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Islam and the Russian Empire Reform and Revolution in
Central Asia
, (London: I.B.Tauris-Co Ltd, 1966), 17.
42
Wheeler, Geoffrey,
The Modern History of Soviet Central Asia
, (New York: Greenword Press,
1964), 180.
43
Dr. Hatunoglu was the son in law of Emir Alim Khan (the last emir of Bukhara)’s youngest son,
Shahzade Abdulkebir Yuce, who lives in Gaziantep city with his family, Turkey. Hatunoglu was an
academician at Zonguldak Karaelmas University. His sources are from the documents of Shahzade
Abdulkebir Yuce, the son of the last Emir.
20
be a rational policy.
44
In addition, they began using the title of sayyid in the early 19
th
century. It was also a fact that the religion began more effective in political and
social life of the country after the installation of the Manghit Dynasty in Bukhara.
The reason behind the increasing importance of religion was Bukharan rulers’
attempts to get support of tariqas, sufi orders, madrasa students and mullahs which
were strengthening groups in the region because of spreading to the layers of the
society. The increasing value in the late 18th century and 19th century was religiosity
and devotion rather than owning the blood of Genghisid Dynasty. For example,
Sayyid Emir Haydar, second ruler of the country, began using the title of Sayyid
(meaning a grandson of the prophet). Belonging to a family of Sayyid (grandson of
Imam Hussein who was the son of Imam Ali and grandson of the prophet) was an
influencing factor to maintain sovereignty in this era.
45
The class of clergy and mullahs took a strategic place in administrative and
daily public life in the Emirate. Their influence was very strong and valid upon the
students of madrasas. “On the level of culture the clergy of Bukhara could take most
pride in its past, its traditions and the power that it represented. Those in charge of
the emirate’s countless mosques were formed in some 150 madrasas which contained
more than 20 000 students. These madrasas figured among the oldest in the Muslim
world”.
46
They can be named as the Central Asian versions of Mecca and Medina
because of many mosques, shrines, madrasahs and tomb of many holy sheikhs in
these cities
.
“Bukhara was a prestigious center of the Muslim world: the emir, after
the caliph, was the second personage of the world Islamic community; and all the
44
Hatunoglu, Nurettin,
Turkistan’da Son Turk Devleti Buhara Emirligi ve Alim Khan
, (Istanbul:
Otuken Nesriyat A.S., 2011), 42.
45
Ibid, 44.
46
Carrere D’Encausse, Hèlene, trans.,
Islam and the Russian Empire Reform and Revolution in
Central Asia
, (London: I.B.Tauris-Co Ltd, 1966), 33.
21
representatives of Islam in the emirate were the pillars of that Muslim state and
helped to preserve for the community the face that history had forged for it and that
gave it that central place”.
47
The clergy class in these cities were automatically both
influential over the Emir and his government; and the masses. The clerical class in
Bukhara was extremely influential over the mass consciousness and other
secular
authorities of the state because of Bukhara’s ancient and traditional religious position
in Islamic world. The clergy had such enormous influence over madrasah students
that it could organize and direct the masses hence it had an enormous power of
pressure upon the governmental authorities.
48
The clergy was also against every type
of reformist movement. The Mullahs could persuade or suppress the emir on behalf
of the clergy’s interests. In the late 19
th
century and the early years of the 20
th
century, the increasing reformist Jadid Movement
49
would face the opposition of the
mullahs. Since the Mullah party owned the power of mobilizing the masses and
madrasah students, it was the best solution for the emir to act together with the
mullahs against the reformists aiming to limit the monarch’s authority. This policy of
emir pushed the reformists to cooperate with the Bolsheviks in the Revolution era in
future against the emir’s authority.
The problem about Sunni Islam’s extreme influence and its results, a hard
conservative society, is very disputable about Bukhara. Sunni Islam in Turkistan
especially in the Emirate and other Khanates got shaped differently from the other
societies in the Middle East. The communities in that region suffered from the
disconnection with other parts of the Muslim world. The best explanation about that
47
Carrere D’Encausse, Hèlene, trans.,
Islam and the Russian Empire Reform and Revolution in
Central Asia
, (London: I.B.Tauris-Co Ltd, 1966), 35.
48
Ibid, 33.
49
Jadidism was a reformist movement borne out in Russian Empire. It was indoctrinated by Muslim
intellectuals within Russia. They firstly aimed to reach European modeled education in Turkistan.
Their reforms programs were in field of culture and education in the beginning. Later it spilled over
politics and ideology. They turned out as biggest opposing movements against monarchs in Turkistan.
22
issue did come from Olaf Caroe, ex-British administrator in India and Sovietolog.
According to Sir Olaf Caroe, the link between Turkestan and the rest of Muslim
world was cut off long before the Soviets, even before the Tsarist Russia. He implies
the birth of Shiism under Safavid Dynasty in Iran. After the emergence of Shiah in
Iran, Sunni Transoxiana and Shiah Persia had a theological rift between themselves,
so Turkestan was imposed to isolation for centuries and that caused the fanatical
exclusiveness in Bukhara. In addition, the change of trade routes which had
connected Central Asia to Middle and Far East since the Ilkhanid Dynasty in the
thirteenth century, and increasing importance sea routes between the Persian Gulf
and the Southern Chinese Ports was another factor for the isolation of Central Asia.
50
In sum, these factors caused the Bukhara and its civilization to be contained and lose
its links with other part of the Sunni Muslim world, which was in more interaction
with modernization, the Western influence and developments. These reasons caused
Bukhara to be late for accepting and adapting the reforms and innovations than other
Muslim states.
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