Paper abstract:

The role of women in daily life of Central Asian, especially Khorezmian society in the Late Modern period, and their participation in socio-economic and cultural relations remains one of the least studied and often misinterpreted topics of scholarship. There are certainly enough reasons for such a lacuna in historiography and misperception in many existing literatures. In particular, the historical works and manuscripts produced in Central Asia, of course, do not commonly depict or even contain general information about the social and economic positions of women in society. Because this topic is far from the goals of these historical sources and, most importantly, the day-to-day activity of women in society heavily influenced by Islamic culture, which has been regarded as rigid taboo and often viewed reality behind the scenes. However, the existence of qāḍī documents that illustrate counter side of the phenomena, thus make us to rethink the gender history of the region. In particular, some traces of women’s involvement in the share of inheritance, in the act of benevolence and property relations in the 19th – early 20th centuries can be observed in notarial acts from Khorezm, which have survived to the present day.

The aim of this paper is to examine the activities of female elites in religious endowment (waqf) economy of cultural and religious establishments such as madrasas, mosques, tombs, premises of Koran reciters (qārīkhānas) on the basis of notarial deeds. Moreover, I shall also focus on the bulk of rental agreements and sale transactions that reflect the involvement of royal ladies in these practices as lessor and purchaser (or seller) accordingly.

The paper is based on waqf deeds and other types of notarial documents, which are held in the National Archive of Uzbekistan under the inventory numbers I-125 – ‘The Archive of the Khans of Khiva’ and I-323 – ‘The Collection of Waqf Deeds’. There are more than 100 lease and sale documents of female elites in the inventory number I-125, whereas ‘The Collection of Waqf Deeds’ comprises more than 50 waqf deeds that deal with the activity of women in various positions. Hitherto, these archival sources have not been introduced by researchers into the scientific circulation and they have been leaving untouched. Therefore, this type of primary source is quite important for the study of gender relations in Central Asia.