Amir Alimkhan biography. Major General Shahmurad Olimov - son and grandson of the Bukhara emirs

Bukhara is one of the few cities in world history that has always been located and developed in the same place; in the 7th century, the Arab Caliphate spread to this territory and the religion of Islam came from the Arabian Peninsula.

Said built a special house for the Emperor of the Russian Empire Nicholas 2, who never visited Bukhara. If we step back a little from the topic, it is completely incomprehensible to me how probably the most mediocre of the Russian tsars, who stupidly destroyed almost the entire Russian fleet in the Battle of Tsushima, was suddenly canonized as a Saint; the world is truly full of mysteries.

The last emir of Bukhara and the last autocrat of the Russian Empire are even similar in some ways; they both fell under the pressure of the new Bolshevik power. In 1918, Soviet Power had already been established in the city of Tashkent, the emir assumed that Bukhara would also fall and planned escape routes.
Said turned to Great Britain for help, but the British at first seemed to agree, but then they refused to allow him to emigrate, and he began to seek refuge in other countries, and at the same time prepare a caravan of 100 pack animals.

General view of the emir's summer residence.

He loaded the best part of his treasures onto these hundred pack animals, because he could no longer take everything out. The emir had already reached an agreement with Afghanistan; the authorities of that country were supposed to provide him with asylum. He called his faithful comrade-in-arms, Colonel Taksobo Kalapush, and entrusted him with “leadership of the caravan.”

Decoration of a house built for the Russian Emperor.

Said Alim-Khan planned to conduct business negotiations with Nicholas 2 and for this he built a special hexagonal room in the center of the house, around all the walls of which there were more rooms and it had no external walls, this was done so that no one from the street could overhear conversations leaders.

The English protege in the nearest Chinese city of Kashgar and the Viceroy of India refused to accept the emir’s valuable cargo due to the uneasy situation in the region. Then the emir buried his treasures in the steppes, and in pre-revolutionary times, at night, a hundred pack animals under the leadership of Taxobo Kallapush left Bukhara.

The main house of the emir, where his wives and concubines lived. The wives lived on the first floor of the house, and the concubines on the second.

Meanwhile, the caravan with the emir's treasures was heading to the foothills of the Pamirs. On the way, the guards found out what they were transporting and wanted to kill Kallapush, and then take possession of the treasures of the Emir of Bukhara. A struggle ensued in which Kallapush and his companions were more successful and killed the rebel guards.

The survivors hid the treasures in one of the many caves and blocked the entrance with stones. It is now believed that the emir’s treasure is hidden on the territory of modern Turkmenistan, somewhere between the Uzbek Bukhara and the Turkmen city of Bayramaly.

After four days of travel, the caravanners returned to Bukhara and stopped for the night before a morning visit to the emir. But at night Kallapush killed all the guards and in the morning he came to the emir in splendid isolation.

He handed him a dagger on which was engraved the path to the treasure cave. The emir very joyfully greeted his devoted comrade-in-arms, but most of all he was interested in whether any of those who had seen where the treasures were hidden were still alive.

To which Kallapush replied: “Only two people on Earth know this secret, you and I.” “Then it’s not a secret,” the emir replied, and that same night the palace executioner killed Kallapush. And two days later, the Emir of Bukhara with a retinue of a hundred sabers set off and crossed the border of Afghanistan.

Near the house there was a pond where, when it was hot, the emir's wives and concubines swam. Access to this part of the building was prohibited for absolutely all men except the emir himself. They bathed in special robes, because according to the Islamic traditions of that time, a woman should not have been COMPLETELY naked in front of her husband.

The gazebo in which the Emir of Bukhara rested, he could sit here in the cool shade, watching his wives bathe, and sometimes called his children to play.

For “a couple of kopecks” you can climb onto the gazebo, put on a robe and feel like an emir, but women, alas, no longer swim in the pond.

Said Alim Khan was unable to take his entire family to Afghanistan; his three sons remained on the territory of Uzbekistan and the Soviets took custody of them. The emir left with only a harem and young children.

Two of his sons entered military school, one was promoted to general ahead of schedule, but only on the condition that they publicly renounce their father through newspapers and radio. Otherwise, they faced reprisals or execution.
One of the sons could not survive the renunciation and went crazy. The second son died later under unclear circumstances, and soon the third heir also disappeared.

There is also a small minaret where the muezzin would go up and call everyone to prayer. For a symbolic fee you can go up there and enjoy the views of Said Alim Khan’s “estate” from above.

The emir, being in Afghanistan, even sent troops to pick up his treasures, but all these attempts were unsuccessful, the Red Army was stronger, the Afghan wars even massacred the native village and all the relatives of Kallapush, thinking that his relatives should know about something about the treasure.

Once upon a time, the emir was a very rich and powerful man, with his money the most famous Cathedral Mosque of St. Petersburg was built near the Gorkovskaya metro station, but living in Afghanistan, he quickly squandered the wealth that he took with him, dismissed the servants and was forced was to save on everything.

He eventually went blind and died in absolute poverty in the Afghan capital of Kabul in 1944. Pride did not allow him to ask rich rulers of other Muslim countries for money.

A lot of representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran came to his funeral. They provided some assistance to the family of Said Alim Khan, whose descendants still live in the territory of modern Afghanistan.

My first photo with the Turbine flag.

And this is the same sanatorium of the USSR, built on the former estates of the Emir of Bukhara.

The Emir's gazebo next to the pond, from a slightly different angle.

No one fully knows how true this story is, because the treasures of the last emir of Bukhara have not been found to this day, and maybe all this is nothing more than fiction. It is always very difficult to talk about the reliability of historical events; usually any government always “corrects history to suit itself.”

I left the Sitorai Mohi-Khosa palace in a thoughtful state; now only peacocks silently see off visitors, but during the greatness of Bukhara, the emir had a huge menagerie.

A thoughtful old man sitting on a chair looked at the traveler with a heavy backpack on his back.

