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, steppe of Western Siberia, situated in the oblast ’ of Novosibirsk of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic, between lat. 54° and 57° North, and bounded on the East and West by the ranges of hills which skirt the banks of the Irti̊s̲h̲ and the Ob’. This steppe, which extends for 117,000 sq. km., has numerous lakes, most of which are sait; the biggest is Lake Čani̊. The ground, which is partly marshland, also has some fertile zones, but it is essentially a cattle-rearing region. It has a cold continental climate. The population (over 500,000 inhabitants in 1949) is unequally d…

, after the Aral [ q.v.], the largest inland lake of Central Asia (18,432 sq. km.), into which the Ili and several other less important rivers flow. The lake’s existence was unknown to the Arab geographers of the Middle Ages. The anonymous author of the Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam (372/982-983; comp. J. Marquart, Osteuropäische und ostasiatische Streifzüge , xxx, makes the Ili (Īlā) flow into the Issi̊ḳ-Ḳul. Of all the Muslim authors, Muḥammad Ḥaydar is the only one, to our knowledge, who, towards the middle of the 10th/16th century ( Taʾrik̲h̲-i Ras̲h̲īdī , trans. by E. D. …

(in Özbek “brigand”), the name given by the Russians to a revolutionary movement of the Muslim peoples of Turkestān against Soviet authority which broke out in 1918 and lasted until 1930 or even later. See turkistān , uzbek, tād̲j̲īk , k̲h̲oḳand , k̲h̲iva , türkmen , enwer pas̲h̲a . (A. Bennigsen)

(awar, from Ād̲h̲ari̊ Turkish avarali: "unstable", "vagabond") Ibero-Caucasian people, inhabiting the mountainous part of the autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Dāg̲h̲istān (basins of the rivers Ḳoysu of Andi, Ḳoysu Awar, Ḳara-Ḳoysu and Tleyseruk̲h̲) and the northern part of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan. The Avars are Sunnī Muslims of the S̲h̲āfiʿī rite. In 1955 their numbers were estimated at 240,000, of whom 40,000 approximately were in the Belokani̊ and Zakatali̊ districts of Azerbaijan. The Avars are divided into two major groups—formerly feder…

, name of two towns: (1) A town in the south-west corner of the east Māzandarān plain; it stands on the west bank of the Harhāz river, 12 miles south of the Caspian Sea, in the district which, according to the Classical writers, was the home of the Μάρδοɩ (’Αµάρδοɩ) (Āmul may be the Modem Persian form of the (hypothetical) Old Persian Amardha). Ibn Isfandiyār ( Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Ṭabaristān , Teheran 1941, 62 f.) states that Āmul was founded by Āmula, daugther of a Daylamite chieftain and wife of King Fīrūz of Balk̲h̲. while Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī ( Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb , 159) maintain…

, Ḳazān , a town on the middle Volga, now the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Tatarstan in the USSR, and in the 15th and 16th centuries capital of the K̲h̲ānate of the same name. According to legendary accounts, the town was founded by Batu K̲h̲ān in a Turkish and Muslim region which had been part of the ancient kingdom of Bulg̲h̲ār [ q.v.] before the Mongol invasions. The K̲h̲ānate of Ḳāzān was founded in the first half of the 15th century by a Čingizid descendant, Ulu Muḥammad, son of D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn and grandson of Toḳtami̊s̲h̲, at the time when the Gold…

(or Buk̲h̲āriots of Siberia). A small ethnie group, Muslim (Sunnī of the Ḥanafī school), made up of the descendants of merchants and caravaneers originating from Turkestan and established in western Siberia since the 16th century, when the commercial relations between the Emirate of Buk̲h̲ārā and Siberia were flourishing. The Buk̲h̲ārli̊k live in contact with the Tatars of Siberia [ q.v.] to whose Islamisation they have contributed, and with whom they are gradually mingling. They live principally near Tobolʾsk, Tümen and Tara, and an isolated group of B…

