Finding aid for Khudaibergen Divanov, Views and people of Khiva, 1910-1924
Beth An Guynn
Descriptive Summary
Title: Khudaibergen Divanov, Views and people of Khiva
Date (inclusive): 1910-1924
Number: 2022.R.22
Creator/Collector:
Divanov, Khudaibergen , 1879-1938
Physical Description:
.05 Linear Feet
(18 photographs in 1 box)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The collection comprises 18 salted
paper photographs by pioneer Uzbek photographer and filmmaker, Khudaibergen Divanov. Fifteen
of the images are photographs Divanov made prior to the fall of the Khanate of Khiva, and
depict the city of Khiva, the capitol of the Khanate of Khiva in western Central Asia, and
its inhabitants. The remaining three photographs were taken after the fall of the Khanate of
Khiva in 1920.
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Language: Collection material is in
Russian , Uzbek .
Biographical / Historical
Khudaibergen Divanov (1879-1938; Uzbek: Xudoybergan Devonov; variously: Khudaybergen
Divanov; Hudaibergen Divanov; Hudaybergan Devonov), the son of Nurmuhammad Divani, a court
secretary to the Khivan Khan Muhammad Rahim Bahadur II, was Uzbekistan's first native
photographer and filmmaker. Divanov learned photography from William Penner, a teacher at
the German Mennonite settlement at Ak Metchet. Divanov's landscape photographs and portraits
of his family caught the attention of local authorities who objected to them on religious
grounds. When their complaints reached Muhammad Rahim II, the Khan responded by asking
Divanov to take his portrait. Satisfied with the result, he gave Divanov a job at the Khivan
mint and made him the official court photographer. In 1907, Divanov accompanied the Kahn's
vizier to St. Petersburg where he was able to further his photography studies, returning to
Khiva with a Pathé motion film camera and other photography equipment. In 1910, he filmed
and produced the first Uzbek documentary film which featured Asfandiyar Khan, who had
succeeded his father as Kahn of Khiva, riding in a phaeton. Divanov's other early films
included
Architectural Monuments of Our Land (1913) and
The Sites of Turkestan (1916).
After the fall of the khanate in 1920, Divanov was installed as finance minister for the
new People's Soviet Republic of Khorezm. An imprint of his seal is found on bank notes
issued by the republic in 1922. He also continued his work as a photographer and filmmaker
and was attached to the Central Documentary Film Studio as a correspondent. His studio was
located in Tashkhovli, the summer palace of the former khan. During Stalin's Great Purge,
Divanov was denounced as an "enemy of the nation" for his membership in the Mladokhivintsi
"Young Khiva" movement during the reform period prior to the fall of the khanate. He was
executed in a Yangiyul prison camp on October 4, 1938 at the age of 60.
Following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1958, Divanov was posthumously "rehabilitated" and
a museum was established in his home in Khiva, where a cinema was also named after him.
Although most of Divanov's archive was destroyed at the time of his arrest, the museum
contains some of his documents and effects such as his first Pathé camera and a handful of
glass plate negatives.
Sources consulted:
Anahita Photo Archive. "Hudaibergen Divanov, First Central Asian Photographer."
http://www.anahitaphotoarchive.com/19th-and-early-20th-c-pre-revolutionary-photography/divanov-first-central-asian-photographer.
Fitz Gibbon, Kate. "Emirate and Empire: Photography in Central Asia 1858-1917. Posted
September 29, 2009. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1480082 or
http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1480082.
Golender, Boris. "The First Uzbek Photographer."
Sanat,
issue #4 (Januray 10, 2009). https://sanat.orexca.com/2009/2009-4/boris_golender-3.
Administrative Information
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Khudaibergen Divanov, Views and people of Khiva, 1910-1924, The Getty Research Institute,
Los Angeles, Accession no. 2022.R.22.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2022r22
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquired in 2022.
Processing Information
Beth Ann Guynn processed the collection and wrote the finding aid in 2022.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection comprises 18 photographs (direct contact salted paper prints) by
Khudaibergen Divanov. Fifteen of the images are photographs Divanov made prior to the fall
of the Khanate of Khiva, and depict the city of Khiva, the capitol of the Khanate of Khiva
in western Central Asia, and its inhabitants. Views of Khiva include mosques and minarets,
the fortress, and its city gates. Portraits of kurash or belt-wrestlers, a noble man with
his hawks, and women spinning cotton threads are present in the collection as are depictions
of popular entertainments such as aerial rope-walking and ram fighting. Other scenes show
local crops and irrigation techniques. Commerce is represented by merchants transporting
their wares by canals and a large gathering of bullock carts at a trade market. The
remaining three photographs were taken after the fall of the Khanate of Khiva in 1920. One
image depicts the First All-Khorezm Kurultai Assembly of People's Representatives held on 30
April 1920, which proclaimed the end of the Khivan Khanate and the formation of the Khorezm
People's Soviet Republic (PSRK; Uzbek: Xorazm Xalq Sovet Respublikasi; Russian
transliteration: Khorezmskaya Narodnaya Sovetskaya Respublika).
The photographs were formerly in an album owned by an unidentified Soviet officer who
served in Turkestan in the 1920s. Annotations in Russian are present on the versos of 14 of
the photographs. Captions in Uzbek are present on five of the photographs, written either in
the negative or directly on the print. The titles of the individual photographs are from the
translations of the Russian annotations included in the dealer's inventory. Their unusual
Russian orthography, which hints at phonetic transcription based on Central Asian
pronunciation, suggests that the annotations were added by Divanov himself. The Uzbek
captions in the negatives were inscribed there by Divanov.
