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former state in Central Asia
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The Khanate of Kokand (Persian: خاننشین خوقند, Chagatay: خوقند خانليغى) was an early modern state in the Fergana Valley of Central Asia. At its peak, it stretched from the Ulu Tau mountains in the north, Sariqol in the south, Aq Masjid in the west, and Karakol in the east. Its territory is today divided between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan.
It was established during the decline of the Khanate of Bukhara by Shahrukh Biy, the leader of the Ming tribe of Uzbeks. It developed into a multi-ethnic polity with a diverse population of sedentary Turkic and Persian-speaking communities (collectively referred to as Sarts), nomadic Turco-Mongol tribes, and Pamiri groups. It was similar to its predecessors in numerous aspects, including its internal organization, such as civilian and military personnel having Perso-Islamic and Turco-Mongol titles.
Culturally, the khanate was Persian and Muslim. Persian served as the court, literary, and administrative language, while Chagatai Turkic served as a secondary language, but still experienced substantial growth. Bilingualism was common in urban centers, reflecting the mingling of Turkic and Persian identities. Society in the khanate revolved around local, clan, and tribal connections rather than strict ethnic lines.
Kokand's economy was rooted in agriculture, supported by extensive irrigation systems and labor mobilization by local communities. The khanate attracted Indian merchants and financiers to strengthen its agricultural sector. Militarily, Kokand evolved from reliance on irregular Uzbek troops to a standing army equipped with muskets, cannons, and artillery. Despite these efforts, its weaponry was generally inferior to the forces of the Russian Empire, who abolished the khanate in 1876.
The Khanate of Kokand was ruled by the Shahrukhid dynasty, who belonged to the Ming tribe of Uzbeks. During this period, the term "Uzbek" did not have the same meaning as today. It specifically referred to the descendants of the several hundred thousand Turkic people led by Muhammad Shaybani at the start of the 16th century, who moved from the Qipchaq steppe to Central Asia. During the early 18th-century, the authority of the Khanate of Bukhara over the Fergana Valley was weakening. Meanwhile, the authority of the Sufi Khojas was increasing, and invasions were carried out by nomadic Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, and Oirats (including their Kalmyk subgroup). Throughout the 18th century, the rulers of the Kokand Khanate used the title of biy, a local version of the Turkic title beg.
In 1709, the leader of the Ming tribe, Shahrukh Biy (r. 1709–1722), established the Koktonliq Ata fortress near Kokand, becoming its ruler and thus starting the Khanate of Kokand. In the 1720s and 1730s, the Fergana Valley was largely unaffected by the violent nomadic invasions of the Samarkand and Bukhara oases, and many refugees from the destroyed adjacent regions moved to Kokand. Shahrukh Biy's eldest son and successor Abd al-Rahim Biy briefly occupied Khujand, Urateppe, and the remnants of Samarkand during this period of instability. He also made an alliance with the Uzbek Keneges tribe, who ruled Shahrisabz. He did this by marrying Oychuchuk Oyim, the daughter of Ibrahim Biy Keneges.
The Khanate of Kokand was still in its formative stages during this period, and local political powers in the valley frequently caused it to become unstable even though it had gained some success in warfare. Samarkand was lost after six months, although Kokand was able to retain Khojand for the most part. For the following 140 years, Urateppe would be the focal point of almost constant fighting between Kokand and the Emirate of Bukhara. In 1734, Abd al-Rahim was murdered in Khojand, after a period of suffering from severe mental disorder and refusing to step down from power. He was succeeded by his brother Abd al-Karim Biy (r. 1734–1751), who married his widow Oychuchuk Oyim, even while she was carrying Abd al-Rahim's daughter.
In 1740, Abd al-Karim Biy had the Kokand fortress constructed at the ruins of the old fortress Eski Orda. The place became the new capital, and swiftly expanded into a sizable city. During this period, the population of the Fergana Valley grew, and urbanization increased significantly. There were four different groups of people who came to Kokand; the Samarkandi, Kashgari, Chankati, and Kuhistani. Although the Iranian ruler Nader Shah (r. 1736–1747) made military expeditions across the Amu Darya during this period (in 1737 and 1740), Kokand was not directly attacked. Nevertheless, the occupation of surrounding regions by Iranian forces affected Kokand's future.
