Sevier and I were now left with Kolutch, who
remained faithful to us, calling Yakoob somewhat of
a hypocrite, for that he had put on in Bokhara a white
turban, and was manifesting Muhammadan zeal only
to curry favour with the local authorities, whilst at
other times and places he did not even observe the
stated hours of prayer. A s for Kolutch, I suspect
that holding the office of a djiguitt in the service of
the Russians had not strengthened his Muhammadanism,
and, without our asking, he quietly wrapped
up a garment for me to sit on, and we all three took
our places against the wall, and quietly watched the
proceedings,
I do not know whether it was in this mosque that
Jinghiz Khan turned loose his dogs of war on the town.
T h e y told us it was about 350 years old, but Burnes
says that “ its cupola, once shaken by an earthquake,
was repaired by the renowned Timur,” whilst Vambery
attributes the building of it to Timur, and its restoration
to Abdullah Khan. It is one of the most solid
constructions in Bokhara, and as I sat within I felt
exceedingly glad that I had declined to be shut o u t ;
for the service was wholly unlike any form of Western
congregational worship I had seen, and it suggested
to my mind what, in some degree, may have been
the ancient temple service in Jerusalem. T h e interior ,
of the great mosque at Bokhara consists of a large
unroofed, entirely open court, 300 feet square, and
capable of accommodating, they say, 10,000 worshippers.
It is surrounded by what Dr. Schuyler
calls “ a wide, vaulted cloister of brick, two and
sometimes three aisles in width,” but which I had put
down as a succession of colonnades. They brought
to my mind the Hebrew Bethesda at Jerusalem
“ having1 five porches ” or stoas.* In front of us,
and at the end opposite the entrance, was the pishtak,
or tall façade, faced with coloured bricks, and surmounted
by a dome over the two arches, forming
the sanctuary we had seen in other mosques, where
the mullah prays ; whilst in front of these arches, and
standing a little outside, was a low structure that I
supposed to be intended for a pulpit or reading place
T h e service began on a long sustained note, uttered
by a mullah from the sanctuary, upon which the men
arranged themselves in ranks with strictest precision ;
all knelt, then rose and stood praying and bowing in
silence. Some o f the worshippers knelt in clusters of
two and three, but always^ in a line. Looking under
one of the covered stoas I saw a man whom I was
uncharitable enough to fix upon, in imagination, as the
Pharisee, “ who went up to the temple to pray.” He
was clad in a crimson velvet robe, with the purest of
white turbans, and had taken “ a chief room in the
synagogue,” whilst a poor fellow with bare feet, whom
I thought to be the publican, came in later, took a
hindmost place, where, having no costly prayer-cloth
on which to perform his devotions, he took off his
upper coat, laid it on the ground, and so prayed
“ standing afar off.” A s for the behaviour o f the congregation,
I can only speak o f it as most reverential.
One or two did now and then look round at the infidel
strangers in the corner, showing that Yakoob’s fear
was not altogether groundless; but their eyes were
* It was not “ a high d a y ” when we were there, and I estimated
the number of worshippers as not exceeding 500, but one had only to
imagine the people pouring into the city by thousands on a festival to
be reminded of the place “ whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the
Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the
Lord ” (Psalm cxxii. 4).
t John v. 2.
VOL. II. n