Accordingly we passed on to the Russian Sarai, or
warehouse, and other parts of the town, to present our
few private letters of introduction. Since crossing the
Bokhariot frontier we had not seen or heard of a single
Russian of any grade or calling, nor, so far as I learnt,
were there more than the two or three agents of
Kamensky and of the Commercial Russian Company,
with the wife of one of them, in Bokhara. It seemed
almost like calling upon a fellow-countryman in presenting
our first letter, to see Kamensky’s agent in
European clothes, and his wife, the one Russian female
in all Bokhara, unveiled, and moving rationally about
the house, and not like her oppressed and degraded
sisters around. Very pleasant, too, it was, by way of
relief from native-made dishes, to stay to lunch, and
partake of a meal served in European fashion. We
called afterwards at the office of the Russian Company,
where I met, oddly enough, an Asiatic, upon whom I
had called in Moscow. He had returned by Orenburg,
and reached Bokhara some weeks before me. These
Russian agents had not, seemingly, a very enviable
post, for they are surrounded with Muhammadans, who
at first were exceedingly abusive and insulting, not to
say dangerous, in the streets, though matters afterwards
improved. This improvement was no doubt traceable,
in a measure, to European courage. I f a Bokhariot
chooses to insult, or even strike, a Hindu or a Jew,
they must patiently bear it, as the natives knew, and
accordingly tried the same with these Russians, though
not with a like result; for the agents, without waiting
for the interference of the authorities, took the law in
their own hands, and administered a thrashing. This
made the Muhammadans more careful; but, to show
what arrant cowards the Bokhariots were, one of the
agents said that on a certain occasion, when riding, his
horse became restive, whereupon a knot of ten natives
frightened the animal and made it run away. Upon this
the Russian returned to thrash them, and they set upon
him, as he said, to kill him. My informant happened
not to have his revolver, which he usually carried, but,
taking from his pocket a telescopic aluminium pencil,
he solemnly drew and pointed it at them, whereupon
they supposed it to be some new infernal machine, and
the company fled !
W e next went to see some of the medresses, or
colleges: first to that called Kokol-tash, for 146
students', and built, they told me, about 300 years ago,
though Vambery gives the date 1426. I asked what
it would cost to erect such a building in Bokhara now,
a n d they thought ¿ 1 ,2 5 0 * The second medresse in
importance is the Miri-arab, concerning which my
notes say “ 114 rooms and 230 mullahs.”t
On returning to our lodging we were entertained in
the course of the evening with some native songs and
music, as well as dancing-boys. One of the instruments
resembled a guitar, 46 inches long, with a sounding-
* The medresse is largely supported by legacies, and in Khanikoff’s
time the three classes of students respectively received from £2 to
X3 ior. a year, whilst the emoluments of the professors amounted to
-£240. This medresse was the same in form as those we had seen in
Samarkand, but far less handsome, and consisted of a quadrangular
building, with-two stories of rooms opening on a court with a few trees
and a pool of water, or fountain. The upper rooms were for students,
and are sold or let to them, whilst the lower are for instruction.
t It was built, Vambery says, in 1529, and its rooms-cost from ¡£53 to
.£60, whilst those of the preceding college cost from ¿65 to ;£8o. The
natives are fond of fixing the number of their medresses at 365. Bumes
gives them at 366 ; Vambery not more than 80 ; but Khanikoff, “ from
the Emir’s registers on which the grants to them are entered, at 103*
This last authority also gives the number of students in 1840, when the
Emir granted them part of the taxes, and it was found their aggregate
amounted to 10,000.