'A raider' taken from 'Khiva Caught in Time'

They would appear out of nowhere and strike mercilessly. Sometimes their victims were Russian men working in their fields near Orenburg, or whole families in their beds at night. Other times they were Russian sailors who had strayed too close to shore. Most often, they were northern Persians travelling to visit relatives or traders with their caravan of camels.
The Turkoman tribes were expert raiders and the 'Alaman' or raiding party was an integral part of Turkoman life. They would usually attack a settlement at night or a caravan at sunrise and would make full use of their reputation for immense cruelty and barbarism. A particular scourge along the northern Persian border, the Tekke Turkoman would state proudly, ''No Persian ever approached the Etrek without a rope round his neck."
Arminius Vambery, the Hungarian traveler disguised as a dervish was given hospitality amongst one of the Turkoman tribes. "Often," recounted one of the raiders he met, "The Persians, struck with a panic, throw away their arms, demand cords and bind each other mutually; we have no occasion to dismount, except for the purpose of fastening the last of them."
Vambery was horrified at this trade in slaves and the wretched state of many Persians whom he saw in captivity.

"Let us picture to ourselves the feelings of a Persian, even admitting that he is the poorest of his race, who is surprised by a night attack, hurried away from his family, and brought hither a prisoner and often wounded. He has to exchange his dress for old Turkoman rags that only scantily cover parts of his body, and is heavily laden with chains that gall his ankles and occasion him great and unceasing pain every step he takes; he is forced upon the poorest diet to linger the first days, often weeks of his captivity. That he might make no attempt at flight, he has also during the night a Karabogra (iron ring) attached to his neck and fastened to a peg, so that the rattle betrays even his slightest movements. No other termination to his suffering than the payment of a ransom by his friends; and failing this, he is liable to be sold, and perhaps hurried off to Khiva or Bukhara!
To the rattle of those chains I could never habituate my ears; it is heard in the tent of every Turkoman who has any pretensions to respectability or position. Even our friend Khandjan had two slaves, lads only in their eighteenth and twentieth year; and to behold these unfortunates, in the bloom of their youth, in fetters made me feel indescribable emotion, repeated every day."

Arminius Vambery - Travels in Central Asia 1864

The slave bazaar inside the Palvan Gate

A slave niche where slaves were bartered over

Often whole caravans would be captured and dragged through the desert, hands tied and with ropes around their necks to the bazaars of Khiva or Bukhara. Khiva had the largest slave bazaar in Central Asia and the distrusted Turkoman raiders were only tolerated within the city limits due to the lucrative income that their slave trading brought. The Slave Bazaar was located within the Palvan Gate, (see Palvan Gate in the Tour Section) where slaves would be bartered over and sold.

"A young Russian (up to 25 years of age) fetches from fifty to eighty tillas. The Persian slaves are much cheaper. Of the latter there may be 30 thousand in Khiva, but there are not more than 300 Russian slaves there. The Persians...come into the market in batches of five, ten, and even thirty at a time. Their captors do not trouble themselves about them on the road and if they get exhausted, leave them without compunction to die on the steppe. On arrival at Khiva the owner sets himself down with them in the market, and purchasers surround him, inspecting and examining the poor wretches and haggling about their price as if they were horses... masters have the power of putting their slaves to death, but seldom avail themselves of this right from economical considerations.

Sometimes runaway slaves were nailed by the ear to the Palvan gate as a public punishment

...The first time a slave attempted escape they would have a whipping or an ear or minor body part cut cut off. But should a slave be suspected a second time of the intention of running away, he is nailed by an ear to a post or to the house door, and left for three days without food or drink, exposed to the jibes of passers by. Few survive this, as they enter on the ordeal with frames already exhausted by toil and hardship."

Journey to Khiva through the Turkoman Country - Nicholai Muraviev- English Edition, 1871

