The city of kyrym in the Crimean Khanate. Socio-political structure of the Crimean Khanate - stories on the history of the Crimea. The last khans and the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire

SHUBINSKY P.

ESSAYS OF BUKHARA

Origin and genealogy of the Mangyt dynasty. - Emir Mozafar Eddin and his family. - The position of the Bukhara Khanate before the installation of Seid-Abdul-Akhat on its throne. - He becomes an emir. - Ceremony of accession to the throne. - The first reforms and transformations. - Childhood and adolescence of the Emir. - His life in Kermin and the management of the bekdom. - Appearance of Seid-Abdul-Akhat Khan. - His character, habits, way of life. - Family and harem. - The state of the emir. - The Supreme Administration of the Khanate. - Representatives of the clergy and the army. - Court staff. - Significance for Bukhara of the Russian political agency. - External relations of the emir.

Emir Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-khan - the seventh sovereign of the Mangyt dynasty ( Shah-Murad (1784-1802) was the first ruler of Bukhara from the Mangyt house. He was succeeded by: Mir-Gayder (1802-1825); Hussain Khan and Omar Khan (1825-1826); Nasr-Ullah (1826-1860); Mozafar Eddin (1860-1885)), established on the throne of Bukhara after the death of Abul-Gazi, the last emir from the house of Ashtarkhanids, in 1795-1796 ( Vambery: "History of Bukhara", translated by Pavlovsky, St. Petersburg, 1873, vol. II), p. 120. Mirza Shamsi Bukhari: "Zapiski", Kazan, 1861, project I, pp. 41-42).

The Uzbek clan Mangyt and, in particular, its branch Tuk have long approached the supreme power and actually ruled the country since the beginning of the 18th century ( The literal meaning of the word "Uzbek" is independent. Vambery: "History of Bukhara", vol. II, pr. II, p. 2. The word "mangyt" means dense forest. Abul Ghazi: “Genealogy of the Turkic tribes”, translated by Sablukov, Kazan, 1854, p. 27. The word “tuk” is a detachment of soldiers of 100 people. Marco Polo, translated by Shemyakin, Moscow, 1863, p. 184). In 1784, an energetic and talented representative of this kind, Shah Murad, removed the weak and incapable Abul-Gazi from power and became the supreme ruler of the khanate. His son, Mir-Gayder, upon the death of Shah-Murad, which followed in 1802, takes the title of emir. The emir Seid-Abdul-Akhat-khan, who now reigns in Bukhara, is the great-grandson of this sovereign.

The Mangyt dynasty traces its lineage in the male line from Uzbek, the ninth sovereign from the house of Djuji, in the female line - from Genghis Khan.

The Mangyts were brought to the banks of the Oxus by Genghis Khan from the northeast of Mongolia at the beginning of the 13th century and, along with the Kungrats, were considered the bravest and most famous clan of all the Uzbek tribes that roamed within the Khiva Khanate. In the 16th century, Sheibani-Mohammed Khan called some of them to Bukhara, where he provided them with the Karshi steppes ( Vambery: "History of Bukhara", vol. II, p. 116). At present, they roam partly in the vicinity of this city, partly in the Bukhara district ( Khanykov: "Description of the Bukhara Khanate", St. Petersburg, 1843, pp. 58-66). The Mangyt tribes remaining in Khiva inhabit the upper reaches of the left bank of the Syr Darya and are subject to the Khiva Khan.

Bukhara Uzbeks originally constituted a military class. Their political influence grew as the internal structure of the khanate weakened under the scepter of the weak and mediocre Ashtarkhanids. In the second half of the 18th century, it reaches its climax, and Shah Murad already freely seizes the ancient throne of Transoxania; marrying, then, the granddaughter of Emir Abul Feiz Khan ( Abul-Feiz-khan reigned in Bukhara from 1705-1747. He was killed by his rebellious minister Rahim-Bi, who seized the supreme power and exterminated all the direct descendants of Abul-Feiz. Mirza-Shamsi-Bukhari, Ave. VIII, pp. 55-58. The last emir from the house of Ashtarkhanids, Abul-Ghazi, was the cousin of Abul-Feiz), Shems Banu Aim ( Malcolm and Izetullah consider her the daughter of Abul-Feiz, the former giving her the name Elduz-Begum. We give priority to the information about her in the article. Grebenkina: “Genealogy of the Mangyt dynasty” (“Yearbook of the Turkestan Territory”, issue III, pp. 338-339)), the last representative of the Ashtarkhanid family, he legitimizes the supreme power he seized and the rights of the dynasty he founded to the throne of Chinggisids ( Ashtarkhanids were direct descendants of Genghis Khan. They, at the same time, descended from the Astrakhan khans expelled from Russia. Vambery: "History of Bukhara", vol. II, pp. 67-69).

Emir Seyid-Abdul-Akhat Khan was born in Kermin in 1857. He was the fourth son of Emir Seyid-Mozafar-Eddin, who died in Bukhara on October 31, 1885. The mother of the emir, a Persian, from a slave named Shamshat, was distinguished by a rare mind and was the beloved wife of Mozafar Eddin. She died in Kermin in 1879, living with her son, whom she had hardly left since his appointment as bek in this city. In addition to her son, she had one daughter, Saliha, whom Mozafar-Eddin married his nephew Amand-Ulla.

It is known that the late Mozafar Eddin was a great admirer female beauty. Using the dual rights of a Muslim and a Central Asian ruler, he had, in addition to four legal wives, an extensive harem, consisting of 150-200 women. His eldest wife was the daughter of the Shakhrisyabz bek, Daniar-atalyk, but he had no children from her. From other wives he had the following offspring ( Information about the family of Emir Mozafar Eddin was necessarily reported to us by the cousin of the Emir of Bukhara, Mir-Seid-Akhat Khan, who lives in Tashkent.): Katy-Tyura-Abdul-Malik, born from one of the four legal wives of the Emir, a Persian, named Khasa-Zumrat, born in 1848; Seyid-Nur-Eddin, former Bek of Chardzhui, was born in 1851, died in the late seventies; Seyid-Abdul-Mummin, who was born in 1852, during the lifetime of Mozafar-Eddin, was appointed as the Bey of Gissor; Seid-Abdul-Akhat, dissatisfied with his management of the bekdom, transferred him in 1886, first to Baysun, and then recalled him to Bukhara, where he now lives with his family; Seid-Abdul-Fettah, born in 1857, died shortly after his trip to St. Petersburg to present to the late Sovereign Emperor, in 1869; Seyid-Abdul-Sammad, bek of Chirakchi; Seid-Sadiq, was appointed Bek of Chardzhuy by the late Emir after the death of Nur-Eddin; upon accession to the throne, Abdul-Akhata was recalled to Bukhara, where he now lives; Seyid-Akram, bek of the Guzars; Seid-Mir-Mansur, born in 1863, lieutenant of the 3rd Sumy Dragoon Regiment, serves and lives in Moscow. In addition, the late emir had several sons who died during his lifetime and left no historical memories of themselves among the Bukhara people.

The order of succession to the throne is not precisely established by Bukhara laws. Each ruler of Bukhara can bequeath his throne to the “worthiest”, but usually the emirs passed it on to their eldest sons, who, even during their lifetime, bear the title of katy-tyur, equivalent to the title of heir.

The circumstances that caused the expulsion of Abdul-Malik from the country of Katy-Tyur are well known, and we will not reproduce them in full detail, reminding the reader only that this Bukhara prince sought to seize the throne during the life of his father. In 1868, when the troops of Mozafar Eddin were finally defeated by the Russians in the battle of Zera Bulak and the whole country rose up against him, Abdul-Malik, incited by the fanatical clergy and the British, who promised him help with weapons and money, openly becomes the head of the rebellion and with the troops remaining in Bukhara, he opposes his father, who at this critical moment turns for help to his recent enemies, the Russians, with whom he has just made peace. This help was immediately given to him, and General Abramov, having dispersed the troops of the Katy-Tyur in skirmishes at Jama and Karshi, forced him to flee first to Khiva, and then to India, where he still lives in Peshaver, retired by the British government ( For some reason, Vamberi considers him dead (History of Bukhara, vol. II, p. 195). Meanwhile, Abdul-Malik, according to official and private information, is found in full health, living luxuriously in Peshaver, on a large subsidy given to him by the British).

The offended and angry father forever deprives Abdul-Malik of the rights to the throne of Bukhara and proposes to appoint his third son, Bek of the Chardjui Nur-Eddin, as heir, but this smart and talented prince soon dies. The same fate befell the young Abdul-Fettah, whom Mozafar-Eddin intended as his heirs, sending him to Russia in 1869 to be presented to Emperor Alexander II, whom he intended to ask for the approval of Abdul-Fettah in the rank of katy-tyur during his lifetime. ("Russian Invalid", 1869, Nos. 116, 125 and 128).

Having lost these two sons, the emir transfers the rights to the throne of Bukhara to his fifth and beloved son, Seid-Abdul-Akhat-khan. In 1883, he sent him to Russia to be presented to Emperor Alexander Alexandrovich and to attend the sacred coronation. At the same time, the emir asks Russia to approve Seyid-Abdul-Akhat as the heir to the Bukhara Khanate. The sovereign emperor was pleased to fulfill the request of the emir, and the young prince takes away to Bukhara strong guarantees of his future power, leaving everywhere in Russian society nice memories created by his simplicity, intelligence and beautiful appearance ("New Time", 1883, No. 2637; "Government Bulletin", 1887 No. 89, etc.).

In the summer of 1885, Mozafar-Eddin was in Karshi, where he fell ill with epidemic paint fever. In the autumn of the same year, he moved to Bukhara, where the disease intensified, and on October 31, at dawn, he died at the age of 62. Mozafar-Eddin spent the last days of his life in his favorite country palace, Shire-Badan. But the emir's close associates, and at their head the 72-year-old kush-begi Mulla-Mehmed-Biy, foreseeing the imminent death of their ruler and fearing popular unrest, transported him at night to the palace, to the citadel of Bukhara, where he actually died.

In the same forms, the death of Mozafar-Eddin was hidden from the people until the arrival of Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-khan from Kermine, for whom one of the mirahurs most devoted to him was immediately sent.

Before the arrival of the new emir, no one entered the room where the body of the late Mozafar-Eddin was placed, except for Kush-begi and his son Mukhamet-Sherif-Divan-begi, who from time to time gave various orders on behalf of the emir, as if still alive .

Having received the news of his father's death, Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-khan immediately left Kermine, accompanied by 1,000 nukers, and on the morning of November 1, he was already in the village of Bogaeddin, the resting place of the famous Central Asian saint Bogaeddin-Khoja, located at a distance from Bukhara. distance of 8 versts. Having made a prayer at the grave of the saint and distributed alms, he, accompanied by a huge retinue of Bukhara dignitaries, an army that had come to meet him, with a huge confluence of people, solemnly entered Bukhara.

On the same day, at 11 o'clock in the morning, the body of Mozafar-Eddin was interred in the Khazret-Iml cemetery, where the entire clan of the Mangyt dynasty was buried.

On November 4, Seid-Abdul-Akhat ascended to the throne of Bukhara. This ceremony, which at the same time combines the crowning, consists in the fact that in the throne room of the ancient Bukhara castle on the Registan, at the meeting of all courtiers, military, spiritual and civil officials located in Bukhara, the highest representatives of the Uzbek clans, government authorities and the clergy solemnly seat the new emir on a white felt mat spread at the foot of the throne, and, raising the felt, lower it, together with the emir, onto the throne, which is a large, smoothly polished, gray-bluish marble stone, with three steps leading to it, covered with seven veils of expensive Bukhara and Indian fabrics ( This ceremonial has been established since the time of Rahim-Bi, who forcibly seized power after the killing of Abul-Feiz. The former emirs of Bukhara performed their coronation in Samarkand, ascending the famous throne of Timur-kok-tash. Residents of Samarkand refused to let Rakhim-Bi into the city. In order to perform the coronation, he, on the advice of those close to him and as a well-born Uzbek himself, adopted a purely Uzbek product as a symbol of coronation, which is the most necessary item in their life - a felt mat, and to indicate the purity of his intentions, origin and wealth of the family, a white felt was chosen. The coronation ceremony was performed by the Uzbeks, similar to the one just described. Grebenkin: “Genealogy of the Mangyt dynasty” (“Yearbook of the Turkestan Territory”, issue III, p. 337). Mirza Shamsi Bukhari(“Apiski”, p. 2) says that Mir-Hayder, upon ascending the throne, laid a crown adorned with precious stones on his head, but this was not performed at the coronation of Seyid-Abdul-Akhat Khan).

Then greetings are pronounced, after which those present swear allegiance to the emir, kissing his hand in turn, which, as a sign of humility and eternal obedience, is applied to their forehead and eyes. The Khodja-Kalyan (head of the clergy) is the first to approach, the nakib (the next spiritual rank) is the second, the kush-begi is the third, the divan-begi is the fourth, etc. This rite of oath is called "dastbeygat".

After that, the emir retires to the inner chambers, and sugar is distributed to those present, and they go home. (“Government Bulletin”, 1887, No. 89).

The accession to the throne of the new emir was accompanied by a series of festivities organized for the people, and the usual distribution of gifts, consisting of expensive robes, horses, etc., to the emir's close associates, clergy, troops and officials.

Emir Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-khan ascended the throne of Bukhara with the broadest plans for reforms and transformations that he intended to introduce in the country of his ancestors. He was apparently still under the influence of the impressions he had taken from his trip to Russia at that time, and could not but realize that the state and social system of his fatherland was a complete anachronism among the European civilization that had embraced him from all sides.

The state of affairs in the khanate, at the time Seyid-Abdul-Akhat was installed on his throne, seemed really serious. The late emir Mozafar Eddin, despite his peculiar mind and rare insight, was a representative of the old, obsolete, Islamic-hierarchical regime, stubbornly defending the country from any kind of innovation in the spirit of the times. The spiritual life of the people was entirely controlled by the fanatical clergy, who also took over the upbringing and education of youth and the judiciary, solving all cases on the basis of the rulings of the Alkoran and Sharia. Carrying out any kind of reforms through legislation was extremely difficult, since any new law, even the most insignificant, was at odds with the sacred books of Islam, causing a heated protest from the clergy and the conservative party in solidarity with it.

Along with this, the embezzlement and extortion of the administration were brought to the highest degree. Only one of the officials who did not want to take from the people did not take. There was almost no actual control over the actions of the administration, and it could not be successfully applied in practice, since the emir would have to choose controlling persons from the same sepoys, closely united and animated by one common idea, which was a properly organized and created a historically stable system of bribery, extortion and theft.

Meanwhile, a number of wars waged during the first period of the reign of Mozafar Eddin significantly undermined the economic well-being of the country. The people of Bukhara became poorer every day, trade fell, and entire regions were empty, being abandoned by residents who emigrated to the borders of Russian Turkestan, to Kashgaria, Avganistan, or simply abandoned their lands, moving to cities where they were the first pioneers of the emerging national proletariat in the country .

Along with this, Bukhara became a stronghold for the emigration from Russian Turkestan of all harmful elements of society, in the form of a fanatical clergy and dervishness, who did not want to come to terms with the new order of things, as well as the remnants of the Bukhara and Kokand army and khan officials, for whom the new order did not leave a place . All this rabble, having cleansed Russian Turkestan, reached out to sacred Bukhara, which hospitably opened its gates to him, depressing at the same time the country with the maintenance of as many as thousands of unproductive and restless parasites.

The slave trade flourished in Bukhara, along with a system of all kinds of administrative and judicial abuses, arbitrariness, denunciations, torture and brutal executions.

The family of the late emir was at enmity with each other, waiting only for his death in order to start a whole series of intrigues and civil strife, which could only be prevented by the powerful influence of Russia, and the pearl of the Bukhara possessions, Shakhrizyabz, threatened with deposition, openly expressing a desire to better pass into Russian citizenship than to be subjected to ruinous and oppressive regime.

Crushed, robbed and turned into some kind of pack animal, the people murmured muffledly. Farming, industry and trade, which once brought colossal benefits, fell every day. Everyone was in a hurry to hide their wealth from the predatory eyes of the khan's officials, or moved to other countries, taking their acquired fortune with them. Only the clergy and the administration in solidarity with him triumphed everywhere, being quite sure that in the person of Emir Mozafar Eddin they had a powerful bulwark against the hateful innovations imposed by Russian civilization.

This was the state of affairs of the country when the 28-year-old Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-Khan ascended the throne.

Undoubtedly, the situation of the young emir, like the situation of the whole country, was extremely serious. Seyid-Abdul-Akhat could not help but realize that the powerful support of Russia was given to him by no means with a platonic purpose, and that, in pursuing his civilizing task in the Far East, the northern colossus would demand from him a whole series of broad reforms and transformations in favor of the people and streamlining economic and administrative situation of the country.

At a point diametrically opposed to these demands, stood the fanatical clergy and the conservative old Bukhara Uzbek party, striving to consolidate the existing order of things and even dreaming of restoring the khanate within its former borders.

Numerous relatives of the emir were almost without exception hostile to him, dissatisfied with his rise apart from his older brothers. The beks of Hissar and Chardzhuy secretly agitated the people, spreading sensational rumors, and the former Katy-Tyur Abdul-Malik was only waiting for an opportunity to invade the country and raise the banner of rebellion against his younger brother, whom he considered the thief of power.

For all that, the young emir with a firm hand takes up the helm of government and in a short time manages to restore relative order and calm in the country.

The first law that he issues upon his accession to the throne was the law on the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery forever in the Bukhara possessions.

Without a doubt, this law, which returned freedom and human rights to tens of thousands of slaves, mainly from Persians, was an extremely bold measure in relation to the privileged classes of the khanate, who saw it as an act of restricting their age-old rights sanctified by Islam and undermining economic well-being ( Slavery has existed in Transoxania since ancient times. It especially intensified from the beginning of the 17th century, when the slavery of the Shiites was officially sanctioned by the fatwa of Mullah Shemsetdin-Mohammed in Herat, during the reign of Sultan Hussein-Baikero, in 1611. ( Vambery: "Journey through Central Asia", St. Petersburg, 1865, p. 213; Veselovsky: "Russian slaves in the Central Asian khanates", Materials for describing the Khiva campaign of 1873, no. III, pp. 1-4)).

By this measure, Seyid-Abdul-Akhat created very important difficulties for himself, for a significant part of the Bukhara army and almost the entire staff of petty court officials and palace servants consisted of slaves. Having received their freedom, all these people hastened to return to their homeland, and unknown hired people had to be recruited in their place, the maintenance of which caused new significant costs.

The next reform of the emir was the reduction of the staff of the Bukhara army, which he brought to 13 thousand people ( The staff of the Bukhara army currently consists of 13 infantry battalions of 1,000 people each, 800 artillerymen with 155 guns, 2,000 irregular cavalry and one cavalry regiment of 400. The infantry is kept in a reduced composition, as a result of which the total figure of the army does not exceed 13,000 people.).

In 1886, Seyid-Abdul-Akhat issued an order to destroy zindans (underground bedbug prisons) throughout the Khanate.

After that, torture was abolished, and the use of the death penalty was limited to cases of extreme necessity.

In the autumn of 1886, at the request and petition of the emir, a Russian political agency was established in the city of Bukhara. Seid-Abdul-Akhat placed at the disposal of the agency one of the best state-owned buildings in the city of Bukhara, and at his insistence, all the maintenance of the agency house, servants and Cossack convoy before our mission moved to the newly built embassy house in 1891 was made from the khan's treasury. Apparently, the emir was extremely pleased with the settlement in his capital of a representative of the imperial government, which greatly facilitated relations between Bukhara and Russia on political, commercial and other matters. The entrance of our agent, Mr. Charykov, to the capital of the khanate was arranged with extreme splendor, and soon the best relations were established between him and the emir.

Seyid-Abdul-Akhat, highly appreciating the patronage extended to him by the emperor, repeatedly stated that he considered the sovereign father of the Russian people his second father, and Russia his second fatherland. These words became the slogan of his domestic and foreign policy towards Russia, apparently quite sincere and cordial.

Soon after ascending the throne, the emir issued a number of decrees with the aim of raising public morality. The use of opium, ours and kunar ( The use of these narcotic-hypnotic substances is very popular in Central Asia and especially in Bukhara. The action of opium is well known. As for ours and kunar, they produce a sensation equivalent to hashish. These harmful substances have found distribution in Central Asia since ancient times. Already in 1091, the famous Elder of the Mountain (Ghassan-ben-Ali), the founder of the Assassin dynasty in the mountains of Rudbara, Lebanon and Syria, used them as an auxiliary means to achieve his political goals. Subsequently, dervishism spread these substances throughout Turkestan. ( Marco Polo, pp. 97-100)) was strictly forbidden, as well as public bachelor dances, obscene pantomimes, and so on. The severity of the laws punishing the sale of wives, bribery, covetousness, and so on, was doubled. The emir tried with all his might to wean officials and other officials from exactions from the people and extortion, mercilessly replacing them from their posts and punishing the guilty.

In pursuit of this last task, he changed the system of zacquet collection, and in order to encourage trade, he significantly lowered the customs duties on the import and export of goods.

At the same time, the emir makes an attempt to emancipate a woman in his country, setting an example for this by organizing several holidays in his palace, to which the highest officers and officials of the capital were invited along with their wives. At the same time, he simplifies the shy court etiquette, trying to change it in relation to what he saw in St. Petersburg and Moscow during his trip to the coronation. Both of these measures, however, met with a heated protest from the clergy and the courtiers surrounding the emir, causing sensational rumors among the people, which forced Seyid-Abdul-Akhat to abandon further attempts in this direction.

At the present time, as we have heard, the emir is busy with the project of constructing a grandiose irrigation canal from the Amu Darya, with the aim of irrigating the barren steppes of the northwestern part of the khanate. These works, according to the estimates of the engineers who carried out the survey, will cost up to 6,000,000 rubles, but their benefits to the people will be colossal, since water is everything in Central Asia. The emir makes the discovery of these works dependent on his trip to St. Petersburg, which, according to rumors, he intends to undertake in a short time.

We are far from thinking of writing a laudatory panegyric on the activities of Seyid-Abdul-Akhat. The period of his reign as khanate is still so short that it is difficult to compile any kind of information about him. general characteristics. We leave this task to time, expressing only the hope that the young emir will not stop in his future activities at the first steps towards improving the economic, social and administrative system of the country entrusted to his care, vast and rich in gifts of nature.

But, along with this, we cannot fail to pay due justice to those good seeds that, under the given circumstances, have already been thrown by the hand of Seyid Abdul-Akhat Khan into the dead soil of the country.

The vast majority of our society is convinced that the Bukhara emirs, like all Central Asian rulers in general, are the personification of omnipotence in relation to the peoples subject to their power, that they only need to want everything to be done by their subjects immediately, unquestioningly, as if by a wave magic wand. In fact, this is far from the case. There is hardly any other constitution in the world, which would so hamper the legislative activity of sovereigns, as the constitution, which is the Koran and Sharia. Being free in life, death, property of individuals, in their foreign policy and in all private events, the Eastern rulers are sometimes completely powerless to change by legislative means the most insignificant condition of the social and state mechanism, the existence of which is conditioned by the Koran and Sharia. These two books constitute the whole essence of life, the whole code of Central Asian Islam. They exhaust the rules of public and private life, public education, the main features of the financial system, legal proceedings, the rules of ownership of property, in a word, the entire life of a Muslim, which actually consists of endless repetition, from generation to generation, from century to century, of thousand-year rules, bequeathed to him by the Arabian prophet. The history of the East presents us with numerous examples of the fall not only of individual rulers, but also of entire dynasties who dared to start an open struggle against the established Islamic-hierarchical regime.

The powerful clergy stands fully armed to protect the people's life from any innovations outside this legislative circle, and the power of any Muslim ruler is only as long and strong as long as it is in solidarity with this class and does not run counter to canonical Muslim law.

Apparently, we also adhere to this idea, having granted the autonomy of the people's education, the people's court in our Central Asian possessions to the native population, and creating legislation adapted to the Sharia and the folk customs arising from it.

Custom is another no less powerful engine of people's life in Central Asia, and especially in Bukhara. It is also almost as strong as the law. The people themselves stand guard over it. Undoubtedly, all this has outlived its time and does not fit in with the modern situation surrounding the Bukhara possessions. But the ignorant masses of the people are far from being aware of the real state of affairs, and the emir, despite his seeming unlimited power, not only has to reckon with all this in his activities as the ruler of the country, but also subordinates his personal life to the situation and the conditions that he commands. Koran, Sharia dictates and indicates folk custom.

Seid-Abdul-Akhat-khan was born in Kermin in 1857, when his late father Mozafar-Eddin ruled this bekdom as heir to the throne.

The emir spent his childhood and the first years of his youth at his father's court. He received the usual education that is given to Bukhara princes: in addition to reading and writing, they taught him Persian and Arabic, forced him to memorize the Koran and Sharia, introduced him to some samples of oriental literature, on which the course of study was completed. At the age of thirteen, his father had already married him to one of his nieces, who to this day is considered the eldest wife of Seyid-Abdul-Akhat. However, the prince's tutor, Hamet-Maxul, managed to instill in his pet an inclination for scientific pursuits. Emir is extremely fond of literature and especially poetry. He is considered a great connoisseur of oriental poets and, as they say, he writes poetry quite well himself. In Russian, he knows only a few words, but from newspapers and magazines they usually translate to him everything related to politics, news from the royal court, the Bukhara Khanate, and in particular himself.

At the age of 18, Mozafar-Eddin appointed him a bey in Kermin ( The city and district of Kermine are separated from Bukhara in 80 versts of the railway track. A few versts further on, the Nur-Atta mountains begin. This district has long been the lot of the Bukhara heirs), where the emir lived until the death of his father, away from affairs and politics, using only the rights of an ordinary bek. Governing the bekstvo, he managed to declare himself as a capable, active, just and kind ruler. The population loved him for his simplicity, piety, accessibility and friendly treatment. Living in Kermin, the emir led the simplest way of life: he usually got up at sunrise, did business all day, and in his free time he trained troops, read, or worked on palace or city buildings, sometimes not disdaining to take an ax and crowbar with his own hands in order to take a direct part in the construction. His favorite entertainment was trips to the neighboring Nur-Atta mountains, from where he usually returned at the head of a whole transport of carts loaded with stone for city buildings.

