every innovation was systematically discouraged. Clothing, house-furniture, and jewelry were forced to keep their timehonored forms and their primitive methods of manufacture. So that even before the Russian conquest of the country the native artificers themselves avowed their inability to compete with the foreign goods imported from the north, south, and west, and during the time of my visit lamented their approaching ruin. The merchant boldly undertook the month-long journeys with the caravans, and braved the dangers caused by the severity of the climate and the rapacity of the nomads, but could hardly succeed in protecting his bales of merchandise, which had escaped the storms of the desert and the armed bands of the Alamans and the Barantas, from the arbitrary exactions of the customs officers of the khanates. If in spite of all these obstacles he succeeded in enriching himself, he was still in perpetual danger of being plundered by the covetous sovereign of his own country.

ate, and the control and strict supervision | Commerce and manufactures moved only of the sovereign power, which Mohammed in the old grooves, slowly and with diffi had enjoined, was accepted in principle culty. The genius of the people in cenbut neglected in practice, the despotism tral Asia is not wanting in taste and and tyranny which prevailed at the centre ability, industry and perseverance. But of the empire must necessarily become even more outrageous in the distant regions on the frontier. In Bagdad the tottering throne of consecrated tyrants was overthrown by Mongol hordes; in Teheran, in Stambul, in Cairo, and elsewhere the influence of the West, every day becoming stronger, has compelled the adoption of better methods of government, and has loosened the grip of despotism; while in central Asia the old state of things still prevailed. It is true that here, too, Mongols and Turko-Tartars have in the course of history overthrown monarchies and set up new dynasties; but here, with every change in the ruler, the old despotic system planted itself all the more firmly, and on the very eve of the Russian occupation I was confronted in Turkestan with the most horrible exhibition of Asiatic tyranny and barbarism. Religion, which, according to its original intention, should have acted as a check on tyrannical exercise of power, had become in central Asia a support of despotism, and the pious men, who were in full possession of the confi dence of the people, emulated the officials off. The soil, although cultivated with of the emirs and the khans in plundering the most primitive implements, such as the masses entrusted to their spiritual had been in use for thousands of years, care. Among the principal religious per- still yielded in abundance the manifold sons whom I met in Turkestan I do not blessings of nature; for, as I observed remember a single kazi-kelan or ishan many years ago, the oases of central Asia (chief of a religious order) or one single are like precious stones in a setting of mollah who ever felt himself moved to sand. Yet what availed the prodigality of express the slightest disapproval of the nature in a country where the husbandconduct of the officers of the government, man knew not how to turn the surplus however great the cruelty with which the produce to good account, where the fertillatter behaved. The whole attention of izing system of irrigation, neglected by those religious men was directed to the the government, is abandoned to the care maintenance of superstition, the suppres- of the several communes, where the fearsion of all individual liberty and the ex-ful prospect of being sanded up grows clusion of the last gleam of enlightenment. every year more imminent? It can be Where the spiritual and temporal powers shown with historical certainty that four care only for their own interests, have in hundred years ago the cultivated region view only the plunder of the people and in the north and north-east of the khanthe continuance of their own power and ates of Khiva and Bokhara extended from influence, there can be no hope of any ten to twenty geographical miles further moral elevation of the masses, of any im. than is at present the case. Mention is provement of their economical condition. I made of flourishing and populous cities,

The agriculturist was not much better

where nothing is now to be seen but an | regarded as superfluous, nay, even as for-
unfathomed desert of sand. The prevail- bidden. Such was the intellectual atmo-
ing wind in that region blows from the sphere which pervaded the studies of the
north-east, bringing with it masses of sand, two or three thousand students in the
which smother one field after another, colleges of central Asia. As for what
continually contracting the extent of culti-went on in the world outside the bounds
vable land, until the husbandman in de- of Islam, what humanity has done in these
spair gives up the unequal struggle, and
leaves the enemy to cover the whole with
one uniform shroud of sand. In this way
cities have disappeared without leaving a
trace behind, and the territory beyond the
Oxus, which the travellers and geogra-
phers of the Middle Ages described as
rich and flourishing, has now become a
poverty-stricken desert.