I thought then that a person looks self-sufficient without endless rushing around the world, night work, planes, trains, buses, cars..... A person lives in his little Bukhara and enjoys life.... and most importantly, he is not in a hurry.. ...

And then I was in a hurry to Samarkand, and now I’m in a hurry to write reports about Japan and Uzbekistan, not to mention abandoned in Indonesia.....and in less than two weeks Peru through Spain and almost immediately Azerbaijan. And in June I hope that I will receive a new ten-year passport, because... an ordinary five-year-old usually lasts me three to three and a half years because the pages are completely running out... and summer plans are still vague, either “black Africa”, or Madagascar and the fabulous Reunion Island.....

"CENTRAL ASIA" (historical reference book) HISTORICAL PERSONS - first half of the 20th century SAYYID AMIR ALIM KHAN (1880-1943)The second son of the Bukhara emir from the Mangyt dynasty, Sayid Abdullahad Khan (1885-1910), Tyura-jan Mir-Alim, was born on January 3, 1880. His grandfather, Amir Muzaffar Khan (1860-1885), recognized the Russian protectorate over the Bukhara Khanate, signing the corresponding political agreements in 1868 and 1873. According to the court etiquette of the Russian royal court, the amirs of Bukhara had the title of “lordship” and stood above the grand dukes. In January 1893, Mir-Alim arrived with his father in St. Petersburg, where he was assigned to study at the elite imperial higher military educational institution - the Nikolaev Cadet Corps. Emperor Alexander III approved Mir-Alim as heir to the throne and personally determined the program of his education, promising Adullahad Khan that his son would receive an education in accordance with the norms of Islam. Mir-Alim studied in St. Petersburg until the summer of 1896 under the supervision of Osman Beg guard and personal tutor Colonel Demin. Sayyid Alim Khan took the throne of his father on December 4, 1910. The very next year after ascending the throne, Amir Alim Khan received from Emperor Nicholas II the rank of major general in the tsarist army and the court rank of aide-de-camp, and at the end of 1915 he was promoted to lieutenant general and adjutant general. In September 1916 he was awarded one of the highest Russian awards - the Order of Alexander Nevsky. He owned property in Russia: dachas-palaces in Crimea, Kislovodsk, Zheleznovodsk, houses in St. Petersburg. On March 11, 1913, at the Russian Foreign Ministry, and on June 14, 1914, at a meeting of the Russian State Duma, the issue of reforming the administrative structure of the Bukhara Khanate and its annexation to Russia was raised. However, Nikolai II rejected these proposals. The seizure of power in Russia by the Bolsheviks in 1917 allowed Amir Alim Khan to declare full sovereignty and annul the 1873 treaty on the protectorate of Russia. On March 23, 1918, Alim Khan signed a peace treaty with the RSFSR. However, realizing the military threat of the Bolsheviks, he began to intensively strengthen the Bukhara army. For this purpose, Russian and Turkish officers with combat experience were brought in. Infantry and cavalry regiments were formed from Turkish and Afghan “volunteers”. The Amir carried out two military mobilizations and authorized the production of bladed weapons and ammunition. By August 1920, the army of the emirate numbered up to 60 thousand fighters, incl. 15 thousand infantry, 35 thousand cavalry, 55 guns, several dozen machine guns. Nevertheless, as a result of the Bukhara “revolution”, ensured by the invasion of the Amirate by Soviet troops of the Turkfront under the command of Frunze, the Amir’s army was defeated. On September 2, 1920, units of the Red Army of the RSFSR occupied Bukhara and Sayyid Alim Khan was overthrown from the throne. The Bukhara People's Soviet Republic (1920-1924) was proclaimed on the territory of Bukhara. From September 1920 to February 1921, Alim Khan was on the territory of Eastern Bukhara, trying to organize a counter-offensive against the Soviets. Amir Sayyid Alim Khan managed to gather significant military forces in the regions of Kulyab, Gissar and Dushanbe. In mid-November 1920, his troops moved west and occupied Baysun, Derbend and Sherabad. By the end of 1920-beginning of 1921. the number of Sayyid Alim Khan's military forces reached 10 thousand people. Ibrahim Beg's troops, based in the Lokai region, joined Alim Khan's army. Based on an agreement between the Bukhara Republic and the RSFSR, a special Gissar military expedition was organized against Alim Khan, as a result of which his forces were defeated and he was forced to flee to Afghanistan. At first Alim Khan stopped in Khanabad, and in May 1921 he arrived in Kabul. The Amir of Afghanistan, who had an agreement with the RSFSR, assigned Alim Khan the status of an honorary prisoner with an annual allocation of funds for his maintenance. His three sons remained on Soviet territory. Two of them, Sultanmurad and Rahim, were later killed, and the third, Shokhmurad, publicly renounced his father in 1929. Alim Khan died in 1943 in Kabul.

Emir of Bukhara Seyid-Alim (Seyid-Alim Khan)

Dates of life: 1879-05.05.1943

Biography:

Mohammedan. The son of a cavalry general and adjutant general of the Russian service, Emir of Bukhara Seid-Abdul-Ahad Khan. Hereditary ruler of the Bukhara Emirate (on the territory of modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan; until 1917 - a protectorate of Russia; 2.5-3 million subjects; personal fortune - 150 million rubles in gold). He received his education at the Nikolaev Cadet Corps. Without graduating from college, he was enrolled in the Terek KV Khorunzhim (Art. 04/23/1896). Centurion (Article 05/18/1898). Podesaul (Article 23.11.1901). In 1902 he was granted the title of His Serene Highness, and after ascending the throne (after the death of his father on December 22, 1910) - His Highness. Esaul (Art. 06.12.1903). Appointed aide-de-camp (05/06/1905). Military foreman (Article 21.11.1906). Colonel (Art. 06.12.1909). Major General (05/13/1911) with appointment to His Majesty's Retinue. Lieutenant General (12/30/1915; 12/30/1915; in the List of Generals as of 07/10/1916 is listed as Major General (07/30/1910)?) with the appointment of adjutant general. In 1914, 1915 and 1916 he donated 1 million rubles in gold “for the victory of Russian weapons.” On 07/10/1916 he was listed in the Orenburg Kaz. army. On March 25, 1918, he concluded a peace treaty with the RSFSR. Maintained contacts with the British government, Orenburg ataman A.I. Dutov, Kokand Autonomy, Trans-Caspian Provisional Government, from the fall of 1919 - with the Omsk government of Admiral A.V. Kolchak. He negotiated with the Khanate of Khiva about joint military actions against the Turkestan Soviet Republic, and in 01.1920 he concluded a military alliance with Afghanistan. By decree of 07/07/1920 he called on his subjects to a holy war against the Bolsheviks. He relied on the army of the emirate and detachments of local beks. During the Bolshevik-inspired uprising and the offensive of the Soviet troops, the Turkestan Front was destroyed on 08/29/09/02/1920. 09/02/1920 left besieged Bukhara and hid in the steppe. From 1921 he lived in Afghanistan. S.'s gold, hidden in the Pamir mountains, remained undiscovered.

