CHAPTER XXVII

THE HOUSE OF ASTRAKHAN

Among the Mongol chiefs who struggled for mastery in Eastern Russia at the epoch of Tīmūr’s intervention[454] was a descendant of Chingiz, named Kutluk, who rose to fame by defeating Tīmūr’s great rival, Tokhtamish Khān, near Kiev in 1399.[455] His offspring vegetated in obscurity for nearly two centuries in the Khānate of Astrakhan, on the lower reaches of the Volga, and were then driven eastwards by the growing power of the Russian princes. Thus, towards the close of the sixteenth century, the head of this ancient line, Yār Mahammad Khān, sought refuge in Transoxiana, and was received with honour by the Shaybānides, whose pride in their descent from Tīmūr was flattered by the exile’s recognition of their claims to kinship. Iskandar Khān gave his daughter, the sister of `Abdullah, greatest of the Shaybānide line, in marriage to the Astrakhan chief’s son, Jāni Khān.

The new-comer soon showed that he possessed the warrior’s instincts, and took a prominent part in his brother-in-law `Abdullah’s campaigns. And so it came to pass that when the last of the Shaybānides, `Abd ul-Mū´min, was slain, the nobles of Transoxiana offered the crown to Jāni Khān. He, being well stricken in years, declined it in favour of his son Dīn Mahammad, who united the blood of Chingiz and of the fallen dynasty. He did not long survive to enjoy his fortune; perishing in battle with the Persians, who attempted to drive the Uzbegs from Khorāsān. His successor, A.H. 1007 (1598) was his brother Bāki Mohammad, while Vāli Mohammad, another of old Jāni’s sons, took possession of Balkh and the country west of the Oxus. A third brother was murdered in A.H. 1011 (1602) by the Kara Turkomans who dwelt at Kunduz, and from them Bāki Mahammad exacted a terrible vengeance. Kunduz was taken by storm, and the entire garrison was put to the sword. This punishment brought Shāh `Abbās of Persia into the field, determined to guard his north-eastern frontier from foes who threatened the existence of his authority. He met with a crushing defeat near Balkh, and escaped with the greatest difficulty from capture. The remainder of Bāki Mohammad’s reign was disturbed only by those insurrections, fomented by kinsmen, from which few Eastern princes were free. He died in A.H. 1014 (1605), and was succeeded by his brother Vāli Mohammad, the erstwhile lord of Balkh. Vāli Mohammad’s rule was brief and inglorious. He wallowed in debauchery, and surrendered all power to an unscrupulous vezīr, whose fiendish cruelties aroused fierce resentment, and led to his master’s defeat and death at the hands of a kinsman, Imām Kulī Khān (1611). The new ruler was of sterner and purer mould. He courted the society of the learned and pious, and laboured to secure his country’s prosperity. And so, under his wise and just régime, Bokhārā regained a share of her ancient glory. She grew rapidly in wealth, and again became a beacon-light in the darkness of Central Asia. At length, after a reign of thirty-eight years, the good Imām Kulī Khān felt himself unequal to the task of governing, and sought the repose which is the ideal of all true Musulmans. He summoned his brother Nāzir Mohammad from Balkh and surrendered his realm to him.[456] Then, taking a pilgrim’s staff, he set out for Medīna, where he died in the odour of sanctity, leaving traces of his munificence which have endured to the present day.

His successor (1642) found it impossible to secure a place in his people’s affections. He was immensely rich, and endeavoured to win public regard by his largesses; but Bokhārā sighed for the good times of old Imām Kulī Khān, and the popular feeling found vent in a revolt which raged in the northern provinces. Nāzir Mohammad sent his son `Abd el-`Azīz to quell it, but the faithless prince placed himself at the head of the rebels and marched on Bokhārā. The unhappy father fled to Balkh, leaving his capital at his unnatural foe’s mercy, and `Abd el-`Azīz took up the fallen sceptre (1647). Nāzir Mohammad, in despair, divided the rest of his realms among his sons who had remained faithful to him--the fourth, Subhān Kulī Khān, receiving in fief the country round the ford of Khwāja Sālū on the Upper Oxus. But his old age was still embittered by his children’s contests for supremacy. Worn out at last by the unequal struggle, he resolved to spend the brief remainder of his days in the sacred soil of Medīna, and died, broken-hearted, on his pilgrimage thither.[457] His death served only to increase the hostility between his sons. Subhān Kulī Khān, who had established himself at Balkh, became a thorn in the side of his brother `Abd el-`Azīz of Bokhārā. A third brother, Kāsim Mohammad,[458] was despatched with an army to reduce him to submission; but he was defeated, and driven to take refuge at Hisār, and peace was restored on the masterful Subhān Kulī Khān being recognised as heir to the throne. Hardly had the clouds of civil war been dissipated ere Bokhārā became the prey of foreign invasion (1663). Khiva had long been a province of the southern Khānate, but its prince, Abū-l-Ghāzi, a man whose life had been one long romance, determined to throw off the hated yoke. He drove the Bokhārans from the Lower Oxus, and carried the war into the enemy’s camp. Defeated with great slaughter by `Abd el-`Azīz near Kerminé, he escaped with a grievous wound by swimming across the great river. Nothing daunted, he soon took the field again, and carried his ravages to the very gates of Bokhārā.