, also frequently written bad̲h̲ak̲h̲s̲h̲ān and sometimes in the literary language (with the Arabic plural inflection) badak̲h̲s̲h̲ānāt , a mountainous region situated on the left bank of the upper reaches of the Āmū-Daryā or more accurately of the Pand̲j̲, the source of this great river; the adjective derived from this noun is Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ānī or Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ī . J. Marquart ( Erāns̲h̲ahr , 279) gives this name the meaning of “region of Bad̲h̲ak̲h̲s̲h̲ or Balak̲h̲s̲h̲, a type of ruby, which, it is said, is only found in Bad̲h̲ak̲h̲s̲…

“land of the mountains”; this name is an unusual linguistic phenomenon, since it consists of the Turkish word dāg̲h̲ , mountain, and of the suffix which, in the Persian language, distinguishes the names of countries; this name seems to have appeared for the first time in the 10th/16th century). An autonomous Republic of the R.S.F.S.R. with an area of 19,500 sq. miles and a population of 958,000 inhabitants (1956), it is made up of two quite distinct parts: the Caucasian Range and the cis-Casp…

(or bes̲h̲kesek abaza ), the Russian name for a Muslim people belong to the Abasgo-Circassian (Adi̊g̲h̲e) section of the Ibero-Caucasian fainily. Ethnically they are close to the Kabardians. From the time of the High Middle Ages the Abaza people have been divided into two groups speaking different dialects: the northern or Tapanta group of six tribes, and the southern or S̲h̲karawa group, also of six. In the 1926 census 13,825 Abaza were counted, but Lavrov thinks that the rea…

, a Muslim people of the Central Caucasus, whose origins are the subject of contradictory hypotheses. For some the Balkar are descendants of Bulg̲h̲ar driven back towards the mountains in the 12th-13th century; according to others, their ancestors were the Ḵh̲azar pushed back towards the upper Terek in the 11th century; finally, others see in the Balkar Ibero-Caucasians or indeed Turkicised Finns. The Balkar traditions say that their ancestors, once living on the steppes of the Kuban, were drive…

(or Glazov Tatars), a small ethnic unit ekin to the Udmurts (Votyaks) living in North Russia. Differing views are held on the subject of their origin, some considering them as Finns who have come under Turkish influence, others as descendants of the old Kama Bulghars, profoundly influenced by the Udmurt language and culture. The Soviet census of 1926 listed 10,035 Besermyans, 9,195 of whom were from the districts of Balezino and Yukamenskoe in the autonomous Udmurt SSR and 834 from the neighbourhood of the village of Slobodskoe at the confluence o…

( ʿEmrāli , Īmrʿālī or Īmrālī ), a semi-sedentary Turkmen tribe which since the 10th/16th century has dwelt in Ḵh̲urāsān, in the region of Gürgen. Driven back at the end of the 12th/18th century by the Tekkes (Tekins), the tribe emigrated northwards and, in two successive waves, settled down in Ḵh̲wārizm (region of Hud̲j̲aylī on the Amān Ḳūlī canal), the first in 1803-4 and the second in 1827 when they submitted to the Ḵh̲āns of Ḵh̲iva. In 1873 (I. Ibragimov, Nekotori̊e zametki o Ḵh̲ivinskik̲h̲ Turkmenak̲h̲ i Kirgizak̲h̲ , in Voenni̊y Sbornik , xcviii (1874), no.…

, a Muslim people belonging to the central group ( veynak̲h̲ ) of the Ibero-caucasian linguistic family of the northern Caucasus. Čečen, Bat̲z̲bi and Kistin are languages belonging to the same group. The name Ingus̲h̲ comes from the Aul Angus̲h̲ , founded in the foot-hills of the Caucasus in the 17th century. The term was first used by the Kabards [ q.v.], then by the Russians; The indigenous name is Galgay , which is the name of one of the most important Ingus̲h̲ tribes, or Lamur (= “Mountaineers”). The Ingus̲h̲ live in the western districts of the present-day Čečeno-Ingus̲h̲ Auto…