Ranks:

Awards:

St. Stanislaus 2nd Art. with star (1898) St. Stanislaus 1st Art. with diamonds (1901), St. Anne 1st class. (1906) St. Vladimir 2nd Art. (1910) White Eagle with Diamonds (1911) St. Alexander Nevsky (VP 09/01/1916) Others: cipher of His Imperial Majesty, decorated with diamonds (1896); checker with diamonds (1902); portrait of His Imperial Majesty, decorated with diamonds, to be worn on the chest (1913) Highest thanks: sincere gratitude to His Majesty in the Highest Rescript (1913).

Additional Information:

-Search for a full name using the “Card Index of the Bureau for the Accounting of Losses on the Fronts of the First World War, 1914–1918.” in RGVIA -Links to this person from other pages of the RIA Officers website

Sources:

(information from the website www.grwar.ru)

List of generals by seniority. Compiled on 04/15/1914. Petrograd, 1914.
List of generals by seniority. Compiled on July 10, 1916. Petrograd, 1916
List of adjutants general, major generals and rear admirals of His Majesty's Suite and adjutants by seniority. Compiled on 03/20/1916. Petrograd, 1916.
Civil war and military intervention in the USSR: Encyclopedia. M., 1987.
Berezikov E. Gold of the Emir // Ogonyok, 1991, No. 33.VP 1914-1916. Information was provided by Valery Konstantinovich Vokhmyanin (Kharkov).
Photo provided by Ilya Mukhin (Moscow)

the last emir of the Bukhara Emirate, Seyyid Mir Muhammad Alim Khan

The Kherson Museum refused to sell a unique saber, even for 100 thousand dollars. A Damascus steel saber with a hilt and a silver scabbard, decorated with the most skillful engraving of Kubachi jewelers, was made back in the nineteenth century personally for the Emir of Bukhara, Seyid Khan.

Gold of the Emir of Bukhara

Emir of Bukhara Mir-Seyid-Abdul-Ahad surrounded by Russian officers

The Emir of Bukhara and his retinue in Moscow in 1896. Photo from the State Historical Museum.

Almost every year, articles by writers, publicists, scientists and simply history buffs appear in the media and on the Internet, in which they express hypotheses and assumptions about the whereabouts of the gold of the Mangyt dynasty. This topic has been relevant since the overthrow of the last Bukhara emir, Said Mir Alimkhan. Moreover, the authors of the articles try, as a rule, to attribute as much wealth as possible to the emir. But everyone, as a rule, writes that before his flight from Bukhara, he took out in advance 10 tons of gold worth 150 million Russian rubles at that time, which today is equivalent to 70 million US dollars.

Order of Noble Bukhara, gold; 2 - the same order of the lowest degree, silver (GIM); 3 - gold badge of the same order (?); 4-5 - Order of the Crown of the State of Bukhara; 6-8 - medals for zeal and merit (6 - gold; 7-8 - silver and bronze, from the collection of the State Historical Museum).

All this treasure was allegedly hidden somewhere in the caves of the Gissar ridge. At the same time, according to one version, Said Alimkhan got rid of unnecessary witnesses according to the classic scenario: the drivers who knew about the valuable cargo were destroyed by the emir's confidant, Dervish Davron, and his henchmen. Then the latter were killed by the Emir’s personal bodyguard Karapush and his guards, and soon Karapush himself, who reported to the Emir about the successful completion of the operation and initiated his Serene Highness into the secrets of the burial of the treasure, was strangled that same night in the palace’s bedchamber by the Emir’s personal executioner. The guards also disappeared - they were also killed.

In the 20-30s. groups of armed horsemen, numbering tens or even hundreds of people, entered the territory of Tajikistan in order to search for treasure. However, all these attacks were in vain. The search for the treasure continued illegally in subsequent years. But the treasure was never discovered.

So there was still a treasure walled up in the Gissar ridge? Having asked this question, the authors of this article decided to conduct their own investigation. And we started by searching for archival documents that could lift the veil of secrecy.

In the course of our work in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (former archive of the CPSU Central Committee), we discovered an interesting document. Printed on a typewriter, with a volume of 48 sheets, it described the material assets of the Bukhara emir.

So…

December 22, 1920, i.e. almost four months after the emir was overthrown, members of the State Commission for the Accounting of Valuables of the Bukhara People's Soviet Republic (BPSR) Khairulla Mukhitdinov and Khol-Khoja Suleymankhodjaev took the valuables belonging to Bukhara emir.

After the delivery of the valuable cargo, the State Commission drew up the corresponding Act in two copies, one of which was transferred to the Commissariat of Finance of the Turkestan Republic, and the second to the Nazirat of Finance of the BNSR.

The valuables that were indicated in the Act had 1193 serial numbers (No. 743 is repeated twice), packed in chests and bags. When opened, they turned out to be filled with precious stones, money, gold, silver, copper, and clothing. Of all this treasure, we will list only what, in our opinion, is of undoubted interest.

