Khanate of Khiva (Pahlavireich)

The Khanate of Khiva is a nation located north of the Iranian Empire and the Kingdom of Afghanistan, west of the Kingdom of Bukhara, south of the Russian Federation and east of the Republic of Karakalpakstan.

History[]

Early History[]

In the early part of its history, the inhabitants of the area came from Iranian stock and spoke an Eastern Iranian language called Khwarezmian. Turks replaced the Iranian ruling-class in the 10th century A.D., and the region gradually turned into an area with a majority of Turkic speakers.

Establishment[]

In 1360 there arose in Ḵwarazm an independent minor dynasty of Qunghrat Turks, the Ṣūfīs, but Solaymān Ṣūfī was crushed by Tīmūr in 1388. The Islamization of Khwarazm was reflected in the creation of literary, scientific and religious works and in the translation of Arabic works into the Turkic language. In the Suleymaniye Library in Istanbul, the Koran is kept with an interlinear translation into Turkic, written in Khwarazm and dated (January – February 1363).

This, together with a shift in the course of the Amu-Darya, caused the center of Khwarezm to shift to Khiva, which became in the 16th century the capital of the Khanate of Khiva, ruled over by the dynasty of the Arabshahids.

After Establishment[]

After the capital was moved to Khiva, Khwarazm came to be called the Khanate of Khiva (the state had always referred to itself as Khwarazm, the Khanate of Khiva as a name was popularized by Russian historians in honor of its capital, Khiva). Some time around 1600, the Daryaliq or west branch of the Oxus dried up causing the capital to be moved south to Khiva from Konye-Urgench. Although based in the Oxus delta, the Khanate usually controlled most of what is now Turkmenistan. The population consisted of agriculturalists along the river, the Turkic Sarts, and nomads or semi-nomads away from the river. It is overall arbitrary to anachronistically project modern ethnic and national identifications, largely based on Soviet national delimitation policies, on pre-modern societies. The settled population was composed by aristocratic and peasants bound to the land. During the mid 1600s there were many Persian slaves who had been captured by Turkmens and a few Russian slaves alongside other Turkic slaves. Before and during this period, the settled area was increasingly infiltrated by Uzbeks from the north,^{[citation needed]} with their Turkic dialects evolving into what is now the Uzbek language while the original Iranian Khwarezmian language died out. The swampy area of the lower delta was increasingly populated by Karakalpaks and there were Kazakh nomads on the northern border. The Turkmen nomads paid taxes to the Khan and were a large part of his army but often revolted. Since the heart of the Khanate was surrounded by semi-desert the only easy military approach was along the Oxus. This led to many wars with the Khanate of Bukhara further up the river (1538–40, 1593, 1655, 1656, 1662, 1684, 1689, 1694, 1806, and others).

Before 1505, Khwarazm was nominally dependent on the Timurid Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqara who was based in Khorasan. From 1488 Muhammad Shaybani built a large but short-lived empire in southern Central Asia, taking Khwarazm in 1505. At nearly the same time, Shah Ismail I was building a powerful Shiite state in Persia. The two necessarily clashed and in 1510 Muhammad was killed and Khwarazm soon occupied. The Shah's religion provoked resistance and in 1511 his garrison was expelled and power passed to Ilbars, who founded the long-lived Arabshahid dynasty.

Around 1540 and 1593, the Khans were driven out by the Bukharans. In both cases they fled to Persia and soon returned. In 1558, Anthony Jenkinson visited Old Urgench and was not impressed. Following Arap Munhammad (1602–23), who moved the capital to Khiva, there was a period of disorder, including an invasion by the Kalmyks, who left laden with plunder. Disorder was ended by Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur (1643–1663) who twice defeated the Kalmyks and wrote a history of Central Asia. His son Anusha (1663–1685) presided over a period of urban growth until he was deposed and blinded. From 1695, Khiva was for some years a vassal of Bukhara which appointed two khans. Shir Gazi Khan (1714–1727), who was killed by slaves, is said to have been the last proper Arabshahid. Khan Ilbars (1728–40) was a Shibanid ruler, son of Shakhniyaz khan who unwisely killed some Persian ambassadors. In a repeat of the Shah Ismail story, Nadir Shah conquered Khiva, beheaded Ilbars and freed some 12,000–20,000 slaves. Next year the Persian garrison was slaughtered, but the rebellion was quickly suppressed. Persian pretensions ended with Nadir's murder in 1747. After 1746, the Qongrat tribe became increasingly powerful and appointed puppet khans. Their power was formalized as the Qongrat dynasty by Iltuzar Khan in 1804. Khiva flourished under Muhammad Rahim Khan (1806–1825) and Allah Quli Khan (1825–1840) and then declined. After Muhammad Amin Khan was killed trying to retake Sarakhs on March 19, 1855, there was a long Turkmen rebellion (1855–1867). In the first two years of the rebellion, two or three Khans were killed by Turkmens.

