Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/777

Rh MONGOLS 749 of six hours destroyed all the churches, palaces, and houses, with the exception of the Kremlin, within a compass of 30 miles. Thousands of the inhabitants perished in the flames. &quot;The river and ditches about Moscow,&quot; says Horsey, &quot; were stopped and filled with the multitudes of people, laden with gold, silver, jewels, chains, ear-rings, and treasures. So many thousands were there burned and drowned that the river could not be cleaned for twelve months afterwards.&quot; Satisfied with the destruction he had indirectly caused, and unwilling to attack the Kremlin, the khan withdrew to the Crimea, ravaging the country as he went. Another invasion of Russia, a few years later (1572), was not so fortunate for the Mongols, who suffered a severe defeat near Molody, 50 versts from Moscow. A campaign against Persia made a diversion in the wars which were constantly waged between the Krim khan and the Russians, Cossacks, and Poles. So hardly were these last pressed by their per tinacious enemies in 1649 that they bound themselves by treaty to pay an annual subsidy to the khan. But the fortunes of war were not always on the side of the Tatars, and with the advent of Peter the Great to the Russian throne the power of the Krim Mongols began to decline. In 1696 the czar, supported by a large Cossack force under Mazeppa, took the field against Selim Girai Khan, and gained such successes that the latter was compelled to cede Azoff to him. By a turn of the wheel of fortune the khan had the satisfaction in 1710 of having it restored to him by treaty ; but this was the last real success that attended the Tatar arms. In 1735 the Russians in their turn invaded the Crimea, captured the celebrated lines of Perekop, and ravaged Baghchi Serai, the capital. The inevitable fate which was hanging over the Krim Tatars was now being rapidly accomplished. In 1783 the Krim, together with the eastern portion of the land of the Nogais, became absorbed into the Russian province of Taurida. Another branch of the Mongol family which requires mention is that of the Kazaks (see KIRGHIZ, vol. xiv. pp. 95, 96), whose ancient capital was Sighnak, which, as we have seen, passed into the hands of the great Timur. It will now only be necessary to refer briefly to the Uzbegs, who, on the destruction of the Golden Horde, assumed an important position on the east of the Caspian Sea. The founder of their greatness was the khan Abulkhair, who reigned in the 15th century, and who, like another Jenghiz Khan, consolidated a power out of a number of small clans, and added lustre to it by his successful wars. Sheibani Khan, his grandson, proved himself a worthy successor, and a doughty antagonist of the great Moghul emperor Baber. In 1500 he inflicted a severe defeat on Baber s forces, and captured Samarkand, Herat, and Kandahar. By these and other conquests he became possessed of all the country be tween the Oxus and the Jaxartes, of Ferghana, Kharezm, and Hissar, as well as of the territory of Tashkend from Kashgar to the frontiers of China. In the following year, by a dashing exploit, Baber recovered Samarkand, but only to lose it again a few months later. During several succeed ing years Sheibani s arms proved victorious in many fields of battle, and but for an indiscreet outrage on the terri tories of the shah of Persia he might have left behind him a powerful empire. The anger, however, of Shah Ismael roused against him a force before which he was destined to fall. The two armies met in the neighbourhood of Merv, where, after a desperate encounter, the Uzbegs were completely defeated. Sheibani, with a few followers, sought refuge in a cattle-pound. But, finding no exit on the farther side, the refugees tried to leap their horses over the wall. In this attempt Sheibani was killed. When his body was recognized by his exultant enemies they cut off the head and presented it to the shah, who caused the skull to be mounted in gold and to be converted into a drinking-cup. After this defeat the Uzbegs withdrew across the Oxus and abandoned Khoras&n. Farther east the news aroused Baber to renewed activity, and before long he reoccupied Samarkand and the province &quot; Beyond the River,&quot; which had been dominated by the Uzbegs for nine years. But though the Uzbegs were defeated, they were by no means