nation. We shall find that most of the nomadic Turkish
tribes have at the present time a character of physiognomy
very similar to that which is termed MongolianThat they
cannot have derived-tbis from their Mongolian conquerors
may he safely concluded, if we consider-the disproportion
of the numbers of the two nations and the shortness of
the Mongolian dominion. But this is a subject on which
we shall have occasion to enter more fully in the sequel.
S ection VIII.—•Turkish Nations formed on the Subdivision
of the Mongolian - Empire.—Account of this Division s
The empire of the Mongoles did not attain-its complete
extent till after the death of Tschingghis-khakan. His
successors subdued all the countries; lying between the'Sea
of Japan and Hungary. The territbries'Conquered during
his life were divided at the death-of Tschingghis between
his four sons. To Djoutehi, the eldest son, was given all
the region which extends towards the north and west Jrom
the lake of Aral as far, in the words of a Mongolian historian,
as the feet of a Tartar horse had ever trodden. The
domain of Djoutehi was the nucleus of- thd Celebrated khanate
of Kiptschak, which comprehended a considerable
portion of the Russian empire in EurojSé'and in Asia; The
dominion of Jagatai reached from the country of the' Oui-
gours, in the region-of Bish-balig or the Five Towns on
the lake of Balkash, to the river Djihoun or Oxus. This
was afterwards Middle or Central Turkistan, and comprehended
the greater part of Mawara’l-nahar or Transoxiana
and the present khanates of Indépendant Tartary. Ogotaï
had the countries watered by the Imil, and Toulouï the
youngest son, according to the ancient custom of the
Tartars, retained the home and immediate sovereignty of
his father in the East. Ogotaï was afterwards elected
successor of Tschingghis and continued his conquests over
the Kin and Song, the rival monarchies of northern and
southern China, which ended in the establishment of the
Yuan or Mongolian dynasty, over the whole of that great
empire. These- partitions furnish the most suitable outlines
for a division* of - the.‘.tribes and races of Turkistan, and I
shall in the following sections enumerate the principal
Turkish trib^hwhich* belong to each department. Western
Turkistan or Kiptschak was named after the Kiptschak
Turks or Komanians, who had been its previous masters.
The Tartars of .Kasam and other southern provinces of the
Russian empire are descended from itSsinhabitants. To
the eastward of Kiptschak is Jagatai Turkistan. The
'greater part of thi-ss 'region j as far eastward as the chain
,of Bolcui^ consists of ex-tensiye-, plains intersected in some
places hyfldw ra-hgesi.^'*hiljs. It is a vast wilderness
|&oept where it is watered,, by the rivers whiqh descend
|pom thep^enn'kighland^-S These rivers take their, course
by two famous,passes which lead fMhdhe low country into
High Bokharia or Chinese Turkistan^ On the banks of
';|hMes*ivefs and||n the oases of. the, desert are the remains of
celebrated cities, the pomp ënd luxury pf which are extolled
by Persian and Turkish poets. Samarkand, Bokhara,
and Balkh were, according^©, these writers, gems of oriental’
splèfidoiir and the wonders of the worI;d. The inhabitants
of themod.ern towns in Mawara’l-nahar or Transoxiana
are, as we have before observed, chiefly Tâjiks ; the people.
the country are pastoral or nomadic tribes of the Turkish
race, and either pf the Turkoman ^division .of that people,
who formerly, occupied the whole country, Or of that of
the Uzbeks, who how possess the-Ynore northern districts.
The Uzbeks are divided into several independant khanates,
as those!of Khiva the capital of Khavarezm, Ferghana,
Khokan, Badakshan, Tashkent, and Ilissar. As -&j the
Other remote conquests of the Mongoles, the number of that
people bore in those regions so small a proportion to the
Turks that they have scarcely left a trace of their language.
The Jagatai Turk!, as M. Abei-Rémusat observes, has long
been considered as one of the principal dialects of the
Turkish Speech. It is distinguished from the eastern Turki
pr the Ouigourian by its greater polish, and by having
adopted in some degree from Persian and Arabian models
a more Western character, while the Ouigourian retains its
ancient, truly oriental and Tartar construction.