Russian Protectorate[]

Russians made five attacks on Khiva. Around 1602 some free Ural Cossacks unsuccessfully raided Khwarazm. In 1717 Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky attacked Khiva from the Caspian Sea. After he won the battle, Shir Ghazi Khan (1715–1728) made a treaty and suggested that the Russians disperse so that they could be better fed. After they dispersed they were all killed or enslaved, only a few surviving to tell the tale. In 1801 an army was sent toward Khiva but was recalled when Paul I was murdered. In the Khivan campaign of 1839 Perovsky tried an attack from Orenburg. The weather was unusually cold and he was forced to turn back after losing many men and most of his camels. Khiva was finally conquered by the Khivan campaign of 1873. The Russians installed Sayyid Muhammad Rahim Bahadur Khan II as the vassal ruler of the region.

The conquest of Khiva was part of the Russian conquest of Turkestan. British attempts to deal with this were called the Great Game. One of the reasons for the 1839 attack was the increasing number of Russian slaves held at Khiva. To remove this pretext Britain launched its own effort to free the slaves. Major Todd, the senior British political officer stationed in Herat (in Afghanistan) dispatched Captain James Abbott, disguised as an Afghan, on Christmas Eve, 1839, for Khiva. Abbott arrived in late January 1840 and, although the Khan was suspicious of his identity, he succeeded in talking the Khan into allowing him to carry a letter for the Tsar regarding the slave issue. He left on 7 March 1840, for Fort Alexandrovsk, and was subsequently betrayed by his guide, robbed, then released when the bandits realized the origin and destination of his letter. His superiors in Herat, not knowing of his fate, sent another officer, Lieutenant Richmond Shakespear, after him. Shakespear had more success than Abbott: he convinced the khan to free all Russian subjects under his control, and also to make the ownership of Russian slaves a crime punishable by death. The freed slaves and Shakespear arrived in Fort Alexandrovsk on 15 August 1840, and Russia lost its primary motive for the conquest of Khiva, for the time being.

A permanent Russian presence on the Aral Sea began in 1848 with the building of Fort Aralsk at the mouth of the Syr Darya. The Empire's military superiority was such that Khiva and the other Central Asian principalities, Bukhara and Kokand, had no chance of repelling the Russian advance, despite years of fighting. In 1873, after Russia conquered the great cities of Tashkent and Samarkand, General Von Kaufman launched an attack on Khiva consisting of 13,000 infantry and cavalry. The city of Khiva fell on 10 June 1873 and, on 12 August 1873, a peace treaty was signed that established Khiva as a quasi-independent Russian protectorate. After the conquest of what is now Turkmenistan (1884) the protectorates of Khiva and Bukhara were surrounded by Russian territory.

The first significant settlement of Europeans in the Khanate was a group of Mennonites who migrated to Khiva in 1882. The German-speaking Mennonites had come from the Volga region and the Molotschna colony under the leadership of Claas Epp Jr. The Mennonites played an important role in modernizing the Khanate in the decades prior to the October Revolution by introducing photography, resulting in the development of Uzbek photography and filmmaking, more efficient methods for cotton harvesting, electrical generators, and other technological innovations.

Soviet State and fusion with Uzbek SSR[]

After the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in the October Revolution, anti-monarchists and Turkmen tribesmen joined forces with the Bolsheviks at the end of 1919 to depose the khan. By early February 1920, the Khivan army under Junaid Khan was completely defeated. On 2 February 1920, Khiva's last Kungrad khan, Sayid Abdullah, abdicated and a short-lived Khorezm People's Soviet Republic (later the Khorezm SSR) was created out of the territory of the old Khanate of Khiva, before it was finally incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1924, with the former khanate divided between the new Turkmen SSR and Uzbek SSR.

