The town of Bokhara is supplied with water from the Shari Rud canal, which, in turn, is fed by the Zerafshan river. A considerable amount is stored locally in special reservoirs, of which there are eighty-five. As their contents are seldom changed the supply soon assumes a thick, greenish consistency, the use of which is extremely detrimental to the health of the inhabitants. The deficiency of fresh water for drinking purposes, the oppressiveness of the summer heat and the propinquity of numerous cemeteries, together with the dust and dirt of the crowded streets, make life in Bokhara almost intolerable. The city, too, is a hot-bed of disease, malaria being specially prominent at certain seasons. The filaria medinesis, a worm of burrowing propensity, is endemic.
In Bokhara, as in most Eastern cities, the feminine element is entirely excluded from the street. The emancipation of women has not begun in the Middle East; should any have to venture forth they are muffled up so carefully that not even a suggestion of their personal appearance can be gathered. Yet there is a certain charm and mystery in the flitting of the veiled Beauty and one would fain linger to speculate further, if such dallying with fortune were not eminently injudicious. If there is no revelation of the female form divine in the bazaar there is, at least, a wonderful wealth of gorgeous colouring. In time of festival the scene, welling up to break away in endless ripples, suggests the myriad beauties of a rainbow splintered into a million fragments.
There is relief, too, from the burning sunshine in the cool, lofty passages: shady, thronged and tortuous they extend in endless succession for mile after mile. The roof of the bazaar is a rude contrivance of undressed beams upon which there is a covering of beaten clay. Behind each stall is an alcove in the wall serving as home and office to the keen-visaged merchant who presides. In this little recess, piled upon innumerable shelves, rammed into little niches or strewn upon the floor, are the different articles which his trade requires. Carpets and rugs of harmonious hues, a wealth of parti-coloured shawls, innumerable lengths of dress pieces, cutlery, trinkets, snuff-boxes, gorgeous velvets and brilliant silks, the shimmer of satin and the coarse tracing of gold-wire embroidery, are here all displayed in prodigal confusion. As to the sources of supply, a good deal of the merchandise is the produce of Russian markets. For the rest, a certain proportion comes from Germany and a small amount is imported from France. England, it may be noted, is not represented at all.
The money-changers have a quarter to themselves, as have also the metal-workers and the vendors of silks and velvets. At every corner and odd twist of the passages there are the sweet-sellers, the tea merchants and the booths for food. China is the principal source of the tea supply, but of late a certain amount has found its way into Bokhara from the gardens of India and Ceylon. It is before the steaming samovars that the crowd of prospective purchasers is apt to be thickest. Beyond the bazaar boundaries are the wonderful relics of a bygone grandeur—imposing buildings and mosques, touched with the glory of the sunlight and capacious enough to contain within their courtyards 10,000 people at one time.
Although the chief interest of Bokhara centres in the portion just described, its public buildings well repay leisurely examination. The Registan, the market-place of the north-west quarter, acts as a central zone. On one side standing upon a vast artificial mound is the citadel or Ark, its mighty walls forming a square of 450 yards, its parapet crenellated and its corners set with towers. The building dates from the era of the Samanides. In addition to the Amir’s palace the walls of the Ark enclose the houses of the chief ministers, the treasury, the State prison and various offices. The entrance to the citadel, which is defended by two imposing towers, is closed by massive gates above which there is a clock. None save the highest officials are permitted to enter the Ark; visitors, irrespective of rank, are compelled to dismount at its doors and to proceed on foot to the Amir’s quarters. Opposite the Ark stands the largest mosque in Bokhara, the Medjidi Kalan or Kok Gumbaz—the Mosque of the Green Cupola—which the Amir attends every Friday when he is in residence.
THE PRISON, BOKHARA
