The Expedition to Khiva

By 1873 Russia had all but completed its conquest of Central Asia. All that remained was the elusive Khanate of Khiva, a slave emporium occupying the oasis on the lower Amu-Darya, the ancient River Oxus. After two previous attempts to conquer the khanate which ended in failure and catastrophe, in spring 1873 Russia launched a new, five pronged invasion, in order to finally bring Khiva to heel, once and for all.

“The Expedition to Khiva” by Maksud Alikhanov-Avarsky follows the Russian Caucasus detachment as it marches inland from the Caspian Sea, across the otherworldly desert and steppe wastes of Middle Asia to the forbidden Khivan oasis.

A native of Dagestan and a general staff officer with Caucasus force, Maksud Alikhanov-Avarsky’s firsthand account represents one of the most vivid depictions of Russia’s conquest of Central Asia. Fluent in the Turkic languages, Alikhanov was able to converse with the local Central Asians and learn about their mythology, legends and way of life. More than merely a military memoir, “The Expedition to Khiva” is also the story of exploration on one of the Russian Empire’s most remote and formidable frontiers.

A classic military-adventure memoir in the tradition of Xenophon’s Persian Expedtion and Ceasar’s Conquest of Gaul, Alikhanov's “The Expedition to Khiva” is a classic Russian text from the ‘Great Game’ that is finally available to the English speaking world for the first time.