Sayyid Mir Muhammad Alim Khan

Sayyid Mir Muhammad Alim Khan was born on 3 January 1880 in Bukhara into the family of Emir Abdulahad Khan of the Manghit dynasty. At about thirteen he was sent by his father to St Petersburg for three years to study statecraft and military affairs, and in 1896 he returned to Bukhara as crown prince.

He then served as governor of Nasaf (Karshi) for about twelve years and later of Karmana. After his father died in December 1910 he took the throne (some sources give January 1911).

Bukhara had been a Russian protectorate since 1873, but the emir kept authority over internal affairs. Early in his reign he is reported to have banned bribes and unlawful levies and built a madrasa in Bukhara; later his relations with the reformist Jadids worsened, and some of them were forced to leave for Moscow and Kazan. Historians judge his rule differently.

In September 1920 Red Army forces led by Mikhail Frunze attacked Bukhara; the emirate was abolished, and Alim Khan withdrew to eastern Bukhara and then to Afghanistan. He lived in exile in Kabul, where he died in 1944, and was buried in the Shuhada-e Salihin cemetery.

His likeness survives in Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky's colour photographs of 1911; he held Russian military ranks and orders and the Montenegrin Order of Prince Danilo I.