Glossary

Iradi words are given in the spelling used in this translation. A few Russian and other words that the original leaves untranslated are included.

akyel: the slender golden riding horse of the Talas and the Fergana, prized by every army that came through. The Red Army bought them as remounts.

aryk: an irrigation channel.

bai: a rich man, usually a landowner or the owner of large flocks. After 1917 the word became an accusation.

bakshy: a shaman. The church has condemned them since the days of the Kokand khans.

basmachi: the armed bands who fought the Soviet power in Turkestan in the early 1920s. They were part rebels and part bandits, depending on the band and the year.

Chongtor: the short, stocky mountain horse of the herders, hard-footed and unshod.

chervontsy: gold-backed Soviet banknotes, introduced in 1922.

elechek: the white headdress, wound high, of a married woman.

ene: mother.

ırchy: a bard who sings the old songs, often on horseback.

Kapitan: Russian, “captain”.

kenje: the youngest son.

kun: restitution, the price paid under custom law for a death or injury. Toguz, “ninefold”, is the heaviest fine.

kurbashi: the commander of a basmachi band.

kyzy, uulu: “daughter of”, “son of”. They follow the father’s name: Nurdin Tölögön uulu is Nurdin, son of Tölögön.

malka: the holy leaven of the mountain churches, the “mother leaven”, said to descend from the bread of St. Janyl. It is kept in a wooden pot, renewed each Holy Thursday, and given, never sold.

Morkhan: the old bull-headed god of darkness, whom the church identifies with Satan. Black is his colour.

OGPU: the Soviet political police of the 1920s.

omin: amen.

soviet: a council. A village soviet was the local government.

White Rider: the rider on a white horse who, in Iradi belief, comes down off the mountain for a soul and carries it home over the pass.