Beyond Written Treaties: Diplomatic Practice And Documentary Traces Of Bukhara’s Trade With Khiva And Kokand In The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries

Abstract

This article examines the commercial relations of the Bukhara Emirate with the Khiva and Kokand khanates through the concept of “diplomatic practice” rather than through the narrow category of formal trade treaties. The central argument is that although complete texts of special trade treaties between Bukhara, Khiva and Kokand have survived only fragmentarily, the mechanisms of commercial regulation can be reconstructed through a wider documentary field: diplomatic missions, chancery materials, chronicles, customs records, caravan data, fiscal registers, merchant protection practices and archival references. The article distinguishes between two different documentary models: the Bukhara–Khiva direction is more visible through diplomatic chronicles, chancery documents and evidence of merchant security, whereas the Bukhara–Kokand direction is more clearly reflected in customs and fiscal data, especially in materials related to Khujand and Ura-Tyube customs offices. The article concludes that trade in Central Asian khanates was not regulated only by formal agreements, but by a broader system of diplomatic, fiscal and infrastructural practices.