THE DIARY OF A SLAVE
BY RUSTAM KHAN-URF

The Diary of a Slave at least purports to be the memoir of an Indian who was captured into slavery in Bokhara soon after it had (in 1920) become a Soviet republic. It was published by Sampson Low, Marston & Co. in London in 1936. Presented here is the account given of Alim Khan, the last Emir of Bokhara, all there is of Greek love interest.

Though the memoir has been cited by historians as a true account, claims have been made that Rustam Khan-Urf was a pseudonym of Ikbal Ali Shah (1894-1969), a well-travelled Indian writer of Afghan descent, in which case his memoir is substantially fiction. However, this makes little difference to the veracity of his account of the last since he does not pretend this was more than something he had “heard” and Ikbal was certainly knowledgeable of Bokhara affairs.

Chapter IV.  I Trade with a Jew

I travelled via Kabul, and there I heard strange tales of the Bokharan Emir who had taken refuge in Afghanistan’s capital. It was eighteen months before, in 1920, that Emir Said-Alim-Bahadur Khan woke one morning to find his palace on fire. The revolutionists were in control and an end had come to a thorough Eastern despotism which had ruled through many centuries. With the firing of the palace, Holy Bokhara awoke from a sleep of the Middle Ages—a sleep wherein merchant and cleric waxed fat, and the workers were so many serfs. [… p. 40]

On the Emir’s thoughts during his reign:

His [the Emir’s] thoughts were elsewhere, and they centred principally upon his harems, of which he had two. The first contained approximately one hundred women, whose charms were the subject of song throughout Central Asia. They were famous, and they were kept up to standard by continuous recruitment. Dignity and elevation could be secured by any who made the Emir the present of a fair daughter.

Of the second harem I had heard more, and I did not need the hangers-on around the Emir’s person in Kabul to acquaint me with its details. In this he had a bevy of nectarine-complexioned dancing boys. The parents who proffered their male off-spring received a gold medal, specially struck by the Emir, to commend their generosity. In my subsequent travels I came across several of these marks of Royal favour. They were worn without embarrassment, and even a certain dignity.

When the Emir found his palace on fire it is to be remarked that he forsook his women and only waited to collect a score or so of his more winsome dancing boys before fleeing to the hills of the East. [p. 41]