The Life of Yakoob Beg; Athalik Ghazi, and Badaulet; Ameer of Kashgar

The Zakat, far from showing the expected disposition to increase, seemed rather inclined to remain stationary, if not to decrease; and the foreign merchant had obtained some promise on the part of the ruler of personal protection, and of assistance in the disposal of his wares. His discontent at the stagnation in the customs soon showed itself by his exacting excess dues, sometimes on British, sometimes on Russian, but more often on Khokandian and Afghan merchants. Instead of increasing his receipts, these strong measures only threw them back, and left him in a worse plight than he was in before. He had not the patience necessary to enable him to wait with confidence the fuller development of trade, nor had he the perseverance or tact to place fresh inducements in the path of merchants to renew their intercourse with him and his state. Many visited Kashgar with merchandise a first time; but few, indeed, repeated the visit. The ruler was off-handed in his reception of them. They were scarcely accorded any liberty in their movements, and the profit of their journey was greatly reduced by the payment of a due of 5 per cent. instead of the stipulated condition of 2½ per cent. It is a pure fiction, therefore, to say that trade with Kashgar had increased during the rule of the Athalik Ghazi through his friendly inclination. If the amount of merchandise imported into his state had increased, it was owing only to the necessities of its inhabitants, and was a fact that must have taken place either by intercourse direct, or through native states, with the two great providers of Central Asia. The exaggerated enthusiasm that it was endeavoured to raise up in this country about this same mythical ruler of Yarkand never spread far, and there was always some scepticism, if there could be no disproof, of the reports of the formidableness of this new kingdom. Looking calmly at the real state of Yakoob Beg's position, even at the height of his power, we find him to have always been a pecuniarily embarrassed ruler, glad of the smallest windfall in the shape of the spoil of a single merchant. The Zakat, his advisers pointed out to him, might be made a most productive source of revenue, if foreign merchants could be induced to bring their wares into the country. The loss the people had felt in the departure of the Chinese might be amply repaired by the appearance of Russian and English merchants to supply the same place that they filled. If his aspirations were disappointed, and the Zakat did not show any signs of possessing that elasticity which had been predicted, it is probable that in his impatience, heightened by the perception that foreign trade might lead to foreign complications, he did not give the scheme a sufficient time for a fair trial. His other sources of revenue, Ushr and Tanabi, and the gold mines of Khoten, brought in a sum enough to meet the current expenses of the government and to maintain in his service as many soldiers as his recruiting officers were able to secure. But there was little if any surplus; and local improvements, and all outlay that might have been reproductive and for the benefit of the people, were strictly forbidden. The only works we can find constructed by him, with a view to the advancement of the interests of his subjects, were the merchants' serais, built in each city, and these were self-supporting. Yakoob Beg has no claim to being considered as a beneficent ruler. He was a military dictator, who had shown a rare power for inaugurating a rough system of government, and whose campaigns had always been singularly successful. As a ruler, showing a full appreciation of the wants of his people, and adopting the best possible measures to obtain them, he had no claims to consideration. Indeed, he could not be compared with the Chinese, who, however personal may have been their motives, certainly raised the state to a high pitch of material prosperity, and left many enduring marks of their past occupation. These two dominations, foisted on the Kashgari by the strong arm, while each immeasurably superior to the Khoja claimants, represented two distinct modes of governing a subject race. The Chinese endeavoured to conciliate, and to make the necessity for their presence felt by the people; the Athalik Ghazi was supremely indifferent to the prosperity of his subjects, so long as they were willing to pay him the tribute money, and to serve in his army. An exactly opposite result might have been expected, for there was far more kinship between the Khokandian adventurer and the Kashgari, than there was between the Khitay and the Andijani. Admirers of Yakoob Beg may, of course, plead that his rule had not acquired sufficient consistency to justify him in tasking his strength by great undertakings, such as the construction of roads and canals. In one respect he had not the labour at his disposal, and he was, consequently, hampered by a difficulty that the Chinese