The predominant passion of the emir was the love of sports and horses. He was and is still considered one of the best riders in the khanate. Living in Kermin, he always took a direct part in all kok-buri ( Kok-buri, like baiga, consists of an equestrian game, during which the horsemen taking part in it at full gallop snatch a dead goat from each other's hands. The winner is the one who manages to ride away from his comrades and take away the remains of torn prey from the competition field.) arranged by Uzbeks in the vicinity of this city.

It is known with what ardor the Central Asians indulge in this favorite game of theirs, which sometimes drives them to complete frenzy and oblivion of everything around them. It comes very often to murders, but the custom, passing into law, does not allow the relatives of the murdered to demand retribution if the deceased found death in a kok-buri. Even the emirs themselves, taking part in this game, are not offended if someone pushes them, or even knocks them off the horse in the heat of battle.

Seyid-Abdul-Akhat was considered at one time one of the most dexterous and courageous lovers of kok-buri, but this did not save him from a dangerous fall from a horse, the consequences of which, as they say, he is still experiencing, as a result of which he does not allow himself more to take a direct part in the horse races, limiting themselves only to the role of an observer.

The home life of Abdul-Akhat, when he was a Bek in Kermin, was distinguished by modesty and simplicity. He did not drink wine at all, did not smoke and was content with the usual modest food. His harem consisted of only two of his legal wives.

The trip of the young prince to Petersburg and Moscow in 1883 made a deep impression on him.

The gracious treatment of him by the emperor and the august family deeply sunk into the soul of the young Uzbek, and the cultural life of Russian society inspired him with an ardent desire to transfer everything he saw to the soil of his native country.

Seid-Abdul-Akhat still remembers his stay in Russia as the best time of his life, and loves to talk about it at every opportunity.

All this made him immensely popular, and the people looked forward to the moment when the reins of government would pass from the aged Mozafar Eddin into the hands of his young heir, who promised so much in the future. All the more incredible seemed the sensational rumors about harem and other excesses that Seid-Abdul-Akhat supposedly allows himself in his private life, which soon penetrated into society and even the press after the accession of the emir, and even the press, - excesses that became the subject of public discussion and popular displeasure.

We allow ourselves to doubt, however, the validity of most of this kind of news and explain them, on the one hand, by the intrigues of conservative elements hostile to the emir, who are trying with all their might to undermine his charm among the people, and on the other hand, by the inclination of the Bukhara people themselves to politicking, all kinds of gossip, courts and gossip, the subject of which is always their emir, and then the people closest to him. This trait in the Tajik people is so strong that even the bloody terror, through which the emir's ancestors ruled the country, could not keep the talkative inhabitants of sacred Bukhara from interfering in the family and private life of their overlords. Suspicious and ferocious Nasr-Ullah, who brought the police system of espionage in the country to the highest degree, chopped off the heads of his subjects by dozens, caught in unfriendly and disapproving reviews about his personality. But this only fanned the flame, which he tried to put out, and the Tajik, extremely cowardly and timid in all other cases of life, boldly appeared at the place of the execution he had just committed to loudly express his reproach to the emir for his actions.

Without a doubt, the relatively mild and humane behavior of Seyid-Abdul-Akhat, who completely ignored the sensational popular rumors about his personality, left wide scope for all sorts of unfriendly rumors spread about him by people interested in cooling people's sympathy for him, why to such We treat rumors with extreme caution.

Another unsympathetic trait of the emir's character is considered to be his extreme stinginess and the extraordinary extortions he allows from the people. But in this respect, too, the center of gravity lies, in our opinion, mainly in the people themselves. The general statistical figures of government fees in the khanate, in proportion to the number of souls of the population, are striking in their insignificance ( The total amount of collections from the population for the maintenance of the central administration, the court of the emir, the army and the higher clergy does not exceed 3,500,000 rubles a year. The population figure of the khanate is not exactly determined, but in any case it is at least one and a half million souls.). If, in fact, these collections reach large amounts, then this is mainly due to the extortion of the administration, which is a properly organized gang of bribe-takers. This administration comes from the same people. It is a product of his selfish motives, and in this regard, all the measures of the emir, tending to the destruction of bribery and extortion in the country, are still palliatives.

Emir Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-khan is somewhat above average height, strong and strong physique. He is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful men of the Khanate. The correct, proportionately thin features of the face, framed by a jet-black beard, a matte-transparent skin color, the correct oval of deep, with a touch of dreaminess, black, like agate, eyes do not resemble anything Uzbek in it and are an antique example of an aristocratic Tajik type . Beautiful white teeth, a small hand and foot, a soft and pleasant timbre of voice and graceful simplicity of manners complete the handsome portrait of the ruler of sacred Bukhara.

The emir is currently 35 years old, but he looks much younger.

The Emir, apparently, realizes that nature has not offended him with her gifts. He is preoccupied with his appearance, always tries to dress appropriately, and in conversation with new faces he is apparently interested in the impression that his appearance will make on the visitor.

Seyid-Abdul-Akhat's usual clothes consist of a national Tajik costume, that is, a beshmet, a silk robe and the same chambras tucked into soft leather ichigi. A skullcap embroidered with silk is worn on the head, and when leaving the palace and during prayer, a white turban is put on over the skullcap. On solemn occasions, the emir puts on a military uniform, consisting of a knee-length double-breasted cloth embroidered with gold, the same breeches for release, with bells at the bottom, trimmed with short fur, and boots with European-style spurs. Thick epaulettes and a wide belt strewn with precious stones, to which a curved Khorasan saber in an expensive scabbard is fastened, are put on over the ceremonial uniform.

With this attire, which is the full dress uniform of the emir, he wears all his order signs, namely: a ribbon and the Order of the White Eagle strewn with diamonds, granted to him by the Emperor in 1886, the same Order of St. Stanislav 1st degree, received by him earlier, when he was at the coronation. The "Rising Star of Sacred Bukhara" strewn with huge diamonds, which is the order of his house ( The Order of the "Rising Star of Sacred Bukhara" was established by Emir Mozafar-Eddin in 1881-1882. It has five degrees and the Emir complains only to the military and foreigners. In addition, on the officers and soldiers of the Bukhara army, we saw some kind of order insignia of a different type, issued to them by the emir for special merits), the emir usually wears next to the White Eagle, and then there are also some kind of order signs adorned with precious stones, apparently Turkish or Persian. The headdress of the emir, with this form, is a white cashmere, or Indian muslin, lush turban ( The turban represents the shroud, or veil, that every Muslim must have on his head as a reminder of death. The Koran defines the length of the turban as 7 arshins, but Muslim piety increases it to 14, 28 and even 42).

In this Euro-Asian attire, sitting on his usual throne, consisting of a carved wooden chair with a low back of native work, among carpets and all kinds of oriental ornaments, Seid-Abdul-Akhat-khan is a type of Central Asian ruler of a modern, transitional formation.

On less solemn official occasions, the emir puts on a colored velvet uniform, with Russian general's epaulettes, with orders, but without a ribbon.

According to general opinions, Seyid-Abdul-Akhat Khan is naturally just, kind and soft-hearted, but suspicious, quick-tempered and stubborn. With regard to the officials of the administration surrounding him, he sometimes shows extreme exactingness, reaching the point of pedantry: he interferes in everything, enters into all the little things of governing the country and, in the words of the Bukharians, wants to command and dispose of everyone, from kush-begi to the last nuker. The fact that the emir, usually waking up at sunrise, immediately gets down to business and demands that all officials of the administration be at that time already in the places assigned to them, causes displeasure of lazy and motionless Asians in particular. Noticing some kind of abuse or omission, he harshly disposes of the guilty and, in fits of temper, sometimes cracks down with his own hands on violators of the decrees issued by him. With all this, the emir is by no means cruel, not vindictive, friendly and affectionate with the people and in general with those whom he considers to be impeccably fulfilling their duties.

Seid-Abdul-Akhat-Khan spends no more than six months in his capital. In winter, he usually leaves for several months, to Shakhrizyabz and Karshi, where the climate is much more moderate than in Bukhara, and spends June and July in Kermin ( These annual trips of the Bukhara emirs around their country acquired a traditional significance over time. In all likelihood, they borrow their historical beginning from the era of the Genghisides, who used to spend different periods of the year in different provinces of their empire. ( Marco Polo, page 208)), which he especially loves as his homeland and his former inheritance. On these trips, he is usually accompanied by a large retinue and a significant convoy, but the emir's family and the highest officials of the administration remain in Bukhara. Returning to the capital, the emir rarely occupies a large palace on the Registan, but mostly lives in the country castle of Shir-Badan, equipped with all the conveniences and comforts of European life.

But wherever the emir lived, his mode of life always remained the same. Rising at sunrise, he devotes a few minutes to his toilet, then makes a short prayer and goes into the reception hall, where breakfast awaits him and those who have already gathered by that time, with reports, dignitaries and courtiers.

Sitting on a sofa, in front of which a small table is placed, the emir listens in turn to the reports of the assembled officials. At this time, he is served breakfast, the menu of which consists of eight courses daily. Having chosen one or two dishes, he orders the rest to be served to those present. After that, tea is served. After listening to the reports, the emir receives petitioners and deals with court cases. From 11 to 2 o'clock he rests; at 2 o'clock he has lunch, after which he again receives petitioners and sorts out litigious cases. Having finished this, he looks through the reports of the beks and, in general, all the papers that come in during the day. Before sunset, he performs prayer and for the third time receives all those who have something to do with him. At 8-9 pm, he retires to the inner chambers of the palace, where he has dinner and indulges in harem entertainment.

Once a week, on Fridays, at about 12 noon, the emir goes, with great solemnity, to pray at the main cathedral mosque of the city where he is. He is usually accompanied by all the highest dignitaries and a brilliant retinue. Udaychi ride ahead, with long rods in their hands, which call on the blessing of God on the head of their master. Treasurers of the emir, who distribute alms to the poor, go right there.

The emir always makes these trips on horseback.

In general, Seyid-Abdul-Akhat does not like carriages and rarely uses them.

By the way, riding in Bukhara court carriages is done in a completely different way than in our country. The goats usually remain unoccupied, and the coachmen are placed on horseback, harnessed in pairs in 1, 2 and 3 pairs. One rider is placed on each pair, driving his own and handy horse with the help of a bridle.

In warm and dry weather, the emir makes more or less long walks on horseback through the streets, visits baiga, kok-buri and horse races.

Occasionally, this monotonous pastime is interrupted by the emir's trips to visit the highest dignitaries of the khanate, always done with great pomp. This honor, highly valued by the Bukharians, usually costs them very dearly, because, according to the custom that has been established since ancient times, a dignitary who has received such an honor must bring to the emir at least 9 bakchi of robes, 9 horses in full dress and 9 bags of silver coins of various values ​​( In the Turkic people, the custom has long been rooted to bring every matter to the number 9. This use of the number 9 came from the first 9 Mongol khans, from Mongol Khan to Il Khan (Abul-Gazi, p. 12)); in addition, to bestow and treat the entire retinue of the emir, and shower his path from the palace to the gate of the visited dwelling with silver coins (tenga 20 kopecks), and from the gate to the entrance to the house with golden tills (a golden Bukhara till costs 6 rubles) ( This ancient custom has been established in Bukhara since the time of the Genghisids. Without a doubt, in the present state of affairs, he represents one of the evils that Seyid-Abdul-Akhat should have done away with long ago.).

The rich increase these gifts twice, sometimes three times, ripping off the sums spent from the people at an opportunity.

A visit to the emir, in addition to refreshments, is associated with the device of a tomash, on which bachi dance to the sounds of native music, acrobats and conjurers show their art, and wandering poets and writers read their works.

The cuisine of Seyid-Abdul-Akhat Khan consists exclusively of Asian dishes, among which the first place belongs to Palau. He doesn't drink wine or smoke at all. In food, he observes great moderation, adhering to the conviction that this is the best way to maintain health.

Having fallen ill, the emir uses the advice of native doctors, and we have not heard that he ever turned to the advice of a Russian doctor living in Bukhara.

The harem life of the emir is a mystery even for people close to him, and it can only be judged by rumors. In the East, it is generally indecent to talk about women, about the family life of this or that person, so it is absolutely not possible to find out in detail the family life of the ruler of Bukhara even by talking about it with Seid-Abdul-Akhat-Khan's close associates ( According to the rules of Islam, it is indecent to talk about someone's wife, and therefore metaphors are used in the East to express the idea of ​​​​marriage. So, a Turk in society calls his wife a harem, a Persian - an expression that implies a house, a household, a Turkmen - a tent, and a resident of Central Asia - balashaka (children). Vamberi: "Journey through Central Asia", appendix I, p. 51). As for the so-called "bazaar" rumors, they can by no means be given serious significance.

Nevertheless, it is known that the new emir managed to acquire a significant harem during his seven-year reign. From time to time, he arranges holidays for his wives in it, allows them to walk in the vicinity of the capital and into the mountains, in closed native carriages, visit relatives, and several times a year he opens bazaars inside the palace, where they can buy the items they need.

Seid-Abdul-Akhat had only five sons, of whom only two are currently alive: Seid-Mir-Alem - 13 years old and Seid-Mir-Hussein - 9 years old. The eldest son of the Emir Seid-Mir-Abdullah was to become the heir to the Bukhara Khanate. The Emir had already intended to send him to Russia in order to give him a European education, but in 1889 he lost this son, along with two younger ones, who died of diphtheria or an epidemic painter's fever.

Now the heir of Abdul-Akhat is considered to be 13-year-old Seid-Mir-Alem, whom the emir intends to take to Russia, where he will leave until the end of the course at one of the higher educational institutions.

Bukharians tell miracles about the colossal wealth of the emir, which consists in cash, jewelry, gold and silver utensils, and so on.

According to them, the emir's cash capital alone reaches 100 million rubles. But this is no doubt a fabrication. The emir's fortune hardly exceeds the figure of 12-15 million. As for his treasures, they are hardly as significant as they think. Bukhara is a country of gifts and, no doubt, if the emirs of only one Mangyt dynasty decided to keep all the precious items sent to them at different times as a gift by Russian sovereigns, Turkish sultans, Persian and other neighboring rulers, and over the past 25 years by Turkestan governor-generals, then this, together with the offerings of their subjects and the crown jewels, would amount to a huge figure when translated into money. Meanwhile, we know that the ancestors of the emir, up to and including Mozafar Eddin, used to keep of these valuables only those items that were of historical significance or were needed in their household. The rest, not wanting to sell and at the same time finding it superfluous to keep in their basement storerooms, they poured into coins. This kind of commendable scrupulousness was, however, the reason for the barbaric extermination of a mass of precious silver and gold items, brought in heaps and sent as gifts to emirs from Russia and other countries. The stock of precious stones in the emir's treasury is also hardly significant. We know that Seyid-Abdul-Akhat very often buys diamonds and pearls for gifts to his wives, which he probably would not have done if the assurances of the Bukhara people that whole boxes of both were kept in the storerooms of the Registan Palace were true. .

For all that, the personal fortune of Seyid-Abdul-Akhat, which consists in the lands, capitals and jewels belonging to him, is, of course, relatively huge. And since, according to the general opinion, the emir is extremely prudent and far from living all his income, then, no doubt, in time his wealth will reach a truly colossal figure.

Having mentioned the gifts above, we consider it necessary to find out their historical origin in the Bukhara Khanate and in the East in general.

The law of Mahomet commands every Muslim to honor a guest, whoever he may be, to treat him, give him the opportunity to rest if he is a traveler, and when he leaves, take care of his clothes and horse. As a result, since the time of the establishment of Islam, it has become a custom in the country that the emirs of Bukhara generously endowed all travelers and, in general, all visitors visiting them. The subject of the gift was usually a horse in full dress, a full set of clothes and several pieces of various fabrics of native work. More significant persons received several horses, several sets of clothes, etc.

In turn, the emirs did not disdain gifts that foreign and visiting visitors brought to them, and accepted them.

Over time, this custom of mutual gifts became, on the one hand, as if a synonym for friendship and the emir's disposition towards the visitor, and on the other, a sign of attention and respect for him.

Subsequently, it became a custom, when sending ambassadors from Bukhara to allied and friendly sovereigns, to also send gifts with them. This, of course, caused reciprocity.

Seyid-Abdul-Akhat adheres to this ancient custom, generously endowing all those who are newly introduced to his court.

We have already mentioned above that the emir is the head of the khanate, but limited by canonical Muslim law, that is, the Koran and Sharia.

His closest assistant in managing the khanate should be an atalik. This position, however, has not been filled since the time of Nasr-Ullah, who appointed Daniar, the ruler of Shakhrizyabz, as an atalyk for the last time.

The Emir's closest aide is currently 40-year-old Kush Beg Sha Mirza. Position kush run, in your own way internal meaning in the Khanate of Bukhara, can be equated to the position of Vice-Chancellor. In addition, it is associated with the positions of the commandant of the arch, the palace on the Registan, the governor of the city of Bukhara, the keeper of the state seal and the treasury of the emir. This last duty Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-khan transferred, however, to another person, entrusting, instead of it, Sha-Mirza with the management of customs duties in the capital.

Sha Mirza is Persian by birth. As a child, he was captured by the Turkmens, who sold him into slavery to Mozafar Eddin, under whom he was in the service. During the resettlement of Seyid-Abdul-Akhat in Kermin, the late emir appointed Sha-Mirza to him as a treasurer, and then as a bek in Khatyrchi. Abdul-Akhat transferred him from there as a bek to Shakhrizyabz, and after the death of Mulla-Mehmed-Biya, in 1889, he appointed him to the post of kush-begi.

Sha-Mirza has a beautiful appearance of a typical Persian, extremely talkative, simple and cheerful. The era of his life is a trip to St. Petersburg in 1888 at the head of the embassy, ​​who was instructed to cast down before the emperor the gratitude of the emir for conducting the Transcaspian railway through his possessions. To this very moment, he recalls with the liveliest delight about everything he saw in Russia, about the gracious reception of the Sovereign Emperor, with reverence showing to all his new acquaintances the rich saber and the orders of St. Stanislav of the 1st degree, which he is extremely proud of.

Kush-begi always lives in the Registan Palace, where there is a separate house and yard to accommodate this dignitary with his entire family, children and household. The peculiarity of his position is that, according to the laws of the country, during the absence of the emir from Bukhara, he does not have the right to leave the palace and lives there without a break until he returns to the capital of his sovereign.

The emir appreciates in Sha-Mirza his honesty and devotion, being completely at ease with the management of the capital during his absences from there.

The second dignitary in the khanate after Sha-Mirza is the young Astanakul-parvanachi, acting chief zaketchia (something like a minister of finance) in the Bukhara khanate. This young and capable dignitary is an emerging type of Bukhara modern formation, formed under the influence of attitudes towards Russian civilization.

He does not enjoy, as they say, the personal sympathies of the emir, but Seid-Abdul-Akhat, appreciating the service of his aged grandfather and father, and also influenced by the sympathy of the Russian authorities for him, rightly gives him a significant share of influence in the affairs of the khanate.

The next most influential persons at the court of the emir are: the chief of artillery of the Bukhara army Topchi-bashi-Mulla-Mahmud, the adviser to the emir Durbin-biy and the head of the Shir-Badan garrison Khal-Murad-Bek.

All these persons have, so to speak, only local significance, for the emir himself is at the head of the army and the administration, directly disposing of everything through direct relations with the beks (provincial governors), with the heads of individual units of the troops, and on foreign policy matters with the Turkestan general -governor, with a political agent in Bukhara and with neighboring rulers.

Only in relation to church affairs, the emir does not do anything other than Sheikh-ul-Islam and Khoja-Kalyan, who are representatives of the highest spiritual authority in the country.

Under the person of the emir there is a council of clergy, civilians and military persons, which he gathers to discuss any proposed important reform. According to the customs of the country, he cannot do anything decisive without first discussing the projected reform by this council.

We will not bore the reader's attention with a detailed enumeration of all the ranks and positions of the complex Bukhara administration and point out only the most outstanding ones.

Of these, in the spiritual part, the most important are: Sheikh-ul-Islam, Khoja-Kalyan, Nakib and Rais.

All these persons necessarily come from the class of Seids and Khojas ( All the descendants of the first four caliphs, Muhammad's successors, are called Seyids: Abu Bekr, Omar, Osman and Ali, married to the beloved daughter of the Prophet Fatima. The title of Hodges is borne by the descendants of Mohammed from his other daughters. In the Turkestan region, it is also customary to call all those Muslims who made a pilgrimage to Mecca to worship the coffin of Mohammed as Khodjas. The rest of the Bukhara people are divided into two estates: sepoys - employees and fukara - non-employees). They are the emir's closest advisers and assistants in court cases, are in charge of church affairs, sit on the khan's council, and generally enjoy broad rights and great influence. Khoja-Kalyan is the only person whom the Emir kisses when he meets him and who has the right to enter him unbelted. Rais is the guardian of public morality and the observance by the faithful of the external rules of Muslim rituals.

The highest representatives of civil administration are kush-begs, the chief zaketch and beks - governors of regions. For special merits, they are sometimes given the titles of divan-begs (something like the title of secretary of state), parvanachi, inaki and biys.

There are also such persons who bear only these titles alone, without occupying certain positions and only being at the court and with the person of the emir.

Topchi-bashi is considered the senior person in the army of the emir, followed by chin-datha (Bukhara general) and toksaba (colonel); the rank of mirahur is equal to the rank of captain.

The emir's court staff consists of civilians and military personnel. Between the former, the udaigs (masters of ceremonies) and mehrems (chamberlains) are considered the most important. The adjutants of the emir are listed in the ranks of mirahurs and sometimes biys.

Of this last category of persons, the respected and respectable old man Udaygi Yakhshi-bek, who descended from the conquering Arabs, is the most favored by the emir; Nasr-Ulla-biy, Uzbek, former educator and mentor of the brother of Emir Seyid-Mir-Mansur; the young and handsome mirahur-bashi Yunus-Mohammed, in charge of the emir's stables and carriages; mirahur Mirza-Jalal and the Persian toksaba Abdul-Kadir, commander of the khan's cavalry convoy. The last two are usually appointed by the emir as envoys to deliver especially important letters and gifts to the Turkestan governor-generals.

Seyid-Abdul-Akhat is extremely firm in his sympathies and attitudes towards people. Opal is a rare thing at his court, and in this respect he does not at all imitate his capricious, cruel and despotic ancestors, whose every single outburst of anger brought utter disgrace, confiscation of property, and sometimes death to the offender. Until now, Seyid-Abdul-Ahat has not been heard to remove from office or impose a penalty on employees and courtiers for anything other than abuse of service, bribery or general crimes provided for by the Muslim code.

For all that, the strength of the habit of outward servility and servility in the Bukhara people is so great that we can hardly find another court in the east, except perhaps the Persian one, where the personality of the ruler would enjoy outward worship to the same extent that the personality of the emir enjoys in Bukhara . At the sight of his master, every Bukharian, no matter how high he stands in the public or service hierarchy, literally turns into nothing. This feature of servility is most inherent in the highest court and administrative spheres, while the clergy and the common people express, in relation to the emir, more independence and self-esteem.

Bukhara lives almost exclusively by its inner, original life. Therefore, her external relations are by no means complicated. They consist mainly in relations with the Turkestan governor-general, who, in international, commercial and political affairs, is the main mediator between the emir and our central government. The political agency in Bukhara has the goal of protecting our political and commercial interests in the khanate on the spot, and is also a supervisory authority in relation to Russian subjects living in Bukhara.

Seyid-Abdul-Akhat, realizing the importance for the country of such local representation, uses it as an advisory resource in all the most important issues, not only foreign, but also domestic policy. Of course, this does not constitute a mistake in the reign of the young emir, for in the person of our political agent in Bukhara, P. M. Lessar, he finds not only the personification of the direct, honest and open manner of Russia's actions towards the small state she patronizes, but also a highly educated person, having the opportunity to bring significant benefits to the country with its extensive scientific and practical knowledge, specialized on the soil of Central Asia.

Twice a year, in winter and early summer, greetings are exchanged between the emir and the governor-general of Turkestan through small embassies. This exchange of embassies is connected with the usual exchange of gifts in the East.

In emergency cases, the emir sends embassies to the royal court, as was the last time in 1888, on the occasion of the opening of the Transcaspian railway.

P. Shubinsky.

(To be continued in the next book).

The text is reproduced according to the publication: Essays on Bukhara // Historical Bulletin, No. 7. 1892

The Khanate of Bukhara on the map of Turkestan at the end of the 19th century

A.G. Nedvetsky
RULERS OF BUKHARA

The article was supplemented by the site "Library of Khurshid Davron" ("Khurshid Davron kutubkhonasi"

Bukhara is the pearl of the East, one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in Central Asia. The fate of many outstanding scientists and thinkers, poets and craftsmen of bygone centuries is connected with the name of this city. This is the city where many masterpieces of Muslim architecture were created and preserved.

One of the Bukhara proverbs says: “All over the world, light descends from heaven, and only in Bukhara does it ascend from the earth.” The people of Bukhara say this because thousands of righteous people and Muslim saints are buried in the land of this sacred city. For centuries, Noble Bukhara remained one of the main centers of Islam in Central Asia, the center of Muslim theology, and its rulers called themselves "emirs of the faithful."

In the last century of its existence, the Bukhara Khanate was ruled by rulers from the Uzbek Mangyt dynasty. Today we know very little about the last Bukhara emirs. After the establishment of Soviet power in Central Asia, many pages of the history of the states that existed there were forgotten. In many modern books devoted to the history of the Bukhara Khanate in the last century, sometimes the names of the emirs who ruled there are not even mentioned. And even more so, contemporaries do not imagine what the last rulers of Noble Bukhara looked like, the highest dignitaries of the khanate, the beks who ruled various regions.

Today, thanks to research conducted in the archives of Russia and Uzbekistan, and unique photographs found there, taken at the end of the last century, we have the opportunity to reveal one of the little-known pages in the history of this state.

EMIR'S FAMILY

Mir-Muzaffar ad-Din Bahadur Khan, Emir of Bukhara, ruled in 1860-1885 The fourth emir from the Mangyt dynasty, the son of emir Nasrallah, was born in the early 1920s. last century (in 1821 or 1824). Muzaffar spent his young years in the city of Karshi. According to the Hungarian traveler G. Vamberi, "already early he was distinguished by diligence in his studies, as well as brilliant abilities." However, as Vamberi wrote, “Despite this, Muzaffar ad-Din was already early a prick in the eye for his father, who ... was always afraid in the face of his offspring of a dangerous rival to the throne. The ghost of a conspiracy always rose before him from Karshi, and in order to get rid of this constant nightmare, he appointed his son as governor in Kermin, in order to better look after him in the immediate vicinity. Having become the governor of Kermine at the age of 20, Muzaffar remained in this position for 19 years, until the death of his father, living "in contented alienation and disgrace." Surprisingly, the future emir never met his father - Nasrallah never called in Kermin and did not call his son to Bukhara.

