Seyid Mir Alim Khan was only 12 years old when his father brought him to represent before the emperor and to enter the Nikolaevsky Cadet Corps. For the photo shoot, which was carried out in the Winter Palace, court photographer V. Yasvoin was invited. He captured Abd al-Ahad separately, as well as with his son and the dignitaries who accompanied them on the trip. A snapshot of the heir in a student’s uniform was also preserved, in which it is difficult to recognize a person from distant Bukhara. The training program, designed for several years, was confirmed by Alexander III personally. It included the study of both the Muslim sciences and the secular – Russian and French languages, literature, mathematics, political history and economics, geography and many others, as well as military training. However, two years later, the emir demanded a reduction in the program to the secular and military sciences, the completion of the term of training and the return of Alim Khan to Bukhara by the summer of 1896. Before his father died (in 1910), he ruled one of the regions of the emirate. Having become an emir, he initially undertook a series of progressive reforms, but soon returned to the traditional state structure.
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”.
The main sponsor of the project is the oil service company Eriell-Group.
