s an
instructive light on the latitude left to Russian generals in their
instructions, and on the opinion felt for Central Asiatics by the
civilizing representatives of the White Czar. To say that General
Perovsky was urged to this act of gratuitous tyranny by a desire to
obtain a cross of either St. Anne or St. George, is, after all, only to
magnify the offence, and that Ak Musjid has taken the name of its
conqueror, Fort Perovsky, is the means of perpetuating, not his fame,
but his infamy, and the courageous conduct of the defenders. In the
winter following its fall Yakoob Beg, with Sahib Khan, brother of the
Khan of Khokand, attempted to retake the fort, but the _coup_ proved
abortive, and the Russians have never receded from their new
acquisition.

Khudayar Khan had been elevated to the throne of Khokand in 1845, by the
energy of Mussulman Kuli, a Kipchak chief, of singular astuteness, and
aptitude for business. During his tenure of the post of Wazir, Khokand
was peacefully and beneficently governed; but, as on every similar
occasion in Central Asia, the ruler soon became jealous of the
popularity acquired by his minister, although his own position was in
reality confirmed by the wise measures of the very man to whom he had
conceived a covert hostility. So with Khudayar Khan, the effeminate, and
his minister, Mussulman Kuli, in the decade of which we are now
speaking; as with Buzurg Khan, the debauchee, but correct representative
of the Khojas, and his general and vizier, the Kooshbege, Mahomed
Yakoob, in the following. In 1858, Mussulman Kuli was seized by order of
Khudayar Khan, and barbarously murdered; and from that occurrence the
decadence of this unfortunate ruler of Khokand can be traced until, at
last, he became a mere pensioner on the bounty of the Russians. Although
Yakoob Beg became, to a certain extent, notorious for his gallant
defence of Ak Musjid, it would appear, from his being styled after that
event simply "Mir," or chief, that he had sunk in grade in his official
status. It is probable that the chief cause of this was his failure to
retake it, and not his ill success in defending it. He was, however,
entrusted with the charge of the Kilaochi fort, a post which he held
down to the murder of Mussulman Kuli.

Khudayar Khan had an elder brother, Mullah Khan, who had been passed
over by Mussulman Kuli, when the state was put in order after the
dissensions that arose on the death of the great ruler, M