A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

Bukhara, Khiva, and Khoqand 181
khiva
After the establishment of the Abulkhayrid Shaybanids in Transoxania
proper (1501), another group of nomadic Uzbeks from the Dasht-i
Kipchak, the Yadigarid Shaybanids, installed themselves as the khans of
Khwarazm by 1515.This event suggests that the passing of the whole
of Central Asia proper under Uzbek rule was not an accident but
resulted from the inability of the native population to replace the declining
local power with a new alternative of its own.The Turco-Mongols
to the north, by virtue of their nomadic lifestyle predisposed to military
mobility, conquest, and rule, seldom failed to seize an opportunity to
attempt incursions and conquest, and both Transoxania and Khwarazm
proved perfect targets at this period.Yadigarid conquest and rule also
demonstrated the force of geopolitics, for despite periodic attempts of
the Abulkhayrid Shaybanids and their successors the Tuqay-Timurids
to seize this territory, Khwarazm retained its own identity and independence
throughout the long rule of this dynasty.It did so also under their
successors the Inakids until the Russian conquest 1873, and even until
1919 as a Russian protectorate.As in Transoxania, in Khwarazm too the
dichotomy between the rulers and the ruled, the nomads and the sedentary
urban or agricultural population, persisted or even grew: under the
still charismatic Genghisid authority of the khans, political and military
power remained in the hands of the Turkic tribal oligarchy, while the
town dwellers and peasants, called Sarts, were excluded from it.A good
number of these sedentaries were descended from the original Iranian
population of the area, but unlike those of Transoxania they were by
now almost totally Turkicized.
Khwarazm under the Yadigarids suffered a general decline caused by
a variety of factors.One was the turbulence of the political process
referred to above.There was too much tribal movement and insubordination
to let the khans impose the necessary law and order.The ensuing
insecurity further aggravated the dwindling of long-distance trade that
had been practiced by Khwarazm or that used to pass through it, linking
the Silk Road network with the Pontic steppes and Russia.Gradually, the
khanate’s center of gravity stabilized in an area on the left (southern)
bank of the Amu Darya near the apex of the river’s delta, with Khiva,
New Urgench, and New Kath as the foremost urban agglomerations.
The right bank with the historical Kath was virtually abandoned to the
encroaching Kyzyl Kum desert.Farther northwest the original Urgench,