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INTRODUCTION,

PART FIRST;

CONTAINING

REMARKS ON THE TARTAR TRIBES;

AND ON

THE GEOGRAPHY OF UZBEK TURKISTÂN.

THE Emperor Baber was of Tartar race, and the language in which his commentaries are written, was that spoken by the tribes who inhabited the desert to the north and east of the Caspian. On the very edge of this desert he was born, but the changes of his fortune in the course of his eventful life, carried him sometimes as a fugitive, and sometimes as a conqueror, into various provinces of Asia. Some correct general idea of the character of the race to which he belonged, and of the geography of the several countries which he visited, is absolutely necessary, to enable the reader to follow him with pleasure in his chequered career. But the geography of the provinces which form the scene of his early story, and in particular that of the countries beyond the great river Oxus or Amu, one of which was his native country and hereditary kingdom, is peculiarly obscure; insomuch, that by one of our latest and best-informed geographers, it has been justly characterised as being "chiefly conjectural," and as " remaining, to the disgrace of science, in a wretched state of imperfection." * Some of these imperfections Mr Elphinstone's valuable collections, and the Memoirs of Baber themselves, may assist in removing. But the principal object of the following remarks, is to give such an idea of the natural divisions of the country as may render the position and extent of the various provinces mentioned by Baber, distinctly understood, as some of them are not to be found in the geographical systems of the present day.

The whole of Asia may be considered as divided into two parts by the great chain of mountains which runs from China and the Birman Empire on the east, to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean on the west. From the eastward, where it is of great

* Pinkerton's Geography, Vol. II. p. 37. Third ed. 4to.

breadth, it keeps a north-westerly course, rising in height as it advances, and forming the hill countries of Assâm, Bootân, Nepâl, Sirinagar, Tibet, and Ladâk. It encloses the valley of Kashmîr, near which it seems to have gained its greatest height, and thence proceeds westward, passing to the north of Peshâwer and Kâbul, after which it appears to break into a variety of smaller ranges of hills that proceed in a westerly and south-westerly direction, generally terminating in the province of Khorasan. Near Herât, in that province, the mountains sink away, but the range appears to rise again near Meshhed, and is by some considered as resuming its course, running to the south of the Caspian and bounding Mazenderân, whence it proceeds on through Armenia, and thence into Asia Minor, finding its termination in the mountains of ancient Lycia. This immense range, which some consider as terminating at Herât, while it divides Bengal, Hindustân, the Penjâb, Afghanistân, Persia, and part of the Turkish territory, from the country of the Moghul and Tûrki tribes, which, with few exceptions, occupy the whole extent of country from the borders of China to the sea of Azof, may also be considered as separating, in its whole course, nations of comparative civilization from uncivilized tribes. To the south of this range, if we perhaps except some part of the Afghân territory, which, indeed, may rather be held as part of the range itself than as south of it, there is no nation which, at some period or other of its history, has not been the seat of a powerful empire, and of all those arts and refinements of life which attend a numerous and wealthy population, when protected by a government that permits the fancies and energies of the human mind to follow their natural bias. The degrees of civilization and of happiness possessed in these various regions may have been extremely different; but many of the comforts of wealth and abundance, and no small share of the higher treasures of cultivated judgment and imagination, must have been enjoyed by nations that could produce the various systems of Indian philosophy and science, a drama so polished as the Sakontala, a poet like Ferdousi, or a moralist like Sadi. While to the south of this range we everywhere see flourishing cities, cultivated fields, and all the forms of a regular government and policy, to the north of it, if we except China and the countries to the south of the Sirr or Jaxartes, and along its banks, we find tribes who, down to the present day, wander over their extensive regions as their forefathers did, little if at all more refined than they appear to have been at the very dawn of history. Their flocks are still their wealth, their camp their city, and the same government exists of separate chiefs, who are not much exalted in luxury or information above the commonest of their subjects around them.

The belt of mountains that forms the boundary between the pastoral and civilized nations, is inhabited, in all its extent, by hill-tribes who differ considerably from both of the others. The countries to the east of Kashmîr, at least those lying on the southern face of the range, are chiefly of Hindû origin, as appears from their languages; while the countries to the west of Kashmîr, including that of the Dards, Tibat-Balti or Little Tibet, Chîtral and Kafferistân, which speak an unknown tongue, with the Hazâras and Aimâks, contain a series of nations who appear never to have attained the arts, the

From the researches of Mr Elphinstone, it appears that the language of Kafferistan is probably of Hindu origin.

ease, or the civilization of the southern states; but who at the same time, unlike those to the north, have in general settled on some particular spot, built villages and towns, and cultivated the soil. No work of literature or genius has ever proceeded from this range. The inhabitants, justly jealous of their independence, have rarely encouraged any intercourse with the civilized slaves to the south, and do not appear, till very recently, to have had much commerce with their northern neighbours. The labour of providing for subsistence, the remoteness of their scattered habitations, and the limited means of intercourse with each other, appear, in all ages, to have stifled among them the first seeds of improvement.* Yet even among these mountains, the powerful influence of a rich soil and happy climate, in promoting civilization, is strongly visible. The vale of Kashmir is placed near their centre; and such has been the effect of the plenty and ease resulting from these circumstances, that that fortunate country has not only been always famous for the richness of its productions, and the skill of its manufacturers, but was, at one period, the seat of a considerable empire; and its historians furnish us with a long catalogue of its authors on every art and in every department of literature, some of whom are still held in deserved estimation.

