The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites to Central Asia, 1880-1884, Fred Richard Belk, 1976

F. The Bukhara region has reached 122 degrees F. on an extremely hot day. The Kara Kum desert sand temperature was once reported at 174 degrees F. in July.’ This climate discourages most forms of plant and animal life. Plants are sparse except in the grasslands of the northern steppes; forest and meadows are confined to mountain slopes and _ river valleys. Only hardier animals such as camels, sheep, and cattle can survive the extremes. A pastoral economy has been practiced in Turk- estan since ancient times, with flocks moving between lowlands and highlands following the grass and seasons. Agriculture has been actively practiced in all the river valleys since long before the Chris- The Province of Turkestan 65 to 100 0 200 mo el was A map showing the topography of Turkestan, now known officially as Soviet Central Asia or the Soviet Socialist Republics of Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tadjikistan. tian era,* but in the desert no agriculture is possible without exten- sive irrigation. The desert is an interesting phenomenon. Since the time of the Kingdom of Bactria-Sogdiana, beginning in the fourth century BC many geological changes have taken place. The major deserts, Kara Kum (Black Sands) and Kyzil Kum (Red Sands), have ex- panded. They form a wilderness that is cracked and sun-blistered with saline crystallization. In dry weather a camel will barely leave the impression of its footprint.? The high sand dunes of other parts of the desert are so bright when the sun is shining that one can be blinded if the eyes are not protected. '° In some parts of the desert ancient ruins can be found which tell of better days.'' In fact, Central Asia has seen centuries of better days, for it is here that the lover of ancient history may wander in the settlements of primitive man, walk in the footsteps of Alexander the Great, or retrace the scorching tracks of the Genghis 66 The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites Khan." This entire area came to be controlled by a desert-dom- inating people — the Muslims. The Khanates of Bukhara and Khiva During the sixteenth century two Muslim Uzbek khanates, Khiva and Bukhara, had come to dominate all of Central Asia. Bukhara, “the noble,”’'® became a cultural center, with its conglomerations of low flat-roofed houses of mud and cobbles clustered around the ruins of better days. In the middle of the sixteenth century, Buk- hara became the capital of the Uzbek khanate because of the decline of Samarkand. A centralized government arose briefly under Khan Abdullah (1583-1598), a very cruel and brutal man, who used political murder to rid the khanate of his opponents. Khiva, also founded by Uzbek khans in the early sixteenth century, has a his- tory similar to Bukhara’s, with as much or more feudal splintering. Khiva became the seat of the Khan in the middle of the seven- teenth century after many fights between Uzbek and the Turko