Travels in Central Asia Part 24

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CHAPTER XVII.

KHIVA, THE CAPITAL PRINc.i.p.aL DIVISIONS, GATES, AND QUARTERS OF THE CITY BAZAARS MOSQUES MEDRESSE OR COLLEGES; HOW FOUNDED, ORGANISED, AND ENDOWED POLICE KHAN AND HIS GOVERNMENT TAXES TRIBUNALS KHANAT Ca.n.a.lS POLITICAL DIVISIONS PRODUCE MANUFACTURES AND TRADE PARTICULAR ROUTES KHANAT, HOW PEOPLED oZBEGS TURKOMANS KARAKALPAK KASAK (KIRGHIS) SART PERSIANS HISTORY OF KHIVA IN FIFTEENTH CENTURY KHANS AND THEIR GENEALOGY.

_Les princ.i.p.aux Tartares firent a.s.seoir le Khan sur une piece de feutre et lui dirent: 'Honare les grands, sois juste et bienfesant envers tous; sinon tu seras si miserable que tu n'auras pas meme le feutre sur lequel tu es a.s.sis_.'

Voltaire, Essai sur les Moeurs, c. lx.

A. KHIVA, THE CAPITAL.

As we are speaking of an Oriental city, what need to say that the interior of Khiva is very different from what its exterior would lead us to expect! First, reader, you must have seen a Persian city of the lowest rank, and then you will understand my meaning when I say that Khiva is inferior to it; or picture to yourself three or four thousand mud houses standing in different directions in the most irregular manner with uneven and unwashed walls, and fancy these surrounded by a wall ten feet high, also made of mud, and again you have a conception of Khiva.

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_Its Divisions._

The city is divided into two parts: (_a_) Khiva proper; and (_b_) Itch Kale, the citadel with its encircling wall, which can be shut off from the outer city by four gates; and consists of the following Mahalle (quarters): Pehlivan, Uluyogudj, Akmesdjid, Yipektchi, Koshbeghimahallesi.

The city, properly so called, has nine gates, and ten Mahalle (quarters). [Footnote 106]

[Footnote 106: That is to say, towards the north, Urgendj dervazesi,(1) Gendumghia dervazesi, Imaret dervazesi; towards the east, Ismahmudata dervazesi, Hazaresp dervazesi; to the south, s.h.i.+khlair dervazesi, Pishkenik dervazesi, Rafenek dervazesi; and to the west, Bedrkhan dervazesi. There are ten Mahalle (quarters), that is to say, 1. Or.

2. Kefterkhane.

3. Mivesztan, where the fruit is sold.

4. Mehterabad.

5. Yenikale.

6. Bala Havuz, where there is a large reservoir of water surrounded by plane trees, serving as a place of recreation.

7. Nanyemezorama. (2) 8. Nurullahbay.

9. Bagtche.

10. Rafenek.

(1) Dervaze, a Persian word, meaning gate.

(2) This word means 'village that eats no bread.']

_Bazaars_.

Bazaars or shops for sale equal to those which we meet with in Persia, and in other Oriental cities, do not exist in Khiva. The following only deserve any mention. Tim, a small well-built bazaar, with tolerably high vaulted ceilings, containing about 120 shops and a karavanserai. Here are exposed all the cloth, {331} hardware, fancy articles, linen, and cotton that the Russian commerce supplies, as well as the inconsiderable produce proceeding from Bokhara and Persia.

Around the Tim are also to be seen Nanbazari (bread market), Bakalbazari (grocers), Shembazari (the soap and candle market), and the Sertrashbazari (from ten to twelve barbers' rooms, where the heads are shaved: I say the heads, for the man would be regarded as out of his senses or would be punished with death who should have his beard shaved).

I must also cla.s.s amongst the bazaars the Kitchik Kervanserai, where the slaves brought by the Tekke and the Yomuts are exposed for sale.

But for this article of business Khiva itself could not exist, as the culture of the land is entirely in the hands of the slaves. When we come to speak of Bokhara, we will treat this subject more at large.

_Mosques_.

There are few mosques in Khiva of much antiquity or artistic construction. Those that follow alone deserve notice. (1) Hazreti Pehlivan, an edifice four centuries old, consisting of one large and two small domes; it contains the tomb of Pehlivan Ahmed Zemtchi, a revered saint, patron of the city of Khiva. Its exterior promises little, although the Kas.h.i.+ (ornamental tiles) of the interior are tasteful, but unfortunately the place itself is dark, and the insufficiency of the lighting of the interior leaves much that the eye cannot distinguish. Both inside the dome and in the courts leading to it there are always swarms of blind pract.i.tioners of the _memoria technica_, who know the Koran by heart from frequent {332} repet.i.tion, and are ever reciting pa.s.sages from it. (2) Another mosque is the Djuma-a-Mesdjidi, which the Khan attends on Fridays, and where the official Khutbe (prayer for the ruling sovereign) is read. (3) Khanmesdjidi, in the interior of the citadel. (4) Shaleker, which owes its construction to a farmer. (5) Atamurad Kushbeghi. (6) Karayuzmesdjidi.