Precious stones were represented by diamonds, diamonds, pearls, and coral. Of these: 53 large diamonds (weight not specified), 39 large diamonds (138 carats), more than 400 medium-sized diamonds (450 carats), 500 smaller-than-average diamonds (410 carats), small diamonds (43 carats). Total precious stones: 1041 carats, excluding 53 large diamonds.

Most of the precious stones are inlaid into gold items: 1 sultan with diamonds and pearls, 4 crowns, 3 pairs of earrings, 8 brooches, 26 rings, 26 ladies' watches, 37 orders, 11 bracelets, 53 cigarette cases, 14 belts with plaques, 7 stars (with 5 large and medium diamonds and 30 small ones), 43 women's mirrors, the Order of the White Eagle with 13 diamonds, a breast portrait of Alimkhan Garden with 10 large and 20 small diamonds, a plaque with 59 diamonds, the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle with 20 diamonds, 2 orders Vladimir I degree with 20 diamonds and two attachments with 10 diamonds, 5 Orders of Stanislav I degree with 13 diamonds, Order of Alexander Nevsky with diamonds, Danish Cross with 14 diamonds, Serbian Eagle with 5 diamonds, badge “For 25 years of service” with 6 diamonds, 3 silver Persian stars with diamonds, 18 silver checkers with stones and enamel, silver buckle with 21 diamonds.

In addition, there were jewelry made of coral beads with a total weight of 12 pounds (1 lb. = 0.409 kg), pearl beads framed in gold - 35 lbs.

Gold is presented in the form of various decorations - 14 poods (1p. = 16 kg), placers - 10 poods and 4 pounds. scrap with a total weight of 4p. and 2 f., 262 bars - 12p. and 15 f., Russian coins of various denominations totaling 247,600 rubles, Bukhara coins totaling 10,036 rubles, foreign coins (1 f.). In general, the mass of gold in jewelry, placers, scrap, bars, coins, and orders amounted to 688.424 kg.

Silver is presented in the form of various items and kitchen utensils: vases, boxes, bratins, samovars, trays, buckets, jugs, teapots, cup holders, glasses, plates, coffee pots, decanters, tablespoons, dessert and teaspoons, forks, knives. As well as a music box, various women's jewelry with stones (it is not specified which ones: precious or not), table calendars, a telescope, Bukhara orders and medals, saucers, figurines, candlesticks, bowlers, bracelets, plaques, cigarette cases, gargles, watches floor clocks, table clocks, a chessboard with figures, tureens, milk jugs, glasses, cups, albums, mugs, sugar bowls, women's headdresses, rings with stones, scabbards, necklaces, most of which were covered with enamel of different colors, horse harnesses with plaques.

But most of the silver was presented in the form of bars and coins in 632 chests and 2364 bags with a total weight of 6417 items and 8 pounds, which corresponds to about 102.7 tons.

Paper money was packed in 26 chests: Russian Nikolaevsky for a total amount of 2,010,111 rubles, Russian Kerensky - 923,450 rubles, Bukhara - 4,579,980 till.

180 large chests contained manufactory: 63 fur-lined robes, 46 cloth robes, 105 silk, 92 velvet, 300 brocade, 568 paper, 14 different fur skins, 1 coat with a collar, 10 carpets, 8 felts, 13 rugs ... yubeteek, 660 pairs of shoes.

Copper money and tableware were packed in 8 chests, with a total weight of 33 items and 12 pounds.

There is an annex to the Act, according to which all gold products and precious stones have undergone expert evaluation to determine their quality and weight. The appraisal was given by jeweler Danilson. However, interestingly, the weight of precious stones, gold and silver determined by Danilson is underestimated compared to that given in the Act itself.

We also made our calculations. According to our data, according to the Act and at today's exchange rate, the price of Emir's gold (1 troy ounce, or 31.1 grams = $ 832), if converted completely into scrap (688, 424 kg), is more than 18 million US dollars. For all the silver, if it was also converted into scrap (102.7 tons), on world markets today they could fetch over 51 million dollars (1 gram = $2). For 1041 carats of diamonds at Sotheby's or Christie's trade auctions you can get about 34 million dollars (1 carat = $32.5 thousand).

In general, the cost of this part of the Mangit treasury alone is about 103 million dollars, which exceeds the calculations of the searchers for the emir’s treasure by at least a third.

However, we are powerless to estimate the value of 53 large diamonds (weight not specified), coral and pearl beads with a total weight of more than 19.2 kg.

As for diamonds, they are the hardest, most beautiful and expensive stone of all precious stones. Among the four “highest” stones (diamond, sapphire, emerald, ruby) it comes first. Diamonds have always been incredibly highly valued not only for their beauty and rarity, but also for the mystical properties they supposedly possessed. The most expensive diamonds have indicators of 1/1, that is, no color, no defects. From antiquity the name for such stones came from “diamonds of pure water”, because... to distinguish a natural crystal from a fake, it was thrown into clean water, and it was lost in it. Consequently, in our opinion, only the diamonds of the Bukhara emir could surpass all other treasury values in their value.

Is it even possible to appreciate gold jewelry with precious stones, because they all have great artistic value. What is the Russian Order of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called worth? In 2006, at the Sotheby's auction, 428 thousand dollars were given for this order. Or a one-of-a-kind breast portrait of Said Alimkhan, framed by 10 large and 20 small diamonds.

And so all this valuable cargo from Bukhara was delivered to Tashkent. And he, without a doubt, was part of the treasury of Said Alimkhan. However, these data do not answer the question: is this the emir’s complete fortune or only part of it? The fact is that the entire treasury of the Bukhara Emirate consisted, according to various estimates, of 30-35 million till, which corresponded to approximately 90-105 million Russian rubles. And adventure lovers estimate 10 tons of gold at the 1920 exchange rate at 150 million Russian rubles. It turns out that they overestimated the emir’s condition by 1.5 times. Why this discrepancy?