Baber was descended from one of the tribes that inhabited to the north of this range. That immense tract of country which is known by the general name of Tartary, extends over nearly all the north of Asia, and over a considerable part of the south-east of Europe. It corresponds very nearly with the ancient Scythia. The tribes that inhabit it, differ from each other in manners, features, and language. Of these, the most powerful and numerous seem to belong to three races: 1st, The Mandshûrs, called also Manjûrs and Manchus, to the east, who extend from the Eastern Ocean along the north of China. 2dly, The Monguls or Moghuls, who chiefly occupy the central regions between the other two: and 3dly, The people, by Europeans, and particularly the Russians and latter travellers, exclusively called Tartars or Tatars, and sometimes Western Tartars, names not acknowledged by themselves, but who may with more propriety receive their original name of Tûrks, by which their principal branches still designate themselves.†

The country of the Mânchûs, containing all that lies east of the Siolki Mountains, and north of the range of Kinchan, may be neglected on the present occasion; the influence of its inhabitants having been confined chiefly to China, of which they are now the rulers.

The Moghul and Tûrki tribes have exercised a far more important influence on the nations around them. The Moghuls extend over all the country between the Siolki Mountains and China on the east; the mountainous country from China towards Leh or Ladak on the south; a line from Leh through the desert of Kobi to the east of Terfân, and thence by the Ulugh Tagh, ‡ the Chiû river, and the Kuchik Tagh hills on

*The same may be said of the indigenous population of Afghanistan, particularly of the hill country. + None of these three great classes have any general name to comprehend the whole tribes of which they consist. Each little tribe has a separate name. The grand distinction and affinity are marked chiefly by language.

Great mountains.

§ Little mountains.

C

the west; and by a very indefinite line north of the Altaian Chain on the north. The Tûrki nations have the western boundary of the Moghuls as their eastern frontier; on the south they have the Muz-Tagh,* the Belût-Tagh,† the Hindû-kûsh, and the limits of the cultivated country of Khorasân down to the Caspian, a line drawn across that sea to the Caucasian range, the northern shore of the Euxine as far as the sea of Azof, including the Krim, and thence their western boundary extends along the eastern limits of Europe to the Ural and Altai mountains. Some Tûrki tribes, however, have settled even south of the Danube, and others far in Russian Siberia; and in like manner detached tribes of Kalmuks still inhabit along the Wolga, and down to Astrakhan, and probably may be found insulated even in more remote situations.

In a country so extensive, there is, as may be imagined, almost every variety of climate and of soil; but by much the greater part of the land, particularly that to the eastward, is barren, mixed in many instances with sandy deserts, while the climate is inhospitable, so that the difficulty of procuring subsistence on one spot, or at a moderate distance from their habitations, has compelled the inhabitants in all ages to adopt a wandering life. The many noble rivers which intersect the country, of course supply numerous fertile tracts along their banks; but in the greater part of this region, the districts capable of profitable cultivation are too few, too remote from each other, and too much surrounded by desolate sands, to admit of the formation of a permanent kingdom or state devoted to agriculture sufficiently extensive to protect the cultivator, and to check the predatory tribes of the desert by which it would be surrounded on all sides. The cities that have been built, and the districts that have been cultivated, in the flourishing times of any particular tribe, have always therefore rapidly declined. The country lying between the Amu and Sirr rivers, (the Oxus and Jaxartes of antiquity,) and usually called Great Bucharia, or Mâweralnaher, though now overrun and governed by Tûrki tribes, was not perhaps originally a part of Tartary, and must be excepted from this description. It is a region abounding with fine tracts of land, defended by inaccessible mountains and barren deserts, and watered by numerous streams. The natural condition of this country is that of a civilized and commercial state, abounding with large towns; a situation which it has always rapidly attained, when its governors possessed sufficient power to secure it from foreign enemies.

The Moghul and Tûrki tribes, though now confined to the limits that have been described, have, however, successively changed the aspect of the civilized world. The Huns, (whom their historian the learned Des Guignes regards as being of Tûrki race, though some circumstances in the hideous description given of them by the Roman historians would lead us to conclude, that, with a mixture of Tûrks, they consisted chiefly of the Moghul tribes,)‡ passing from their deserts beyond the Caspian, poured

* Ice hills.

+ Dark or cloudy mountains.

