Socio-Economic Life in the Qashqadaryo Principalities During the XVII-XIX Centuries

The present study discusses the socio-economic system of the Qashqadaryo principalities in the XVIII and XIX centuries in the political background of the Bukhara Emirate. The research draws on archival sources, waqf documents, travelers' accounts, and recent field observations to reconstruct the patterns of landholding, irrigation, artisanal production, and trade that characterized the everyday life of the region. Findings indicate that Qashqadaryo has achieved a balanced economy as a result of collective resource management and adaptive governance. Local irrigation guilds and councils had a great deal of autonomy and stability even in the face of climatic and political upheavals. The integration of the traditional Islamic institutions (especially waqf endowments) into the economic administration area gave rise to a moral economy in which religion and economics were inseparable. The active participation of the region in the interregional trade networks, where the local markets were linked to Bukhara, Samarkand, and Khorasan, is also stressed by the study. By situating Qashqadaryo in a larger Central Asian context, this work debunks this notion of backwardness in pre-colonial economies and underscores the ongoing importance of communal interaction and environmental adaptation. The historical background of Qashqadaryo indicates that socio-economic sustainability based on cultural continuity and social ethic was the most prominent feature of the region for centuries.