The Dynamics of Dynastic Succession: Strategies of Power Consolidation in the Bukhara Emirate (1756–1920)
Keywords:
Bukhara Emirate, Manghit dynasty, succession crisisAbstract
This article examines how the absence of an institutionalised system of succession affected the political stability of the Bukhara Emirate under the Manghit dynasty (1756–1920). Its central argument is that the lack of a fixed rule of inheritance, such as primogeniture, provoked a recurring political crisis at every change of ruler. Drawing on a critical reading of nineteenth-century European and Russian sources and on concepts from historical sociology, in particular patrimonialism, the study contends that the mass political purges, the elimination of dynastic rivals and the confiscations of property undertaken by each new emir were not simply expressions of personal cruelty or “Oriental despotism”. Rather, they were a structurally determined and rational political instrument for consolidating power and establishing absolute rule within a decentralised system of government. The article seeks to reassess the nature of power in the emirate by identifying the systemic and structural causes of political violence, which explanations centred on personal factors have often obscured.
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