Restoration of the Khanate[]

After Iran's invasion of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, the Shah of Iran had established two puppet states in the region and these puppet states are the Khanate of Khiva and the Emirate of Bukhara. The Khanate of Khiva was first established as a puppet kingdom with no monarch due to the original Khan's descendants not being found or not being qualified for the throne of Khiva. However the Shah placed Nader Jahanbani on the throne of Khiva as Khan, due to the fact Nader is a member of the former ruling dynasty of Iran known as Qajar Dynasty which is a Turkic Dynasty. Nader accepted and declared himself Khan of Khiva. Nader had developed a strong modernized Army and Air Force for Khiva with the aid of American and Iranian help and this made him popular with the Turkmen, Uzbek and Kazakh population as they see him as a man who helped them in getting strong enough to counter any Russian attack in the future.

After Restoration[]

After Khiva was restored, Khiva had joined Iran in World War III as they helped Iran, America and their allies fight off Russia. They kept up the fight until Washington D.C, London, Paris and Moscow got nuked in a nasty nuclear exchange and the monarchist revolutions worldwide due to the success of the Pahlavi Dynasty as monarchs of Iran making Iran a strong unified state. Khiva had also joined Iran in the Indo-Persian War as they were part of the northern forces faction of the Iranian Army's invasion force with Bukhara and Jammu and Kashmir. After the invasion, the Khanate had prepared to defend itself from a Russia paranoid of having to fight a three front war.

Government[]

Khiva is ruled by a Khan who rules as a Ceremonial monarch who has the power and authority over the government and military and he plays a part in Ceremonial affairs of Khiva, such as religious affairs. The Khan has the right to dictate policies and create laws, however these policies and laws must be approved by the Khiva Majilis. Khiva's government other than the monarch is dominated by a majority of Turkic Nationalist Military officials who are loyal to the Khan and the country's master state. The Prime Minister of Khiva is a hereditary position held by the military family known as the Berdimuhamedow family and it has been that way since the creation of Khiva as a puppet state of Iran.

Order of Succession[]

Tismar Amanullah Jahanbani (1891-1974), married 2 wives
- Nader Jahanbani, Khan of Khiva (b. 1928), married 2 wives
  - (1) Anushiravan Jahanbani, Crown Prince of Khiva (b. 1949), married Oybarchin Bakirova, Crown Princess of Khiva (b. 1950)
    - (2) Prince Abdullah Ali Jahanbani (b. 1981), married Sevinch Mo'minova (b. 1982)
      - (3) Prince Nader Jahanbani II (b. 2001), married Rashmi Mishra (b. 2002)
      - (4) Prince Isfandiyar Jahanbani (b. 2002)
      - (5) Prince Yakub Jahanbani (b. 2003)
      - (6) Prince Rahmatulla Jahanbani (b. 2004)
    - (7) Prince Abdurasul Jahanbani (b. 1983), married Sitora Farmonova (b. 1984)
      - (8) Prince Muhammadyar Jahanbani (b. 2005)
      - (9) Prince Muhammad Ali Jahanbani (b. 2006)
      - (10) Prince Mohammad Mirza Jahanbani (b. 2007)
- Khosrow Jahanbani (1941-2014), married Princess Shahnaz (b. 1940)
  - (11) Keykhosrow Jahanbani (b. 1971), son of Shanaz and Khosrow Jahanbani. He married Hedieh Tehrani (b. 1972) and they have 3 children.
    - (12) Keykhosrow Jahanbani Jr. (b. 2001), married Rudrakshi Shetty (b. 2001)
    - (13) Shahnaz Jahanbani (b. 2003)
    - Fawzia Jahanbani (b. 2004)

Cabinet[]

Nader Jahanbani - Khan
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow - Prime Minister
Raşit Meredow - Foreign Minister
Esenmyrat Orazgeldiýew - Agriculture Minister
Çarymyrat Purçekow - Industry Minister
Begmyrat Muhammedov - Justice Minister
Yhlasgeldi Amanov - Culture and Media Minister
Gurbangul Atayeva - Education Minister
Muhammetgeldi Serdarov - Finance Minister
Nurmuhammet Amannepesow - Health Minister
Major General Yaylym Berdiyev - Minister of Defense
Muhammet Hydyrow - Minister of Intelligence
Lieutenant General Begench Gundogdyev - Chief of Staff
Serdar Berdimuhamedow - Chief of Army
Lieutenant Colonel B. Annaev - Chief of Navy
Colonel Gurbanguly Gurbangulyyev - Chief of Air Force
Gurbanmyrat Annaýew - Chief of Secret Police

