Khanate of Bukhara

The Khanate of Bukhara was an Uzbek monarchy in Central Asia that ruled the region of Transoxiana from 1501 to 1785, founded by Muhammad Shaybani of the Shaybanid dynasty, a branch of the Abu'l-Khayrid line descended from the steppe ruler Abu'l Khayr Khan. Shaybani's forces conquered the major cities of the region, including Samarkand, Tashkent and Bukhara itself, from the weakening Timurid dynasty, and the khanate initially governed from several of these cities in turn before Abdullah Khan II fixed Bukhara as its permanent capital by 1562. The khanate controlled the fertile agricultural lands along the lower Zarafshan River and profited from its position on Silk Road trade routes linking Persia, India and the Russian lands. Dynastic instability in the late seventeenth century eventually brought the Shaybanid line to an end, and in 1785 the khanate was succeeded by the Manghit-ruled Emirate of Bukhara, a distinct successor state governing much of the same territory.