The bukharan emirate and turkestan under russian rule in the revolutionary era: 1917-1924

2.6. National Awakening and Jadidism 
2.6.1. Jadidism in Bukhara
National awakening among Russian Muslims including Crimea, Turkistan, 
Steppe Region and the Khanates began with the introduction of usul-i jadid schools 
programmed by Ismail Gasprinsky, a Crimean Tatar intellectual. Tarjuman, meaning 
the Interpreter, was founded in 1883 by Ismail Gasprinsky. That journal aimed to 
propagate the ideas of reform of religious education and pan-Turkism. Gasprinsky’s 
purpose was to enable all the Turkish peoples in the empire to unite primarily around 
a common literary language and a common culture thus reaching the national 
recognition in next.
117
And then, he developed establishment of school method 
throughout the regions where Turks lived in majority. The first schools were opened 
in Crimea and aimed to open in other Turkic places. The usul-i jadid schools aimed 
to give modern education in Turkestan and the Khanates. Thus, an enlightened class 
117
Carrere D’Encausse, Hèlene, trans., Islam 
and the Russian Empire Reform and Revolution in 
Central Asia,
(London: I.B.Tauris-Co Ltd, 1966), 60. 

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47 
would be created in next period as a result of this educational reform that targeted to 
replace the religious-conservative based madrasah education with modern education
. 
For Gasprinsky, educational reform was very important
 
for the political and cultural 
awakening of Turco-Tatar peoples, modernization of Islamic life and emancipation 
of women in society. The name of this program was Jadidism and the reformed 
schools, established according to the aims of this modernization program, were 
known as Usul-i jaded schools (new method schools)
.
118
 
Jadid Movement was 
introduced in Bukharan emirate through these Jadid schools and managed to create a 
small educated elite which would direct the fate of the country in future. The first 
school in Turkestan was opened by famous Jadid leader Munavvar Kari in Taskent. 
In Bukharan Emirate, Jadids were led by Abd ar Rauf Fitrat, Bukharan intellectual. 
The well-known Jadid leaders of Bukhara were Fayzallah Khodzhaev, Usman 
Khodzhaev, Abdulrauf Fitrat, Munavvar Kari, Poet Colpan, Polat Khodzhaev, 
Sadallah Khodzhaev, Ubeydullah Khodzhaev. They formed the government of 
Bukharan People’s Republic in 1920 after the fall of monarchy. On the other side, 
the Emir and mullahs were very disturbed about the activities of Bukharan Jadid 
leader Abd ar Rauf Fitrat. “Both the Jadid group in the khanate and the 
Constantinople organization shared common aims and to some extent a common 
membership. The spokesman for both groups was Abd ar Rauf Fitrat, who left 
Bukhara for Constantinople in 1910 and there became the best known propagandist 
for reform in the khanate and the acknowledged ideological leader of the Bukharan 
reform movement”.
119
Although Jadidism improved in field of education and clashed 
with the clerical education method of madrasahs; it was inevitable to spill over the 
118
Becker, Seymour, 
Russia’s Protectorates in Central Asia: Bukhara and Khiva, 1865–1924
, 
(London &New York: Routledge Curzon, 2005), 160. 
119
Ibid, 163. 

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48 
political arena in future. By Gasprinsky, it aimed the modernization and unification 
of Turkic nations through this new method.

