A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

Bukhara, Khiva, and Khoqand 191
much of it was due to the khans themselves, and how much was generated
by an internal dynamism in the area and its population that simply
coincided with Ming rule, or how much was due to the influx of refugees
from turbulent Bukhara, or again what the growing trade with
Russia had to do with it.The first major canal, the Shahr-i Khan Say
(“The Stream of the Khan’s City,” so named after the new town whose
foundation accompanied the project), was dug under the rule of Umar
Khan to the west of Andijan; 120 kilometers long, it irrigated an area of
about 77,700 hectares.Similar projects appeared elsewhere, and not
only in Fergana but also in the annexed fringes of the Greater and
Middle Hordes, which were administered by governors from Tashkent;
in the area of Tashkent itself the Khan Ariq (“Royal Canal”) was dug in
1835; canal-building reached its height under the beglerbegi (governor)
Mirza Ahmad (1853–58), thus on the very eve of the Russian conquest,
and covered an area from the city of Turkestan to the valley of the Chu;
and even after the conquest had already begun and the khan had
acknowledged the Tsar’s suzerainty, the largest canal in Fergana, the
Ulugh Nahr (“Large River”), was dug under the sponsorship of the last
Ming khan, Khudayar (his third rule, 1865–75).Silk and cotton, the cultivation
of which was an ancient tradition in Fergana, continued to
supply a local textile industry; cotton, moreover, had by then become an
increasingly important cash crop grown for export to Russia, partly due
to the effects of the Civil War on American exports.
Urban architecture, both civic and religious, benefited from the new
prosperity.The great mosque of Khoqand, called Madrasa-i Jami
because of its double function as a school and a mosque, was built by
Umar Khan.Also remarkable were the madrasas Hakim Ayin and
Sultan Murad Bey, and the royal palace called Urda; the last-named
building, completed by Khudayar Khan in 1871 and thus on the eve of
the Russian conquest, is remarkable for its facade decorated in a characteristic
local style and the painted wooden ceiling of the main reception
hall.Under Umar Khan and Madali Khan there sprang up a
florescence of literature, above all poetry, remarkable especially for its
Turki language, and for the appearance of women among the poets.
One of these luminaries was Nadira (1790–1842), the wife of Umar
Khan and mother of Madali Khan.A native of Babur’s birthplace
Andijan, she gained fame as a dominant figure in Khoqand for several
reasons – her beauty, her art, and her power as the khan’s wife and his
successor’s mother.Nadira’s poems, in Turki and Persian, have been collected
in two divans.The theme of one of her poems is the reunion of