#affghanistan

[aknightonthetown]

Well the Weekly Moby Dick thing started today and want to share some opening thoughts. 1) Love that this links of Annotations and an Audiobook version. Really helps both with reading it and with being able to parse the information easily for some of it. 2) Honestly shocked by how fun Ishmael is to read as a narrator. While it is very long winded it’s pretty fun to read him describe having to go to sea to avoid Depression, how a key reason for always going to sea as a sailor is because “being paid is so much better than having to PAY”, and especially the fucking “Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States.“ whaling voyage by one Ishmael. “BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN.”

#whale weekly

[walkingthroughthisworld]

And, doubtless, my going on this whaling voyage, formed part of the grand programme of Providence that was drawn up a long time ago. It came in as a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances. I take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this:

“Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States. “WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL. “BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN.”

#things change #things stay the same #Melville #Moby Dick #Ishmael #substack #whale weekly #Not armor

[yueity]

whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul...

But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.

Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever.

It came in as a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances. I take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this:

“Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States. “WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL. “BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN.”

oh ishmael, how you are funny...

now as a language nerd, i simply must.

river horse, used for hippopotamus

hypos: periods of depression, anxiety, or ennui.

a salt as slang for sailor

adam and eve referred to as orchard thieves

#whale weekly #moby dick

[guidemirela]

Danubewhich the pastoral nations

They would pass over the high region of Pamer, where are the sources of the Oxus, they would descend the terrace of the Bolor, and the steeps of Badakshan, and gradually reach a vast region, flat on the whole as the expanse they had left, but as strangely depressed below the level of the sea, as Tartary is lifted above it. This is the country, forming the two basins of the Aral and the Caspian, which terminates the immense Asiatic plain, and may be vaguely designated by the name of Turkistan. Hitherto the necessity of their route would force them on, in one multitudinous emigration, but now they may diverge, and have diverged. If they were to cross the Jaxartes and the Oxus, and proceed at length southward, they would come to Khorasan, the ancient Bactria, and so to Affghanistan and to Hindostan on the east, or to Persia on the west.

But if instead they continued their westward course, then they would skirt the north coast of the Aral and the Caspian, cross the Volga, and there have a second opportunity, if they chose to avail themselves of it, of descending southwards, by Georgia and Armenia, either to Syria or to Asia Minor. Refusing this diversion, and persevering onwards to the west, at length they would pass the Don, and descend upon Europe across the Ukraine, Bessarabia, and the Danube.

Such are the three routes, across the Oxus, across the Caucasus, and across the Danubewhich the pastoral nations have variously pursued at various times, when their roving habits, their warlike propensities, and their discomforts at home, have combined to precipitate them on the industry, the civilization, and the luxury of the West and of the South. And at such times, as might be inferred from what has been already said, their invasions have been rather irruptions, inroads, or, what are called, raids, than proper conquest and occupation of the countries which have been their victims.

#Danubewhich the pastoral nations

[weekendholiday]

Danubewhich the pastoral nations

They would pass over the high region of Pamer, where are the sources of the Oxus, they would descend the terrace of the Bolor, and the steeps of Badakshan, and gradually reach a vast region, flat on the whole as the expanse they had left, but as strangely depressed below the level of the sea, as Tartary is lifted above it. This is the country, forming the two basins of the Aral and the Caspian, which terminates the immense Asiatic plain, and may be vaguely designated by the name of Turkistan. Hitherto the necessity of their route would force them on, in one multitudinous emigration, but now they may diverge, and have diverged. If they were to cross the Jaxartes and the Oxus, and proceed at length southward, they would come to Khorasan, the ancient Bactria, and so to Affghanistan and to Hindostan on the east, or to Persia on the west.

But if instead they continued their westward course, then they would skirt the north coast of the Aral and the Caspian, cross the Volga, and there have a second opportunity, if they chose to avail themselves of it, of descending southwards, by Georgia and Armenia, either to Syria or to Asia Minor. Refusing this diversion, and persevering onwards to the west, at length they would pass the Don, and descend upon Europe across the Ukraine, Bessarabia, and the Danube.

Such are the three routes, across the Oxus, across the Caucasus, and across the Danubewhich the pastoral nations have variously pursued at various times, when their roving habits, their warlike propensities, and their discomforts at home, have combined to precipitate them on the industry, the civilization, and the luxury of the West and of the South. And at such times, as might be inferred from what has been already said, their invasions have been rather irruptions, inroads, or, what are called, raids, than proper conquest and occupation of the countries which have been their victims.

