THE SEA OF SAND IN THE KARA-KUM DESERT
THE SEA OF SAND IN THE KARA-KUM DESERT
At that epoch the Ersaris roamed over the Upper Oxus, and were equally numerous with the Tekkes. The Merv oasis was inhabited by the Sāriks, numbering 20,000 tents, who were engaged in a struggle with the Khivans, then temporary masters of Merv. The Yamuds, about as numerous as the Sāriks, wandered between Khiva and Astrabad in Khorāsān, while the territory watered by the Atrak and Gurgān was inhabited by the Gokhlans, who acknowledged the sway of Persia. Finally the Salors, who made up by courage for the paucity of their numbers, held the upper reaches of the Tajand near Sarakhs. In 1832 their constant ravages led to reprisals on the Persian side. They were attacked by an overwhelming force under `Abbās Mīrzā, son of Shāh Fath `Alī, and after a desperate resistance their stronghold, Sarakhs, was captured. The survivors fled northwards and occupied the Yoletan oasis, south of Merv. Meantime the Tekkes, who had settled in the upper reaches of the Tajand, had been desolating the northern possessions of Persia, and the cry of the harassed inhabitants reached the capital. Vigorous measures were ordered by the Shāh, and in 1845 Āsaf ud-Dawlé, the governor of Khorāsān, fell on their settlements and utterly destroyed them. The Tekkes, ousted from their coign of vantage, sought refuge in the Akkal oasis, but it was already over-peopled, and their brethren there were constrained to refuse them ingress. They finally obtained Āsaf ud-Dawlé’s leave to settle in Sarakhs, which had been depopulated thirteen years earlier by the expulsion of the Salors. At first they respected the Persian territory, for the energetic governor of Khorāsān had shown that he knew how to deal with them. Their relations with Khiva were very different, for that Khānate was surrounded by nomad tribes, and had no outlet for the prowess of their cavalry save in conflict with them. Mohammad Amīn Khān, then sovereign of Khiva, stormed Sarakhs and left a viceroy with a garrison there. Hardly was his back turned when the Tekkes rose at the intruders and put them to the sword. This outrage brought the Khān again into the field. He laid siege to Sarakhs, but, while directing the operations upon a mound on the right bank of the Harī Rūd, was surprised by a body of Turkomans and decapitated. His head was sent to the Shāh and his body to Khiva for burial. The Tekkes were encouraged by this brilliant success to resume their raids into Persia, and again the governor of Khorāsān was provoked to retaliate. He burnt Sarakhs and drove the Tekkes northwards as far as Merv, which had, with one brief interval, been held by the Sāriks since its devastation by the Amīr of Bokhārā in 1784. The inhabitants resisted the Tekkes’ invasion with the fierce jealousy which reigned between all Turkoman tribes. They implored help of the Persians, and the governor of Khorāsān forthwith marched on Merv with 18 battalions and 7000 cavalry. The Tekkes, finding themselves between two fires, offered submission to Persia, and rendered it acceptable by costly gifts. Then they turned on the churlish Sāriks, and drove them from Merv to the oases of Yoletan and Panjdih in the upper reaches of the Murghāb, dispossessing in their turn the Salors, who, with the permission of the Persian authorities, settled at Zarābād on the left bank of the Harī Rūd.[571] Thus the pressure of population in the Akkal oasis led to a dispersal of the Tekkes who inhabited it. In little more than a quarter of a century we find them masters of the wondrously fertile lands irrigated by the Murghāb, after dislodging the former occupants and destroying a force sent against them by the greatest of Khivan rulers. On taking possession of their conquest the Tekkes began to develop its resources according to their lights. They made a rude dam twenty-five miles above Merv, and excavated twenty-four small canals which irrigated lands sufficient to support 48,000 families.[572] But they were as far from being peaceful cultivators as ever. They overran the whole of Khorāsān, and carried their raids 450 miles south of its capital, Meshed. Stung to madness by the desolation thus wrought, the Persians planned a systematic vengeance.