So wrote the young Captain Muraviev, one of the few Russians who did not arrive in Khiva with a chain around his neck. Whilst the Persian Shah did not seem particularly concerned at the large number of his subjects being captured and sold into slavery, the Russian government was well aware that Orenburg was regularly being raided and that those captured were never heard of again. There had been rumours of slavery and Muraviev was appointed to make his way to Khiva and discover what had happened to them. Officially, he was told, he should attempt an audience with the Khan. Unofficially, he was to find out all he could about the city and its defeinces, as Russia was well aware of the strategic positioning of Khiva in their hopes an invasion of India.
Muraviev set off from the Caspian Sea, disguised as a Turkoman trader with only a few close local aides aware of his true identity. They joined a large caravan traveling across the Karakum desert to Khiva and were almost at their destination when another caravan passed them whose traders began pointing at Muraviev and shouting 'Urus' (Russian). His quick thinking entourage, realising that the disguise had been penetrated jovially declared that he was indeed a Russian and they were on their way to sell him in Khiva. The other Caravan cheerily congratulated them having just sold three Russian slaves in Khiva themselves.
On arrival, Muraviev experienced another close shave. He had been spied on taking surreptitious notes and was immediately imprisoned whilst the Khan was informed of the capture of a Russian spy. This left Mohammed Rakhim Khan in a quandary. If the spy was to remain free, he would no doubt return bringing an army with him. If he were killed, (the Palace Mullah insisted on him being buried alive in the desert) and the Russians found out, this might incur an even swifter retribution.
Eventually the Khan decided to err on the side of caution and Muraviev was released but kept under close surveillance for seven weeks whilst awaiting an audience with the Khan. During this time he became aware of the Russian slaves who would whisper imploringly to him whenever he would go to the bazaar. They wrote a petition to him pleading for help which he almost discovered by acident. He was examining his gun which he had sent to the gunsmith for repair, and found inside the barrel a tiny scrap of paper, with a message stating: "We venture to inform Your Honour that there are over 3000 Russian slaves in this country who have to endure unheard of suffering from hunger, cold and overwork, as well as every kind of insult. Take pity on our plight and lay it before His Majesty the Emperor. In gratitude we poor prisoners pray to God for your welfare."
Muraviev also found out that as well as the three thousand Russians there were as many as thirty thousand Persian and Kurdish slaves being held. The Khan recieved a slave tax of 20% for each slave, and if the Persian slave belonged to a wealthy family, the Turkomans would pass on news about the slave back to Persia, in order to increase the likelihood of a large ransom. Sometimes the wealthy relatives of Persian slaves would hire another Turkoman to go to Khiva and kidnap the slave back in return for a huge reward.
Muraviev sought out the opportunity to speak with one of the Russian slaves and was able to meet with an elderly man who had been kidnapped by the Kyrgyz just a week after his wedding and had never seen his bride again. Throughout the years of back breaking work he had managed to gradually save up enough money to buy his freedom, but had been cheated by his master and sold on. "We consider you as our deliverer, and pray to God for you," stated the man. "For two years more we will bear our sufferings in expectation of your return. If you do not come back, several of us will try to escape together across the Kirghiz Steppe. If God pleases that we should die, be it so. But we shall not fall into the hands of our tormentors."

A group of Russian slaves Taken from 'Kviva Caught in Time'

Muraviev was deeply moved by this encounter and the thought of so many Russians living in such misery. However, he was powerless to take action at the time and resolved to find out all he could about the slave trade and Khiva's defenses and return to St. Petersburg with a strong case for a Russian invasion and the liberation of the slaves. He saw no other alternative to invasion, as the system of slavery was so firmly entrenched.

"The practice of catching human beings and selling them to the Khivans has become an absolute necessity to the nomadic tribes; that is to say, that the latter have to depend for grain on Khiva, and grain cannot be grown there without extraneous labour, so that the abominable trade has become an institution for the mutual benefit of Khiva and the predatory tribes, without which neither could exist."

Journey to Khiva through the Turkoman Country - Nicholai Muraviev- English Edition, 1871

'The note hidden in Muraviev's gun'

Muraviev, true to his word did everything within his power to convince the Russian government to attack Khiva. He was even granted an audience with Tsar Alexander. However, there were more urgent matters to attend to in Russia itself and his pleas were to go unheeded for another twenty years. As the Tsar consolidated power at home, he once again began to look further afield and remembered Khiva; the perfect stepping stone to a lucrative export market and the stepping stone to British India. The slaves too were remembered and now provided an excellent pretext for an invasion, which not even the Russophobes in England could fault.
Soon a huge party of 5000 men and 10 thousand camels were setting off across the desert to liberate the slaves, capture Khiva and extend the Russian Empire (see invaders from the Tsar). The news soon reached both Khiva and Persia through the usual network of spies, and caused both the Khan and the British army a great deal of consternation. It was obvious to the British that an attack on Khiva was part of a larger Russian strategy aimed at wresting India from them. The most effective way to stop them would be to remove their convenient pretext for an invasion, and to somehow persuade the Khan of Khiva to release all the Russian slaves as a gesture of peace and goodwill.
Captain Abbot was chosen for the mission and dispatched to Khiva from Herat. Perhaps not the best choice for the job, the Captain spoke little Persian and was not particularly familiar with Central Asian etiquette. Nor had he been endowed with a large entourage or lavish gifts for the Khan, all essentials in eastern diplomacy. He was, however, passionate to achieve his goal and see an end to this detestable trade.

