Urganj, or Yengi Urganj, the modern Urganj, formerly the capital of Khiva, is a flourishing commercial but walled city on the banks of the Oxus, about 18 miles N. of Khiva. The inhabit ants are chiefly Tajak. Old Urganj, the ancient capital of Kharazm, is in ruins.
Usmanli are descended from a pastoral baud of Oghuz Turk, who were migrating under. the leadership . of Ertoghrul. The tribe, A.D. 1224, had left Khorasan, and rested for a time in Armenia, and, during their progress westward, Ertoghrul aided successfully a small army of Ala ud-Din, the Seljuk sultan of Iconiurn. They take their present tribal name from Ertogbrul's son Usman, and their numbers are about 11 or 12 millions, scattered over the whole Turkish empire in Europe, Asia, and Africa. They form the landed proprietors, the aristocracy and bureau cracy of Turkey ; and their language, the Usmanli, is spoken by all persons of rank and consideration, and by all government authorities in Europe, Syria, Egypt, Tunis, and Tripoli. In the southern provinces of Asiatic Russia it is the language of the people along the borders of the Caspian, and through the .whole of Turkestan. It is beard even at the court of Teheran.
• The Turkoman group of tribes has been known from the early ages as a distinct branch of the Turkish race. They were first known historically as having come from the neighbourhood of Man gishlak on the Caspian, but they have traditions which assert that they lived originally far to the east, and travelled thence in a N.W. direction ; and isblated groups are indeed found located on the supposed line of route, in the district of Jizikh, north of Karmina and Samarcand, which, although living for ages apart from the rest of the race, still retain all the characteristic features of the race. Soon after the death of Timur, the tribes overran and occupied Persia, and Azun Hasan, chief of the Turkomans of the White Sheep, overthrew and killed in battle Abu Said Mirza, the most powerful of Timur's descendants. The last chief of this dynasty, Murad Beg, was driven out of Baghdad, A.H. 908, by Ismail Shah of Persia, and was finally defeated and slain by the Persians, A.H. 920, A.D. 1514.
At present the various tribes, entirely nomade, have no political connection with each other, nor any common head, and the power and importance of the race has greatly fallen. But the Mameluk
of Egypt were of Turkoman origin ; and the Turki races in the N. and W. of Persia and adjoin ing districts are of this stock. For a long time past they have been employed as mercenaries by Khiva and Bokhara, and they will serve any master who will pay them well. Nadir is said to have had the whole race in his pay ; and Aga Muhammad Khan, the founder of the Kajar dynasty, is said to have employed them.
They extend from the Caspian eastwards to Balkh, in the south of the Amu (Oxus), and from that river southward as far as Herat and Aster abad, a tract almost all desert, excepting the dis tricts watered by the Atrak, Amu, Gorghan, and Murghab, where they cultivate the soil.
They are chiefly nomade (charwar), but partly settled (chumur). The latter cultivate, have large flocks and herds, and keep fowls, but have few camels ; the nomades have numerous camels, sheep, and goats. Both classes rear horses. The Turkomans have nine tribes,—Ali-ali, Arsari, Chandora, Goklen, Kara, Salor, Sarika, Tekke, and Yomut,—each of them with several taifa or tira, clans or branches. The Russians estimate their numbers at 600,000, in an area of 21,000 square miles.
The Ali-ali, about And-khui, have 3000 tents 15,000 souls. The Arsari are on the banks of the Amu, about Charjui and Lab-i-Ab, and northwards as far as Kirkinjuk and Karakul. In the end of the 18th century they arrived from Maugashlak. Those on the Amu produce silk, the finest in the khanate. They have 20 clans, have 50,000 to 60,000 tents = 250,000 or ),000 souls. The Chandor, seven or eight clans, have about ,000 tents. They frequent the country lying een the S. shores of the Caspian and the Lower MI. The Golden are agricultural, settled, and the t peaceable and civilised of the Turkotnan ; ell in the rich country about Garjan ; most of in are Persian subjects. They have ten clans, d about 10,000 tents. The Kara, a small but very savage tribe, at war ith all their neighbours, are found about nd-khui, and near wells between And-khui and it.