjak of the Kastamuni horses and donkeys in the hilly tracts. The main caravan roads radiate from Bokhara to Baljeran, vid Karshi, Guzar, and Hissar; vilayet in Asia Minor, altitude 2500 feet, situated in a to Balkh ; to Meimene, vid Kerki; and to Samarkand, vid Jam. rich plain watered by the Boli Su, a tributary of the The Transcaspian railway crosses the khanate on a length of 268 Filiyas Chai (Billaevs). Three miles east of Boli, at EskiThe emir of Bokhara is an autocratic ruler who governs hissar, are the ruins of Biihynium, the birthplace of according to the laws of the Shariat (common law). His troops Antinous, also called Antinoopolis, and Claudiopolis. At consist of a regular army and a militia to which the general Ilija, south of the town, are warm springs much prized for militia (hazawat) must be added in time of war. There are 14,000 their medicinal properties. Population, 10,800 (Moslems, infantry, 14,000 cavalry, and 20 guns. The chief towns of the khanate areBokhara, Karshi (about 35,000 inhabitants), and 9600; Christians, 1200). Charjui. (p* -A- Kv Bolivar, a department of the republic of Colombia, Bokhara (Bokhara-i-sherif), capital of the above bounded on the N. by the Caribbean Sea, on the S. by khanate, is situated on the left bank of the Zerafshan, on the department of Antioquia, on the E. by Magdalena the irrigation canal Shahri-rud, in a fertile plain dotted and Santander, and on the W. by Cauca and the Caribbean with villages. It is 8 miles from the Bokhara station of Sea. Area, 27,000 square miles. Population, 325,000,