His son and successor, Anūsha Khān, was still more venturesome. He invaded `Abd el-`Azīz’s territory at the head of a great force, A.H. 1076 (1665), and actually gained possession of the capital during the sovereign’s temporary absence at Kerminé. The latter hastened to his people’s aid. With only forty devoted followers he hewed his way to the citadel, and summoned his subjects to oust the invader. The call was but too eagerly obeyed: all classes rose as a man against the abhorred Khivans. The Sicilian Vespers were repeated, and but few escaped to tell the tale of disaster. This splendid heroism exhausted `Abd el-`Azīz’s stock of mental vigour.[459] He determined to abdicate in favour of his brother Subhān Kulī Khān, and seek the secure refuge which Medīna offered to those oppressed with the carking cares of life. His temperament, indeed, predisposed him in favour of a course which had become traditional in his family. It was a rare mixture of the adventurous and the contemplative. Daring in battle, prompt in action, `Abd el-`Azīz inherited a tendency to asceticism, and was wont to withdraw himself from worldly affairs and remain plunged in prolonged meditation on the ineffable goodness of his Maker. Without regret he laid down his crown and betook himself as a humble pilgrim to the Holy City, which is the goal of every true follower of the Prophet.

Subhān Kulī Khān assumed the insignia of royalty on his brother’s departure; but gratified ambition brought with it no accession of happiness. The Astrakhanides, with many virtues, were deficient in filial love, and Subhān Kulī’s heart was wrung by the jealousy and disrespect of his children. His neighbour of Khiva, too, did not take to heart the terrible lesson taught him in the preceding reign. In A.H. 1095 (1683) he invaded Bokhārā, and, though defeated by a loyal chief named Mohammad Bi, he repeated his incursions in the following year. In A.H. 1100 (1688) his successor advanced to the very gates of Bokhārā; but he, too, was soundly beaten by Mohammad Bi, and Khiva fell for a time under Subhān Kulī Khān’s dominion. This age witnessed the apogee of Bokhārā’s greatness in the estimation of the Mohammedan world. Aurangzīb, the narrow-minded zealot who sat on the throne of Akbar, sent thither ambassadors with elephants and other costly gifts; and Ahmad II. of Turkey, whose lust for conquest far exceeded his military genius, did not disdain to address his Bokhāran brother a grandiloquent epistle describing mythical successes against the Frankish unbelievers.[460]

In spite of endless trouble with rebellious nobles, Subhān Kulī Khān found a leisure to cultivate the Muses; and he was also the author of a book on medicine which epitomises the lore of Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicenna, but suggests nostrums in the shape of prayers and talismans of which none of those worthies would have approved. He was now eighty years of age, and felt that a time had come when he must bid adieu to ambition. He called around him his nobles, and publicly designated his son Mukīm Khān, who ruled at Balkh, as his successor. Then he peacefully resigned his breath after a reign of twenty-four years, A.H. 1114 (1702).

Mukīm Khān found an obstacle in his path in the person of his elder brother `Ubaydullah, and a civil war broke out in which the great Uzbeg nobles of Bokhārā found their account. The faithful Mohammad Bi took up the gauntlet for Mukīm, while the elder pretender’s cause was espoused by Rahīm Bi, the chief of the powerful Mangit tribe. It lasted for five years, when, thanks to his nominal vassal’s support, `Ubaydullah triumphed. He chafed under the dictation of the Mangit king-maker, and was promptly suppressed by poison; another brother named Abū-l-Fayz being elevated to the throne in his stead, A.H. 1130 (1717).

The new sovereign’s character was wholly deficient in the strength of purpose so needful in one who aspires to rule his fellow-men, and he owed to his utter insignificance his recognition by the turbulent nobles who surrounded him. It is the fate of all long-lived dynasties to end miserably with a succession of _rois fainéants_; and the Astrakhanides were no exception to the rule. Not only did Abū-l-Fayz meekly submit to the dictation of Rahīm Bi; he bowed the neck to a foreign potentate, and disgraced his country in the eyes of Islām.

