State administration and military affairs in the Kokand Khanate

In the first half of the 19th century the Kokand Khanate was the largest of the three Uzbek states by territory, containing, besides the Fergana Valley, the Tashkent oasis, Qurama, Syr Darya towns, Zhetysu, the shores of Issyk-Kul and in the south Karategin, Darvaz and Kulab; Khujand and Ura-Tepa passed back and forth. The textbook gives the number of begliks as 15 and the population as nearly 3 million; most people were Uzbeks, and Tajiks, Kyrgyz and Uyghurs also lived there, some settled in towns and some moving with their herds. The form of power was absolute monarchy, and the khan’s support was his own Ming tribe, nobles of other tribes, officials, clergy and the army. A feature special to Kokand was the post of mingboshi: he was both chief minister and army commander, so the military had a stronger voice here than in Bukhara. Officials were divided into umaro (secular) and ulama (religious): in the umaro the mingboshi, devonbegi, mirza, dasturkhanchi, mehtar (deputy of the devonbegi), shigavul, inaq, ataliq, dodkhah, qushbegi, parvonachi and treasurer; in the ulama the Shaykh al-Islam, qazi-kalan, khoja-kalan (naqib), qazi-askar, mufti, qazi-a’lam and rais. Administrative units were begliks, sarkorliks, aqsaqalliks and aminliks; it is recorded that in a call-up about 60,000 troops could be assembled from the districts.