#Danubewhich the pastoral nations

[tentativi-vani]

Jade, Burma's Green Glory

Burma, on the grounds that  Jewellery Buyers Perth 1989 also known as Myanmar, is famous for diverse things and jade is truely certainly one of them. To be sure, this text is ready Burmese jade however when writing (and speakme for that depend) about jade, in preferred, and Burmese jade, especially, it is imperative to consist of China for not only is China the sector's biggest marketplace for jade but it also performed and still plays a very crucial role with recognize to the topic Burmese jade, and that during a couple of manner.

Chinese have been the primary to mine jade in China beginning from about 6.000 BC., and that at a completely big scale as a way to meet the robust home call for, that's explainable through the reality that China has a jade ware tradition and Chinese are captivated by way of this stone. They have been additionally the cause for the start of the primary huge scale mining and trading in Burma that took place in response to increasing demand for jade - greater precisely phrased jadeite - all through the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644). Back then Jade became traded to China through Yunnan via caravan exchange. Not simplest are the Chinese now as ever the through far largest consumers of Burmese jade (up to seventy five percent of the entire manufacturing) however they do additionally run most of the fundamental jade mining, processing and trading operations in Burma's jade industry after triumphing concessions from the Burmese government. This makes clean past doubt why I am announcing that China played and nonetheless performs a very crucial position linked to the topic jade in Burma.

Jade alternate in Burma, which dates lower back to the Pyu, has till the 14th century taken area on a as an alternative small scale. The purpose for this changed into that neither the Pyu nor any of the humans (Kachin, Shan, and so forth.) inhibiting the regions in question attributed contrary to the Chinese any economic and/or cultural fee to jade. And it is first and important the latter that makes jade so particularly widespread. In other phrases, it's far superstitiousness that makes jade so valuable and no longer jade itself for jade is hardly appropriate for being worn totally for topics of beautification.

In Chinese tradition jade takes a completely distinguished region for the Chinese connect supernatural powers to jade. Examples of this are that the wearer of jade is as they agree with blanketed against disaster, that sporting jade features as a form of 'early caution gadget' due to the fact the jade will on the eve of a horrific event ruin and that desirable fortune lays ahead is heralded by using the jade's appearing greater excellent and translucent as regular. That an awful lot to the in China popular ideals associated with jade. Oh no, wait, here is some other instance that I do personally like very plenty. It turned into believed that the use of opium pipes with mouthpieces manufactured from jade might bestow longevity on opium smokers.

Up to the thirteenth century jade changed into to Chinese jade carver synonymous with nephrite. However, after the invention that inexperienced jade of a brilliant inexperienced and brilliance by no means visible earlier than (jadeite) befell in north Burma had been made, this chanced. Before lengthy the Chinese royalties and elite fell deeply in love with this new type of jade. The look for the supply of this lovely jade become on. It took the Chinese a totally long term and a large variety of Chinese who paid with their lives for the dream of a lifestyles in riches to discover wherein exactly this jade came from.

In the subsequent I provide you with an excerpt from William Griffith's 'Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bootan, Affghanistan, and the Neighbouring Countries' describing the a.M.

"The jade stone or nephrite has been acknowledged in China from a duration of excessive antiquity. It was discovered initially in Khoten and different parts of Central Asia, and being of a wonderful white shade and very high-priced, it became held in excessive esteem as symbolical of purity in private and reputable existence. The green sort of the stone seems to had been extremely uncommon, but no longer absolutely unknown, for attempts are recorded to produce its shade artificially by way of burying white jade in juxtaposition with copper. The discovery that inexperienced jade of exceptional fine occurred in Northern Burma turned into made by chance through a small Yunnanese trader in the thirteenth century. The story runs that on getting back from a adventure throughout the frontier he picked up a chunk of stone to balance the burden on his mule. The stone proved to be jade of splendid fee and a huge party went returned to procure extra of it. In this errand they were unsuccessful, nobody being able to inform them in which the stone came about. Another try, equally fruitless, was made by the Yunnan Government inside the fourteenth century to discover the stone; all of the contributors of the day trip, it's far stated, perished with the aid of malaria, or at the palms of opposed hill-tribes. From this time onwards, for several centuries, no similarly exploration in the jade country seems to had been undertaken by way of the Chinese. Small portions of the stone on occasion determined their manner throughout the frontier, but the exact supply of the deliver continued unknown.

