Khanate of Kokand

Khanate of Kokand خان‌نشین خوقند Khānnishīn-i-Khoqand خوقند خانليغى Khoqand Khanlığı
1709–1876
Flag of Kokand
The Khanate of Kokand in the year 1830
Status	Khanate
Capital	Koktonliq Ata (1709–1740) Kokand (1740–1876)
Common languages	Persian (official, court, administration, historiography)[a][b][c][1] Chagatai Turkic (secondary language, literature)[1][2]
Religion	Sunni Islam
Demonym(s)	Khoqandi
Government	Monarchy
Khan
• 1709–1722	Shahrukh Khan
• 1876	Nasruddin Khan
History
• Established	1709
• Disestablished	1876
Preceded by Succeeded by Khanate of Bukhara Fergana Oblast
Today part of	Uzbekistan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Kazakhstan

The Khanate of Kokand^[d] was an early modern, culturally Persianate state in the Fergana Valley of Central Asia, ruled by the Ming tribe of Uzbeks. Its territory is today divided between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan.

The Khanate of Kokand was ruled by the Shahrukhid dynasty, who belonged to the Ming tribe of Uzbeks. During this period, the term "Uzbek" did not have the same meaning as today. It specifically referred to the descendants of the several hundred thousand Turkic people led by Muhammad Shaybani at the start of the 16th century, who moved from the Qipchaq steppe to Central Asia.^[3] During the early 18th-century, the authority of the Khanate of Bukhara over the Fergana Valley was weakening. Meanwhile, the authority of the Sufi Khojas was increasing, and invasions were carried out by nomadic Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, and Oirats (including their Kalmyk subgroup).^[1] Throughout the 18th century, the rulers of the Kokand Khanate used the title of biy, a local version of the Turkic title beg.^[4]

In 1709, the leader of the Ming tribe, Shahrukh Biy (r. 1709–1722), established the Koktonliq Ata fortress near Kokand, becoming its ruler and thus starting the Khanate of Kokand. In the 1720s and 1730s, the Fergana Valley was largely unaffected by the violent nomadic invasions of the Samarkand and Bukhara oases, and many refugees from the destroyed adjacent regions moved to Kokand. Shahrukh Biy's eldest son and successor Abd al-Rahim Biy briefly occupied Khujand, Urateppe, and the remnants of Samarkand during this period of instability. He also made an alliance with the Uzbek Keneges tribe, who ruled Shahrisabz.^[1] He did this by marrying Oychuchuk Oyim, the daughter of Ibrahim Biy Keneges.^[5]

The Khanate of Kokand was still in its formative stages during this period, and local political powers in the valley frequently caused it to become unstable even though it had gained some success in warfare. Samarkand was lost after six months, although Kokand was able to retain Khojand for the most part. For the following 140 years, Urateppe would be the focal point of almost constant fighting between Kokand and the Emirate of Bukhara. In 1734, Abd al-Rahim was murdered in Khojand, after a period of suffering from severe mental disorder and refusing to step down from power. He was succeeded by his brother Abd al-Karim Biy (r. 1734–1751), who married his widow Oychuchuk Oyim, even while she was carrying Abd al-Rahim's daughter.^[6]

In 1740, Abd al-Karim Biy had the Kokand fortress constructed at the ruins of the old fortress Eski Orda. The place became the new capital, and swiftly expanded into a sizable city.^[6] During this period, the population of the Fergana Valley grew, and urbanization increased significantly. There were four different groups of people who came to Kokand; the Samarkandi, Kashgari, Chankati, and Kuhistani. Although the Iranian ruler Nader Shah (r. 1736–1747) made military expeditions across the Amu Darya during this period (in 1737 and 1740), Kokand was not directly attacked. Nevertheless, the occupation of surrounding regions by Iranian forces affected Kokand's future.^[7]

