Khanate of Khiva | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1511–1920 | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
 The Khanate of Khiva (bordered in red),c. 1700. | |||||||||
| Status |
| ||||||||
| Capital | Konye-Urgench(1511—1598) Khiva(1599—1920) | ||||||||
| Common languages | |||||||||
| Religion | (official) | ||||||||
| Government | Absolute monarchy | ||||||||
| Khan | |||||||||
• 1511–1518 | Ilbars I [ru] (first) | ||||||||
• 1918–1920 | Sayid Abdullah (last) | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1511 | ||||||||
• Afsharid conquest | 1740 | ||||||||
| 1804 | |||||||||
| 12 August 1873 | |||||||||
| 2 February 1920 | |||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| 1911[7] | 67,521 km2 (26,070 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1902[5] | 700,000 | ||||||||
• 1908[6] | 800,000 | ||||||||
• 1911[7] | 550,000 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | |||||||||
TheKhanate of Khiva (Chagatay:خیوه خانلیگی,romanized: Khivâ Khânligi,Persian:خانات خیوه,romanized: Khânât-e Khiveh,Uzbek:Xiva xonligi,Хива хонлиги,Turkmen:Hywa hanlygy,Russian:Хивинское ханство,romanized: Khivinskoye khanstvo) was anUzbekmonarchy[8][9][page needed][10][11] that existed in the historical region ofKhorezm from 1511 to 1920, except for a period ofAfsharid occupation byNader Shah between 1740 and 1746. Centred in the irrigated plains of the lowerAmu Darya, south of theAral Sea, with the capital in the city ofKhiva. It covered present-day westernUzbekistan, southwesternKazakhstan and much ofTurkmenistan before theRussian conquest at the second half of the 19th century.
In 1873, theKhanate of Khiva was greatly reduced in size and became aRussianprotectorate. The other regional protectorate that lasted until the Revolution was theEmirate of Bukhara. Following theRussian Revolution of 1917, Khiva hada revolution too, and in 1920 the Khanate was replaced by theKhorezm People's Soviet Republic. In 1924, the area was formally incorporated into theSoviet Union and today it is largely a part ofKarakalpakstan,Xorazm Region inUzbekistan, andDaşoguz Region ofTurkmenistan.
The terms "Khanate of Khiva" and "Khivan Khanate", by which the polity is commonly known in Westernscholarship, are acalque that derive from theRussianexonym:Хивинское ханство,romanized: Khivinskoe khanstvo.[12][13] The term was first used by the Russians in the second half of the 17th century,[13] or in the 18th century.[12] Locals of the polity did not use this term, and instead referred to it as thevilayet Khwārazm ("country of Khwārazm").[12]
Prior to the 17th/18th centuries, the polity was often called "Urgench" (or "Iurgench" in Russian sources). This name was also sometimes used in Iran and Bukhara, with the designation "Urganji" often being used as the collective name for its inhabitants.[14]
After the capital was moved toKhiva,Khorezm came to be called the Khanate of Khiva (the state had always referred to itself as Khorezm, the Khanate of Khiva as a name was popularized byRussian historians in honor of its capital, Khiva).[15] Some time around 1600,[16] the Daryaliq or west branch of theOxus dried up causing the capital to be moved south toKhiva fromKonye-Urgench. Although based in the Oxus delta, the Khanate usually controlled most of what is nowTurkmenistan. The population consisted of agriculturalists along the river, the TurkicSarts, and nomads or semi-nomads away from the river. It is arbitrary to anachronistically project modern ethnic and national identifications, largely based onSoviet national delimitation policies, on pre-modern societies. The settled population was composed of aristocrats and peasants bound to the land. During the mid-1600s manyPersian slaves were captured byTurkmens and a fewRussian andTurkic slaves. Before and during this period, the settled area was increasingly infiltrated byUzbeks from the north,[citation needed] with their Turkic dialects evolving into what is now theUzbek language, while the original influence of Khorezmian Turkic Language decreased. The swampy area of the lower delta was increasingly populated byKarakalpaks and there wereKazakh nomads on the northern border. TheTurkmen nomads paid taxes to theKhan and were a large part of his army, but often revolted. Since the heart of the Khanate was surrounded by semi-desert the only easy military approach was along theOxus. This led to many wars with theKhanate of Bukhara further up the river (1538–40, 1593, 1655, 1656, 1662, 1684, 1689, 1694,1806, and others).
