to open trade relations with India through Turan,
as well as to release some Russian subjects in slavery,
sent Prince Bekovitch Tcherkassky to examine into
the alleged ancient course of the Oxus into the
Caspian, and to proceed to Khiva, the Khans of
which had already offered him allegiance. Bekovitch
surveyed the east of the Caspian, built forts, and
marched upon Khiva with 3,000 men. The Khivans
feigned submission, induced Bekovitch to break up
his force in small detachments, to facilitate their being
provisioned, and then slew them nearly all.
During the next 120 years the tables were turned as
between the Cossacks and Khivans, the latter o f whom
now attacked and plundered their former invaders,
seizing caravans, and carrying off Cossacks and other
Russian subjects into slavery. Kharezm, during this
time, became the great slave market of Central Asia,
and as many as 10,000 Russians and Persians were
held in captivity there. This led to several Russian
envoys being sent. Thus, in 1725, Florio Benevini,
an employé in the Russian Foreign Office, visited
Khiva, proceeding thither through Persia and Bokhara,
and was well received, Shirgazi being then troubled
with the condition of things in Bokhara. Other
Russian envoys visited the country during the rest
of the century, but none of them were able to bring
the Khan to terms, to induce them to stop pillaging and
enslaving Russians, or to emancipate those already in
bondage. During this period we find Shirgazi succeeded
by Ilbars, who, threatened by Nadir Shah,
called to his assistance Abulkhair of the Little Horde,
and so brought a Kazak monarch to the throne, who
initiated a line of Kirghese or Kazak Khans. Abulkhair
came, and occupied Khiva, submitted to Nadir
Shah, and retired to the Steppes. Several insignificant
Khans followed: Tagir, Abul Muhammad, Abul-
ghazi II., and Kaip.
Khiva next took to “ playing with a Khan,” having
a sovereign as a toy, but the real power being in the
hands of an hereditary Inak, or I nag, who was
governor of Hazarasp. It was in the reign of
Abulghazi III., son of Kaip, and under the rule of
Ivaz Inak, Dr. Blankennagel, a Russian oculist, visited
Khiva, in 1793, with a view to treating the eyes of
the Inak’s brother, and when he could not cure him,
had to escape for his life. Ivaz Inak died in 1804,
and was succeeded by his second son, Iltazar, who,
sending the Kazak Khan back to the Steppes, proclaimed
himself an Uzbeg Khan. He was succeeded,
in 1806, by his brother, Muhammad Rahim Khan,
a veritable scourge to the regions around. It was in
this reign that Muravieff, in 1819, landed at Krasno-
vodsk, to enter into relations with the Turkomans
east of the Caspian, and having so done, crossed the
desert to Khiva. Muravieff gave a terrible picture
of the savagery of the people, declaring that his
predecessor, Bekovitch, had been flayed alive, and his
skin stretched over a drum.
In 1826, Muhammad Rahim was succeeded by his
son Allah Kuli Khan, who reigned till 1841, and
narrowly escaped invasion by the .Russians, for, the
Khivan plundering of caravans, and stealing of
Russians for slaves still continuing, the Tsar determined
to strike a blow at the khanate. In the winter
of 1839-40, General Perovsky started for Khiva with
a force of 6,000 men, 10,000 camels, and 2,000
Kirghese attendants. The snow of winter, it was
thought, would remedy the want of water in crossing