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, Russian Ak̲h̲altsik̲h̲, Turkish Ak̲h̲isḳa or Ak̲h̲isk̲h̲a, nowadays the capital of a district of the government of Tiflis, was originally a Georgian fortress (the name means in Georgian “new fortress”). In the year 1045 (1635) it was taken by the Ottomans after a siege of 23 days and is later on mentioned as the chief town of a separate Wilāyet. After having been taken by the Russians in 1828, the fortress had to be yielded to Russia at the peace of Adrianople (1829). About Ak̲h̲alčik̲h̲ under Turkish government comp. Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Ḵh̲alīfa, Ḏj̲ihān-numā p. 408 et seq. (W. Barthold)

was in the 4th (10th) century the capital of Farg̲h̲āna; under Bābār it was the second of the large towns and was then called Ak̲h̲sī; still in the 11th (17th) century the present capital Namangān is spoken of in the Baḥr al-asrār (Ethé, India Office no. 575, fo. 108b as one of the less important sisters ( tawābiʿ) of Ak̲h̲sī. According to Bābar, Ak̲h̲sīkat̲h̲ was situated on the right bank of tie river Sir, near the place where the Kāsan-Sai joins it. At present there still exist (near the villages Ak̲h̲sī and S̲h̲āhand) the ruins of the old citadel …

, Turkī-Mongol word for “town” (also written Bāliḳ and Bālig̲h̲); appears frequently in compound names of towns, such as Bīs̲h̲bāliḳ (“Five Towns”, at the present day in ruins at Gučen in Chinese Turkestan), Ḵh̲ānbāliḳ (the “Ḵh̲ān’s Town”), Turko-Mongol name (also frequently used by European travellers in the middle ages as a name of Pekin (Cambalu)), Ilibāliḳ (on the River Ili, the modern Ilijsk) amongst others. As the town of Bīs̲h̲bāliḳ is mentioned as early as the Orkhon inscriptions (viiith century a. d.), Bāliḳ, in the meaning of town, is one of the oldest of Turkī wor…

a town in Chinese Turkestān. In the oldest Chinese records (from the 2nd cent. a. d.) the town is called Yu-tien for Yotḳan; this is the name still given to the ruins of the pre-Muḥammadan town, the most eastern part of which lies 5 miles west of the modern town. Later the name is written K’iu-tan and Ho-tan (cf. E. Chavannes, Documents sur les Toukine [ Turcs] occidentaux, St. Petersburg 1903, p. 125). The Indian name Kustana or Kustanaka “breast of the earth” in Chinese transcription Kiu-sa-tan-na is explained by Sir Aurel Stein, Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan, 1903, p. 402, as a learned et…

, a mountain system in the region where the Ob and the Irtis̲h̲ take their source. The oldest Turkish name for the southern Altai is Altin-Yis̲h̲ (“gold-mountains”; so in the Orchon inscriptions), in Chinese Kin-s̲h̲an; the same mountain-chain is occasionally denoted in scientific geography by the name of Ektag (evidently Ak-Tag̲h̲ “white mountain”) which arose from Greek traveller’s reports in the 6th century a. d., but according to later investigations the mountain-range mentioned by the Greeks must be sought not in the Altai, but in the Thien-s̲h̲an (E. Chavannes, Documents sur l…

was the founder of the dominion of the G̲h̲aznawides. Like most of the praetorians of his time, he was enrolled as a purchased Turkish slave in the bodyguard of the Sāmānides and gradually rose to the dignity of “Ḥād̲j̲ib of the Ḥād̲j̲ibs” (the chief-officer of the bodyguard). It was in this position that he appeared as the real ruler during the reign of the youthful ʿAbd al-Malik I [q. v.]; through his influence Abū ʿAlī al-Balʿamī was appointed Wezīr and was not permitted to do anything “with…

