old are extracted. Trade has been greatly promoted by the building
of the Transcaspian railway across the country (from Charjui on the Oxus
to Kati-kurgan) in 1886-1888. The exports to Russia consist of raw
cotton and silk, lamb-skins, fruits and carpets, and the imports of
manufactured goods and sugar. The imports from India are cottons, tea,
shawls and indigo. There are very few roads; goods are transported on
camels, or on horses and donkeys in the hilly tracts.

Bokhara has for ages been looked upon as the centre of Mussulman
erudition in central Asia. About one-fourth of the population is said
to be able to read and write. The primary schools are numerous in the
capital, as well as in the other cities, and even exist in villages, and
_madrasas_ or theological seminaries for higher courses of study are
comparatively plentiful. The _mullahs_ or priests enjoy very great
influence, but the people are very superstitious, believing in
witchcraft, omens, spirits and the evil eye. Women occupy a low position
in the social scale, though slavery has been abolished at the instance
of Russia. The emir of Bokhara is an autocratic ruler, his power being
limited only by the traditional custom (_sheriat_) of the Mussulmans. He
maintains an army of some 11,000 men, but is subject to Russian control,
being in fact a vassal of that empire.

_History._--Bokhara was known to the ancients under the name of
Sogdiana. It was too far removed to the east ever to be brought under
the dominion of Rome, but it has shared deeply in all the various and
bloody revolutions of Asia. The foundation of the capital is ascribed to
Efrasiab, the great Persian hero. After the conquests of Alexander the
Great Sogdiana formed part of the empire of the Seleucidae, and shared
the fortunes of the rather better-known Bactria. Somewhat later the
nomad Yue-chi began to move into the valley of the Oxus from the east,
and gradually became a settled territorial power in Bactria and
Sogdiana, and the dominions of their king, Kadphises I. (who is believed
to have come to the throne about A.D. 45), extended from Bokhara to the
Indus. The district, however, was reconquered by Persia under the
Sassanian dynasty, and we hear of Nestorian Christians at Samarkand, at
any rate in the 6th century. Islam was introduced shortly after the Arab
conquest of Persia (640-642) and speedily became the dominant faith. In
the early centuries of Mahommedan rule Sogdiana was one of the m