tribes ; but it does not appear from tbe account given of
them by this writer, who. has cited' no authority for his assertion,
that he had other ground than conjecture for any
opinion concerning the particular races from which they
sprang. The comparison of their dialects with that' of
other divisions of the same great family, is the chief and
only recourse for elucidating their origin.
Sir Alexander Burnes in his travels in Bokharia became
well acquainted with the Uzbeks, whom he has described. 1
“ With respect to their physical character/’ he says',
“ they are fair and some of them handsome, but the great
mass of the people otherwise. They are a grave, broadfaced,
peaceable people, with a Tartar expression: pfeounj?
tenancer1
Adelung divides the Usbeks into the tribes inhabiting
plains round the populous city of Taskkent, tribes near
the eastern shore of lake Aral, the Balkhian or Bactrian
tribes, and those subject to the khanate of Khiva.*
In manners and habits of life the Usbeks resemble;other 1
Turkish nomades. They wander about with their herds,
living under tents of felt : some practice agriculture ;
o t h e r s live in towns. They are not, like* other Turkish
hordes, in the habit of eating horse-flesh, or of drinking
the intoxicating fluid prepared from the milk-of mares.
The Uzbeks of Kunduz, near the Oxus,‘;ure!ridescribed
by Lieutenant Wood, who represents them as having all
the qualities b f the Turkish hordes, as brave ahd intejiigent,
but cruel and rapacious. He says, «* that they have genuine
Tartar features, meaning that they resemble the Kal-
muks, though the physiognomy of the chiefs is becoming
softened by intermixture with the Tajiks ; a Tajik however
is not permitted to marry the daughter of an Uzbek, and
this prevents tbe intermixture of the two races.”1*
* Abel-Rémusat, Recherches, p. 308.
t The Uzbeks, as Lieutenant Wood was informed, in a comparatively modern
era,'crossed tbe Jaxartes and fixed themselves in Transoxiana, after',driving
out the descendants of Tschingghis-khan, who, under Baber, passed thence
. into India. The Turkomans are a part of the dispossessed people who retired
across the Oxus. He says, that judging from physical characters, he should
OF THE TURKOMANS. 353
Paragraph 3.—Of the Turkomans.
The Turkomans, termed also Turkmans, and Trukh-
menes by the Russians, are nomadic Tartars who wander
with their herds i|^th e 'countries near the southern extremity
of the Caspian. They cover- with their tents all
the plains in the interior of Asia Minor, and reach thence
into the western parts of Armenia and through the South
of Georgia and the countries of Sbirwan and Daghestan,
in all which distritfteOthey* form a principal part of the
population. Tribes belonging? to this race are spread
through Syria, on Mount Lebanon and even into the deserts
of Arabia.* The Afschars in Persia are said to Jbe. of the
same stock .-f*
In Khorasan there are several Turkoman tribes which are
now subject to the Persians and lit® in the countries near
the southern extremity of the Caspian and between that
Sea and the river Oxus.
The history 5 of the Turkomans may be; traced in the
middle ages; It seems from the authorities consulted by
De GuigneS" that they are the descendants^ the Euzi or
Uzes, a Turkish race who were settled in Kiptschak and
Transoxiana from an early,period. Tribes^©■f^pi^nation
had already spread themselves- intfil Asia Minor and had
invaded Syria, when 1he remainder, whor had been left
behind in Mawara’l-nahar, Were attacked by the Khitans
soon after the: death of Mahmoud of Ghazni and forced
to pass the Oxus. tit was then that they became inha-,
bitants of the region between that river and Khorasan,
which has since been their chief abode. In Ferghana they
are the predominant tribe.1
suppose the Kalmuks and K-irghis, Uzbeks, and Turkomans, to be all branches
of one stock, and that Tartar, Noghaij Uzbek, ahdjTurkosman, or, as he writes,
Turkiman, are only accidental d is t in c tio n s^ ^ f od’s Journey to the Sources of
thejOxus, p. 21-9.
< Tho inference to be drawn ff6m' tfese observations is, that the Uzbeks and
Turkomans resemble the Kalmuks and other Mongolian races in their features
and other physical characteristics.
* Adelung, 1, s. 457. t Klaproth, 217.,, t De Guignes., vol. 1 and 2.
v o l . iv . v ' Wmmi