Following Nader Shah's expansion in Central Asia, Abd al-Karim Biy formed an alliance with him and received political and artillery support from the Afsharids, increasing the political influence of Kokand and contributing to the fight against the Dzungars. Diplomatic and commercial relations between the Kokand and Dzungar khanates sharply declined following the harassment of Dzungar merchants by Kokandians and Abdul Karim Bi's refusal to pay tribute to Galdan Tseren. In 1742, a 30,000-strong Dzungar army invaded Tashkent and Kokand but stalled due to fierce resistance and heavy losses. In 1745, the Dzungar Khanate invaded the Fergana Valley, laying siege to Kokand. During a renewed offensive in 1745, Abdul Karim Bi briefly installed Tole Bi as co-governor of Tashkent, who reportedly poisoned a Dzungar commander before evacuating. Facing Russian and Persian threats, the Dzungars suffered a final defeat at Kokand, where a bridge trap killed over 2,000 soldiers. The war ended with Galdan Tseren's death in September 1745 and a full Dzungar withdrawal. This victory solidified Abdul Karim Bi's authority and catalyzed the liberation of the Senior Jüz. The Yuz Uzbeks of Urateppe, probably wanting to prevent the Dzungars from attacking them, helped Kokand end the siege against the Dzungars. Abd al-Karim Biy was eventually forced to make peace with the Dzungars, persuading them to leave the Fergana Valley by giving them many riches and handing over his eldest son, Baba Biy, as a hostage. After Abd al-Karim Biy's death in 1751, his other son Irdana Biy (r. 1751–1752, 1753–1769) succeeded him. He was ousted from power in 1752, when the Jungars forced Baba Biy on the Kokand throne. The Kokandis, considering him a Jungar puppet, executed him in the town of Besh Ariq the following year and reinstated Irdana Biy.
Among his various accomplishments, Irdana Biy stands out for entering into relations with the Qing emperor Qianlong (r. 1735–1796) after the latter had extended his authority westward into Altishahr, thus becoming the new neighbor of Kokand. A Qing colonial presence in the Fergana Valley appears to have been suggested by Qing records when referring to its official relationship with Kokand. However, more recent evaluations have shown that their relationship was highly unclear. Irdana Biy's reign was generally successful. Despite losing severely to the Yuz Uzbeks, he also conquered several vilayats and temporarily took control of Tashkent in 1765 before Ablay Khan retook it. By the time he died from illness in 1769, he had five daughters but no son to succeed him, and he was thus succeeded by his cousin Sulayman Biy, a grandson of Shahrukh Biy. However, Sulayman Biy was considered unsuited to rule, which lead to his murder three months after. He was succeeded by Abd al-Karim Biy's grandson Narbuta Biy (r. 1770–1799), whose succession was backed by the Uzbek nobility.
Soon after the death of Narbuta Biy, his son Alim (r. 1799–1811) assumed power. While his brother had been Narbuta's chosen successor, Alim's mother being Ming helped him gain more support. From the start of his reign, Alim faced significant resistance to his rule. He married his sister to an influential figure in the country and appointed to hakim of Isfara, replacing an unsupportive emir who held the post. When the emir refused to leave, Alim led a military campaign against him. Soon after, he began to execute close family members, the emirs and khojas who supported them, former administrators, and religious leaders, with others fleeing the country. Partially in response to the purges, the hakim of Chust, Buzurg Khoja, launched a revolt against Alim. While the revolt was initially put down, Buzurg Khoja fled to Tashkent and allied with its hakim, Yunus Khoja, who dispatched a large army to Kokand. By allying with the Tajik military commander Rajab, Alim destroyed Tashkent's army, ending the revolt. After the battle, Alim presented a new daftar to administrators, symbolically ending the purges. While the purges had ended, Alim remained a harsh ruler, mandating an exam before one could become a sufi, and banning several non-Islamic traditional religious practices.