were free from. Still when we remember that all these works ought to have been remunerative, and to have strengthened Yakoob Beg's individual power, instead of taxing his resources, the excuse cannot be admitted as entitled to our consideration. Yakoob Beg has claims only to be admired for having given us something better than a repetition of the depravity of the Khoja rulers, and of course among his coevals he is entitled to far the highest place. If it is only asked for him that he should be placed above them, no one can raise the slightest objection to it; for beyond the shadow of a doubt, he was the most energetic and talented ruler that had appeared among the Khanates for several centuries. But it would be affectation to deny that a higher place than this has been claimed for him; and before according his right to occupy it, the evidence on which his claim rests must be sifted with the greatest care. Even now I do not say that his claims are unproven; but that it is open to doubt whether his work has not been exaggerated, I think must be admitted by every one who has studied the course of his life in Kashgar. It is absurd to talk of Yakoob Beg having been an equal of Genghis Khan or of Timour, in any other way than that of showing that his personal abilities were of a transcendent order. As a legislator and public benefactor, it is fair to compare him with the Chinese, who possessed some advantages over him, but who laboured under some disadvantages in religion, and other conditions, as compared with him. And when we do this, after impartial consideration we find that the balance is greatly in favour of the Chinese. What can we judge from this, but that the rule of Yakoob Beg, while presenting some striking features, was inferior in degree to that of the Chinese? It is only fair to remember that the difficulties in his path were great, and that he overcame many of them. Before closing this chapter some description of the chief men who assisted him to conquer the country, and then to govern it, may be not without interest to the reader.

First among these, by right of his position as well as by his high abilities, comes the Seyyid Yakoob Khan, or Hadji Torah, as he has more conveniently been called, the prince who has recently visited several of the principal courts of Europe. He is a near relative of the Athalik Ghazi, although, strange to say, there is no consanguinity between them. He is a son of Nar Mahomed Khan, the governor of Tashkent, who married as his second wife Yakoob Beg's sister, and who was instrumental in advancing the interests of Yakoob Beg during the earlier days of his career in Khokand. The Seyyid was almost as old as his uncle, the Ameer of Kashgar, having been born in Tashkent in 1823; but despite this near connection Hadji Torah played no part in the conquest of Kashgar. Until Yakoob Beg achieved complete success in his enterprise in Eastern Turkestan he was considered by Khokandians of high rank a simple adventurer. The Seyyid Yakoob Khan was of the best lineage in Turkestan, and it is very possible that until the year 1867 he regarded his uncle with a considerable amount of indifference. Certain it is that Hadji Torah was far otherwise employed than in assisting his relative when the latter was engaged in some of the desperate encounters of his not uneventful career. In the civil administration of Khokand he filled, under Alim Kuli, high posts, such as Principal of the Madrassa of Tashkent, and then he was appointed Kazi, or Judge. It was after the fall of Ak Musjid that he commenced that career of activity as a traveller and a negotiator which brought him to the shores of the Bosphorus and to the banks of the Neva and the Thames. That was in the year 1854, and he was appointed as a sort of secretary to the embassy of Mirza Jan Effendi, the ambassador sent by Mollah Khan to Constantinople for aid. On a subsequent occasion he again visited Constantinople in a similar capacity, after the death of Mollah Khan, and during the brief tenure of power by his successor, Mahomed Khan, the nominee of Alim Kuli. This was in 1865, and during the troubles that ensued in Khokand and the final success of Khudayar Khan, the legal ruler of Khokand and antagonist of Alim Kuli, Hadji Torah resided quietly at Constantinople, where Abdul Aziz entertained him with sumptuous hospitality. It would appear that he obtained some kind of reputation among the numerous visitors from either Turkestan who came to Turkey, and apart from his sacrosanct character few could fail to be impressed favourably by his cheerful yet dignified manner. His uncle in 1870 had indeed overcome all opposition to his rule, and it might at a first glance appear strange why he should desire to secure the services of a man of whom he could have seen or known little for many years. But Hadji Torah possessed abilities and experience rare among the inhabitants of Central Asia, and to Yakoob Beg the very talents his nephew possessed were those he was most in need of.

