e better of his discretion, and that it was the height of madness on
his part to enter into an engagement in the open with the disciplined
and formidable forces of Tchernaief, when, by leaving that general to
undertake the siege of Tashkent, he might have had it in his power to
inflict a serious, and for the time conclusive, blow against the
Russians when the reinforcing army of Alim Kuli came up. With half his
army discouraged by defeat, Alim Kuli found himself restricted to a
policy of inaction, through the over-hastiness of his lieutenant. The
Russians did not return until after the departure of Yakoob Beg for
Kashgar, but when they did they found that Alim Kuli had made every
preparation in his power to receive them. On the first occasion they
were again forced to retreat after a skirmish which the Khokandians
claim as a victory; but in 1865 they appeared before the walls in
greater force. Alim Kuli, with a gathering vastly superior in numbers to
the Russians, attacked them a few miles to the north of Tashkent, and
the fortunes of the day hung in the balance, until the fall of Alim
Kuli, who, whilst boldly leading a charge of Kirghiz cavalry, was
pierced in the chest by a musket ball. He was carried from the field by
a faithful officer, and expired that night in Tashkent. Alim Kuli
appears to have been actuated to some extent by a disinterested
patriotism, as much as by more personal motives. With his fall, and the
departure of Yakoob Beg for another sphere of operations, all hope of a
continued state of independence for Khokand was dissipated. After this
severe defeat the Russians laid close siege to Tashkent. The Khokandians
in their distress applied to Bokhara for aid, and the Russians hastened
to occupy Chinaz to intercept it. The Bokhariot army was routed by the
Russian army under General Romanoffski at the battle of Irjar, in May,
1866, eleven months after Tashkent had been occupied by Tchernaief. It
was during this period of anarchy, with a hostile Russian and an allied
Bokhariot force on his soil, that Khudayar Khan once more supplanted the
nominee of Alim Kuli, Sultan Seyyid, and at the close of the campaign
Khudayar was left in possession of the southern portion of Khokand. This
Khan appears to have been of an unambitious nature, for, during his
various exiles, he devoted himself to private business with an energy he
had never shown in the management of the public affairs, and when he at
last sank into priva