Relations Between the Bukhara Emirate and The Qajor Dynasty in The Late 18th – Early 19th Century

The article examines the diplomatic, political, and military relations between the Bukhara Emirate and Qajar Iran during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a period marked by significant regional transformation in Central Asia and the Iranian plateau. Following the decline of the Afsharid and Zand dynasties, the emergence of the Qajar state under Agha Muhammad Khan and later Fath Ali Shah created new geopolitical realities that directly influenced Bukhara’s foreign policy. The study explores the competition between the two Muslim monarchies over strategic territories such as Marv, Balkh, and Herat, which served as vital buffer zones between Central Asia and Persia. These frontier regions became arenas of recurrent military campaigns, local uprisings, and shifting alliances involving Afghan tribes and Turkmen clans. The article highlights how religious legitimacy and claims to leadership of the Islamic world were also used as instruments of statecraft. Both Bukhara emirs and Qajar shahs sought to portray themselves as defenders of Sunni and Shia orthodoxy respectively, thereby extending political conflicts into the ideological sphere. The mutual suspicion between the Sunni Uzbeks of Bukhara and the Shia Persians under the Qajars deepened political fragmentation and hampered efforts toward stable cooperation. Nevertheless, the study also notes periods of pragmatic diplomacy, including exchanges of envoys, trade agreements, and negotiations over prisoners and caravan safety, which indicate the existence of limited but persistent dialogue between the courts of Bukhara and Tehran. Through analysis of archival Persian and Central Asian chronicles, as well as European travel accounts, the research reconstructs the shifting balance of power in the borderlands of Khurasan. It reveals how the struggle for control of Herat and Marv not only shaped Bukhara–Iran relations but also drew in external actors such as the Afghans and, later, the Russians and British, whose expanding imperial ambitions further complicated the regional equilibrium. By situating these dynamics within the broader context of 18th–19th century Eurasian geopolitics, the article demonstrates that Bukhara’s relations with Qajar Iran were part of a larger process of political realignment, ideological contestation, and territorial reconfiguration that defined the precolonial history of Central Asia.