THE SEA OF SAND IN THE KARA-KUM DESERT (1) ” 263 THE SEA OF SAND IN THE KARA-KUM DESERT (2) ” 263 TURKOMAN MUSICIANS ” 283 VIEW FROM THE INTERIOR OF THE FORT OF GEOK TEPPE (_photograph_) 292 DIVANIS, OR DERVISHES (_VERESTCHAGIN_) 307 GENERAL KURAPATKINE (_photograph_) 323 A GROUP OF TURKOMANS AT ASKABAD STATION ” 345 RUINS OF OLD MERV ” 353 HINDUS OF BOKHĀRĀ ” 367 THE MINĀR KALĀN AT BOKHĀRĀ ” 374 PRISONERS OF THE AMĪR OF BOKHĀRĀ ” 376 A BOKHĀRĀ BEAUTY AND HER TWO CHILDREN ” 382 SHĪR DĀR MADRASA, SAMARKAND ” 390 THE BĪBĪ KHĀNŪM ” 392 THE MARKET NEAR BĪBĪ KHĀNŪM, SAMARKAND ” 398 BAZAAR POLITICS (_VERESTCHAGIN_) 414 MAPS THE ADVANCE OF RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA 257 CENTRAL ASIA 428 INTRODUCTION A time when Russia’s movements in the East are being watched by all with such keen interest seems a fitting one for the appearance of a work dealing with her Central Asian possessions. “That eternal struggle between East and West,” to quote Sir William Hunter’s apt phrase, has made Russia supreme in Central Asia, as it has made England mistress of India: and thus it has come to pass that two of the greatest European Powers find themselves face to face on the Asiatic Continent. On the results of that contact depends the future of Asia. Ten years have elapsed since Lord Curzon of Kedleston published his work entitled _Russia in Central Asia_, and in the interval no book on this subject has appeared in English. The intervening period has been one of change--almost of transformation--in the countries so brilliantly described by the present Viceroy of India. The authors of the present work have visited independently the land of which they write, and each may claim to have had exceptional facilities for studying those questions in which they were most interested.