BUREAUCRATIC MODERNIZATION OF BUKHARA UNDER EMIR ABDULAHAD

Abstract

This article examines the reform processes in the Bukhara Emirate during the

reign of Emir Abdulahad (1885–1910). Based on primary sources, Russian administrative reports,

and contemporary scholarship, the study reconstructs specific еar-by-year changes in

administrative governance, taxation, military organization, and socio-cultural regulation. The

reforms of Abdulahad are interpreted as a form of “contact modernization”, where a traditional

Islamic polity selectively adopted elements of procedural rationality—record keeping, regulation,

discipline, documentation—while retaining its native legitimacy framework