Khanate of Kokand
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The Khanate of Kokand (Uzbek: Qo'qon Xonligi) was a state in Central Asia that existed from 1709–1876 within the territory of modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It was established when Shaybanid Shahrukh of the Minglar Uzbeks established an independent principality in the western part of the Fergana Valley. He built a citadel to be his capital in the small town of Kokand, thus starting the Khanate of Kokand.
His son Abd al-Karim and grandson Narbuta Beg enlarged the citadel. However, both Abd al-Karim and Narbuta Beg were forced to pay tribute to the Qing dynasty in China between 1774 and 1798, which to this day forms the basis for occasional Chinese claims of sovereignty over the Fergana Valley.
Narbuta Beg’s son Alim was both ruthless and efficient. He hired a mercenary army of Tajik highlanders, and conquered the western half of the Fergana Valley, including Khodjend and Tashkent. He was assassinated by his brother Omar in 1809. Omar’s son, Mohammed Ali (Madali Khan) ascended to the throne in 1821 at the age of 12. During his reign, the Khanate of Kokand reached its greatest territorial extent. In 1841, the British officer Captain Arthur Conolly failed in an effort to persuade the various khanates to put aside their differences, in an attempt to counter the growing penetration of the Russian Empire into the area. He left Kokand for Bukhara in an ill-fated attempt to rescue fellow officer Colonel Charles Stoddart in November 1841 and both were excuted in 1842.
Despite the best efforts of Omar’s widow, the famed poetess Nadira, Madali Khan excelled at cruelty and debauchery, giving Emir Nasrullah Khan of Bukhara an excuse to invade Kokand in 1842. Preferring their own cruel and debauched despots over outsiders, the people of Kokand soon rebelled, and installed Madali Khan’s cousin Shir Ali on the throne. Over the next two decades, the khanate was weakened by bitter civil war and ethnic conflicts, further inflamed by Bukharan and Russian incursions. Shir Ali’s son Khudayar ruled from 1845 to 1858, and, after another interlude under Emir Nasrullah, again from 1865. In the meantime, Russia was continuing its advance. In 1866 Tashkent was lost, followed by Khujand in 1867. During this time, Kokand’s most famous son, Yakub Beg, former lord of Tashkent, fled to Kashgar, which he seized from the Chinese.
In 1868, a commercial treaty turned Kokand into a Russian vassal state. The now powerless Khudayar Khan spent his energies improving his lavish palace. Western visitors were impressed by the city of 80,000 people, with some 600 mosques and 15 madrasahs. Insurrections against Russian rule and Khudayar’s oppressive taxes forced Khudayar into exile in 1875. He was succeeded by kinsman Pulad Khan, whose anti-Russian stance provoked the annexation of Kokand (after fierce fighting) by Generals Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman and Mikhail Skobelev in March 1876. Tsar Alexander II stated that he had been forced to "yield to the wishes of the Kokandi people to become Russian subjects." The Khanate of Kokand was declared abolished, and incorporated into the Fergana Province of Russian Turkestan.
[edit] References
- Laura J. Newby. The Empire and the Khanate: A Political History of Qing Relations with Khoqand C. 1760-1860. Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2005.
- Peter Hopkirk. The Great Game, Kodansha International, 1992, ISBN 4-7700-1703-0, 565p. The timeline of the Great Game is available online.