Before 1505,Khorezm was nominally dependent on theTimuridSultan Husayn Mirza Bayqara based inKhorasan. From 1488Muhammad Shaybani built a large but short-lived empire in southernCentral Asia, taking Khorezm in 1505. At nearly the same time, ShahIsmail I was building a powerfulShiite state inPersia. The two consequentlyclashed in 1510 nearMerv with Muhammad killed in the battle and Khorezm shortly occupied.[17] The Shah's religion provoked resistance and in 1511 his garrison was expelled and power passed to Ilbars, who founded the long-lived Arabshahid dynasty. The Arabshaids or Yadigarids wereShaybanids and are sometimes distinguished from theAbulkhayrids, another branch of the family. They are named after Yadigar Sultan who was proclaimed khan north of the Aral Sea about 1458 and from his great-grandfather Arabshah. Bregel places them north of the Aral Sea and lower Syr Darya circa 1400–1500.[18]
Around 1540 and 1593, the Khans were driven out by the Bukharans. In both cases they fled to Persia and soon returned. In 1558,Anthony Jenkinson visitedOld Urgench and was not impressed. Following Arap Muhammad (1602–23), who moved the capital toKhiva, there was a period of disorder, including an invasion by theKalmyks, who left laden with plunder. Disorder was ended byAbu al-Ghazi Bahadur (1643–1663) who twice defeated the Kalmyks and wrote a history of Central Asia. His son Anusha (1663–1685) presided over a period of urban growth until he was deposed and blinded. From 1695, Khiva was for some years a vassal of Bukhara which appointed two khans. Shir Gazi Khan (1714–1727), who was killed by slaves, is said to have been the last proper Arabshahid.[19][needs independent confirmation] Khan Ilbars (1728–40) was a Shibanid ruler, son ofShakhniyaz khan[20] who unwisely killed some Persian ambassadors. In a repeat of theShah Ismail story,Nadir Shah conquered Khiva, beheaded Ilbars and freed some 12,000–20,000 slaves. Next year the Persian garrison was slaughtered, but the rebellion was quickly suppressed. Persian pretensions ended withNadir's murder in 1747. After 1746, theQongrat tribe became increasingly powerful and appointed puppet khans. Their power was formalized as the Qongrat dynasty by Iltuzar Khan in 1804. Khiva flourished underMuhammad Rahim Khan (1806–1825) and Allah Quli Khan (1825–1840) and then declined. After Muhammad Amin Khan was killed trying to retakeSarakhs on March 19, 1855,[21] there was a longTurkmen rebellion (1855–1867). In the first two years of the rebellion, two or three Khans were killed by Turkmens.[citation needed]
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(August 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Russians made five attacks on Khiva. Around 1602, some freeUral Cossacks unsuccessfully raided Khorezm. In 1717,Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky attacked Khiva from theCaspian Sea. After he won the battle, Shir Ghazi Khan (1715–1728) made a treaty and suggested that the Russians disperse so that they could be better fed. However, after dispersing, they were all killed or enslaved, only a few surviving and escaping to tell the tale. In 1801, anarmy was sent toward Khiva but was recalled whenPaul I was murdered. In theKhivan campaign of 1839, Perovsky tried an attack fromOrenburg. The weather was unusually cold and he was forced to turn back after losing many men and most of his camels. Khiva was finally conquered by theKhivan campaign of 1873. The Russians installed Sayyid Muhammad Rahim Bahadur Khan II as thevassal ruler of the region.[22]
The conquest of Khiva was part of theRussian conquest of Turkestan. British attempts to deal with this were called theGreat Game. One of the reasons for the 1839 attack was the increasing number of Russian slaves held at Khiva. To remove this pretext Britain launched its own effort to free the slaves. Major Todd, the senior Britishpolitical officer stationed inHerat (inAfghanistan) dispatched CaptainJames Abbott, disguised as an Afghan, on 24 December 1839, for Khiva. Abbott arrived in late January 1840 and, although the Khan was suspicious of his identity, he succeeded in talking the Khan into allowing him to carry a letter for the Tsar regarding the slaves. He left on 7 March 1840, forFort Alexandrovsk, and was subsequently betrayed by his guide, robbed, then released when the bandits realized the origin and destination of his letter. His superiors inHerat, not knowing of his fate, sent another officer, LieutenantRichmond Shakespear, after him. Shakespear had more success than Abbott: he convinced the khan to free all Russian subjects under his control, and also to make the ownership of Russian slaves a crime punishable by death. The freed slaves and Shakespear arrived in Fort Alexandrovsk on 15 August 1840, and Russia lost its primary motive for the conquest of Khiva, for the time being.