Military[]

The Military of Khiva consists of four factions, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Secret Police. The four factions of the Military are under command of the Ministry of Defense and National Security. Khiva's military has only fought 3 wars since gaining their independence with the aid from Imperial Iran, their war for independence, World War III and the Indo-Persian War and all were victories for Khiva due to the fact the factions are powered and fueled by the vast industrial economy of Khiva.

Army[]

The Royal Army of Khiva is the army branch of the Armed Forces of Khiva. The ground forces include the 2nd, 3rd, 11th, and 22nd Motor Rifle Divisions as well as smaller units consisting of various types of troops. Direct operational control of the ground forces is carried out by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Turkmenistan.

Navy[]

The Royal Navy of Khiva is the naval warfare branch of the armed forces of Khiva. They are a small navy that patrols the waters of Caspian Sea and they are even a extra muscle in helping Iran as their master state defend it's capital from any potential Russian Aggression.

Air Force[]

The Royal Air Force of Khiva is the air force branch of the Armed Forces of Khiva. It was formed from former Soviet Air Forces units within that region of the Turkestan Military District. The Royal Khivan Air Force inherited some 300 Soviet aircraft driven by pilots trained by the Iranian Air Force and the legendary Monarch of Khiva himself, Nader Jahanbani who was the Chief of the Imperial Iranian Air Force and an expert Pilot of the Air Force himself.

Secret Police[]

The Royal Khivan National Guard is the secret police agency for the government of Turkmenistan. It is composed largely of the remnants of KGB organs left over after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Iranian Takeover; its functions remain largely the same as well. The Secret Police has been trained by SAVAK and has adapted to the methods of the KGB, SAVAK, CIA and Mossad.

Economy[]

Khiva is a desert country with intensive agriculture in irrigated areas, and huge gas and oil resources. Due to this Khiva's main industries are natural gas, oil, petroleum products, textiles and food processing. Khiva exports gas, crude oil, petrochemicals, textiles and cotton fiber as it imports machinery and equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs. Khiva's main trade partner is it's master state Iran who exports Khiva's required exports to Khiva in order to help them build war machines to defend Khiva from Russian aggression.

Oil[]

Oil was known to exist in western Khiva as early as the 18th century. General Aleksey Kuropatkin reported in 1879 that the Cheleken Peninsula had as many as three thousand oil sources. Turkmen settlers in the 19th century extracted oil near the surface and shipped it to Astrakhan by ship and to Iran by camel caravan. Commercial oil drilling began in the 1890s. The oil extraction industry grew with the exploitation of the fields in Cheleken in 1909 (by Branobel) and in Balkanabat in the 1930s. Production leaped ahead with the discovery of the Gumdag field in 1948 and the Goturdepe field in 1959. By 1940 production had reached two million tons per year, by 1960 over four million tons, and by 1970 over 14 million tons. Oil production in 2019 was 9.8 million tons.

Oil wells are mainly found in the western lowlands. This area also produces associated natural gas. The main oilfields are Cheleken, Gonurdepe, Nebitdag, Gumdag, Barsagelmez, Guyujyk, Gyzylgum, Ordekli, Gogerendag, Gamyshlyja, Ekerem, Chekishler, Keymir, Ekizek, and Bugdayly. Oil is also produced from offshore wells in the Caspian Sea. Most oil is extracted by the Turkmenistan State Company (Concern) Türkmennebit from fields at Goturdepe, Balkanabat, and on the Cheleken Peninsula near the Caspian Sea, which have a combined estimated reserve of 700 million tons.

Agriculture[]

Agriculture is a significant sector of the economy of Khiva, contributing 11.7% of the GDP and employing 40% of the workforce. However, only 4% of total land area is cultivated. Because of the arid climate, irrigation is necessary for nearly all cultivated land. The two most significant crops by area planted are wheat (761,300 hectares) and cotton (551,100 hectares). Citrus fruits, dates, figs, melons, pomegranates, olives, and sugarcane are grown in some parts of the country. Sesame and pistachios are also grown in smaller quantities.

