Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/96

86 F E R F E R bargains with the simpler nomads. They are Sunni Mahometans; their language the classic Chaghatai Turkish, slightly influenced, M. Varnbery says, by the harsher dialect of the tribes to the north-east. History. Ferghana was not protected by its mountain barriers from the vicissitudes which befell its neighbours. Overrun by the Arabs in 719, and subject to the Samanides in the 9th and 10th centuries, it formed part, success ively, of the conquests of the Kara Kitai, of Jenghiz Khan, and of Timur, whose descendant Baber was expelled in 1513 by the Uzbegs. After a long period of disintegration the khanate was reconsolidated about 1770 by Narbuta Bai, a reputed descendant of Baber, and until 1853, when the last series of Russian aggressions began, the dominions of his successors, the khans of Khokand, extended far beyond the valley of Ferghana to the north and north-west. Their influence, everywhere considerable, was most actively exerted in Kashgar, probably from com mercial reasons, the Chinese allowing them to maintain agents there to supervise the Khokandi traders and collect dues. The encroachments of Russia were made easier by the continual jealousy between Khokand and Bokhara, and by dissensions between the nomad and settled populations. The late ruler, Khudayar Khan, though more than once driven out by his oppressed subjects, always kept on good terms with the advancing Russians, who in 1874 sent a mission to Khokand. They found Khudayar setting out to suppress a Kirghiz rising, and, as the disturbances in creased, persuaded him to retire with them and to place his country at the disposal of the czar. They then ostensibly adopted his son Nasr-ed-din, appropriating, at the same time, all the country north of the Sir Their conduct, however, soon fanned the existing irritation into a religious war against the Russians, whose position for a time was critical, and the movement was only crushed, and the pro vince annexed, after great destruction of life and property. Trade. There are no trustworthy statistics of the trade of Fer ghana. Russian produce is probably imported to the value of 2,600,000 rubles (about 370,000), chiefly cotton, woollen, and leather manufactures, yarn, and hardware. Most of the tea conies ostensibly from Russia ; but a great deal of Indian tea is smuggled in. The chief exports are silk and cotton. Raw silk, value about Rs.637,000, 1 raw cotton, Rs. 930, 000, and cotton manufactures and yarn, Rs. 330, 000, go to Tashkent, the principal mart of Russian, Turkestan. Among minor exports are timber, flax, wool, salt, and fruits fresh and dried. There is also a good deal of trade with Bokhara and with Kashgar. Manufac tures are little developed : coarse cotton stuffs are made in large quantities for home use and export ; also some woollens, hardware, and pottery of a certain merit. There are paper-mills at Khokand and at Charku, which supply nearly all Central Asia; the manu facture resembles the Chinese, one of the few remaining traces of a former extensive intercourse. Gun factories of a rude order exist at Khokand and Andijan. There is considerable mineral wealth. Naphtha, rock-salt, and gyp sum are extensively worked ; iron-ore, argentiferous lead, coal, and sulphur have been found, and gold in the head-streams of the Sir. Revenue. The revenue (under the late system, which the Russians have in the main adopted) has been about 360, 000, 2 the chief items being the khardj, or land tax, paid in grain, 202,000; the tanapna, on garden produce and fruit trees, 67,000; and ihezakdt (one-fortieth part), on the cattle of the nomads, on exports and im ports, on trade licences, &c. Administration. The Russians have divided Ferghana into seven districts, viz., Khokand, Marghilan, Andijan, Ush, Uchmian or Wadil, Namanghan, and Chust. The administrative centre is re moved from Khokand to Marghilan, as the nomads are more easily controlled from that quarter. Justice is administered in civil cases by the shariat, or Mahometan code, a Russian prooureur being present ; in criminal cases by the Russian code. The affairs of the nomads are managed by their own elders, who are obliged to adopt any new regulations imposed by the Government. 1 The total production is estimated by Petrofski, agent to the Russian ministry of finance, at 10,000 to 15,000 puds of 36ft each, value 2 to 3 millions of rubles. 