Journal of the Society of Arts : Volume XLVIII, No. 2480 [‎680v] (10/24)

558
JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS.
\_yune i, 1900.
churches, and a Bishop of the province of
Turkestan. The Russians have acted with
less wisdom in arranging the administration
of their new provinces ; and, in trying to
force upon the natives systems foreign to
their customs and characters, they have
earned a certain amount of unpopularity. One
instance is the method of local government
by natives elected by vote, under the sur
veillance of the Russian Government. This,
with modifications, has been tried among
Kirghiz, Uzbeks, and in the chief towns.
The people left to themselves would always
elect men of influence and popularity—their
former leaders—who, for obvious reasons, are
not acceptable to the Russians, so that the
system has degenerated into mere farce, and
is viewed with contempt by the natives, the
men chosen being merely the tools of Govern
ment.
The advent of the Russians in Central Asia
has naturally made a great difference in many
of the towns which, originally entirely Oriental
in character and appearance, now present the
curious contrast of European streets and
squares, occupied by officials and their families
in the unpicturesque garb of the Western
world, side by side with the native towns, old,
in some cases, with an age which makes such
cities as York mere infants ; trodden by count
less generations of conquerors,—Macedonians,
Scythians, Arabs, Persians, Mongols; and
which have succumbed—is it for ever ?—to a
greater than these, a race from the West.
The further one penetrates into the heart of
Asia the less has this modernising influence
made itself felt; so that between Orenburg,
which is really on the borders of civilisation,
and Samarkand there is a wide gulf.
Perhaps one of the most typical towns under
the new regime is Tashkent, the capital of
the province of Turkestan and a city of very
ancient origin. Mention is made in the
7 th century by a Chinese traveller of a city,
either on the same spot, or near the site of
the present one.
Briefly, its history up to a certain point is
the story of the struggle between the two
sovereigns of Bokhara and Samarkand, and
when both were subdued by the Tartar chief,
Genghiz Khan, it remained in the possession
of his descendants until reconquered by a Khan
who ruled over both Bokhara and Samar
kand. Then came the Kirghiz, who held it
for more than a hundred years, till it fell
before an enterprising ruler of Zungaria, and
after a short time achieved a semi-independ
ence, being alternately overlorded by Khokand
and Bokhara. It was in the struggle with
Khokand that General Tchernaieff, fearing
that Tashkent would fall into the hands of
the hostile Amir of Bokhara, to whom the
inhabitants—between Scylla and Charybdis—
had appealed for help, invested the city with
a comparatively small army, and being for
tunate enough to kill the Regent of Khokand
in the first engagement and to cut off the
water supply of the city, entered by two gates
simultaneously, chased the Khokandians and
Bokharans out of the city, and received the
unconditional surrender of the natives. The
Russian rule was firmly established, and order
maintained by native police, who still seem
to work well under their new masters.
A Russian colony, with the Governor-General
in his palace as the centre, and the usual mili
tary and civil officials and their families, has
now its own quarter, side by side with the
quaint Oriental town of Tashkent. The little
houses of Russian merchants and officials are
whitewashed, trim, and neat; the governor’s
palace has an ornamental garden round it, laid
out in artificial lakes and little hills and dales,
where a military band plays every evening.
There are stiff public buildings, a wide square,
an ugly little church, and a new improved
bazaar has been erected at great cost, which
has, however, entirely failed in its object of
drawing the trade of the town from the native
quarter, and so subjecting it more completely
to Government influence. The natives did not
take kindly to this arrangement, and the trade
of Tashkent is still carried on in the old bazaar,
which has probably existed in much the same
form for hundreds of years.
The bazaar is a most important feature of
life in all Oriental countries, and, as all bazaars
in Central Asia have a family likeness, that of
Tashkent will serve as a very fair type. No
changes or improvements have been effected in
it since the Russian occupation. The street,
as the gate is neared, grows narrower, and
little shops cluster on either side; in the
bazaar itself it is exceedingly narrow, rough,
and ill-paved. A very favourite method of
paving in Central Asia is by laying large blocks
of stone, between which are channels of mud
in w'inter, and in summer of thick white dust.
Over these the Kirghiz bumps along on his
camel, quite unconcerned, and if the pedes
trian does not keep carefully to the raised
side-walk of mud he may be knocked over or
jostled by these camels. The shops are small
wooden huts of one or, at most, two rooms,