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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until December 20, 2026

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Khiva Under the Qungrats (1770-1920): State Formation, Global Trade and Capitalism in 19th-century Central Asia

Khaliyarov, Alisher
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5346-3242
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1629637534175776

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
This dissertation explores the economic and political history of the Khivan Khanate during the period of the Qungrat Dynasty (1770-1920) and the impact of global capitalism on the economy of the Khanate. The early Qungrat rulers established a highly centralized state, rapidly expanded its irrigated agriculture, and strengthened the Khanate’s military power. The formation of a strong military expanded the political influence of the Khanate over the regional trade routes that connected Central Asia to Astrakhan and Orenburg starting from the early 1810s. Mastering the trade opportunities offered by the expansion of Khivan authority and global industrial capitalism, Khivans benefited from a growing demand for cash crops. By the 1850s, Khivan merchants became the largest exporters of the highly coveted madder root (rubia tinctorum) to Russia, which drove a high volume of monetary transactions in the Khivan economy. At the turn of the 20th century, Khiva had one of the most diversified and monetized economies in Central Asia. However, the mainstream literature on Central Asian history often portrays the Khivan Khanate as the most isolated and least civilized state in the Central Asian region. Refuting the notion of ‘isolation’, my dissertation explains how global commodity exchanges and capitalism shaped statecraft and military strategies of the early Qungrats by encouraging the expansion of irrigation and monetary transformation during the 19th-century. Drawing on an analysis of a wide array of archival documents including judicial records, financial deeds, slave reports, and diplomatic correspondence, I argue that environmental factors and the irrigation potential of the Khanate were crucial in the state building process of the early Qungrat rulers. The geographical location of the Khanate bestowed the Qungrat rulers with a comparative advantage in producing and controlling strategic cash crops including wheat. Drawing on this potential, the Qungrats were able to reform the military and assert authority across the border regions. As internal stability prevailed, the Qungrat rulers expanded the irrigation networks to unprecedented levels, which drove an increase in agricultural production and crop diversity. Starting from the 1850s, this process drove a corresponding increase in monetary circulation, which eventually resulted in thrive in the use of cash endowments and moneylending. The analysis of moneylending documents reveals how the Khivan economy echoed the parallel rise of moneylending patterns in the wider Islamic world. This dissertation, therefore, stands to make significant contributions to Central Asian, Islamic and world history by demonstrating the impact that 19th-century global industrial capitalism wielded on states and societies beyond the colonial frontiers.
Scott Levi (Advisor)
Thomas McDow (Committee Member)
Jane Hathaway (Committee Member)
213 p.
Economic History; History; Islamic Studies; World History
Cash endowment; irrigation; Khiva; madder; moneylending; Qungrat; waqf

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Khaliyarov, A. (2021). Khiva Under the Qungrats (1770-1920): State Formation, Global Trade and Capitalism in 19th-century Central Asia [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1629637534175776

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Khaliyarov, Alisher. Khiva Under the Qungrats (1770-1920): State Formation, Global Trade and Capitalism in 19th-century Central Asia. 2021. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1629637534175776.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Khaliyarov, Alisher. "Khiva Under the Qungrats (1770-1920): State Formation, Global Trade and Capitalism in 19th-century Central Asia." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1629637534175776

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1629637534175776
© 2021, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Khiva Under the Qungrats (1770-1920): State Formation, Global Trade and Capitalism in 19th-century Central Asia by Alisher Khaliyarov is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.