A permanent Russian presence on theAral Sea began in 1848 with the building of Fort Aralsk at the mouth of theSyr Darya. The Empire's military superiority was such that Khiva and the other Central Asian principalities,Bukhara andKokand, had no chance of repelling the Russian advance, despite years of fighting.[23] In 1873, afterRussia conquered the great cities ofTashkent andSamarkand, GeneralVon Kaufman launched an attack on Khiva consisting of 13,000 infantry and cavalry. The city of Khiva fell on 10 June 1873 and, on 12 August 1873, a peace treaty was signed that established Khiva as a quasi-independent Russianprotectorate. The conquest ended theKhivan slave trade. After the conquest of what is nowTurkmenistan (1884) the protectorates of Khiva and Bukhara were surrounded by Russian territory.
Khiva's status as a Russian protectorate initially had little effect on its internal affairs.[24] The Russian military was not stationed in Khiva, and railroads were not built in the country, nor were Russian courts orcustoms buildings. While a few thousand Russians settled inUrgench, they did not receive separate services from the native population.[24] The Khanate of Khiva was less wealthy and of interest to Russia than theEmirate of Bukhara which had also been made a protectorate during the Russian conquest. As such it drew much less criticism, and played less of a part in the national politics of the Russian Empire.[25] Despite the relative non-intervention of Russia, especially in military matters, the Khanate of Khiva was still beholden to the state. Per the treaty, the Khanate was obligated to pay up to 200,000Rubles inwar indemnities every year, a debt only paid off in 1900 due to the Khanate falling behind on payments.[26] The Khanate was also pressured by Russia to create irrigation projects that would benefit them, which stoked conflict between Khiva and the Turkmens.[27]
In 1910, Muhammad Rahim Khan II died, and was succeeded by his sonIsfandiyar Khan.[26] During this time, critiques were being raised of the poor state of infrastructure, justice, and critically cotton production. To this end, infringing on the autonomy of Khiva to increase production and better the country was seen as justified. Upon Isfandiyar's accession to the throne in 1911, he was pressured by Russia to introduce several reforms, including the creation of new financial systems, infrastructure modernizations, and the establishment of hospitals and elementary schools.[28] Isfandiyar primarily left governance up the ministers under the liberalSeyid Islam-khodja, who supported these reforms and attempted to implement them. However, they received significant opposition from Yomut Turkmens and few were actually put into effect.[28]
The financial reforms greatly increased the taxes places on Turkmens, inflaming the existing dispute over irrigation. After an influential Turkmen was assassinated by Khivan officials in 1912, a full revolt broke out.[29][30] Islam-khodja proposed Khiva compromise with the Turkmens, but was sidelined by war ministerSheikh Nazar-beg, who convinced Isfandiyar to let him to lead apunitive expedition.[29] The Turkmen forces were strongly fortified, and fought off the Khivan expedition until the arrival of RussianCossacks convinced them to surrender.[31] Islam-khodja led the peace talks, ending the tax but imposing a fine, and taking the leaders as hostages. As a result, Isfandiyar assassinated Islam-khodja soon after. Russia strongly opposed the leniency of the peace terms.[32]
AfterWorld War I began, thecommandant of the Syr-Darya military district and several other Russian military leaders extorted over 250,000 rubles from Isfandiyar. While the money purportedly went to the war effort, a large majority was pocketed by the leaders. During this time,Fyodor Martson [ru] was appointed acting governor-general of Turkestan. While he took bribes from Isfandiyar, he would continually favored Turkmens in political disputes. Isfandiyar raised taxes to pay for the expenses, once again flaming conflicts with the Turkmens.[32]
After the 1917Bolshevik seizure of power in theOctober Revolution, anti-monarchists andTurkmen tribesmen joined forces with the Bolsheviks at the end of 1919 to depose the khan. By early February 1920, the Khivan army underJunaid Khan was completely defeated.[34] On 2 February 1920, Khiva's lastKungrad khan,Sayid Abdullah, abdicated and a short-livedKhorezm People's Soviet Republic (later theKhorezm SSR) was created out of the territory of the old Khanate of Khiva, before it was finally incorporated into theSoviet Union in 1924, with the former khanate divided between the newTurkmen SSR andUzbek SSR. Following the collapse of theSoviet Union in 1991, these becameTurkmenistan andUzbekistan respectively. Today, the area that was the khanate has a mixed population ofUzbeks,Karakalpaks,Turkmens, andKazakhs.