crushed, and ere long we find their khans reigning, now at Samarkand, and now at Bokhara. As time advanced and European powers began to encroach more and more into Asia, the history of the khanates ceases to be confined to the internecine struggles of rival khans. Even Bokhara was not beyond the reach of Russian ambition and English diplomacy. Several European envoys found their way thither during the first half of the present century, and the murder of Stoddart and Connolly in 1842 forms a melancholy episode in British relations with that fanatical capital. With the absorption of the khanate of Bokhara and the capture of Khiva by the Russians the individual history of the Mongol tribes in Central Asia comes to an end, and their name has left its imprint only on the dreary stretch of Chinese-owned country from Manchuria to the Altai Mountains, and to the equally unattractive country in the neighbourhood of the Koko-nor. (E. K. D.) Language and Literature. The Mongol tongue is a member of the great stock which recent scholars designate as Finno-Tataric or Ural-Altaic, which comprehends also the languages of the Tungoos (Manchu), Turko-Tatars, Finns, and Samoyeds. The members of this group are not so closely related to one another as those of the Indo-European stock ; but they are all bound together by the com mon principle of agglutinative formation, especially the so-called harmony of vowels, by their grammatical structure, and also by certain common elements in the stock of roots which run through them all, or through particular more closely-connected families within the group. 1 The fatherland proper of the Mongols is the so-called Mongolia. It stretches from Siberia in the north towards the Great &quot;Wall of China in the south, from Dauria and Manchuria in the east to the Altai and the sources of the Irtish, Thian-shan (i.e., heaven moun tains), and East Turkestan in the west. In the centre of this country is the desert of Gobi (Chinese Sha-mo, i.e., sand-sea). The Mongolian population, however, extends in the south over the Great Wall to the basin of the Koko-n5r (blue lake), and thence extends due west over Tangut and the northern border of Tibet. Crossing the political frontier, we find Mongols in the Russian province Turkestan, in the territories of Semiryetshensk (land of the seven streams), Alatau, and Semipalatinsk in the west, in the south of the province of Tomsk, with a more populous region due north in Siberia, round the Baikal Lake. The country north of the Gobi, from the Altai, Tangnu, and the Saian mountains in the west to Manchuria in the east, is called Khalkha, with the chief districts Urga (Kiire), Uliassutai, Khobdo (Kobdo). In a north-westerly direction from Gobi, between Thian-shan and the Altai, isSungaria. The sum total of the Mongol population under Chinese government is calculated at between two and three millions. Generally the whole Mongol tribe may be divided into three branches : East Mongols, West Mongols, and Buriats. (1) The East Mongols are divided into the Khalkhas in the borders just mentioned, the Shara Mongols south of the Gobi along the Great Wall north-eastward to Manchuria, and lastly the Shir- aigol or Sharaigol in Tangut and in northern Tibet. (2) On the signification and employment of the different names of the West Mongols (Kalmuks, (Mod&quot;, Oirad or Dorbon Oirad=:the fourOirad, Mongol Oirad), and also as regards the subdivision of the tribes, there is much uncertainty. The name Kalmuk, so generally employed among us, is in fact only used by the Volga Kalmuks (Khaiimak), but even with them the name is not common, and almost a byname. It is of foreign origin, and most likely a Tataric word which has yet to be explained. Oirad means the &quot;near ones,&quot; the &quot;related.&quot; The usual explanation given is that the single tribes consider themselves as being related to each other, hence Mongol Oirad, &quot;the Mongol related tribe.&quot; This is the favourite name among Kalmuks. Dorbon Oirad, or the four related tribes, comprise (1) Sungars, (2) Torgod, (3) Khoshod, (4) Dorbod. 1 Compare W. Schott, Versuch iiber die tatarischcn Sprachen (Berl., 1836), Ueber das altai sche odcr finnisch-tatarische SpractiengeschleM (Berl., 1849), Altajische Studien, Parts i.-v. (Berl., 1860-1870); and A. Castren, Etknoloyischc Vorlesungen uber die Altai schcn ViJlker ; edited by A. Schiefuer (Petersb., 1857).