Arrangement
Arranged in a single series: Series I, Khudaibergen Divanov, Views and people of Khiva,
1910-1924.
Indexing Terms
Subjects - Topics
Gates -- Uzbekistan -- Khiva
Mosques -- Uzbekistan --
Khiva
Uzbeks -- Portraits
Subjects - Places
Khivinskoe khanstvo -- Description and travel
Khiva (Uzbekistan) -- Description and travel
Genres and Forms of Material
Photographs, Original.
Salted paper prints -- Uzbekistan -- 20th century
Group portraits -- Uzbekistan -- 20th century
Contributors
Divanov, Khudaibergen , 1879-1938
Series I.
Khudaibergen Divanov, Views and people of Khiva,
1910-1924
Arrangement
Arranged according to the dealer's inventory.
Box 1
2022.R.22-1
[Alta Darvaza Gate],
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
Depicts Khivan men seated before the main gate to Ichan Kala, the inner city of
Khiva.
Box 1
2022.R.22-2
View of Khiva 1st Fortress,
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
Rooftop view across the city.
Box 1
2022.R.22-3
The Main Prayer Mosque in Khiva,
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
View of the minaret of the Juma or Friday Mosque from the surrounding streets with
the Islam-Khodja minaret (built 1910) in the background.
Box 1
2022.R.22-4
Cemetery of the Holy Uzbek in the Center of Khiva, Kalvon-Ata,
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
View of the mosque of the Pahlavan Mahmud from behind looking towards the Khodja
minaret and complex. Uzbek caption inked on the photograph in the sky area.
Box 1
2022.R.22-5
A Well Called Khivan [Existed] before the Construction of Khiva on [this]
Spot,
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
Depicts a Khivan elder standing next to a well. According to folk legends the city of
Khiva was built around a well that was dug with the help of Noah's son Shem. Preserved
to this day, it can be seen in the Itcha-Kala, the inner walled part of the city.
Uzbek caption in the negative.
Box 1
2022.R.22-6
Khivans Hunt with the Help of Hawks and Greyhounds,
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
Depicts a Khivan noble on horseback with two hawks on his right hand. A dog sits next
to the horse and a retainer lies at his feet. Uzbek caption in the negative.
Box 1
2022.R.22-7
[Portrait of Two Wrestlers],
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
Depicts two practitioners of kurash or belt-wrestling, one of the most popular
national sports of Uzbekistan, standing with their hands on each other's
shoulders.
Box 1
2022.R.22-8
Uzbek Women. One Closed, One Open,
between 1910 and
1919
Scope and Content Note
Studio portrait of two women in front of a painted backdrop depicting a
well-appointed room. A seated woman wearing headgear, but with her face unncovered,
wears a quilted silk robe, while the woman standing behind her is enveloped in a
paranja with chachvan and a horsehair veil. Veils were banned under Soviet rule, which
dates this photograph to before 1920.
Box 1
2022.R.22-9
Circus Acrobat in Khiva,
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
Annotation continues: 15 sazhen fathoms high. The Uzbek caption in the negative
refers in part to Navruz, the Uzbek New Year celebrations.
The photograph depicts a dorbozlik or rope-walking act taking place on a show ground
outside the walls of the city. The ropewalker ascends the rope leading to the top of a
tall pole, balance stave in hand,
Box 1
2022.R.22-10
Novy Urgench,
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
Depicts a large gathering of Uzbek arba or bullock carts outside the city of Urgench,
a major trade center of the Khivan Khanate about 35 kilometers from Khiva.
Box 1
2022.R.22-11
Pumping Water for Crops,
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
Depicts a horse-driven waterwheel with ceramic pots pumping water into an irrigation
ditch.
Box 1
2022.R.22-12
Cogs on the Shavat River in Tashauz,
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
View of small merchant boats moored by the towpath on the Shavat Canal in
Daşoguz.
Box 1
2022.R.22-13
Uzbek Women Make Cotton Threads,
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
Portrait of two women sitting against a wall with a spinning wheel and distaff.
Box 1
2022.R.22-14
Ram Fights in Khiva,
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
Shows handlers and rams in an arena ringed by crowds of spectators.
Box 1
2022.R.22-15
Grains of the Dzhugara Plant in Khiva,
between 1910 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
Depicts an agricultural worker holding a flowering head of sorghum alongside a field
of head-high plants.
Box 1
2022.R.22-16
1st Meeting... during the Khiva Khan for Power,
1920
Scope and Content Note
Depicts what is most the likely First All-Khorezm Kurultai Assembly of People's
Representatives, held on 30 April 1920, which proclaimed the end of the Khivan Khanate
and the formation of the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic. Representatives are seated
on rugs under a pavilion. A couple of Russian soldiers stand in the background. Uzbek
caption in the negative.
Box 1
2022.R.22-17
Gate with Assembled Officials,
between 1920 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
A group of Russian officials stand in front of the Kosha Darvaza, the main entrance
to Dishan Kala or the outer town of Khiva. A banner in Russian over the gate on the
left reads: National demarcation will help us to organize the multi-million masses of
the oppressed East to fight world imperialism. Yes to National Demarcation! A banner
in Arabic hangs over the gate on the right. An Uzbek caption in the negative appears
beneath the banner.
Box 1
2022.R.22-18
Kunha-Ark, the Palace of the Penultimate Khiva Khan, Currently a Military
School,
between 1920 and
1924
Scope and Content Note
Depicts the gateway to the citadel. Painted in Russian and Arabic on the tympanum
over the portal: Revolutionary Military Council, Military Nazirat leader. Uzbek
caption in the negative.
