The Emirate of Bukhara (1785–1920)

The Emirate of Bukhara was the state that governed central Uzbekistan from 1785 (when the Manghit dynasty took power) until the Bolshevik revolution abolished it in September 1920.

Key events:

• 1842: Emir Nasrullah Khan executes British envoys Charles Stoddart and Arthur Conolly in the Bug Pit at the Ark. The incident becomes a cause célèbre in Britain.
• 1868: Russian general Kaufman takes Samarkand and imposes a protectorate on Bukhara. The emir retains internal autonomy but loses foreign policy and military independence.
• 1868–1920: the emirate exists as a Russian/Soviet vassal. Last emir: Muhammad Alim Khan (r. 1911–1920).
• September 1920: Red Army general Frunze shells the Ark, overthrows the emirate. Alim Khan flees to Afghanistan with the treasury.

The emirate was deeply conservative: - Sharia law, including public executions and the Bug Pit. - No secular schools, no printing press, no telegraph. - The Jadid (modernist) reform movement was suppressed.

Its legacy is visible today in Bukhara's architecture: most of the extant madrasas, mosques, and covered markets were built or maintained under the emirs, and the Ark fortress was their seat until Frunze's artillery ended it.