[April 28] Mohammed Alim Khan, emir of Bukhara

True Name: امیر عالم خان‎ 
Parents: Abdulahad Khan, emir of Bukhara

Date of Birth: 3 January 1880

House: Manghit
Spouse: Eleonore Erdmuthe, daughter of John George I, duke of Saxe-Eisenach, and Joanna of Sayn-Wittgenstein

Predecessor: 'Abd al-Ahad Khan

Reign: 1911 – 1920

Summary: The Emirate of Bukhara was a protectorate of the Russian Empire when Mohammed was born in 1880. The monarchy was absolute and the monarch had complete control within Bukhara, though international politics were taken care of by the Russians. Mohammed was sent to Saint Petersburg to study politics and military techniques when he was a teenager. He returned to Bukhara in 1896 with the title of Crown Prince. Two years later, he was appointed governor of the Nasef and then the Karmana disctict, which he ruled until he became emir in 1911.

As emir, he ruled as Alim Khan. He modernized the government, removing much of the spoils system previously in place with a merit-based bureaucracy. By the end of his reign, though, he had reverted to the previous system. This is partially because the reform movement in Bukhara failed and most of the reformists were exiled to Russia. Historians have speculated that Alim Khan feared the future of the monarchy if modernists won, perhaps explaining why he reverted to traditional government by the end of his reign. Alim Khan has several interesting notes to his reign. He took the title of Caliph when the Ottoman Empire began to crumble after World War I. He also was the last male-line descendant of Genghis Khan to rule a country, though this is somewhat in doubt. Things fell apart for Alim Khan when the Russian Revolution hit Bukhara in 1918. Alim Khan responded with violence to the protests and had many hundred Russian and supporters executed. Most of Bukhara did not support a revolution despite Russian propaganda. The revolution was nearly over when the Red Army marched in Bukhara again in 1920. After four days of fighting, Alim Khan fled to Afghanistan where he lived in exile for the rest of his life. His daughter and her family stayed in Afghanistan until the Soviet Army invaded in 1979, at which point they immigrated to the United States working as a broadcast journalist for the Voice of America. A son of the emir renounced his claim to Bukhara and served in the Red Army. Alim Khan was the last ruler of the Manghit dynasty and had been ruling Bukhara since 1747.

Date of Death: 28 April 1944

Other Monarch Deaths:

Conrad, king of Montferrat (1192)

Faud I, king of Egypt (1936)