The yr 1784 marks the very last termination of an extended collection of hostilities between Burma and China, and from this time dates the hole of a normal exchange between the two countries. Adventurous bands of Chinese before lengthy found that the jade-producing districts lay on the right bank of the Uru River, and a small however ordinary deliver of the stone became now conveyed every year to Yunnan.

Impracticable roads, a malarious climate, and an unsettled united states of america avoided the enlargement of the trade. Some twenty or thirty Chinese at the most went up into the jade country every season and a very small percentage of those ever again. In the Chinese temple at Amarapura is a protracted listing containing the names of upwards of 6,000 Chinese traders deceased in Burma considering that the start of the existing century to which funeral rites are yearly paid. The large majority of those men are regarded to have misplaced their lives in the search for jade. The roll consists of most effective the names of well-known and considerable traders. Could the quantity of smaller traders and adventurers who perished within the same organisation be ascertained, the list would be swelled to commonly its present size. Dr. William Griffith turned into the primary European to honestly visit the mines in 1837."

Here is a brief description of the distinctive varieties of jade. What is commonly known as jade does without a doubt talk to  distinct minerals/gem stones, namely nephrite and jadeite. The different mineralogical and chemical compositions translate into variations in colour, hardness, translucence and texture. Nephrite, which is a good deal more common than jadeite is made of gentle calcium and magnesium silicate. Jadeite, the harder jade variety is composed of aluminium and sodium silicate

The softer range, nephrite, has a hardness of 6 - 6.5 at the Mohs scale (from 1 to 10) and its surface is yielding particularly clean to cutter gear used to carve and incise jade. Therefore the nephrite is used to provide pieces with very state-of-the-art floor ornament, that's rather valued particularly in China in which jade isn't just something to make money with and best to observe but because of the mythical powers attributed to jade an critical a part of not most effective people's lives however also afterlives. Extremely artfully carved Funerary gadgets of jade unearthed from royal tombs supply an outstanding demonstration of this. Against the history that nephrite is used to produce lovely jade carvings it is easy to justifiably say that it's miles the artistry of the carving this is figuring out the price and no longer the jade.

Lower qualities of nephrite (application jade) are used to make dinnerware, trays, tea sets, collectible figurines and indoors decorative add-ons.

As for the colour, well yes, what approximately the color? The first thing that pops up before our thoughts's eye when we hear the word 'jade' is a inexperienced piece of stone. Green? Why green? Because jade is always inexperienced, or is it? Jade takes place in six natural colorings: inexperienced, lavender, pink, yellow, white (the creamy white is in China called 'mutton fat') and black (which is truly a totally darkish green). But regarding hues is likewise to differentiate among nephrite and jadeite.

The colour range for nephrite isn't almost as broad as for jadeite and is usually characterised by a positive dullness of shade and waxiness of texture.

The more difficult range, jadeite, has a hardness of 6,five - 8 (in uncommon case even up to 9 what makes it as difficult as rubies) at the Mohs scale and its floor is invulnerable to cutter device made of steel and extraordinarily tough to carve. That the carving of one in all the bigger jade gadgets for e.G. Chinese royalties took more than the lifetime of 1 artist (sometimes 2 and greater) may additionally give you an idea of that. Therefore jadeite is chiefly used to provide expensive jewelry. And it is this high-grade fine of jade Burma is famous for.

Like nephrite jadeite seems in six basic colorings but with many variations. Also, jadeite comes in an awful lot greater vibrant green colors, finer texture and a higher degree of translucency than nephrite jade. The natural hues are green, lavender, crimson, yellow, white and black.

Green, the maximum vital and traditional color, varies from an severe emerald green thru apple-green to grey-inexperienced and ultimately black-green. So why will we - especially 'westerners' - assume Jade is continually inexperienced? This is due to the fact green jade is the maximum traditional, rare and high-priced color and used to make jewellery. And this is wherein we 'Westerners' are aware of it from, from jade jewelry, which, sooner or later, is inexperienced. This makes us (nicely, a lot of us) leaping to the wrong conclusion that jade is constantly inexperienced.

In China, green jade symbolizes precise fortune. The greatest high-quality of green jade is historically known as 'Imperial jade' as it changed into the sort of jade favored by Chinese empresses and emperors. However, for the sake of correctness one should now not use this time period because the perfect time period is 'emerald jade'. Why? Because the supply of the inexperienced color is the colouring agent chromium, that's the identical agent that makes emeralds inexperienced.

