Social and economic life in the Kokand Khanate

Most of the land in the khanate belonged to the khan, who gave it as a reward for service or sold it; there were several forms of ownership, while waqf land could not be sold or inherited and its income went to religious institutions. Land given to soldiers was called tanho; most holdings were 30–60 sotix and were rented to peasants. People mobilised to work on the khan’s land were called mardikors, landless poor hired for 1/4 of the harvest were chorikors, and those who took 1/2 of the harvest and worked with their own animals were korandas. The main tax was kharaj, taken at 1/3 to 1/5 of the harvest; nomadic herders paid forms of zakat called qoraboshi, tutun haqi and yig‘im, and the population also did duties such as repairing fortress walls and digging canals. Wheat and cotton were the main crops; once Russia began buying cotton, cotton-growing expanded in Fergana. In 1842 Kokand was surrounded by a strong wall with 12 gates and about 30,000 people; Andijan and Tashkent were also large cities.