ALEXANDER BURNES’ TRAVELS INTO BOKHARA
Keywords:
Alexander Burnes, Travels into Bokhara, Bukhara, Central Asia, travel writing, British India.Abstract
This thesis examines Alexander Burnes’ Travels into Bokhara as an important nineteenth-century travel narrative and historical source on Central Asia. Published in 1834, the work records Burnes’ journey from India through Afghanistan and the territories north of the Hindu Kush to Bukhara, followed by his return through the Caspian region and Persia. The article analyzes the circumstances in which the journey was undertaken, the structure and thematic range of the book, and Burnes’
observations concerning Bukhara, Afghanistan, the Oxus region, trade routes, political institutions, social life, geography, and intercultural relations.
Downloads
References
1. Burnes, A. Travels into Bokhara: Being the Account of a Journey from India to Cabool, Tartary and Persia; Also, Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, from the Sea to Lahore, with Presents from the King of Great Britain. 3 vols. — London: John Murray, 1834. Modern reprint: Cambridge University Press, 2014–2015.
2. British Library. Travels into Bokhara, Lt Alexander Burnes. India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/12/LIB/125–125B. — London: John Murray edition, 1835.
3. Yapp, M. E. Strategies of British India: Britain, Iran, and Afghanistan, 1798 1850. — Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
4. Hopkirk, P. The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia. — Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991 [first published 1990].
5. , E. Britain’s Persian Connection, 1798–1828: Prelude to the Great Game in Asia. — Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