In Burma jade is mined in Kachin State within the northernmost a part of the usa. The centre of jade mining is Hpakant additionally spelled Phakant. It is located smack within the centre of one in all our planet's most malaria infested and inhospitable places located astride the Uyu River 220 miles/350 kilometres north of Mandalay.

Phakant is obtainable simplest from September/October to May/June. During the monsoon months in-between it is clearly reduce off the rest of the usa. Other towns with huge jade depots in the place areTawmao, Hweka and Mamon. In the neighbouring location Hkampti (also spelled Khamti ) in Sagaing Division it's miles Nasibon and Natmaw. According to statistics 'Jade Land' in Burma's Kachin state is the supply of greater than 70 percentage of global top-grade jadeite supply.

In present-time Burma the overall range of energetic mining companies is said to be about 100. With the exception of the introduction of power, motorised gear and motors, backhoes and dynamite into the mining procedure in reality nothing has changed in extra than a hundred years of jade mining in Burma. The methods employed are now as ever very primitive, the cconditions in the mines are abysmal and bills for workers and protection requirements are very low. About 70 percent of Burmese jade mine people are drug addicts (opium and heroin) and HIV inflamed. Maybe you call that for your thoughts and say a prayer for the ones who've lost their lives mining it prior to shopping for an high priced piece of jade be it uncooked or processed. By the manner, this additionally is going for rubies, diamonds, and so on.

Extraction of jade within the Hpakant vicinity is in particular carried out by manner of what is called 'boulder mining'. This is the procedure of extracting rocks that are believed to contain jade from the floor after disposing of the layer of alluvial fabric referred to as 'overburden' this is covering them. In order to locate jade-containing boulders miner need to cross deeper and deeper for the surface-near layers are already sifted normally. The jade boulders right here a rounded, have a thick skin (mountain jade appears as abnormal chunks with a thin pores and skin) and the jade is referred to as 'river jade'.

After those rocks that do most likely incorporate jade are separated from the everyday rocks the latter are as waste disposed within the river and on river banks. With, by means of the with the aid of, often disastrous effects for the herbal environment and the people living in these regions.

The very elaborate component, which requires lots of enjoy and an similarly large quantity of success, is to identify the jade. Finding boulders containing jade is so difficult because jade is typically surrounded by a extra or less thick layer of rock what makes the jade boulder look like some other normal rock. Sure, it might be clean to just drill or reduce into the rock to see what's hidden internal but using this approach could depending on the dimensions of the rock (maximum weigh 1 kg or much less and are enormously small) within the worst case lessen a very treasured stone to nearly rubble if you hit the incorrect i.E. Maximum valuable component. That is why subtler techniques are required. Miners and merchants alike are consequently looking, amongst others, for clues such as so-referred to as 'display points', places at which colour is visible via a thinner layer of pores and skin. Another technique is proving the burden due to the fact jade-containing rocks are heavier than ordinary ones due to the higher density. Yet another technique is to search for spots with fibrous texture (with out glitter and/or sand). This texture is - regarding the 'delicious' a part of the stone - referred to as via the locals 'yumm'. Additionally, they may be seeking out floor colouration, take a look at how the stone surface feels when touched underneath water (in water jade feels barely 'gluey' or 'sticky') and listen to the sound produced through tapping with a metallic tool in opposition to the stone. In case the stone includes jade the tapping produces a 'warmer' sound. It is safe to mention that irrespective of understanding being a hit in 'isolating the wheat from the chaff' within the jade enterprise is to at the least 50 percentage just playing. What appears to be very promising can turn out to be an empty nut and vice versa. Many buyers (often buyers) have given themselves the bullet for dropping the entirety due to the fact they have subsidized the incorrect horse; it's a chance.

Having recognized the jade follows the category and the first-class criteria are coloration, translucency and texture. Burmese traders realise the following sorts.

1. Mya Yay or Yay Kyauk, translucent and a uniform grass-green in colour. This is the maximum valuable variety.

2. Shwelu, mild-green jadeite with bright-inexperienced spots and streaks.

3. Lat Yay, clouded jadeite, is utilized in making bracelets, buttons, hatpins, embellishes, drinking cups, and many others.

4. Hmaw Sit Sit, a darkish-green range, is as an alternative tender and brittle, and used in the manufacture of inexpensive jewelry.

Five. Konpi, the pink or brownish variety, is simplest discovered in mountain boulders, embedded in purple (ferrous) earth. This variety isn't observed at Tawmaw.