, name given by the Russians to a Muslim people living in the valleys of the southern tributaries of the Sunja and Terek Rivers in the Central Caucasus (native name = Nak̲h̲čio or Veynak̲h̲). The Čečens belong to the linguistic family of the Ibero-Caucasian peoples; their language forms with Ingus̲h̲, Batzbi and Kistin a special group rather close to that of the Dāg̲h̲istānī languages. The Čečens are the descendants of autochthonous Ibero-Caucasian tribes which were driven back and kept in the high mountains, between the pass of Daryal and the valley of Shar…

( balōč ) of the USSR, elements who emigrated from Ḵh̲urāsān at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, whose emigration in fact continued after 1918. They are sometimes erroneously confused with the Gipsies of Central Asia (see lūlī ]. At the 1926 census, 936 Balūč were counted; this figure underestimates their true number, as some of them were reckoned with the Turkmen and others with the Čingānes; on the other hand, the estimate made by Grandé ( Spisok narodnostey SSSR , in Revolyutsiya i Natsional’nosti , no. 4 of 1936, 74-85), who assessed…

, One of the most famous Turkish epics ( dāstān ) of Central Asia, inspired by two classical themes, (1) the quest for the betrothed and the. rivalry of the suitors; (2) the return of the husband on the day of his wife’s remarriage (theme of the ¶ return of Ulysses). The Özbek hero Alpami̊s̲h̲ of the Kungrat tribe repairs to Ḳalmi̊ḳ territory in search of his fiancée and cousin Barčin. Alpami̊s̲h̲ triumphs over his Ḳalmi̊ḳ rivals, marries Barčin and brings her back to his tribe. The second part is the account of a further expedition on the p…

, ʿabbās-ḳuli ag̲h̲ā , better known under the Russian form of the name, Bāḳi̊k̲h̲ānov, and his literary pseudonym Ḳudsī, Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ānī historian, poet and philosopher, son of Mīrzā Mamed Ḵh̲ān, ruler of Bākū, driven from his throne by his brother Muḥammad Ḳuli̊ Ḵh̲ān. He was born on 10 June 1794 in the village of Emir-Had̲j̲ian in the Ḵh̲ānate of Bākū, and died in 1847 at Ḳūba. After a thorough education in Persian and Arabic, in 1820 Bāḳi̊k̲h̲ānli̊ was appointed officer i…

, a town and district on the W. shore of the Caspian Sea, on the peninsula of Apsheron (Ābshārān). The name is currently said to be from Persian bādkūba , ‘wind-beaten’, which is appropriate to the local conditions, but this dérivation is not certain. The form Bākū appears already in the 4th/10th century ( Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam ). Another early, authentic pronunciation is Bākūyah (Abū Dulaf, al-Bākuwī). Other forms (Bākūh, Bākuh) are found in the Arabic geographers. The early history of Bākū is obscure, though the locality seems to be mentioned in antiquity (cf. J. Marquart, Erānšahr …

, the chief town of a district of the province of Ryazan (USSR), which was the capital of a k̲h̲ānate whose sovereigns bore in Russian the title of “tsar” or “tsarevitch” and whose existence is a historical curiosity. The k̲h̲ānate of Ḳāsimov was founded between 856/1452 and 860/1456 by Ḳāsi̊m, the son of K̲h̲ān Ulug̲h̲ Muḥammad of Ḳāzān, who was driven from his ulus by his brother Maḥmūdek in 850/1446. Ḳāsi̊m escaped to Moscow and entered the service of Grand Prince Vasili II, who conceded to him the small town of Gorodet̲s̲ (or Gorodok Mes̲h̲čerskiy), which later received the name of ¶ …