Emirate of Bukhara

Emirate of Bukhara امارت بخارا Amārat-e Bokhārā
1785–1920
Flag
The Emirate of Bukhara under Russian rule
Status	Semi-independent state (under Russian protection 1873–1917)
Capital	Bukhara
Common languages	Persian (official)[1][2] Chagatai Turkic[3]
Religion	Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, Sufism (Naqshbandi), Zoroastrianism, Judaism
Government	Absolute Monarchy
Emir
• 1785–1800	Mir Masum Shah Murad
• 1911–1920	Alim
History
• Manghit control	1747
• Established	1785
• Conquered by Russia	1868
• Russian protectorate	1873
• Disestablished	October 1920
Population
• 1875[4]	c. 2,478,000
• 1911[5]	c. 3,000,000-3,500,000
Currency	fulus, tilla, and tenga.[6]
Preceded by Succeeded by Khanate of Bukhara Bukharan People's Soviet Republic

The flag that was used at the end of the existence of the Emirate of Bukhara^[7]

The Emirate of Bukhara (Persian: امارت بخارا, romanized: Amārat-e Bokhārā, Chagatay: بخارا امرلیگی, romanized: Bukhārā Amirligi) was a Central Asian polity^[8] that existed from 1785 to 1920 in what is now modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, known formerly as Transoxiana. Its core territory was the land along the lower Zarafshan River, and its urban centres were the ancient cities of Samarqand and the emirate's capital, Bukhara. It was contemporaneous with the Khanate of Khiva to the west, in Khwarazm, and the Khanate of Kokand to the east, in Fergana. In 1920, it ended with the establishment of the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic.

History[]

A map of the Khanate of Bukhara's beyliks.

Fires in Bukhara during the Red Army's attack, 1 September 1920

The Emirate of Bukhara was officially created in 1785, upon the assumption of rulership by the Manghit emir, Shah Murad. Shahmurad, formalized the family's dynastic rule (Manghit dynasty), and the khanate became the Emirate of Bukhara.^[9]

As one of the few states in Central Asia after the Mongol Empire not ruled by descendants of Genghis Khan (besides the Timurids), it staked its legitimacy on Islamic principles rather than Genghisid blood, as the ruler took the Islamic title of Emir instead of Khan. In 18th -19th centuries Khwarazm (Khiva Khanate) was ruled by the Uzbek dynasty of Kungrats.^[10]

Over the course of the 18th century, the emirs had slowly gained effective control of the Khanate of Bukhara, from their position as ataliq; and by the 1740s, when the khanate was conquered by Nadir Shah of Persia, it was clear that the emirs held the real power. In 1747, after Nadir Shah's death, the ataliq Muhammad Rahim Bi murdered Abulfayz Khan and his son, ending the  [fa]. From then on the emirs allowed puppet khans to rule until, following the death of Abu l-Ghazi Khan, Shah Murad assumed the throne openly.^[11]

Fitzroy Maclean recounts in Eastern Approaches how Charles Stoddart and Arthur Conolly were executed by Nasrullah Khan in the context of The Great Game, and how Joseph Wolff, known as the Eccentric Missionary, escaped their fate when he came looking for them in 1845. He was wearing his full canonical costume, which caused the Emir to burst out laughing, and "Dr Wolff was eventually suffered to leave Bokhara, greatly to the surprise of the populace, who were not accustomed to such clemency."^[12]

In 1868, the emirate lost a war with Imperial Russia, which had aspirations of conquest in the region. Russia annexed much of the emirate's territory, including the important city of Samarkand.^[13] In 1873, the remainder became a Russian protectorate,^[14] and was soon surrounded by the Governorate-General of Turkestan.

Reformists within the Emirate had found the conservative emir, Mohammed Alim Khan, unwilling to loosen his grip on power, and had turned to the Russian Bolshevik revolutionaries for military assistance. The Red Army launched an unsuccessful assault in March 1920, and then a successful one in September of the same year.^[15] The Emirate of Bukhara was conquered by the Bolsheviks and replaced with the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic. Today, the territory of the defunct emirate lies mostly in Uzbekistan, with parts in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. For a time, it had some influence in northern Afghanistan, as some of the Emirs of the Chahar Wilayat nominally accepted Bukharan suzerainity.