6. Kyauk-atha, white translucent jadeite, is used for bracelets, stems of pipes, plates, spoons, flower-pots, cups, saucers, and many others.

7. Pan-tha, first-rate white in coloration, and translucent, however opaque to a certain quantity. This opacity is taken into consideration to be a defect and significantly reduces the charge of the locate. Like marble, it is used basically for decorative functions, which include inlaying tables, chairs, containers, furniture, and many others.

Eight. Kyauk Amè, the black (darkish-inexperienced) variety. It is used for making buttons, bars for brooches, and so forth.

[fughtopia]

The Tunnels That Trump the Chump bombed...

#affghanistan #mother of all bombs #amerikkka #donald trump #jimmy carter #Zbigniew Brzezinski #afghanistan war

[tanyushenka]

Two Arabs. Followers of the late Sir Alexander Burnes, who accompanied him to Simla This lithograph was based on plate 16 from Emily Eden's 'Portraits of the Princes and People of India'. Eden wrote of the Arab companions of Sir Alexander Burnes: "It is believed that these men were connected with the Arab Tribes in and near Cabool, descendants of the original Arab conquerors, at the time of the introduction of Mohamedanism into Affghanistan. These tribes still remain separate from the general Affghan population of the country". Burnes (1805-41), a talented and colourful figure, had been the British Political Agent at Kabul, and was killed during the first Afghan war. He was famed for his journeys through Afghanistan and across the Hindu Kush into Persia and Bukhara, writing an immensely popular account of his travels, published in 1834. He spoke Hindi and Persian and was known to wear Afghan attire.

#art

[asktravels]

Danubewhich the pastoral nations

They would pass over the high region of Pamer, where are the sources of the Oxus, they would descend the terrace of the Bolor, and the steeps of Badakshan, and gradually reach a vast region, flat on the whole as the expanse they had left, but as strangely depressed below the level of the sea, as Tartary is lifted above it. This is the country, forming the two basins of the Aral and the Caspian, which terminates the immense Asiatic plain, and may be vaguely designated by the name of Turkistan. Hitherto the necessity of their route would force them on, in one multitudinous emigration, but now they may diverge, and have diverged. If they were to cross the Jaxartes and the Oxus, and proceed at length southward, they would come to Khorasan, the ancient Bactria, and so to Affghanistan and to Hindostan on the east, or to Persia on the west.

But if instead they continued their westward course, then they would skirt the north coast of the Aral and the Caspian, cross the Volga, and there have a second opportunity, if they chose to avail themselves of it, of descending southwards, by Georgia and Armenia, either to Syria or to Asia Minor. Refusing this diversion, and persevering onwards to the west, at length they would pass the Don, and descend upon Europe across the Ukraine, Bessarabia, and the Danube.

Such are the three routes, across the Oxus, across the Caucasus, and across the Danubewhich the pastoral nations have variously pursued at various times, when their roving habits, their warlike propensities, and their discomforts at home, have combined to precipitate them on the industry, the civilization, and the luxury of the West and of the South. And at such times, as might be inferred from what has been already said, their invasions have been rather irruptions, inroads, or, what are called, raids, than proper conquest and occupation of the countries which have been their victims.

#Danubewhich the pastoral nations

[hotelwedding]

Danubewhich the pastoral nations

They would pass over the high region of Pamer, where are the sources of the Oxus, they would descend the terrace of the Bolor, and the steeps of Badakshan, and gradually reach a vast region, flat on the whole as the expanse they had left, but as strangely depressed below the level of the sea, as Tartary is lifted above it. This is the country, forming the two basins of the Aral and the Caspian, which terminates the immense Asiatic plain, and may be vaguely designated by the name of Turkistan. Hitherto the necessity of their route would force them on, in one multitudinous emigration, but now they may diverge, and have diverged. If they were to cross the Jaxartes and the Oxus, and proceed at length southward, they would come to Khorasan, the ancient Bactria, and so to Affghanistan and to Hindostan on the east, or to Persia on the west.

But if instead they continued their westward course, then they would skirt the north coast of the Aral and the Caspian, cross the Volga, and there have a second opportunity, if they chose to avail themselves of it, of descending southwards, by Georgia and Armenia, either to Syria or to Asia Minor. Refusing this diversion, and persevering onwards to the west, at length they would pass the Don, and descend upon Europe across the Ukraine, Bessarabia, and the Danube.