In 1870 the Athalik Ghazi was anxious to draw close the bonds of alliance with the Porte; who could assist him better than the man who had resided in Constantinople for several years, and who had formed a friendly intimacy with the Sultan? In 1871 Yakoob Beg first recognized the imminence of danger to his state from Russia, then put in possession of Kuldja; who could instruct him in the most effectual way of warding off that danger, either by an alliance with England or by propitiating the Russians, than the travelled Hadji Torah? The very qualities that the Seyyid Yakoob Khan possessed were those the Ameer Yakoob Beg stood most in need of. He might search among all his followers, those who had shared every vicissitude of his strange fortunes, and he could not find one other with an identical capacity. The overtures to his nephew are thus easily intelligible, and the nephew himself gladly greeted his entry into a wider career than was that of an honoured guest on the hospitality of the Porte. His subsequent embassies in the service of Kashgar to St. Petersburg, Calcutta, Constantinople, and London are too recent and too well known to require mention here. When he settled in Kashgar he married a daughter of Mahomed Khoja, the Sheikh-ul-Islam of Kashgaria. His weight with the people was consequently very great, and his judgment was greatly valued by the Ameer. Even over Beg Bacha, the turbulent and ferocious heir-apparent, Hadji Torah had acquired some influence by his ready tact and bonhomie.

Of the two chief personages, Mahomed Khoja and Abdulla Pansad, the priest and the soldier, who assisted Yakoob Beg, it is unfortunately impossible to discover much, and that little has already been stated in the preceding pages. There can be no doubt, however, that they were the principal instruments in promoting the aggrandizement of Yakoob Beg, and the two who enjoyed more than any other the confidence and friendship of the man they had supported so faithfully. But of another well-tried follower we know more, chiefly through the pages of Dr. Bellew. Mahomed Yunus seems to have been the most educated and well informed among the governors of Yakoob Beg. He had the reputation of being quite the best-informed man in Kashgar, but as the curriculum of instruction did not include modern languages, it is difficult to guage the exact degree of that reputation. He was an old and trusted follower of the Athalik Ghazi, for when he was in the service of Khokand Mahomed Yunus officiated as his scribe. He, however, as a civilian, took no part in the expedition of Buzurg Khan, and it was not until after the death of Alim Kuli and the success of Khudayar Khan that he joined his firm friend and master in Kashgar. So high an opinion had Yakoob Beg of his talents, and so pressed was he for skilled rulers, that Mahomed Yunus was at once appointed Dadkwah of the recently conquered district of Yarkand, the richest, the most populous, and the most turbulent of all the governorships in Kashgaria. The skill with which he brought the troublesome Yarkandis into complete submission to the new ruler, and the rare ability he manifested in his administration of his province down almost to the present time, justify the selection of his whilome comrade in Khokand. At first it seems that the governor ruled with a high hand, and that the slightest symptom of insubordination was checked by an immediate arrest and a not long-delayed execution. During the last seven years, however, his government had become milder, chiefly because all evil-doers had been got rid of. Among some of the minor followers may be mentioned Alish Beg, Dadkwah of Kashgar; Ihrar Khan Torah, the first envoy despatched from Kashgar to India; and Mahomed Beg of Artosh: but we have no sufficient information of them to give an account of them that would be interesting to the general reader.

CHAPTER X.