In 1745, the Jungar Mongols invaded the Fergana Valley, laying siege to Kokand.^[8] The Yuz Uzbeks of Urateppe, probably wanting to prevent the Mongols from attacking them, helped Kokand end the siege against the Jungars. Abd al-Karim Biy was eventually forced to make peace with the Jungars, persuading them to leave the Fergana Valley by giving them many riches and handing over his eldest son, Baba Biy, as a hostage.^[9] After Abd al-Karim Biy's death in 1751, his other son Irdana Biy (r. 1751–1752, 1753–1769) succeeded him.^[10] He was ousted from power in 1752, when the Jungars forced Baba Biy on the Kokand throne.^[1] The Kokandis, considering him a Jungar puppet, executed him in the town of Besh Ariq the following year and reinstated Irdana Biy.^[10]

Among his various accomplishments, Irdana Biy stands out for entering into relations with the Qing emperor Qianlong (r. 1735–1796) after the latter had extended his authority westward into Altishahr, thus becoming the new neighbor of Kokand.^[11] A Qing colonial presence in the Fergana Valley appears to have been suggested by Qing records when referring to its official relationship with Kokand. However, more recent evaluations have shown that their relationship was highly unclear.^[12] Irdana Biy's reign was generally successful. Despite losing severely to the Yuz Uzbeks, he also conquered several vilayats and temporarily took control of Tashkent in 1765 before Ablay Khan retook it.^[13] By the time he died from ilness in 1769, he had five daughters but no son to succeed him, and he was thus succeeded by his cousin Sulayman Biy, a grandson of Shahrukh Biy.^[14] However, he was considered suited to rule, which lead to his murder three months after. He was succeeded by Abd al-Karim Biy's grandson Narbuta Biy (r. 1770–1799), whose succession was supported by the Uzbek nobility.^[14]

Narbuta Bey's son Alim was both ruthless and efficient. He created an army of Ghalcha highlanders, and conquered the western half of the Fergana Valley, including Khujand and Tashkent. He was assassinated by his brother Umar in 1811. Umar's son, Mohammed Ali (Madali Khan), ascended to the throne in 1822 at the age of 12. During his reign, the Khanate of Kokand reached its greatest territorial extent. The Kokand Khanate also housed the Khojas of Kashgar like Jahangir Khoja. In 1841, the British officer Captain Arthur Conolly failed to persuade the various khanates to put aside their differences, in an attempt to counter the growing penetration of the Russian Empire into the area. In November 1841, Captain Conolly left Kokand for Bukhara in an ill-fated attempt to rescue fellow officer Colonel Charles Stoddart, and both were executed on 24 June 1842 by the order of Emir Nasrullah Khan of Bukhara.^[15][16]

Following this, Madali Khan, who had received Conolly in Kokand, and who had also sought an alliance with Russia, lost the trust of Nasrullah. The Emir, encouraged by the conspiratorial efforts of several influential figures in Kokand (including the commander in chief of its army), invaded the Khanate in 1842. Shortly thereafter he executed Madali Khan, his brother, and Omar Khan's widow, the famed poet Nodira. Madali Khan's cousin, Shir Ali, was installed as the Khan of Kokand in June 1842.^[17] Over the next two decades, the khanate was weakened by a bitter civil war, which was further exacerbated by Bukharan and Russian incursions. During this period, the Kyrgyz tribes also broke away, forming the Kara-Kyrgyz Khanate under the leadership of Ormon Khan. Shir Ali's son, Khudayar Khan, ruled from 1844 to 1858, from 1862 to 1863, and from 1865 to 1875. In the meantime, Russia was continuing its advance; on 29 June 1865 Tashkent was taken by the Russian troops of General Chernyayev; the loss of Khujand followed in 1867.^[18]

Shortly before the fall of Tashkent, Kokand’s best-known son, Yakub Beg, former lord of Tashkent, was sent by the then Khan of Kokand, Alimqul, to Kashgar, where the Hui Muslims were in revolt against the Chinese. When Alimqul was killed in 1865 during the battle with Russia for Tashkent, many Kokandian soldiers fled to join Yaqub Beg, helping him establish his dominion (known as Yettishar) throughout the Tarim Basin, which lasted until 1877, when Qing reconquered the region.^[16]