Such are the three routes, across the Oxus, across the Caucasus, and across the Danubewhich the pastoral nations have variously pursued at various times, when their roving habits, their warlike propensities, and their discomforts at home, have combined to precipitate them on the industry, the civilization, and the luxury of the West and of the South. And at such times, as might be inferred from what has been already said, their invasions have been rather irruptions, inroads, or, what are called, raids, than proper conquest and occupation of the countries which have been their victims.

#Danubewhich the pastoral nations

[bgtraveldays]

The civilization of Sogdiana

Nor was Greek occupation the only source of the civilization of Sogdiana. Centuries rolled on, and at length the Saracens renewed, on their own peculiar basis, the mental cultivation which Sogdiana had received from Alexander. The cities of Bokhara and Samarcand have been famous for science and literature. Bokhara was long celebrated as the most eminent seat of Musselman learning in central Asia; its colleges were, and are, numerous, accommodating from 60 to 600 students each.

The Russian Empress Catherine subscribed towards one of them. Samarcand rivals it in fame; its university even in the last century was frequented by Mahometan youth from foreign countries. There were more than 300 colleges for students, and there was an observatory, celebrated in the middle ages, the ruins of which remain. Here lies the body of Timour, under a lofty dome, the sides of which are enriched with agate. “ Since the time of the Holy Prophet”, says Baber, meaning Mahomet, “ no country has produced so many Imaums and eminent divines as Mawar-al-naliar”, that is, Sogdiana. It was celebrated for its populousness.

Province attached to its capital

At one time it boasted of being able to send out 300,000 foot, and as many horse, without missing them. Bridges and caravansaries abounded; the latter in the single province attached to its capital, amounted to 2,000. In Bactria, the very ruins of Balkh extend for a circuit of 20 miles, and Sir A. Burns wound through three miles of them continuously.

Such is the country, seated at present between the British and the Russian Empires, and such its previous and later state, which the savage Huns, in their emigration from Tartary, had necessarily encountered; and it cannot surprise us that one of their many tribes had been persuaded to settle there instead of seeking for fortunes further west. The effect upon these settlers in course of time was marvellous.

Though it was not of course the mere climate of Sogdiana that changed them, still we cannot undervalue the influence which is necessarily exerted on the mind by the idea of property, when once recognised and accepted, by the desire of possession and the love of home, and the sentiment of patriotism which arises naturally in the mind with the occupation of a rich and beautiful country. Moreover, they became the guests or masters of a people, who, however rude, at least had far higher claims to be called civilized than they themselves, and possessed among them the remains of a more civilized era. They found a race . too, not Tartar, and in consequence, if we can trust the theories of the present day, more capable of civilization, more gifted with intellect, and more comely in person.

Settling down among the inhabitants, and intermarrying with them, in the course of generations their Tartar characteristics were sensibly softened. For a thousand years this restless people remained there, as if chained to the soil. They still had the staple of barbarism in them, but so polished were they for children of a Tartar stock, that they are called in history the White Huns of Sogdiana. They took to commerce, they took to literature; and when, at the end of a few centuries tours bulgaria,’ the Turks, as I have already described, spread abroad from Mount Altai to Kamtchatka, the Volga, and the Indus, and overran these White Huns in the progress of their victories, they could find no parties more fitted than them to act as their diplomatists and corespondents in their negociations with the Romans.

Such was the influence of Sogdiana on the Huns; is it wonderful that it exerted some influence on the Turks, when they in turn got possession of it? History justifies the anticipation; as the Huns of the second or third centuries settled around the Aral, so the Turks in the course of the sixth or seventh centuries overran them, and descended down to the modern Affghanistan and the Indus; and as the fair region and its inhabitants, which they crossed and occupied, had begun at the former era the civilization of the first race of Tartars, so did it at the latter era begin the education of the second.

#The civilization of Sogdiana

[istanbularttr]

Earth with an unrivalled brilliancy

The Saracens, like the Greeks, carried their arms over the surface of the earth with an unrivalled brilliancy and an unchequered success; but their dominion, like that of Greece, did not last for more than 200 or 300 years. Rome grew slowly through many centuries, and its influence lasts to this day; the Turkish race battled with difficulties and reverses, and made its way on amid tumult and complication, for a good 1,000 years from first to last, till at length it found itself in possession of Constantinople, and a terror to the whole of Europe. It has ended its career upon the throne of Constantine; it began it as the slave and hireling of the rulers of a great empire, of Persia and Sogdiana.

