and it would seem that the bad
fortune, from which for some generations they had been suffering, was
beginning to disappear before the ability of Yakoob Beg raised it to a
higher point than ever. In addition to the claims of his father and
grandfather as Kazis of an important community, a sister of Yakoob Beg
married Nar Mahomed Khan, Governor of Tashkent; and, as we shall see
later on, this connection was very instrumental in promoting the
interests of the youthful Yakoob.

Piskent, Pskent, or Bis-kent, as it is sometimes spelt, is still a
flourishing little community, fifty miles south of Tashkent, on the road
to Khodjent. Its inhabitants are a thrifty, good-tempered set of people,
who take great pride in the fact that the great Athalik Ghazi, the
supporter of Islam, and the reputed terror of the Russians, was one of
themselves. In this little settlement there are many Tajiks, and this,
doubtless, with other reasons, induced Mahomed Latif, a Tajik himself,
to take up his abode there. To the east of Piskent the mountains begin
to rise, which stretch onward until they become the Tian Shan and the
Kizilyart ranges, and in these elevated regions the Tajik descendants
muster in strong numbers. The Tajiks are Persian in their origin, and
consequently of the Aryan stock, in contradistinction to the Turk or
Tartar ruling class in Western Turkestan. They have, however, for so
many generations been restricted to a limited career in the organization
of the state, that, quite unjustly as it is, they have come to be
regarded as an inferior race. English writers have fallen into this
mistake, and have accepted as correct the definition given by the Turks
of this subject race. As a matter of fact the contrary holds true, and
the Tajik is superior to any of his masters in point of mental capacity.
They are represented to still retain the fine presence and long flowing
beards which distinguish those of Aryan blood from their Tartar
opposite; and in height and strength they quite eclipse every other race
of Central Asia. It was of this race that Yakoob Beg was the
representative, and, although the greater part of his life was passed in
ruling nations almost exclusively Tartar, some of the more prominent
among his supporters, as well as the flower of his army, boasted that
they, too, represented that master race, whose birth-place was to be
found in the Indian Caucasus. The Tajiks still speak a Persian dialect,
and their Iranian origin