khanate · Central Asia and the Steppe

Kataghan Khanate

1815 CE – 1859 CE (approx.) · capital Kunduz

An Uzbek khanate of northern Afghanistan centred on Kunduz, a slave-raiding power under Murad Beg until absorbed by the Afghan Emirate.

Origins

The Qataghan Uzbeks had settled in the region of Kunduz in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the early 19th century their leader Murad Beg built a powerful state from Kunduz, taking Balkh, Badakhshan and neighbouring Tajik districts around 1815 to 1820.

Rule and society

Murad Beg ruled with an army of Uzbek horsemen and grew rich from raiding and slaving, deporting Tajiks of Badakhshan to the marshy Kunduz plain. The British traveller Alexander Burnes and William Moorcroft described his court in the 1820s and 1830s. Successors were weaker and paid tribute to Bukhara or Kabul.

Decline and legacy

After Murad Beg's death in the 1840s the khanate declined. In 1859 Dost Mohammad Khan's son Muhammad Afzal Khan conquered Kunduz for the Emirate of Afghanistan, ending its independence.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (1)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Kataghan Khanate. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kataghan-khanate
MLA
“Kataghan Khanate.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kataghan-khanate. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Kataghan Khanate.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kataghan-khanate.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Kataghan Khanate’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kataghan-khanate (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