The population is estimated at from 2,500,000 to 3,000,000. It consists of Uzbegs, Kirghizes, who are largely nomadic, Tadjiks, Turkomans, Arabs, Afghans, Sarts, Persians, some Jews and Russians. The prevailing religion is Moham medan. With the exception of Bokhara (q.v.), the capital, and Samarkand, there are few towns of any importance.
litsToRY. Under the name of Transoxiana, Bokhara was inhabited in antiquity by Iranian tribes professing Zoroastrianism. At a very early period the country was invaded by Tu ranian newcomers. who were Buddhists, and a long struggle ensued between the two, in which the difference in religion played no less impor tant part than that of race. Under the Arabs, who brought with them the faith of Islam, Bo khara was a field of incessant contests and fighting, until, with the rise of the Samanid dynasty. in the latter part of the Ninth Century, it became a mighty monarchy, the bulwark of Islam, and a great centre of learning. The do Minions of Bokhara at that time reached down into Afghanistan and Khorasan. At the begin ning of the Eleventh Century. the country, to gether with much of the :Mohammedan world, was conquered by the Seljukian Turks. Under the rulers of that period (1004-1133), Iranian and Arabic continued as the languages of culture, Turkish being employed by the Court for conver sation only. After that Bokhara was a bone of contention between competing rulers, until conquered by Genghis Khan in 1218. when the capital was burned to the ground. the kingdom devastated. and most of the inhabitants slain. For nearly two centuries the invaders ruled over Bokhara. Having embraced Mohammedanism, they favored their kindred. the Turks, so that the latter soon gained the ascendency. Under Timur, or Tamerlane (died 1405), Bokhara be came of great political and commercial impor tance, its capital, Samarkand, being full of gorgeous palaces, splendid mosques, and very extensive gardens. After his reign, however, it became the arena of bloodshed and wars for nearly a hundred years, until conquered by the Turko-Mongolian Uzbegs about the year 1500, which marks the beginning of Bokhara's decline. With the single exception of the scholarly Ab dullah-Khan (in the Sixteenth Century). her monarchs have been typical Oriental rulers, cruel and steeped in fanaticism. Nasr-Ulla-Khan (1827-60) was perhaps the most infamous in a long series of infamous potentates. Itwas he who caused, in 1842, the death of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly, who went on a mission to Bo khara. Dr. Wolff, who visited the country in
1844, with a view to ascertain their fate, narrow ly escaped with his life, after a detention of some months. By the middle of the Nineteenth Cen tury the steady, aggressive expansion of Russia in Central Asia cast a shadow on the Khanate of Bokhara, and a clash of arms became imminent, unless the Khan were to submit to the rule of the Czar without resistance. In 1865 the Rus sians occupied Tashkent, and Khan Mozatiar Eddin, son of Nasr-Illa, accepted this as a chal lenge to open hostilities. lie took the field in person, but his army was badly defeated at Irjar, on May 20, 1866. The Russians now pushed farther, and after many successful battles en tered Samarkand, in May, Mg. The fortress of Katti-Kurghan was then stormed and taken, and on June 14 the Ameer was completely defeated on the Zerabulak Heights. By the terms of the peace concluded in July, 1868. Samarkand, and the liatti-Kurghan, Penjekent, and Urgut districts— the best portions of the Zerafshan Valley—were ceded to Russia. Besides paying 500,00(1 rubles indemnity, the Ameer granted special privileges to Russian trade. This final blow brought Bo khara into Russian vassalage. in return for complete obedience, the Russians gave the Ameer active assistance in suppressing revolt within his possessions. Thus, in ISfis. the Russians dis persed the hordes of relods who wanted to en throne the Alneer's eldest son. Abdul-_Nlalik :Mirza. After the Russian expedition against Khiva (1873), Bokhara was given a large strip of Khivan territory for supplying the Rus sian army of invasion with camels and provi sions. In I577 the territory of Bokhara was ex panded eastward by the conquest of Darwaz and liarategin. In 1SS5 the present Ameer. Sayid Abdol-Ahad. came to the throne. In ISSii he abol ished slavery. He visited Saint Petersburg in 1893, and left there the heir to the throne to be given a Russian education. The Ameer has now become a were puppet in Russian hands.
Consult: History of Bukhara from the Earliest Period to the Present Titer (Lon don, I$73) Curzon. Russia in Central Asia (1P,S9) and The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus (London. I597) : Le Messurier, from Lon don to Bolatara (London, 1899) ; O'Donovan, Oasis, 2 vols. (London, ISRO) : MTh's, "Asiatic Russia and the Middle Asiatic Khan ates," in Cnircrsal Geography (Paris, 1876-94) ; Capps, .1 trarers he 2-Q11(1,11'1e the Tamerlan (Paris, 1592) ; Rickmers, in Bokhara," Geographical Journal, Vol. XIV. (London, 1899).