The ninth ruler of the Bukhara emirate was in all respects a remarkable person. A cavalry general, he was in military service of the emperor of the Russian Empire, whose protectorate in 1868 was taken by his father Said Muzaffar. In 1883, Said-Abd al-Ahad Khan attended the celebrations in honour of the coronation of Alexander III in Moscow, and later, in 1896, the coronation of Nicholas II. He also repeatedly visited St. Petersburg, the Crimea and the North Caucasus. His rule was marked by important steps for the development of the region aimed at industrialization and modernization.
In the humanitarian field, he earned the respect of contemporaries and descendants for limiting the death penalty and extensive charity. As a member of the Turkestan Charitable Society, Said-Abd al-Ahad Khan paid special attention to caring for Islam affairs. The Bukhara emir also assisted St. Petersburg Muslims. During an audience with Nicholas II in 1904, he managed to do the impossible – to achieve the highest approval for the construction of a mosque in St. Petersburg. Two years later, on May 28, 1906, the Committee for the Construction of the Mosque began its activities. Its tasks included collecting the necessary funds for the construction and developing a project with the subsequent preparation of the budget. It is no surprise that the Bukhara emir became one of the largest benefactors of the mosque in Saint-Petersburg once he took its construction under his patronage. In 1906, Said-Abd al-Ahad Khan as an honorary patron of the Muslim Charitable Society in St. Petersburg disbursed 500 000 roubles to the Committee’s account on the construction of the mosque.
The ceremony dedicated to the laying of the foundation of the St. Petersburg mosque took place in February 1910. Tragically, this visit to St. Petersburg in 1910 was the last for Said-Abd al-Ahad Khan. In December of the same year, the emir died before the final implementation of one of the main projects of his life.
You can learn more about this topic in the book-album “The Collection of the State Museum of the History of Religion” (Volume XII) from the series “Cultural legacy of Uzbekistan in the world collections”.
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