عنوان

The Myth of the Butcher Amir:

TLpq2404391408

انگلیسی

The Myth of the Butcher Amir:

[Thesis]

Lee, Kwang Tae

Tribal Politics and Early Modernization in Nineteenth Century Central Asia

Sela, Ron

Indiana University

2020

566

Ph.D.

Indiana University

2020

The Central Asian, Bukhara-based Manghït dynasty (1756-1920) has been not only neglected by modern scholars but also viewed through the prism of Orientalist and Russian- and Soviet-era misrepresentations. Such misrepresentations, whether personal - for example, branding the Bukharan ruler Amīr Naṣr Allāh the "Butcher Amir" - or methodological - skewing fundamental concepts and vocabularies, such as "modernization" and "tribe" - have been shaping scholarly work and political views in the region and beyond till the very present. By dismantling Russian- and Soviet-era historiographical trends, and by analyzing a wider range of sources than have been studied previously, this dissertation demonstrates how Amīr Naṣr Allāh's reign (r. 1827-1860) ushered a new era in the region's domestic and foreign relations, and engendered fundamental changes in Bukhara's administrative and religious systems, departing from the traditional ways that dictated social relations in the state and the region. Amīr Naṣr Allāh's strategies were carefully devised to deal with existing political conditions, rooted first and foremost in recognizing and disentangling "tribal politics." At the same time, affected by the worldwide contemporaneous political, socio-economic, and cultural currents, the Bukharan ruler sought reforms, which brought about Bukhara's (re)domination of Central Asia. These changes exhibit that Central Asian society was not just a passive recipient but rather an active participant in a rapidly modernizing world.

Asian studies

History

Middle Eastern studies

Lee, Kwang Tae

Sela, Ron

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y