Let's try to understand this issue. Returning to the beginning of our story, we know that, according to some authors, the emir took out and hid his entire treasury in the mountains - 10 tons of gold. Could he have done this, involving a couple of dozen people for this operation. I think not. Firstly, to transport such a cargo you need at least a hundred horses, not counting the cavalry guards. And this is already a whole caravan. He could not have traveled even a short distance unnoticed, not to mention the fact that the cargo was hidden in the spurs of the Gissar Mountains.

Secondly, having returned to Bukhara, the emir, having destroyed all the witnesses, for some reason did not tell his loved ones about where the treasure was hidden. But he had to do this in case of overthrow or even worse - murder. After all, his sons were supposed to replace him on the throne, and they needed the sovereign’s treasury. The Emir could not help but understand this.

Thirdly, having fled to Gissar after the overthrow, the emir began to recruit the local population into the army. But he did not have enough funds to fully arm everyone. To do this, he imposed additional taxes on the inhabitants of Eastern Bukhara, but managed to arm only a third of his new army.

Fourthly, Alimkhan did not give up hope for help from abroad. Thus, in a letter to the King of Great Britain on October 12, 1920, he wrote that he hoped for the support of His Majesty and expected help from him in the amount of 100 thousand pounds sterling, 20 thousand guns with ammunition, 30 guns with shells, 10 airplanes and 2 thousand British soldiers. -Indian Army. However, England, which did not want to go into direct aggravation with the Bolsheviks, fearing that they might continue their offensive and establish Soviet power in Afghanistan, did not provide assistance to the emir.

Fifthly, Said Alimkhan did not try, as some imagine, to transport his supposedly hidden gold reserves in the Gissar Mountains to Afghanistan, because he did not trust any of his kurbashi, not even Enver Pasha and Ibrahimbek. In addition, even if the emir entrusted them with this mission, it was doomed to failure, since such a caravan could not be carried unnoticed through Soviet territory, and moreover, transported through Pyanj. To do this, it was necessary to prepare a large-scale military operation. But, as history has shown, the emir had neither the strength nor the means to implement it.

Sixthly, if the emir still had hidden treasures, he could have tried to take them out in the 20s and 30s with the help of foreign countries and international organizations. But even in this case, he did not make a single attempt. Several intercepted letters from Said Alimkhan addressed to foreign political figures are known, but in none of them does he mention the presence of a gold cache.

Seventhly, the lack of cash did not allow the Bukhara emir to provide material assistance to his kurbashi. Thus, after the detention of the Supreme Kurbashi Ibrahimbek on the territory of Tajikistan, during interrogation on July 5, 1931 in Tashkent, he admitted with undisguised indignation that in December 1930 he wrote to Emir Alimkhan: “Seven years (meaning the period 1920-1926 - author .) on your order, I fought against the Soviet government with my own means and forces, constantly receiving all kinds of promises for help, but I never saw their fulfillment.”

Thus, all of the above leads to the idea that the emir’s gold weighing 10 tons, as we think, did not exist. At the same time, Said Alimkhan, of course, had his own treasury, which he managed to remove from Bukhara. It is no coincidence that during his flight from Bukhara, he was accompanied by guards of at least a thousand people. However, as you know, you can’t carry much on horses. The emir could not attract camels for this purpose, since they, although they can carry loads, are very slow-moving. And the emir needed a mobile group so that in case of pursuit he would not have to abandon the caravan. The financial assets and jewelry he exported, it seems, amounted to 15-20 percent of the total treasury, Said Alimkhan needed for the most necessary expenses: allowances for the guards, purchases of weapons, maintenance of his administrative apparatus and the newly recruited harem, etc.

In addition, one should not discount the argument that the emir did not think of leaving Bukhara for a long time and was waiting for an opportunity to take revenge for the defeat. It is no coincidence that in Eastern Bukhara he declared mobilization and submitted a memorandum to the League of Nations about a forced declaration of war on the Bolsheviks.

But time worked against Said Alimkhan. The Bolsheviks, having taken power in Bukhara, also seized most of the remaining treasury of the Mangit dynasty. These treasures were transferred to the People's Commissariat of Finance of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

We were unable to trace the further fate of the treasury of the Bukhara emir, delivered to Tashkent. However, it is not difficult to guess that the jewelry was soon sent to Moscow. The civil war in Russia was still ongoing, and in order to supply the Red Army with everything necessary, the treasures of the Bukhara emir came in very handy. For this purpose, precious stones were removed from gold jewelry, and the latter were melted down into metal. Thus, things that were of high artistic and historical value were lost forever. Although some rare specimens may have been “lost” during transportation, and are now stored in some collections, the owners of which, as a rule, remain incognito for personal safety reasons.

Penjikent is an ancient city located in the mountains of Tajikistan. Very close is Bukhara, not far away is the border with Kyrgyzstan, and the deserts of Turkmenistan are just a stone's throw away. All these lands were part of the Bukhara Emirate until 1920. In the bottomless cellars of the Ark, the fortress that reigns over the city, innumerable riches have accumulated over hundreds of years. Each of the emir's three million subjects had to pay taxes to the treasury. But most of the gold came to the treasury from the emir’s mines on the banks of the Zeravshan. Over the course of a year, over thirty million gold tilpas entered the underground vaults of the Bukhara fortress. And the emirate’s expenses during the same period amounted to only three million - mainly for the army and the purchase of weapons. The difference remained in the emir's treasury.
In August 1920, the emirate fell on hard times. Events in Russia stirred up the masses. An uprising was being prepared. Reconnaissance airplanes with red stars on their wings appeared more and more often in the sky above Bukhara. And one day even a four-engine Ilya Muromets arrived - the Red Army was approaching. It was necessary not only to get away, but also to take out the wealth accumulated by the Mangyt dynasty...