The now powerless Khudayar Khan spent his energies improving his lavish palace. Western visitors were impressed by the city of 80,000 people, which contained some 600 mosques and 15 madrasahs. Insurrections against Russian rule and Khudayar’s oppressive taxes forced him into exile in 1875. He was succeeded by his son, Nasruddin Khan, whose anti-Russian stance provoked the annexation of Kokand^[19] by generals Konstantin von Kaufman and Mikhail Skobelev. The Khanate of Kokand was declared abolished, and incorporated into the Fergana Oblast of Russian Turkestan.^[20]

In the 1830s, more than 5 million people lived in the Khanate of Kokand. Roughly 3 million of them were sedentary residents with Turkic and Iranian roots, while the remaining population of 2.0–2.5 million were nomadic tribes, spread across 400,000 households, consisting of various Turko-Mongolian groups such as Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Karakalpaks, Kalmyks, and Farghani Qipchaqs.^[1] Turkic-speakers, whatever their dialect, were referred to as Turks,^[21] while Persian-speakers were referred to as Tajiks. Some non-Persian Iranians from the mountains, such as the Pamiri Shughni people, also referred to themselves as Tajik, though others commonly called them by different names, such as "Ghalcha".^[22] The term "Sart" was commonly applied to sedentary Turks and Tajiks.^[23] The Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, being proudly devoted to their rural, nomadic ways of life and values, strongly disliked the highly Persianized speech of Turkic by the Sarts. Meanwhile, the Persian Tajik dialect had been adopting Turkic vocabulary and syntax, which caused it to shift away from standard Persian.^[24] Because of this diverse population and their role in political, cultural, and economic affairs, the Khanate of Kokand cannot be considered solely an "Uzbek state".^[25]

The idea of tying a region to a certain ethnic or language group was unfamiliar to the Muslims of Central Asia. At that time, while terms such as Uzbek, Tajik, and Kyrgyz were recognized, they did not adequately describe the overlapping and shifting identities of the population. For these people, allegiances based on tribal, clan, local, or family ties were more significant than those based solely on ethnicity, since they had long intermixed.^[26] Due to years of interaction between Turks and Tajiks, the urban population of Central Asian cities developed a unique mixed identity, making it difficult to determine which linguistic community an urban inhabitant belonged to, since bilingualism was widespread. This is demonstrated in the bayaz, private journals wrapped in leather from the 16th to 19th centuries, where verses in both languages often appeared together. Unlike grandiose manuscripts made for the elite, these notebooks reflect popular readership. The most well-known poet at this time seems to have been the Persian poet Jami, who was followed by two other poets who also wrote in the same language, Hafez and Amir Khusrow. However, the Turkic poets Ali-Shir Nava'i and Fuzuli are also commonly cited.^[24] In 1924, when the Soviet Union established national and ethnic boundaries in Central Asia, many of the locals of the present-day countries of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were unsure if they were Tajiks or Uzbeks.^[27]

Since the 8th and 9th centuries, the common culture of the locals was Persian and Muslim.^[26] Persian was the language of civilisation par excellence and the principal language of culture, serving as the official and court language of Khanate of Kokand.^[28] It was the primary language for recording Kokand's history, and it also dominated administrative records, with Chagatai Turkic appearing only occasionally. Chagatai served as the secondary language,^[1] and experienced substantial growth, especially in poetry.^[2]

In Kokand and other towns, the qadi-kalan was in command of the qadi (judges in Islamic jurisprudence), while the khwajah-kalan served as the primary religious counselor for the khan's court. Typically, the leaders of the provinces and towns were referred to as hakims or kushbegis. Kokand, Marghilan, Andijan, Namangan, and later Tashkent were the principal provinces of the khanate. Smaller districts known as bekliks were governed by begs or dadkhahs, who were obligated to make one or two annual visits to the khan's court. The Qipchaq and Uzbek tribal confederacies were typically associated with the provinces. For example, Marghilan and Osh were populated by Turks, Urateppe was ruled by the Iuz Uzbeks, and Namangan was reportedly under Qipchaq influence.^[29]

