The Qajars of Merv (C. E. Stewart, 1881)

The Qajars of Merv

The last Merv was the city so bravely held by Bairam Ali Khan Kajar. A branch of the Kajar family who now rule Persia had been placed in Merv by Shah Tamasp to defend this outlying province, as they were renowned for their courage. During the troubles that followed the death of Nadir Shah, Merv was attacked and captured from the Persians by Begge Jan, called also Amir Masum, the Amir of Bokhara, in 1784. Bairam Ali Khan was slain outside the town, and his son Mahomad Hussain Khan, who made a glorious defence ― even the women joining in it ― was carried captive with the population that were spared, to Bokhara. Since that there has properly been no such town as Merv.

           The Merv country still exists, but there is nothing worthy the name of town there. The Amir of Bokhara broke down the great dam on the Murghab which filled the numerous canals and fertilized the whole country, in the hope of rendering it a desert inaccessible to Persia. After 1784 it belonged to Bokhara for some years, and the Salor and Saruk Turkomans encamped on it. It was subsequently taken from the Amir of Bokhara by the Khan of Khiva, whose officials were found here living in a poor village called Merv when the place was visited by Abbott early in 1840. This place, which was a possession of the Saruk tribe, and which is described by Abbott as consisting of about 100 mud huts, has been destroyed by the Tekke Turkomans, who began to settle in this country about 1830, and finally drove the Saruks further up the Murghab to Yulutan and Panj Deh. I have not been able to discover the date of the destruction of this last and most wretched of the places which have borne the name of Merv, but it was probably about 1855. This deserted place was occupied by Persian armies in 1857, under Sultan Murad Mirza Hissam-i-Sultunut, and again in 1860 by Hamza Mirza Hashmat-ud-Dowlah, whose army was disastrously defeated in an attack on Kala Kaushid Khan, then only just commenced and in a very rudimentary state. The Tekke Turkomans have possessed themselves of the best part of the country. They have built a large fort on the eastern bank of the most westerly branch of the Murghab. It is situated 25 miles below the great band or dam which divides the Murghab into many canals or branches. The place where the great band is situated is known as Benti. Here is also Allahsha, where there is a ferry over the Murghab, which is used for a few weeks in the spring when the river is in high flood, at other times there are wooden bridges.

C. E. Stewart — The Country of the Tekke Turkomans, and the Tejend and Murghab Rivers (1881)