It was primarily a Muslim reformist movement with pan-Turkic overtones, which aimed at modernizing the Muslim 
system of education and also at introducing a uniform Turkic language for use by all the Turkic peoples in Russia. In the second 
of these aims it achieved no success, but in the educational field its progress was remarkable and a large number of so-called 
Jadid schools were set up in the larger towns of the Turkestan province…
120
The Bukharan Jadids had difficulty maintaining education in reformed 
schools, because both Tsarist officials and the Bukharan governing elite, the Emir 
and clergy, were against their existence. Tsarist administration saw them dangerous 
because of their pan-Turkist tones and ideas. Also, Jadid schools got more success 
than Russian schools in the region. Through these schools, intellectuals as a small 
elite were on the way of creation, so this threatened the colonizers. In addition, the 
local compradors of Tsar were deliberate to this emerging new class. The mullahs 
were basic representatives of usul-i kadim method in education. Usul-i kadim was 
the conservative, religious and traditional madrasah based education method 
supported by clergy in Bukhara. It had a legitimacy dated back to centuries ago in 
Holy Bukhara and Samarkand cities so that is the reason of the Kadims’ 
disagreement with Jadids. The Kadims saw themselves as the representatives of 
ancient historic traditions; religious based teaching of Islam and values. The 
advocates of the old method blamed the representatives of usul-i jadid to be infidels 
and saw them as their enemies. The emirs, both Abd al Ahad and his successor 
Sayyid Alim Khan, considered that the support of clergy to direct the peoples was a 
must therefore they followed a suppression policy against educational reform and 
reformist jadids.
 
“
Frustrated by the opposition of the emir’s government to 
educational reform, the Bukharan liberals soon broadened their aims and began to 
look elsewhere than to Russia’s Moslems for leadership in their attempt to modernize 
120
Wheeler, Geoffrey, 
The Peoples of Soviet Central Asia, 
(London: the Bodley Head Ltd, 1966), 41-
42. 

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49 
Bukhara. Their attention was attracted by the liberal revolution in Persia in 1906 and 
even more by the liberal nationalist Young Turk revolution in Turkey in 1908”.
121
The constitutional revolutions in leading Moslem countries such as Turkey and 
Persia enforced the Bukharan Jadids to turn their direction to the developments in 
these countries. They were good examples in order to give direction to their plans 
and aims. “Late in 1909 a group of Bukharan exiles in Constantinople founded the 
Bukharan Society for the Dissemination of Knowledge (Bukhara Tamim-I Maarif), 
whose goals were to found schools in the khanate and to finance the sending of 
Bukharan students to study in Constantinople”.
122
The Young Turk Movement and 
their social party Union and Progress became the guide for both Bukharan and 
Khivan jadids, getting education in Ottoman lands. Jadids in Khivan Khanate and 
Bukharan Emirate called themselves as Young Bukharans and Young Khivans after 
they had graduated and returned from Constantinople. Constantinople was the safest 
place for reformists because they could have any aid and support from the nationalist 
Turkish Government, especially after Union and Progress Party came to power 
through a coup in 1913. “The Jadids also put forth great efforts to send students from 
Bukhara to Turkey, fifteen in 1911, thirty in 1913, and only World War I put a stop 
to this advance. While these figures seem insignificant in themselves, the young 
students in Turkey were living in an exciting atmosphere of pan-Turkism and 
hostility toward Russia”.
123
Sending students to Turkey was the best method for a 
preparation of change and reform on the perspective of Jadids. It was a kind of public 
diplomacy policy at that time for Bukharan reformists. On the other side, it was the 
best way for Ottoman Young Turks to export their regime to influence the Central 
121
Becker, Seymour, 
Russia’s Protectorates in Central Asia: Bukhara and Khiva, 1865–1924
, 
(London &New York: Routledge Curzon, 2005), 162. 
122
Ibid, 162. 
123
Allworth, Edward et al., 
Central Asia: A Century of Russian Rule
, ed. Edward Allworth, (New 
York: Columbia University Press, 1967), 200. 

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50 
Asian Muslim Turkic states. The Russian authorities were aware of that threat 
therefore they took their precautions on the eve of World War I. The reformists were 
exposed to arrests and prosecutions inside the Emirate. And, the ones in Turkey 
could not return back to their countries. The Jadid schools were badly affected just 
after the outbreak of the Great War. The schools and Jadid activities were suspected 
by Russia due to their close links with the Ottoman Empire which attended the war 
on the side of Central Powers in November 1914, in addition there were a large 
number of Bukharan students and emigrants in Constantinople.
124