[465] Vambéry gives the date of this coup d’état as 1737 (p. 343); but `Abd ul-Kerīm Bokhārī makes it follow the assassination of Nādir Shāh, the epoch of which is not open to question (p. 110). The dates of events of the eighteenth century in Bokhārā are strangely uncertain, contemporary chroniclers rarely deigning to aid posterity by recording them.
[466] “Bi” is an Uzbeg word meaning “judge.” It is not spelt “bai,” nor does it mean “superior grey-beard,” as M. Vambéry supposes (History of Bokhara, p. 347).
[467] There are many versions of the death of `Abd ul-Mū`min. The most probable is that related by `Abd ul-Kerīm of Bokhārā, at p. 115, which is to the effect that Rahīm Bi had the young prince taken by his own followers on a pleasure-party, and then pushed into a well while he was dreamily peering into its depths.
[468] This is the highest degree in the Bokhārān official hierarchy (see Khanikoff’s Bokhara: its Amir and People, p. 239; Meyendorff’s Voyage à Bokhara, p. 259).
[469] Note at p. 120 of Schefer’s edition of `Abd ul-Kerīm Chronicles.
[470] See note at p. 135, ibid. The editor corrects an obvious lapsus calami,—A.H. 1148 for 1184.
[471] With characteristic Pharisaism, `Abd ul-Kerīm tells us that “fear and terror fell upon Ma´sūm’s brethren, even as they had possessed the brethren of Joseph. He set himself to repress their iniquities, and had their accomplices in crime put to death. He suppressed prostitution, and tolerated no disorders condemned by law. Bokhārā became the image of Paradise!” (p. 125).
[472] `Abd ul-Kerīm, p. 132.
[473] His mother belonged to the noble Salor tribe, ibid.
[474] `Abd ul-Kerīm, p. 137. For descriptions of ancient Merv the reader is referred to vol. v. Dictionnaire géographique de la Perse, by C. Barbier de Meynard, p. 526; Burnes’ Travels into Bokhara, London, 1834; Khanikoff’s Mémoire sur la partie Méridionale de l’Asie Centrale, pp. 53, 57, 113, and 128; and Prof. Shukovski’s exhaustive work referred to on p. 144—note 3, supra.