THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY KHANATE OF KHOREZM KHIVA REPRESENTATIONS IN BRITISH TRAVEL AND DIPLOMATIC SOURCES

Abstract

This thesis examines nineteenth-century English-language accounts of the slave trade in the Khanate of Khorezm. It compares Alexander Burnes’s regional travel account, James Abbott’s Khiva mission, an India Office report concerning Richmond Shakespear, and Ármin Vámbéry’s account of his 1863 journey. Close reading distinguishes eyewitness descriptions, second-hand estimates and diplomatic reports. Travel writing emphasizes Turkmen raids, Persian captives, ransom and unfree labour; the 1840 correspondence concentrates on the release of Russian prisoners during a crisis with Russia. The comparison shows that these records document both coercion within the khanate and the selective interests of their authors. Contemporary estimates, including Vámbéry’s figure of about 40,000 Persian slaves, cannot be treated as verified census data. The thesis concludes that British sources are most useful when their dates, locations and purposes are compared and their claims are checked against other regional evidence