DESCENDANT OF AN OLD FAMILY

The first time I met Masud was in Penjikent almost twenty years ago. He was engaged in excavations of an ancient settlement here. From him I learned what the further fate of the Bukhara treasures was...
— Emir Sid Alimkhan had a trusted person - dervish Davron. One day he was brought to the palace at night so that prying eyes would not see. In the chambers of the ruler, in addition to the ruler himself, the dervish met one more person - the emir's bodyguard, Colonel Txobo Kalapush. The head of the emir's artillery, Topchibashi Nizametdin, was also there. But the emir hid it in the next room. Invisible, he heard the entire conversation.
We decided how to save the treasures. There was so much gold that the caravan would have needed about a hundred pack horses, each of which could carry khurjins with five pounds of gold each. The total value of the emir's property exceeded 150 million gold rubles at prices of that time.
Where should we take the caravan? To Kashgar? There is an English consulate there, headed by an old acquaintance of the emir, consul Mr. Esserton. But Dervish Davron had already visited Kashgar, and the news he brought was disappointing. The emir's letter simply frightened the consul. What is the British Consulate in Kashgar? A small house in a shady garden on the outskirts of Urumqi. His entire guard is a British flag and several sepoys armed with rifles. And all around are gangs of bandits terrorizing Kashgar, an uprising in Xinjiang, a war in Turkestan, and general instability. Accepting a caravan with gold under such conditions means bringing misfortune to your quiet abode.
Esserton was a professional diplomat and made what seemed to him a wise decision: let his superiors think and decide. In Delhi, to the palace of the Viceroy of India, an encrypted message was sent outlining the situation.
But there were also officials in Delhi. And they also perfectly understood all the risk and responsibility associated with such a thing. If they agree, it will turn out that the British government guarantees the safety of the emir's treasury. What if the bandits get it? The entire cost of what was lost will have to be paid to the emir at the expense of the British Empire. No, the Viceroy of India could not take such a risk. Therefore, the English consul wrote a letter to the emir, composed in the most refined terms. In it, he swore ardent friendship and wished all the best, only at the end - with great regret - he noticed that he would not be able to accept and keep the treasury of the ruler of Bukhara.
Now those gathered in the palace that night had to decide where to send the caravan - to Iran or to Afghanistan. It was dangerous to go with such a caravan to Iran, to Mashhad - the situation in the Trans-Caspian region remained tense. We made a different decision. In the first ten days of September 1920, at night, a caravan of several hundred horses and camels, loaded with treasures of Bukhara, supplies of water and food, moved south. The guards were the emir's guards, commanded by Taksobo Kalapush. Next to him, stirrup to stirrup, rode the dervish Davron.
Near the city of Guzar we turned sharply to the left and near Langar we went deep into the foothills of the Pamirs.
The caravan split up. Armed guards led by Kalapush, pack animals with supplies and water remained in the valley. Camels and horses, loaded with gold, and the drivers accompanying them, plunged into one of the mountain crevices. Davron and two other dervishes rode ahead.
A day passed since the departure of Davron and his companions, then another. Alarmed Kalapush raised his people and followed the trail of the caravan. After walking several kilometers along a narrow, winding crevasse, the riders discovered several corpses. These were the drivers. And after some time they came across Davron himself and his two companions. All three were wounded. Davron told what happened. One of the drivers found out what was in the saddlebags and packs and told his comrades. They decided to kill Davron and his companions and take possession of the treasure. There was a fight, but Davron and his friends managed to fight back. Despite their wounds, they hid the bags of gold in an inconspicuous cave. Kalapush examined her and was pleased. Not trusting anyone, the emir's bodyguard himself blocked the entrance to the cave with stones and drove the horses and camels back to the valley.
The Dervishes' wounds were bandaged and mounted on horses. Now only they and Kalapush knew where the emir’s valuables were hidden. When the mountains were left behind, Davron felt very bad and wanted to go to his native village - it was almost along the road. Kalapush generously agreed, but in the morning, when the hour of prayer came, the three figures did not rise from the ground. Davron and his dervish friends remained there forever. Faithful Kalapush fulfilled the emir's secret order: no one should know the secrets of the treasure.
“You know so well what happened in these places eighty years ago,” I said to Masud. - Where?
- I'm from these places myself. And Davron was one of my ancestors. This story has been passed down from generation to generation in our family. As a boy, I heard it and then swore to myself that I would find this treasure, even though it brought so much misfortune to our family.

FATE OF TREASURE

“As an archaeologist, I could carry out the search without arousing anyone’s suspicions,” continued Masud. - I'll tell you what happened then...
On the fourth day the caravan returned to Bukhara. In Karaulbazar, the tired horsemen were joyfully greeted by the topchibashi Nieametdin and his warriors. After pilaf and green tea, we went to bed in order to arrive early in sacred Bukhara. However, in the morning only the soldiers of the commander of the emir's artillery saddled the horses. All of Kalapush's companions - except himself - were killed.
The emir graciously greeted his bodyguard. He asked in detail about the road, how they found the secret place, how they hid the treasure and camouflaged the cache. The ruler was especially interested in whether there were any living witnesses. “No,” answered Kalapush, “now only two people on earth know the secret: the ruler and me. But the lord does not doubt my loyalty..."
Of course, the emir had no doubt... that the secret known to the two was not half a secret. And that same night, Kalapush, who had been kindly treated by the emir, was strangled by the palace executioner.
Only two days had passed since the day of his death, horses began to be saddled in the palace stables - the emir decided to flee. No one even remembered his former bodyguard. Now the chief of artillery, Nizametdin, was galloping next to the emir.
A day later, somewhere in the steppe, a shot was heard from the emir’s retinue. Topchibashi collapsed to the ground. There was no one left except the former ruler of sacred Bukhara who knew anything about the caravan with gold.
With a detachment of a hundred sabers, he crossed the border into Afghanistan. Of the entire multimillion-dollar treasure, he only had two horses left, loaded with saddlebags with gold bars and precious stones.
Years passed. The emir lived in Kabul, but the treasure left behind Pyanj did not let him sleep. Throughout the twenties, almost every month Basmach gangs penetrated into the territory of Central Asia. Many of them rushed to the area where the treasure was hidden. But the Basmachis were unlucky. After destroying crops and killing several activists, they returned to Afghanistan. However, the emir did not calm down. In 1930, Ibrahim Beg's gang crossed the border. He had five hundred sabers with him. But, captured, he was executed, his severed head was sent in 1931 to Moscow, to the Cheka.
The surviving members of Ibrahim Beg's defeated gang continued to search for the treasure. Someone decided that the relatives of Davron or Kalapush should know the secret place. And they began to die. After torture, almost all of Davron's brothers and sisters were killed. The village where Kalapush’s relatives lived was burned, and all its inhabitants were slaughtered.
“Davron was a relative of my grandfather,” Masud recently admitted to me. “I learned this whole story from him.” And now there are people interested in my search. At first (I was younger and more naive then), a certain Timur Pulatov from Bukhara rubbed around me. He went out of his way to try to help in my search. And he ended up stealing several diagrams of already completed routes and ran away with them, oddly enough, to Moscow. Recently I met him on the street. You know this company that sits on the sidewalks in oriental robes, begging for alms. So their leader is Pulatov, nicknamed “Donkey Count”...
After the theft, I began to divide my circuits into several parts and hide them in different places. Of course, I keep the main thing in mind. After all, the area where the treasure is hidden occupies only 100 square kilometers. Over the course of two decades, I studied it in detail.
- And found it?..
Masoud is mysteriously silent. Then he says:
- You know, ten tons of gold is difficult to find, but it was also difficult to hide it. There was little time left for this. Shallowly hidden. This means that sensitive devices will detect it. And I already have them. But now is a turbulent time. It's dangerous to go there now...
This man, obsessed with his passion, went through a difficult life. He almost achieved success, but at the very threshold he was forced to stop. Only I am sure - not for long.