Having received a message about the death of his father (Nasrallah died in Bukhara on October 20, 1860, having been ill for about a year), Muzaffar arrived in the capital, where he took part in the funeral of the emir. A few months later, he went to Samarkand, where on the famous gray (kok tash) a ritual of lifting on a felt mat was performed, symbolizing the entry into the kingdom. There he took the oath from his governors-beks and officials of the khanate.

For a quarter of a century of Muzaffar ad-Din's reign, many different events took place in the history of Bukhara, and assessing the personality of the emir, his contemporaries gave him very different, sometimes directly opposite, characteristics. So, for example, the historian Mirza Abd al-Azim al-Sami believed that Muzaffar "showed a commendable course of action and showed good character", and the classic of Tajik literature Ahmad Donish believed that the emir "was by nature stupid and limited", that he “stupid and bloodthirsty”, “libertine and bloodthirsty tyrant”. Another author noted that the emir "was distinguished by isolation and religiosity."
A very expressive portrait of the emir in his notes was drawn by V. Krestovsky, a Russian officer who met Muzaffar in 1883: “The emir’s face retained the remnants of its former beauty ... He has a small black beard, thin eyebrows, a thin he, probably out of habit more, leaves slightly squinted, and only occasionally, throwing up his eyes at someone, reveals them to their full size. In general, the expression of this person is very friendly. .. The beard of the emir, according to the Persian fashion, is somewhat tinted, casting into the light either a reddish, or even a lilac-brown color.

As the nephew of the emir Mir-Seyid-Ahad-khan, who lived in Tashkent, told one of the Russian authors, Muzaffar "was a great admirer of female beauty." In addition to four legal wives, he also had an extensive harem, consisting of 150-200 women. His eldest wife was the daughter of the Shakhrisyabz bek Daniyar-atalyk, but he had no children from her.
In 1883, Muzaffar ad-Din was awarded the Russian Order of St. Anne, 1st class, adorned with diamonds, in response to the award to Emperor Alexander III of the Order of the Rising Star of Bukhara. The award was delivered to Bukhara by a special embassy headed by Major General Prince Wittgenstein.

In August 1885, the emir, who made an annual detour of his possessions, became infected in Karshi, as they then wrote, with an “epidemic high-grade fever”, Muzaffar, interrupting his trip, returned to Bukhara and stayed at his country residence Shirbudun, where he spent almost two months. The disease almost passed, but on September 28 it suddenly resumed with renewed vigor. The closest courtiers of the emir - Astanakul-bek-biy and Muhammadi-biy kushbegi - decided to transport the patient to the Bukhara citadel - Ark. And it was in Ark, 40 minutes before dawn on October 31, 1885, that Muzaffar ad-Din died.

The emir was buried at the Imam Imly cemetery near Bukhara, in the Mangyt family mausoleum (this mausoleum has survived to this day).

Sayyid Abd al-Ahad Bahadur Khan, Emir of Bukhara, ruled in 1885-1910 Emir Abd al-Ahad was born on March 26, 1859 (according to other sources - in 1857) in Kermin. The emir's mother, a Persian slave named Shamshat, was distinguished, according to contemporaries, by a rare mind and was the beloved wife of Emir Muzaffar. She died in Kermin in 1879, living with her son, whom she had hardly left since his appointment as bek in this city. In addition to her son, she had another daughter, Saliha, whom Emir Muzaffar married to his nephew Amanullah. From the age of 14 (according to other sources ~ from 18) Abd al-Ahad was the bey of Kermine. According to Russian travelers who visited him, he led a rather simple lifestyle. In 1882, he had only one wife, and he kept a harem more for show. The young Abd al-Ahad was a big fan of riding and was considered one of the best riders of the khanate. His favorite pastimes were stallion taming, falconry, and riding a kok-buri (goat-fighting). However, in 1882, the future emir fell seriously ill - he had a guinea worm in his leg - and was forced to leave his practice of this sport. After that, for several years he suffered from a "disease of the legs", which usually worsened at the end of winter, until in 1892 he was helped by Russian doctors.

Emir of Bukhara Seyid Abdul-Ahad Khan. 1895 engraving

The Emir was quite well educated, he spoke Persian and a little Russian and Arabic.
In 1882, by the will of his father, Abd al-Ahad was sent to Moscow, where he was officially recognized as the heir to the throne of Bukhara, about which Emperor Alexander III then notified Emir Muzaffar in writing. On a trip to Russia, the future emir was accompanied by his father's courtier Astanakul-bek-biy kuli kushbegi. In October 1885, having learned about the death of his father, Abd al-Ahad left Kermine and, accompanied by 1000 horsemen, went to Bukhara. On the way, in the town of Malik, he met with the representative of the Russian authorities, Lieutenant General Annenkov, who assured him of Russia's support in the event of any political complications due to possible claims of other sons of Muzaffar to the throne of Bukhara. Before entering Bukhara, the emir visited the Bahauddin mazar, where he performed a prayer. On the same day, he attended his father's funeral. On November 4, 1885, the ceremony of raising the emir on a felt mat took place in the Bukhara Ark - he officially ascended the throne. Thus began the long reign of the penultimate emir of Noble Bukhara, which was marked by many important events and changes in the life of the khanate.

The first years of his reign, the emir lived in the capital. In the city itself, he spent no more than six months, usually leaving for several months in Shakhrisyabz and Karshi in winter, and living in Kermin in June and July. Returning to Bukhara, Abd al-Ahad usually stopped not at the Ark, but at his country palace, Shirbudun. In 1894, having quarreled with the Bukhara clergy, the emir settled in Kermin and never returned to Bukhara until his death.

Emir loved to travel. Having visited Russia for the first time in 1882, he then repeatedly visited Moscow and St. Petersburg: in 1893 he brought his son Alim Khan to the capital of the Russian Empire, in 1896 he came to the celebrations on the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II. Here is how the St. Petersburg “Motherland” (1893. No. 3, p. 88, 91-92, 105-106.) tells about this: “Showered by the graces of His Majesty the Sovereign Emperor and now visiting St. -Abdul-Akhat-Khan is an extremely personable, beautifully built brunette, with a very expressive face and a large, jet-black, bushy beard.

The emir brought with him a lot of valuable materials, jewelry and horses for gifts, and the cost of everything brought, part of which arrived back in the summer, is estimated at 2 million rubles.

Seid-Abdul-Ahad-khan was last in St. Petersburg shortly before his death and solemnly celebrated there the twenty-fifth anniversary of his stay on the throne of Bukhara. In addition, he visited Kyiv, Odessa, Yekaterinoslav, Baku, Tiflis, Batum, Sevastopol, Bakhchisarai. Almost every summer, Abd al-Ahad rested in the Caucasus, on mineral waters, or in the Crimea, in Yalta, where he built a palace for himself (in Soviet times there was a sanatorium "Uzbekistan").

This is how the Crimean newspapers described Seyid-Abdul-Ahad-Khan: “The Emir is taller than average, he looks no more than 45 years old. Very well built. Has a pleasant chest baritone voice; big black eyes shine from under his snow-white turban, and his chin is decorated with a small full beard. Good rider. Possesses extraordinary physical strength…”

The Emir of Bukhara was very fond of rewarding even for minor services or just a person he liked. It is not surprising that when he regularly began to run into Yalta, many prominent citizens were able to sparkle with the orders of the Golden Star of Bukhara, which the emir generously handed out. One of the most curious stories associated with such an award occurred in the Yusupov family. They often visited the Emir of Bukhara in Yalta, and he visited them several times in Koreiz. During one of these visits, a representative of the younger generation, Felix Yusupov, decided to demonstrate a Parisian novelty for pranks: cigars were served on a dish, and when the emir and his retinue began to smoke them, the tobacco suddenly caught fire and ... began to shoot firework stars. The scandal was terrible - not only because the distinguished guest was in a ridiculous position, at first both the guests and the family, who did not know about the draw, decided that an attempt had been made on the ruler of Bukhara. But a few days later, the Emir of Bukhara himself celebrated reconciliation with Yusupov Jr. ... awarding him with an order with diamonds and rubies.
The ruler of Bukhara often visited Livadia when the imperial family came there, as well as in Suuk-Su, with Olga Mikhailovna Solovieva. This place of magical beauty (now it is part of the children's camp "Artek"), the Emir of Bukhara was simply subdued. He even wanted to buy it and offered the hostess 4 million rubles for the dacha - huge money for those times, but Olga Solovyova did not agree to part with Suku-Su.

It is not surprising that, having fallen in love with the southern coast of Crimea, the Emir of Bukhara decided to build his own palace here. He managed to buy a plot in Yalta, where a garden was laid out and a magnificent building was built (later it became one of the buildings of the sanatorium for the sailors of the Black Sea Fleet). Interestingly, at first it was planned to give an order for construction to the famous Nikolai Krasnov, thanks to whom the South Coast was decorated with many architectural gems. In the funds of the Alupka Palace-Museum, two sketches and estimates for them, made by Krasnov for the Emir of Bukhara, have been preserved. One is an Italian villa, the second is an oriental palace with lancet windows and oriental ornaments. But either the Bukhara ruler did not like both options, or he wanted to support the city architect of Yalta Tarasov, whom he knew well, but the latter began to build the palace. The building with domes, towers and pavilions really adorned Yalta, the emir himself called the estate "Dilkiso", which means "charming" in translation. It survived both its illustrious lord and the chaos of the Civil War, in which many estates did not survive, the Nazis burned it down during the retreat in 1944, but nevertheless this memory of the Emir of Bukhara was preserved in Yalta.
Becoming a seasonal resident of Yalta, Seid-Abdul-Ahad-khan immediately became interested in the social life of the city: he was a member of the Society for Assistance to Inadequate Pupils and Students of Yalta Gymnasiums, donated money to the Society for Assistance to Poor Tatars of the South Shore, was interested in preserving the antiquities of Crimea, was several times participant of livestock exhibitions. The fact is that the high position did not prevent the Emir of Bukhara from being an expert in sheep breeding, his herds of astrakhan sheep were the best in his homeland, he personally traded astrakhan, supplying about a third of the products to the world market.
In 1910, with his own money, he built a city free hospital for visiting patients. It was a very generous gift to the city, in a large two-story house there were laboratories, rooms for employees, surgical and gynecological rooms, a reception room for a hundred people. On the eve of the opening of the hospital, he once again paid a visit to the family of Nicholas II in Livadia to ask the highest permission to name the hospital after Tsarevich Alexei. For many years, the Emir of Bukhara was a kind of symbol of generosity for Yalta, for his services to the city he was elected an honorary citizen and even one of the streets was named after him.
By the way, many other cities, not only in the Crimea, had something to thank the Emir of Bukhara for - in St. Petersburg, for example, he built the Cathedral Mosque, which cost him half a million rubles. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, Seid-Abdul-Ahad-Khan donated one million gold rubles for the construction of a warship, which was called the Emir of Bukhara. The life of this ship was turbulent, but short-lived: during the revolution, the crew went over to the side of the Bolsheviks, then fought in the Caspian Sea (by that time it was renamed Yakov Sverdlov) and in 1925 was cut into metal.

Under Emir Abd al-Ahad, torture was abolished in the khanate and the death penalty was limited, and the most cruel types of them (for example, when a convict was thrown from the highest Kalyan minaret in Bukhara) were prohibited. Under him, industrial mining of copper, iron, gold was started in the khanate, railways and telegraph lines were laid, trade was actively developing. The emir himself actively participated in the trade in karakul, occupying third place in the world market in terms of the volume of trade operations with this valuable raw material. According to some information, about 27 million gold rubles were kept on the emir's personal accounts in the Russian state bank, and about 7 million more in private commercial banks in Russia.

Emir of Bukhara Seyid Abdul-Ahad Khan at the celebration of laying the foundation of a mosque in St. Petersburg on February 3, 1910. Next to the emir is the head of the Muslim clergy, Akhun G. Bayazitov. Photograph by K. Bull

Abd al-Ahad paid much attention to the armed forces of his khanate. Even in his youth, being the Bek of Kermine, he personally engaged in the drill of his garrison and kept the Kermine fortress in excellent condition, which was noted by the Russian officers who visited him. During one of these visits, the emir wished to see the construction of the Cossack convoy that accompanied the Russian embassy, ​​meaning to adopt the Russian experience. Returning from a trip to Russia in 1893, in Ashgabat, the emir saw the Turkmen militia, trained by the Russians, and in no way inferior in training to the Cossacks. It was then, in his own words, that he came up with the idea of ​​the need to reorganize the Bukhara army, which he carried out two years later. And in the future, the emir did a lot to improve the military training and armament of his troops: for example, bypassing the decisions of the Russian government, which imposed restrictions on the supply of small arms to Bukhara, the emir bought rifles for his soldiers through Russian merchants.

All Russian authors who wrote about the emir noted his active charitable work. For example, in 1892, the emir donated 100,000 rubles for disaster victims in various regions of the Russian Empire, and in 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, allocated 1 million rubles for the needs of the Russian fleet. Abd al-Ahad provided material assistance to the 5th Orenburg Cossack regiment, of which he was the chief, and once presented several ancient gold coins for the collection of the Turkestan archaeological circle. Emir was an honorary member of the Turkestan charitable society. In a special place for the emir was the concern for the affairs of the Muslim faith. So, the possessions transferred by him to the waqf in favor of the shrines of Mecca and Medina brought up to 20 thousand rubles in annual income, and in the early 30s. Abd al-Ahad donated several thousand rubles in gold for the construction of the Hijaz railway (at the same time, his closest courtiers allocated 150 thousand rubles for the same purpose). Under him, the number of ulema in Bukhara increased from 500 to 1500 people, and income from special waqfs was intended for their maintenance.

Finally, the emir played an absolutely exceptional role in the construction of a Muslim mosque in St. Petersburg - the largest mosque in Europe. -Abd al-Ahad not only obtained permission from the tsarist government to build a mosque, but also donated 350,000 rubles for the purchase of a land plot for construction and another 100,000 for the construction itself. In addition, he organized a fundraiser for this purpose among the Bukhara merchants (more than 200 thousand rubles were collected in total).
As if responding to the courtesy and attention of the Emir of Bukhara, the authorities of St. Petersburg and Russian Muslims even timed the date of laying the foundation of the mosque to the 25th anniversary of the reign of Abdul-Ahad Khan. This is what the St. Petersburg popular magazine Niva tells us (No. 8, 1910).

“On February 3, the Muslims living in our capital had a big holiday: on this day, the solemn laying of the first mosque took place. There are several thousand Tatars and other non-Muslims in St. Petersburg, but until now they did not have their own Temple and were forced to rent private premises. For many years they dreamed of a mosque, but they did not have the opportunity to realize this dream, there were no funds to purchase the necessary plot of land and build a decent building. The all-Russian subscription (collection of donations. - editorial note) opened some time ago, although it provided the Muslims of St. Petersburg with some funds for this, but still not enough. And only the generous gift of the Emir of Bukhara, who arrived in St. Petersburg, immediately moved things forward and gave the St. Petersburg Mohammedans the opportunity to create a temple befitting the capital for themselves.

The laying of the mosque took place in the presence of the Emir of Bukhara and was timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of his reign. A plot of land along Kronversky Prospekt, near the Trinity Bridge, was chosen as the site for the construction of the mosque, and on the day of the celebration a special tent with an entrance portico in the East Asian style was erected here. The tent, the portico, and the whole place were decorated with flags. The foundation of the mosque had already been erected earlier, and on it was prepared (under a special canopy) a place for the official laying, where lay the traditional hammer and spade, a silver mortgage board and white marble bricks. All around were placed special shields with Arabic inscriptions from the Koran.
Almost the entire Muslim world of the capital gathered for the celebration of the laying of the mosque. (...) The celebration began with prayers and the speech of Akhun Bayazitov. In his speech, Bayazitov said. Incidentally, the following: "The Qur'an says:" God is beautiful and loves beauty. Our mosque will be beautiful and will serve as the glory of architecture and the beauty of the city. There is no such mosque as there will be in St. Petersburg either in Paris or London. The mosque is beautiful, there is no need for it to shine with more than just external beauty, and we must pray to Allah that this mosque reproduce us in spiritual and moral beauty.”

At the end of the akhun's speech, the Emir of Bukhara went up to the place where the stone was laid and laid the first stone. After that, the reception of deputations began from the Muslim parishes of the capital, from Kronstadt, Moscow, from the Caucasus, etc. And then in the office of the building there was a breakfast with toasts and speeches, and lemonade was served instead of champagne. The emir proclaimed the first toast in Russian for the Sovereign Emperor - and in response, “Hurrah” burst out ... ".

As the publication wrote, the emir was completely happy and very pleased with the way he was received by the population of St. Petersburg. Leaving, he declared that "on this joyful day for him, as a Muslim, he donates 5,000 rubles for the poor of the capital."

Cathedral Mosque of St. Petersburg, modern view

Another rather unexpected touch to the portrait of the Emir is that Abd al-Ahad was seriously fond of poetry. He was not only a great admirer of belles-lettres, but also compiled a "Divan" of his own poems, in which he described the events and moods he experienced, especially during his trips to Russia. The emir wrote poetry under the pseudonym Ojiz (weak, helpless).

The Emir of Bukhara had the Russian court rank of adjutant general, was a cavalry general of the Russian service, the chief ataman of the Terek Cossack troops, and the chief of the 5th Orenburg Cossack regiment. He bore the title of "Highness" and was awarded all Russian orders up to and including the highest imperial order of St. Andrew the First-Called with a chain, as well as the Order of the Italian Crown of the 1st degree, the French Orders of the Legion of Honor and the Grand Officer's Cross and others.

Contemporaries assessed the personality and activities of Zmir Abd al-Ahad differently. Most Russian authors called him "a sincere friend of Russia", "cautious and thoughtful politics". However, there were those who believed that “those features of softness that Russians attribute to him, who do not know what he really is, are completely alien to his character, which is in many ways extremely cruel and does not tolerate any contradictions and innovations.”

Emir died on the night of December 22-23, 1910 in Kermin, possibly from kidney disease. Some authors believed that the death of the emir was brought closer by worries about the bloody clashes that occurred in Bukhara between Shiites and Sunnis in 1910. Abd al-Ahad had four sons. Two of them - Sayyid Mir-Hussein (born in 1888 or 1884) and Sayyid Mir-Abdallah, whom the emir intended to send to study in St. Petersburg in 1888 - died in 1889 from diphtheria (or malaria ). The youngest son, Seyid Mir-Ibrahim, was born in 1903. The fourth son, Mir-Alim-khan, became the last emir of Bukhara.

Seyid Mir-Alim-khan (Tyurya-jan), Emir of Bukhara, ruled in 1910 - 1920. The second son of Emir Abd al-Ahad Mir-Alim was born on January 3, 1880 (according to other sources - in 1879). We don't know much about his childhood years.
In January 1893, Mir-Alim, together with his father, arrived in St. Petersburg, where an agreement was reached that the young Bukhara "prince" would be assigned to study in the Nikolaev Cadet Corps. The Emir personally visited the corps, "where he met with the commanding officials of this higher military educational institution and for some time talked with them about the education" of Mir-Alim.

At the same time, Alexander III, the Russian emperor, officially approved Mir-Alim as the heir to the throne of Bukhara. After receiving a paper about this from the Minister of War, the emir left for a trip around the country, and Mir-Alim remained in St. Petersburg under the supervision of his "uncle" Osman-bek guard-begi and the teacher appointed by the emperor, Colonel Demin.
When assigned to the corps, the emperor promised the emir that Mir-Alim would receive education in strict accordance with the norms of Islam. Alexander personally outlined the training program for the heir to the throne of Bukhara. However, in the future, the emir wished that his son's education be completed according to an accelerated program by the summer of 1896 and that it be limited to the study of the Russian language and traditional subjects. Abd al-Ahad did not want Tyurya-Dzhan to become particularly involved in the achievements of civilization and, in particular, to study astronomy and electricity.

At the age of fifteen, he took the post of governor of Nasef, having stayed in it for twelve years. He ruled the northern province of Carmina for the next two years, until the death of his father in 1910. In 1910, Emperor Nicholas II granted the Khan the title of Highness. In 1911 he was promoted to the retinue of His Imperial Majesty major general.

He ascended the throne in 1910. The beginning of the reign was promising: he announced that he did not accept gifts, and categorically forbade officials and officials to take bribes from the people and use taxes for personal gain. However, over time, the situation has changed. As a result of the intrigues, the supporters of the reforms lost and were sent to Moscow and Kazan, and Alim Khan continued to rule in the traditional style, strengthening the dynasty.
In list famous people, who were surrounded by the emir until the spring of 1917, was one of the first Uzbek generals of the tsarist army of Russia, Mir Khaidar Mirbadalev.

With the money of the Emir of Bukhara in St. Petersburg, the House of the Emir of Bukhara was built. On December 30, 1915, he was promoted to lieutenant general in the Terek Cossack army and appointed adjutant general.
He was awarded the orders of St. Alexander Nevsky and St. Vladimir (in the given color photograph on the emir's robe, the star of this order with the motto "Benefit, honor and glory" is clearly visible).

Unlike his father, Mir-Alim was honored with the most derogatory characteristics of his contemporaries. Some authors said that he was “a completely colorless person, without any high demands”, others even argued that the last Mangyts emir “was so unpleasant in his habits and vices ... that the correct collection of material on his life is rather the work of psychopathologists” .

On September 1, 1920, Emir Mir-Alim was overthrown from the throne as a result of the occupation of Bukhara by the Red Army. The emir fled first to mountainous Bukhara, where he tried to organize resistance to the new government, and then to Afghanistan. For almost 10 years, the deposed emir led the armed resistance on the territory of the former khanate from Afghanistan. Mir-Alim died in Kabul.

Numerous offspring (about 300 people) are scattered around the world: they live in the USA, Turkey, Germany, Afghanistan and other states[.

One of the sons of the Emir of Bukhara Shahmurad (he took the surname Olimov) renounced his father in 1929. Served in the Red Army, participated in the Great Patriotic war(on which he lost his leg), in the 1960s he taught at the Frunze Military Academy

The son of the Emir of Bukhara Said Alimkhan, Major General Shakhmurad Olimov

BROTHERS OF EMIR ABD AL-AHAD

Now it is almost impossible to say exactly how many children Emir Muzaffar al-Din, the father of Abd al-Ahad, had in total. We managed to find data on eleven of his sons, but it is known that he had several more sons who died during his lifetime, about whom nothing is known today.

The eldest son of the emir, Seyid Abd al-Malik Mirza Katta-Tyurya (1848-1909), was born from one of the four legal wives of the emir, the Persian Hasa-Zumrat, and was married to the daughter of the Afghan king Shir-Ali-khan. In the 60s. of the last century, he held the position of Bek Guzar. In 1868, after the defeat of the emir's troops near Samarkand (this was the largest battle with the Russians), he tried to seize his father's throne in Bukhara, but was defeated and fled first to Karshi, where he had many supporters, and then, in December 1868 ., to Khiva. After that, he lived for some time in Kashgaria, in the fortress of Yangi-Hisar (1873), then in Kabul (1880), and finally settled in India, where he lived on an English account. Abd al-Malik was considered a serious contender for the throne of Bukhara until the accession of Emir Abd al-Ahad. Katta-Tyurya died in 1909 in Peshawar.

The second son, Seyid Nur ad-Din-khan (1851-1878), in 1867-1868 was the Bek of Karshi, and then was appointed the ruler of Chardzhuy. Muzaffar wanted to make this smart and talented young man the heir to the throne, but he unexpectedly died.

Sayyid Mir-Abd al-Mumin (1852-1898 or 1894) in 1869 replaced his older brother Nur ad-Din as the Bek of Karshi, and then from 1871 to 1886 he was the governor of the large bekdom of Hisar. After the accession of the emir, Abd al-Ahad began to intrigue against him, for which in July 1886, by a special decree of the emir, he was transferred to Baysun, where he lived with his family in a fortress under the supervision of the emir's agents. He was only nominally a bek—in fact, officials appointed by the emir ruled the vilayet—and in fact he was a prisoner of the emir. In 1891, the representative of the Bukhara government, Astanakul-biy, told the Russian political agent P. Lessar that Abd al-Mumin was going to flee to Afghanistan, and on another occasion, that the latter had lost his mind. However, according to Lessar, these rumors were spread by the emir, who did not like his brother, specifically in order to deal with Abd al-Mumin (they even talked about a possible execution). The Emir feared that his brother might have fled to Russian possessions, where he would be out of reach for him.

Finally, in 1891, Abd al-Mumin was summoned to Bukhara and settled in Ark, where he was kept under house arrest until his death. The children of Abd al-Mumin continued to live without a break in Ark until 1920. The personal seals of his son Ii'matullah are kept in the funds of the Bukhara local history museum in Ark.

Emir Muzaffar's favorite son was Seyid Abd al-Fattah Mirza (1856/57 - 1869). In 1869 he was sent by the emir to an honorary embassy in St. Petersburg. The embassy, ​​headed by the brother of the emir's wife Abu al-Kasim-biy and whose secretary was the writer Ahmad Donish, carried gifts to the Russian emperor. Abd al-Fattah stayed in St. Petersburg from the beginning of November until December 10 and was received by Emperor Alexander II.

Muzaffar ad-Din intended to ask the emperor to approve Abd al-Fattah as heir to the throne of Bukhara, but this young prince also died unexpectedly.

Sayyid Mir-Abd as-Samat (beginning of the 60s -?), the sixth son of Muzaffar (the fifth was Abd al-Ahad), in 1880 was the Bey of Chirakchi. He was given by his father under the full supervision of a local judge - qadi for immodest behavior and extravagance. A Russian officer V. Krestovsky, who visited him in 1882, was confronted by “a thin young man of about 20 years old, still beardless and beardless, and very similar to his younger brother Seyyid Mir-Mansur.” Krestovsky noted that "the emir did not like him for his frankness, and even when he was in Shakhrisyabz, he did not stop by Chirakchi." Emir Abd al-Ahad did not favor his brother either. On the night of September 4, 1886, Mir-Abd al-Samat was arrested and sent to Bukhara. In the future, he lived in the capital, in the Khoja Gafur quarter under "house arrest".