The economy of the Khivan Khanate rested on a combination of irrigated agriculture, pastoralism, and long‑distance trade, each reinforcing the other and sustaining the khanate’s position in Central Asia. Along the fertile banks of the Amu Darya, fields of wheat, barley, rice, melons, and cotton were cultivated, while orchards produced fruits that supplied both local markets and distant caravans. These harvests depended on an elaborate network of irrigation canals, some of which dated back to earlier Khorezmian states but were repaired and expanded under successive khans, ensuring that the desert margins could be transformed into productive farmland.
Beyond the irrigated zones, Turkmen and Karakalpak groups maintained herds of sheep, horses, and camels on the steppe margins, providing wool, hides, and transport animals that were essential to both the economy and the military.
Khiva’s location on the caravan routes linking Central Asia, Persia, and Russia gave it a commercial importance out of proportion to its size. Merchants brought silk, cotton, carpets, and agricultural produce to exchange for Russian manufactured goods, Persian textiles, and Indian spices, and the khans profited by levying taxes on caravans, agricultural output, and artisan workshops. These revenues not only supported the court and the military but also reinforced Khiva’s role as a trading center whose prosperity was tied to both the steppe and the settled lands of Central Asia.[35][page needed][9][page needed]
Slavery was widespread in Central Asia,[36] andKhiva was a singificant part of the regional slave trade.[37] Slaves were captured inraids, taken prisoner during battles, or were sold by their parents during famines, and then transported to Khivan markets.[37] Slaves played a diverse role in Khiva's economy, and served in a wide range of occupations.[38] They were employed based on their talents, and were not restricted to any one task.[39] They were a major section of agricultural labor, both working fields and processing grains.[40] They were also employed in supportive roles to the army, education, entertainment, and accounting. The slave trade was also a source of revenue for the Khivan government, as the sale of slaves, plunder during slave raids, and a slavepurchasing their freedom were all taxed.[41] The slave trade ended with the Russian conquest of Khiva. After capturing the city, Konstantin von Kaufmann forced Muhammad Rahim Khan II to release anedictemancipating all slaves within the country, followed by a provision in the treaty between Russia and Khiva banning the slave trade.[42] However, other systems ofcorvee labor were not abolished, and may have continued after the end of slavery.[43]
Khiva’s culture reflected a synthesis of Turkic, Persian, and Islamic traditions, with Chagatai/Uzbek widely used in administration and literature alongside Persian in scholarship and poetry. Religious life was anchored in Sunni Islam (Hanafi jurisprudence), supported by mosques, madrasas, and endowed institutions that structured education and public piety.
Manuscript production and court historiography were notable: Abu al‑Ghazi Bahadur Khan authored the Shajare‑i Turk and Shajare‑i Tarākime in Chagatai, while later Khivan historians such as Munis and Agahi composed Firdaus‑ul‑Iqbal, documenting rulers, campaigns, and administration. Khiva’s court actively translated and adapted Persianate works into Turkic, a deliberate program to reshape court culture and broaden access to literature in the local language.
Urban crafts and decorative arts flourished in the walled city of Itchan Kala, where palaces, mosques, and minarets featured glazed tilework, woodcarving, and geometric ornament, forming a distinctive architectural profile that remains visible today. Textile production (especially cotton and silk), calligraphy, and miniature painting were sustained by elite patronage and artisan guilds, linking cultural expression to the khanate’s trading economy.
