“Sketches Of Central Asia” Readings And “Turkestan Cycle” Paintings

• Comparative Analysis and Group Discussion Prompt: Analyze the values and world views concerning the Eurasian frontier represented in Vambery, Sketches of Central Asia and Vereshchagin, “Turkestan Cycle” Paintings.
  • Compare and contrast the written and visual texts’ depictions of rural and city life on the Central Asian frontier, analyzing both the similarities and differences (with specific examples). 
    • Explain the types of information found in both the visual and verbal sources. Reference at least four (4) of Vereshchagin’s paintings.
    • Explain the types of information found in only the visual sources (NOT the verbal source.) Reference at least six (6) visual images
  • Explain your overall impression of either rural or urban (or both) life in Central Asia based on the combination of the verbal and visual texts.  Reference at least four (4) of Vereshchagin’s paintings.

This assignment requires students to:

1. Respond to all parts of the assigned “Analysis and Group Discussions Prompts (questions)” (The prompts/questions may be found below, in the Course Schedule, Content area and Discussion area.
2. Answer every part of the prompt(s)/question(s) with a complete paragraph. Complete paragraphs should include a topic sentence at least four supporting sentences.
3. Write in complete, grammatically correct paragraphs and sentences.
   • DO NOT post simple lists or bullet points.
4. Support your ideas with direct references to the text analyzed using parenthetical notation. For example – “Vereschagin’s painting “Dervishes in Holiday Costume” makes it possible to clearly visualize the description religious pilgrims in Vambrey’s work (Vambrey,122) Every response paragraph should include at least two (2) direct references to the text.
   • I urge you to include multiple references in a single sentence when applicable. For example – “Vambrey repeatedly presented life in rural areas as superior to urban life (Vambrey, 24, 29, 156, 173, and 241).”
5. Include multiple direct references to the visuals images.
6. ********Make your initial posting at least 48 hours before the  discussion is locked.  In other works initial posts are due on Saturday night at 11:59.*****

Link to the Turkestan Cycle paintings:

https://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/en/collection/?category=all&period=all&author=vereshchagin&page=1&place=all

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6 SKETCHES OF CE’YTRAL ASIA.

neath the pompous dress of the prince a mere mortal man, aud mindful of the vanity of sublunary things, laughs at the farce of life.

Though perfectly conscious of their relative position, these two extremes exhibit, when they meet, an ad­ mirable degree of toleration and indulgence. The dervish, who, when received in private, behaves with the freedom and unconstraint of an intimate friend, never forgets on public occasions that he is the poorest of the poor. The man of rank suffers from him what to any other person would appear insupportable. At Kerki, the governor of the province had a dervish in his palace, who, in conformity with a precept of his order, had the agreeable office of brying aloud uninter­ ruptedly, from sunset till break of day: Ya Im! ya hakk ! La ilia hu l * and that with the voice of a Stentor. AB soon as darkness prevailed, and the busy hum of public life had become silent, the melancholy and monotonous exclamations became more and more audible, not only in the palace itself, bnt to a consider­ able extent around it. That his devotions disturbed many in their sleep, may be easily imagined. Never­ theless, tl1e governor, notwithstanding the entreaties of his owu family, did not venture to make any objec­ tion to this proceeding, and the dervish continued his vooiforatious every night as long as he sojourned in Kerki. .As I lodged in the vicinity of the palace, I

‘* Yes, it is he! it ia the righteo-u,, one! there is no God but he; are, the usual forma of praye;i; which oce.ur in the Zikr.

DERVISHES AND HADJIS. 7

enjoyed my share of thIB nightly concert; and as the voice of the enthusiastic bawler became towards the

· .approach of dawn weaker and weaker, I was enabled to calculate from it the distance of da,ybreak without stepping out of the dark cell in which I lay.

We may say, however, that we nowadays very seldom meet with a dervish in the strict sense of the word; that a man who, renouncing from inward conviction earthly goods and worldly comforts, is desirous auly of obtaining experience of life and devoting himself to the practice of religious duties: such a man, in a word,· as the poet Saadi is represented to have been. Those who embrace this vocation are either unprincipled and lazy fellows, or professed beggars, who, under the cloak of poverty, collect treasures, and when they are sufficiently enriched often adopt some lucrative trade. This IB particularly the case in Persia. So long as Fortune is :favourable to them they foad a life of osten• tatious magnificence, and forget how transitory all is in this world. But should he.be overtaken by adver­ isity, then he retires to some modest corner, rails at the vain pursuits of men, and, inflated with pride, cries out: Men dervish em; I am a dervish.

The dervishes of India, and particularly those of Cashmere, are throughout the East pre-eminent among their Mahometan brethren for cuuning, secret arts, forms of exorcism, &c. These fellows impose most impudently on the credulity of the people m Persia and Central Asia, and even men of wit and undei:-