Sayyid Mir Muhammad Alim Khan

Sayyid Mir Muhammad Alim Khan is the current Emir of the Emirate of Bukhara since 1910. He is the last Emir of Bukhara as a Russian Protectorate and the first Emir of the Emirate as a Puppet State of the Indo-Persian Empire.

## History

### Early Life

At the age of thirteen, Alim Khan was sent by his father Emir Abdulahad Khan to Saint Petersburg for three years to study government and modern military techniques. In 1896, having received formal confirmation as Crown Prince of Bukhara by the Russian government, he returned home.

After two years in Bukhara assisting in his father's administration, he was appointed governor of Nasef region for the next twelve years. He was then transferred to the northern province of Karmana, which he ruled for another two years, until receiving word in 1910 of his father's death.

### Reign as a Russian Protectorate

Alim Khan's rule began with promise. Initially, he declared that he would no longer expect or accept any gifts, and prohibited his officials from demanding bribes from the public, or imposing taxes on their own authority. However, as time went by the Emir's attitude towards bribes, taxes, and state salaries changed. The conflict between the traditionalists and the reformists ended with the traditionalists in control, and the reformers in exile in Moscow or Kazan. It is thought that Alim Khan, who initially favored modernization and the reformists, realised that their eventual goals included no place for either him or his descendants as rulers. Like his predecessors, Alim Khan was a traditional ruler. He toyed with the idea of reform as a tool to keep the clergy in line, and only as long as he saw the possibility of using it to strengthen Manghud rule.[*citation needed*]

One of the most important Tajik writers, Sadriddin Ayniy, wrote vivid accounts of life under the Emir. He was whipped for speaking Tajik and later wrote about the life under the Emirs in the *Bukhara Executioners* ("Jallodon-i Bukhara").

Alim Khan was the only Manghud ruler to add the title of Caliph to his name,[*citation needed*] and was the last direct descendant[*clarification needed*] of the Manghit dynasty to serve as a national ruler.

In March 1918 activists of the Young Bukharan Movement (Yosh Buxoroliklar) informed the Bolsheviks that the Bukharians were ready for the revolution and that the people were awaiting liberation. The Red Army marched to the gates of Bukhara and demanded that the emir surrender the city to the Young Bukharans. As Russian sources report, the emir responded by killing the Bolshevik delegation, along with several hundred Russian supporters of the Bolsheviks in Bukhara and the surrounding territories. The majority of Bukharans did not support an invasion and the ill-equipped and ill-disciplined Bolshevik army fled back to the Soviet stronghold at Tashkent.

### Reza Shah annexes the Emirate as a Puppet

After the Invasion by the Soviets Reza Shah's soldiers marched into the Emirate and they met with emir himself and having him declare Bukhara a Puppet State. The Soviets started to invade again, but they were stopped by White Russian soldiers employed by Reza Shah himself to fight the Bolsheviks and keep them out. The Emir after being saved gratefully supported Reza Shah in his invasion of India by having Bukhara fight with it's master state.

## Marriages

He had married many times. He had three children from previous marriages.

* Shukria Raad Alimi, a worker of the Radio Afghanistan company.
* Shahmurad, denounced his father at age 7 and lost his rights to the throne of Bukhara after the incident.
* Qasem, married Bibimeymanat Mohsenolhoseini, has 6 sons and 4 daughters.
	+ Hasan
	+ Lo'ba
	+ Ali
	+ Narges
	+ Qasem
	+ Reza
	+ Fatemeh
	+ Mohammad
	+ Mahmoud
	+ Mahboubeh

He married Princess Ameenah Shah who is the eldest daughter of King Amanullah I of Afghanistan and his wife Soraya Tarzi. They currently have no children at the moment.