A Selection from the Writings of Viscount Strangford on Political, Geographical, and Social Subjects, Volume 2R. Bentley, 1869 - Eastern question (Balkan) |
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actual Afghan Afghanistan Asiatic Athenian Athens authority Baron Bokhara British called Canea Cashmere Central Asia chief Chinese Christian Circassians conquest Constantinople Corfu correspondent course Cretan Crete Dervish despatch East Eastern English European favour fighting foreign frontier geographical Government Greek hand Herat India insurgents insurrection island Jaxartes journey Kabul Kashgar Khan Khiva Khokand Khoten Kirghiz knowledge known Kokan Kushbegi language least less letter Lord Mahometan matter means ment military mountain Mussulman native nature never occasion Office Omar Pasha once Ottoman Oxus Pantonia Pasha pass perhaps Persian political position present province question race road route Russian Samarcand seems Sélino Sfakian Sfakiots Sir Henry Sir Roderick taken telegram telegraphic territory thing Tibet tion told town trade traveller true Turkey Turkish Turkistan Turkomans Turks turn Uzbek valley Vámbéry whole word writing Yarkand
Popular passages
Page 298 - A work of the very highest merit ; its learning is exact and profound ; its narrative full of genius and skill ; its descriptions of men are admirably vivid. We wish to place on record our opinion that Dr. Mommsen's is by far the best history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Commonwealth.
Page 118 - My serious look, and the Hadis which I recited, quite disconcerted the young man ; he sat down half ashamed, and, excusing himself on the ground of the resemblance of my features, said that he had never seen a Hadji, from Bokhara with such a physiognomy. I replied that I was not a Bokhariot, but a Stambuli ; and when I showed him my Turkish passport, and spoke to him of his cousin, the son of Akbar Khan...
Page 253 - I am not the poet of goodness only, I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also. What blurt is this about virtue and about vice? Evil propels me and reform of evil propels me, I stand indifferent, My gait is no fault-finder's or rejecter's gait, I moisten the roots of all that has grown.
Page 118 - Tebdil (disguise), are you not ? " His action was so naive, that I was really sorry that I could not leave the boy in his illusion. I had cause to dread the wild fanaticism of the Afghans, and, assuming a manner as if the jest had gone too far, I said, " Sahib mektm (' have done'); you know the saying, ' He who takes, even in sport, the believer for an unbeliever, is himself an unbeliever.'!
Page 113 - Tchitchektoo — not far from which, by the way, is the town of Mogor, which we wonder Mr. Vambery did not notice as bearing a name absolutely identical with the oldest form of his own national name now written Magyar. Probably Mogor, however, is but a variety of Mongol.* Here he bids farewell to the Uzbek nomads, of whom he says : — ' I will not deny that I parted from this open-hearted, honest people with great regret, for the nomads of their race whom I met in the Khanats of Khiva and Bokhara...
Page 118 - Whilst I was repeating it, the Prince looked me full in the face. I saw his look of amazement, and when I was repeating the Amen, and all present were keeping time with me in stroking their beards, the Prince half rose from his chair, and, pointing with his finger to me, he called out, half laughing and half bewildered,
Page 100 - Bay could not contain himself for joy when I gave him news of his acquaintances there in detail. Still he felt not the less astonishment. ' In God's name, Efendi, what induced you to come to this fearful country, and to come to us too from that paradise on earth, from Stamboul ? ' Sighing, I exclaimed, 'Ah, Pir!
Page 117 - Ottoman army ; and were it not for their pointed shoes and the tight straps to their short trousers, they might even pass for European troops. What followed at the interview we shall not attempt to abridge : — True to my Dervish character, on appearing I made the usual salutation, and occasioned no surprise to the company when I stepped, even as I made it, right up to the Prince, and seated myself between him and the Vizir, after having required the latter, a corpulent Afghan, to make room for...
Page 119 - Constantinople in 1860, and had met with a distinguished reception from the Sultan, his manner quite changed; my passport went the round of the company, and met with approbation. The Prince gave me some krans, and dismissed me with the order that I should often visit him during my stay, which I accordingly did.
Page 102 - Babis who had made an attempt on the Shah's life, so lately as 1852. Any tourist strolling down Pera-street can buy for a few piastres from the turbaned Persian pedlers, who there affect a quasi-Bokharian costume, in order to pass as Sunnis, the ghastliest book in the world. This is a series of pictures, called ' Siyaset Nameh ; ' or, the Book of Executions, such as are, or used to be, inflicted in Persia. The display there found of ripping and splitting, and gouging and skull-sawing, is something...