History.—The present khanate is only a meagre relic of the great kingdom which under the name of Chorasmia, Kharezm (Khwārizm) and Urgenj (Jurjānīya, Gurganj) held the keys of the mightiest river in Central Asia. Its possession has consequently been much disputed from early times, but the country has undergone great changes, geographical as well as political, which have lessened its importance. The Oxus (Amu-darya) has changed its outlet, and no longer forms a water-way to the Caspian and thence to Europe, while Khiva is entirely surrounded by territory either directly administered or protected by Russia.
Chorasmia is mentioned by Herodotus, it being then one of the Persian provinces, over which Darius placed satraps, but nothing material of it is known till it was seized by the Arabs in A.D. 680. When the power of the caliphs declined the governor of the province probably became independent; but the first king known to history is Mamun-ibn-Mahommed in 995. Khwārizm fell under the power of Mahmud of Ghazni in 1017, and subsequently under that of the Seljuk Turks. In 1097 the governor Kutb-ud-din assumed the title of king, and one of his descendants, ‘Ala-ud-din-Mahommed, conquered Persia, and was the greatest prince in Central Asia when Jenghiz Khan appeared in 1219. Khiva was conquered again by Timur in 1379; and finally fell under the rule of the Uzbegs in 1512, who are still the dominant race under the protection of the Russians.
Russia established relations with Khiva in the 17th century. The Cossacks of the Yaik during their raids across the Caspian learnt of the existence of this rich territory and made more than one plundering expedition to the chief town Urgenj. In 1717 Peter the Great, having heard of the presence of auriferous sand in the bed of the Oxus, desiring also to “open mercantile relations with India through Turan” and to release from slavery some Russian subjects, sent a military force to Khiva. When within 100 miles of the capital they encountered the troops of the khan. The battle lasted three days, and ended in victory for the Russian arms. The Khivans, however, induced the victors to break up their army into small detachments and treacherously annihilated them in detail. It was not until the third decade of the 19th century that the attention of the Muscovite government was again directed to the khanate. In 1839 a force under General Perovsky moved from Orenburg across the Ust-Urt plateau to the Khivan frontiers, to occupy the khanate, liberate the captives and open the way for trade. This expedition likewise terminated in disaster. In 1847 the Russians founded a fort at the mouth of the Jaxartes or Syr-darya. This advance deprived the Khivans not only of territory, but of a large number of tax-paying Kirghiz, and also gave the Russians a base for further operations. For the next few years, however, the attention of the Russians was taken up with Khokand, their operations on that side culminating in the capture of Tashkent in 1865. Free in this quarter, they directed their thoughts once more to Khiva. In 1869 Krasnovodsk on the east shore of the Caspian was founded, and in 1871-1872 the country leading to Khiva from different parts of Russian Turkestan was thoroughly explored and surveyed. In 1873 an expedition to Khiva was carefully organized on a large scale. The army of 10,000 men placed at the disposal of General Kaufmann started from three different bases of operation—Krasnovodsk, Orenburg and Tashkent. Khiva was occupied almost without opposition. All the territory (35,700 sq. m. and 110,000 souls) on the right bank of the Oxus was annexed to Russia, while a heavy war indemnity was imposed upon the khanate. The Russians thereby so crippled the finances of the state that the khan is in complete subjection to his more powerful neighbour.
(J. T. Be.; C. El.)
KHIVA, capital of the khanate of Khiva, in Western Asia, 25 m. W. of the Amu-darya and 240 m. W.N.W. of Bokhara. Pop. about 10,000. It is surrounded by a low earthen wall, and has a citadel, the residence of the khan and the higher officials. There are a score of mosques, of which the one containing the tomb of Polvan, the patron saint of Khiva, is the best, and four large madrasas (Mahommedan colleges). Large gardens exist in the western part of the town. A small Russian quarter has grown up. The inhabitants make carpets, silks and cottons.
KHNOPFF, FERNAND EDMOND JEAN MARIE (1858- ), Belgian painter and etcher, was born at the château de Grembergen (Termonde), on the 12th of September 1858, and studied under X. Mellery. He developed a very original talent, his work being characterized by great delicacy of colour, tone and harmony, as subtle in spiritual and intellectual as in its material qualities. “A Crisis” (1881) was followed by “Listening to Schumann,” “St Anthony” and “The Queen of Sheba” (1883), and then came one of his best known works, “The Small Sphinx” (1884). His “Memories” (1889) and “White, Black and Gold” (1901) are in the Brussels Museum; “Portrait of Mlle R.” (1889) in the Venice Museum; “A Stream at Fosset” (1897) at Budapest Museum; “The Empress” (1899) in the collection of the emperor of Austria, and “A Musician” in that of the king of the Belgians. “I lock my Door upon Myself” (1891), which was exhibited at the New Gallery, London, in 1902 and there attracted much attention, was acquired by the Pinakothek at Munich. Other works are “Silence” (1890), “The Idea of Justice” (1905) and “Isolde” (1906), together with a polychrome bust “Sibyl” (1894) and an ivory mask (1897). In quiet intensity of feeling Khnopff was influenced by Rossetti, and in simplicity of line by Burne-Jones, but the poetry and the delicately mystic and enigmatic note of his work are entirely individual. He did good work also as an etcher and dry-pointist.
See L. Dumont-Wilden, Fernand Khnopff (Brussels, 1907).