Seyyid Muhammad Mir-Siddiq Khan (Khishmat) was the Bey of Karshi since 1871. After the death of Nur ad-Din in 1878, Muzaffar ad-Din appointed him as the Bey of Charjui. In 1885, after the accession of Abd al-Ahad, Mir-Siddiq Khan, like the other brothers of the emir, fell into disgrace: he was deprived of his post and recalled from Charjuy. The Bukhara dignitary Muhammad Sharif inak told the Russian political agent Charykov that Emir Muzaffar also wanted to recall Siddik Khan for his depraved behavior. In 1885, he was arrested, then released, but was eventually placed in the Bukhara Ark, where he spent many years in home confinement. In recent years he lived in Bukhara in the Raugangaron quarter, and in 1920 he emigrated to Afghanistan.

After leaving the political arena, Mir-Siddiq Khan devoted himself to literary activity. Being a rather mediocre poet, he was at the same time a major connoisseur of literature, the author of several unfinished tazkire. About 30 manuscripts of his works are stored in the archives of the Institute of Oriental Studies of Uzbekistan.

Another brother of Abd al-Ahad, Seyid Mir-Akram-khan, was the only son of Muzaffar who did not lose his post after the accession of Abd al-Ahad. Appointed as Bey of Guzar under Muzaffar, he remained in this post at least until 1908. The fact that one of the daughters of Abd al-Ahad was married to the nephew of the son of Mir Akram Khan speaks of the emir's benevolence towards this brother.

Seyid Mir-Mansur (1863-March 1918), the ninth son of Muzaffar, from the second half of the 70s. of the last century he lived in Russia, in St. Petersburg, where he studied in the Corps of Pages. Together with him in the capital of the Russian Empire was his tutor Mirza Abd al-Vasi toksaba: during these years, Petersburgers often met a young Bukhara "prince" walking with his tutor in the garden of the Mikhailovsky Palace.

Upon entering the corps, Mir-Mansur received as a gift a gold watch with the monogram of Emperor Alexander II, which he kept until his death. last day. According to the highest order of December 15, 1876, the tsarist government allocated 500 rubles a year for the maintenance of Mir-Mansur and his tutor, of which 310 rubles were given personally to Mirza Abd al-Vasi to pay for the apartment and current expenses. According to teachers, Mir-Mansur studied "decently" and had good behavior - "his success in the sciences is very favorable." When he was in the 3rd grade, he was exempted from studying German language which was difficult for him. The freed time was devoted to intensive study of other European languages, as well as the native language and Muslim religious literature.

In the summer of 1881, Mir-Mansur went on vacation to the Crimea and Odessa, in September 1882 he visited his father in Bukhara, from where he returned in December with gifts from the emir.

In the last years of his stay in the Corps of Pages, Mirza Nasrallah-biy toksaba, who, according to contemporaries, spoke Russian very well, was an educator at Mir-Mansur.

On April 13, 1886, after graduating from the Corps of Pages, Mir-Mansur was promoted to cornet and assigned to the 3rd Sumy Dragoon Regiment in Moscow. In addition to the usual officer maintenance, Mir-Mansur also annually received 2,400 rubles from Emir Abd al-Ahad. In 1892, Mir-Mansur had the rank of lieutenant. Together with the officers of the Sumy regiment in December 1892, he arranged a picnic in honor of Emir Abd al-Ahad, who was passing through Moscow. In 1895, Mir-Mansur was already a staff captain, and in 1899 he retired from the regiment in the same rank. The tsarist government paid off his debts and gave him a lifetime pension.

After that, Mir-Mansur continued to live in Russia for several years. He was married to Princess Sofya Ivanovna Tsereteli, they had several children. The eldest son, Nikolai Mikhailovich Tsereteli (born around 1890) in the twenties was one of the leading actors of the Tairov Chamber Theater in Moscow, the main partner of the famous actress Alisa Koonen. In 1906, together with his father, he came to Bukhara, where he visited his grandmother. The second son of Mir-Mansur was a military man. He was in the Russian military service, was awarded several Russian orders. He died in March 1918 during the assault on Kermine. In addition, Mir-Mansur also had a daughter and younger sons Georgy and Valery, the younger daughter Tamara.

After returning to Bukhara, Mir-Mansur was appointed bek of Kermine. In March 1918, during the so-called Kolesov events, when units of the Tashkent Socialist Army captured Kermine, defeating the Bek's five thousandth detachment, Mir-Mansur was mortally wounded and captured along with his wife, three young children and their teacher.

Mir-Mansur was buried in Katta-Kurgan with the assistance of Emir Mir-Alim Khan. All the property of his family (starting from orders, expensive weapons, family jewels and ending with Marx's Capital, which belonged to the children's teacher) was plundered. In September 1918, S.I. Tsereteli, the widow of Mir-Mansur, received from the Bukhara government 200 thousand rubles (for the upbringing of three young children) as compensation for the damages incurred, and another 100 thousand rubles for furnishing.

Very little is known about the last two brothers of Abd al-Ahad. The first of them, Seyid Mir Azim Khan, lived in the Bukhara Ark at the beginning of the 20th century, having no right to leave it. The second, Seyid Mir-Nasir Khan (born around 1869), was also kept in Ark under "house arrest". Emir Alim Khan married his daughter to his son, Arab Khan. However, no one was let out of Ark. Nasir Khan lived in Ark until 1920. During the years of the Bukhara People's Republic, he was a member of the Historical Society of Bukhara. He wrote the essay "History of the Bukhara Ark", written in 1921. In 1922 Nasir Khan left for Afghanistan.

COURTIES

Muhammad Sharif inak (c.1837-1888) was one of the highest dignitaries of the Bukhara Khanate. Under Emir Muzaffar, he served as chief zakatchi (“minister of finance”) and governor of Bukhara. He was the son of one of the closest dignitaries of Muzaffar Mulla Muhammadi-bey and a former slave of the emir.

Fourth from the right - Muhammad Sharif inak. Photo by Orde, late 1880s.

Mulla Muhammadi-biy (1811 or 1813-1889), a Persian by birth, went from a slave (he was bought by Emir Nasrallah) to the head of the Bukhara administration: he held the post of kushbegi (“prime minister”). Until the last hour, he was next to the dying emir Muzaffar, took part in the rite of raising the new emir, Abd al-Ahad, on a felt mat. Muhammadi-biy continued to hold the post of kushbegi under Abd al-Ahad until his death.
After the opening of the Russian Imperial Political Agency in Bukhara, Muhammad Sharif inak, while continuing to be the chief zakatchi, was responsible for communication between the Bukhara government and the political agent. The political agent of Russia, Charykov, spoke of him very flatteringly.

In 1888, Muhammad Sharif, by order of the emir, came to the official Gaib Nazar to confiscate his property for some misconduct, but was killed by the last shot from a revolver. His murderer, according to ancient custom, was handed over to the relatives and servants of the murdered man and put to death by them after long tortures.

Under Emir Abd al-Ahad, important government posts were also held by the sons of Muhammad Sharif: Astanakul-biy, Mir-Haydarkul-bek-biy and Latif-bek. Khaidarkul-bek-biy dadha in 1888 was appointed bek of Charzhui. During the departure of his elder brother Astanakul-biy with the emir to Russia in 1893, he replaced him as the chief zakyatchi. In 1902, together with the emir, he traveled to St. Petersburg. Khaydarkul remained at the post of governor of Chardzhui until at least 1902. Then he acted as a hazinachi (state treasurer). In the event of his absence from Bukhara, his younger brother Latif-bek replaced him in this post.

Astanakul-biy dadha - one of the most famous dignitaries of Bukhara during the time of Emir Abd al-Ahad, the grandson of the kushbegi Mulla Muhammadi-biy and the son of Muhammad Sharif. As early as 1882, Astanakul-biy was the Bey of Karshi. V. Krestovsky, who visited him in Karshi, wrote that he was then about 20 years old, he was “a very young man, not only very handsome, but also of pleasant appearance, with a small dark beard, a healthy matte complexion, an open smile and kind brown eyes.

On November 15, 1885, Astanakul-biy was appointed as the new emir to the post of viceroy of Chardzhuy, the most important post in the provincial administration of the khanate, instead of the disgraced brother of the emir Siddik Khan. After the murder of his father Muhammad Sharif in 1888, the emir, according to the historian al-Sami, “by his mercy, by royal order, appointed his son, Astanakulu-biy divanbegi, the position, rank and service that he desired, and even better than he desired." Then Astanakul received the rank of inak and the position of chief zakyatchi, which his father had previously held. Just like his father, he carried out communication between the Bukhara government and the Russian political agency, signed various official protocols, agreements, etc. on behalf of the emir, and negotiated various issues. Subsequently, he simultaneously held the posts of zakyatchi and kushbegi, retaining these positions until 1910, when he was replaced by the heir to the throne, Mir Alim Khan.
The reason for the displacement was the permission of Astanakul for the Bukhara Shiites to openly celebrate the religious holiday of Ashura, which led to a bloody Sunni-Shiite massacre that continued in Bukhara for several days and was stopped only due to the introduction of Russian troops into the city.

Astanakul-biy accompanied the emir more than once on his trips to Russia (for example, in 1893 and 1903). He was awarded many Bukhara and Russian orders.

Emir Abd al-Ahad, heir to the throne of Mir-Alim and the retinue of the emir in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. Standing: third from the left - Astankul-biy parvanchi, fourth from the right - Durbin-biy kul kushbegi, extreme right - Sh.R. Asfendiarov. Photo by V. Yasvoin, January 1893 (Winter Palace, St. Petersburg)

Emir's trip to St. Petersburg in 1393. The emir's trip to Russia in 1393 had a specific purpose - he was carrying with him the heir to the throne, Mir Alim Khan, whom he intended to appoint to study.

Going on a trip, the emir entrusted the conduct of all affairs to a council of three persons - qazi kalyan (chief judge), commandant of Ark and serkerdar. In addition to the chief zakatchi Astanakul-biy, the emir’s retinue included several top dignitaries of the khanate, including Durbin-biy kushbegi, a Persian by birth, who was bought by the emir in childhood and went from a slave to one “of the closest persons to the emir.” According to V. Krestovsky, in 1832 he was over fifty years old (according to some sources, he was born in 1827), he had the rank of monk and occupied one of the high court positions. Under Abd al-Ahad, he did not hold any specific position, but he took part in managing the treasury, and also always accompanied the emir on his travels. He was awarded several Russian orders.

In addition, a large staff of servants was with the person of the emir, as well as the personal translator of the Turkestan governor-general, captain Sh.R.

On December 27, 1892, the emir and his entourage left Chardzhuy by rail and arrived in Moscow, where he met with his brother Mir-Mansur. Arriving in St. Petersburg, the emir stopped at the Winter Palace. Accompanied by Astanakul-biy and Sh.R. Asfendiarov, he paid visits, visited theaters, went to the bathhouse daily, and also received visitors himself, met with Emperor Alexander III. Having completed negotiations on the formation of Mir-Alim-khan and left him in St. Petersburg, the emir returned to Bukhara via Odessa and Tiflis.

BEKI

[…] The emir often changed beks, and now it is almost impossible to say exactly who is depicted in this or that archival photograph. We have detailed information only about the bek of Hisar - Astanakul-bek-biy kuli kushbegi.

He was one of the most senior dignitaries of the Khanate under Emir Abd al-Ahad. The son of Abbas-bey, the vizier of Emir Nasrallah, and the half-brother of Emir Muzaffar, Astanakul-bey-bey held high positions during his father's lifetime, and after his father's death he reached the highest ranks and positions, so that some of his contemporaries called him a "shelter of hope", the title of sovereigns.

In 1882, Astanakul-bek-biy had the rank of parvanachi and served as governor of Shakhrisyabz. V. Krestovsky, who visited him this year, wrote that he was “an important man, good-naturedly simple, affable, but essentially indifferent to everything in the world, except for himself and his sovereign, to whom, obviously, he is very devoted. In the whole character of his appearance, it somehow immediately showed that this man is not only smart, but also knows his own worth.

In 1882, Astanakul-bek-biy accompanied the future emir Abd al-Akhad on a trip to Moscow. In 1885, as a personal envoy of Emir Muzaffar, he traveled to St. Petersburg, where he met with Emperor Alexander III. In the days of illness, Muzaffar ad-Din, together with Mulla Muhammadi-biy, actually exercised supreme power in the khanate. After the transfer in 1886 from Hisar to Baysun of the disgraced brother of Emir Abd al-Mumin, Astnakul-bek-biy was appointed governor of the Hisar vilayet. Darvaz, Kulyab and Karategin were also under his control.

In 1887, he received the highest rank - atalyk, and therefore his bekdom was expanded: five more counties were attached to it. It should be noted that under the last Bukhara emirs, no one in the khanate, except for Astanakul-bek-bey, had the rank of atalyk.

According to V.I. Lipsky, who visited Hisar in 1896, Astankul-bek-biy was not only the most distinguished, but also “the richest man in all of Bukhara. In addition to gold and silver (the latter he had in sacks in the cellars), he had a herd of horses, herds of sheep. His herds were met in the summer in remote places in the mountains, even within Russian borders. ("Turkestan Gazette", No. 183, 1907)

Astanakul-bek-biy remained the Bek of Hissar until his death in 1906. After his death, his body was taken out of Hissar and buried in the family mausoleum of the Mangyt emirs, the Hazrat Imam mazar, located at the Imam imlya cemetery near Bukhara.

Sources, literature, periodicals

1. Aini, Sadreddin, Memories, (translated from Tajik by A. Rosenfeld), M.-L., 1960
2. Arendarenko G.A., Leisure in Turkestan, 1874-1889, St. Petersburg, 1889
3. Andreev M.S., Chekhovich O.D., Ark of Bukhara, Dushanbe, 1972
4. Arapov D.Yu., Bukhara Khanate in Russian Oriental Historiography, M., 1981
5. Bartold V.V., History of the cultural life of Turkestan, - Works, vol. II, M., 1963
6. Berg Ya., History of Bukhara, - Moscow News, 1892, No. 360
7. Bukhara and Afghanistan in the early 80s. XIX century (Journals of business trips G.A. Arendarenko), M., 1974
8. Bukhara merchants, - Turkestanskiye Vedomosti, Tashkent, 1915, No. 42
9. G. Vamberi, History of Bokhara and Transoxania from ancient times to the present, St. Petersburg, 1873
10. Gasprinsky I., Accurate translation of the diary of his lordship Emir of Bukhara., Kazan, 1894
11. Geyer I.I., All Russian Turkestan, Tashkent, 1908
12. Dzhidzhikhia A., On the latest events in Bukhara (January 9-12, 1910), Military collection, St. Petersburg, No. 5, 1910
13. Donish A., Journey from Bukhara to St. Petersburg, Dushanbe, 1976
14. Donish, Ahmed, History of the Mangit dynasty, Dushanbe, 1967
15. Iskandarov B.I., Bukhara (1918-1920), Dushanbe, 1970
16. Iskandarov B.I., Eastern Bukhara and the Pamirs in the period of accession of Central Asia to Russia, Stalinabad, 1960
17. Iskandarov B.I., From the history of the Emirate of Bukhara (Eastern Bukhara and Western Pamir at the end of the 19th century), M., 1958 18. History of Bukhara from ancient times to the present day, Tashkent, 1976
19. History of the Uzbek SSR, vol. I, book 2, Tashkent, 1957 20. History of the Uzbek SSR, vol. II, Tashkent, 1968
21. Kamalov U.Kh., Muzaffarov A.A., Saakov V.G., Bukhara. Guide., Tashkent, 1973
22. Krestovsky V.V., Visiting the Emir of Bukhara, St. Petersburg, 1887
23. Kurbanov G.N., Bukhara seals of the 18th-early 20th centuries, Tashkent, 1987
24. Lessar P.M., South-Western Turkmenistan (Land of the Saryks and Salors), S.Pb., 1885 - Proceedings of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, XXI, 1885
25. Logothete, In a forgotten land. Travel essays in Central Asia, M., 1912
26. Lunin B.V., From the history of Russian oriental studies and archeology in Turkestan. - Turkestan circle of lovers of archeology (1895-1917), Tashkent, 1958
27. Madzhi A.E., On the history of the last two decades of the Bukhara Khanate, Izvestia of the Academy of Sciences of Taj. SSR, Department of Social Sciences, 2 (29), Dushanbe, 1962
28. Masalsky V.I., Turkestan region, S.Pb., 1913
29. Meyendorff E.K., Journey from Orenburg to Bukhara, M., 1975
30. Nechaev A.V., In mountainous Bukhara. Travel essays, S.Pb., 1914
31. On the accession to the throne of Muzaffa Khan and on the rite of raising on a felt mat, - Turkestan News, 1878, No. 28
32. Ostroumov N.P., Clippings from Turkestan newspapers mainly in 1913, 1914 and 1916 (library of S.Pb. FIV RAS)
33. "Translator", No. 4, January 3, 1892
34. Rock-Ten, Death Penalties in Bukhara, - "Turkestan Courier", 1910, No. 189
35. Rock-Ten, Prisons in Bukhara, - "Turkestan Courier", 1910, No. 197
36. Sami, Mirza ‘Abdal’azim, Tarikh-i Salatin-i Mangitiya (History of Mangit Sovereigns). Ed. text, prev., trans. and approx. L.M. Epifanova, M., 1962
37. Semenov A.A., Bukhara treatise on ranks and ranks and on the duties of their bearers in medieval Bukhara, - Soviet Oriental Studies, vol. V, 1948
38. Semenov A.A., Essay on the structure of the central administrative Bukhara Khanate of later times (Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the Tajik SSR, v.25), Materials on the history of Tajiks and Uzbeks Cf. Asia, vol. 2, Stalinabad, 1954
39. St. Petersburg News, No. 122, 1896
40. Sukhareva O.A. Bukhara XIX - early XX century. (Late feudal city and its population), M., 1966
41. Tukhtametov T.G., Russian-Bukhara relations at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, Tashkent, 1966
42. Friedrich N.A., Bukhara. Ethnographic essay, S.Pb., 1910
43. Khamraev M., Essays on the history of the Hissar Bekstvo of the late XIX and early XX centuries, - Proceedings of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Tadzh.SSR, vol. CXIV, Stalinabad, 1959
44. Khanykov I., Description of the Bukhara Khanate, S.Pb., 1843
45. Shubinsky P.P., Ochenki Bukhara P. Shubinsky, S. Pb., 1892
46 Olufsen O., The Emirof Bukhara and his country, London, 1911

Archival documents:

I. Office of the Turkestan Governor-General, - Central State Historical Archive of the Uzbek SSR, Fund No. I-1, Inventory No. 29
II. Office of the Turkestan Governor-General, - Central State Historical Archive of the Uzbek SSR, Fund No. I-1, Inventory No. 34
III. Russian Imperial Political Agency in Bukhara, - Central State Historical Archive of the Uzbek SSR, Fund No. I-3, Inventory No. 1
IV. Russian Imperial Political Agency in Bukhara, - Central State Historical Archive of the Uzbek SSR, Fund No. I-3, Inventory No. 2
V. Office of the kushbegi of the Emir of Bukhara, - Central State Historical Archive of the Uzbek SSR, Fund No. I-126, Inventory No. 1 (book 1)
VI. Office of the kushbegi of the Emir of Bukhara, - Central State Historical Archive of the Uzbek SSR, Fund No. I-126, Inventory No. 2 (book 1)

Photo archives

a) St. Petersburg branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg)
b) Russian Geographical Society (St. Petersburg) c) Institute of the History of Material Culture (St. Petersburg) d) State Film and Photo Documents Archive of the Uzbek SSR (Tashkent)
e) Bukhara Regional Museum of Local Lore (Bukhara)

ADDITION

The state structure of the Bukhara Emirate
Material from Wikipedia

The head of state was the emir (Persian امیر‎), who had unlimited power over his subjects.

Islambek kushbegi - minister of Bukhara. Photo by Orde, 1894

State affairs were managed by kushbegi (Turk. قوشبیگی), a kind of prime minister. The entire ruling class of the Emirate of Bukhara was divided into secular government officials - Amaldars (Pers. عملدار‎) and spiritual - Ulama (Pers. ﻋﻠﻤﺎ‎). The latter included scholars - theologians, lawyers, teachers of madrasas, etc. Secular persons received ranks from the emir or khan (Mong. خان), and the spiritual ones were elevated to one or another rank or rank. There were fifteen secular ranks, and four spiritual ones.

In administrative terms, the Emirate of Bukhara at the beginning of the 20th century. was divided into 23 beks (Persian بیکیﮔرى‎) and 9 fogs (Mong. تومان). Until the last quarter of the 19th century. Karategin and Darvaz were independent shahs ruled by local rulers - shahs (pers. ﺷﺎه‎). In Karategin during the period under review, there were five amlyakdarstvo (Persian املاک داری‎), in Darvaz - seven. Having annexed Karategin and Darvaz, the Emirate of Bukhara transformed them into beks (Persian بیکیﮔرى‎), which were ruled by officials appointed by Bukhara - beks (Turk. بیک). The beks, in turn, were subordinated to divanbegs (Turk. دیوان بیگی), yasaulbashi (Turk. یساولباشی), kurbashi (Turk. قورباشی), qazi (Arab. قاضی‎‎) and rais (Arab. ر؀ی).

The majority of the population was made up of a taxable estate - fukara (arab. فقرا‎‎). The ruling class was represented by the land-feudal nobility, grouped around the local ruler. Under local rulers, this class was called sarkarda (Pers. سرکرده‎) or navkar (Mong. نوکر), and during the period of Bukhara rule - sipahi (Pers. سپاهی‎) or amaldar (Pers. عملدار‎). In addition to these two classes (rich and poor), there was a large social stratum that was exempt from taxes and duties: mullahs, mudarrises, imams, mirzas, etc.

Each bekstvo was divided into several small administrative units - amlyak (Arabic املاک‎‎) and Mirkhazar (Persian میرهزار‎), headed by the Amlyakdars (Persian املاک دار‎) and Mirkhazars (Persian میره′‎) respectively. The lowest rank of the village administration was the arbab (arab. ارباب‎‎ - headman), usually one for each village.

There were four shahsts in the Western Pamirs. Each shahship was divided into administrative units called sada (Persian صده‎ - one hundred) or panja (Persian پنجه‎ - five). Shugnan and Rushan were divided into six gardens each. At the head of each garden or panja was an aksakal (Turk. آقسقال - elder), and in smaller administrative units - arbab or mirdeh (pers. میرده‎). The entire population of the upper reaches of the Pyanj was divided in class terms into two main categories: the ruling class and the taxable class, called raiyat (Arabic رعیت‎‎) or fukara. The next, lower category of the ruling class was the service estate - navkar or chakar, who were chosen and appointed by the peace or the shah from people with military and administrative abilities.

RECENT TRAGEDY IN BUKHARA
(Information about the episode presented below was collected by us personally, when we were in Bukhara, in June of last year.)
Historical Bulletin, No. 5. 1892

"If someone offends you, offend him as he offends us."
Qur'an, chapter II, verse 190.

Infinitely great is the discord that still separates us in everyday, social, religious and moral terms from our closest neighbors in the far east. The Koran and Sharia, which form the sole basis of the beliefs and concepts of the Muslims of Central Asia beyond our control, are, as it were, a wall protecting them from the spirit of the times and the influence of civilization. Limited on our territory, in its immediate application, by the sphere of religious practices and the autonomy of the people's court, Islamic-Sufficient tendencies find wide scope for their development on the soil of our neighbors, the semi-independent khanates of Bukhara, Khiva and Afghanistan, related to them in language and religion. The state and social system of these countries, religion, the life of the people, customs, legal proceedings and education - all this follows from the two main principles of Islam: the Koran and Sharia. These two creations of the great Muslim prophet and his closest follower are still the only two truths that the Mohammedan of Central Asia believes in, by which he lives and from which he draws all his worldly wisdom.

Numerous and influential Muslim clergy do their best to support the charm of the religious ideas of Islam among the people. Jealously guarding the state and social system that developed over a millennium ago, under their influence, from any modern innovations, it is a powerful opponent to those new ideas that poured into Central Asia from Europe in a wide wave through the open gates of the Turkestan region. It, apparently, is fully achieving its goals so far, because the inertia in which the Muslim world is not subject to us extends to such an extent that even the powerful influence of Russia, combined with the good desire of the rulers of the khanates, is sometimes powerless to change their the internal system is one or another condition created by the millennium-old traditions of Islam.

A strange, almost unbelievable for our time, anachronism are these burning hotbeds of religious fanaticism, obsolete ideas and outdated traditions!

We cannot but welcome that noticeable desire to bring into this dark world the ideas of state and social order, education and humanity, which Lately especially felt in our policy in the Far East. Undoubtedly, these aspirations are only the first attempts at the realization of that highly humane task, which, contrary to the assurances of our British rivals, Russia is completely unselfishly pursuing in relation to the peoples of Central Asia subject to it.

At the same time, it is desirable that the tragic episode cited below constitute a single fact in the history of the reign of Emir Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-Khan, whose noble motives and good intentions cannot be doubted.

__________________________

A few years ago, a related group of dignitaries of Persian origin, consisting of the elderly kush-begi Mulla-Mehmet-Biya, was of paramount importance among the state ranks of the Bukhara Khanate (The title of kush-begi, in its internal meaning in the Bukhara Khanate, can be equated to the title of our minister of foreign affairs and chairman of the state council. It is associated, at the same time, with the title of governor of Bukhara and commandant of the palace of the emir. The highest position in Bukhara "atalyk" has remained unfilled since the time of emir Nasr-Ullah, who made the ruler of Shakhrizyabsky the last time (Murza-Shamen-Bukhari, Notes, pr. 13, p. 60)), his son, the chief Bukhara zaketchchi Mukhamed-Sharif-divan-begi (The title of divan-begi can be equated to the title of secretary of state; the position of chief zaketchi - to the position of Minister of Finance and head of the treasury and economy of the Emir.), and grandson, bek of Chardzhuy, Astanakul-inak (Bek is the head of the city and lay down Inak-military rank, equivalent to the rank of colonel).

This group was considered the most powerful and influential in the country, both in its direct significance and in the trust and disposition that the young emir Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-khan showed her, bound in relation to kush-begi by a sense of gratitude for his ancient devotion to the house Mangyt (The dynasty reigning in Bukhara traces its lineage, along the female line, from Tamerlane. (Myrza-Shamsi-Bukhari, Notes, note 15, p. 61). As for men, it comes from the Uzbek clan Mangyt, from the Tuk branch. (Khanykov , Description of the Khanate of Bukhara, p. 58) Among the Mongols, the name “tuk” defined a detachment of warriors of 100 people (Marco Polo, translated by Shemyakin, p. 181)) and to him personally, and with his son, the bonds of friendship. At the same time, this group was considered to be at the head of the party of Bukhara dignitaries most sympathetic to Russia, the counterbalance of which was the old Bukhara, Uzbek, party. It goes without saying that this powerful family, as elsewhere in the East, had numerous relatives, proteges and adherents at various levels of the state ladder.

