northern end to Gavars, or Giaurs, in the south. The
inhabited points, each in the form of a square, surrounded
by a small rampart with moat, and environed
by gardens and cultivated fields, are situated on the
banks of the rivulets. About 30 miles from Kizil
Arvat, to the south-east, is Bami, and, 70 miles further,
midway in the oasis, is Geok Tepe. This was
formerly the capital, or, at least, the rallying point
for the Turkomans of the Akhal.
About 50 miles further south is Askhabad, the
Russian capital. From hence to Geok Tepe is the
part of the oasis best adapted for cultivation, and here
are many gardens. Within 20 miles of Askhabad
are Annau with 200, and Gavars with 600, dwellings.
Petrusevitch estimates the population of the Akhal
at 30,000 tents. Petrusevitch informs us, on the
authority of the Governors of Budjnurd and Kuchan,
that Akhal was occupied by the Tekkes about 170
years ago, during the reign o f Shah Tamasp, and that
up to the beginning of the present century they kept
within the limits of this oasis. T h e increase'of population,
and the impossibility of spreading into the
desert, seeing that all depended upon the water supply
from the mountains, forced the Akhal Tekkes to' seek
fresh lands to settle upon. Accordingly, in about the
third decade o f the present century, about 10,000
families of them, under Oraz Khan, migrated to the
lower course of the Heri Rud river, about 50 miles
east of Gavars. There they erected the fort of
Tejend, from which the course of the Heri Rud
below Sarakhs was renamed Tejend- or Tajand-daria.
Thè second oasis I have mentioned, called the
Attek, òr mountain base, extends from Gavars to
Sarakhs. The present Sarakhs is a Persian fortress
on the west bank of the river, and was intended
originally to dominate the neighbouring Salor and
Merv Turkomans. It is surrounded with a clay wall
merely, and contains 600 or 700 soldiers, who pass
their time, according to the Baron Benoist-Méchin,
sleeping and drinking. The fort stands in a plain
far away from the mountains, and the Baron speaks of
its having no raison d'être for the Persians now, since
it is surrounded by a Turkoman population. Nearly
opposite, but three and a half miles distant on the east
of the, river, are the ruins of Old Sarakhs. In this
neighbourhood, M. Lessar says, are the lands best
adapted for cultivation along the whole course of the
Heri Rud. Beginning, however, our description of
the Attek at the north, we have Baba-durmaz, 47 miles
from Askhabad, and on the Russian frontier. M.
Lessar speaks o f this place as uninhabited. Only
two points,, he says, in the Attek, Luftabad and
Shilgian, are peopled by Shiite Persians, subjects of
the Shah. The other points are occupied by Turkomans
; but all this population, according to M. Lessar,
is of very recent origin.*
* In the middle of the last century a portion of the Akhal was
occupied by the Emrali tribe, and the country towards the south-east
including the neighbourhood of Geok Tepe and Askhabad, formed
the camping-grounds of the Alieli tribe. The Tekkes had at that time
been driven from Mangyshlak to Kizil Arvat, and commenced despoiling
the inhabitants of the Akhal country, these hostile relations continuing
for about 150 years, until the Tekkes gained the supremacy
Early m the present Century the Kardashli tribe retreated to Khiva
the Emrali to Mehna and Chacha, the Alieli to the northern frontier of
Afghanistan, and the remainder to Küren and Abiverd. About half a
century ago, Allah Kuli, Khan of Khiva, took away the Alielis and
Emralis to Khiva, whence they returned in 1855 to their old camping--
grounds ; but the Persians drove them back, and it was only in 1873
after the Khivan campaign, that the present inhabitants settled in thé
Attek, and built the new Kakha fort. The migration of the Tekkes to
the Attek has taken place also within the last few years.