A khan of the Ming dynasty who ruled the Khanate of Kokand, with interruptions, from 1845 to 1875. Overthrown during the Russian conquest, he died in exile; his palace in Kokand has become the city's emblem.
Sayyid Muhammad Khudayar Khan, son of Sher Ali Khan of Kokand, was born in 1831 or 1835 — the sources differ. When his father was killed in a revolt in 1845, the Kipchak leader Musulmanqul proclaimed the young Khudayar, his son-in-law, khan; Khudayar had been in Namangan during the uprising and so survived. At first real power lay with Musulmanqul, until in 1852 Khudayar turned on him and had him executed, unleashing a massacre of the Kipchaks. Khudayar was deposed and restored several times, ruling in 1845–1858, 1862–1863 and 1865–1875, while the khanate was weakened by internal strife, Bukharan interference and Russia's advance; Tashkent was lost in 1865.
Revolt and exile
From 1868 the khanate was dependent on Russia. Heavy taxes and the khan's pro-Russian policies sparked a broad revolt in 1873. In summer 1875 Khudayar fled to Tashkent under Russian protection and was exiled to Orenburg, and in 1876 the khanate was abolished and replaced by Fergana Oblast. Homesick, the former khan escaped in 1877 and travelled via Herat, Peshawar and Bombay to Mecca, wandered through Arabia and ended his days in poverty in the village of Karrukh near Herat, in 1882 or 1886 according to different sources.
Khudayar Khan's palace
The Urda, Khudayar Khan's palace in Kokand, built in 1871, is the finest building of the khanate's final years. Its high portal facade clad in blue, green and white tiles, its carved doors and painted ceilings still impress, and it now houses the regional museum. Visitors usually combine it with Kokand's Friday Mosque and the Narbutabiy Madrasa.
In the 19th century the British and Russian empires competed for influence in Central Asia, a rivalry known as the Great Game. In December 1838 the British officer Charles Stoddart arrived in Bukhara to negotiate with Emir Nasrullah, but was arrested and held for years in the city's prison. Arthur Conolly, who came in 1841 to secure his release, was imprisoned too. In June 1842 both were executed as spies in the square before the Ark. The missionary Joseph Wolff, who travelled to Bukhara to learn their fate, published an account in 1845 that made the story famous in Europe. Bukhara's Zindan museum shows the pit in which prisoners were kept.
From 9 May to 17 June 1865 General Mikhail Chernyayev's troops besieged Tashkent, then part of the Khanate of Kokand. Alimqul, Kokand's de facto ruler, was killed leading the defence, and the city passed to the Russian Empire. In 1866, at war with the Emirate of Bukhara, Russian forces took Khujand, Ura-Tyube and Jizzakh. In 1867 the Governorate-General of Turkestan was created with its seat in Tashkent, headed first by General Konstantin von Kaufman. A new European-style Russian town grew up beside the old city, and Tashkent became the region's administrative centre.
Samarkand falls and Bukhara becomes a protectorate
In May 1868 Kaufman's troops defeated the army of Emir Muzaffar of Bukhara on the Chupan-Ata heights and entered Samarkand. In June, while the main force crushed the emir again at Zirabulak, the small garrison left in Samarkand's citadel was besieged by townspeople and the forces of the Shakhrisabz begs; among the defenders was the painter Vasily Vereshchagin. Under the peace signed at the end of June, Samarkand and Kattakurgan passed to Russia as the Zeravshan District, and the Emirate of Bukhara became a Russian protectorate. Vereshchagin's Turkestan series, including scenes of the siege, hangs in Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery.
In spring 1873 several Russian columns under the overall command of General Kaufman crossed the deserts from different directions into Khorezm, and at the end of May Khiva surrendered without a fight. Under the Treaty of Gandimian, signed in August, Muhammad Rahim Khan II kept his throne but lost the right to conduct foreign policy without Russian consent; the slave trade and slavery were abolished and a heavy indemnity imposed. The right bank of the Amu Darya, most of today's Karakalpakstan, passed to Russia as the Amu Darya Department, administered from the fort of Petro-Alexandrovsk, now Turtkul. Khiva survived as a protectorate until 1920.
In 1873 a broad revolt against Khudayar Khan's heavy taxes swept the Fergana Valley, led by a pretender known as Pulat Khan. In 1875 Khudayar was overthrown and fled to Russian territory, and the rising turned against Russia. Troops under General Kaufman and Mikhail Skobelev occupied the valley, and in February 1876 an imperial decree abolished the khanate, replacing it with Fergana Oblast. A new administrative centre, New Margelan, was built — later renamed Skobelev and, from 1924, Fergana. Khudayar Khan's palace in Kokand now houses the regional museum.