modern times, they had no sort of care or
feeling. Indeed, they of set purpose de-
spised and ignored such things. They
showed even a certain pride in being able
to point out these hotbeds of religious
extravagance and purblind ignorance as
the intellectual centre of the vast territo-
ries stretching from the Indian Ocean to
Siberia, from the Hoangho to the Caspian.
When we take this circumstance into Sandy deserts and Kirghizes in the north,
consideration, we shall not be surprised to sandy deserts and Turkomans in the
find that the intellectual life of central south, formed the iron band that enclosed
Asia was never able to attain the same this strange world. The fear inspired by
degree of development as we find in the those ferocious nomads barred the way.
other lands of Islam. It is true that in thither against all intruders. And not one
the time of the Samanides and the Kha-single ray of that sun which had risen for
rezmians, there were not wanting learned the rest of the world was able to find its
men such as Avicenna, Zamakhshari, Al-way into that realm of darkness, which
beruni, and others; but these were repre- had remained five hundred years behind
sentatives of the common culture of Islam, the age.
and were destitute of all national character-
istics. The specifically Aryan or Tura-
nian spirit attempted to express itself only
in the field of theology and theosophy. On
the arrival of the Mongols this too disap-
peared, and utter darkness spread over
the oasis-lands, isolated as they were from
the rest of the world. During my intimate
intercourse with the so-called learned men
of Bokhara, Khiva, and Samarkand, I
never encountered one who had any knowl-
edge of secular science, not even of those
branches which are elsewhere allowed to
be studied by Mohammedan scholars,
much less one who occupied himself in
their study. The richly endowed colleges
(medresses) of these cities were visited by
hundreds of students from India, Afghan-
istan, and Chinese Turkestan. Great dil-
igence in study was displayed, but secu-
lar knowledge was rigidly separated from
theological subjects. Only grammar,
rhetoric, and in history hagiology were
zealously studied, while the other branches
of knowledge which had been cultivated in
the more flourishing periods of Islam,
mechanics, medicine, and astronomy, were

Such was the state of things in central Asia when the advanced posts of the modern spirit, clad in Russian garb, knocked in 1864 at its gates. Entrance was of course refused, and as far as possible prevented. But cobweblike defences of religious fanaticism broke down at the first blow, and the northern conqueror advanced on his career of victory with even greater ease and rapidity than the wild hordes of Mongols in the thirteenth century, while the results of his victory were incomparably more important and more permanent. It is now twenty-five years that the banner of the two-headed eagle floats over central Asia, and Western civilization in a Russian dress has made its entrance into the territories of old-world Asiatic barbarism. The strange guest, unloved and unexpected, has already made himself at home on several points of those territories; his stay is now evidently permanent, and his influence increases continually both in extent and in intensity. He is now engaged in founding there a new order of things, and the consequent change in the minds of men has already

given a new coloring, a new form to an | large part comes into the hands of the interesting relic of the old world. We natives. The public peace and immunity may, therefore, be pardoned if we attempt from the extortions of the sovereign and to raise the veil of the future and to an- the official class are sufficient of themswer the question so often asked: What selves to place the cultivator and the merwill become of central Asia under Russian chant in a position of ease they have never protection? The answer, in vague and before experienced. Formerly, any one general terms, central Asia will become who had made money had carefully to civilized, civilized in the Russian sense conceal his good fortune under an appearof the word, will not satisfy us. It is not ance of poverty. Now he can freely exprecise enough. Our curiosity urges us hibit his riches, enjoy all the comforts of to examine: first, What measure of suc- life, and revel in such pleasures as forcess will this civilization achieve? Sec- merly he only knew from the tales of the ondly, What effects will it have upon story-tellers. This economical expansion our own political and economical circum- must, and in course of time will, assume stances? And we must at starting remark still greater dimensions. The considerathat we are led to discuss these questions tion of ethnical relations and the diverse by no vain ambition of the credit of a characters of the different nationalities prophet, nor do we intend to satisfy our-point to the original Aryan inhabitants selves with idle speculations, but to try our conclusions with the touchstone of known historical facts, to use the experience of the past to cast a light upon the future.

Russia's influence upon the culture of central Asia will, in the first place and to a preponderating extent, be shown in changes of a material and economical character. The treasures of the soil which have hitherto been neglected or but imperfectly developed will, thanks to means provided by Western civilization, be more thoroughly appropriated, be turned to better account, and be transported to Europe along new ways of communication, and thus secure to the natives a source of increased wealth. This is already clearly indicated by the statistics of the exports and imports, which show an extraordinary rise. At the time of my visit the Russian exports from central Asia amounted to 1,014,237, and the imports to 1,345,741, while now, according to the latest data, Russia exported raw material to the value of 3,530,000l., and imported Russian manufactured goods to the value of 4,530,000l. This threefold rise clearly proves a more rational and diligent cultivation of the soil, an extraordinary improvement of the means of agriculture, and an undoubted rise in material prosperity. Certain branches of agriculture and manufactures, such as cotton, silk, corn, rice, etc., have advanced in an extraordinary manner. Certain articles for which there was formerly scarcely any demand, or whose export, owing to the primitive state of the means of communication, was difficult or even impossible, now contribute materially to enrich the native population. Of course the Russian merchants secure the lion's share of this increase of wealth, but still a