An amazing document was discovered by scientists - professor of historical sciences N. Nazarshoev and associate professor of historical sciences A. Gafurov - while working in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (former archive of the CPSU Central Committee). The inventory, printed on a typewriter, containing 48 sheets, listed the material assets of the Bukhara emir.
The Kherson Museum refused to sell a unique saber, even for 100 thousand dollars. A Damascus steel saber with a hilt and a silver scabbard, decorated with the most skillful engraving of Kubachi jewelers, was made back in the nineteenth century personally for the Emir of Bukhara, Seyid Khan.

Emir of Bukhara Mir-Seyid-Abdul-Ahad surrounded by Russian officers

The Emir of Bukhara and his retinue in Moscow in 1896. Photo from the State Historical Museum.

So…

December 22, 1920, i.e. almost four months after the emir was overthrown, members of the State Commission for the Accounting of Valuables of the Bukhara People's Soviet Republic (BPSR) Khairulla Mukhitdinov and Khol-Khoja Suleymankhodjaev took the valuables belonging to Bukhara emir.

Fig.3. 1 - Order of Noble Bukhara, gold; 2 - the same order of the lowest degree, silver (GIM); 3 - gold badge of the same order (?); 4-5 - Order of the Crown of the State of Bukhara; 6-8 - medals for zeal and merit (6 - gold; 7-8 - silver and bronze, from the collection of the State Historical Museum).

In addition, there were jewelry made of coral beads with a total weight of 12 pounds (1 lb. = 0.409 kg), pearl beads framed in gold - 35 lbs.

But most of the silver was presented in the form of bars and coins in 632 chests and 2364 bags with a total weight of 6417 items and 8 pounds, which corresponds to about 102.7 tons.

Paper money was packed in 26 chests: Russian Nikolaevsky for a total amount of 2,010,111 rubles, Russian Kerensky - 923,450 rubles, Bukhara - 4,579,980 till.

Copper money and tableware were packed in 8 chests, with a total weight of 33 items and 12 pounds.

In general, the cost of this part of the Mangit treasury alone is about 103 million dollars, which exceeds the calculations of the searchers for the emir’s treasure by at least a third.

However, we are powerless to estimate the value of 53 large diamonds (weight not specified), coral and pearl beads with a total weight of more than 19.2 kg.

Fifthly, Said Alimkhan did not try, as some imagine, to transport his supposedly hidden gold reserves in the Gissar Mountains to Afghanistan, because he did not trust any of his kurbashi, not even Enver Pasha and Ibrahimbek. In addition, even if the emir entrusted them with this mission, it was doomed to failure, since such a caravan could not be carried unnoticed through Soviet territory, and moreover, transported through Pyanj. To do this, it was necessary to prepare a large-scale military operation. But, as history has shown, the emir had neither the strength nor the means to implement it.

We were unable to trace the further fate of the treasury of the Bukhara emir, delivered to Tashkent. However, it is not difficult to guess that the jewelry was soon sent to Moscow. The civil war in Russia was still ongoing, and in order to supply the Red Army with everything necessary, the treasures of the Bukhara emir came in very handy. For this purpose, precious stones were removed from gold jewelry, and the latter were melted down into metal. Thus, things that were of high artistic and historical value were lost forever. Although some rare specimens may have been “lost” during transportation, and are now stored in some collections, the owners of which, as a rule, remain incognito for personal safety reasons.

TREASURES OF BUKHARA EMIR

Penjikent is an ancient city located in the mountains of Tajikistan. Bukhara is very close, the border with Kyrgyzstan is nearby, and the deserts of Turkmenistan are just a stone’s throw away. All these lands were part of the Bukhara Emirate until 1920. In the bottomless cellars of Ark, the fortress that reigns over the city, innumerable riches have accumulated over hundreds of years. Each of the emir's three million subjects had to pay taxes to the treasury. But most of the gold came to the treasury from the emir’s mines on the banks of the Zeravshan. Over the course of a year, over thirty million gold tilpas entered the underground vaults of the Bukhara fortress. And the emirate’s expenses during the same period amounted to only three million - mainly for the army and the purchase of weapons. The difference remained in the emir's treasury.
In August 1920, the emirate fell on hard times. Events in Russia stirred up the masses. An uprising was being prepared. Reconnaissance airplanes with red stars on their wings appeared more and more often in the sky above Bukhara. And one day even a four-engine Ilya Muromets arrived - the Red Army was approaching. It was necessary not only to get away, but also to take out the wealth accumulated by the Mangyt dynasty...

