3-053-518 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Khiva Expedition: liberated Persian slaves slain by Turkomans, 1873. Engraving of a sketch by a '...Mr. N. Karasin, an officer in the Turkestan battalions of the Russian army...[It shows] the massacre by Turkomans of a large number of the Persian slaves who were liberated from their previous captivity by the Russian conquest of Khiva last May...It was said that there were nearly 30,000 Persians kept in slavery by the Khan of Khiva, and by the Turkoman Princes and chiefs of his dominion...When General Kaufmann took possession of Khiva he released all the Persian slaves...He was not able to spare any Russian troops for a protecting escort [for their journey home to Persia]...The Persians were therefore sent away by themselves...while they toiled wearily through the deep and dry sand of their road, as they went past the wells of Massovar Orotogod they were suddenly attacked by an armed party of their vengeful former masters, and many hundreds were slain. The dead bodies were left where they lay, presenting a horrible spectacle...A short time afterwards, on July 15, the Turkomans were severely punished by the defeat which they suffered in a conflict with part of the Russian army'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.