The ample details afforded by Des Guignes concerning the history of all the Tartar tribes who had any connexion with China, might be expected to throw much light on their early history. But though the History of the Huns is a monument of learning and research that has rarely been equalled, it has two defects, which, though unavoidable at the time it was written, yet detract considerably from its value; the first is the indistinctness of its geography of Tartary, and the second, the mistake of confounding together the different races of Tartars, merely because they happened to be united under an empire

into the richest provinces of the empire of the Romans, and under the ferocious Attila, the Scourge of the human race, broke the already declining force of that mighty people. Still later, in the tenth century, the rich and cultivated provinces of Samarkand and

bearing a common name. He knew only the Eastern and Western Tartars, the former Manchus, the latter Tûrks and Moghuls, whom he believes to be the same race, the latter descended from the former. (See Hist. des Huns, vol. I. pp. 209 and 272.)-Hence he considers the Huns as being properly a Tûrki race. The Empire of Hiong-nou, or Huns, however, had its origin north of the Great Wall of China, and conquered as far as Korea and the Caspian. It is said to have begun twelve hundred years before Christ, (Hist. des Huns, vol. I. p. 213,) and the tribes composing it do not appear to have been conquered or driven westward by the Chinese, till the 93d year of the Christian era. Those who retired to Aksû, Kâshghar and the Jaik, or who had maintained their possessions there, entered Europe at a later period in the reign of Valens. As this empire had its origin in the centre of Tartary extending both ways, it is probable that it originated among the Moghul tribes, and that the chiefs even of the minor divisions were of the ruling race of Moghuls. This presumption is confirmed by the descriptions preserved of Attila, which bear such strong marks of Moghul extraction, that Gibbon justly characterizes them as exhibiting the genuine deformity of a modern Kalmuk. "His features, according to the observation of a Gothic historian, bore the stamp of his national origin; and the portrait of Attila exhibits the genuine deformity of a modern Calmuck; a large head, a swarthy complexion, small deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short square body, of nervous strength, though of a disproportioned form." Gibbon's Roman Empire, vol. VI. p. 41.—It is almost unnecessary to remark that the Kalmuks are one of the most numerous tribes of Moghul extraction. But though the chief, and many of the tribes that accompanied him, were Moghuls, he probably, like his countryman Chengîz Khan in later times, had in his army numerous bodies of men of different nations, comprising the inhabitants of the various parts of his Empire, and particularly many of Tûrki origin, as tribes of that race appear, from the earliest accounts in history, to have extended from the Wolga to the Desert of Kobi. The observation made on the composition of the Empire of Attila will equally apply to most of the other great empires mentioned in the history of the Huns. They were not composed purely of one race, but of races of various descent, Tûrki, Moghul, Fennic, and Manchû. Such was the famous Kara Khitan dynasty, which rose from the ruins of that of Khitâ, and was first established at the sources of the Obi and Aksu rivers, along the desert of Kara Khitâ. Their Gurkhan (or Grand Khan), a title afterwards claimed by the descendants of Taimur, established his capital at Kâshghar, also called Urdukend (i. e. Camp-town), in Eastern Turkestân.-Hist. des Huns, vol. I. p. 204, 212.

It seems probable, that while the northern Hiong-nou kingdom was chiefly Moghul, the southern was principally Turki. See Des Guignes ut supra, pp. 213, 220. Hia (p. 222) was perhaps Manchû. The Tou-ki-chi, the To-kine-chi, and the Western Turks, chiefly Tûrki. But it would require a dissertation to disentangle the history of the races of the various dynasties. Indeed it may perhaps be assumed as a general rule, that in almost every extensive dynasty of the Tartar nations, there were tribes of different races united under one chief or conqueror; and this union seems gradually to have introduced a considerable similarity in language as well as manners, between many of the Moghul and Turki Uluses or tribes.

In the curious relation of the Embassy of Maximin and Friscus beyond the Danube, to the camp of Attila, there are several circumstances that strongly indicate the Tartaric origin of the Huns. Contrary to the general usage of the East, the Queen was accessible; her mansion was raised on round columns, and the ornaments were curiously carved; she received the ambassadors sitting, or rather lying on a couch: (Gibbon's Roman Empire, vol. VI. p. 74,) and Joannes de Plano Carpini, one of the ambassadors sent into Tartary by the Pope, A. D. 1246, tells us that he was received by Bathu, sitting on a lofty seat or throne, with one of his wives beside him; and the tent of Cuyne* (Cuyuc) was raised on pillars covered with plates of gold, and joined to the other timbers with gold nails.-Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. I. p. 53. Maximin, we are told, was "sternly forbid to pitch his tents in a pleasant valley, lest he should infringe the distant awe which was due to the royal mansion," (Gibbon, vol. VI. p. 70.) an observance

This false reading, which runs through the whole of Hakluyt, and which has been copied from him by Bergeron and later writers, has evidently arisen from the similarity of the two words in the ancient hand-writing. Cuyuc or Kuyuk, the son of Oktai and grandson of Chengîz Khan, we find from other authorities, was the Khan of the Moghuls when Carpini travelled.

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