Hi Andy,
Thanks a lot for your link, I’ll give a look to Tucker’s paper asap and try to find a copy of Gorshenina’s book.
Did you ever hear of any book by General Komarov, treating of his stay in Transcaspia? Given his supposed passion for rugs and his contacts with Yomud-, Tekke, Saryk- and Salor leaders, one could hope some comments of interest for ruggies.
Given his social level it could have been written either in French or in Russian. Komarov is mentioned on the net as having authored quite a few memoirs, but none discussing his Turkmen period is known to me yet.
I agree with your comments about traveler’s credibility (or lack of-): some were superficial tourists, others, British and Russians especially, clearly had an agenda of their own at the time, other Europeans got most of their informations from Russian military sources, at least a famous one (Vambery) enjoyed in his time a completely underserved trust in UK etc.…
And like you, I do hope that local historians or Russian ones, now free from the Soviet straightjacket, will bring interesting new informations. Although, given the present political situation one will still have to take Turkmen historians a bit cum grano salis too.
Again, Andy thanks for contributing to this thread, please do go on!
Regards
Pierre
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