In 1736 Nādir Shāh of Persia, whom Vambéry styles the last of the Asiatic conquerors of the world,[461] after crushing the Ottoman power in Georgia, turned his eagle glance on the states on his north-eastern frontier. A host under his son Rizā Kulī Khān was hurled against Andakhūy and Balkh, and soon the Sun and Lion of Persia waved over both citadels. Flushed with victory, Rizā Kulī Khān crossed the Oxus and fell upon Abū-l-Fayz Khān’s dispirited legions. But Ilbars, the lion-hearted ruler of Khiva, came to the rescue, and the forces of the two Khānates gained the day in an encounter with the invaders at Karshī. Nādir Shāh, who had far deeper designs at stake, recalled his impetuous son, and informed the Khāns of Central Asia that the expedition had been undertaken without his consent, and that he wished to live in amity with the descendants of Chingiz. Meantime Persian gold was brought into play. Rahīm Bi and other Uzbeg chiefs were won to his side, and a breach was produced by the jealousy between Bokhārā and Khiva. Then, secure from attack from his dreaded foes of Khiva, Nādir Shāh invaded India, A.H. 1152 (1739), took Delhi with fearful slaughter, and bent his steps homewards with booty valued at eighty millions sterling.

When the news of this successful raid reached Abū-l-Fayz he sent an embassy to the conqueror, who was resting on his easily won laurels at Peshawar. “I am the last off-shoot,” he wrote, “of an ancient line. I am not powerful enough to withstand a monarch so redoubtable as thou, and so I keep myself apart, offering prayers for thy welfare. If, however, thou shouldst deign to honour me by a visit, I will show thee the regard due to a guest.”[462] The fatuous prince at the same time sought to associate his neighbour of Khiva in his abasement, but his overtures were received with outspoken contempt.

Nādir Shāh saw in the submission tamely offered by Bokhārā (1740) a means of crushing his inveterate enemy, Ilbars Khān, and he accepted Abū-l-Fayz’s invitation.

He marched from Peshawar to Herāt with three hundred elephants, a tent embroidered with pearls, and the famous Peacock Throne, ravished from the Hall of Private Audience at Delhi.[463] Thence he travelled to Karki on the Oxus frontier of Bokhārā, where he was met by Rahīm Bi with presents and supplies for his locust-horde of followers. Thence he fared to Charjūy, and traversed the mighty river by a bridge which he threw across it in three days. Leaving half his army to protect the priceless baggage, he moved on to Karakūl, a fortress one day’s march from the capital. Here he was met by Abū-l-Fayz, attended by his nobles, courtiers, and clergy, bringing a present of beautiful Arab horses. The titular sovereign of Bokhārā presented himself as a suppliant, but was given a seat by Nādir Shāh. Clad in a robe of state and crowned, the imperious guest carried his complaisance so far as to address his host as “Shāh.” But further honours were in store for the obsequious Abū-l-Fayz. Nādir deigned to accept his lovely daughter as a wife, bestowing her sister, at the same time, on his nephew. He created Mohammad Rahīm Bi, to whose influence he owed his reception, Khān, and gave him command of 6000 chosen troops levied in Turkestān. Having thus brought Bokhārā to heel, Nādir Shāh turned his attention to Khiva. He sent an envoy to Ilbars Khān, demanding his instant submission. The Khivan was a man of ungovernable temper, and his reply was to put to death those who held out to him the olive branch. This breach of the usages of Islām sealed his fate. He was attacked by Nādir Shāh with an overwhelming force, and closely invested in his fortress of Khanka. After undergoing a cannonade for three days, the proud Ilbars was forced to throw himself upon the mercy of a man whose fearful butchery of the population of Delhi showed that he was insensible of the softer feelings; and against him pleaded the children of the slaughtered envoys, whose blood cried aloud for vengeance. He was put to death, and twenty-one of his principal officers shared his fate.[464] Having thus rid himself of a perpetual thorn in his side, Nādir Shāh returned to Charjūy, whence he sent back to her father the young princess whom he had lately wedded. He then returned to Khorāsān by way of Merv, and fell a victim to a conspiracy among his followers, provoked to extremities by his insane cruelty, A.H. 1160 (1747).

The news of his death led the all-powerful Mohammad Rahīm Bi to throw off the semblance of loyalty to his effete master.[465] He entered Bokhārā with a strong force, seized the person of the wretched Abū-l-Fayz, confiscated his treasure, and finally put him to death. With him virtually ended the dynasty of the Astrakhanides, which had exhibited many virtues, neutralised, however, by an absence of will-power and a bias towards the mystic side of their religion. Their age was one of profound decadence. Its architectural remains, which reflect the spirit of an era much more closely than is generally supposed, are insignificant. They are, indeed, limited to the great college known as Shīr Dar, which was built at Samarkand in 1610, and a few other public edifices which do not shine by contrast with those dating from Tīmūr’s happier days. But Bokhārā was destined to wallow in a yet deeper abasement under the uncouth Uzbegs, who supplanted the cultured sovereigns of the Astrakhan line.