The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-01-20
Fate of the Richest
Mohammedan Ruler

Moscow, Jan. 1s.--Robbed, ragged
starving and forgotten in the big
concentration camp of Pokrowsky,. q
few miles distant from this city, is
the fate of the Hevdiar, Khan of
Khiva, who, until few months ago,
was one of the richest Mohemmedan
rulers of Central Asia. As he is
nearly 80 years old, he may die there.
Havdiar, successor to Tamerlanc
the great and Genghis Khan, who
ruled from China to Germany in the
Middle Ages, is a pure -blooded Uz-
bek Turk to whom the Sultan of
Turkey is a mere modern upstart.
He has been brougho to his present
plight through the revolutions en-
gineered by the Moscow Soviet in
Russian Turkestan, aided by Enver
Pasha, recently denounced by Musta-
pha kemal Pasha as the arbitrator
of Turkey.
The treatment of the Khan of Xiii
va, not yet widely known by people
of the Mohammedan world, is expect
ed in time to widen the rift that has
long threatened between the Russian
Soviet and the Mohammedans Of In
dia and the old Turkish dominions.
The Russians have long been hated
for their conquest of Khiva, Bokhara
and the rest of the territory known
for the past go years as Russian
Turkestan.
For two centuries the Russians
tried in vain to conquer these war
like peoples and only in 1873 was
Khiva humbled and its Khans made
subject princes of Russia. But they
retained their religious influence and
their vast wealth and when they
came to the Russian imperial court
at Petrograd, their presents in gold
and jewels surpassed easily the
treasures of that gorgeous court.
For the past two years the Soviet
influence has been slowly Tightening
it's hold on old Russian Turkestan,
under General Doutoff, aided by
100000 German war prisoners. First
Soviet revolutionary committee was
formed at Tashkent, after approved
Bolshevik manner, and later at Box
hara, and finally at Khiva. These
committees in turn gave way to the
formation of Soviet republics, as in
Baku and Tifiis, at the point of the
Red army's bayonet.
The Emir of Bokhara was reduced
to figurehead, though still held as
possible religious successor to the
Sultan of Turkey.
Hevdiar was unseated in his rule
by the new order but when his ad-
visers showed him how the palace
walls were fallingabout him, he got
together the choicest of his inherited
jewels, his favorite wives, large
stock of his royal robes, together
with 400 pounds avoirdupois, of solid
gold, ordered train at Bokhara and
started overland to reach it. At the
depot in Bokhara, the Cheka, or Sc
.crst police--swooped down, upon. him,
robbed him Of his wives, his jewels
and gold, and made him prisoner, to-
gether with his 2O-year-old son and
heir apparent.
Both were put aboard the train,
under heavy guard, and sent to Mos
cow, to the old convent prison of
Pokrowsky, where they have since
been.
With heavy white beard, the Khan
maintains his proud bearing and still
looks the part of great ruler in ex-
lie. Silent and accomplishing, after
the manner of his people, he some
times attends the concerts organized
for the prisoners.
In answer to his request to the
Soviet Khiva Mission for food, he
was sent exactly one pound of bread.
at is the will of Allah" said the
Khan when the bread came. His son
has Jared somewhat better. He does
odd jobs, such as scrubbing floors,
for the more fortunate prisoners
whose friends send them food, and
in this way keeps soul and body to-