MADURA.
or BuinutusnAN', a territory of central Asia, lying between 36° and 38° n. lat., and 69" and 73° e. long. B. lies between the chain of the Ilindu Kush and the Oxus. h is drained by the Kokcha, a tributary of that river, and is famous through out the east as a picturesque hill-country covered with woods, rich pasture, and fertile mid well-cultivated valleys. Eastern travelers speak with rapture of its rich orchards, its fruits, flowers, and nightingales. In recent times no European traveler has visited it except capt. John Wood, who only saw it in the winter of 1838. The inhabitants are Tajiks, or an Aryan race speaking Persian and Turkee. They are Sheas in the mountains, and Saunas in the plains. Their number is estimated at 350,000. One of their chief occupations is man-stealing—their captives being chiefly Katirs and Chitralis from the Italian side of the Hindu Kush. The people of 13. seem to have been always under the inunediate rule of their own chidfs, at the head of whom was " the Mir." They have generally, however, formed part of some great Asiatic empire. In the last century, B. formed part of the empire of Nadir Shah, after whose death it became subject to the Afghans. In 1823, however, the Uzbecks, under Murad Beg,
taking advantage of the disturbed state of Afghanistan, defeated the tribes of 13. in Beg, pitched battle; and two years after, their subjection was completed. Their conquerors treated them most harshly, demolishing their towns, and either selling them as slaves, or carrying them off to people the unhealthy swamps of Kuuduz. On the death or Murad in 1845, 13. seems to have become for a time independent. The Afghans, however, soon reasserted their claims. In 1859, they conquered Kunduz, and were about to annex B., when the Mir agreed to pay an annual tribute. In 1863„Ichandar Shah, the Mir of 13., was snperseded by Mir lkiamtid Shah, another of the royal family of 13., supported by the Afghans. This gave rise to a struggle which ended in the nephews of Jeliandar acquiring dominion by means of .Afghan help. In 1873, England and Russia discussed and agreed upon a frontier between 13. and Afghanistan.—B. is sometimes made to include Wakan, on the upper Oxus, between B. proper and the Pamis Steppe (see BoLon).—Sce Yule's Marco Polo; Vambery's Central Asia, 1874; Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews, 1873.