2 It was estimated in 1877 at 272,000, showing that the country had not then recovered from the effects of the war of annexation. Ferghana is mentioned by Chinese writers of the Han dynasty (from 200 B.C.); by Hiouen-thsang, the Buddhist pilgrim, in the 7th century ; by various Arab writers between the 10th and 13th (see D Herbelot and the Oriental Geography) ; in the accounts of the wars of Timur in the 14th century (see Deguignes s Histoire deslluns, &c)., of his son Shah-rukh s mission to China (1419), and of the Chinese mission to him ; in the emperor Baber s Memoirs and Mirza Haidar s Tarikhi-Rashidi in the 16th century (see Dr Bellew s "History of Kashgar" in Forsyth s Report of the Mission to Yarkand) ; in the great Chinese Geography of tho 18th century, translated by Klaproth (Magasin Asiatique}. See also Notices of the Mediaeval Geography and History of Central and Western Asia, by E. Bretschneider, M.D. Modern authorities are Schuyler s Turkestan; Fedchenko s Travels in Turkestan (Russian) 1875; Terentief, Russia and Eng land contending for the Markets of Central Asia (Russian), 1876 ; History of Khokand,l>y Sodhi Hukm Singh of the Punjab Secretariat, edited by Major C. E. Bates; "Journey to the W. Portion of the Thian Shan Range," &c., by N. Severtsof, translated by R. Michell, R. G. S. Journal, 1870 ; communications of Ujfalvy in Bui. de la Soc. Geog. dc Paris, 1877-78; " Das Gebiet Ferghana, das friiherc Chanat Chokand," from the Russische Revue, by A. Kuhn. (C. T.) FERGUSON, ADAM (1723-1 81 G), a distinguished philosopher and historian, was born, June 20, 1723, at Logierait, Perthshire, of which parish his father was min ister. He received the rudiments of his education at tho village school of his native parish, after which he was re moved to Perth grammar-school, where he made remarkable progress in classical literature. Towards the end of 1738 he entered the university of St Andrews, where he took the degree of M.A. on 4th May 1742. In November of the same year he entered the divinity hall, and in 1745, although he had studied divinity only one half of the usual period, he was allowed by the General Assembly to be ordained by the presbytery of Dunkeld, on the represen tation that he had been selected as the fittest person, from his knowledge of the Gaelic language, to fill the office of chaplain to the 42d regiment, under the command of Lord John Murray. When this regiment was at the battle of Fontenoy, Ferguson went into action at the head of the attacking column with a drawn broadsword in his hand, and could with difficulty be persuaded to retire to the rear. He continued attached to the regiment till 1754, after which he resolved to devote himself to literary pursuits. About the beginning of 1757, on the resignation of David Hume, he was elected librarian and clerk to the Faculty of Advocates, but these offices he relinquished in about a year on becoming tutor to Lord Bute. In 1757 he rendered himself conspicuous by the interest he took in the success of the tragedy of Dour/las, written by his friend Home, and by a pamphlet, The Morality of Stage Plays seriously considered, which he published in its defence. In 1759 Ferguson succeeded Dr John Stewart as profes sor of natural philosophy in the iiniversity of Edinburgh. In 1764 he was transferred to the chair of moral philosophy, and within little more than a year after he published his Essay on the History of Civil Society, which was received with much approbation, and was translated into several European languages. Soon afterwards he began to col lect materials for a history of the Roman commonwealth. Whilst thus engaged, he was solicited by the guardians of Charles, earl of Chesterfield, to superintend that young nobleman s education, which had been much neglected. He joined his young charge at Geneva in May 1774, and re mained with him for about a year. In his absence he had very nearly been deprived of his office in the university, the town-council having, as patrons, proposed to declare the chair vacant. In 1776 Ferguson published a pamphlet on the American revolution in opposition to Dr Price s " Ob servations on the nature of civil liberty," in which he sympathized with the views of the British legislature. When the Government resolved to send out commissioners to quiet the disorders in the colonies, he was appointed secretary. They failed to accomplish the object of their