FORMS OF LAND OWNERSHIP AND LAND RESOURCES IN THE BUKHARA EMIRATE: VOBKENT/KOMOT AS A HISTORICAL-TERRITORIAL UNIT BASED ON DOCUMENTS FROM THE LATE EIGHTEENTH TO THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

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Abstract

The article examines land resources and forms of land ownership in the Bukhara Emirate from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, using Vobkent/Komot as a historical-territorial unit. In this study, the term “tuman” is used not in the sense of a modern administrative district, but as a historical designation of a local territorial and economic-administrative area that existed within the structure of the Bukhara Emirate. The focus is on archival documents, land sale deeds, waqf materials, and relevant scholarly literature that make it possible to trace the legal and economic nature of land relations in this region. Based on documents related to the village of Halvagaron and the localities of Amir-davon and Raboti Eshon, the article analyzes such forms of landholding as milk-i hurr-i holis, zamini harojiy, waqf lands, amlak lands, and tanho. Special attention is paid to the fact that land appears in the sources not only as a means of agricultural production, but also as an object of legal registration, sale and purchase, taxation, inheritance, and waqf endowment. The documents record land area in tanabs, value in Bukhara ashrafi coins, irrigation systems, mills, and other economic facilities. The article concludes that land relations in Vobkent/Komot reflected the general features of the agrarian, fiscal, and legal system of the Bukhara Emirate while preserving local characteristics connected with irrigation, shared ownership, and waqf practice.