YAKOOB BEG'S POLICY TOWARDS RUSSIA

Yakoob Beg had in the earlier days of his career come into contact with the Russians, and although, in the long interval between the fall of Ak Musjid and his departure from Khokand, the Russians, chiefly owing to the prostration resulting from the Crimean War, did not press on with the energy that their first advance on the Syr Darya seemed to promise, there is no doubt that the possibility of its occurrence was the foremost thought in the minds of Yakoob Beg and his contemporaries. In 1865, when the Russians threatened and eventually occupied Tashkent, and brought their frontier halfway on its journey to the Oxus, Yakoob Beg was far too much occupied with his own affairs in Kashgar to attempt any interference in Khokand. With, however, the dismemberment of Khokand and the rout of the Bokhariot army in the spring of 1866, his attention was forcibly claimed by a fact that seemed in the future to involve him as the next victim of Russian aggrandizement. In that year, too, he had not only overcome all resistance in the more important districts of Kashgaria, but he had to a greater extent than before, become responsible for the political actions of the people of this state through the deposition of Buzurg Khan. As early as 1866, it may be assumed that the new ruler of Kashgar had his attention directed to the movements of his old antagonist, by their successes against the Khokandians and Bokhariots; but it is clear that the Russians were not equally interested in his doings at this period. With the occupation of the northern portion of Khokand, the rule of Russia was brought into nearer proximity with that of the new power of Kashgar, and it became only a question of time whether the two governments were to attain a harmonious agreement, or whether a series of petty disputes was to result in a further extension of the Russian Empire, towards both India and China. The independent portion of the Khanate of Khokand still intervened, and the difficult country of the Kizil Yart mountains served the useful purpose of giving the Athalik Ghazi breathing time, ere he should arrive at a decision about his future relations with Russia. Indeed, up to this point the interest of Russia in the affairs of Kashgar had been very slight, for it does not appear that much, if any, intercourse had been carried on between the two territories in the past. Far otherwise was it in Ili, where the Russians had for many years been located as merchants or as consuls. Their station at Almatie or Vernoe, an important town and fort situated about 50 miles north of Issik Kul and 250 west of Ili itself, had in a few years become a large and flourishing city, instead of preserving its original character of a small mountain fort. Russian merchants carried on a very extensive trade by this road with Ili, Urumtsi, Hamil, and Pekin, and their relations with the Chinese merchants had attained a very satisfactory basis. It was, therefore, with no friendly feeling, that the Tungan rising in Ili was regarded by a very large section of the Russians in the neighbourhood. The disturbances that thereupon broke out, effectually put a stop to all trade in this quarter for some time, and the old traffic, or such of it as continued, with China had to be conducted along the less direct route through Siberia. For six years, the Russians tolerated the uncertain state of affairs in Ili, where the Tungani and the Tarantchis disputed between themselves as to which should be the ruling party; but their dissatisfaction was scarcely concealed at the substitution of a native government for that of China. When, therefore, Yakoob Beg, having conquered the country south of the Tian Shan, seemed to threaten the provinces north of that barrier, it is not surprising that the Russians availed themselves of excuses for forestalling him, and for placing their commercial relations on an equally good footing as they had been in the past with the inhabitants of Ili, by a forced occupation of that territory. But the Russians were resolved to give as little umbrage as possible to the Chinese. Ili was formally acknowledged to be Chinese territory, and the Czar voluntarily promised, through his representative at Pekin, to restore it as soon as the Emperor of China was able to despatch a sufficient force to preserve order therein. This tact secured the permanent goodwill of the Chinese, and Russia obtained, in several important trade concessions, a very gratifying reward for her skilful diplomacy. Her friendly action to the Celestials was also heightened in its effect by a piece of unfortunate policy on our part. The Panthays had erected in Yunnan a Mahomedan power, which seemed to have broken off completely from Pekin, and report brought such tales to our frontier of the power and goodwill of the Sultan of the Panthays ruling in Ta-li-foo, that in an ill-advised moment we entered into negotiations with this potentate. The Chinese authorities very naturally took umbrage at this tacit support of a rebellious vassal, and all our subsequent efforts have been unable to remove the suspicions produced by our vacillating attitude on that occasion. The Russians still further preserved the appearance of friendship for China by their refusal, maintained during several years, to acknowledge the government set up in Kashgar by Buzurg Khan and Yakoob Beg. This action was however the less worthy of approval, because at that period the Russians had no immediate concern in Kashgaria. Their sole interest lay in the course of events in Jungaria, with which they were intimately connected