The head and patriarch of this family, Mulla-Mehmed-Biy, a Persian by birth from the town of Karay, near Mashhad, was captured by the Turkmens as a boy of ten or twelve years old and in 1820 brought by them for sale in Bukhara.

Here he was bought for several chervonets by the famous Hakim-kush-begi (Hakim-kush-begi played an outstanding role in the history of the Bukhara Khanate of the first quarter of the current century, personifying the treacherous type of courtier at the court of the Central Asian despots. Emir-Seid owed all his well-being , he poisons him, wanting to deliver his second son, Nasr-Ullah, an opportunity to seize the throne of his father, in addition to his older brother, Hussein Khan. Poisoning him, then, to the younger son of Emir Seyid, Omar Khan, appointed by Hussein Khan as his successor, he treacherously betrays him and the city of Bukhara into the hands of the rebellious Nasr-Ullah, who reigns in the capital of the Khanate on March 22, 1826 year, under the name of Nasr-Ulli-Baghadur-Khan-Melik-El-Mumenin. This treacherous man was adequately punished for his shameful deeds. In 1837, emir Nasr, who was enthroned by him, Ullah confiscates all the untold riches he has stolen, and imprisons him himself, where he was stabbed to death in 1840. (Khanykov, History of the Khanate of Bukhara, pp. 224-230; Borns, Journey to Bukhara, part 2, pp. 382-388 and others; Vamberi, History of Bukhara, ch. XVIII, pp. 136-140)).

After the death of this latter under Emir Nasr-Ullah, in 1840, he, along with his other slaves and property, entered the treasury and was added to the staff of the heir to the throne of Seid-Muzafar-Eddin (Emir Seid-Muzafar-Eddin was born in 1823 , ascended the throne of Bukhara in 1860, died on October 31, 1885), under which he was a servant. His outstanding abilities drew the attention of Muzafar Eddin to him and, during his accession to the throne, in 1860, Mulla Mehmed Biy was successively appointed to the positions of mirshab (police official), mirab (irrigation manager) and serkerd (battalion commander) . In his last rank, he participated in the battles at Jizzakh, Samarkand and Zerabulak, sharing with his master the heavy blows inflicted by Russian weapons on the power of the ruler of the faithful in Central Asia.

At the end of the war, Mulla-Mehmed-Biy was appointed bey in Shakhrizyabz, where he managed to declare himself a capable, active and energetic administrator, and in 1870 the emir granted him the remaining vacant position of kush-begi (In this position he was seen and wrote about him: Vsevolod Krestovsky (Visiting the Emir of Bukhara, ch. VII, pp. 292-296) and Dr. Yavorsky (Journey of the Russian Embassy in Afghanistan and the Bukhara Khanate in 1878-1879, vol. II, pp. 334-336).

Kush-begi Mulla-Mehmed-Biy lived to a ripe old age, maintaining good spirits until the last minute and taking a direct part in the affairs of the state. His nineteen-year stay in power was marked by deep devotion to the interests of the people and both emirs, whose trust and favor he enjoyed, despite the intrigues and intrigues of natural Bukharans, who hated him as an alien and a Shiite.

The population of the capital respected and loved him. According to the testimony of persons who were intimately familiar with the state of affairs in the khanate, no complaints were ever heard of oppression, intrigue or injustice on his part.

In 1886, Mulla-Mehmed-Biy, together with his family and other slaves in the Bukhara Khanate, was freed from slavery, forever destroyed by Emir Seid-Abdul-Akhat-Khan in his possessions.

The son of Mulla-Mehmed-Biya, Mukhamed-Sharif-divan-begi, holding the position of the chief Bukhara zyaketchy even at the court of the late emir Muzafar-Eddin, managed to establish himself with outstanding abilities and special devotion to the reigning dynasty, in particular to Seyid-Abdul-Akhat- khan. Among the other services rendered by him to the last services was that he hid from the people the death of Emir Muzafar until from Kermine (the city of Kermine and the district adjacent to it constitute, as it were, the inheritance of the heirs of the Bukhara throne, where they settle upon reaching adulthood, ruling the district for the rights of beks. and inevitable in such cases in the East family strife.

Upon the accession of the young emir on November 4, 1885, Mohamed-Sharif became his closest personal adviser. In addition, Seyid-Abul-Akhat entrusted him with the management of all affairs related to the relations of Bukhara with the Russian government.

In this state of affairs, the whole country and the emir himself looked at Mukhamed-Sherif-divan-begi as the future successor of his father Mulla-Mehmed-Biya in the rank of kush-begi.

The youngest representative of this outstanding family was the son of Mukhamed-Sharif, the twenty-eight-year-old Chardzhui bek Astanakul-inak (currently the chief Bukhara zaketch, Astanakul-parkanachi). Gifted with a remarkably handsome appearance, handsome and intelligent, he soon attracted the attention of the emir, who entrusted him with the important post of head of the Chardzhui district bordering on Russian possessions. In this position, he managed to provide serious services to the Russian government during the construction of the Transcaspian railway, for which he was awarded the order St. Anna 2nd degree.

Under such circumstances, this family finds the year 1888, which had a fatal meaning for them.

At that time, a certain Gaib-Nazar, an Afghan by origin, lived in Bukhara, who under Emir Muzafar held the position of amlyakdar in Kermine (Amlakdar is a tax collector. In the Bukhara Khanate, the annual amount of tax from the land is determined by spring shoots, which, of course, opens a wide path to abuses of all kinds on the part of officials of the tax administration.), when the heir to the throne, the current emir Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-khan, ruled this bekstvo. Shortly after the death of Murafar, Gaib-Nazar was dismissed from his post for concealing part of the state revenues of the district entrusted to him. Suspecting in Mukhamed-ІІІarifa-divan-begi the main culprit of the misfortune that befell him, he harbored a deep hatred for him and, having settled in his house in Bukhara, where he enjoyed the reputation of a man with means, he waited only for an opportunity to take revenge on his enemy.

The emirs of Bukhara have a habit of going around their possessions once a year, stopping for some time in the most populated districts, such as Kermine, Qakhshi, Shakhrizyab possessions and Chardzhuy.

During one of these trips of Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-khan to Shakhrizyabz, in the spring of 1888, Khaid-guard-run, brother of Gaib-Nazar, who served in the Bukhara troops and was sent, for a while, with some assignment from Shakhrizyabz to Bukhara , brought the denunciation of Gaib-Nazar to the emir on Mukhamed-Sharif-divan-begi and on other senior officials who remained in the capital.

This denunciation infuriated the emir and caused an order to arrest Gaib-Nazar and confiscate his property. The execution of this order was entrusted by the emir to Muhamed-Sharif-divan-begi.

On March 21, 1888, at 8 o'clock in the morning, Mukhaned-Sharif, accompanied by two servants, arrived at the house of Gaib-Nazar to announce to him the will of the emir and make an inventory of his property. Having entered the mima (mehman)-khan (reception room), he conveyed the command to Gaib-Nazar, adding, for his part, words of consolation and a promise to intercede with the emir for his forgiveness. Gaib-Nazar silently listened to the divan-bey and, when the latter had finished, told him that among his property were valuable things given to him for preservation, which he, first of all, wanted to present. Then he went into another room and, a minute later, returned from there with a revolver in his hand, with the words: “a dog, a Shiite, a traitor!” fired two shots at Mohammed Sharif. This last one, already mortally wounded, rushed at him. A struggle ensued, which was only stopped by a crowd that ran to the noise and seized and beat the criminal.

The dying man was put on a cart and taken home, but he still found enough strength in himself to order the release of the murderer from the hands of the angry mob and take him to his apartment, where he placed him in a room next to him, fearing that he would be torn to pieces by the people before production. investigations on him.

On March 22, at 6 o'clock in the morning, Mukhamed-Sharif-divan-begi died, despite the medical assistance provided to him by Dr. Geifelder, who was sent to the scene by the builder of the Trans-Caspian Railway, Lieutenant General Annenkov, who was at that time on official business near Bukhara.

The death of this outstanding person sincerely upset not only the emir and the population of the capital, but also all the people of our Turkestan administration who came into contact with him on official business. Bukhara lost in him a capable, energetic administrator, and Russia lost a man sincerely devoted to Russian interests, otherwise contributing to a change for the better in the state of affairs in the khanate.

Upon learning of the death of Muhamed-Sharif, the emir wrote a heartfelt letter to the grief-stricken elderly Kush-begi, in which, among other things, he mentioned that he had never looked at the deceased as a servant, but as an older brother, and that now he would try to replace Mulle-Mehmed -Beating his lost son.

The venerable elder did not long survive this sad event: he died on November 10, 1889, at the age of 81.

The son of the deceased Mukhamed-Sharif, Astanakul-inak, was appointed emir to his father's place immediately after his death, and in the rank of parvanachi and chief zaketchia is now one of the most devoted and useful servants of Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-khan.

As for the murderer of the divan-begi, Gaib-Nazar, then, by order of the emir, he was handed over to the relatives of the murdered.

One must know the history of the Bukhara people and those bestial instincts, greed and ambition that are inherent in them, one must finally take into account that, according to established custom, the death or removal of some state dignitary in the Bukhara Khanate entails the removal of all his subordinates and the replacement of their proteges by a newly appointed person in order to explain to himself the terrible execution that awaited the criminal. Without a doubt, it was invented not by one person, but by a whole corporation of people who tried to take out on the murderer of sofa-runs the bitterness that was in them, which was caused by the death of this man, who took with him to the grave the chances of success, wealth and honors, perhaps , not one generation of people close to him and relatives.

This execution, worthy of the times of Caracal and Nero, consisted of the following: the murderer was tied to the tail of a horse and, with a huge crowd of people, we thus carry through the streets, squares and bazaars of the city. Then, they crushed the bones of his arms and legs and threw him alive behind the city wall, to be eaten by dogs.

The main details of this inhuman execution, as always, were carried out on the vast cathedral square of Bukhara, in view of the majestic buildings of the Mir-Arab madrasah and the Mosque-i-Kalyan, these mute witnesses of so many bloody historical events, starting with the invasion of Genghis Khan and the triumphant Timur’s entry, until the recent execution of two innocent instruments of English greed and harassment in Central Asia - Conoli and Stoddart (Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conoli, sent by the British government to Bukhara and Kokan with the aim of forming a coalition hostile to Russia from the Central Asian khanates, were captured by the emir Nasr-Ullah and, at his command, were executed in Bukhara, in 1842.).

P.P.S.

New Emir of Bukhara
Niva magazine, 1886, No. 7. Pages: 177-178

After the second capital of the Khanate Samarkand was taken, under the gene. Kaufman in 1868 with our troops and they took possession of the sources of Zaryavshan, which fed Bukhara - the Russians have the ability to divert water, and this would be the death of the country. Completely defeated by Russian troops on June 2, 1868, the emir declared himself in submission to the White Tsar and since then Bukhara has been in vassal relations to Russia.

After the death of the late Emir of Bukhara, Muzaffar Khan, which followed on October 31 last year, his eldest son Seid-Abdul-Agad Khan (whose portrait is placed here) became the ruler of Bukhara. His brother, Seyid-Mansur, is brought up in Russia, in the Page Sib. corps, and the current emir Abdul-Agad attended the sacred coronation in Moscow and spent some time in St. Petersburg. Seid-Abdul-Agad-khan is now no more than 27 years old. Here is how one of our travellers, who saw him when he was in Bukhara, describes him: “Seid-Abdul-Agad-khan himself stood before us. Taking two steps towards us, he cordially extended his hand to each of us. In appearance, he is a handsome man, taller than average, strongly built. His handsome swarthy face is pubescent with a black, medium-sized beard; small mustaches set off thin, energetically pursed lips. Black and large eyes are very expressive. Their gaze is sharp and penetrating. The arches of the eyebrows very characteristically slightly rise from the inside above the bridge of the nose, adjoining two small longitudinal wrinkles. In general, his face has a serious expression of an inquisitive mind and a strong character. It somehow involuntarily affects a large supply of energy, willpower and perseverance. It cannot be said that this face was one of the kind, in the sense of kindness, although there is nothing repulsive in it - on the contrary, it is rather even sympathetic; you only immediately feel that you are dealing with an internally strong person who will not think about anything to achieve his goal. He is not at all inclined to harem promiscuity - he has one legal wife. In his everyday environment, he prefers simplicity, even with a somewhat stern tinge, which we could also notice, at least from the atmosphere of his waiting room. They say that his favorite pastime is falconry and the taming of half-wild, hot and evil horses, which he rides under himself. He also does a lot of military work.”

Seid-Abdul-Agad Khan was in Moscow, as we said, at the coronation celebrations of 1883. On his return from Moscow, he said in Tashkent, among other things, that this trip was of great benefit to him in the sense that he had a good opportunity to see for himself the enormous forces and means of Russia. Recognized in his rights by the All-Russian Emperor, he no longer needs any parties to support power.

Mixture. Gifts from the Emir of Bukhara.
Niva, 1893, No. 3 (2), p. 74

Gifts from the Emir of Bukhara presented to the Sovereign Emperor, the Sovereign Empress and other Members of the August House. Among these gifts are many expensive fabrics and carpets - works of Bukhara and, in general, the East: astrakhan furs, golden bowls and dishes with niello, belts studded with precious stones, a silver service with niello, necklaces with precious stones, walking sticks strewn with diamonds, silver enameled caskets and many other precious items. Particularly distinguished were: a saber in a golden scabbard with a hilt strewn with diamonds, presented by the Emir to the Sovereign Emperor, and an umbrella sewn entirely with pearls for the Empress, the handle of which was strewn with precious stones.

Then the Emir brought 17 horses of various breeds for gifts to the Highest Persons: Teke, Turkmen, Uratyuben and Kungrad. Each of them is saddled with a Turkmen saddle, with gold and silver forged stirrups. Expensive velvet chapraks are embroidered with silks and gold; the bridle, breastplates and tailpieces are richly trimmed with gold set. Some of the horses are very small and resemble the breed of our southern steppe horses, but all of them are distinguished by remarkable endurance and speed, during the race they seem to creep along the ground. One of the stallions intended for the Sovereign Emperor, of the Teke breed, red with white stockings on all four legs, is considered the best horse of Bukhara, about which the Bukhara people say that “only one wind will overtake him.” The horses have not yet been given names; all of them are placed on the main royal stable. For the Sovereign Emperor, actually 5 horses were given: 2 stallions of a red color, Tekin, growth of 2 arshins and 2 vershoks, 1 stallion of a karak suit with golden tan, Turkmen breed, a strong strong horse 2 arshins and 2 vershoks tall, and a pair of gray stallions of the Bukhara breed, about 2 arshins tall, all six years old. Sovereign Empress - 3 horses: 1 gray stallion Turkmen, height 2 arshins 1 vershok, a very beautiful graceful horse, and a pair of black stallions of the Bukhara breed of small stature. One of these stallions is of a very kind disposition, almost tame and a little trained: he gives a leg, puts his head on his shoulder, with remarkably intelligent eyes. The heir to the Tsesarevich also has 3 horses: 1 red-haired Turkmen without marks, a slender, light, as if chiseled stallion, 2 arshins with a small stature, can argue on a gallop with a Tekin horse brought to the Sovereign Emperor. Tekinets will probably be called "Wind", and this Turkmen "Wind"; then - a pair of stallions of smaller stature of the Bukhara breed. Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga Alexandrovna were brought a pair of piebald stallions of the Bukhara breed of very good disposition. Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich - a pair of black stallions of the Uratyubensky breed. On the main stable, there are a pair of dark bay stallions intended for Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. Since all horses are exclusively steeds, it is likely that some of them will be harnessed in threes for a draw; the roots will be picked up by pacers. In addition to these 17 horses, the emir presented a pair of stallions to the Grand Dukes Vladimir and Alexy Alexandrovich and Mikhail Nikolaevich.

Throne chair for the Emir of Bukhara.
Niva, 1893, No. 33, p. 752, 753

By order of the Turkestan Governor-General by the Lizere firm in St. Petersburg. the throne armchair in the old Russian style was made of gilded wood (maple), covered with red plush and trimmed with gold galloon. The armchair is intended for the Emir of Bukhara and is very characteristic, as can be seen from the attached drawing. It was executed according to the drawing of V. Scherzer, by Russian workers.

His Grace Emir of Bukhara.
Magazine "Motherland". St. Petersburg, 1893. No. 3, p. 88, 91-92, 105-106.

Showered with the graces of His Majesty the Sovereign Emperor and now visiting St. Petersburg, His Grace Emir of Bukhara Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-Khan is an extremely imposing, beautifully built brunette, with a very expressive face and a large, jet-black, bushy beard.

Like all the faces of his retinue, he wears a colorful Bukhara costume, a turban and a lot of stars. The Emir is at the head of the Khanate of Bukhara, covering an area of ​​31/2 thousand geographical miles, with a population of 11/2 million engaged in agriculture and trade. There are 15 thousand people in the Bukhara army. On November 4, 1885, the emir succeeded his father's throne, being his fourth son, because the elder brother, bribed by the British, rebelled against his father, was defeated with the help of Russian troops, fled and is now in India. In 1883, the Sovereign Emperor granted the request of the father of the current emir, Mozafar-Eddin, to recognize our today's guest, Seyid-Abdul-Akhat, as the heir to Bukhara. Emir has been married since the age of 13, and from the age of 18 he already ruled the bekstvo (district) in Kermin and earned common love with his fairness and accessibility. The emir's predominant passion is horses, and he is reputed to be the best rider in Bukhara.

In Russia, the emir was, as the heir to Bukhara, at the coronation celebrations of 1883. The high attention and gracious address of the Sovereign and the Royal Family, as well as everything seen in Russia, deeply sunk into the soul of the future heir to the throne of Bukhara, and upon accession to the throne, he first became transfer our culture to his native country. He abolished slavery, reduced the army to facilitate finances, destroyed underground prisons, torture and brutal executions, did a lot to streamline the tax system and develop trade in his country. An extremely lively, active temperament distinguishes the emir among the Bukharians and evokes in them a well-deserved tribute of surprise and respect for their head.

Together with the emir, his ten-year-old son, Seid-Mir-Alim, arrived in St. Petersburg, whom his lordship, with the permission of the Highest Sovereign Emperor, will assign to one of the St. Petersburg military educational institutions.

In the retinue there are 7 dignitaries, 6 officials, a representative of the Bukhara merchant class and masses of servants. Among the seven dignitaries of the emir are three generals "parvanchi", of which two are ministers - Astapa Kulbek parvanchi and Durban Kumberg parvanchi. This is followed by Tural-Kul parvanchi, Khabarit-Kulbek-Tonova, Makhalot-Yunas-Marahat-bachi, Haji-Abdul and Murza-Akhat-mushi.

The emir brought with him a lot of valuable materials, jewelry and horses for gifts, and the cost of everything brought, part of which arrived in the summer, is estimated at 2 million rubles.

Bukhara before and now. History reference.
Niva, 1893, No. 4, p. 94, 95

Comparison of the former state of Bukhara with the present can serve as a striking example of the enormous influence of civilization that it can have on the structure and life of the state. In the forties, Bukhara represented the pure type of Asiatic despotic kingdom. Any of the relatives of the ruler, incurring suspicion of not sympathizing with his system of government, was immediately eliminated. Most often he was imprisoned in disgusting underground prisons, very common then in Bukhara. The emir Seyid-Nassr-Ulla, the grandfather of the current emir, acted in the same way. He eliminated all adherents of a strong party opposed to him, including Kush-Begi, Gakim-Bai and Ayatsa-Bai. During the reign of Seyid-Nassr-Ulla, Bukhara occupied a central and main place among the surrounding khanates. Therefore, it is quite understandable that Russia and England paid attention to it. England wanted at all costs to subjugate the emir to her influence and restore him against Russia. All her intrigues, however, were unsuccessful. They even ended very sadly for her diplomatic agents, Colonel Stoddart and Conolly. Both of them paid with their lives for their diplomatic inexperience and partly disregard for the mores and customs of the local population. They endured a painful prison sentence and remained alive for the time being, thanks only to the intercession of the Russian diplomatic agent Butenev. Stoddart was forced to convert to Islam out of fear.

Following the departure of Bugenev, Emir Seid-Nassr-Ulla received the news that all British troops in Afghanistan had been destroyed. Realizing that now there was nothing to be afraid of England, he ordered, on June 17, 1842, that these two unfortunate Englishmen be put to shameful execution in the square. They were brought there from prison. Colonel Stoddart was the first to be beheaded. Then the executioner stopped, knowing that Conolly had been promised life if he converted to Islam. But Conolly, noticing this, said contemptuously: “Stoddart became a Muslim and you still executed him. I'm ready to die." With these words, he coolly offered his neck to the executioner, who with one blow separated his head from his body.

In 1860, after the death of the emir, he was succeeded by his son, Seyid Motsaffar Eddin Khan. As the guardian of the minor Kokand Khan, in the rank of Tamerlane's successor, suzerain of other khanates, and, finally, as a zealot of the Mohammedan faith, in 1865 he joined the war of the Kokand people against General Chernyaev. The emir continued this war with the successors of Chernyaev, generals: Romanovsky in 1865, Kryzhanovsky and Manteuffel in 1867, Count Vorontsov-Dashkov in 1867 and von Kaufmann in 1886. Their victories over the emir led to the conclusion of peace, finally breaking the military pride of the Bukharians. Since that time, friendly relations between Russia and Bukhara began to be established. Little by little, the emir became convinced both of the disinterestedness of these relations, and of the strength and power of our homeland. When his eldest son and heir Abul-Melin-Kati-Tiur rebelled against him, wanting to overthrow him from the throne, Russia, in the person of General Abramov, with his detachment, rendered him active assistance - returned to him by armed force the possessions of Shari seized from him. Siabts, Kitab and Kasshi. This finally made him lose all faith in England's false intimidation against Russia. After all these events, together with the accession to the throne of the current emir, a new, bright, peaceful period of her life begins for Bukhara.

Emir Seyid-Abdul-Akhat-Khan took control of the country, which was in a miserable, chaotic state. His energetic nature did not give way. the prevailing order of things and gave him the strength to radically transform his state on the basis of humanity and justice. He drew attention to the prevailing in the country bribery, embezzlement, burdening the people with unbearable taxes and taxes, terrible injustice in the courts and other ulcers of the state organism. Emir Seid-Mozaffar-Eddin, his father, who was completely reconciled with all the troubles in the country, died on October 31, 1885. From that time on, the current emir, then a young man of 28 years old, began to rebuild the state in his own way. At first, he met energetic resistance from the former adherents of his father and the clergy. His only support was the confidence that Russia would help him in his civilizing activities, especially since her activities in Asia were of exactly the same nature. Firmly relying on Russia, he ignored all threats from the most influential and closest people, he boldly and unceasingly followed the path of beneficent reforms. The first order of this kind was the abolition of slavery for all time in all provinces. From ten thousand, mostly Persians, the heavy fetters of slavery fell off. His second measure was the order to bring the army to the number of 13,000 people, constituting 13 infantry battalions, 800 people. artillery with 155 guns, 2,000 irregular horsemen and 4 squadrons of cavalry. These two measures were followed by the order to fill in the tsindana (underground pits and dungeons), where criminals and victims of the wrath of the rulers languished, and to fill in and lay stones at the siah-gara or kenne-khane (black well), which served as the underground Bastille, in which they writhed from torture unfortunate prisoners. In this regard, torture was abolished, and the death penalty was significantly limited. In addition, he took a lot of measures to raise people's morality by prohibiting the use of opium and other narcotic plants (Kunara-Nasha) and stopping the immoral dances of bachy (boys). Then he created a whole series of orders for the destruction of bribery and usury, with the threat of subjecting those responsible to punishment and a fine. Thus, the emir achieved that the population was convinced of the benefits of his innovations and took his side. Having brought the affairs of the state into some order, the emir wished, in 1886, that Russia would send its special diplomatic agent to Bukhara, as a sign of the special favor of the Sovereign Emperor to him. His wish was fulfilled, and Charikov was appointed such an agent, later replaced by the famous explorer of Central Asia P.M. Lessar.

In this way, trade relations between Russia and Bukhara began, and the latter found a place for the sale of its raw products. In addition, thanks to the laying of the Trans-Caspian railway through Bukhara, but along its entire railroad, villages and factories for processing Bukhara wool and silk arose. At the same time, Bukhara was connected by a telegraph network with Russia. All this strengthened Russia's relations with Bukhara as closely as possible and at the same time forced everyone to change their view of Bukhara as a country dominated by arbitrariness and lawlessness. Bukhara is growing higher and higher every day in the row of district khanates, and under the rule of such an energetic and intelligent monarch as the present Emir, it has all the makings for future brilliant prosperity.

G.B. Our colonies. New-Bukhara.
Niva, 1899, No. 13, p.

New-Bukhara, - a Russian settlement in the eastern part of the Bukhara Khanate, 12 versts to the south-east. from the city of Bukhara, at the Trans-Caspian railway, in the area of ​​Kogan, located at an altitude of 235 meters above the sea, was founded in 1888. Ten years ago this area was a wild steppe, and now there are 2,500 inhabitants in Novaya Bukhara.

Twelve versts from the khan's capital of Bukhara, along the Karshi tract, a desert steppe lay in a strip - a plain: the earth densely saturated with salt is completely barren. With the cessation of spring rains, the salt marsh accumulated on the surface of the soil is deposited and, drying up, covers the steppe with a hard, grayish-white bark; the earth takes on a deathly pale tone. In such places, only occasionally does a bright green thorn, camel's manna, break through the salt marsh... This plant is so unpretentious and tenacious, its grassy stem is so strong and resilient that in Bukhara one can often observe how from under the plaster of a recently rebuilt building , suddenly a tender, pale green, ugly branch of a thorn with thin, sharp thorns breaks into the light of God. Only the mighty power of this wild plant, with creeping bushes of bright greenery in places, enlivens the overwhelming lifelessness of the saline steppe.