Khiva's agriculture industry does not do so well, due in part to the environmental difficulties of irrigation in a desert environment. Cotton cultivation in Turkmenistan required a large amount of water to be diverted from the Amu Darya river and also introduced a great deal of fertilizer into the river. As a result, cotton cultivation in Turkmenistan is one of the factors causing the drying up of the Aral Sea. A second factor was the 2019 policy decision to halt exports of raw cotton in favor of exporting textiles and ready-made garments.

Animal husbandry is important, despite the arid climate, which presents difficulties in producing sufficient livestock feed. The largest subsector is sheep herding (usually of the Karakul breed) which are primarily raised for wool and skins. Poultry, cattle, goats, camels, and swine are also raised.

Demographics[]

Ethnic Groups[]

The majority ethnic groups of Khiva are the Turkmen and Uzbek peoples whom the country belongs to. Otherwise the minority groups are Iranians, Afghans, Kazakhs, Tatars, Karakalpaks and Kyrgyz people.

Religion[]

The official religion of Khiva is Sunni Islam as it is the religion of the royal family and the majority Turkmen and Uzbek ethnic groups of Khiva. Other religions are Zoroastrianism and Shia Islam.

Languages[]

The official languages of Khiva are Turkmen and Uzbek. Otherwise the minority ethnic groups speak Farsi, Pashto, Kazakh, Tatar, Karakalpak and Kyrgyz.

Culture[]

Turkmen[]

The Turkmen people have traditionally been nomads and equestrians, and even today after the fall of the USSR attempts to urbanize the Turkmens have not been very successful. They never really formed a coherent nation or ethnic group until they were forged into one by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. Rather they are divided into clans, and each clan has its own dialect and style of dress. Turkmens are famous for making knotted Turkmen carpets, often mistakenly called Bukhara rugs in the West. These are elaborate and colorful hand-knotted carpets, and these too help indicate the distinctions among the various Turkmen clans. Ethnic groups throughout the region build yurts, circular houses with dome roofs, made of a wooden frame covered in felt from the hides of sheep or other livestock. Horses are an essential ingredient of recreational activities in most of the region, in such games as horseback fighting, in which riders grapple to topple each other from their horses; horse racing.

Turkmen men wear traditional telpek hats, which are large black or white sheepskin hats resembling afros. Traditional dress for men consists of these high, shaggy sheepskin hats and red robes over white shirts. Women wear long sack-dresses over narrow trousers (the pants are trimmed with a band of embroidery at the ankle). Female headdresses usually consist of silver jewelry. Bracelets and brooches are set with semi-precious stones.

Uzbeks[]

Uzbeks are said to have included 92 tribes in their orbit: Manghit, Qiyat, Qipchaq, Khitai, Qanghli, Keneges, Durman, Targhut, Shoran, Shirin, Tama, Bahrin, Girai, Aghrikur, Anghit, Barkut, Tubin, Tam, Ramdan, Matin, Busa, Yajqar, Qilwai, Dojar, Jaurat, Qurlaut, Mehdi, Kilaji, Sakhtiiyan, Qirq, Ming, Yuz, Saroi, Loqai, Qushchi, Kerait, Chaqmaq, Utarchi, Turcoman, Arlat, Kait, Qirghiz, Qalan, Uishun, Ormaq, Chubi, Lechi, Qari, Moghul, Hafiz dad Kaln, Belad Bustan, Quchi Qataghan, Barlas, Yabu, Jalair, Misit, Naiman, Samrjiq, Qarluq, Arghun, Oklan, Qalmaq, Fuladchi, Jaljat Uljin or Olchin, Chimbai, Tilabi, Machar or Majar, Ojinbai, Badai As, Kilchi, Ilaji, Jebergen, Botiyai, Timan, Yankuz, Tatar, Uighur, Baghlan or Baghan, Tanghut, Shagird, Pesha, Tushlub, Onk, Biyat, Ozjolaji, Josolaji, Tuwadiq, Ghariband Jit. For the semi-nomadic tribes of these khanates, belonging to the “92 tribes” meant in certain cases a privileged position and a higher socio-economic status. In certain cases, the term “92 Uzbek tribes” was used with a political meaning to legitimize the ruling Uzbek dynasties of the Manghyts and Mings.