by trade and political associations, stretching back for almost a century. Undoubtedly Jungaria was much affected by commotions in Kashgaria, and we accordingly see, when the march of events in the latter province assumed an aspect menacing to the future independence of Jungaria, the Russians taking prompt measures to secure the possession of that province for themselves. When Ili passed into the hands of Russia, the old trade revived along this route to a certain degree, and some intercourse ensued with the Tungani of Urumtsi, Manas and Hamil. Measures seem to have been taken to impress on the rulers of those cities the prudence of not interfering with merchants or travellers, and matters became to a certain degree satisfactory for Russian tranquillity. The city of Ili never, however, recovered its former prosperity, for Vernoe still remains the most important town in this region. Originally a fort constructed in 1854, as a small mountain post, to defend the road from the marauding Kirghiz, it has increased from its insignificant origin into a large settlement of Cossacks and Calmucks, and is now a very thriving community. It was, therefore, it must be remembered, primarily with Jungaria that Russia was interested. So far as the internal affairs of Kashgar were concerned, she could have disregarded the dispute between the rivals, Yakoob Beg and the Chinese; it was only when a powerful Mahomedan state was erected in Eastern Turkestan, and threatened both the independence of Ili, and also to raise up disunion in Khokand, that Russia was compelled to consider what policy it would be wise to adopt towards the recently proclaimed Athalik Ghazi. Whether it was absolutely necessary or even prudent to annex Ili, may be doubted with some reason, but it is impossible to find fault with the Russians for that step. Probably it was the most excusable of all their conquests, none the less may the decision have been founded on a misapprehension of circumstances, or it may have been premature to shut Yakoob Beg out from advancing into a region where he would have been at the complete mercy of the Russians. Nor is it clear even that Yakoob Beg had the intention, so generously attributed to him, of committing what would certainly have resulted in political extinction, viz., an advance to the northern side of the Tian Shan. The reader will, we hope, perceive that as little interest was felt by the Russians in the events transpiring in Kashgar as there was in India, and this indifference continued down at all events to the end of 1866. At that date Yakoob Beg's enterprise had been crowned with complete success and the Russian Government, far more promptly and accurately apprised of the course of events than our Government in India, was obliged to devote some attention to this new power, whose appearance was already beginning to raise a ferment in the Mahomedan states lying to the west of Kashgar.

In 1866, however, some indefinite agreement was arrived at by the commanders of forces along the Naryn borders, to abstain from interfering with each other's actions. The Russian forces were permitted to follow refugees from Khokand and predatory Kirghiz within the nominal frontier of Kashgar, and when occasion arose a similar right was accorded to the Kashgarian officials. By some good fortune, perhaps caused by a feeling of mutual respect, no collisions of any consequence occurred between the representatives of the two powers during these early and vague negotiations. Although the Russian governors of Siberia and Turkestan refused to acknowledge either Buzurg Khan or Yakoob Beg, they seem to have done their best to make use of these conciliatory measures along the northern frontier as a lever for inducing Yakoob Beg to make overtures to them for their support. If such was their intention the firmness of Yakoob Beg thwarted all their designs, as will be seen in the sequel. To obtain, however, some advantage out of the apparent apprehension of the Kashgarian ruler for Russian power was absolutely necessary, if only to demonstrate the perfection to which Muscovite diplomacy had attained. So, while refusing to acknowledge the new state in Eastern Turkestan and deeply deploring the departure of the Chinese, orders were given to the frontier officers to obtain the sanction of the Kashgarian officials in the neighbourhood to the construction of a bridge across the Naryn and of a military road over the Tian Shan into Kashgar. This was in 1867, and it is not to be wondered at that the Kashgarian authorities replied with a categorical refusal. To have acquiesced in this demand would have been to have placed the city of Kashgar at the complete mercy of the Russians. The position of that city is most disadvantageous in a military point of view, and the only obstacle an army advancing from Issik Kul has to encounter is the difficulty of the road from the Naryn torrent, and the general impracticability of the passes through this portion of the Tian Shan range. The Russian government was much disappointed at this rebuff experienced at the hands of a native ruler, and accordingly in great haste it was resolved that a fort should be constructed on the Naryn just within their frontier. In 1868 this fort was completed, but by that time a fresh change had taken place in the state of affairs, and hopes were entertained that an agreement might yet be arranged by peaceful means with Kashgar. During these two years there had been continual disturbances and fighting in Western Turkestan. Bokhara, instigated, according to Russian assertions, by Yakoob Beg, had joined