When the Trans-Caspian railway was being built, here in 1888, the “Bukhara” station was opened - and, as the nearest point of the railway to Bukhara, the station was revived by the influx of people along the railway on the one hand and the influx of the native population on the other. Station "Bukhara" has become a major cargo point. From all sides different luggage arrives here in whole batches. A transport and commercial and industrial company is starting up warehouses near the station, opening their offices. The hitherto desolate area revived unusually. Here railway buildings were built, huts were somehow molded there, wooden huts were hastily knocked together - temporary dwellings of people. Immediately, in a clumsy hut - in a dirty wagon - under a felt canopy, a buffet opened, a food shop, clothing stores, various trades were started ...

On June 23, 1888 (according to the Muslim account, on the 25th shaval, 1305), the Russian government signed an agreement on the establishment of Russian settlements in the Bukhara Khanate at railway stations and steamship piers, and in the same year, the Russian colony “New Bukhara” was founded in the Kogan area . Here were laid the houses of the Russian Imperial Political Agency in Bukhara, whose residence used to be in the Khan's capital. The Bukhara government started the construction of the Gostiny Dvor, which now gives its owner a good profit. Various entrepreneurs, commercial and industrial companies and individuals quickly began to buy land in the nascent city and build. By virtue of the aforementioned contractual agreement, the land is sold from the Bukhara government, but the price is about 50 kopecks. (three Bukhara tents) per sq.m. fathom. A purchase of a fortress for possession is made through a political agency.

By the way, we note that the purchase of plots here was for some time a specially commercial enterprise for other resourceful people: they bought, by choice, the best places and then resold them for a triple price.

In 1890, there were already several transport offices, several shops and shops, a post and telegraph office in Novaya-Bukhara; in 1892, an Orthodox church arose, a parish school was opened and a world court was established, and in 1894 a branch of a state bank and then a customs office were opened.

Management in the city is administrative and police. An official appointed by the Turkestan governor-general represents here the police, and administrative, and judicial-executive authorities, and is in charge of the city economy. The annual budget of the city government in the first years after the founding of Novaya Bukhara reached 2,000 rubles, and now it exceeds 12 thousand. The main sources of urban income are privately owned immovable property, trade, industry, and carting. More than 300 horses are constantly occupied by carriage for cargo and light communication between Novaya-Bukhara and the Khan's capital. All drivers, in complexity, earn about 600 rubles a day.

A large branch of the local industry is the transport of various goods coming from Russia to Bukhara and back. Four transport offices of different companies operate here: “Nadezhda”, “Caucasus and Mercury”, “Eastern Society” and “Russian Society”; These offices have their branches and agents in Old Bukhara and other places of the Khanate. Bukhara mainly exports cotton, wool, leather, intestines. Five steam factories in Novaya-Bukhara process cotton; they clean it on special machines (guzlomka and gin) from the husk and seeds and press it into a bale for shipment to Russia. A pood of pressed cotton is equal in volume to one cubic foot—that's how tightly it's pressed. More than a million poods of cotton are processed annually in Novaya-Bukhara, partly going to Moscow, partly to Lodz. A lot of old cotton (wool), which was already in use, is also taken out of here. Worn-out and unusable wadded robes, blankets, mattresses, pillows and all sorts of wadded waste produce about 50,000 poods of this material a year. This rubbish is bought up in Bukhara for next to nothing, about 40 kopecks. pood, and it goes into production on a par with pure cotton. In Łódź, at Poznansky's factories, bumazeya (warm cloth) is made from old cotton, and the last waste is processed into lower-grade cotton wool, which is sold in Russia at 25-10 kopecks per pood.

Industry in New-Bukhara is not developed. Despite the good quality of the local grapes and their abundant harvests, the only winery of the merchant Bakhtadze is still in the city, producing about 7,000 buckets of cheap grape wine per year. Several small industrialists make up to 2 thousand buckets of wine in a handicraft way.

The match factory produces matches worth about 50,000 rubles; the tobacco factory does not have much demand for its products. Craft establishments serve only for local orders. They bring here from Russia mainly sugar, kerosene, iron, building materials *) manufactory and haberdashery goods. The city has several good shops with different goods; two good hotels with rooms are kept very decently, quite in a European way. There is a social club, a public library and reading room, a printing house and a bookbinding workshop. On holidays, folk readings with foggy pictures are held in the parish school.

The primary element of the population in the city are officials, then agents and clerks of various commercial and industrial firms, in general the people are servicemen and, probably, as a result of this, there is no social life in the city, no incentives for social activity. They live - the majority with a good income, but everything is monotonous and boring. The composition of the population is extremely diverse in terms of nationalities. Thus, out of 2,500 inhabitants, there are: 545 Russians, 50 Poles, 30 Germans, 10 Greeks, 40 Georgians and Ossetians, 155 Armenians, 115 Kirghiz, 345 Jews, 345 Persians and 865 Sarts; of this number 1,939 are men, 284 are women and 277 are children. The difference between the male and female gender is striking: there are almost 7 men for one woman.

Novaya-Bukhara spreads wide, it stretches for two versts along the railway line, opposite the Bukhara railway station. This is the main part of the city, where all state and private institutions, commercial and industrial establishments and shops are located, and on the other side of the railway there are factories and plants, military barracks and several private houses. Immediately, a little further away, a hundred sazhens along the Bukhara highway from the station rises the rich palace of the Emir of Bukhara, the construction of which cost 300,000 rubles. The palace was built in the Moorish style, but not quite seasoned. Rich decorations of alabaster and many columns and turrets give it a very distinctive look. Around the palace there is an extensive park with a variety of tree species, decorative and fruit.

Until now, however, the city has retained the character of scattered and unfinished buildings. On the space of two squares. versts (500,000 sazhens) are spread out to the sides in less than a hundred yard places: entire sections lie wasteland, without any buildings, and correctly divided, straight streets are lost in places in empty space. Now there are only 113 houses in the city, big and small. The houses are almost exclusively brick, one-story, with flat Asian roofs; most are given over to plastering. Raw brick, often used as a cheap material, is often used for buildings, but buildings made of such material are always damp and not durable; in three or four years they are already destroyed. Buildings made of baked bricks are also exposed, although not so quickly, to the destructive influence of the sun. The particles of the sun contained in the brick mass are saturated in wet weather with atmospheric moisture, which expands from frost in winter, destroying the brick mass: the brick becomes porous, loose and unstable. The only stone building in the city is the house of the merchant Bakhtadze, built of hewn limestone and costing more than 40 thousand rubles. There are no more than fifty houses that are well arranged with good apartments, in a European way, where the apartments have wooden painted floors and the walls are covered with wallpaper. A significant part of the houses is poorly arranged: cheap apartments of such houses on brick and earthen floors are uncomfortable and not hygienic.

Near the streets in the city during the rains and in winter they are covered with deep mud; the loess soil turns into greasy, sticky mud and literally forms a swamp ... There is so much salt in this mud that when it dries, the streets are covered with a thick white coating, and it seems as if it had just snowed. Shoes soaked in mud, drying out, are covered with salt hoarfrost, consisting of needle-shaped crystals. Due to the scattered houses, there are no sidewalks on other streets at all. Some streets are densely lined with trees. The boulevard street leading from the station to the city is paved with stone. Along this street in the middle of the city, the city garden is beautifully spread, which, with careful care, is well maintained and represents summer time the best decoration of the city.

Breeding plants is worth a lot of work here. Planted trees on salty soil are not accepted, perish and are replaced by new ones every year, until the soil under the trees is freed from solonetz through careful loosening and leaching by repeated and abundant flooding with water. The city suffers a great need in the summer, from a lack of water for irrigation. There is no rain at all in the summer, and the water, carried out for 20 versts through the diversion channel from the Zeravshan River, is allowed into the city only once a week for two days: on these two days, the townspeople use water according to a special schedule. Shallow canals were built along the city streets, and swimming pools (in Sart, hauz) were built in the courtyards of the homeowners, connected by pipes to the city canal. During the water flow, each homeowner opens the sluice of his water pipe for a certain hour and lets water into the yard pool. The water from the pool is used for various yard needs, but it is not suitable for drinking, as it is muddy and dirty. In the very drought, when there is little water, the sluices at the water pipes are locked and the keys are kept by the city gardener, who is in charge of the passage and distribution of water supply - so as not to give one much and not leave others completely without water.

Due to lack of water, the streets are not watered and the dust in the city is terrible, salty and caustic; thin as powder, light as fluff, it rises high into the air and stands over the city in a white cloud. In summer, a northeasterly wind blows almost constantly during the day; strong gusts of it sweep in the form of a hurricane. Then even in the houses there is no escape from dust, as the air penetrates imperceptible wells and during the day everything in the house is covered with a light white coating. But often there are wonderful summer nights. The wind usually subsides in the evening, the temperature sometimes drops to 160 R, the dust settles ... Clean, dry air, coolness and a completely cloudless sky ...

The climate in New-Bukhara is hot, extremely dry and highly variable. The highest temperature in summer (according to Réaumur) is +18, the lowest is +16; in winter, the highest +13, the lowest -16; average annual -18. Summers are extremely dry, winters are damp. The air humidity in summer at noon is 0, at night 25 - 10, and in winter: during the day 65, at night 75 - 80. The average number of days with rain and snow per year is about 50. Snow occurs at the end of December, in January and February, but does not lie melts long and fast. The seasons do not differ in characteristic changes: hot summer imperceptibly passes into winter.

The summer heat has a relaxing effect on the human body: a severe fever rages from time to time all summer, various inflammatory diseases appear in autumn and spring: pneumonia, typhoid fever, bronchitis, and so on. But still, in comparison with other cities of the Transcaspian region - in climatic and sanitary terms - a great advantage remains with New Bukhara.

In the Khanate of Bukhara, in addition to N.-Bukhara, there are two more Russian colonies - New-Chardzhui and Kerki on the Amu-Darya River.

The article by A.G. Nedvetsky was supplemented by the site "Library of Khurshid Davron" ("Khurshid Davron kutubkhonasi"

(Tashriflar: umumiy 2 563, bugungi 1)

“Take history away from the people - and in a generation it will turn into a crowd, and in another generation they can be controlled like a herd”

Paul J. Goebbels.

The city of Bukhara, its gates, quarters, mosques, schools. School founded by Empress Catherine. Their purpose is to be a hotbed of fanaticism, not learning. Bazaars. The police system is stricter than anywhere else in Asia. Bukhara Khanate. Inhabitants: Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kirghiz, Arabs, Mervians, Persians, Indians, Jews. Control. Various officials. political division. Army. Essay on the history of Bukhara.

I was told that it would take a whole day to go around Bukhara, but in fact it turned out that in the circumference of Bukhara it takes no more than four miles. Although its environs are well cultivated, Khiva still surpasses Bukhara in this respect.
There are 11 gates in the city: Darvaza-Imam, Darvaza-Mazar, Darvaza-Samarkand, Darvaza-Oglan, Darvaza-Talipach, Darvaza-Shirgiran, Darvaza-Karakol, Darvaza-Sheikh-Jalal, Darvaza-Namazgah, Darvaza-Salahane, Darvaza-Karshi .
It is divided into two main parts: Deruni-Shahr (inner city) and Beruni-Shahr (outer city) and into various quarters, of which the most significant mahalla is Juybar, Khiaban, Mirekan, Malkushan, Sabungiran.
The reader has already formed an idea of ​​the public buildings and squares of the city from the previous chapter, but nevertheless we will try to present our notes on this subject.

History of Bukhara.

The founder of Bukhara is Afrasiab, the great Turanian warrior. Various fables replace early history, and we can only conclude that the Turkic hordes from ancient times were a storm of those places whose Persian population was separated from their Iranian brothers already in the time of the Pishdadids.
The first thread of the real story begins with the time of the Arab occupation, and we can only regret that the brave adventurers left no other information than that scattered in the "Tarihi Tabari" and some other Arabic sources. Islam could not so easily take root in Maverannahr (the country between the Oxus and Jaxarth rivers) as in other countries, and the Arabs had to constantly repeat the appeal to new faith as soon as they returned to the cities after a long absence.

Before the conquest by Genghis Khan (1220) of Bukhara and Samarkand, as well as the cities of Merv (Merv-i Shah-i Jihan, i.e. Merv, the king of the world), Karshi (Nakhsheb) and Balkh (Umm-ul-Bilad, i.e. the mother of the government, and Timur, the lame conqueror of the world from Shahrisyabz (Green City), wished to make Samarka-gorods) belonged to Persia, despite the fact that the province of Khorasan, as it was then called, was issued from Baghdad with a special firman on investiture.
With the invasion of the Mongols, the Persian element was completely supplanted by the Turkic, and the Uzbeks everywhere seized the reins and the capital of all Asia. But his plans died with him, and the history of the khanate itself begins with the house of Sheibani, whose founder Abulkhair Khan broke the power of the Timurids in their own states. His grandson Sheibani Muhammad Khan expanded the borders of Bukhara from Khujand to Herat, but when he wanted to capture Mashhad, he was defeated by Shah Ismail and died in battle in 916 (1510)
One of his most capable successors was Abdulla Khan (born in 1544). He reconquered Badakhshan, Herat and Mashhad, and thanks to his concern for the development of culture and trade, he deserves to be placed next to the great ruler of Persia, Shah Abbas II. During his reign, there were caravanserais and beautiful bridges on the roads of Bukhara, and cisterns in the deserts; all the ruins of such structures bear his name.
His son Abd al-Mumin did not stay on the throne for long, he was killed (1004 (1595)]. After the invasion of the Persian leader Tekel, who devastated everything in its path, the last descendants of the Sheibanids soon died. In a series of long turmoil and civil wars that followed the main contenders who contested the throne were Vali Mohammed Khan, a distant relative of Sheibani on the collateral line, and Baki Mohammed.
After Baki Mohammed fell in battle near Samarkand in 1025 (1616), Vali Mohammed Khan founded his own dynasty, which, as they say, existed before Abu-l-Faiz Khan, who begged Nadir Shah for peace (1740). .). During this period, Imam Quli Khan and Nasir Muhammad Khan (1650) stood out more than other rulers. Their generous support of the Ishan class greatly contributed to the fact that religious fanaticism in Bukhara and even throughout Turkestan rose to a level that it had never reached anywhere and never in the entire history of Islam.
Abu-l-Fayz Khan and his son were treacherously killed by their vizier Rahim Khan. After the death of the killer, who continued to independently rule the state as a vizier, Daniyal-biy seized power, followed by the emirs Shah Murad, Said Khan and Nasrullah Khan.
Since the history of the last three rulers has already been told by Malcolm, Burns and Khanykov, and we could add little new, we will no longer follow the events of this era, but rather talk in the next chapter about the wars waged by Bukhara and Kokand in the last three decades.

Mosques of Bukhara.

Bukharians say that there are 360 ​​large and small mosques in their hometown, so that a pious Muslim can go to a new mosque every day for entertainment. I was able to find hardly half of the number named, of which only deserve mention:
1) Masjidi-Kalyan, built by Timur and restored by Abdullah Khan. Here the emir, with a large crowd of people, performs a Friday prayer,
2) Masjidi-Divanbegi, which was ordered to be built in 1029 (1629) by a certain Nasr, Divanbegi (Secretary of State) of Emir Imam Kuli Khan, along with the pond of the same name and madrasah,
3) Mirekan,
4) Masjidi-Mogak, underground, where, according to legend, some say, the first Muslims gathered, according to others, the last fire worshipers. The first version seems to me more correct, because, firstly, fire worshipers could find a suitable place outside the city in the open air, and secondly, many Kufic writings testify to their Islamic origin.

Madrasah (school) of Bukhara.

Bukharians also like to show off a lot of madrasahs and again name their favorite number - 360, although there are no more than 80 of them. The most famous are:
1) Kukeltash madrasah, built in 1426, it has 150 hujras, and each costs 100-120 till. (After the madrasah is built, the hujras are given away for free, but in the future they can only be purchased for a certain price.) First-class students have an annual income of 5 till;
2) Mirarab madrasah, built in 1529, it has 100 hujras, each costs 80-90 till and gives 7 till of income;
3) Kosh-madrasah of Abdullah Khan, built in 1572, it also has about 100 hujras, but they are cheaper than in previous madrasahs;
4) Djuibar Madrasah, built in 1582 by the grandson of the great scientist and ascetic of the same name. It receives the richest content, since each hujra gives 25 tills of income, but there are few people in it, because it stands on the outskirts of the city;
5) Tursinjan madrasah, where each hujra has an annual income of 5 tills;
6) the Ernazar madrasah, which Empress Catherine ordered to establish through her envoy, there are 60 hujras in it, and each gives an income of 3 tills.
In general, it was the schools of Bukhara and Samarkand that were the reason for the prevailing idea of ​​extraordinary scholarship. higher schools Central Asia, which for a long time existed not only in the countries of Islam, but even here, in Europe. A superficial observer could easily take the willingness to donate in the construction of such establishments as a sign of lofty motives.
Unfortunately, blind fanaticism lies at the basis of all these motives; both in the Middle Ages and now in these schools, in addition to the principles of logic (mantika) and philosophy (hikmet), only the Koran and questions of religion are studied. (Sometimes it happens that some people want to take up poetry or history, but they have to do it in secret, as it is considered shameful to waste time on such trifles.).
I was told that the total number of disciples was five thousand. They flock here not only from all corners of Central Asia, but also from India, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Russia and China. The poorest receive an annual stipend from the emir, because thanks to the madrasah and the strict observance of Islam, Bukhara exerts such a powerful influence on all neighboring countries.

Bazaars of Bukhara.

You will not find such bazaars as in the main cities of Persia here. Only a few of them have arches and are built of stone, the largest are covered with wood or reed mats laid on long poles.
There are several markets:
Tim-i Abdullah Khan, built after the Persian model by the ruler of the same name after his return from Mashhad (1582);
Restei-suzengeran, where they sell sewing supplies; Restei-Sarrafan, where money-changers and booksellers stand;
Restei-Sergeran - goldsmiths; Restei-Chilingeran - the place of locksmiths;
Restei-Attari - spice merchants;
Restais-Kannadi-traders of sugar and sweets;
Restais-Tea-furushi-tea merchants;
Restei-Chitfurushi, Bazari-Latta, where linen merchants are located;
Timche-Darayfurushi, where the grocers stand, etc. Each bazaar has its own headman, who is responsible to the emir for order and prices. In addition to the bazaars, there are about 30 small caravanserais, which partly serve as warehouses for storing goods, partly are used as housing for visitors.

Bukhara police.

Bukhara has the strictest police of all Asian cities known to us. During the day, the rais himself travels around the bazaars and public places, or sends numerous policemen and spies there, and about two hours after sunset, no one dares to appear on the street anymore.
A neighbor cannot visit a neighbor, and the patient is forced to die because there is no medicine, since the emir gave permission to arrest even himself if mirshabs (night watchmen) meet him on the street at a forbidden time.

Bukhara Khanate.

Residents of the Bukhara Khanate. At present, the khanate borders in the east with the Kokand khanate and the cities of Badakhshan, in the south, along the Oxus, with the regions of Kerki and Chardzhou lying on its other bank, in the west and north the border forms the Great Desert.
The borders cannot be considered established, and it is impossible to determine the number of inhabitants. Without exaggeration, one can name the figure of 2.5 million. The inhabitants are divided into settled and nomads, and by nationality - into Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kirghiz, Arabs, Mervtsy, Persians, Hindus and Jews.
1. Uzbeks. They consist of the same 32 tribes that we listed in the section on Khiva, but differ markedly from their fellow tribesmen in Khorezm both in face and character. The Bukhara Uzbeks lived in closer contact with the Tajiks than the Khiva Uzbeks with the Sarts, and at the same time lost many features of the national type and the modest simplicity characteristic of the Uzbeks. The Uzbeks are the ruling people in the khanate, since the emir himself is also an Uzbek from the Mangyt tribe, and therefore they make up the country's armed forces, although the highest officers very rarely come out of their ranks.
2. Tajiks, indigenous people of all cities of Central Asia; there are most of them here, so Bukhara is the only place where a Tajik is proud of his nationality. He considers the boundaries of his former fatherland, ancient Khorasan, (Chor in the ancient Persian language means "sun", son - "region", Chorasan means, thus, "sunny country", i.e. East.) in the east of Khotan (in China ), in the west - the Caspian Sea, in the north - Khujand, in the south - India.
3. Kirghiz,(Kir means "field", giz or ges - the root of the verb gismek, i.e. "wander", "wander". The word "Kyrgyz" means in Turkic, thus, "a person wandering in the field", "nomad" and is applied as a common name to all peoples living in this way.
The word "Kyrgyz", of course, is also used as a designation for a tribe, but only for a subgroup of Kazakhs living in Kokand in the vicinity of Khazreti-Turkestan.) Or Kazakhs, as they call themselves.
There are very few of them in the Bukhara Khanate, however, taking this opportunity, we will present our modest notes about this people, the largest in number and the most remarkable in Central Asia in terms of the originality of nomadic life.
During my wanderings, I often met separate groups of Kirghiz wagons, but when I tried to find out from the inhabitants about their number, they always laughed at my question and answered: "First, count the grains of sand in the desert, then you can count us, the Kirghiz."
It is also impossible to determine the boundaries of their residence. We know that they live in the Great Desert lying between Siberia, China, Turkestan and the Caspian Sea, and this area, as well as their social conditions, sufficiently prove how wrong it is to transfer the Kirghiz under either Russian or Chinese rule. Russia, China, Kokand, Bukhara or Khiva rule over the Kirghiz only as long as their officers, sent to collect taxes, live among the nomads. The Kirghiz look upon the collection of taxes as a gigantic foray, to which they should be grateful that the collectors are content with a tenth or some other part.
Since the revolutions that have taken place in the world for centuries, and perhaps even millennia, have had very little effect on the Kirghiz, among this people, who we met only in small groups, one can find a true picture of those mores and customs that characterized the Turanian peoples in ancient times and which are a bizarre mixture of virtue and cruelty.
The strong attraction of all these peoples to music and poetry is striking, but their aristocratic pride makes the greatest impression. If two Kirghiz meet, the first question they ask each other is: "Yeti atang kimdir?", i.e. "Who are your seven fathers (ancestors)?" The one who is asked, even a child in the eighth year, always knows the exact answer, otherwise he will be considered extremely ill-mannered and undeveloped.
In regard to bravery, the Kirghiz are far behind the Uzbeks, and especially the Turkmens; and Islam among them has a more shaky foundation than among the last two peoples. Usually only wealthy beys hire a mullah in the cities, who, for a certain salary paid in sheep, horses and camels, takes the place of teacher, clergyman and secretary.

For us, Europeans, the Kirghiz, even if contacts with them were frequent, are always an amazing phenomenon. Before us appear people who daily, in scorching heat or in deep snow, wander for several hours with all their belongings, looking for a new refuge, again, only for a few hours; these are people who have never heard of the existence of bread, all their food consists only of milk and meat.
The Kirghiz considers the inhabitants of cities and all other people living in one place to be sick or crazy and pities all those who do not have a Mongolian type of face. According to his aesthetic concepts, the Mongolian race is the highest manifestation of beauty, since God, pushing forward the facial bones, made its representatives look like a horse, and the horse in the eyes of the Kirghiz is the crown of creation.
4. Arabs. These are the descendants of those warriors who under Kuteib, during the third caliph, participated in the conquest of Turkestan and subsequently settled there. However, apart from facial features, they retained little from their brothers living in the Hijaz and Iraq. Only a few, I found, speak Arabic. Their number, according to rumors, reaches 60 thousand. Most of them are residents of the surroundings of Vardanzi and Vafkend.
5. Dead people. These are the descendants of those 40 thousand Persians, whom Emir Saidkhan around 1810, after the conquest of Merv with the help of the Saryks, resettled in Bukhara. In their origin, in fact, these are the Turks from Azerbaijan and Karabakh, whom Nadir Shah brought from their old homeland to Merv.
6. Persians. Partly they are slaves, and partly those who, having redeemed themselves, remained to live in Bukhara, where, despite all sorts of religious oppression, since they can only secretly perform the rites of the Shiite sect, they are willingly engaged in trade or crafts, because life is cheaper here, and it is easier to earn money than in their homeland.
The Persians, who are far superior in mental abilities to the inhabitants of Central Asia, usually rise from their slave position to the highest official positions; there is almost no provincial governor who has not been occupied in one position or another by Persians who were previously his slaves and remained loyal to him; Persians also swarmed around the Emir, and the first dignitaries of the Khanate belonged to this nation.
In Bukhara, the Persians are considered people who communicated more with the Frengi and better comprehended their diabolical mindset. However, Emir Muzaffar ad-Din would have had a hard time if Persia had taken it into his head to threaten him with an invasion, as it had already happened, because he would hardly have achieved much with an army where the commandants of the garrisons were Shakhurkh Khan and Muhammad Hasan Khan, and topchubashi (heads of artillery) - Beynel-bek, Mehdi-bek and Leshker-bek; all five are Persians.
7. Hindus. True, there are only about 500 of them; they live scattered, without families, in the capital and provinces, and in some amazing way they hold the entire money circulation in their hands.
There is not a single bazaar in any village where a Hindu usurer has not appeared with his sack. Showing the deepest humility, like an Armenian in Turkey, he terribly robs an Uzbek, and since the pious qadi mostly has common affairs with a fan of Vishnu, he often becomes his victim.
8. Jews. There are about 10 thousand of them in the khanate. They mainly live in Bukhara, Samarkand and Karshi and are more engaged in handicrafts than trade. By origin, these are Persian Jews, namely from the first captivity.
They moved here 150 years ago from Qazvin and Merv and live in the greatest oppression, despised by all. They do not dare to go further than the threshold when they come to the faithful, but if he comes to the Jew, then the Jew hastily leaves his own house and stands at the door. In the city of Bukhara, they annually pay 2,000 tills of jizya (tribute).
This amount is delivered by the head of the community; at the same time, he receives for the whole community two light slaps in the face, prescribed by the Koran in the form of a sign of humility. Having heard about the privileges granted to Jews in Turkey, some of them left for Damascus and other parts of Syria, but this happened in deep secrecy, since in the usual case the desire to emigrate is punishable by confiscation of property or death.
It is amazing that they maintain postal communication through the hajjis who annually depart from Turkestan to Mecca; my companions also brought several letters and all of them were delivered to the addressees.

Administration of the Bukhara Khanate.