of the land, the Sarts and the Tadjiks, as those have the fairest prospects before them. Peculiarities of race seldom or never fail to assert themselves. Both in the Middle Ages and in still older times it was these Aryan autochtones who created a temporary efflorescence of material and intellectual splendor in those lands. In like manner, as may be safely predicted, this section of the population will, under Russian guardianship, make the most rapid progress on the path of reform, will turn out the most skilful merchants and manufacturers, and prove the aptest scholars of the new teaching. To this conclusion we are led by the experience of the first quarter of a century of Russian rule. The Sarts of the basin of the Yaxartes and the Tadjiks on the banks of the Zerefshan have displayed the greatest readiness in accepting the new orders of things; they have furnished the first scholars to the Russian schools; they have best known how to ingratiate themselves with the conquerors, and have most easily qualified themselves to become efficient and trustworthy instruments of Russian domination. It is true that to revolt or to resist has never occurred to the Ozbegs or the Karakalpaks. But on the one side the national character of these Turkish peoples, marked by heaviness and slowness of intellect, stands in the way of their as similating new and foreign ideas; on the other side, these people have been accustomed to play the part of a dominant caste, and are distinguished by a more martial spirit, and consequently cannot bring themselves to bear the yoke of subjection so easily as the Aryan population, who have grown up in servility and been for centuries accustomed to serve and not to rule.

an

Everything at present seems to lead us | fact of the preponderance of the Christian to the conclusion that central Asia under element in the native population, the num Russian protection will attain to such a ber of Russians who have voluntarily set. degree of economical development as is tled in the delightful and fertile valleys of without a parallel in the gigantic empire the Caucasus is even now, after fifty years' of the czars, swollen, as it is, by conquest occupation of the country, so small as not and national absorption. In consequence to be worth taking into account. Only an of changes in the state of civilization in enforced colonization has succeeded in Kasan, Astrakhan, and the Crimea, the producing a full stream of immigration Russian conquerors there came in con- into the conquered districts, as is the case tact with a similar state of things prevail with Siberia, where the Russian element ing among a Mohammedan population. forms a third of the population, reckoned Here too the conquerors, strong in the at 4,869,365 souls. To bring this about support afforded them by the civilization was in the first place the work of centu of the Christian West, were assisted in ries, and in the second place final success their conquest by the abuses produced by was only achieved through the fact that excess of religious fanaticism com- the Ostiaks, Voguls, Kirghizes, and other bined with the anarchy and feebleness of inhabitants of Siberia were on a much the degenerate descendants of wild and lower level of civilization than the Rus. warlike dynasties. At that time, however, sians, and consequently, in spite of conthe difference in civilization between the siderable resistance, fell at length victims Christian conquerors and the conquered to the Moloch of Russification. Wherever Mohammedans was not so great or so im- traces of Mohammedan culture were to be portant as that between the Russians of found — for instance, at Tobolsk and on the second half of the nineteenth century the upper Yenissei the absorption has and the central Asiatics who had been not even yet taken place. There the spirit sunk for centuries in a stereotyped degen- of the mollahs brought thither from Bokeracy. It is therefore quite natural that hara and Khiva in the time of Kötchüm the Russian people in the fifteenth and Khan is still active. In other parts of sixteenth centuries penetrated with greater Siberia, however, the law of the strongest ease into the newly conquered territories, prevails. Yakuts, Voguls, Teleuts, Shors, and felt themselves in a short time at home Koibals, Kondomers, etc., either die out in the novel surroundings, than can be the altogether, or are absorbed in the evercase at the present day. The number of increasing mass of the Russian populaRussians who during the twenty-five years tion; and if ever the projected railway that have elapsed since the conquest of ring traverses the immense empire of the Turkestan have settled on both sides of czars, the Russification of the non-Mothe Yaxartes, in Khokand, in the valley of hammedan peoples will be carried out with the Zerefshan and the delta of the Oxus, still greater rapidity. and in those regions live a Russian life, is exceedingly small, when we take into account the favorable conditions offered by the Russian government in order to induce colonists to flock to the newly conquered territories, and the natural advantages in the way of climate and soil these present. Up to the present time the Russian element is represented only by the military, by the civil service, and such merchants and manufacturers as have settled in the chief centres of the administration. The latter look upon their sojourn as merely for a time, and when they have made enough money desire to return to the mother country. Nor has the Russian government been as yet successful even in the case of the penal settlements. A like failure of Russian schemes of colonization is to be observed in the Caucasus. In spite of the favorable climate, in spite of the uninterrupted connection with the mother country, in spite of the important