with Khokand and Khiva in a combined uprising against Russia; but in so far as that uprising was combined it never occurred, for both Bokhara and Khokand fell an easy prey in detail to the armies of the Czar. The punishment of Khiva was reserved for a future occasion, and indeed of all the confederates Khiva was the only one which obtained any successes in the field. The most palpable result of that campaign was the acquisition of Samarcand by Russia, and for a time all opposition seemed to be stamped out. No sooner, however, had the main Russian army returned to Tashkent than a large force invested the small garrison left in Samarcand, and the whole country rose in arms again. The Russian garrison held tightly on to its post, and, although in comparison to its strength its loss was most severe, the town was preserved until the arrival of General Kaufmann with reinforcements. Bokhara then sued for peace, which, after some delay, was concluded with the unfortunate Ameer Mozaffur Eddin. By that treaty the Russians obtained the right to place military cantonments at Kermina, Charjui, and Karshi. Kermina is situated about fifty miles east of the town of Bokhara, on the road from Katti Kurgan and Samarcand; Karshi about sixty miles south of Katti Kurgan, and half way to the Oxus; while Charjui is on the Oxus and some eighty miles west of Bokhara. Of all these the last is the most important, for thence a direct caravan route leads to Merv and Meshed. Once more, in 1870–71, Bokhara entered the field, but the enterprise collapsed through the unconcerted measures of the allies and the weakness of Khokand. During these five eventful years of rebellion amongst the races of Western Turkestan, Yakoob Beg preserved his neutrality. If the assertion is correct that he had played an underhand part in the formation of the league against Russia, assuredly he endeavoured to make his actions contradict his diplomacy. Not a Kashgarian soldier participated in the efforts made so repeatedly by Bokhara and Khokand to shake off the bonds of Russian vassalage. Like Shere Ali of Cabul, he devoted his attention exclusively to the affairs of his immediate province, and wars in the extreme east of his dominions against co-religionists were a preferable alternative to the risks attending a jehad against the most formidable enemy of Islam! Russia had indeed little to complain of in Yakoob Beg's interference in their possessions. His instigation of premature rebellions, or, if he did not instigate them, the approval extended to them by some of his chief ministers, was the very kindest act he could have conferred on the ruling power of Turkestan, for Russia never has had anything to fear from any isolated risings among the people of this part of Central Asia. Nothing less than an unanimous and concerted rising in Western Turkestan, aided with a nucleus of regular troops and officers, such as, to go no farther, either Afghanistan can supply, or Kashgar could at one time have supplied – nothing less than this will ever produce a complete catastrophe to the Russian arms, and in a short campaign of a few months send the Russian legions back to their old quarters of thirteen years ago. Whether Yakoob Beg ever was strong enough to risk the independence of his state on so important an enterprise may fairly be doubted, and he showed a commendable prudence in abstaining from hostilities when he had sufficient matters to occupy all his attention, and to task all his resources within his own borders; but assuming such to have been the case, his indifference to the suffering thereby inflicted on the Khokandians must remain a blot on his fair fame. If the part he played in these earlier plots was scarcely honourable, how much less so was his action in the last rebellion of 1875. But it may be as well to postpone considering that event until later on in this chapter. Yakoob Beg most probably took a very selfish view of the state of affairs. His own extremely uncertain tenure of power made him anxious lest any storm from beyond his frontier should wreck the frail bark in which he had asserted his claim to independence, and the whole object of his policy was simply to divert attention from himself to other quarters. The Russians above all must have their work cut out for them in repression of continual sedition in their possessions; while each day of respite witnessed Yakoob Beg in a better position for making a strenuous resistance when the time should come, according to Russian ideas, for an attempt to be made to crush his power. Viewed from this standpoint, the conduct of Yakoob Beg towards his fellow-countrymen appears in a slightly more favourable aspect, although his policy of expediency has little in it to command admiration. Yet the result answered his expectations. In 1868 the construction of Fort Naryn was the avowed preliminary measure to an occupation of Kashgar; from that danger this policy of compromise saved him. Again, in 1870, was he pronounced an incorrigible enemy of the Czar, and an expedition was prepared which was to bring him to his senses; once more a revolt in Khokand intervened to distract Russian attention and Russian arms from the Naryn to Ferghana. The expedition against Khiva in 1873 also served the purpose of diverting to another quarter the blow which should, according to many, have descended on the offending head of the Athalik Ghazi; and lastly, in 1875 the insurrection in Khokand, the most serious and the most nearly successful of all the native wars against Russia, saved him from an invasion for which every preparation had been made.