The form of government in Bukhara has retained very few ancient Persian or Arabic features, as the Turkic-Mongolian element predominates. The state structure, based on a hierarchical system, is military in nature, at the top of power is the emir as a generalissimo, ruler and religious head.
The military and civilian authorities are divided into the following groups: a) katta-sipahi, i.e. senior officials, b) orta-sipahis, i.e. middle officials and c) ashags-sipahis (sabits).
In the first two groups, in accordance with the rules, only urukdars should be accepted, i.e. representatives of noble families, as they enter their office by label, i.e. written order, and billig, (Yarlyk and billig are ancient Turkic words. The first means "letter", "writing"; the root is jer, Hungarian ir, Turkish jas.
The second means "sign", in Hungarian belyeg.) i.e. sign; but Persians, who were formerly slaves, have also been honored with these positions for a long time. The following list lists all the ranks, in the order they come from the emir and down.
capa-sipahi…
1) Atalik
2) divanbegi (Secretary of State)
3) parvanachi, more correctly farmanachi or farmanchi, the bearer of the khan's decree orta-sipahi ...
4) tokhsaba, actually tugsakhibi, i.e. "bearing like a banner, tight" (ponytail)
5) otherwise
6) mirahur (master of the ring) ashags-sipahis (sabits) ...
7) chukhragashi, actually chekhreagasi, i.e. "facial", because during public audiences he stands opposite the emir
8) mirza-bashi (senior clerk)
9) yasaulbegi and karagulbegi
10) yuzbashi
11) Punjabashi
12) onbashi
In addition to those listed, we should also mention those who are part of the emir's court staff. Here the top is made up of kushbegi (vizir), mehter, dostorkhonchi (head waiter) and zekatchi (tax collector). Zakatchi acts simultaneously as the minister of finance and the emir's majordomo.
Then follows the mehrems (personal servants), whose number increases or decreases depending on the circumstances; they are also sent as emergency commissioners to the provinces. Any subject dissatisfied with the decision of the governor can apply to the emir, after which he is appointed a mehrem, who becomes, as it were, his lawyer and goes with him to his province; he investigates the matter and presents it to the emir for a final decision.
In addition, there are also odachi (gatekeeper or master of ceremonies), bakaul (provider) and salamgazi, who during public processions answers the greeting instead of the emir: "Be alaikum es selam."
however, these positions and ranks exist under the present emir only nominally, since he is an enemy of pomp and left many posts unoccupied.

Political division of the Bukhara Khanate.

The political division of the khanate, as in Khiva, corresponds to the number of large cities. Currently, Bukhara consists of the following districts (the order in which they are listed depends on their size and number of inhabitants):
1) Karakol,
2) Bukhara,
3) Karshi,
4) Samarkand,
5) Kerki,
6) Hisar,
7) Miyankal or Kermine,
8) Katta-Kurgan,
9) Charjou,
10) Jizzakh,
11) Ura-Tyube,
12) Shahrisyabz;
the latter is equal in size to Samarkand, but because of its constant enmity with the emir, it can only partially be ranked as a khanate. Governors, who by their rank are divanbegs or parvanachis, receive a certain share of the income of the province they govern, but in exceptional cases they must refuse it. Each governor directly reports tokhsaba, mirza-bashi, yasaulbegi and several mirahurs and chokhragasis.

Armed forces of the Bukhara Khanate.

The permanent army of the khanate consists of 40 thousand horsemen, but can be increased to 60 thousand. The largest contingent is supplied by Karshi and Bukhara; people from Karshi are especially famous for their courage, so they told * * me in Bukhara.
However, I found these data very exaggerated, because during the campaign against Kokand, when his army consisted of at most 30 thousand people, the emir had to maintain auxiliary troops, paying them a considerable salary, which, of course, the stingy Muzaffar al-Din did not would do if the above number were correct. The salary, paid only in wartime, is 20 tenge (16 shillings) per month, for which the rider is obliged to support himself and the horse.
In addition, half of the booty belongs to the warriors. However, it is really incomprehensible why, with such a significant number of subjects, the emir does not gather a larger army, and it is also strange why he does not take auxiliary troops from 50 thousand Ersari, but prefers to go to the teka and even keeps the Saryks in the fate, paying them annually 4,000 salaries.

Roads in the Bukhara Khanate and its environs.

1. From Bukhara to Herat.
Bukhara - Khoshrabad 3 tash, Meimene - Kaisar 4 tash, Khoshrabat - Tekender 5, Kaisar Naryn 6, Tekender - Cherchi 5, Naryn - Chichaktu 6, Cherchi - Karahindi 5, Chichaktu - Kale-Veli 6, Karahindi - Kerki 7, Kale- Veli - Murgab 4, Kerki - Seyyid (well) 8, Murghab - Derbend 3, Derbend - Qalayi-Nau 8, Seyid-Andkhoy 10, Qalayi-Nau-Sarcheshme 9, Andkhoy - Batkak 5, Sarcheshme - Herat 6, Batkak - Meimene 8. Total 08 tashes. This distance can be covered on horseback in 20 to 25 days.
2. From Bukhara to Merv.
You have to get through Chardzhou, there are three different roads from this city through the desert
a) through Rafatak, there is a well on the way, the length of the road is 45 farsakhs;
b) through Uchhaji; on the way there are 2 wells, the length is 40 farsakhs;
c) through Yolkuyu, this is the eastern road 50 farsakhs long.
3. From Bukhara to Samarkand (ordinary road).
Bukhara - Mazar 5 tash, Mir - Katta-Kurgan 5, Mazar - Kermiye 6, Katta-Kurgan - Daula 6, Kermine - Mir 6, Daula - Samarkand 4, Total 32 tash.
On wagons, usually loaded, it takes 6 days to travel along this road; riding a good horse this distance can be covered in 3 days, and couriers travel only 2 days.
4. From Samarkand to Kerka.
Samarkand - Robati House 3 tasha, Karshi - Faizabad 2 tasha, Robati House - Naiman 6, Faizabad - Sangzulak 6, Naiman - Shurkutuk 4, Sangzulak - Kerki 6, Shurkutuk - Karshi 5. Total 32 tasha.
5. From Samarkand to Kokand through Khujand.
Samarkand - Yangi-Kurgan 3 tasha, Nay - Khojent 4 tasha, Yangi-Kurgan - Jizzakh 4, Khojent - Karakchikum 4, Jizzakh - Zamin 5, Karakchikum - Mehrem 2, Zamin - Jam 4, Mehrem - Besharyk 5, Jam - Sabat 4 , Besharyk Kokand 5, Sabat - Oratepe 2. Total 46 tash. Oratepe - Hay 4.
You have to travel 8 days in a wagon along this road, but you can also shorten the path, as is usually the case for the most part, getting from Oratepe directly to Mehrem in 8 hours and winning 6 tashi.
6. From Samarkand to Tashkent and the Russian border:
Samarkand - Yangi-Kurgan 3 tasha, Chinaz - Zengi-Ata 4 tasha, Yangi-Kurgan - Jizzakh 4, Zengi-Ata - Tashkent 6, Jizzakh - Chinaz 16. Total 33 tasha.
From here, another 5 days drive to Kale-Rakhim, where the first Russian fort and the last Cossack outpost are located.

History

background

In the Horde period, the khans of the Golden Horde were the supreme rulers of Crimea, but their governors, emirs, were directly in control. The first formally recognized ruler in the Crimea is Oran-Timur, Batu's nephew, who received this region from Mengu-Timur. The main city of the Crimean Yurt was the city of Kyrym (modern Old Crimea), also known as Solkhat. This name then gradually spread to the entire peninsula. The valley adjacent to Kyrk-Eru and Bakhchisaray became the second center of Crimea.

The multinational population of Crimea then consisted mainly of the Kypchaks, who lived in the steppe and foothill part of the peninsula, whose state was defeated by the Mongols, Greeks, Goths, Alans and Armenians, who lived mainly in cities and mountain villages. The Crimean nobility was mostly of mixed Kypchak-Horde origin.

Horde rule, although it had positive aspects, was generally painful for the Crimean population. In particular, the rulers of the Golden Horde repeatedly staged punitive campaigns in the Crimea, when the local population refused to pay tribute. Nogai's campaign in 1299 is known, as a result of which a number of Crimean cities suffered. Therefore, separatist tendencies began to appear soon after the establishment of Horde power.

There are legends unconfirmed by Crimean sources that in the 14th century Crimea was allegedly repeatedly ravaged by the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd defeated the Crimean Tatar army in 1363 near the mouth of the Dnieper, and then allegedly invaded the Crimea, devastated Chersonese and seized all the valuable church items here. A similar legend also exists about his successor named Vitovt, who in 1397 allegedly reached Kaffa itself in the Crimean campaign and again destroyed Chersonese. Vitovt in Crimean history is also known for the fact that during the Horde turmoil of the end of the 14th century he provided asylum in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to a significant number of Tatars and Karaites, whose descendants now live in Lithuania and the Grodno region of Belarus. In 1399, Vitovt, who came to the aid of Tokhtamysh, was defeated by Emir Timur-Kutluk on the banks of the Vorskla and made peace with Edigey.

gaining independence

Establishment of dependence on the Ottoman state

In the spring of 1482, Tsar Ivan III of Moscow turned through his ambassador in the Crimea to the Crimean Khan Mengli I Gerai with a request to organize a campaign in the Polish lands "to Kiev places." Mengli Giray took Kyiv by storm, devastated and severely destroyed the city. From the rich booty, the Khan sent Ivan III in gratitude a golden chalice and diskos from the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral. In 1474, the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III entered into an alliance with this khan, which lasted until his death. Ivan III patronized trade, for this purpose he maintained especially relations with Kaffa and Azov.

Wars with Muscovy and the Commonwealth in the early period

From the end of the 15th century, the Crimean Khanate made constant raids on Muscovy and Poland. The Crimean Tatars and Nogai mastered the tactics of raids to perfection, choosing the path along the watersheds. The main of their routes to Moscow was the Muravsky Way, which ran from Perekop to Tula between the upper reaches of the rivers of two basins, the Dnieper and the Northern Donets. Deepening into the border area for 100-200 kilometers, the Tatars turned back and, deploying wide wings from the main detachment, were engaged in robbery and capture of slaves. The capture of captives - the yasyr - and the trade in slaves were an important item in the economy of the khanate. The captives were sold to Turkey, the Middle East and even European countries. The Crimean city of Kafa was the main slave market. According to some researchers, more than three million people, mostly Ukrainians, Poles and Russians, were sold in the Crimean slave markets over two centuries. Every year, in the spring, Moscow gathered up to 65,000 warriors to carry out border guard duty on the banks of the Oka until late autumn. Fortified defensive lines were used to protect the country, consisting of a chain of forts and cities, fences and blockages. In the southeast, the oldest of these lines ran along the Oka from Nizhny Novgorod to Serpukhov, from here it turned south to Tula and continued to Kozelsk. The second line, built under Ivan the Terrible, went from the city of Alatyr through Shatsk to Orel, continued to Novgorod-Seversky and turned to Putivl. Under Tsar Fyodor, a third line arose, passing through the cities of Livny, Yelets, Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod. The initial population of these cities consisted of Cossacks, archers and other service people. A large number of Cossacks and service people were part of the guard and stanitsa services, which watched the movement of Crimeans and Nogays in the steppe.

In the Crimea itself, the Tatars left little yasir. According to the old Crimean custom, slaves were released into freedmen after 5-6 years of captivity - there is a number of evidence of Russian and Ukrainian documents about returnees from Perekop, who "worked out." Some of those who were released preferred to stay in the Crimea. There is a well-known case described by the Ukrainian historian Dmitry Yavornytsky, when Ivan Sirko, who attacked the Crimea in 1675, seized huge booty, including about seven thousand Christian captives and freedmen. The ataman turned to them with a question whether they wanted to go with the Cossacks to their homeland or return to the Crimea. Three thousand expressed a desire to stay and Sirko ordered to kill them. Those who changed their faith in slavery were released immediately, since Sharia forbids holding a Muslim in captivity. According to the Russian historian Valery Vozgrin, slavery in the Crimea almost completely disappeared already in the 16th-17th centuries. Most of the captives captured during attacks on the northern neighbors (the peak of their intensity came in the 16th century) were sold to Turkey, where slave labor was widely used mainly in galleys and in construction work.

The last khans and the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire

After the withdrawal of Russian troops, a widespread uprising took place in the Crimea. Turkish troops landed in Alushta; Russian resident in the Crimea Veselitsky was taken prisoner by Khan Shahin and handed over to the Turkish commander in chief. There were attacks on Russian detachments in Alushta, Yalta and other places. The Crimeans elected Devlet IV as Khan. At that time, the text of the Kuchuk-Kainarji Treaty was received from Constantinople. But the Crimeans even now did not want to accept independence and cede the indicated cities in the Crimea to the Russians, and the Porte considered it necessary to enter into new negotiations with Russia. Dolgorukov's successor, Prince Prozorovsky, negotiated with the khan in the most conciliatory tone, but the Murzas and ordinary Crimeans did not hide their sympathy for the Ottoman Empire. Shahin Giray had few supporters. The Russian party in the Crimea was small. But in the Kuban, he was proclaimed a khan, and in 1776 he finally became the khan of the Crimea and entered Bakhchisaray. The people swore to him.

Only now Shahin turned to the Sultan as a caliph, for a blessing letter, and the Port recognized him as a khan, subject to the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Crimea. Meanwhile, in 1782, a new uprising began in the Crimea, and Shakhin was forced to flee to Yenikale, and from there to the Kuban. Bahadir II Giray was elected to the khanate, but was not recognized by Russia. In 1783, Russian troops entered the Crimea without warning. Soon Shahin Gerai abdicated the throne. He was asked to choose a city in Russia for residence and released the amount for his relocation with a small retinue and maintenance. He lived first in Voronezh, and then in Kaluga, from where, at his request and with the consent of the Port, he was released to Turkey and settled on the island of Rhodes, where he was deprived of his life.

There were "small" and "large" sofas, which played a very important role in the life of the state.

The "small sofa" was called the council, if a narrow circle of the nobility took part in it, solving issues that required urgent and specific decisions.

The “Big Divan” is a meeting of the “whole earth”, when all the Murzas and representatives of the “best” black people took part in it. Traditionally, the Karacheis retained the right to sanction the appointment of khans from the Geraev clan as a sultan, which was expressed in the rite of placing them on the throne in Bakhchisarai.

In the state structure of Crimea, the Golden Horde and Ottoman structures of state power were largely used. Most often, the highest government positions were occupied by the sons, brothers of the khan or other persons of noble origin.

The first official after the khan was the kalga-sultan. The Khan's younger brother or another of his relatives was appointed to this position. Kalga ruled the eastern part of the peninsula, the left wing of the khan's army and administered the state in the event of the death of the khan until a new one was appointed to the throne. He was also the commander-in-chief, if the khan did not personally go to war. The second position - Nureddin - was also occupied by a member of the Khan's family. He was the manager of the western part of the peninsula, the chairman in small and local courts, and commanded smaller corps of the right wing on campaigns.

The mufti is the head of the Muslim clergy of Crimea, the interpreter of laws, who has the right to remove judges - qadis, if they judged incorrectly.

Kaymakans - in the late period (end of the 18th century) managing the regions of the khanate. Or-bey - head of the Or-Kapy (Perekop) fortress. Most often, this position was occupied by members of the khan's family, or a member of the Shirin family. He guarded the borders and watched the Nogai hordes outside the Crimea. The positions of the qadi, vizier and other ministers are similar to those in the Ottoman state.

In addition to the above, there were two important women's positions: ana-beim (analogous to the Ottoman post of valide), which was occupied by the mother or sister of the khan, and ulu-beim (ulu-sultani), the eldest wife of the ruling khan. In terms of importance and role in the state, they had a rank following Nureddin.

An important phenomenon in the public life of Crimea was the very strong independence of the noble Bey families, which in some way brought Crimea closer to the Commonwealth. The beys ruled their possessions (beyliks) as semi-independent states, they themselves ruled the court and had their own militia. The beys regularly took part in riots and conspiracies, both against the khan and among themselves, and often wrote denunciations of khans who did not please them to the Ottoman government in Istanbul.

Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

What is known about the Crimean Khanate to an ordinary layman in the expanses of the former Russian Empire? That in Crimea there was a certain state of the Crimean Tatars, ruled by khans and completely dependent on the Ottoman Empire. That in Feodosia (then Cafe) was under the Crimean Khanate the largest market with slaves captured by Krymchaks from Ukraine and Muscovy. That the Crimean Khanate fought for many centuries with the Muscovite state, and later with Russia, and was eventually conquered by Moscow. All this is true.

But it turns out that the Crimean Khanate not only fought and traded Slavic slaves. There were times when Muscovy and the Crimean Khanate were in a friendly strategic alliance, their rulers called each other "brothers", and the Crimean Khan even played a very significant role in the liberation of Russia from Tatar-Mongol yoke, although he was part of the Horde. But little is known about this in Russia.

So, in our review, little-known facts regarding the history of the Crimean Khanate, according to the pages of a new fundamental publication published in Ukraine.

Crimean khans

- Successors of Genghis Khan

The founder of the Crimean Khanate, Hadji Gerai (Reigned 1441-1466).

This portrait in black and white illustrates Oleksa Gaivoronsky's study "Lords of Two Continents", this book will be discussed below.

Actually, the portrait image of the khan is surrounded by some symbols. Here is what Gaivoronsky writes about these symbols in his blog haiworonski.blogspot.com (where this color illustration was published):

"Oak. It symbolizes the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where the founder of the Crimean Khan dynasty was born and lived for a long time. (His family was there in exile - Approx.site)

Owl. One of the symbols of the Geraev family. European heraldic reference books of the 17th-18th centuries. more than once they indicate a black owl on a yellow background as the coat of arms of the rulers of the Crimea, dating back to Genghis Khan.

The illustrations here and below show some portraits of the Crimean khans for the multi-volume "Lords of the Two Continents" by Oleksa Gaivoronsky.

Gaivoronsky pointed out, speaking of this series, made for his multi-volume work by the Kiev artist Yuri Nikitin:

“Four of the nine portraits (Mengli Giray, Devlet Giray, Mehmed II Giray and Gazi II Giray) were painted based on Ottoman miniatures and European engravings of the 16th century depicting the listed rulers.

The remaining five images are a reconstruction created by the artist, taking into account the author’s recommendations, which took into account rare descriptions of the appearance of a particular khan in written sources, and the appearance of his closest relatives captured in medieval graphics, and sometimes indirect data about the Mangyt (Nogai) or Circassian origin of his mother. Portraits do not claim to be documentary authenticity. The purpose of the portrait series is different: to become an adornment of the book and turn the list of khan's names into a constellation of bright individual images.

In 2009, the Kiev-Bakhchisaray publishing house "Oranta" published the second volume of Oleksa Gayvoronsky's multi-volume historical study "Lords of the Two Continents". (The first volume was published in the same place in 2007, and preparations are underway for the publication of the third volume. In total, according to the Ukrainian mass media, five volumes are planned).

Oleksa Gaivoronsky's book is a rather unique publication. It is impossible to recall more such studies in Russian, in which the history of the Crimean Khanate and its ruling dynasty would be described in such detail. Moreover, this was done without the usual for Russian-language books, which describe the history of the Crimean Khanate, a look at events from the “Moscow side”.

The book was written, one might say, from the “Crimean side”. Oleksa Gaivoronsky is the Deputy Director for Science of the Museum of the Bakhchisaray Khan's Palace in Crimea. As he himself says in the preface to his book: "This book is about the Crimea and for the Crimea, but it may be of interest on the other side of Perekop." Written with sympathy for the Crimean Khanate state and its Geraev dynasty (which actually created the Crimean Khanate and ruled it until its subjugation to Russia), the book, despite some of the bias noted above, is nevertheless an outstanding scientific work. And what is more important: the essay distinguishes good light language.

And why such a name: "Lords of the two continents"? And here we finally turn to the exciting topic of the history of the Crimean Khanate based on the materials of the multi-volume work of Gaivoronsky.

A few short excerpts from this still ongoing edition will be included in this review.

“Lords of two continents” is part of the title of the Crimean khans, which fully sounds like “khakan of two seas and sultan of two continents”.

But one should not think that the Crimean khans, when they chose such a title for themselves, were possessed by megalomania. Despite the fact that at times the Crimean Khanate included not only Crimea, but even extended to Tula, and taking into account the dependent territories, extended to Lvov, and at some points in history included Kazan, of course, it could not be called a state of two continents . But it's not just about vanity. The Crimean khans, and in modern Russia this is a little-known fact, were the legal successors of the power of Genghis Khan. Here is how Oleksa Gaivoronsky writes about this in her book (The spelling of proper names and titles is given in the author's version):

“The stratum of the Mongols - the conquerors, as contemporaries wrote, after a few decades completely dissolved among the conquered Turkic peoples. It is not surprising that the empire of Genghis Khan almost immediately after the death of its founder split into several separate states, which, in turn, continued to fragment further. One of these fragments turned out to be the Great Horde (Great Ulus, Ulus of Batu Khan), which owned the Crimea.

Despite the fact that the Mongols very quickly left the main stage of history, they left their system of state government as a legacy to the conquered peoples for a long time.

Similar principles of statehood existed among the ancient Turks centuries before Genghis Khan adopted these customs and united the entire Kypchak Steppe under his rule. (Kypchaks (also called Polovtsy) are a Turkic-speaking nomadic people who occupied vast territories from Hungary to Siberia during their dawn. Ancient Russia sometimes clashed with them, then entered into an alliance - Approx. site).

The cornerstone of this imperious (Genghisid) system was the sacred status of the ruling dynasty and the indisputable authority of the supreme ruler - the kagan (khakan, great khan). This largely explains why in those states that arose on the ruins of the empire, the dynasties of the descendants of Genghis, the last guardians of Mongolian political traditions among foreign subjects (Turks, Iranians, Indians, etc.), were entrenched in power for a long time. There is nothing strange in this: after all, the situation when the ruling dynasty differs in origin from the people subject to it and cultivates the ideals of its distant ancestors is common in world history.

Mongolian state customs did not have much in common with the traditions of the Crimean Tatar people, who, due to the geographical isolation of the peninsula and as Islam spread among its inhabitants, formed in the Crimea from new-settlement Kypchaks, old-timer Kypchaks and inhabitants of mountainous regions - the descendants of the Scythian-Sarmatian, Goth-Alan and Seljuk population. (Sarmatians and Scythians are pastoral Iranian-speaking tribes related to each other, Goto-Alans are tribes of Germanic origin, Seljuk-Turkic people Note site).

Nevertheless, it was on (these Mongolian state) customs that the power rights of the Gerais were based and their foreign policy was largely built - after all, the laws of Genghis were the highest authority for their opponents in the struggle for the independence of Crimea: the last khans of the Great Horde, whose capital stood on Lower Volga (The famous Horde city of Sarai-Batu. Approx. site). No matter how different the Crimea and the Horde Volga region were, their rulers spoke the language of the same symbols and ideas.

The main rival of the house of Geraev was the house of Namagans - another Genghisid branch that occupied the throne of the Horde in the last decades of the existence of a single Batu Ulus. The dispute between the two dynasties over the Crimea was crowned with the victory of the Gerais: in the summer of 1502, the last Horde ruler, Sheikh-Ahmed, was overthrown from the throne by Mengli Gerai.

The winner did not limit himself to the military defeat of the opponent and, in accordance with custom, also appropriated to himself all the regalia of the power of the defeated enemy, proclaiming himself Khan not only of the Crimea, but of the entire Great Horde. Thus, the Crimean Khan formally inherited the rights to all the former Horde possessions - the very “two seas” and “two continents” that were imprinted in his new title. End of quote.

A little about what the Horde was at that time, the ruler of which was the Crimean Khan. First of all, we note that by the time the Crimean Khan reached the status of the ruler of the entire Great Horde, the Horde had long been split into sovereign uluses. But, despite the fragmentation of the Horde, Sheikh-Ahmed, defeated by Mengli Geray, was the last Horde ruler, political dependence on which the Russian state recognized de jure.

Sheikh-Ahmed's father, Khan Akhmat (also spelled Ahmad, Ahmed, or Ahmet) became famous for leading the last campaign of the Golden Horde against Russia in history. During this campaign in 1480, the so-called. “standing on the Ugra River”, when the Golden Horde ruler did not dare to start a battle with the Russian troops advancing towards him, he removed the camp and went to the Horde - and it was then that, according to Russian historiography, the Golden Horde yoke over Russia ended. Nevertheless, already under Sheikh Ahmed in 1501-1502, Tsar Ivan III, busy with the war with Lithuania, expressed his readiness to recognize his dependence and resumed paying tribute to the Horde. Sources note that this step was a diplomatic game, since at the same time Moscow persuaded Crimea to attack the Horde. But formally, it is Sheikh-Ahmed who is the last Khan of the Horde, whose dominance was recognized by Russia.

Sheikh-Amed ruled the Horde state, But not the great Golden Horde, which was once headed by Batu, Tokhtamysh and other powerful khans, but only its fragment - the so-called. Big Horde. The Golden Horde became the "Big" Horde, because. by that time, new Turkic states had broken away from the Horde rule - the former inheritances of the Golden Horde: the Tatar Siberian Khanate and the Nogai Horde (from a people close to modern Kazakhs), as well as Crimea.

The state of the Great Horde was founded by the brother of Sheikh-Ahmed Seyid Ahmed, who became the Horde Khan after the assassination of the unfortunate "Ugrian lodger" Khan Akhmat. Returning from the Ugra, after the campaign, the "Ugra staunch" Khan Akhmat was captured in his tent and killed by a detachment led by the Siberian Khan Ivak and the Nogai bey Yamgurchi.

BUT Crimean khans after the victory over Sheikh-Amed gained a high status and title.

A similar title for the rulers of “two seas and continents” was also worn, as Gaivoronsky writes, by “Byzantine emperors and Ottoman sultans who meant by "two continents" and "two seas" Europe and Asia, the Black and Mediterranean Seas.

In the title of the Crimean Khan, the continents remained the same, but the list of seas has changed: these are the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, along the banks of which the possessions of Ulus Batu Khan once stretched. And in 1515, 13 years after the defeat of Sheikh-Amed, the Crimean Khan Mehmed I Giray, the son of Mengli Giray, even took the title of “Padishah of all the Moguls (Mongols)”, focusing not on the greatness of the Golden Horde khans Batu and Tokhtamysh, but on himself Genghis Khan. After all, once the Golden Horde was singled out as the ulus of Jochi, the eldest son of Genghis Khan.

Crimean Khanate

- the state of the Horde, which was against the Horde

In an illustration from Oleksa Gaivoronsky's blog: a portrait of the Crimean Khan Mengli I Giray (Reigned 1466, 1468-1475, 1478-1515).

