Institutional Foundations Of Succession To The Throne In The Bukhara Emirate: The Problem Of Reconciling Meritocracy And Primogeniture

Abstract

This article examines one of the key factors in the political decline of the Bukhara Emirate under the Manghit dynasty: the institutional incompleteness of its mechanism of succession. The study considers how the state was destabilised by a lasting antagonism between two foundational principles. The first was meritocracy, which favoured the “most worthy” candidate and had its roots in Turko-Mongol traditions of statehood; the second was primogeniture, the priority of the eldest son, grounded in Islamic law. Drawing on the transfers of power under the emirs Shahmurad, Nasrullah, Muzaffar and Abdulahad, the article traces how this conflict evolved, from early attempts at a pragmatic synthesis to the settlement of dynastic disputes by naked force and, in the end, through the direct intervention of external powers. An analysis of the historical sources shows that the legal vacuum surrounding succession fuelled recurrent internecine strife, obstructed centralisation and weakened the sovereignty of the state, and that it thereby facilitated the expansion of the Russian Empire in the region.