Oral traditions and steppe heritage coexisted with urban scholarship: Turkic epic storytelling persisted among Turkmen and other frontier groups, while court poets wrote panegyrics in Uzbek and Persian, creating a bilingual literary milieu that bridged nomadic and sedentary identities. Social stratification aligned with this cultural blend, with an Uzbek ruling elite, Persian‑speaking urban artisans and merchants, and Turkmen and Karakalpak communities maintaining semi‑nomadic lifeways on the khanate’s margins.[44][45][46][47][page needed]
The first significant settlement of Europeans in the Khanate was a group ofMennonites who migrated to Khiva in 1882. The German-speaking Mennonites had come from theVolga region and theMolotschna colony under the leadership ofClaas Epp Jr. The Mennonites played an important role in modernizing the Khanate in the decades prior to theOctober Revolution by introducing photography, resulting in the development ofUzbek photography and filmmaking, more efficient methods for cotton harvesting, electrical generators, and other technological innovations.[48][page needed]
The Khivan Khanate’s military rested on tribal cavalry drawn primarily from Uzbek lineages, reinforced by Turkmen auxiliaries and irregular levies raised through obligations tied to land grants and patronage. Command was exercised through tribal leaders and court officials who mobilized mounted units for frontier defense, punitive raids, and campaigns aimed at securing caravan routes, irrigation assets, and tributary territories. Administrative documents and chronicle materials indicate that land and privilege assignments (including forms analogous to suyurghal and iqta) were used to bind service and loyalty, integrating military obligations into the khanate’s political economy.Cavalry units were equipped with lances, sabers, and bows, later supplemented by firearms obtained through trade and diplomacy. Fortified sites anchored the defensive system: Khiva’s mud‑brick walls and outlying forts guarded canals, crossings, and steppe corridors, forming a layered architecture of control over population movement and commerce. Elite patronage extended to logisticians and scribes who recorded levies, stipends, and campaign outcomes, preserving administrative traces of mobilization and supply across the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries.
Operationally, Khivan rulers directed expeditions against rival steppe groups and neighboring polities to secure captives, livestock, and trade advantages; these actions were closely tied to market structures and border politics. Under rulers such as Muhammad Rakhimkhan I, the court coordinated military and fiscal reforms, leveraging tribal coalitions for campaigns while navigating the constraints of inter‑khanate diplomacy and Russian pressure. The military system’s reliance on mounted tribal formations proved resilient for local aims but increasingly mismatched against the artillery, engineering, and logistical superiority of imperial forces pressing into Central Asia.
In the nineteenth century, Russian operations exposed Khiva’s comparative weaknesses in firearms standardization, artillery, and operational integration. After repeated confrontations and punitive expeditions, the fall of Khiva in 1873 marked the khanate’s transition into a protectorate, with military prerogatives curtailed and border security subordinated to imperial oversight. The archival footprint of these changes survives unevenly, and recent scholarship cautions that the so‑called “Archive of the Khans of Khiva” does not reflect a centralized record‑keeping regime; rather, documentation appears dispersed, episodic, and assembled retrospectively, complicating efforts to reconstruct the military apparatus in full detail.[49][page needed][50]
 | Some of this section'slisted sourcesmay not bereliable. Please help improve this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged and removed.(August 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Data on the Khivan Khans is sparse and sometimes contradictory, especially for the minor khans. Names and dates from Bregel/Muniz[51] which probably gives the best modern scholarship. Short biographies are fromHoworth's 1880 book which is old but has biographies of most of the khans.[52]
.png)
.svg)
According to Howorth, the ancestors of Ilbars were Arabshah, Haji Tuli, Timur Sheikh, Yadigar Khan, Bereke, Ilbars. Arabshah's brother was Ibrahim Oghlan, ancestor of the khans of Bukhara.
._Qutlugh_Murad._AH_1271-1272_AD_1856._AV_Half_Tilla_(17mm%2c_2.22_g%2c_5h)._Khwarezm_mint._Dated_AH_1271_(AD_1856).jpg)
_(14784746615).jpg)
They all had Persian as both their court language and the language of culture and all the successive sovereigns in each of the three instances were of Turkish origin: the Safavid followed by the Qajars in Iran; the Moghuls in India... in the various emirates Transoxiania (Bukhara Khiva and Kokand).
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