DESCENDANT OF AN OLD FAMILY

The first time I met Masud was in Penjikent almost twenty years ago. He was engaged in excavations of an ancient settlement here. From him I learned what the further fate of the Bukhara treasures was...
— Emir Sid Alimkhan had a trusted person - dervish Davron. One day he was brought to the palace at night so that prying eyes would not see. In the chambers of the ruler, in addition to the ruler himself, the dervish met one more person - the emir's bodyguard, Colonel Txobo Kalapush. The head of the emir's artillery, Topchibashi Nizametdin, was also there. But the emir hid it in the next room. Invisible, he heard the entire conversation.
We decided how to save the treasures. There was so much gold that the caravan would have needed about a hundred pack horses, each of which could carry khurjins with five pounds of gold each. The total value of the emir's property exceeded 150 million gold rubles at prices of that time.
Where should we take the caravan? To Kashgar? There is an English consulate there, headed by an old acquaintance of the emir, consul Mr. Esserton. But Dervish Davron had already visited Kashgar, and the news he brought was disappointing. The emir's letter simply frightened the consul. What is the British Consulate in Kashgar? A small house in a shady garden on the outskirts of Urumqi. His entire guard is a British flag and several sepoys armed with rifles. And all around are gangs of bandits terrorizing Kashgar, an uprising in Xinjiang, a war in Turkestan, and general instability. Accepting a caravan of gold under such conditions means bringing misfortune to your quiet abode.
Esserton was a professional diplomat and made what seemed to him a wise decision: let his superiors think and decide. In Delhi, to the palace of the Viceroy of India, an encrypted message was sent outlining the situation.
But there were also officials in Delhi. And they also perfectly understood all the risk and responsibility associated with such a thing. If they agree, it will turn out that the British government guarantees the safety of the emir's treasury. What if the bandits get it? The entire cost of what was lost will have to be paid to the emir at the expense of the British Empire. No, the Viceroy of India could not take such a risk. Therefore, the English consul wrote a letter to the emir, composed in the most refined terms. In it, he swore ardent friendship and wished all the best, only at the end - with great regret - he noticed that he would not be able to accept and store the treasury of the ruler of Bukhara.
Now those gathered in the palace that night had to decide where to send the caravan - to Iran or Afghanistan. Going with such a caravan to Iran, to Mashhad, was dangerous - the situation in the Trans-Caspian region remained tense. We made a different decision. In the first ten days of September 1920, at night, a caravan of several hundred horses and camels, loaded with treasures of Bukhara, supplies of water and food, moved south. The guards were the emir's guards, commanded by Taksobo Kalapush. Next to him, stirrup to stirrup, rode the dervish Davron.
Near the city of Guzar we turned sharply to the left and near Langar we went deep into the foothills of the Pamirs.
The caravan split up. Armed guards led by Kalapush, pack animals with supplies and water remained in the valley. Camels and horses, loaded with gold, and the drivers accompanying them, plunged into one of the mountain crevices. Davron and two other dervishes rode ahead.
A day passed since the departure of Davron and his companions, then another. Alarmed Kalapush raised his people and followed the trail of the caravan. After walking several kilometers along a narrow, winding crevasse, the riders discovered several corpses. These were the drivers. And after some time they came across Davron himself and his two companions. All three were wounded. Davron told what happened. One of the drivers found out what was in the saddlebags and packs and told his comrades. They decided to kill Davron and his companions and take possession of the treasure. There was a fight, but Davron and his friends managed to fight back. Despite their wounds, they hid the bags of gold in an inconspicuous cave. Kalapush examined her and was pleased. Not trusting anyone, the emir's bodyguard himself blocked the entrance to the cave with stones and drove the horses and camels back to the valley.
The Dervishes' wounds were bandaged and mounted on horses. Now only they and Kalapush knew where the emir’s valuables were hidden. When the mountains were left behind, Davron felt very bad and wanted to go to his native village - it was almost along the road. Kalapush generously agreed, but in the morning, when the hour of prayer came, the three figures did not rise from the ground. Davron and his dervish friends remained there forever. Faithful Kalapush fulfilled the emir's secret order: no one should know the secrets of the treasure.
“You know so well what happened in these places eighty years ago,” I said to Masud. - Where?
- I'm from these places myself. And Davron was one of my ancestors. This story has been passed down from generation to generation in our family. As a boy, I heard it and then swore to myself that I would find this treasure, even though it brought so much misfortune to our family.

FATE OF TREASURE

Nikolay Plisko.Penjikent - Moscow.
"Trud-7", No. 242/23.12.1999.

The Kherson Museum refused to sell a unique saber, even for 100 thousand dollars

The renovation of the exhibition for the 120th anniversary of the Kherson Museum of Local Lore ended with a surprise for scientists. Seizing the moment when there were no group excursions planned, a tall man crossed the threshold of the museum. He leisurely walked around all the halls, got to the exhibition of weapons of all times and peoples, and just got his eyes fixed on one of the glass shelves. For some time, the visitor, who turned out to be a wealthy Ukrainian collector, closely examined the blade lying behind the glass. And then he bluntly declared to the stunned caretaker: “I’m buying this saber for one hundred thousand dollars.”
The museum, of course, always needs money. However, his employees flatly refused the generous offer. And not at all because the item being traded was more expensive (although in fact it is). It’s just that the mysterious blade managed to be in the hands of the eastern ruler and immediately legendary outstanding military leaders, and in its history there was a place for both exploits and crimes.

As it turned out, the rarity that the collector liked came to Kherson straight from... Central Asia. A Damascus steel saber with a hilt and a silver scabbard, decorated with the most skillful engraving of Kubachi jewelers, was made back in the nineteenth century personally for the Emir of Bukhara Abdul-Ahad Khan (Here the author is mistaken, we are talking about the son of Abdul-Ahad Khan - Alim Khan e.