In this photograph, the Khan is not even 30 years old, he is quite a young man, although he has been in power for almost 10 years.
Later photographs of the Khan and his court by I. Volzhinsky date back to the late 1880s – the first half of the 1890s. There was Sayyid Muhammad Rahim Bahadur II (1845 – 1910) – the second to last ruler of the Uzbek Qungrat dynasty in the khanates of Khiva. He was an enlightened ruler – in his youth, he studied at the famous Arab Muhammad Khan Madrasa in Khiva. His mentor was an outstanding Uzbek poet, historian, author of works on the history of Khorezm, Muhammad Riza Agahi (1809 – 1874).
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album “Uzbekistan in historic photographs of the 19th - early 20th centuries in the collections of Russian archives” (Volume XXXVII) in the series “Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan”.
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