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The principal khanats are
those of Bokhara, Khokhand, Koondooz, etc. At this period,
the most important and the most formidable khanat was that
of Bokhara. Russia had already been several times at war
with its chiefs, who, for their own interests, had supported
the independence of the Kirghiz against the Muscovite dominion.
The present chief, Feofar-Khan, followed in the steps
of his predecessors.

The khanat of Bokhara has a population of two million five
hundred thousand inhabitants, an army of sixty thousand men,
trebled in time of war, and thirty thousand horsemen.
It is a rich country, with varied animal, vegetable,
and mineral products, and has been increased by the accession
of the territories of Balkh, Aukoi, and Meimaneh. It possesses
nineteen large towns. Bokhara, surrounded by a wall measuring
more than eight English miles, and flanked with towers,
a glorious city, made illustrious by Avicenna and other
learned men of the tenth century, is regarded as the center
of Mussulman science, and ranks among the most celebrated
cities of Central Asia. Samarcand, which contains the tomb
of Tamerlane and the famous palace where the blue stone is kept
on which each new khan must seat himself on his accession,
is defended by a very strong citadel. Karschi, with its
triple cordon, situated in an oasis, surrounded by a marsh
peopled with tortoises and lizards, is almost impregnable,
Is-chardjoui is defended by a population of twenty thousand souls.
Protected by its mountains, and isolated by its steppes,
the khanat of Bokhara is a most formidable state; and Russia
would need a large force to subdue it.

The fierce and ambitious Feofar now governed this corner
of Tartary. Relying on the other khans--principally those of Khokhand
and Koondooz, cruel and rapacious warriors, all ready to join
an enterprise so dear to Tartar instincts--aided by the chiefs
who ruled all the hordes of Central Asia, he had placed himself at
the head of the rebellion of which Ivan Ogareff was the instigator.
This traitor, impelled by insane ambition as much as by hate,
had ordered the movement so as to attack Siberia. Mad indeed
he was, if he hoped to rupture the Muscovite Empire. Acting under
his suggestion, the Emir--which is the title taken by the khans
of Bokhara--had poured his hordes over the Russian frontier.
He invaded the government of Semipolatinsk, and the Cossacks,
who were only in small force there, had been obliged to retire
before him. He had advanced farther than Lake Balkhash,
gaining over the Kirghiz population on his way. Pillaging, ravaging,
enrolling those who submitted, taking prisoners those who resisted,
he marched from one town to another, followed by those impedimenta
of Oriental sovereignty which may be called his household,
his wives and his slaves--all with the cool audacity of a modern
Ghengis-Khan. It was impossible to ascertain where he now was;
how far his soldiers had marched before the news of the rebellion

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