Journey to the Centre of the World – 9
Until quite recently, Khiva was one of the death capitals of the world.
Killing was an entertainment developed into an art form.
Foreigners were beheaded or blinded if they were not fit enough to be slaves.
Women were thrown off the minaret if accused of adultery.
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Painting of gateway to the old Khiva fort, with a camel driver arriving either from the Kara-kum or the Kyzyl-kum desert. . . both of which are on Khiva's doorstep
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Petticoat Justice
Khiva, like Bukhara, was notorious for its injustice and its cruelty.
So notorious that it did not need to close the gates of its fortress walls, for no stranger would dare enter without permission, or without a conquering army at his back.
Khiva did not need to have windows and doors on its market stalls, for anyone tempted to put a hand out to steal a melon or a handful of grain would end up with only a left hand.
Often a political prisoner would be forced to sit on a spike in the market-place, where shoppers would witness the sharp stick entering his bowels and emerging from his neck.
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Wives, suspected of being unfaithful, would be hurled from the tower. One of the few enlivening tales out of Khiva tells of the accused woman who dressed in every petticoat she owned for the occasion of her execution - and, when pushed from the tower, parachuted down unscathed into the waiting crowd. It proved to the people's satisfaction that she had not, in fact, been unfaithful, as her husband had surmised.
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| A Uzbeki woman, showing me the sights of Khiva, muttered:
"If they'd thrown the men from the tower for infidelity - outside of their wives and concubines - you'd hardly have been able to see the top of the minaret for bodies."
Khiva was the centre of a flourishing slave-trade right up until the time the Russians invaded. At least 5 000 of the slaves discovered by the Tsar's troops were Russian males who had been bought and sold for less than a pound sterling each. The invaders were especially indignant because they learned that Persian women slaves fetched ten times as much as their compatriots. Plundered desert caravans were the source of most slaves. The Hungerian traveller Vamberey, who reached Khiva in 1863 disguised as a dervish, brought back a shocking tale. He reported that of 300 prisoners, some were chained by the neck and led away in batches to be sold as slaves, but many were hanged or beheaded as he watched. Those who were too old or weak to be good slaves, had their eyes gouged out. Vambery describes in gruesome detail how, after they had been blinded, these men were set free and groped around with their hands, trying to rise, but in their pain falling over one another, their heads bumping together as they collapsed.
Next day another newly returned raiding party arrived to claim rewards for their prowess. They were presented with gold-embroidered robes, known as "twelve-head", "twenty-head" or even "forty-head", according to their quality. Tribesmen claiming these robes of honour first emptied from their sacks the requisite number of severed human heads onto the floor of the Treasury. An accountant kicked the heads into a pile, and after counting them, would issue receipts to the raiders for a robe of appropriate quality.
Khiva, it seems, finally got what it deserved. It fell down, and its ancient walls crumbled. When the Soviet Union decided to preserve historical sites, it removed Khiva's citizens and rebuilt the whole city - creating a sort of Disneyland dedicated to cruelty rather than fun. When I was there, Khiva was a soulless, empty place, awaiting its first tourists to give it life. Though the Ichan Kala, the walled and fortified Inner City of Khiva, is an amazing museum of fortresses, caravanserai, temples, towers and Persian steam baths. I hope it gets its queuing convoys of tourists. I could not think of a worse - or more appropriate - fate for it.
But I deviate. And I'm getting ahead of our journey.
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