The Sariq Turkmens of Merv and the Khanate of Khiva in the early nineteenth century
This dissertation investigates the relationship between the Sariq Turkmens, a semi-nomadic tribe occupying the Merv oasis in southern Turkmenistan in tile first half of the nineteenth century, and the Khanate of Khiva, a sedentary Uzbek state centered in Khorezm. The research is based primarily on manuscript copies of indigenous court chronicles from Khiva, supplemented by additional sources from the neighboring Bukharan Khanate and Qajar Iran, as well as European travel accounts and, later, Turkmen oral histories recorded after the Russian conquest. Throughout the time period investigated, the Khivan Khanate sought to dominate the Merv region in order to use it as a staging area for raiding Iran. as well as to control trade passing through the region. At the same time, the Sariqs sought to maximize their own profit from serving Khivan interests, or, when Khivan control was seen as too oppressive, to exert their independence from Khivan authority. The central figure in defining the Sariqs' relationship with Khiva is shown to be a Muslim holy man named 'Abd ar-Rahman Khalifa, who our research shows fits into a pattern of tribal saintly figures already described for other Islamic regions such as North Africa but little studied in Central Asia
Downloadable Article, English, 1998