Muzaffar bin Nasrullah

Having entrenched himself on the throne, Emir Muzaffar removed the senior officials appointed by his father from their posts, confiscated their property and appointed his loyal people in their places. However, the city of Shakhrisabz became independent. With great difficulty, he suppressed the separatist movement in Hisar, Kulab and Baljuvan. During the reign of Muzaffar, his Qushbegi (prime minister), Muhammad Biy (1811-1889), a Persian by origin, enjoyed great influence. Having unlimited influence over Muzaffar, he was able to bring other members of his family to higher positions.^[2]

The beginning of the reign of Emir Muzaffar was accompanied by some successes in foreign policy. With the support of Bukhara, Khudayar Khan came to power in Kokand. However, the internal weakness of the Bukhara Emirate soon came to light.
Since 1868, the Bukhara Emirate was subordinated to Tsarist Russia. Despite repeated attempts to change military tactics and the support of Turkish military specialists, the Bukhara troops were defeated three times by the troops of the Russian Empire under the leadership of K.P. von Kaufmann in the battles of Irjar (1866), Chupan Ata (1868) and Zerabulak (1868).^[3]

From July 1868 until his death in 1885, the emir maintained peaceful relations with the Russian Empire. A number of Russian embassies were sent to him. The reception ceremonies for the ambassadors were carried out in the Uzbek language.^[4] In 1873, he was forced by the Russians to ban the Bukharan slave trade; he was also obliged to promise the Russians to abolish slavery itself in 1883, but never did so.^[5]

Emir Muzaffar himself honored the work of the poet Alisher Nava'i and in 1872 presented the manuscript of Navai's Divan to the British Queen Victoria. ^[6]

Emir Muzaffar died in 1885 and was buried in Bukhara. His heir and fifth son 'Abd al-Ahad came to power.

• Akhmad Donish, Puteshestviye iz Bukhary Peterburg. Dushanbe, 1960.
• Bregel, Y. (2009). The new Uzbek states: Bukhara, Khiva and Khoqand: C. 1750–1886. In N. Di Cosmo, A. Frank, & P. Golden (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Inner Asia: The Chinggisid Age (pp. 392-411). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press