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Updated: May 8, 2025
Bukhara is a celebrated city in Tartary; it was formerly the capital of the province called Mawaralnahr, or Transoxiana, before the Tartar conquerors fixed on Samarkand. It lies to the northward of the river Oxus or Gihun, which divides Tartary from Persia, or as the Persian geographers term it, Iran, from Turan.
Their desire to open trade relations with Asia induced them to travel to the Crimea, and thence across the Volga and through Bukhara to the court of the Great Khan, Kublai. Up to that time only vague rumours of the great civilized empire far in the East had been spread by Catholic missionaries.
The Amu-darya forms the boundary between Bukhara and Afghanistan, the northern half of which is occupied by the Hindu-kush mountains. The name means "slaughterer of Hindus," because Hindus who venture up among the mountains after the heat of India have every prospect of being frozen to death in the eternal snow.
Here was the death-bed of their freedom and they were swallowed up by mighty Russia. I have crossed Turkestan many times by rail, in tarantass, and on horseback. I have strolled for weeks through the narrow picturesque streets and the gloomy bazaars of the old town called Bukhara, the "Blessed."
Bukhara is celebrated by Persian poets for its climate, its fruits, and its beautiful women. The boza is an intoxicating drink made of spirits, the leaves of the charas plant, tari, and opium. Tari, erroneously called todee, is the juice of the palm tree. Literally, ale-house, or tippling-house.
Some time after this cruel murder, a clergyman, named Joseph Wolff, arrived at Bukhara. He had travelled all the way from England, and all alone, on purpose to inquire after Conolly, who had been his dear friend.
"O king, they are both present; ask them if I tell truth, or falsify any of the circumstances. A kafila of merchants was going to Bukhara; I sent them along with it. After two days, I gave out publicly that my brothers were returned from their journey, and that I would go out tomorrow to meet them.
He was taken prisoner in battle by Nuh ibn Assad es-Samami, then in command at Bukhara. This prince, who was subject to the Caliph Mamun, paid an annual tribute of slaves, Turkish horses, and other valuables. In the year 815 a. d., Tulun was among the slaves sent as tribute to the caliph, who, attracted by his bearing, enrolled him in his own body-guard.
At this time the captain of the caliph's guard was one Tulun, a freedman, whom fate would seem to have reduced to servitude for the purpose of showing that a slave might found a dynasty destined to rule over Egypt and Syria. Tulun belonged to the Toghus-ghur, one of the twenty-four tribes composing the population of Turkestan. His family dwelt near Lake Lop, in Little Bukhara.
Sixty years ago there ruled in Bukhara a cruel Emir who took a delight in torturing human beings. A mechanician from Italy fell into his clutches and was sentenced to death. The Italian promised that if his life were spared he would construct a machine wherewith the Emir could measure the flight of time. His prayer was granted and he made an ordinary clock.
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