In 1860 they built a fort as a basis of their operations, which they called New Sarakhs, opposite the old citadel of that name. Then, in the following year, the commander-in-chief advanced against Merv with a force of 12,000 infantry, 10,000 horsemen, and 33 guns. The Tekkes, in great alarm, offered submission and a substantial tribute. But the Persian general, confident in his numbers and armament, would hear of no compromise. The tribesmen, compelled to fight for life and freedom, acquitted themselves with a gallantry which inspired terror in the invaders. The Persian artillerymen and infantry were slain or captured to a man, and the guns served twenty years after to arm a citadel which the Tekkes built as a defence against an anticipated Russian attack.[573] The cavalry alone, including the cowardly commander-in-chief, found safety in flight, and so great was the glut of prisoners that the price of a Persian slave in Khivan and Bokhāran markets fell to a sum equal to a pound sterling.[574] This was the last organised attempt from the Persian side to subvert Tekke independence, and the tribe, settled firmly in the great oases of Akkal and Merv, were free to pursue their lawless impulses at the expense of their neighbours. For Persia was not alone in serving as a quarry. The fierce children of the steppes carried rapine and murder within a few miles of the citadel of Herāt,[575] and spread far and wide a terror as abject as that inspired by the Danish pirates in the coast towns of Saxon England. Such is the history of the rise of the Tekke division of the Turkoman race to a position which rendered it the chief obstacle to the Russian advance. It is a modern reproduction, in miniature, of the great Mongol movement which, starting seven centuries ago, has not yet spent its force. Like the other Turkoman tribes, the Tekkes were ranged in divisions and clans—the Tokhtamish inhabiting the eastern portion of the Merv oasis, while the Otamish occupied the western. In the extreme east lived the Beks.[576] These great divisions were split up into minor ones, and the latter again ramified into clans.
The organisation applied to Tekkes of the Akkal and Merv oases alike, for members of the various sections were scattered over the entire territory in their occupation.[577] Government among the Tekkes of every tribe was a pure democracy.[578] Affairs of state were discussed by an assembly consisting of the entire population. These gatherings elected a Khān to represent the executive by acclamation, and withdrew the dignity when the chosen one ceased to please. The office was not an object of ambition, for the Khān’s authority was little more than a matter of form. He had forty jigits, or attendants, to enforce order; but he had not the power of the purse. For special purposes a tribal representative, termed Ikhtiyār, was chosen by the popular assembly. Thus, in 1881, O’Donovan found one at Merv who had been sent to treat with the Shāh of Persia at Teheran.[579] In latter days the tribe exhibited a tendency to follow the ordinary evolution of a state, which is from a democracy to a hereditary monarchy acquired by the sword. The new departure began with a famous chieftain named Nūr Verdi Khān, who had led the Tekkes in the victories over the Khivans, the Persians, and the Sāriks. He was intrepid, just, and hospitable, moulded in the stamp of those who carve for themselves empire, and his influence was so great that he was permitted to hand over the chiefship of the Akkal Tekkes to his son Makhdūm Kulī Khān,[580] when he assumed that of the Merv oasis. The growth of the hereditary principle was doubtless fostered by the sense of impending danger from the Russian avalanche. In earlier times an attempt to introduce it would have been fiercely resisted by the untamed nomads. Old age and experience alone commanded weight, and the yoke of Mohammedanism, elsewhere so heavy in the East, pressed but lightly on these popular assemblies. Though nominally Sunnis or orthodox followers of the Prophet, the Turkomans practised few of the interminable observances prescribed by the Koran; and the mullās, mostly steeped in ignorance, possessed no influence over them.[581] But the Tekkes felt instinctively the impossibility of maintaining democratic methods in times of stress. Military operations were confided to the tribesmen of known valour and intelligence, termed Sardārs,[582] who had a minute knowledge of the country to be traversed, and were intrusted with the direction of the raids, which were the main object of the Turkoman’s existence. Thus did these banditti acquire prisoners who could be held to ransom, and slaves who found a ready market in the neighbouring Khānates. The things needed were a good horse, arms,[583] and a contempt for death. “He who puts his hand to his sword-hilt,” runs a Turkoman proverb, “hath no need to ask for a good reason.” “On horseback,” says another, “a Tekke knows neither father nor mother.” When one of these natural leaders of men determined on a foray, he planted his lance, surmounted by a flag, in the ground in front of his kibitka, and invited all good Musulmans, in the name of the Prophet, to range themselves under his banner.
