wise and good Imam Quli Khan, of the Astrakhan-ide dynasty, adorned the throne of Bukhara for 32 years, and when in 1642 age and infirmity induced him to leave his weeping subjects for monastic repose in Medina, his younger brother Nazar Muhammad, king of Balkh. Nazar Muhammad succeeded to the throne.[1] The new Khan had governed the family appanage of Balkh during his brother's reign. As a ruler of Bukhara he was a failure. Its climate disagreed with him after his forty years' residence in the more genial soil of Balkh; his extreme avarice and niggardliness alienated his generals. Yet his ambition led him to annex Khwarizm. The Uzbaks began to hate him for his jealous policy of withdrawing all power from their leaders and doing everything himself. A man without discretion or force of character, he openly taxed his chiefs with what backbiters had told him about them. The army seethed with discontent at his reduction of their allowances, seizure of pastures, and resumption of grants of rent-free land.[2]
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CHAP. V.]
UNPOPULARITY OF BALKH KING.
89
