The early history of this country is involved in great obscurity and uncertainty, particularly tor some centu ries after its subjugation by the Scythians ; and for an account of the transactions in which it was engaged be foi c that period, we refer our readers to the articles BACTRIA and SOGDIANA. The Scythians first took pos session ot Bucharia. about 120 years before the Christian xia; and their kings held the dominion of this country during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Adrian, An tonmus Pius, and Valerian. They were, however, ex pelled in their turn, by a division of the Huns, who, being driven from their native scats in the north, by the arms of the Sicupi and the policy of the Chinese, sought in the western world for some remote country, inacces sible to the power of their inveterate enemies: (See Hvxs.) Before the end of the first century, they had established their dominion in Sogdiana, where they still preserved their original appellation, with the epithet Epiithalites, or Nephthalites. By a long residence of twelve centuries in this mild and fertile country, and by their conversion to the religion of Islam, their manners had been softened, and their features insensibly improv ed ; and the white Huns, as they were called, from the change of their complexions, had forgot the servitude and the pastoral life of their ancestors. Their king lived in all the splendour, and enjoyed all the authority of an eastern monarch, and his power extended from the Persian Gulf to the borders of India and Turkistan. "%Veal; hy and populous cities pervaded the whole of Maw eraluahr, and supplied him with a powerful army; and their bravery and discipline established him the first of the Moslem princes. But in the beginning of the thir teenth century, the pride and cruelty of Sultan Moham med hastened his downfal, and the destruction of his country. A caravan of three ambassadors, and one hun dred and fifty merchants, had been dispatched by the great Zengis, Emperor of the Moguls, to establish a friendly and commercial intercourse with the sovereign of Bucharia. His offer was rejected with scorn, and his caravan arrested and murdered at Otrar, by the com mand of Mohammed. Zengis knew the strength and discipline of his enemy ; and it was not till after a de mand and denial of justice, that he determined to re venge the insult offered to his person and to his subjects. Seven hundred thousand Moguls advanced to the re duction of Bucharia, and encountered on the plains of Turkestan the army of Mohammed, consisting of 400,000 Moslems. The first battle was suspended by the night ; but the Moslems were routed, with the loss of 160,000 soldiers. The native fierceness of the Moguls was ex asperated by the pretence of justice, and the incensed Zengis indulged the rapine of his followers. The strong est cities were unable to withstand their fury. They overran and desoiated a tract of many hundred miles, adorned with the habitations and labours of the Bueha clans; and the country received the name and the do minion of Zagatai, the second son of the Emperor Zengis.
lor more than a century, the successors of this prince reigned in Bucharia ; but the extinction of the royal line, and the domestic feuds of the emirs, offered their country an easy conquest to the khan of Cashgar, who, with an army of Calmucks, soon established his domi nion in Maweralnahr. His success, however, was but of short duration. Tamerlane had appeared at the head of the Bucharian emirs, and, after expelling the Cal mucks from his country, was invested, in a general diet, with the imperial command, and seated on the throne of Zagatai. In secure possession of a great empire, Ta merlane disdained the repose of peace ; and though he laboured to cultivate and adorn the country of his birth, yet the restless energies of his mind found their suitable employment only in desolating and subduing the nations of the earth. He soon united to his empire the coun tries of Kharism and Candahar, and turning towards Persia, he did not stop until he had reduced twenty seven kingdoms to his authority, and established Sa marcand the first capital of the world. Indulging in a short repose from the toils of conquest, he employed his riches in the building of palaces and temples, and he displayed his magnificence and power to the ambassa dors of Tartary, India, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and Spain. But China was still unsubdued ; and the aged monarch, with a select army of 200,000 veteran soldiers, again unfurled his standard for the invasion of that distant kingdom. The severity of winter could not retard his departure. lie passed the Sihon on the ice, and after marching 300 miles from his capital, pitched his camp for the last time in the neighbourhood of Otrar. A fe ver, with which he had been seized on his journey, was accelerated by cold and fatigue ; and the conqueror and scourge of Asia expired in his tent, in the seventieth year of his age. his death arrested :he expedition ; China was saved; and with his life expired the glory of Samarcand. His children were unable to uphold such a mighty empire. They soon became the enemies of each other, and the oppressors rather than the protec tors of the people ; and before the end of a century, the descendents of Tamerlane were expelled from Bucharia by the Usbeck Tartars, who, in 1494, founded a power ful monarchy in that country. Successive princes wield ed the sceptre from 1494 to 1658, when this extensive and fertile kingdom was soon after broken into several governments, under numerous khans ; in which state, according to the latest information which we have been able to collect, it still remains.
The principal cities of Bucharia are ; Samarcand, Buchara, Balk, Badakshan, Orushna, Kotlan, Termed, Andcrab, and Gaur. See Pcuchet Dictionnaire, Scc.; Pinkerton's Geography, vol. ii. p. 468 ; Recited de Voya ges au .Hord, tom. x. p. 127 ; and Gibbon's Rom. Empire, vol. iv. xi. xii. (p)