The call to arms was rarely disregarded; and the Sardār soon found his tent besieged by several hundreds, or even thousands, of warriors prepared to yield him a blind obedience. He fixed the date and place of gathering, but the object was not disclosed. On the day prescribed his followers assembled, each on a well-trained stallion, and leading spare horses with provisions. If the object of attack lay in the plains of Khorāsān, the Kopet Dāgh Mountains were scaled by one of the three passes practicable to Tekke horsemen. On reaching the southern slopes, the provisions were left in some sure retreat, known only to the Sardār, under the charge of a few horsemen, while the day was spent in preparing for the raid.[584] Far in the valley below lay the village destined to destruction. The smoke curled upwards from its white cottages embowered in forest trees. The old men gossiped in the evening sun; the maidens were bringing home the cattle from the pastures. This was the moment chosen for the onslaught. In a few moments the village street was thronged with fierce Turkomans bending low over the saddle-bow and hacking and stabbing right and left. Then the survivors, with the cattle and valuables, were gathered together and hurried off to the robbers’ lair. When pursuit was feared, 100 or even 130 miles were traversed ere rein was drawn. The girls and child captives, being more valuable than adults, were carried at some warrior’s saddle-bow, but all able to run were dragged in chains behind the captors. When they sank from fatigue their sufferings were ended by a thrust from the long Turkoman dagger. If the quarry were a Kurd village, greater precautions were needed, for every settlement had its tower into which the population fled on an alarm being given. These fortresses were sometimes stormed while the defenders slept, and the garrison stabbed with fiendish ferocity. In dealing with caravans, the Turkomans lay in wait for their prey in the vicinity of wells,[585] and swooped down on the travellers during their halt. At other times they hung on the outskirts of the procession of camels and cut off stragglers. Success depended on the suddenness of attack; and if it failed it was seldom repeated, for bravery was not a characteristic of the Turkoman, except when the safety and honour of his family were at stake. Then, as the Russians found to their cost, they fought like lions.
For the slaves a ready market was found in the Khānates of Khiva and Bokhārā, whence dealers visited Tekke settlements at frequent intervals. The traffic was of ancient date, and, until the advent of the Russians, was recognised by law and custom. Florio Beneveni, an Italian who passed some time at Bokhārā in the early part of the eighteenth century, informed Peter the Great that 3000 Russians were held captive there, and, at the commencement of our own, Mouravieff reported that a similar number languished in bondage in Khiva.[586] Wolff, writing in 1843, estimated the number of Persian slaves in Bokhārā at 200,000, and those detained at Khiva about the same period were stated by Major Abbott to exceed 700,000. The price paid varied with the age of the prisoner, children and young girls being twice as valuable as adults.
But the Tekke considered his steed as even more indispensable than a trusted leader to success in pursuing his inherited instinct. The fame of the Turkoman horse is as old as Alexander’s days. Tīmūr improved the breed by distributing 5000 Arab stallions among the tribesmen, and in our own day Shāh Nāsir ud-Dīn, of Persia, unwisely sent 600 to his ancient foes.[587] But the Turkoman’s innocent ally in his marauding expeditions showed hardly any traces of Arab ancestry. He was big, leggy, and narrow-chested, with a high crupper, large head, and sloping quarters.[588] The neck and tail showed none of the proud curves which characterise the courser of Yemen. At short distances he was no match for the English thoroughbred; but with careful training and special diet he was able to amble for 60 or 70 miles a day for an almost unlimited period.[589] When hard pressed, a Tekke has been known to travel with two steeds at the rate of 160 miles a day, and even more. The endurance of the horseman was even more remarkable, for he could keep his saddle for twenty hours out of the twenty-four during eight consecutive days.[590] The Tekke stallions—mares were rarely ridden—were not indulged in stabling, but picketed outside their owner’s tent, and preserved against cold by layers of felt,[591] the number of which increased with his age. They were never removed without the greatest precaution, and served to maintain the coat in a lustrous sheen, though a knife and a piece of felt were the only substitutes for the currycomb, brush, and clippers of Western stables. On these coverings was placed the wooden saddle with a high peak, which was covered with a piece of coloured silk tied across the chest. The Turkoman’s warmest affections were lavished on his steed, with whom he would share the last drop of water, the last handful of barley meal. The whip was carried merely for show, and spurs were unknown. His attachment was repaid by his dumb friend, whose fiercest encounter with another stallion could be stayed by his master’s well-known accents.
The daily life of the Turkoman varied with the category to which he belonged. Those who adopted a nomad existence were styled Chomry,[592] and dwellers in fixed habitations Charva; but they passed from one stage to the other at their own inclination, wealth being the prevailing factor.[593] The nomads wandered on the banks of the rivers and the limits of the desert where the mountain streams had not been absorbed by the thirsty sands. Their herds were their only wealth, and they rarely pitched their felt abodes for more than three days at any spot. The Chomry, or sedentary Turkomans, dwelt for a portion of the year in fastnesses termed kal`a, open spaces crowded with their tents, and fortified with clay walls flanked by towers. Around them spread the fields and gardens of the aul, in which barley, juwārī (holcus sorghum), rice, and finely flavoured melons were produced in abundance, thanks to the water distributed by the arīks, or irrigation canals. In times of stress the fortresses, which had but a single gate, formed places of refuge. At the eve of the Russian conquest[594] the whole Akkal oasis was covered with these strongholds. They stretched in a single line, afterwards in two or more lines, from Kizil Arvat to Askabad. The great stronghold of Geok Teppe, destined to give the Russians so much trouble, was situated in the broadest part of the oasis; Askabad, now the headquarters of Transcaspia, was a congeries of eight of these fortified villages.