The Uncontested Ruler Aalaya
In the early 1860s, when Mullah Alymkul was still the ruler of Osh, his main rival was Alymbek, who managed the affairs of the Kyrgyz of Aalaya. Alymkul, having become regent for the underage Sultan-Seid, destroyed the old khan's palace in the center of Kokand and built another one—already outside the city limits. Relying on the nomadic elements of the Kyrgyz and Kipchaks in his rule, Alymkul was not without reason afraid of being surrounded by the more hostile settled Uzbeks and Tajiks who populated the city. However, he simultaneously tried to free himself from competing Kyrgyz and other Kipchak feudal lords. In particular, his name is directly or indirectly associated with the death of Alymbek datka.
The exact time of Alymbek's death is not specified by the sources. According to his son, he was killed during a palace coup in Kokand in 1861. Other accounts state he was poisoned out of revenge in 1863. There was even a romantic legend about his murder stemming from jealousy by one of the enslaved women—a Kyrgyz. In any case, if there is no chronological displacement, which is not uncommon in Eastern chronicles, there are still mentions of Alymbek as the head of Kokand in 1862 and one of the advisors to Shadman-Khodja—the guardian of the underage son of Mally-Khan—Sultan-Seid in 1863. In particular, historian N. Aristov directly writes that Alymbek datka was executed in 1863.
After her husband's death, the fifty-year-old Kurmandzhan took all affairs into her own hands and became the uncontested ruler of Aalaya. During another turmoil and struggle for the Kokand throne, when Khudoyar moved to his own khanate with Bukhara troops, Emir Muzaffar-eddin reached Osh. Kurmandzhan arrived from Aalaya to present herself to him. The emir was already aware of the "queen's" influence over the Kyrgyz, so he graciously accepted her and even bestowed upon her the honorary title of datka, issuing the corresponding decree. Her stepson—the eldest son of Alymbek—Jarkynbay yielded precedence to his stepmother and was content to become the hakim of Osh in 1864.
Khudoyar-khan, who had regained the khan's throne at that time, confirmed Kurmandzhan's rights to the title of datka and to rule over the Aalay Kyrgyz. Instead of Jarkynbay, who perished in one of the battles with the Russians, the senior son of Kurmandzhan datka, Abdullabek, was appointed as the hakim of Osh.
Thus, for many years, direct rule not only over the Aalay Kyrgyz but also over the entire Osh vilayet was exercised by Kyrgyz feudal lords. The datka herself enjoyed undeniable authority and power among the Kyrgyz. For example, the Russian researcher A.P. Fedchenko, who visited Aalay in 1871, later wrote that after Alymbek's death, Kurmandzhan took all power into her own hands and began to rule the clan independently.
“She enjoys immense authority,” reports A.P. Fedchenko, “our dzhigits spoke of her only with great respect.” Even the khan, in the event of her arrival in Kokand, received the Aalay queen as an important bek.
Thus began the rise of the Aalay queen to the political Olympus of the khanate, marking the start of her life as a brilliant court lady of Kokand. A period, alas, short-lived, soon replaced by a time of the state's agony and its subsequent incorporation into the Russian Empire. The well-deserved glory and honor of Kurmandzhan datka as a subject of the "white tsar" would not have come to fruition had this brave woman not taken the reins of Aalay from the hands of her beloved, who perished in an unequal struggle, Alymbek datka. In this way, our heroine became not only a witness but one of the active participants in the drama of the demise of the greatest Central Asian despotism of the 19th century.
Alymbek - the Main Figure in the Khanate under Sha-Murad