KOKAND KHANATE IN PERIOD OF SHIR ALI KHAN (1842-1845)
Authors: ŞEN Hüseyin 
Published: July 2021

Established in 1709 under the leadership of the Ming tribe of Uzbeks in the Fergana Valley, the Kokand Khanate reached the peak of its power with Muhammad Ali Khan (1822-1842), who became the ruler in 1822. Although the Kokand Khanate reached the peak of its power during the twenty-year reign of Muhammad Ali Khan, Muhammad Ali Khan's distancing from the state affairs with the sweet smell of victory, his being abandoned to libation gatherings and the maladministration he exhibited in the last period of his rule attracted the reaction of the people and statesmen. The statesmen, who could not see the future of their Khanate under the rule of Muhammad Ali Khan, requested assistance from Nasrullah (1826-1860), the ruler of the Bukhara Emirate and one of the important powers of the Turkestan field, to dethrone Muhammad Ali Khan. Emir Nasrullah, who responded positively to this request for help, embarked on two expeditions to Kokand and invaded the Kokand Khanate as a result of the second expedition in 1842. Emir Nasrullah, who had Muhammad Ali Khan and his family executed, appointed Ibrahim Hayel as the governor of Kokand and returned to Bukhara. The brutality of the Bukhara soldiers during Emir Nasrullah's invasion of Kokand and the subsequent maladministration drew the public reaction. The tribes and inhabitants of the Kokand Khanate, who were tired of cruelty and oppression, united around a new ruler and decided to get rid of Bukhara Administration. In line with this decision, Shir Ali, who lived in Talas and was a member of the Kokand dynasty, was enthroned. When Shir Ali became khan (1842-1845), the rule of Bukhara in Kokand was ended and the cities of the Khanate were taken under control one by one. When the Khanate got rid of Bukhara captivity and reached its former borders to a great extent, this time it dealt with domestic disturbances. The Kyrgyz, Kipchak tribes and the settled public who wanted to be effective in the state administration started to struggle against each other and the Kipchaks, one of the parties of this struggle, rebelled against the state under the leadership of Müslümankulu. As a result of the rebellion, the persecution applied by the Kipchaks, who were active in the state administration, attracted the reaction of other tribes and the people, especially the Kyrgyz, and as a result, this time the Kyrgyz rebelled and enthroned the late Alim Khan's son Murad Bek and had Shir Ali Khan killed. Müslümankulu, who did not want to lose his influence in the Khanate, married Shir Ali Khan’s son Hüdayar Bek and his daughter and enthroned him in 1845. With Hüdayar Khan becoming the ruler, the administration was completely handed over to Müslümankulu. Illumination of the events of the Shir Ali Khan period is important in revealing the situation of the region at the beginning of the Russian-British conflict in the Turkestan area, which is expressed as the Great Game. In addition, it is important to understand the causes and consequences of the conflicts within tribes in the state, especially in the Khanate of Kokand, and to determine the consequences of these conflicts during the Russian occupation in the ongoing process. In this study, where we tried to reveal the three-year period of the Kokand Khanate, we mainly used the sources belonging to the Kokand Khanate and tried to explain the reign of Shir Ali Khan by comparing the information given in the main sources of the period with the Kokand sources written later.