Friday, September 22, 2017

The Mervi Turks (Charles Edward Stewart, 1883)

The Mervi Turks



Near Ghurian, in Afghanistan, and also near Turbat Shaik Jami, in Persia, a number of people are settled, called Mervis. Some of these people also reside in the town of Mashad. They can be recognized at a glance as very different from Persians or Aimaks. These people are refugees who fled from Merv when Bairam Aly Khan, the Kajar Chief, was killed and the town captured (1784) by Amir Masum of Bokhara. They are found scattered all over Central Asia, and I received a good deal of interesting information about Samarkand from a Mervi of that place, whom I met in Mashad.



Report of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Edward Stewart, Bengal Staff Corps, on Special Duty on the Perso-Afghan Frontier, 1883, p. 52.

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