(the name is also written Tagudar and Teguder in learned works), as a Muslim called Aḥmad (e. g. on his coins with inscriptions in the Mongol alphabet and language), a Mongol ruler (Īlk̲h̲ān, q.v.) of Persia, 681—683 = 1282—1284. On his brother and predecessor see abāḳā, on his fall and successor see arg̲h̲ūn. Tekuder is said to have been baptised in his youth with the name Nicolas ( Moshemii Historia Tartarorum Ecclesiastica, Helmstedt 1741, p. 71). Immediately after his accession, his conversion to Islām was announced. According to some sources he turned churches…

(t. “Red Sand”), a desert between the Si̊r-Daryā and the Āmū-Daryā, cf. above, p. 741, ḳarā-ḳum. The country is less uniform, especially in the central part, than in the Ḳarā-Ḳum; the desert is crossed by several ranges of hills. The Ḳi̊zi̊l-Ḳum becomes more and more inhospitable as one goes southwards. The region called Adam-Ḳi̊ri̊lg̲h̲an (“where man perishes”) between the Āmū-Daryā and the cultivated region of Buk̲h̲ārā consisting of sandhills ( bark̲h̲ān) is considered especially uninviting and dangerous. In the summer there is absolutely no life in the desert,…

, a small river in the Crimea, south of Simferopol, is only known through the battle of September 20/8., 1854 (victory of the allied armies of the French, English and Turks over the Russians under Mens̲h̲ikow). (W. Barthold).

, a title of the rulers of S̲h̲īrwān, probably dating from the pre-Muḥammadan period (Baladitnrf, p. 196 infra). In the history of the conquest this ruler is called simply king ( malik) or lord ( ṣāḥib) of S̲h̲īrwān (ibid., 204 and 209). Yazīd b. Usaid al-Sulamī, governor of Armenia under the Caliph Manṣūr, took possession of the naphtha-wells ( naffāṭa) and saltworks of S̲h̲īrwān ( mallāḥāt); the eastern part of the land was therefore at that date of greater importance than the western (cf. what is said above on S̲h̲āberān as the capital of S̲h̲īrwān). The t…

(t.), “white water”, is very often used as the name of a river in the countries where Turkish is spoken. When a canal is made to branch off from a river, that part of the water which flows on along the original bed is as a rule called Aḳ Ṣu or Aḳ Daryā, and the artificial canal is called Ḳarā Ṣu or Ḳarā Daryā (black stream); but still many single streams and brooks bear the name of Aḳ Ṣu. The name has often been extended from rivers to towns and villages; specially well-known is Aḳ Ṣu in East-Turkistān on the river Aḳ Ṣu, a tributary of the river Yārkand-Daryā or Tarim. The Turkish name is not found until the 8t…

, once a great seaport, now a little town in the Crimea, Greek Σουγδαΐα or Σουγδαία, also Σουγδία, Latin and Italian Soldaia or Soldachia, Old Russian Surož; the Arabic form S̲h̲olṭāṭia in Idrīsī (transl. Jaubert, ii. 395) is probably connected with the Italian form. The name is connected with Sog̲h̲d [q. v.], the name of a country in Central Asia and explained as Iranian; its foundation is therefore ascribed to the Alans (see allān). The Alans are mentioned in the region (east of the Tauric Chersonese) as late as the xiiith and xivth centuries. Like the Greek cities, Sugdaia had an er…

or turkestan, a Persian word meaning the “land of the Turks”. To the Persians of course only the southern frontier of the land of the Turks, the frontier against Īrān, was of importance and this frontier naturally depended on political conditions. On their very first appearance in Central Asia in the sixth century a. d., the Turks reached the Oxus (cf. āmū-daryā). In the time of the Sāsānians therefore the land of the Turks began immediately north of the Oxus; according to the story given in Ṭabarī (i. 435 sq.) the Oxus was settled by an arrow-shot of Īras̲h̲ as the frontier between…

b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḳasrī (according to the Arabic sources; according to the Persian al-Ḳus̲h̲airī), governor of Ḵh̲orāsān under the Caliph His̲h̲ām b. ʿAbd al-Mālik, 106—109 (724—727) and 117—120 (735—738). Especially during his first term of office he conducted himself in relation to the Arabs as a fanatical adherent of the Yemenite party. With the Persian Dihḳāns (landowners) he was in high favour and was praised by them as a prudent “householder” (Katk̲h̲udā) of his province. Sāmān-Ḵh̲udāt, the an…

