Taraz Sights Tour.

“Even at first, upon arriving at the service in Aulieat, in 1876, I often heard from local natives that the present city of Aulieat was recently founded, that the old-timers still living in it are among the first who remember well, how the mound (fortification), the bazaar and the urban settlement surrounded by an adobe wall were built, the remains of which have been preserved along Karas from Tikturmas (Talas) to the present, and that before the construction of the mound in Aulieat, the settled settlement was in Uch-mound, where before that he lived bek with shinayami (police page Ms), converted later into the newly constructed mound to Aulieata"

V.A. Kallaur. 1903. "On the history of the city of Aulie-Ata"

Historic Sites of Taraz.

Aulie-Ata itself consists of a fortress, an irregular quadrangle, the length of the front of which is 170 soot., And in the northwestern corner of the citadel, the western face of which is 50 soot., And the northern one about 70.
In addition, south and east of the fortress the settlement is located; its streets stretch almost a mile on the south side and 275 soot on the eastern side. Slobodka is also surrounded by a low wall to protect it in case of accidental attacks by the Kyrgyz.
To the west of Auliye-Ata, 400 stories, there is a cemetery, among which there is a dilapidated brick, rather extensive inside the front garden of that holy father, named Karahan, whose grave here gave rise to the name of the fortress.
About a mile and a half to the east, on a considerable hill, there is also the grave of a saint named Tek-Turmas, from whom these heights got their name. Tradition says that Aulie-Kurgan was a khan of Muslims who had been wandering here for 700 years until now, but which ones are unknown, and Tek-Turmas occupied a respectable place with him.
Here in ancient times, also according to legend, there was a barrow of some people, subsequently dug up and not occupied by anyone until about five years ago, under the Kokand Khan, Madele Khan, his close friend named Adynybek was sent here with the aim of to build in this place a fortress for those living not far on Uch-Kurgan Sarts from the raids of the Kyrgyz.
He set up an existing citadel and he was the first commandant here: under him, residents from Uch-Kurgan also moved here. Subsequently, with an increase in population and with the development of trade, for the greater safety of residents, commandant Atabek, about 13 years ago, a wall was built around the city to form a real fortress, the last commandant of which was Uzbek Niyazali.
Actually in the citadel housed the commandant's house, the homes of his entourage and sarbaz (soldier). The interior of the fortress, for clearing the area around the citadel, for the esplanade, is a series of fairly straight 5 longitudinal and 5 transverse but narrow streets and contains 517 houses with benches (and 66 without benches), 3 mosques and 1 cast iron foundry, 8 forges and on the southeast side of the caravanserai, in which caravans coming from Almaty stop.
Out of 517 shops, only 237 are currently occupied, as the merchants from our parish left for Tashkent, Namangan and other cities of the Khanate for goods, leaving guards at their shops. There is also a school at the main mosque, where a mullah, for a fee, teaches parish children.
Slobodka has 4 right streets and 250 houses, but the number of mosques reaches 5, with 22 shops. There is a cast iron foundry and 15 tanneries, 3 caravanserais - one on the east side for Kuldzhin caravans, another on the south for Namangan and third on the southwest for Tashkent, 2 soap and candle factories and 2 trading saunas.
Among these houses, which belong to the Sartes themselves, there are three houses of honorary Kirghiz of the Chemyrovsky family, one Sarvazian: in general, married sarvazes were placed in apartments of residents.
The settlement has only 137 dwelling houses, and the rest are temporarily abandoned by residents who moved to other cities, due to the high cost of bread here, which has been destroyed by locusts for two years.
All buildings are erected from clay, through which they are not very strong, low and extremely monotonous, which is only somewhat mitigated by diluted in a fairly large number, both in the city and the surrounding gardens, consisting mainly of willow, poplar and hoist, whose cool shadow serves a welcome refuge for an Asian during an unbearable daytime heat, about 35 degrees R. Very few gardens have vines and apple trees, apricot and pear trees, but often with northwest winds and strong winter bores Ans do not allow them to bear fruit.
There are no ordinary berries in Russia: strawberries, strawberries, blackberries, cloudberries and even raspberries in the vicinity of the city, but in general the Talas Valley is rich in pasture and grazing, which is convenient pasture for livestock and fertile for bread, which is picked up in large quantities against others, roaming near the Kara-Kyrgyz.
Climatic features with certainty cannot mean, because there have not yet been any meteorological observations. Residents consist of Uzbeks and Sarts completely merged with each other and have a distinctive trading character.
Their number has not yet been determined, but according to the number of residential buildings, counting at least 5 people in each, their approximate figure reaches 2500. They are Mohammedan faiths - Sunnis. Namaz is sent carefully at the appointed hours, when the mullah, having ascended to the roof of the mosque, calls them to prayer.
Mainly engaged in trade, the local inhabitants of arable land and livestock have little, they are more willing to plant gardens, kitchen gardens and melons, sown in large numbers with watermelons, melons, etc. With regard to trading, Aulie-Ata is very important. On the way from the khanate to Kuldzha, Kopal and Semipalatinsk, it serves as a haven for caravans going there from Tashkent, Kokan, Namangan and other trading cities.
Trading it can be divided into external and internal. Local merchants, for goods consisting of silk and paper. And dressed leathers, to supply them with the Kara-Kyrgyz Horde, wandering along Talas and Chu and the Kirghiz of the Great Horde, wandering near the city and north of Baraldai.
They exchange their goods with Kyrgyz for cattle, mainly for sheep, whose huge herds are driven inside the khanate, from where they go to Bukhara, or are bought in Petropavlovsk by merchants coming from there.
Domestic trade is currently not rich. Merchants available here are running out of goods, and merchants who have departed from here, according to residents, have not yet managed to return for new goods. Permanent trade in the city is carried out in shops that are in regular rows, occupying entire blocks.
Honorable number with Tashkent silk, woolen and paper materials, with carpets and even with goods of Russian products. Many shops with raisins and nuts of various varieties are also sold: tea, sugar, Tashkent tobacco, writing paper, local clay pottery, lard, soap, but most of all meat and bakery shops.
There are also taverns where palau and dumplings are deliciously cooked. There are also shops with copper, cast iron and iron products. In the market square, located near the shops, a fair is annually held, for the most part by the Kyrgyz, the sale of horses and cattle; little flour and cereal bread are sold.
The city is governed by seven elders (foremen) called beks (commandant) of the choice of the inhabitants and from whom they received remuneration for this service. Their duty consisted in observing the correctness of the sale of goods, foodstuffs and, in general, all their necessities of life, and their goodness.
One of the elders was appointed senior, who had the right to peacefully resolve all litigations between residents; in the event of failure, the case went to the decision of the so-called kazy (assessor), according to Sharia.
Cases of murder, robbery and theft went to the investigation of the beck himself, and if the relatives of the murdered man did not agree to pay (kun) the killer, the guilty person would die. The accused of robbery and theft was first sentenced to recover from their property, and for the repetition of these crimes they were cut off a hand or leg, and sometimes at the beck's discretion, they were put to death.
It is still difficult to judge the morality of the inhabitants, by the recent times we have been here, but according to their stories, in general, criminal offenses are few. Residents of the city, like all subjects of the khanate in general, do not pay a different tax.
Their duties in relation to the city consist only in the serviceable and clean maintenance of the streets. The valuation of their caravan was taken to the treasury from 40 to one toll. (Tilla's gold coin is 3 rubles. 60 kopecks.). This duty is levied either on the spot in Kokan, Tashkent and other cities where caravans leave, or upon their arrival at the place of trade.
Traders constantly in one city with second-hand goods pay the same fee. Bread farmers pay a tenth of the harvest for the use of land when collecting bread. This collection is made in the same way with clover coming to the maintenance of state horses.
From the same cattle breeding, 1 sheep is collected from 40 sheep, and 1 sheep is collected from each koshu passing through the land belonging to Aulie-Ata * (kosh is a smaller yurt or a wagon. after him people, and therefore to place their cats, from which the indicated duty is taken.
Thus, the number of cats gives some idea of ​​the number of cattle). Breeders and artisans did not pay any fee, excluding lump sum payment for the place on which the institution is located. All empty seats in the city were sold to residents in favor of the treasury, at an appointed beck price, depending on the convenience and profit of the place, so in the market for a square peak (2 ½ soot.) 5 tills (18 rubles) were charged. For gardens and orchards in the vicinity of the city was not paid.
The Khanate received most of the income from the Kyrgyz citizens. So the Kara-Kirghiz paid from the yurt a batman of bread (about 10 poods), weight for fortresses and the so-called zyak from 100 rams 3 rams. The Kirghiz, on the other hand, were taxed at a lower rate, they paid 2 tills of arable land and zaekat at the same rate from the ordinary size.
In addition to these already legally levied fees, both those and other Kirghiz, emergency taxes fell annually, carts were required, but cattle were collected in return and this fee almost again amounted to a fad. Details about the mores and customs of the inhabitants, with whom there was still no time to fully get acquainted, are now difficult to communicate.
The male population is quite welcoming, and in their conversations and movements they notice something more gentle and noble than in the nomadic tribes surrounding them. Women are not visible on the streets; they, as usual in the east, are locked and, upon entering an outsider, they hide under the veil. Their time passes in farming and in work consisting mainly of sewing and embroidery”.

