Merv, the Queen of the
World;
and the Scourge of the Man-stealing Turcomans. With an
Exposition of the Khorassan Question:
By Charles Thomas Marvin, Published by W.H. Allen, 1881
CHAPTER III. THE ORIGIN OF THE Turkmen.
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE MINOR TRIBES.
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return of the Shah to his capital. Afterwards, the
emigrants in Khiva, not finding the khanate to their
liking, returned by degrees to the Gorgon, in spite
of the cruelties inflicted by the Khan upon every Goklan
found disobeying his orders to remain in the oasis.
"
It has been said that the Eelkhani of Bujnurd calculates
the number of Goklan families as low as 1,800. It is his
interest to do so. Were the Teheran authorities aware of
the existence of a larger number than this they would
demand from him not 6,000 Tumans, the annual revenue
received to-day, but a considerably larger sum, which
would diminish the income of the Eelkhani. On this
account his calculation cannot be relied upon. Moreover,
it is below the lowest calculation of Bode, made 30 years
ago, and in the interval the tribe must have slightly
increased, since it has suffered neither from any
devastating war nor epidemic. "
The Goklans occupy the
undulating region between the foot of the Elburz and
Kopet Dagh ranges, which is almost the most beautiful
corner of the whole of northern Persia. It contains
abundance of cultivable land, abundance of water,
abundance of grass, abundance of forests. Baron Bode
speaks in the most glowing terms of the Goklan
settlements. In one place he says, ' Among all the
Turcoman tribes Nature has been most bountiful to the
Goklans. Land at the foot of mountains is incomparably
more convenient for cultivation than that in valleys, and
immensely more fertile. streams, flowing from the
mountains, and frequent rains, attracted to the mountains
and
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