_Medresse_(Colleges).

The number of colleges and their magnificent endowments are, in Central Asia, always a criterion of the degree of prosperity and religious instruction of the population; and when we consider the limited means at their disposal, we cannot but laud the zeal and the readiness to make sacrifices, evinced both by King and subject, when a college is about to be founded and endowed. Bokhara, the oldest seat of Islamite civilisation in Central Asia, is a pattern in this respect; but some colleges exist in Khiva also, and of these we shall particularly mention the following:

(1) Medemin [Footnote 107]Khan Medressesi, built in 1842, by a Persian architect, after the model of a Persian karavanserai of the first rank. On the right is a ma.s.sive tower, somewhat loftier than the two-storied Medresse, but which, owing to the death of the builder, remains imperfect. This college has 130 cells, affording accommodation for 260 students; it enjoys a revenue of 12,000 Khivan Batman of wheat, and 5,000 Tilla (2,500_l_. sterling) in money. To give the reader an idea of this inst.i.tution, I will state the manner in which this revenue is apportioned, in order to show the parties composing the _personnel_.

[Footnote 107: Abbreviation of Mehemmed Emin.]

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Batman. Tilla.

5 Akhond (professors) receive yearly 3,000 150 1 Iman 2,000 40 1 Muezzin (caller to prayers) 200 0 2 Servants 200 0 1 Barber 200 0 2 Muttewali, or inspectors, receive a t.i.the of the whole revenue; the residue is divided amongst the students, who form three cla.s.ses: 1st cla.s.s 60 4 2nd cla.s.s 30 2 3rd cla.s.s 15 1

(2) Allahkuli Khan Medressesi has 120 cells, and the yearly revenue of the pupils is fifty Batman and two Tilla (1_l_. sterling).

(3) Kutlug Murad Inag Medressesi. Each cell produces fifty Batman and three Tilla.

(4) Arab Khan Medressesi has only a few cells, but is richly endowed.

(5) s.h.i.+rgazi Khan Medressesi.

These Medresse are the only edifices in the midst of the mud huts that deserve the name of houses. Their courts are for the most part kept clean, are planted with trees, or used as gardens. Of the subjects in which instruction is given we will speak hereafter, remarking only by the way, that the lectures themselves are delivered in the cells of the professors, to groups of scholars ranged together according to the degree of their intellectual capacity.

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_Police_.

In each quarter of the town there is a Mirab, [Footnote 108]

responsible by day for the public order of his district, in case of any rioting, theft, or other crime. The charge of the city after sunset is entrusted to the four Pasheb (chief watchmen), who are bound to patrol the whole night before the gate of the citadel. Each of them has eight under-watchmen subject to his orders, who are at the same time public executioners. These, in all thirty-two in number, go about the city, and arrest everyone who shows himself in the streets half an hour after midnight. Their particular attention is directed to burglars, or to the heroes of the intrigues proscribed by the law: woe to those caught _in flagrante delicto!_

[Footnote 108: A Mirab is the same as the Turkish Subas.h.i.+, a functionary, that has played his part from the Chinese frontier to the Adriatic, and still continues to do so.]

B. THE KHAN AND HIS GOVERNMENT.

That the Khan of Khiva can dispose despotically, according to his good pleasure, of the property and lives of his subjects, scarcely requires to be mentioned. In his character of Lord of the Land, he is what every father is at the head of his family: just as the latter, when he pleases, gives ear to a slave, so the Khan pays attention occasionally to the words of a minister; nor is there any barrier to the capricious use of his authority, except that inspired by the Ulemas, when these have at their head such men as, by their learning and irreproachable lives, have conciliated the affection of the people, and rendered themselves objects of dread to the Khan. Matters stand so with almost all the Governments of Asia, but this is not altogether to be ascribed to the defects or entire absence of forms of government. No; in all times, and in all epochs of history, forms intended for controlling the tyrannical and capricious exercise of {335} power have existed in theory, and have only remained inoperative from that weakness of character and that deficiency of the n.o.bler sentiments in the ma.s.ses at large which have, throughout the East, ever favoured, as they still continue to do, every crime of the sovereign.

According to the Khivan Const.i.tution, which is of Mongol origin, he is

(1) Khan or Padisha, who is chosen for the purpose from the midst of a victorious race. At his side stand the

(2) Inag, [Footnote 109] four in number, of whom two are the nearest relatives of the King, and the two others merely of the same race. One of the former is always the regular Governor of the province of Hezaresp.

[Footnote 109: The literal meaning of the word is younger brother.]

(3) Nakib, the spiritual chief, must always be a Seid (of the family of the Prophet). He has the same rank as the Sheikh-ul-Islam in Constantinople. [Footnote 110]