Authority:
Note by M. G. Chernyaev about the Auliye-Ata fortress. (Holy father) to the headquarters of the military governor of Turkestan region 4. (stylistics preserved)

Photos:
Photos used from Turkestan Album, 1870-1872. Created by order of the first Governor General of Turkestan, Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman. The Turkestan Album includes four parts: archaeological (two volumes), ethnographic (two volumes), crafts of the peoples of Central Asia (commercial) and the historical part. The albums were created under the leadership of the Russian ethnographer and researcher A.L. Kuna. In addition to the albums worked: military orientalist T.A. Terentiev, photographers N.N. Nekhoroshev, G. E. Krivtsov, and other photographers, capturing the views of streets, bazaars and squares of cities, villages and nomads; in portraits - faces, types of Central Asian nationalities; festivities, customs and traditions and much more. Thus, this photo album gathered documentary evidence of the then unexplored region of Central Asia (the second half of the 19th century), in order to characterize the everyday life of the settled and nomadic population of the Turkestan Territory. The collection of materials for a multi-volume publication for more than two years (1870 - 1872) was carried out in the military topographic department of Tashkent. The album was released in St. Petersburg in 1872. The Turkestan Album is today the rarest archival source, whose editions are in the National Library of Uzbekistan, the National Library of Russia and the Library of Congress.