Archives of the Chancellery of Khiva Khans

The collection of documents in the archival fund “The Chancellery of Khiva Khans” stored in the Central State Archive of the Republic of Uzbekistan is one of the largest archives of Central Asian rulers. The fund consists of the documents in Asian languages (Arabic, Persian, Chagatai, and Turkic). This collection of archival documents is a peculiar heritage of the peoples of Central Asia and is the largest of the known and preserved archival collections of documents from the Muslim East. In general, archives of the Chancellery of Khiva Khans reflect the historical events that took place during the period of more than 200 years in the territory of modern Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. It also provides substantive information about diplomatic relations of the Khiva Khanate with Russia, Britain, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Bukhara emirate and the Kokand khanate. Furthermore, the archival fund contains more than 20 thousand documents in Arabic graphic (18th – early 20th century), which sheds light on a wide range of unexplored issues related to state management, document management system and the functioning of public institutions in the Khiva Khanate.