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At Tashkent, which he made his headquarters while in Central Asia, Mr. Schuyler had abundant opportunity of becoming acquainted with the various Beks, whom the Russians had deposed as they had pushed south ward. Prominent among these were Jura Bek and Baba Bek of Shahrisabs, a little province just south of Samarkand. The fathers of both of them had been prominent there before the country had been finally annexed to Bokhara by the blood-thirsty Nasrullah. When Shahrisabs was taken by the Russians, Jura Bek and Baba Bek escaped to Khokand, but they were treacherously delivered up by Khudayar Khan, who bore a grudge against Jura Bek for laughing at him and calling him an old woman when he was once complaining to the Amir Nasrullah of his troubles and his exile.
Brought as prisoners to Tashkent, they lived there for some time under surveillance; but finally obtaining pensions of about 2,000 rubles a year from the Bokharian Government, through the agency of the Russians, they now reside there unmolested, although, owing to the irregularity of the payments, they are sometimes reduced to great straits, as they both have large families. Jura Bek has become thoroughly convinced that the Russians are, and are to be, the masters of Central Asia, and sees that any chance for him in the future must come from them. His allegiance to them, therefore, is unwavering.
Mr. Schuyler describes this prince as "a tall, handsome Uzbek, with a thin dark beard, pleasant gray eyes, and a serious face. His dress is always very simple, but exquisitely neat, and there is something about the sadness of his expression and the suave grace of his gestures which never fails to attract and to interest. He is, indeed, a perfect gentleman. He is a strict Mussulman; but he has now been sufficiently with the Russians to have lost all fanaticism, and to be willing to conform to many of their usages. He will associate with them, eat with them, and even, if he chooses, drink wine, having sufficient dignity to act as he pleases, never, as many others do, wearing one face to the Russians and another to his fellow-believers." Baba Bek, his companion in exile, is a man of much weaker stamp, a stout man of thirty-six, though looking twenty years older, so much have his troubles told on him, and is without either the ability or the courage of his companion. He passes his life quietly, and is so amiable that one cannot help pitying him in his downfall.
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Vambery - England in the Orient
Foreign retirees in Manchuria
An early traveler in Egypt
Waiting in Ulaan Baatar
Central Asia after the battle at Penjdeh
First Japanese Buddhist Temple in America
Underground City near Bokhara
Central Asia
Central Asia
Bokhara
Japanese priest crosses desert to Tibet
