The Native Chronicles Of The Manghits Period

From the sixteenth century, the Manghit tribe, which was one of the prominent political figures of Turkestan, had not established an independent entity; but in the Khanate Bukhara which was under the Shibanids and Astrakhanids, the leaders of this tribe assumed important offices. In 1756, although the leaders of Manghit tribe were not descended from Chinggis Qaghan, they demanded for the power and gained it from the Astrakhanid Dynasty in the Bukharan Khanate and started a period which was called with their own names. In this era, which succeeded ten persons one after another, the Amirate of Bukhara preserved its position as the strongest state of Turkestan. As being in the periods of Shibanids and Astrakhanids, historiography continued in the period of Manghit Dynasty as well. But the main question of historiography in this period, especially in the first chronicles, was the problem of legitimacy of sovereigns. On the one hand the descents of the members of Manghit Dynasty were tried to be correlated with Chinggis Qaghan, on the other hand the descents of the dynasty were tried to be based on the Prophet Muhammad. In the later chronicles, the main focus became the process of the Russian occupation of Central Asia. As some of the chronicles started to the narration from the first human, the others began by the Prophet Muhammad, Chinggis Qaghan or the Manghit Dynasty. Even some of them focus only on one sovereign. In the chronicles, written in Persian and Tajik, the social and economic matters were neglected, and the subject developed mostly around the political events and achievements of the kings. In this study, it will not be handled all of the native and foreign contemporary sources. Rather, by examining the native chronicles of the Manghits period, their key features will be brought out.

Keywords

Manghits, Uzbeks, Chronicle, Historiography, Source Researches