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

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.

To return to the year 1868, when the Russian government had constructed the fort on the Naryn, and had openly proclaimed its intention of punishing the slight put upon it by Yakoob Beg's refusal to permit the construction of a road over the mountains to Artosh. Up to that year the intercourse had been of a semiofficial character between the officers on either side of the frontier. We have now come to a phase of the question of a slightly different import. The Russian officials endeavoured to obtain from Yakoob Beg concessions that would be advantageous to their country, at the same time that they categorically declined to recognize his official status as an independent prince. Their antagonist was far too astute to permit himself to be out-manœuvred by so simple a device, and his officials were quite unauthorized to enter into any arrangement without its being brought before their master in the manner consistent with his dignity. We have seen that the Russians, failing in their diplomatic chicane, had recourse to threats, although the irony of fate prevented those threats ever being put into execution. But concurrently with these efforts on the part of the Russian government, others of a different kind were being made by individuals. The Russian merchants of Kuldja contained in their ranks several men whose enterprise and courage had been remarkable in the manipulation of trade with the Chinese and the Tungani. They were not easily deterred from any undertaking which promised them brilliant remuneration, even though the risk and uncertainty might be great. The pioneers of commerce were free from the fetters that hampered official movements. It was of little moment to them who ruled in Kashgaria so long as he extended his protection to their goods and their persons whilst they were within his territory. The Russian government viewed with favour the efforts that were made to cross the Tian Shan, for on the individual fell the greatest portion of the risk, while the government profited much by the fruits of his experience. The Russian merchants were, therefore, not discouraged by their authorities when they laid their proposals before General Kolpakovsky, as English merchants would have been under similar circumstances by the authorities at Calcutta – nay, it is tolerably certain that they received many inducements to persist in their intention; both their patriotism and desire for advancing their own worldly concerns were appealed to, to urge them to attempt to obtain admission into Kashgar. When, therefore, it became evident in 1868 that nothing was to be obtained from Yakoob Beg by indirect means, and when it was also decided that a military remedy would not be convenient, the field was fairly cleared for another kind of performers to begin operations.

