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The Ichan Kala, the inner citadel of Khiva, at sunset.
Muhammad Rakhim Khan (1806-1825) became one of the most powerful Khans of
Khiva and immediately cracked down on the Yomud troublemakers, driving
them out of the capital. He then set out to subdue the rebels in northern
Khorezm and also to conquer the Karakalpaks on the Jana Darya. He began
by assisting Aydos to establish a fortress at Aq-Jagis, a strategic
position on the Ko'k O'zek where the caravan route from Khiva to the Jana Darya
crossed the river. In 1809 he set out with forces supported by senior
Turkmen military leaders and conquered the Karakalpaks living between
Kazakhdarya and the Aral Sea. In January 1810 his forces overwhelmed the
Karakalpaks living close to the rebel Uzbeks and later that year they
defeated the Karakalpaks on the left bank of the Amu Darya. The Qon'ırat
arıs was now defeated and all the tribespeople were relocated to
Xojeli.
It is estimated that the Karakalpaks on the Jana Darya numbered 10,000
kibitkas, or households, mainly from the On To'rt Urıw arıs: 5,000 Man'g'ıts
and Qıtays and 5,000 Bessarı, Qıpshaqs and Yomuds from the Keneges tribe.
An attempt had already been made to raid some of the Karakalpaks in 1807, and the
Man'g'ıts had later taken Bukharan citizenship, although later attempts to
obtain military assistance from Bukhara proved unsuccessful. Meanwhile
some of the other Karakalpaks and Yomuds sought protection under the
Kazakhs. Muhammad Rakhim Khan had sent a mixed force of Uzbeks, Turkmen
and Karakalpaks to the Aq-Jagis fort, but once he got wind of the attempts
to form an alliance with the Kazakhs he decided to accelerate his campaign
and joined his forces on the Ko'k O'zek in December 1810. The leaders of the
Man'g'ıt and Qıtay immediately submitted to the Khan and agreed to take
Khivan citizenship, in return for which they were granted title to their
wintering and summering grounds on the Ko'k O'zek. The others refused to
submit and took flight along the Aral coast, while discussions continued
with the Kazakh ambassadors. But the Kazakhs could not afford to upset
their relationship with Khiva, and the remaining Karakalpaks had no option
but to submit to Muhammad Rakhim Khan.
Now all that remained were the Aral Uzbeks and Chodur around Qon'ırat and
the Khan took this region by force between 1810 and 1812. In the following
years he also incorporated some Kazakh tribes on the Jana Darya and
Turkmen tribes in the west into the Khiva Khanate.
The Karakalpaks were now settled along both banks of the Amu Darya in the
“badlands” of the delta region. The tribes and clans of the Qon'ırat arıs
were mainly settled along the left bank from Xojeli to Shomanay and to
the north of present Qon'ırat town, while the Aral Uzbeks occupied the
region around Qon'ırat. The right bank was more heavily populated with
Qıtay, Man'g'ıt, Keneges and Qıpshaq tribes. Further north, the Ko'k O'zek
waterway had been settled by Man'g'ıt, Qıtay and Bessarı tribes. There was a
Kazakh settlement to the east of Taxta Ko'pir.
Work began on the development of new agricultural oases in the delta, with
the construction of canals, storage ponds, irrigation networks and shigirs
for lifting water with bullock or donkey power. The Qanliko'l oasis
developed on the left bank, irrigated by the Laudan, Shomanay and other
channels and the Qusxanataw oasis on the right bank, to the north-west of
Shımbay, was irrigated by a branch of the Amu Darya. The Kegeyli oasis,
fed by the Kegeyli canal, was also on the right bank to the south of
Shımbay and was soon extended to link up with the Ko'k O'zek region further
north. When a canal was constructed to Konya Urgench in 1823, Goklen
Turkmen were relocated to the new oasis formed to its west.
It must have been appallingly tough work, freezing in the winter, mosquito
ridden in the spring and baking hot in the summer. Although Marxist
historians have been responsible for documenting the history of this
period and have been keen to emphasis the exploitation of the Karakalpak
peasants, it is hard not to feel dreadfully sorry for them and the burden
they faced in the 19th century. Many of their leaders had sold them out,
offering compliance to the Khan in return for continued office and grants
of land, whilst any bays who had offered resistance had been removed.
The Karakalpak were ruled by an aristocracy consisting of bays (tribal
chiefs), atalıqs, beglerbegs and merchants, and a layer of officials
with qazıs (judges), raises (civil and religious police), mihrabs
(waterways administrators) and military leaders. In addition there were
the religious mullahs, ishans and akhuns and dervish shaykhs and xojas. The
land within the Khanate was held in three forms: state land that was
mainly granted on a hereditary sharecrop lease system, private land owned
by the Khans, aristocracy and peasants, and vakuf land owned by the
mosques and other religious institutions.
Naturally, the best land was
allocated to the most senior Karakalpaks, who also owned the most cattle
and had control of the canal system. Most peasants had insufficient land
to support themselves – plots of arable land were not more than 1-2 tanaps.
Many peasants had to work for landowners in return for a share of the
crop, some moving into southern Khorezm to work for Uzbek and Turkmen
bays. Once they had scraped a meagre living from the land they were taxed
by the Khan. Muhammad Rakhim had not only imposed cattle tax (zakyat) on
the Karakalpaks immediately after the conquest, but also burdened them
with land tax (salgyat), and assigned responsibility for tax collection to
their newly subservient tribal leaders. The Karakalpaks, like the Sarts,
were therefore burdened with a higher rate of tax than the Uzbek or
Turkmen residents of Khorezm. Non-payment of tax resulted in it being
doubled!
With Muhammad Amin’s only two sons now dead, the crown was offered to one
of his uncles, the one who had challenged Abdullah Khan. But the uncle was
an opium addict, incapable of fulfilling the role, and he abdicated in
favour of his younger brother, Seyid Muhammad Khan (1856-1864).
It was a time of crisis for Khorezm – the civil war between the Uzbeks and
Turkmen had devastated Khiva and the surrounding regions, and the wives
and children of the warring factions had been taken into slavery. The
instability had provided an opportunity for the Karakalpaks in Khorezm to
rebel, with the Qon'ırat and On To'rt Urıw tribes uniting and encouraging the
Kazakhs and Uzbeks from northern Khorezm to join their cause. When the
insurgents appealed to the Kazakhs along the Syr Darya, the new Khan
realised he needed to take drastic action and he negotiated a truce and
alliance with the Turkmen leaders. The rebellious Karakalpak villages were
routed and at a major battle near Xojeli, Seyid Muhammad managed to
defeat the combined insurgent forces, finishing off the survivors after a
three-month siege close to the Aral coast.
The local population were in a desperate condition, suffering poverty,
exhaustion, huge price inflation, unreasonable taxation, instability and
repression and in 1857 there was a major famine in the countryside
followed by a cholera epidemic. Many Karakalpaks fled the Khanate to seek
refuge in Bukhara, the Syr Darya and the Russian territories to the
north-west. Appeals to the local authorities in Orenburg for protection
achieved no response.
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