For years, on the borders of the vast, desolate, far western Chinese province of Sinkiang, imperial Britain and imperialist Muscovy, Red Russian and White, China's bandits, warlords, Communists and Nationalists skirmished for power and position. None of them, however, won the allegiance of the hard-riding Kazak tribesmen who wandered the empty plains. Islamic nomads of remote Turkish origin, the proud and independent Kazaks went on pitching their flannel tents, eating only meat, playing polo with the inflated skins of whole sheep and 200 men on a team, proclaiming allegiance to Allah alone, and generally thumbing their noses at the march of...
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