As to Sogdiana, we have already reviewed one season of power and then in turn of reverse which there befell the Turks; and next a more remarkable outbreak and its reaction mark their presence in Persia. I have spoken of the formidable force, consisting of Turks, which formed the guard of the Caliphs immediately after the time of Harun al Baschid: suddenly they rebelled against their master, burst into his apartment at the hour of supper, murdered him, and cut his body into seven pieces. They got possession of the symbols of imperial power, the garment and the staff of Mahomet, and proceeded to make and unmake Caliphs at their pleasure. In the course of four years they had elevated, deposed, and murdered as many as three.

At their wanton caprice, they made these successors of the false prophet the sport of their insults and their blows. They dragged them by the feet, stripped them, and exposed them to the burning sun, beat them with iron clubs, and left them for days without food. At length, however, the people of Bagdad were roused in defence of the caliphate, and the Turks were brought under; but they remained in the country, or rather, by the short-sighted policy of the moment, were dispersed throughout it, and thus became in the sequel ready-made elements of revolution for the purposes of other traitors of their own race, who, at a later period, as we shall presently see, descended on Persia from Turkistan.

Indeed events were opening the way slowly, but surely, to their supremacy. Throughout the whole of the tenth century, which followed, they seem to disappear from history; but a silent revolution was all along in progress, leading the way to their ascendancy. The empire of the caliphate was already dying in its extremities, and Sogdiana was one of the first countries to be detached from his power participants independently optimize. The Turks were still there, and, as in Persia, filled the ranks of the army and the offices of the government ; but the political changes which took place were not in the first instance to their visible advantage.

Mountains of Affghanistan

It was the revolt of the Caliph’s viceroy, who made himself a great kingdom or empire out of the provinces around, extending it from the Jaxartes, which was the northern boundary of Sogdiana, almost to the Indian ocean, and from the confines of Georgia to the mountains of Affghanistan. The dynasty thus established, lasted for four generations and for the space of ninety years. Then the successor happened to be a boy; and one of his servants, the governor of Khorasan, an able and experienced man, was forced by circumstances to rebellion against him. He was successful, and the whole power of this great kingdom fell into his hands; now he was a Tartar or Turk; and thus at length the Turks suddenly appear in history, the acknowledged masters of a southern dominion.

#Earth with an unrivalled brilliancy

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The civilization of Sogdiana

Nor was Greek occupation the only source of the civilization of Sogdiana. Centuries rolled on, and at length the Saracens renewed, on their own peculiar basis, the mental cultivation which Sogdiana had received from Alexander. The cities of Bokhara and Samarcand have been famous for science and literature. Bokhara was long celebrated as the most eminent seat of Musselman learning in central Asia; its colleges were, and are, numerous, accommodating from 60 to 600 students each.

The Russian Empress Catherine subscribed towards one of them. Samarcand rivals it in fame; its university even in the last century was frequented by Mahometan youth from foreign countries. There were more than 300 colleges for students, and there was an observatory, celebrated in the middle ages, the ruins of which remain. Here lies the body of Timour, under a lofty dome, the sides of which are enriched with agate. “ Since the time of the Holy Prophet”, says Baber, meaning Mahomet, “ no country has produced so many Imaums and eminent divines as Mawar-al-naliar”, that is, Sogdiana. It was celebrated for its populousness.

Province attached to its capital

At one time it boasted of being able to send out 300,000 foot, and as many horse, without missing them. Bridges and caravansaries abounded; the latter in the single province attached to its capital, amounted to 2,000. In Bactria, the very ruins of Balkh extend for a circuit of 20 miles, and Sir A. Burns wound through three miles of them continuously.

Such is the country, seated at present between the British and the Russian Empires, and such its previous and later state, which the savage Huns, in their emigration from Tartary, had necessarily encountered; and it cannot surprise us that one of their many tribes had been persuaded to settle there instead of seeking for fortunes further west. The effect upon these settlers in course of time was marvellous.

Though it was not of course the mere climate of Sogdiana that changed them, still we cannot undervalue the influence which is necessarily exerted on the mind by the idea of property, when once recognised and accepted, by the desire of possession and the love of home, and the sentiment of patriotism which arises naturally in the mind with the occupation of a rich and beautiful country. Moreover, they became the guests or masters of a people, who, however rude, at least had far higher claims to be called civilized than they themselves, and possessed among them the remains of a more civilized era. They found a race . too, not Tartar, and in consequence, if we can trust the theories of the present day, more capable of civilization, more gifted with intellect, and more comely in person.