Early into his reign, Alim expanded irrigation in the Fergana Valley by dredging the Yangi Ariq ("New Canal") and establishing new branches, which expanded and improved coverage to tens of thousands of hectares. Alim also began to mint silver coinage, centralizing the economy. While the domestic economy improved, Alim's aggressive attitude towards the Qing Empire caused official trade to suffer. Andijani merchants still predominated in Xinxiang, but it took until an official apology in 1809 before the Qing reestablished relations and allowed envoys to travel to the capital. Alim also launched reforms to modernize the army, imposing new taxes to do so. In addition to the old army of irregular troops, Alim established a new personally loyal standing army, significantly composed of undervalued Pamiri soldiers.
Alim was both ruthless and efficient. He created an army of Ghalcha highlanders, and conquered the western half of the Fergana Valley, including Khujand and Tashkent. He was assassinated by his brother Umar in 1811. Umar's son, Mohammed Ali (Madali Khan), ascended to the throne in 1822 at the age of 12. During his reign, the Khanate of Kokand reached its greatest territorial extent.
The Kokand Khanate also housed the Khojas of Kashgar like Jahangir Khoja. In 1841, the British officer Captain Arthur Conolly failed to persuade the various khanates to put aside their differences, in an attempt to counter the growing penetration of the Russian Empire into the area. In November 1841, Captain Conolly left Kokand for Bukhara in an ill-fated attempt to rescue fellow officer Colonel Charles Stoddart, and both were executed on 24 June 1842 by the order of Emir Nasrullah Khan of Bukhara.
Following this, Madali Khan, who had received Conolly in Kokand, and who had also sought an alliance with Russia, lost the trust of Nasrullah. The Emir, encouraged by the conspiratorial efforts of several influential figures in Kokand (including the commander in chief of its army), invaded the Khanate in 1842. Shortly thereafter he executed Madali Khan, his brother, and Omar Khan's widow, the famed poet Nodira. Madali Khan's cousin, Shir Ali, was installed as the Khan of Kokand in June 1842. Over the next two decades, the khanate was weakened by a bitter civil war, which was further exacerbated by Bukharan and Russian incursions. During this period, the Kyrgyz tribes also broke away, forming the Kara-Kyrgyz Khanate under the leadership of Ormon Khan. Shir Ali's son, Khudayar Khan, ruled from 1844 to 1858, from 1862 to 1863, and from 1865 to 1875. In the meantime, Russia was continuing its advance; on 29 June 1865 Tashkent was taken by the Russian troops of General Chernyayev; the loss of Khujand followed in 1867.
Shortly before the fall of Tashkent, Kokand’s best-known son, Yakub Beg, former lord of Tashkent, was sent by the then Khan of Kokand, Alimqul, to Kashgar, where the Hui Muslims were in revolt against the Chinese. When Alimqul was killed in 1865 during the battle with Russia for Tashkent, many Kokandian soldiers fled to join Yaqub Beg, helping him establish his dominion (known as Yettishar) throughout the Tarim Basin, which lasted until 1877, when Qing reconquered the region.
The now powerless Khudayar Khan spent his energies improving his lavish palace. Western visitors were impressed by the city of 80,000 people, which contained some 600 mosques and 15 madrasahs. Insurrections against Russian rule and Khudayar’s oppressive taxes forced him into exile in 1875. He was succeeded by his son, Nasruddin Khan, whose anti-Russian stance provoked the annexation of Kokand by generals Konstantin von Kaufman and Mikhail Skobelev. The Khanate of Kokand was declared abolished, and incorporated into the Fergana Oblast of Russian Turkestan.
In the 1830s, more than 5 million people lived in the Khanate of Kokand. Roughly 3 million of them were sedentary residents with Turkic and Iranian roots, while the remaining population of 2.0–2.5 million were nomadic tribes, spread across 400,000 households, consisting of various Turko-Mongolian groups such as Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Karakalpaks, Kalmyks, and Farghani Qipchaqs. Turkic-speakers, whatever their dialect, were referred to as Turks, while Persian-speakers were referred to as Tajiks. Some non-Persian Iranians from the mountains, such as the Pamiri Shughni people, also referred to themselves as Tajik, though others commonly called them by different names, such as "Ghalcha". The term "Sart" was commonly applied to sedentary Turks and Tajiks. Usually bilingual in Turkic and Persian, they belonged to the same cultural tradition and occupied the same economic role.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Khanate of Kokand”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.