A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

Bukhara, Khiva, and Khoqand 179
madrasa (“Madrasa with gold facing”), completed in 1630, is also situated
on the rigistan; the three buildings – Ulugh Beg and Shirdar facing
each other, Tilakar delimiting the third side of the square – form an
exquisite composition and one of the justly famous examples of Central
Asian architecture and urban planning.
Abdalaziz Khan is also remembered for valiant efforts to bring Balkh,
traditionally the heir presumptive’s appanage, under closer control, and
for favoring the religious and scholarly class; both the khwajas of the
Naqshbandi and other dervish orders, and the alims, secular Islamic
scholars, benefited from his patronage.Nevertheless, he could not
prevent frequent raids by the Khivans which reached their climax under
Anusha Khan; the raid of 1681, which resulted in a temporary seizure
of Bukhara, broke the aging monarch’s spirit and made him abdicate
the throne.
Abdalaziz Khan was in 1681 succeeded by his brother Subhanquli
Khan (1681–1702), and the latter by his (Subhanquli’s) sons Ubaydallah
Khan (1702–11; not to be confused with his Shaybanid namesake) and
Abulfayz Khan (1711–47).The crisis that had led to the abdication of
Abdalaziz reinforced the growing independence of Uzbek tribal leaders
and precipitated the decline of the Janids, which was consummated with
the murder of Abulfayz Khan in 1747 by the Manghit emir Muhammad
Rahim Bi, the ataliq or major-domo of the dynasty.The decline manifested
itself in the de facto rule of this family of tribal emirs, initially as
ataliqs, and from 1785 officially as the last dynasty to rule Bukhara
(1785–1920).The first Manghit ataliq was Khudayar Bi, who occupied
this position from 1714 until he died in 1722.His son Muhammad
Hakim Bi succeeded him in this post and reinforced his authority despite
a traumatic spell of disorders visited upon Bukhara, which included a
seven-year-long series of raids by nomadic Kazakhs, themselves refugees
from the aforementioned invasions of the Dasht-i Kipchak by the Oirats
of Jungaria.A mere decade after the withdrawal of the Kazakhs,
Transoxania was invaded by the Persians: in 1740 Nadir Shah, the new
ruler of Iran, crossed the Amu Darya and, accepting the submission of
Muhammad Hakim Bi which was then formalized by the acquiescence
of Abulfayz Khan himself, proceeded to attack Khiva.When rebellions
broke out in 1743 upon the death of Muhammad Hakim, the shah dispatched
the ataliq’s son Muhammad Rahim Bi, who had accompanied
him to Iran, to quell them.This led to Muhammad Rahim’s establishment
as the next ataliq, a position which he strengthened upon Nadir