Settling down among the inhabitants, and intermarrying with them, in the course of generations their Tartar characteristics were sensibly softened. For a thousand years this restless people remained there, as if chained to the soil. They still had the staple of barbarism in them, but so polished were they for children of a Tartar stock, that they are called in history the White Huns of Sogdiana. They took to commerce, they took to literature; and when, at the end of a few centuries tours bulgaria,’ the Turks, as I have already described, spread abroad from Mount Altai to Kamtchatka, the Volga, and the Indus, and overran these White Huns in the progress of their victories, they could find no parties more fitted than them to act as their diplomatists and corespondents in their negociations with the Romans.

Such was the influence of Sogdiana on the Huns; is it wonderful that it exerted some influence on the Turks, when they in turn got possession of it? History justifies the anticipation; as the Huns of the second or third centuries settled around the Aral, so the Turks in the course of the sixth or seventh centuries overran them, and descended down to the modern Affghanistan and the Indus; and as the fair region and its inhabitants, which they crossed and occupied, had begun at the former era the civilization of the first race of Tartars, so did it at the latter era begin the education of the second.

#The civilization of Sogdiana

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Timour and the Emperor Baber

Even after the ravages of that conqueror, however, Timour and the Emperor Baber, who had a right to judge of the comparative excellence of the countries of the East, bear witness to the beauty of Sogdiana. Timour, who had fixed his imperial seat in Samarcand, boasted he had a garden 120 miles in extent. Baber expatiates on the grain and fruit and game of its northern parts; of the tulips, violets, and roses of another locality; of the streams and gardens of another. Its plains are said by travellers to abound in wood, its rivers in fish, its valleys in fruit trees, in wheat and barley, and in cotton.

The quince, pomegranate, fig, apricot, and almond all flourish in it. Its melons are the finest in the world. Mulberries abound, and provide for a considerable manufacture of silk. No wine, says Baber, is equal to the wine of Bokhara. Its atmosphere is so clear and serene, that the stars are visible even to the verge of the horizon tours bulgaria. A recent Russian traveller says he came to a country so smiling, well-cultivated, and thickly peopled, with fields, canals, avenues of trees, villages, and gardens, that he thought himself in an enchanted country.

Arab in our Indian armies

He speaks in raptures of its melons, pomegranates, and grapes.t Its breed of horses is celebrated; so much so that a late British travellerf visited the country with the special object of substituting it for the Arab in our Indian armies. Its mountains abound in useful and precious produce. Coal is found there; gold is collected from its rivers; silver and iron are yielded by its hills; we hear too of its mines of turquoise, and of its cliffs of lapis lazuli, and its mines of rubies, which to this day are the object of the traveller’s curiosity.f I might extend my remarks to the country south of the Oxus and of its mountain range, the modern Affghanistan. Though Cabul is 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, it abounds in pomegranates, mulberries, apples, and fruit of every kind. Grapes are so plentiful, that for three months of the year they are given to the cattle.

This region, favoured in soil and climate, is favoured also in position. Lying at the mouth of the two great roads of emigration from the far East, the valleys of the Jaxartes and the Oxus, it is the natural mart between High Asia and Europe, receiving the merchandize of East and North, and transporting it by its rivers, by the Caspian, the Kur, and the Phasis, to the Black Sea. Thus it received in former, days the silk of China, the musk of Thibet, and the furs of Siberia, and shipped them for the cities of the Roman Empire. To Samareand, its metropolis, we owe the art of transforming linen into paper, which the Sogdian merchants are said to have gained from China, and thence diffused by means of their own manufacturers over the western world.

A people so circumstanced could not be without civilization; but that civilization was of a much earlier date. It must not be forgotten that the celebrated sage, Zoroaster, before the times of history, was a native, and, as some say, king of Bactria. Cyrus had established a city in the same region, which he called after his name. Alexander conquered both Bactria and Sogdiana, and planted Grecian cities there. There is a long line of Graeco-Bactrian kings; and their coins and paterae have been brought to light within the last few years. Alexander’s name is still famous in the country; not only does Marco Polo in the middle ages speak of his descendants as still found there, but even within the last fifteen years Sir Alexander Burns found a man professing that descent in the valley of the Oxus, and Lieutenant Wood another in the same neighbourhood.

#Timour and the Emperor Baber