Family[]

The last emir's daughter worked as a broadcaster in Radio Afghanistan.^[16] Shukria Raad left Afghanistan with her family three months after Soviet troops invaded the country in December 1979. With her husband, also a journalist, and two children she fled to Pakistan, and then through Germany to the United States. In 1982, she joined the VOA, and worked as a broadcaster for VOA's Dari Service, editor, host and producer.^[17] Grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Mohammed Alim Khan currently reside in North Carolina and Washington, D.C., USA. In 2019, a couple of them made their first trip to Bukhara almost a century after the Emir's departure, where they were met warmly by local people.^[18]

Culture[]

Part of a series on the
History of Turkmenistan
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Antiquity Ancient history Jeitun culture Gonur Depe Oxus civilization Massagetae Median Empire Achaemenid Empire Seleucid Empire Greco-Bactrian Kingdom Parthian dynasty Kushan Empire Proto-Turks Sassanian Empire Kidarite Kingdom Hephthalite Empire
Middle Ages Islamic period Rashidun Caliphate Umayyads Abbasids Tahirids Saffarids Samanids Oghuz Turkomans Ghaznavid Empire Seljuk Turkomans Khwarazmians Mongol conquest Chagatai Khanate Ilkhanate Karts Timurids
Early modern history Khanate of Khiva Emirate of Bukhara Safavid Iran Turkmenistan in the 16th and 17th centuries Afsharid dynasty Qajar Iran
Modern history Russian conquest and the Great Game Transcaspian Oblast October Revolution and Civil War Soviet rule Turkmenistan SSR After Independence
Related historical names of the region
Hyrcania Margiana Greater Iran Greater Khorasan Khwarazm Transcaspia Turkmenia
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In the era of the Manghyt emirs in Bukhara, a large construction of madrasahs, mosques and palaces was carried out. Located along important trading routes, Bukhara enjoyed a rich cultural mixture, including Persian, Uzbek, and Jewish influences.

A local school of historians developed in the Bukhara emirate. The most famous historians were Mirza Shams Bukhari, Muhammad Yakub ibn Daniyalbiy, Muhammad Mir Olim Bukhari, Ahmad Donish, Mirza Abdalazim Sami, Mirza Salimbek. ^[19]

The city of Bukhara has a rich history of Persian architecture and literature, traditions that were continued into the Emirate Period. Prominent artists of the period include the poet Kiromi Bukhoroi, the calligrapher and the scholar . Throughout this period, the madrasahs of the region were renowned.

• 

  Chor Minor Madrasah, Bukhara (2006)

• 

  A bureaucrat in Bukhara, ca.1910

• 

  Large Medallion Suzani (textile) from Bukhara, mid-18th century?

Administrative and territorial structure[]

Administratively, the Emirate was divided into several beyliks or bekliks:

1. Baljuvon
2. Hisar, (now Tajikistan)
3. Guzar, (now Kashkadarya Region, Uzbekistan)
4. Darvaz, (c 1878, now Darvaz district, Tajikistan)
5. Karategin, (now Rasht district, Tajikistan)
6. Kattakurgan, (now Samarkand region, Uzbekistan)
7. Kulyab, (now Khatlon region, Tajikistan)
8. Karshi, (now Kashkadarya Region, Uzbekistan)
9. Kerki, (now Lebap Region, Turkmenistan)
10. Charjuy, (now Lebap Region, Turkmenistan)
11. Nurata, (now Navoiy Region, Uzbekistan)
12. Panjikent, (now Sughd province, Tajikistan)
13. Rushan, (now Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous region, Tajikistan)
14. Samarkand, (now Samarqand Region, Uzbekistan — part of Russia since 1868
15. Shahrisabz, (c 1870, now Kashkadarya Region, Uzbekistan)
16. Urgut, (now Samarqand Region, Uzbekistan)
17. Falgar, (now Sughd province, Tajikistan)

Amirs/Emirs of Bukhara (1785–1920)[]

• Pink Rows Signifies progenitor chiefs serving as Tutors (Ataliqs) & Viziers to the Khans of Bukhara.
  • Green Rows Signifies chiefs who took over reign of government from the and placed puppet Khans.

See also[]

• Timeline of the Uzbeks

References[]

Bibliography[]

Literature[]

• Malikov A., The Russian conquest of the Bukharan Emirate: military and diplomatic aspects in Central Asian Survey, Volume 33, issue 2, 2014, p. 180-198

External links[]

• Media related to Emirate of Bukhara at Wikimedia Commons