The Kokand khanate was similar to its predecessors in numerous aspects, including its internal organization. Civilian and military personnel held Perso-Islamic and Turco-Mongol titles, and Kokand served as the residence of the khan. Ming-bashi was the highest ranking post of a civil administrator, while the askar-bashi or parwanachi was the commander of the army.^[29] Tajiks continued to make up the majority of scribes.^[30]

Some rulers of Kokand modeled their administration on Timurid practices, supporting a wide spectrum of groups—from tribal leaders and the military to Sufi brotherhoods, orthodox religious scholars, poets, intellectuals, and artists. Kokand's history was marked by efforts at centralization, but these actions did not produce a state structure corresponding to the modern concept of a centralized state.^[31] The comparison is limited to this distinction, since early modern technological developments presented Kokand rulers with both new opportunities and complications, whereas the medieval Timurid Empire was founded on nomadic military might.^[32]

Between 20,000 and 30,000 Uzbek irregulars made up Kokand's army under Narbuta Bey; these troops, known as the Qaraqazan ("Black Scorpion"), relied mainly on plunder as their form of payment. Alim Khan realized that his ambitions to consolidate power would be thwarted by this structure, even though the army had demonstrated its efficacy in the Fergana valley. Alim Khan sought to make use of on the significant advancements in military technology that had occurred over the previous century. He understood that a standing army, properly armed with muskets, cannons, and gunpowder and trained to use them effectively, was essential for Kokand to reach its full potential.^[33]

Alim Khan abandoned the long-standing custom of Turks being prioritzed in the military, possibly inspired by the Ottoman practice of recruiting the Janissaries from Balkan Christian captives with no ties to Turkic tribes.^[34] He designed a military system that prioritized technology and loyalty over traditional tactics, and formed the Gala Bahadur, a unique musketeer force composed of 10,000–20,000 devoted "slave soldiers".^[33] 6,000 of these soldiers were Pamiris, referred to as "Ghalcha".^[34][35] Because they were Ismaili Shias, the Pamiris were branded heretics by neighboring Sunnis and considered legitimate targets for enslavement.^[36] They were forced to leave their homeland in the Pamir Mountains and move to the Fergana Valley, where they became completely reliant on Alim Khan and deeply devoted to him.^[37]

Most of the Kokand firearms came from the Indian subcontinent and were of poor quality, a mixed collection of basic cannons and old-style matchlock and flintlock muskets. Although the weapon technology of the Russians was not as advanced as Western Europe's in the first half of the 19th century, it still greatly outmatched Kokand's army.^[38]

In 1860, Russian geographer and general Mikhail Ivanovich Venyukov surveyed the Kokand fortifications along the Chu River, mentioning fortresses like Toqmaq and Pishpek, separated from the Kokand khanate by the Qara-Tau mountains. He considered the forts weak, with small, poorly armed garrisons, and criticized the combat ability and clothing of the Kokandi troops.^[39]

From the reign of Narbuta Biy and onwards, the Fergana Valley's irrigation systems was developed by the Shahrukhids. Kokand was responsible for the construction and upkeep of hundreds of miles of irrigation canals for about a century. Communities that stood to profit from these projects were generally responsible for providing the vast workforce needed to carry them out. Much of the valley’s wilderness, pasture, and brush was ultimately transformed into arable land, which could then support migrant farming communities or provide settlements for nomadic and semi-nomadic populations. The framework for the cotton economy in the region that would develop in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was primarily built by the Khanate of Kokand.^[40]

Numerous political and economic advantages resulted from these efforts. In order to maintain control over its subjects and boost agricultural income, Kokand utilized its power to grant or refuse access to irrigation canals. To help Kokand's agriculture sector grow, invitations were extended to Indian merchants and moneylenders, who had previously been involved in the Bukharan Khanate as dealers and financiers of agricultural production.^[40]

Sources:^[41][42][43]

• List of Sunni dynasties
• Emirate of Bukhara
• Khanate of Khiva
• Russian Turkestan
• Turkestan Autonomy (Kokand Autonomy)

40°31′43″N 70°56′33″E / 40.5286°N 70.9425°E / 40.5286; 70.9425