Rebellion of Mohammad Yaqub Khan [‎234v] (158/174)

BOKHARA NEWS—POLITICAL.
I.—Political news.
[ 1868-69.
721. On the 3rd July 1868 a report came that the people of Shuhr-i-Subz
and Karshee had chosen the King’s son, the Tora, who was then Governor of
Hissar, to rule over them. He had collected a force of fifty or sixty thousand
men, had marched on Samarkand, and attacked the Russians there. The
Ameer of Bokhara himself was at Kurmeena. *
722. On the 10th came news of a signal defeat of the Ameer of Bokhara
by the Russians at Killa Kurghan.
723. September Wth. —That the Ameer had recovered from his rebellious
son Karshee, Khizar, Baison, and Hissar, and was now encamped at Shuhr-i-
Subz.
724. April ZWi and May '1th, 1869.—That the Russians were about to
attack Kitab, i. e., were going to assist the Ameer to recover it.
725. May 10th. —That the Ameer had paid 20,000 Tillahs out of the sum
fixed as his annual tribute to the Russians,
726. June '1th. —The Russians force in Toorkistan, from Ak Musjid to
Samarkand, amounted to 12,000, of whom 2,000 were sick and unserviceable;
5,000 of the remainder were in Samarkand. They had 12 guns, besides 100
which they had taken from the Ameer of Bokhara, A correspondent from
Tashkoorghan informed the British agent that a man, suspected of being in
the English service, had been arrested as Karshee, had confessed that he was an
^English news- writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. , and had been at once released by order of the Ameer and
presented with a khillut.—[The agent’s correspondents at Tashkoorghan were
always sending him untrue items of information; but occasionally an item of
intelligence received in this way appears credible. Could the alleged news,
writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. have been E. B. ? He was not, so far as the Government of India
knows, at Karshee till the autumn of 1869. It certainly could not have been
Ibrahim Nazir, Colonel Pollock’s emissary, for he did not reach Bokhara terri
tory till the middle of October. The secret of his mission cannot have been well
kept; for E. B., in his letter of the 26th November 1869 written from Karshee,
mentions a rumour of this man’s arrival at Bokhara deputed by the Commis
sioner at Peshawur to collect news, but adds “ the man is suspected, and has
not been able to perform the work entrusted to him.”]
727. Nevertheless, Ibrahim did manage to pick up a good deal of in
formation which is, whenever it can be compared, consisteut with what Govern
ment has learned from other sources. Erom his account I extract the following
observations;
a (1.) A Lohani merchant, who having parchased a stock of tea in Calcutta had exported
it to Sumarkund, via Yarkund and Kashgar, and thus cleared a greater profit than he could by
the Cabul route, told the King that Yacoob Koosh Begi, of Yarkund, with whom the rebellious
Bokhara Prince had found ref uge, had, through the instrumentality of the Maharaja of Cashmere,
become a friend of the British Government, and purposed opening out to them the whole of
the Chinese territory which he had conquered. With this object he had built serais alono* the
road 11mn Kasligar to the Cashmere border for the accommodation of travellers. The Ameer
said, if this is so, Yacoob has acted wisely, for by this alliance he will be able to maintain
undisturbed possession of the conquered territory, whereas otherwise the original rulers of the
country would sooner or later have re-taken it.
i j em h^zzkd property absconded to Samarkund. The King
asked and obtained his extradition by the Governor. To guard against similar frauds on the
^nui JeWS ’ the ^ m S e ^ ireete{i that if any Jew absconded with the property of merchants
of Bokhara or other States, then Aksakals would have to make good the property, and that
no ew trader should be allowed to purchase goods on credit without first pointing out his
personal property. r &
■ r m ^ Ibrahim found that Shuhr-i-Subz and Kitab were both virtually independent of
o vaara^ and refused demands to surrender criminals who escaped from the Russians in Samar-
, i ^t) 1 - 110 ’ °wever, entirely disregard the King of Bokhara, for when the rebelli-
oiT days and then dismTssed ° m * S,luhr - i - Subz > he was onl r entertained for a couple