The Emirate of Bukhara (1785-1920)

In the last years of the Ashtarkhanids, power had passed to atalyqs of the Uzbek Manghit tribe. In 1756 Muhammad Rahim proclaimed himself khan. In 1785 Shah Murad of his dynasty took the title of emir instead of khan, which is where the name Emirate of Bukhara comes from.

The emirs lived in the old Ark citadel of Bukhara. The city remained one of the largest centres of religious learning in Central Asia, with students in hundreds of madrasas.

In 1868 the Russian Empire took Samarkand and the emirate became a Russian protectorate. In September 1920 the Red Army took Bukhara and the last emir, Sayyid Alim Khan, left for Afghanistan. The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic replaced the emirate, and in 1924 its land was divided among the new Soviet republics.