In central Asia the metamorphosis consequent upon the Russian occupation will assume a form peculiar to itself. That occupation will not draw after it such consequences as we see in Kazan, Ufa, and Bakchiserai, nor, on the other hand, such as we find in the southern and eastern Caucasus. In the latter country the compact masses of Sunnite and Shiite Moslems have proved a firm bulwark against the attempted Russification. After fifty years' subjection to the Russians, they are still as attached to their language, their traditions and the influence of their akhonds as are their kinsmen and co-religionists on the other side of the Araxes. In the cities of central Asia, where Islam has taken much firmer root than in the Caucasus or the other parts of the Mohammedan world, there can be no probability of the old and knotty trunk of religious education being soon shaken. On the whole, Islam stands everywhere firmly on

remind him of the like faults on the part of the old native officials. The schools which the Russians have founded in Tash

its feet, nor can Christianity succeed in weakening it. Indeed, when subjected to Christian rule, it seems to become stronger and inore stubborn, and to gain in expan-kend, Khodjend, Ferghana, and Samarsive force. This we see in India, where, in spite of the zeal of the Christian missionaries and the millions spent in their support, the conversions to Islam become daily more frequent. We see this too in Russia, where statistics prove that the number of mosques has considerably increased in the course of this century, and that the heathen among the Ural-Altaic people are more easily converted by the mollah than by the all-powerful pope. The Russian natchalniks, pristavs and mirovoi sud (justices of the peace) will consequently exercise their functions for very many decenniums without being able to produce an important change in the morals, manners, and modes of thought of the central Asiatics. Bokhara will still long continue to boast of being the brightest spot in Islam, and her colleges will not soon lose their attraction for the studious youth among the Moslems of inner Asia. The same holds true of Samarkand, Khodjend, Khokand, and Tashkend, where the experience of the past twenty-five years has taught us how small is the influence of the secular authorities upon the minds of the native population, how very few innovations make their way among a people absorbed in domestic life, and with what freezing indifference they regard the novel hubbub around them, in the form of machines, railways, strange faces, and strange costumes, and all the manifold marvels of modern manufacture which have come among them in the train of their Christian conquerors.

Recent travellers, led astray by their ignorance of the languages of the country and an insufficient acquaintance with the religion, history, and manners of the central Asiatics, often publish highly sanguine accounts of the changes that have taken place and the great progress made in Western civilization on the part of the native population. They have undoubtedly been guilty of gross exaggeration. As yet the foreign conqueror has exercised but little influence by his good or his bad example, by his virtues or his vices. It is true that the strict order, security, peace, and toleration that have followed the anarchy and tyranny of the native rulers, commend themselves to the peaceable citizen, and would indisputably produce even greater effect were it not that the falsehood, corruptibility, and other vices of the new Russian officials often

kand with a view to educating the natives have hitherto produced very slight results. The chief end had in view was not so much the enlightenment of the population as the diffusion of a knowledge of the Russian language and the training of useful officials. But of the pupils who have received their education at these institutions, none have distinguished themselves, none have acquired as much Western knowledge as has been acquired by the students at similar institutions founded by the English in India at the beginning of the present century. Yet the educational system of the English was at that time very far behind what it is at present. Out of the seminary at Tashkend there have come a few teachers planted among the Kirghizes, a few useful officials, and one writer on philology named Ish Mohammed Bukin, author of a Russian-Kirghiz dictionary. The rest of the central Asiatics who have received a Russian education have been educated in Russia itself. When we consider the gigantic dimensions of the struggle which our culture has to engage in with the teaching of Islam, a struggle out of which even the English in India are only now emerging victorious after forty years of conflict, it would be unfair to the Russian government if we were to apply a too strict measure of criticism to its well-intentioned efforts. A continuation and perfection of the present system of education will certainly lead in the future to solid and beneficial results. Nevertheless Russia will never succeed in reaching the same degree of success or in exhibiting the same fruits as the English can with justifiable pride point to with their three and a half millions of pupils who are yearly educated in thousands of normal schools, in numerous colleges, and four universities. In the first place, the Russian civilizer cannot spread abroad in the darkness of the regions which he has conquered any better or more beneficial light than that which he has at his own disposal. To think of competing successfully with the greatest and most advanced representatives of Western culture in southern Asia would be a Utopian idea. Secondly, in central Asia are wanting those conditions which exist in India, where fifty millions of Mohammedans are urged to overcome their old prejudices by the competition of two hundred millions of Hindus, Sikhs,