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Rh all. When settled they are mostly designated Sarts a name which has reference more to manner of life than to anthropological classification, although a much stronger admixture of Iranian blood is evident in the Sarts, who also speak Persian at Khojent and Samarkand. Their numbers amount to very nearly 1,000,000. Taranchi or Taranji (“labourer” in Chinese) is the name given to those Sarts who were settled in the Kulja region by the Chinese government after the rising of 1758. They constitute about two-fifths of the population of Kulja. The origin of the Dzungans is somewhat problematical. They number nearly 20,000, and inhabit the valley of the Ili in Kulja and partly are settled in Russian Turkestan. They are Mahommedans, but have adopted Chinese manners of life. The Mongol branch is represented in Turkestan by Kalmucks (191,000) and Torgutes (Torgod) in the north-east and in Kulja, where they are intermingled with Solons, Sibos and Chinese. The Aryan Tajik, the aborigines of the fertile parts of Turkestan, were subdued by the Turko-Mongol invaders and partly compelled to emigrate to the mountains, where they are now known as Galchas. They number over 350,000 and constitute the intellectual element of the country and are the principal owners of the irrigated land—the Uzbegs being their labourers—merchants, and mollahs or priests. They are Sunnite Mussulmans. The other representatives of Aryan race in Turkestan are a few (8000) Persians, mostly liberated slaves; Indians (300), who carry on trade and usury in the cities; a few Gipsies (800), and the Russians. Among these last two distinct elements must be noticed the Cossacks, who are settled on the borders of the Kirghiz steppe and have assumed many Kirghiz habits, and the peasant-settlers, who are beginning to colonize the valley of the Ili and to spread farther south. Inclusive of the military, the Russians number about 100,000. The total population numbers approximately 9,000,000.

Notwithstanding immigration, the Russians still constitute a very small proportion of the population, except in the province of Semiryechensk, where the Cossacks, the peasants, and the artisans in towns number 130,000, and, with the Russian troops, constitute 14% of the aggregate population. The only other province containing any considerable number of Russians is Syr-darya, where there are about 10,000 settlers (less than 1% of the population). About 12,000 Russians are settled in Bokhara and about 4000 in Khiva. The total estimated population of Russian Turkestan in 1906 was 5,746,600.

There are several populous cities in Russian Turkestan. Its capital, Tashkent, in the Syr-darya province, had 156,414 inhabitants in 1897, and other cities of importance are Samarkand (58,194), Marghilan (42,855 in Old Marghilan, and 8977 in New Marghilan) in Ferghana, Khojent (31,881) in Syr-darya, Khokand (86,704), Namangan (61,388) and Andijan (49,682) in Ferghana.

East or Chinese Turkestan, sometimes called Kashgaria, is a region in the heart of Asia, lying between the Tian-shan ranges on the north and the Kuen-lun ranges on the scuth, and stretching east from the Pamirs to the desert of Gobi and the Chinese province of Kan-su (98° E.). The country belongs to China, and to the Chinese is known as Sin-kiang; but administratively the Chinese province of Sin-kiang crosses over the Tian-shan and includes the valleys of Kulja or Ili and Dzungaria on the north.