A Ride to Khiva
Travels and Adventures in Central Asia

Captain Burnaby's 1875 journey through Russian territory during the 'Great Game', when Russia and Britain vied to control central Asia.

Fred Burnaby (Author)

9781108037587, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 December 2011

524 pages, 3 maps
21.6 x 14 x 3 cm, 0.66 kg

It is 1875, the time of the 'Great Game', when the British and Russian Empires are vying for power in central Asia. A British officer rides for Khiva, a Russian city closed to European travellers. He is on a dangerous mission, to learn if Russia plans to invade India, the 'jewel in the crown' of the British Empire. It might be the plot of a Rudyard Kipling novel; instead it is the true story of Captain Frederick Burnaby (1842–85). Burnaby joined the British army in 1859, but in periods without active duty he crafted his own adventures. He ballooned across the English Channel, travelled in Spain and Russia, and was wounded, and eventually killed, fighting for Britain's empire. This account of his perilous journey to Khiva, published in 1876 and immediately reprinted, brought him instant fame. The book includes maps of the route he took and an appendix.

Preface
Introduction
1. Information about Khiva
2. Waist-belt for gold
3. The Volga frozen
4. Railway officials
5. Twenty degrees below zero
6. A hole in the ice
7. Pins-and-needles
8. The guardian of the forests
9. Delayed by a snowstorm
10. Sleigh sickness
11. The Ural Cossacks
12. A supply of provisions
13. A sheepskin suit
14. A start with the courier
15. Nomad tribes
16. Kashgar
17. Break-down of the sleigh
18. An English engineer officer at Kasala
19. Ablutions under difficulties
20. A priest
21. Water route from Kasala to Petro-Alexandrovsk
22. Camels
23. A lazy guide
24. The guide's retaliation
25. Disobedience of orders
26. The Turkoman on his donkey
27. Villages fortified
28. The guide's kibitka
29. The Oozek
30. Oogentch
31. The messenger
32. Breakfast in Khiva
33. The present Khan
34. Departure from Khiva
35. The meet
36. The Tarantass
37. The district governor
38. An inquisitive inspector
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]