C H A P T E R X X X IX .
M UH AM M AD AN A N D JEW ISH SAM AR K AN D .
Bird s-eye view of Samarkand.— Its former.and present dimensions.—
Khoja-Akhrar medresse, and remarkable enamelling.— Koran of
Othman. Tradition of Tamerlane’s library,-—-The Rhigistan, with
medresses of Ulug-Beg, Shir-Dar, and Tillah-Kari.— Varieties of
enamelled bricks. A butcher’s shrine.— Visit to Jewish quarter
during the Feast of T abernacles.— Synagogue choristers.— Visit to
rabbi. Local traditions of Jews in China.— Hebrew pronunciation.
ON reaching a foreign city for the first time, it is a
favourite endeavour of mine to mount some
lofty pinnacle from whence to obtain a view of the
whole. I lost no time in doing this at Samarkand ;
for having arranged our effects at the palace, we called
after breakfast at the telegraph office, and on General
Korolkoff, and then visited the Gur-Emir before lunch,
after which we proceeded, under the guidance of a
Russian officer, to the Rhigistan. Here we ascended
one of the minarets of the Ulug-Beg Medresse, said to
be 45 ghiaz, or 150 feet, high.
We gained from hence a capital view of the town.
T o the north, five miles off lay the wooded and cultivated
country on the banks of the Zarafshan, with the
Chupan-Ata hills on the north-east, and nearer were
the Shah-Zindeh, and the Bibi-Khanum ruins, as well
as the Tashkend road, and the avenue by which we
had arrived. On the east was the Kalendar-Kareh
gate and the roads leading to Penjakend and .Urgut.
On the west was the citadel with the Emir’s palace,
having the Koktash; and beyond the citadel, radiating
like a fan, were the straight and regular streets of the
Russian quarter, with its public garden, Governor’s
palace, and shady promenade ; whilst on the south rose
the graceful dome of the Gur-Emir, and beyond it the
Khoja-Akhrar gate. The wide streets, and the coloured
roofs of the Russian houses, presented a marked contrast
to the low mud house-tops, and the narrow,
tortuous lanes of the native city, in which, however,
the direction of the principal thoroughfares did not
appear to us so hopelessly irregular and intricate as
at Tashkend and Khokand. Moreover, the city is seen
to be large, and full of gardens,' and these, watered
by three streams, give to it an aspect less dismal than
most of the towns we had seen. A t the same time, it
is a long way from an Englishman’s idea of what the
native poets have called it— “ a terrestrial paradise ” !
This euphuism may have referred, however, to ancient
times, when the cultivation of the surrounding country
was much greater than it now is. The high walls with
embrasures now measure 9 miles round.* The citadel
is the largest in Central Asia, and is girt with its own
battlemented wall, 8 feet high, and 10 feet thick at the
base. In circumference it measures a mile and a half.
* The ground the city covered in former times is judged to have been
more considerable, since the ruins of an old wall that once apparently
surrounded it are now 3 miles distant on the western side ; and on the
north, over the space between the present walls and the Zarafshan, the
ground is strewn with the ruins called Afrasiab. This extension must
have been before the time of Timur, in whose day Samarkand was
comprised within its present limits, only that the gardens, ju d g ing from
present traces of them, extended further.