ASKABAD, or ASKHABAD  , a town of Russian central Asia, capital of the Transcaspian province, 345 M. by rail S.E. of Krasnovodsk and 594 from Samarkand, situated in a small oasis at the N. foot of the Kopet-dagh range . It has a public lib,rary and a technical railway school; also cotton-cleaning works, tanneries, brick-works, and a mineral-water factory . The trade is valued at £250,000 a year . The population, 2500 in 1881, when the Russians seized it, was 19,428 in 1897, one-third Persians, many of them belonging to the Babi sect .