Early in the year 1868 a Russian merchant, named Kludof, collected at Vernoe a small caravan. His chief commodities consisted of those gewgaws, which, prepared in Moscow, have been found, according to Russian experience, the most marketable articles in Western Turkestan; but, in addition to these trumpery packages, more useful necessaries, such as cotton goods and cutlery, were taken as specimens of some of the real advantages that would come in the wake of Russian trade. Kludof set out with the intention of crossing the Tian Shan by the Naryn, and making for the border town of Ush Turfan, whence Kashgar is easily reached by the high road. But he had not proceeded far beyond Fort Naryn, then in course of construction, when he was attacked by a band of marauders. With the loss of all his possessions he must still be considered fortunate in having escaped without any serious personal injury. Perhaps the robbers were inspired with some respect for the person of a Russian subject, or, as the indictment against Yakoob Beg affirms, by the express orders of that ruler, who wished to deter, without causing any serious complication with the government, Russian subjects of any kind whatever from entering his kingdom. As it happened, however, Kludof was a very determined fellow, one not easily balked when he had set his mind on accomplishing anything. The government viewed his case with commiseration, and he was assisted in collecting together another caravan of larger proportions than its predecessor. But before setting out on the same road he determined to make an effort to reach the ear of Yakoob Beg himself, and by a singular piece of good fortune he was able to do so through a Kashgarian subject residing in Kuldja. The presents, judiciously selected, with which he accompanied his letter complaining of the injury he had received at the hands of Kirghiz subjects of the ruler of Kashgar, yet only demanding as a reparation permission to come into that state as a peaceful subject of the Czar, fully propitiated Yakoob Beg, who sent a safe conduct to Vernoe for Kludof and his caravan. This merchant made a most favourable impression on the ruler of Kashgar, and it seemed at one moment as if he would achieve what all the diplomacy of the two previous years had failed in accomplishing. Even Yakoob Beg was induced to take a slight step towards a better agreement with his neighbour, for in the summer of 1868, he sent Shadi Mirza, one of his nephews, to Vernoe, requesting that he might be permitted to go on to Tashkent, to place before the governor of Turkestan certain proposals from his master for a complete understanding with Russia. Simultaneously with the despatch of Shadi Mirza by Yakoob Beg, a Russian officer, Captain Reinthal, was commissioned by General Kolpakovsky, the governor of Kuldja, to proceed to Kashgar and demand the surrender of some Kirghiz robbers, who, from within Yakoob Beg's dominion, had sallied forth to pillage Russian merchants. They had also seized several inhabitants of Khokand and the Naryn district; and the Russian government demanded the unconditional surrender of these individuals as her subjects. Captain Reinthal was instructed to make these two demands in a peremptory way, and to convince the new government that Russia would not permit any infraction of the spirit of the treaties concluded with the old government under the Chinese. Captain Reinthal was received in a sufficiently hospitable manner, but his movements were scrupulously restricted to the city. He did not, on this occasion, learn much of importance about the country, but he was impressed favourably by the appearance of such of the army as he saw. The Kirghiz robbers were captured by the order of Yakoob Beg, but he stoutly refused to surrender them. The Russian prisoners were also kept in honourable confinement as a guarantee for the safe return of Shadi Mirza. They were, however, permitted to return to Russian territory when it became known that Shadi Mirza was progressing favourably with his mission to Tashkent. Captain Reinthal accomplished little or nothing on this embassade, and had to report, on his return to his superior, the strange tidings that the new power was resolved to play an independent part in Asia, and to answer defiance with defiance, and threat with threat. This report must have seemed scarcely credible, but there is no doubt that Captain Reinthal advised, as the result of his experience, the adoption of a lenient and friendly policy towards the new-comer. This concession to a Central Asian despot was not agreeable at head-quarters, and the question was shelved for the time. Shadi Mirza, who had been detained at Vernoe, was at last permitted to continue his journey to Tashkent, where he found General Kaufmann absent in Europe. Instructions were then issued to send him on to St. Petersburg, where he arrived in the last days of 1868. He had several informal interviews with the governor of Turkestan, but he was not received by the Czar or any of the higher officials. In fact, he was only treated as an ordinary traveller, and not as the representative of a neighbouring state. Nothing up to this had been done by the Russian government, showing that they recognized Yakoob Beg as ruler of Kashgaria. The Chinese were still, in their eyes, the de jure owners of that province, whoever might be the temporary owners de facto. On the return of Shadi Mirza to Kashgar, in January, 1869, the relations between Russia and Yakoob Beg may be said to have returned to the exact status quo ante. All the Russian demands for trade had been unsuccessful, and, except the brilliant journey of Mr. Kludof, no one had broken through the mystic charm that shut out the Garden of Asia from all foreign spectators. Their envoy, Captain Reinthal, had been treated in a precisely similar manner to that in which Shadi Mirza had been received at Vernoe and St. Petersburg; and a firm and dignified attitude had effectually checked the Russian officer when he attempted to express those threats which formed the principal part of his instructions. There was something imposing in the quiet way in which Yakoob Beg asserted his equality in rank with the Czar of All the Russias. His invariable reply, when the great power of Russia was made use of as an argument to overcome his refusal to accede to the trade concessions demanded, was, "My brother, the White Czar, is a most powerful monarch, and rules over the greater portion of the earth, and I am only an insignificant prince in comparison to him. But none the less can I encounter the danger like a true man, and esteem it a happiness to die in defence of my country and my faith." To so courageous and so honourable a reply what rejoinder could be made by the abashed officers? It is impossible to refuse Yakoob Beg the highest admiration for his stanchness in his opposition to Russia. If for his own narrow interests it may have been imprudent to throw down the gage of battle so freely, all the more does that attitude claim respect when we see him trampling on purely selfish motives, and asserting his claim to leadership in that wider question of Asiatic against Muscovite, of Mahomedan against Greek. Had he only been consistent throughout his career, had he only been as firm in his convictions and as prompt in carrying them into practice as he generally was, when the occasion came for a great effort against Russia, how different might have been his own fate and the present aspect of affairs in Central Asia!