Buk̲h̲ārī, a Persian historian, wrote in 1233 (1818) a short summary of the geographical relations of Central Asiatic countries (Afg̲h̲ānistān, Buk̲h̲ārā, Ḵh̲īwā, Ḵh̲ōḳand, Tibet and Kas̲h̲mīr), and of historical events in those countries from 1160 (accession of Aḥmed S̲h̲āh Durrānī [q. v.] till his own times. ʿAbd al-Karīm had already left his native country in 1222 (1807-1808) and accompanied an embassy to Constantinople ; he remained there till his death, which took place after 1246 (1830), a…

, a Tatar Ḵh̲ān of Siberia, in whose reign this country was conquered by the Russians. Abu ’l-G̲h̲āzī (ed. Desmaisons, p 177). is the only authority to give information regarding his origin and his genealogical relation to the other descendants of Čingiz Ḵh̲ān. According to this source, he reigned for forty years in “Turan”, lost his eyesight towards the end of his life, was driven from his kingdom by the Russians in 1003 (1594/1595), took refuge with the Mang̲h̲i̊t (Nogai) and died among them. …

b. Aḥmad, Abū Ibrāhīm, a Sāmānid prince (amīr) of Mā warāʾ al-Nahr, who laid the foundations of the power of his dynasty, born in Farg̲h̲āna in S̲h̲awwāl 234 (28 Apr.— 26 May 849), from 260 (874) to 279 (892) governor for his brother Naṣr in Buk̲h̲ārā; he continued to reside in this town even after he became amīr of Mā warāʾ al-Nahr by the death of his brother and in 280 (893) was confirmed in this position by the caliph. In the same year he undertook a campaign as far as Ṭarāz (the modern Awliyā-A…

(“Black-eyed”), a Turkish people around Hamadān, to which they pay their tribute (Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, London 1892, ii. 270 and 472). The Ḳaragözlü are several times mentioned in the history of the domestic troubles in Persia in the second half of the xviiith century; cf. J. v. Hammer, Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches 2, Pest 1836, iv. 475; Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Zandīya, ed. Beer, Leiden 1888, p. 33, 42 and 93. In the first half of the xixth century the Ḳaragözlü are said to have numbered some 12,000 souls (C. Ritter, Erdkunde, viii. 404 and ix. 78). Ḳaragözlü is also the …

, a Persian historian, author of the Taʿrīk̲h̲-i Ras̲h̲īdī, born in 905 = 1499-1500, died in 958 = 1551. On his descent cf. the article Dūg̲h̲lāt (i. 1079 et seq.) ; through his mother he was a grandson of the Čag̲h̲atāi Ḵh̲ān Yūnus and a cousin of Bābur. Most of our knowledge of his life is gleaned from his own work; Bābur (ed. Beveridge, p. 11) devotes a few lines to him; the Indian historians Abu ’l-Faḍl and Firis̲h̲ta give some information about his later years. His real name was Muḥammad Ḥaidar; as he himself says, he was known as Mīrzā Ḥaidar; Bābur calls him Ḥaidar Mīrzā. ¶ After the assassinat…

, descendants of the Mongol prince S̲h̲aibān, a brother of Bātū Ḵh̲ān [q. v.]. The naines of the twelve sons of S̲h̲aibān and their earlier descendants are given by Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn ( Ḏj̲āmiʿ al-Tawārīk̲h̲, ed. Blochet, p. 114 sqq., with notes by the editor from the anonymous Muʿizz al-Ansāb; on its importance as a source see W. Barthold, Turkestan v epok̲h̲u mongolskago nas̲h̲estwiya, ii, 56). Later writers give information on S̲h̲aibān and his descendants which is more legendary than historical; the bias of these tales is decided by the political conditio…