"The men are chained together by the throats at night," he stated, "So that rest is scarcely possible, whilst the contact of the frozen iron with their skin must be a torture. My heart is full of heaviness when I think of all the heart-rending misery of which this system is the cause. Alas! He who once enters Khiva abandons all hope, as surely as he who enters hell. His prison house is girdled with tracks of desert, whose sole inhabitants are the sellers of human flesh."

(Narrative of a Journey from Herat to Khiva - by Captain James Abbott, 1840)

On his arrival in Khiva he was granted an audience with Allah Kuli Khan, (whose name meant: 'Slave of God'). There was a considerable amount of confusion on the part of the Khan and his court as to who these English were. No 'Ingliz' had ventured to Khiva before and there were none being held as slaves in Khiva. It seemed odd that they should be so keen to obtain the release of Russians and it was generally assumed that the Ingliz must be a tribe within Russia.
Abbott left quite an impression as the first Englishman to approach Khiva in living memory and forty years later an elderly Mullah recounted his visit to Captain Fredrick Burnaby.

"He was such a nice gentleman," observed the Mullah, alluding to Abbot. "He was a medicine man too, and cured several sick people. We heard afterwards that he had been killed by the Russians. Was that the case?" And on being informed that Captain Abbot had returned in safety to England, the old man gave praise to God.
"Your compatriot was with us about the time that the Russians were attempting to reach Khiva," continued the old mullah. "People here then thought that an army from Hindustan was coming to help us. But we did not require any assistance; the winter killed the dogs by the thousands, praise be to God!" And this expression, which is the same in Tartar as in Arabic, was devoutly repeated by the rest of the company."

Ride to Khiva - Captain Fredrick Burnaby - 1875

Despite the Mullah's generous praise, the Khan found Captain Abbot rather stiff and easily ruffled and therefor a constant source of entertainment. With only vague notions of what or where Britain was, his whole court were thoroughly amused on being told that the country was governed by a young woman and wanted to know if all governors and Kings were women. Whilst the Khan enjoyed the novelty of a real live Englishman, the earnest Abbot tried to convey the magnitude of the slave issue and the risk of Russian invasion. He explained that even if the Khivans managed to repel the troops led by Perovsky and currently on their way to Khiva, a greater army would no doubt be sent. Unperturbed, the chief minister declared that, "If we die fighting the infidels, we will pass straight into paradise."
"And your women?" responded Abbot, "What kind of paradise will your wives and daughters find in the arms of Russian soldiers?"
This prospect, if nothing else, immediately silenced the court and seemed to have the desired effect for eventually the Khan conceded to send a group of slaves as a gesture of goodwill to Russia. However, still wary of Abbot and unsure where his loyalties really lay, the Khan delayed and procrastinated. News of Perovky and his troops defeated by the worst winter in years was the deciding factor and instead of sending slaves, the Khan merely dispatched a small diplomatic mission of Khivans to accompany Abbott, for the Russian port of Fort Alexandrovsk on the Caspian Sea.

'A Turkoman Raiding Party'

Half way across the desert, his treacherous guide led the party towards a band of Turkoman raiders who swiftly captured the entire mission and began plans to sell them. Abbott was injured in the skirmish and held out little hope for his future. However, in a remarkable stroke of good fortune, a messenger had been dispatched from the British forces in Persia and was able to locate him. His captors, on hearing that their prisoner bore a letter from their Khan to the Tsar of Russia were most distressed and immediately and apologetically released the Captain. The wounded Abbott then managed to make his way to Fort Alexandrovsk and from there to St. Petersburg.
Unbeknown to Abbott, his correspondence with the British in Persia has been intercepted by the Khan and the British having received no news and fearing for Abbott's life, decided to send a second officer. He was to find out what had happened and again try to persuade the Khan to release the slaves. The officer in question was the 28 year old Richmond Shakespear. Ambitious, handsome and charming he seemed the perfect man for the job. He set out with a band of eleven men from Herat, lecturing a passing Turkoman slave caravan on the way that had captured a group of children.
On his arrival in Khiva he was granted an audience with Allah Kuli Khan whom he described as 'a good-natured unaffected person of about forty five years of age.' The Khan too, was taken by Shakepear's affability and easy nature. However, the possibility of freeing the Russian slaves seemed remote as the Khivans were still rejoicing over the failure of the Russian troops and the providence of the Almighty in protecting them. The Khan had not forgotten Abbott's words and realised that although this army had failed it was doubtful to be the last. Negotiations followed and eventually, in August, the Khan agreed to release all of the Russian slaves.
This proved easier said than done, and although three quarters of the slaves were procured without much fuss the remaining 87 were to prove troublesome. These included a beautiful nine year old girl being kept at the Khan's palace, no doubt for his harem, whom the Khan eventually yielded. The girl, far from appreciating her liberation, was loathe to leave her Khivan family and wailed in Uzbek that she did not want to go with the Russian slave trader. One wily Khivan was particularly attached to his hard working young Russian slave, and had hidden him beneath a grain vault whilst swearing to Shakespear on the Koran that his slave had died but a few weeks previously.
A good slave was worth four camels and to part with one without receiving payment was particularly galling. Not until the Khan issued an edict stating that anyone caught in possession of a Russian slave would be executed, were there significant results. "His majesty was astounded at my plain speaking," said Shakespear who had told the Khan firmly that he needed every single Russian slave or a pretext would still remain for a Russian invasion.
Eventually each slave had been accounted for and Shakespear was able to find out more about them.