Gaivoronsky explains the symbolism of the portrait as follows: “Hand on the sword. The victory of Mengli Giray in 1502 over the last Horde khans put an end to the existence of the Volga Horde. The Crimean Yurt formally became the legal successor of the Golden Horde Empire;

In the design of the picture are present as elements of the lark on the nests. Larks making nests (as a sign of spring) are mentioned in the letter of Mengli Giray, which the khan wrote on the eve of his speech against his Horde rivals in 1502.

Despite the fact that the Crimean khans achieved t itula, which gave them the right to be considered the ruler of the steppes, they were not happy with the remnants of the Horde hordes.

As Oleksa Gaivoronsky notes in her book, the Crimean Khanate saw the main threat to its security from the steppes - residents of the former Golden Horde Ulus but:

“The foreign policy activity of the Crimean Khanate convincingly shows that the Gerai did not set themselves the task of capturing and holding foreign territories. Crimea was famous as a serious force capable of delivering devastating military strikes - however, deliberately seeking to weaken one of the neighboring powers, which at the moment was the most strengthened, the Crimean khans showed no interest in conquering lands and expanding their own borders. The motives of their struggle for the Horde inheritance were different.

If you look at the Crimea from the outside, especially from the "Slavic coast", then in the XV-XVI centuries it looked like a formidable inaccessible fortress, from the sorties of the garrison of which it was only possible to defend oneself with one success or another. However, the picture seen from such a perspective is incomplete, because when viewed from their side of Perekop (the Perekop isthmus connects Crimea with the mainland. The main border fortress of the Crimean khans Or-Kapy (“gate on the moat”) was located there), the Crimean khans were well aware of the vulnerability of their states - another thing is that the threat to him at that time did not come from the Slavic North (which only much later could pose a danger to the Crimea), but from the Horde East.

Al-Omari (the ancient Arab historian) is truly right when he remarked that “the earth prevails over natural features”: the Gerai, whose distant Chingizid ancestors came to rule the Crimean country as conquerors, repeated the experience of all the previous rulers of Taurica and themselves began to fear the nomads of the Great Steppe , just as the Bosporan kings feared the Huns ... The nomads of the Volga and Caspian regions invaded the Crimea almost every decade in 1470-1520; the Crimean khans barely managed to contain this onslaught in 1530-1540, and were still forced to stand ready to repel it in the mid-1550s.

After all, it was there, in the steppe pastures of the Horde, that a fierce struggle for power went on for decades, exhausting the Crimea with a leapfrog of rulers and an incessant change of waves of armed strangers hiding on the peninsula after being expelled from the Horde capital or preparing to throw on the Volga; the house of Namaganov ruled there, challenging the supremacy over the Crimea from the Gerais; from there, devastating raids were made on the peninsula, whose small territory a thousand-strong detachment of nomads could devastate in a matter of days. Examples of such raids were not limited to the era of Timur-Lenk and the Horde turmoil: the nomads of the Volga and Caspian regions invaded the Crimea almost every decade in the 1470-1520s; the Crimean khans barely managed to contain this onslaught in the 1530s and 1540s, and were still forced to stand ready to repel it in the mid-1550s.

A look at the Crimean Khanate as a victim of steppe raids is an unusual angle, but it finds full confirmation in sources known to any specialist at. Moreover, the foreign policy activity of the Crimean rulers of that era was largely devoted to the protection of the Crimea from the threat from the Steppe.

Direct armed struggle against the rulers of the steppe powers could not fully ensure the security of the Crimea, because the Crimean khans simply did not have sufficient human resources to establish direct military control over the gigantic expanses of the former empire - even despite the fact that they deliberately resettled a considerable part of the conquered by them Horde uluses. The rulers of the Crimea had to choose a different path and call for help that ancient political tradition, the strength of which was recognized by all former subjects of the Horde: the inviolability of the power of the supreme Khan-Genghisid over the entire multitude of individual hordes, tribes and uluses. Only another Genghisides could challenge the throne of the great khan, and for the rest of the population, including the noble class, it was considered unthinkable not to recognize this power.

In this light, the main task of the Crimean khans was to remove the rival Genghisid family from the Horde throne and take its place themselves. It was possible to finally defeat the Horde only by becoming its ruler; and only this measure, and not military actions, would guarantee the inviolability of the possessions of the Gerais.

Such formal supremacy over all the peoples of the former Horde Empire no longer meant either “colonial” domination or even economic exploitation in the form of, for example, tribute collection. It provided only for the recognition by the subjects of the dynastic seniority and nominal patronage of the supreme ruler, and this, in turn, ensured peace between the suzerain and his vassals - the very peace that the Gerai so much needed, striving to secure their land from raids and protect the power of their own. dynasty from the encroachments of other Genghisind families.

This struggle between the Crimean and Horde lines of Genghisides was waged for many decades.

It did not end with the defeat of Sheikh-Ahmed and continued in the rivalry between the two families for influence in those states of the Volga region that arose after Ulus Vagu: in Hadji-Tarkhansky (in Russian transcription Astrakhan - Note .. From time to time achieving significant success in this struggle, Gerai year after a year they approached their goal, but soon a third force intervened in the dispute between the two Genghisid clans and resolved it in their favor,” writes Gaivoronsky.

From the Crimean Khanate with love for Russia,

as well as other interesting features of the foreign and domestic policy of the Crimea at that time

In an illustration from the blog of Oleksa Gaivoronsky: Devlet I Gerai (Red 1551-1577).

Gaivoronsky about the motifs of the ornament of this portrait - sad motifs directly related to Muscovy:

“Tilted cypresses. The motif was taken from the tombstones of the Khan's cemetery. It symbolizes the loss of two Volga khanates: Kazan and Khadzhi-Tarkhan (Astrakhan), conquered by Moscow during the reign of this khan.

Scroll in hand. Inconclusive negotiations with Ivan the Terrible on the return of the Volga khanates.

Talking about a series of khan's portraits for the book "Lords of Two Continents" and the exhibition "Chingizides of Ukraine" organized on July 1-9, 2009 in Kyiv with a display of these paintings, Oleksa Gayvoronsky quotes in her blog an excerpt from an article by Ute Kilter in the Ukrainian newspaper "The Day" ( No. 119 of July 14, 2009) with responses to the exhibition. And there again sounds the theme of the Crimean Khanate and Muscovy.

The newspaper writes:

“Here is Dmitry Gorbachev, art critic, consultant for Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions, emphasizes:

“The exhibition can be applied to the term that we meet with the Russian writer Andrei Platonov - “national egoism”. A very useful and productive item. For Russians, this is Russian-centrism, for Ukrainians, they should have their own point of view. The project "Chingizides of Ukraine" demonstrates a Crimean-centric view. Sometimes it also happens “over the edge”, for example, when Tugaibey is proclaimed a hero of the Ukrainian people (Tugaibey is a Crimean dignitary who, on behalf of the Crimean Khan, helped the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks of Khmelnitsky with his military unit in the fight against the Poles. Approx. Site). But Ukrainians really appreciated and resorted to the help of the Crimean Tatars, who were first-class warriors. They had an unsurpassed 300,000-strong cavalry, moving at lightning speed. The Ukrainian Cossacks also learned this style from the Tatars.

Moscow has a completely different attitude to this story: they don’t like to remember that back in 1700 Moscow was legally a vassal of the Crimean Khanate. Crimean Tatars are an enlightened nation. I felt it when I saw a letter from medieval Bakhchisaray written to Sweden in Latin. The culture of the Crimean Khanate was high and influential. It is extremely important that both the exhibition and Oleksa Hayvoronsky's books open this to the Ukrainian society. They make us realize the kinship of our peoples, history. What is important here is the skill with which (artist) Yuri Nikitin uses the styles of Turkic and Persian miniatures, creating portraits-characters. The images of Gerais here are interesting both in form and content. The double portrait of Mehmed III and Hetman Mikhail Doroshenko, who died during the liberation of this khan from captivity, opens our eyes to twinning not only of rulers, but also of our peoples.”

The foreign policy of the Crimean Khanate, upon closer examination, also turns out to be far from the stereotypical views that exist about this state entity in Russia. Sometimes the Crimean policy even strikes with its nobility. Here are some examples from Gaivoronsky's book.

Here is the development of the already mentioned plot with “standing on the Ugra River”. The historical fact is that Russian troops won a bloodless victory at the Ugra, which led to the end 300 year old the Mongol-Tatar yoke over Russia, including due to the fact that the Polish-Lithuanian king Casimir, who was blocked by the troops of the Crimean Khanate, did not come to the aid of the Golden Horde Khan Akhmat. So The Crimean Khanate turned out to be a participant in the liberation of Russia from the Horde yoke. Without the troops of Casimir, Akhmat did not dare to enter the battle, which he could win. Although after the death of Akhmet at the hands of the Siberian Khan and the Nogai Bey, the Crimean Khanate also acted as a “good Samaritan” for his sons, but it received in return black ingratitude in the form of a Golden Horde raid on the Crimea.

All this is mentioned by Oleksa Gaivoronsky in the fragment given by us below (we left the spelling of proper names unchanged):

“The sons of the deceased Khan - Seid-Ahmed, Murtaza and Sheikh-Ahmed - were in distress. Now that their troops had fled, they had to fear any gang of robbers, of which there were many then prowling the steppes. The main Horde bey, Temir from the Mangyt clan, led the princes to the Crimea to ask for help from the (Crimean Khan) Mengli Giray.

The bey's calculation turned out to be correct: the Crimean ruler hospitably met the wanderers and provided them with horses, clothes and everything necessary at his own expense. The Khan hoped that he would be able to make yesterday's enemies his allies and even take them into his service - but that was not the case: having improved their strength in the Crimea, the refugees left Mengli Giray and with all the good things they had left went to the steppes. Khan was chasing the ungrateful guests - but managed to detain only one Murtaza, who now turned from a guest into a hostage.

Instead of the deceased Ahmed (Akhmat), his son, Seid-Ahmed II, became the Khan of the Horde. Under the pretext of releasing Murtaza from the Crimean captivity, he began to gather troops for a campaign against Mengli Giray. True, Seyid-Ahmed was very afraid that the Ottomans would come to the aid of Mengli Giray, and therefore he tried to find out in advance whether there were many Turkish troops now in the Crimea. Apparently, intelligence reported that the Ottoman garrison in Kef is small, and there is nothing to fear. In addition, quite recently, in 1481, Mehmed II died, and instead of a ferocious conqueror who terrified neighboring countries, his son Bayezid II, a kind-hearted and peaceful man, began to rule the Ottoman Empire. Having received this encouraging information, Seyid-Ahmed and Temir moved into battle.

Here we interrupt the quote from Oleks Gaivoronsky. To make a few more clarifications. Turkish troops invaded Crimea and subjugated it to their influence a decade before. At the same time, the Crimean Khan continued to control the interior regions of Crimea, and the coast, including Kafa (in another transcription - Kef) (current Feodosia), was directly controlled by the Turks.

Initially, the Turkish sultans did not interfere in the internal politics of the Crimean Khanate and issues of succession to the throne, but later, when the Crimean Tatar nobility began to appeal to them when choosing new khans, the rulers in Istanbul became more and more involved in the internal affairs of the Crimea. It ended a century later with the almost direct appointment of the Crimean khans from Istanbul.

But why are we talking about issues of succession, talking about elections. The point is that in TO The Roman Khanate was a kind of democracy. What then had an analogue from neighboring powers, perhaps only in Poland - both the Ottoman Empire and Muscovy could not boast of democracy. The nobility of the Crimean Khanate had the right to vote in the election of the khan. The only restriction is the choice only from the Gerai dynasty. For 300 years of existence of the state, 48 khans have changed on the Crimean throne, most of which rule for 3-5 years. Some khans were called to rule again to know. Of course, the opinion of Istanbul was of great importance, but without the approval of his policy by the local nobility, the khan could not rule for a long time - he was overthrown. To ascend the throne, the khan needed the sanction of a large sofa (the Council of representatives of the nobility, who were not appointed by the khan, but were in the sofa by birthright. During the election of the khan, elected representatives from the common people also sat in the sofa). FROM Khan shared his power with the so-called. kalga - the highest official of the state and a kind of junior khan, who had his own separate capital in the city of Ak-Mechet ("White Mosque" - the current Simferopol).

So the Crimean Khanate was distinguished by a rather democratic structure. At the same time, the khan's government got used to coexistence on the peninsula with other state entities. Before the arrival of the Turks, part of the peninsula was occupied by the Orthodox state of Theodoro, while Theodosia and the adjacent coast were ruled by Genoa.

And now let's return to Gaivoronsky's book and, using the example of the same historical plot, let's see how the Crimean Khanate fought the Horde and helped Moscow. We stopped at how the son of the last Khan of the Golden Horde attacks the Crimea:

“The blow of the Horde troops to the Crimea was so strong that Mengli Giray did not hold his positions and, wounded, fled to the Kyrk-Er fortress.

Murtaza was released and joined his brother. The goal of the campaign was achieved, but Seid-Ahmed did not want to stop there and decided to conquer the Crimea. Apparently, the Horde could not take Kyrk-Er, and Seid-Ahmed, robbing the oncoming villages, went to Es-ki-Kyrym. He besieged the city, but the old capital firmly held the offensive, and it was possible to take it only by cunning: Seyid-Ahmed promised that he would not cause any harm to the inhabitants if they stopped resisting and let him in. The townspeople, believing, opened the gates for him. As soon as the khan achieved his goal, he renounced his oath - and the Horde army plundered the city, exterminating many inhabitants in it.

Intoxicated with success, Seid-Ahmed decided to teach the Turks a lesson after this, demonstrating to the new sultan who was the true owner of the Black Sea lands. A huge Horde army approached Kefa. Confident in his superiority, Seid-Ahmed sent a messenger to the Ottoman governor Kasym Pasha demanding to lay down their arms and surrender Kefe to the Horde...

But the Horde warriors, who stood on the seashore under the walls of Kefe, had not previously encountered heavy artillery, and the sight of the rumbling (Turkish) cannons made a very strong impression on them. The retreat turned into a hasty flight...

Mengli Giray with his beys rushed in pursuit of the retreating enemy. The Horde army, frightened by the Ottomans, has now become an easy target for the Crimeans, who managed to recapture from Seyid-Ahmed all the booty and captives captured by him in the Crimea.

The danger was over, and the Ottomans showed that they could provide Crimea with invaluable assistance in defending against Horde raids. And yet, the very fact of the invasion, albeit successfully repulsed, could not but instill in the khan anxiety for the future of the country: it was obvious that the new generation of rulers, the Namaganovs, had entered into a fierce struggle with the Gerays for the Crimea and would not give up their intentions so easily. It was hard for Mengli Geray to fight them alone, and he started looking for allies.

Having lost its own outskirts, the Horde also lost its former Slavic vassals. Tokhtamysh recognized the loss of Ukraine and its transition to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. As for the Grand Duchy of Moscow, it was also successfully moving towards liberation from the Horde domination, as evidenced by the recent failure of Akhmed. The fight against a common enemy, Saray, made Crimea and Moscow allies, and Mengli Gerai, who had long been trying to establish contacts (with the Moscow ruler) Ivan III, continued the negotiations interrupted (several years before) by the Turkish invasion. Soon the Khan and the Grand Duke brought each other an obligation to fight together against Ahmed, and then his sons.

From the point of view of the Crimea, this union meant that Moscow would recognize the Crimean Khan as the ruler of the entire Great Horde and pass to him into formal citizenship, throwing off dependence on Sarai. Having inherited the traditional Horde supremacy over the Grand Duke of Moscow, Mengli Gerai renounced the privileges that humiliated his ally: he freed Ivan from paying tribute and began to call him “his brother” in his letters. The sensitive issue of the title was very important for Ivan III, because the khan, as a representative of the ruling dynasty, would have the right to call the Horde vassal and “slave”, but instead recognized the Moscow ruler as an equal, which greatly strengthened Ivan’s authority among his neighbors.

On an illustration from the book of Oleksa Gaivoronsky: The Crimean Khanate surrounded by neighboring states and territories at the beginning of the 16th century.

On an illustration from the book of Oleksa Gaivoronsky: The Crimean Khanate surrounded by neighboring states and territories at the beginning of the 16th century. Our commentary on this map.

First, a little about the Crimean names, and then, based on this map, we will characterize some of the states and territories designated here.

The self-name of the Crimean Khanate is "Crimean Yurt" (from the Crimean Tatar Qırım Yurtu), which means "Crimean rural camp".

According to research, the name "Crimea" comes from the Turkic "kyrym", which means "fortification", or from the Mongolian "kherem" - "wall", "shaft", "mound", "my hill".

After the Mongol conquest of the peninsula, which had previously been called "Tavria" (in Greek, "the country of the Taurians" in honor of the semi-mythical people), the word "Crimea", before becoming the name for the entire peninsula, was assigned to the settlement of Eski-Kyrym ("Old Kyrym" ), or simply Kyrym, who served one of the Mongol-Tatar headquarters.

In passing, we note that, as Oleksa Gaivoronsky notes, the Mongols occupied only a small percentage in the ranks of the Mongol-Tatar conquerors. Basically, they represented the command staff. The basis of the army was the tribes of the Turks.

In the Crimea, the Mongol-Tatars met, along with other peoples, the Genoese trading post-colony in Feodosia, which was preserved after the Mongol conquest.

Europeans and Mongol-Tatars coexisted peacefully together in the city of Eski-Kyrym. It was divided into Christian and Muslim parts. The Genoese called their part Solkhat (from Italian “furrow, ditch”), and the Muslim part of the city was called Kyrym itself. Later, Eski-Kyrym became the capital of the Crimean Yurt, which was still dependent on the Mongols. Kyrym (which still exists as a small sleepy town of Stary Krym, where, with the exception of the old mosque, almost nothing else remains from the period of the Mongol conquest) is located on a flat plain, which is part of the steppe Crimea, a few tens of kilometers from the sea.

It was the openness of the city of Kyrym from all sides that forced the Crimean khans to move the capital to the village of Salachik - in a mountain valley at the foot of the ancient mountain fortress Kyrk-Er. Later, another new khan's capital, Bakhchisaray, was built there, which was the main city of the Crimean Khanate before the annexation of Crimea to Russia.

In Bakhchisarai (translated as “garden palace”), the khan’s palace built in the Ottoman style is still preserved (An earlier version of the palace of the Crimean khans, but already in the Mongolian style, was burned by the Russians during one of the campaigns of the tsarist army in the Crimea).

As for the ancient fortress of Kyrk-Er, you can read more about it and the mysterious people of the Karaites (the so-called modern Khazars), who inhabited it, in other material - “Modern Khazars - the Crimean Karaites” on our website. By the way, the status of the Karaites in this fortress was one of the specific features of the Crimean Khanate.

Also on the map we see that part of the Crimean peninsula is painted in the same color as the territory of the Ottoman Empire. In 1475, the Ottomans occupied the Crimean coast, defeating the Genoese state formation in Feodosia (under the Ottomans called Kafa (Kefe), and also destroying the Orthodox Principality of Theodoro (Gothia) that had existed since Byzantine times. These two states recognized the supremacy of the Crimean Khan, but within their territories were independent.

Inset South Crimea until 1475: Here are shown the territories of the Genoese Colony (in red) with the cities of Feodosia and Soldaya (present-day Sudak), as well as the territory of the Principality of Theodora (in brown) and the disputed territory between them, passing from hand to hand (red- brown stripes).

On the large map we see the Kazan yurt, the Nogai Horde, and the Khadzhi-Tarkhan yurt (that is, the Astrakhan Khanate, where the old Horde capital Saray was located) are independent fragments of the Golden Horde, periodically recognizing the power of the Crimean Khan.

The territories colored with stripes on the map are lands without a certain status, formerly part of the Golden Horde, disputed during the period under review by neighboring countries. Of these, Moscow at that time managed to finally secure the territory around Chernigov, Bryansk and Kozelsk.

interesting public education, marked on the map, was the Kasimov yurt, a microscopic state artificially created by Muscovy for representatives of the Kazan ruling house, led by Kasim, who had gone over to the side of Moscow. This yurt, which existed from 1446 to 1581, was a formation completely dependent on the Moscow rulers with a Russian population and a Muslim dynasty of local princes.

Even on the map we see a thick light brown line - it marks the western border of the Horde territory during the period of the Golden Horde. Wallachia and Moldova, marked on the map, were colonies of the Ottoman Empire for the period under review.

True, the agreement with Ivan cost the khan his old, hereditary friendship with Casimir, because Muscovy, which had long encroached on the lands of Lithuanian Rus, was an irreconcilable enemy of Lithuania. Trying to find justice for Ivan, the king started negotiations on an anti-Moscow alliance with the Horde khans.

This new policy was a big mistake of the Polish-Lithuanian ruler: the weakening Horde did nothing to help him in the fight against Muscovite claims, but rapprochement with Saray for a long time quarreled the king with a much more valuable ally - the Crimea.

Preparing his fatal campaign of 1480, which was mentioned above. Ahmed asked Casimir for help, and he promised to send him Lithuanian forces for a joint attack on the enemy.

Casimir's detachments were already preparing to come to the aid of the Horde - but Mengli Giray threw Crimean troops towards them, and instead of marching on Moscow, the Lithuanians had to defend their possessions. This was the reason for the defeat of Ahmed, who, without waiting for the arrival of the allies, did not dare to fight the Russians alone and retreated back to his death.

Assessing the success of this Crimean campaign, Ivan III steadfastly insisted that the khan did not leave the fight against Lithuania and delivered his next blow to the very center of Lithuanian Rus - Podolia or Kyiv. Mengli Giray agreed that Casimir should be warned against friendship with Sarai, and ordered his troops to gather for a campaign along the Dnieper.

Mengli Giray approached Kiev on September 10, 1482. The khan did not approach close to the fortress, let alone storm it: after all, in this case, it would not be difficult for the Kiev governor to fire cannons at the advancing army and repulse the attack. Therefore, keeping the main forces at a distance from the fortifications, the Crimean soldiers set fire to the wooden residential quarters surrounding the fortress on both sides and, retreating a little, began to wait until the fire did its job. The flame quickly engulfed the dilapidated buildings, spread inside the fortified citadel - and Kyiv fell without any battle.

The Crimean troops entered the defeated city and collected rich booty there, and then the khan led his people home.

Mengli Giray immediately announced the victory to his Moscow ally and sent him two precious trophies from the famous St. Sophia Cathedral as a gift: a golden communion cup and a golden liturgical tray. Having inflicted a crushing blow on Casimir with someone else's hands, Ivan thanked Mengli Gerai from the bottom of his heart for his loyalty to this word.

The king could not repay the khan with a retaliatory blow and preferred to settle the matter amicably. However, he did not miss the opportunity to sharply stung the Crimean neighbor, inquiring with him through ambassadors: they say, there are rumors that he is at war with Lithuania on the orders of Moscow? The lunge was right on target. Mengli Giray was indignant: does the Moscow prince, his subject, have the right to command the khan ?! The dispute was limited to this, and Casimir set about restoring the destroyed city.

In general, the Muscovite state and the Crimean Khanate were friends like that. But when the Crimea became too strong, Moscow, as Gaivoronsky writes, became more friendly with the Nogais, inciting them against the Crimea. Finally, relations between Moscow and the Crimean Khanate deteriorated due to the question of Kazan. The Crimean khans put their candidates on the local khan's throne, Moscow theirs ... Gaivoronsky notes:

“The Grand Duchy of Moscow, which itself had been a Horde vassal for a long time, also entered the struggle for the lands of the Volga region. His strategy was very different from the strategy of the Crimea, because the goal of Moscow was the classic territorial expansion. Not being Genghisides, the rulers of Moscow, naturally, could not claim dynastic seniority among the local rulers, and therefore, unlike the Gerais, they did not strive for the formal subordination of the Volga khanates, but for their complete liquidation and the annexation of their territories to their state. At first, the Moscow rulers chose the tactics of supporting the weakening house of Namagans in its resistance to the Gerays, and then they decided on a direct armed seizure of the khanates of the Volga and Caspian regions.

And in conclusion of this review on the book by Oleksa Gaivoronsky another curious fact. It was the founder of the dynasty of the Crimean khans, Hadji Gerai, who returned the territory of the former Kievan Rus as a gift to the Christian world.

This was done around 1450, when neighboring Muscovy was still under the Horde yoke. The Crimean Khan, nominally claiming power in the entire Golden Horde, in gratitude to the Polish-Lithuanian state for support when he was an exile in the Lithuanian lands, signed a decree at the request of the Lithuanian ambassadors, presenting the whole Ukraine to the Lithuanian Grand Duke and the Polish King Casimir: “Kyiv with all income, lands, waters and property”, “Podillia with waters, lands from this property”, then listing a long list of cities in the Kiev region, Chernihiv region, Smolensk region, Bryansk region and many other regions up to Novgorod itself, which Hadji Gerai on behalf of the conquered by him The hordes yielded to a friendly neighbor.

We only note that Khan Tokhtamysh also promised to transfer Ukraine to Lithuania earlier.

Gaivoronsky writes: “Of course, the Horde had no influence in these lands for a long time, and the act of Hadji Gerai was symbolic. Nevertheless, such symbols were of great importance at that time. It was not in vain that Casimir turned to Hadji Gerai for such a document: after all, Lithuania had a dispute with Muscovy over some of these lands, and since Moscow was still formally subordinate to the Horde throne, the khan label could become a full-fledged argument in favor of Casimir in this dispute.

So the khan, who, for the sake of the security of his own state, year after year defended neighboring Ukraine from the attacks of another contender for the Horde throne: finally confirmed the liberation of this land from the long-term rule of the Horde. It remains to be recognized that Hadji Gerai fully deserved the glory of “the guardian of the peace of the Ukrainian lands” that was assigned to him in history.” It is worth noting that during the period under review there were several khans in the Golden Horde who claimed the throne and Haji Gerai was only one of them.

But Oleksa Gaivoronsky notes: “Having defeated the Horde Khan (his rival), Haji Gerai did not embark on the dangerous path that his predecessors usually followed: he did not go to the Volga to fight for Sarai. Without a doubt, Haji Gerai remembered well how many (specific) khans of past years, having coveted the Volga capital, got bogged down in an endless struggle and ingloriously perished in its maelstrom. Satisfied with what he already had, Haji Gerai abandoned the dangerous pursuit of illusory glory and returned from the Dnieper to his Crimea. On our own behalf, we add that he returned to the Crimea and became the founder of the ruling dynasty of the Crimean Khanate - a state that lived for more than 300 years.