"The average number of years of slavery of Turkestan is thus: males, ten years and a half, females, nearly seventeen. One of the males has been sixty years in slavery, and some of them only six months. Most men were seized when fishing and were from Orenburg.... With one exception they were all in fine health. They all seemed poor people, very grateful, and altogether it was one of the pleasantest duties I have ever executed."

A Personal Narrative of a Journey from Herat to Orenburg, on the Caspian, in 1840 Richmond Shakespear 1842

With all the trappings of a Biblical Exodus, they started their march across the desert.

"The camels crowded together and marched en masse, the children and women riding on panniers, singing and laughing, and the men trudging along sturdily - all counting the few days which remained ere they should join their country men."

On arrival at Fort Alexandrovsk the Caravan, at first viewed with suspicion, was given an emotional welcome. A lavish banquet was held and toasts drunk, much to the disapproval of the abstinate Muslim camel owners who had accompanied the Exodus across the desert. Not a single life had been lost and 416 slaves had been liberated. Soon news began to spread throughout Russia, and on Shakepear's arrival in Orenburg, General Perovsky immediately ordered the release of the six hundred Khivans held prisoner as a sign of gratitude.
In St. Petersburg Shakespear was welcomed officially by Tsar Nicholas and thanked for risking his life on behalf of so many Russian citizens. Privately, of course, both the Tsar and his advisors were livid, only too well aware that their pretext for an invasion of Khiva had been swept from under them by a young, lone British officer.

'Persian slave' taken from 'Kviva Caught in Time'

However, this was by no means the end of the slave trade in Khiva. Although around four hundred Russians had been released, over three thousand Persian and Kurdish slaves remained, and the practice of slave trading was to continue up until the beginning of the twentieth century. In the 1860's, twenty years after Shakespear had freed the Russian slaves, the Turkomans were still capturing Russians. Arminius Vambery, whilst in disguise and hosted by Turkoman tribesmen the encountered an unfortunate Russian sailor who had been captured by his host. "It was here in Etrek, in the tent of a distinguished Turkoman named Kotchak Khan, that I encountered a Russian, formerly a sailor in the naval station at Ashourada." The slave was hauled in front of Vambery and ordered to kiss his feet. Vambery made an excuse about not wanting to be rendered unclean by contact with an unbeliever. It transpired that two Russian sailors had been abducted by the Etrek Turkomans who had asked the Russian government for an exorbitant ransom which the Russians refused, not wishing them to become accustomed to such large lucrative trade in Russians. As a result both Russian sailors were to die in captivity as slaves.
It was not until as late as the 1920's that the remaining slaves were freed as part of the People's Revolution. Many of them became the Socialists' most loyal adherents. Gustav Krist, an Austrian carpet dealer who decided to travel in disguise through Soviet Central Asia met one such woman.

'From slave to a soviet leader' taken from 'Kviva Caught in Time'

"How the world changes! Madame Kuliyeva had been up until 1920 the veiled slave woman of one Ali Yusuf, a rice merchant. After the revolution she had been one of the first women to offer her services to the Soviet, and had shown so much initiative and organizing ability that she had been appointed chairman of the local Soviet - a position equal to mayor or burgomaster. I paid a call on the lady, a woman of about forty, and found her a most able and energetic person, not in the least embarrassed in admitting that she had first learnt to write three years ago. She knew no other language than Uzbek, but she was spending three hours a day working hard at Russian so she would be able to converse with Russians. She gave me an order for food from the Soviet co-operative store, which I did not scruple to make use of, the more gratefully that Ramazan began the day after my arrival and without the order I might easily have starved."

Gustav Krist - Journey through a Forbidden Land - 1933

For more information about the freeing of Khiva's slaves and the wider role this played in the imperial politics of Russian and Britain, the Great Game by Peter Hopkirk is a must.