Tales of the grisly crimes meted out by the heavy handed Khans of Khiva are still popular today, as tourist groups gasp in delighted horror at the imaginative and cruel executions that were part of everyday life in the Khanate. It is not always easy to tell fact from fiction as some accounts of executions were given serious Soviet spin to paint a picture of how miserable life had been before the glorious October Revolution.
Nor were the Soviets the first to use such tactics, as the British Captain Frederick Burnaby discovered on his arrival in Khiva:

'Gallows' taken from 'Khiva Caught in Time'

"I must remark that the many cruelties stated to have been perpetrated by the present Khan previous to the capture of his city did not take place. Indeed, they only existed in the fertile Muscovite imagination, which was eager to find an excuse for the appropriation of a neighbour's property. On the contrary, capital punishment was only inflicted when the laws had been infringed; and there is no instance of the Khan having arbitrarily put anyone to death."

Captain Frederick Burnaby -Ride to Khiva - 1876

'Death by Impaling'

However, Burnaby visited Khiva during the reign of Mohammed Rakhim Khan the Second (also known as Feruz Khan), one of Khiva's most benign rulers. Not all the Khans had such egalitarian tendencies and had he visited during the reign of the cruel Mohammed Rakhim Khan the first, he might have had the opportunity to witness some rather more distrubing executions as Captain Muraviev did.

"Impalement is carried out in Khiva with still greater cruelty than attend it in Turkey. The stake is of wood and has a rather blunt point, and, in order that the victim may not die too soon, his hands and feet are firmly bound. As soon, however, as the stake has entered pretty deep into his body, they are released again. When the tortured wretch increases his sufferings by his violent struggles."

Journey to Khiva through the Turkoman Country - Nicholai Muraviev- English Edition, 1871

These 'violent struggles' could often continue for up to two days before the victim finally died, with the stake protruding between his shoulder blades. Muraviev, who was well aware that his own life was also in danger, although not by impalement.

"Foreign envoys who may be condemned to death, and unbelievers, are buried alive in the steppe, as they say the blood of an infidel spilt on the soil would dishonour the latter. This was the death that was in contemplation for me."

Mohammed Rakhim Khan was particularly displeased with any of his licentious subjects drinking or smoking, having renounced such vices himself, and would have the mouths of miscreants slit from ear to ear accordingly. His son, Allah Kuli Khan, also had a penchant for impaling, the fate of his luckless architect, which was hardly surprising given his childhood training:

"From their tenderest years, these children are trained to gaze on sights of barbarity, and instead of being moved by the reeking blood at an execution, they eagerly witness the torture of condemned victims. This kind of education is usual in nearly all Asiatic reigning families; the children are hardened by brutal spectacles, and thereby prepared to be the curse of the people entrusted to their rule by fate."

Journey to Khiva through the Turkoman Country - Nicholai Muraviev- English Edition, 1871

It was the uninspiring and geriatric Said Mohammed who bolstered Khiva's reputation for blood thirsty executions depicted in Arminius Vambery's hugely popular 'Travels in Central Asia', which was published in the 1860's. The Hungarian traveller managed to capture the essence of Khivan punishment in all its gory glory:

'Pile of Skulls'

"In the last court I found about three hundred Tchouders, prisoners of war, covered with rags; they were so tormented by the dread of their approaching fate, and by the hunger which they had endured several days, that they looked as if they had just risen from their graves. They were separated into two divisions, namely, such as had not yet reached their fortieth year, and were to be sold as slaves, or made use of as presents, and such as from their rank and age were regarded as Aksakals (white beards) or leaders, and who were to suffer the punishment imposed by the Khan.
The former, chained together by their iron collars in numbers of ten to fifteen were led away; the latter submissively awaited the punishment awarded.
They looked like lambs in the hands of their executioners. Whilst several were led to the gallows or the block, I saw how, at the sign from the executioner, eight aged men placed themselves down on their backs upon the earth. They were then bound hand and foot, and the executioner gouged out their eyes in turn, kneeling to do so on the breast of each poor wretch; and after each operation he wiped his knife, dripping with blood, upon the white beard of the hoary unfortunate.
Ah! Cruel spectacle! As each fearful act was completed, the victim, liberated from his bonds, groping with his hands, sought to gain his feet! Some fell against each other, head against head; others sank powerless to the earth again, uttering low groans, the memory of which will make me shudder as long as I live.
...A treatment of prisoners such as I have described is indeed horrible; but it is not to be regarded as an exceptional case. In Khiva, as well as in the whole of Central Asia, wanton cruelty is unknown; the whole proceeding is regarded as perfectly natural, and usage, law, and religion all accord in sanctioning it.
The present Khan of Khiva wanted to signalise himself as the protector of religion, and believed he should succeed by punishing, with the greatest severity all offences against it. To cast a look upon a thickly veiled lady, sufficed for the offender to be executed by the Redjm according as religion directs. The man is hung and the woman is buried up to the breast in earth near the gallows, and there stoned to death. As in Khiva there are no stones, they use Kesek (hard balls of earth). At the third discharge, the poor victim is completely covered with dust, and the body, dripping with blood, is horribly disfigured, and the death which ensues alone puts an end to her torture.

'Death by Mud Slinging'

The Khan has affixed the punishment of death, not only for adultery, but to other offences against religion; so that in the first years of his reign, the Ulemas (Muslim priests) were even obliged to cool his religious zeal; still no day passes, but someone is led away from an audience with the Khan, hearing first the fatal words, pronounced, which are his doom, "Alib barin!" (away with him)."

Nor was this all that Vambery witnessed...

"I had almost forgotten to mention that theYasaul led me to the treasurer to receive the sum for my daily board. My claim was soon settled; but this personage was engaged in so singular an occupation that I must not omit to particularise it. He was assorting the Khilat (robes of honour) which were to be sent to the camp, to reward those who had distinguished themselves.They consisted of about four kinds of silken coats with staring colours, and large flowers worked into them in gold. I heard them styled four headed, twelve headed, twenty headed, and forty headed coats.
As I could see upon them no heads in painting or embroidery, I demanded the reason of the appellation, and I was told that the most simple coats were a reward for having cut off four heads of enemies, and the most beautiful a recompense for forty heads, and that they were now being forwarded to the camp.

'Sacks of Heads' from 'Travels in Central Asia'

...The next morning I did really see about a hundred horsemen arrive from the camp covered in dust. Each of them brought at least one prisoner with him, and amongst the number, women and children, also bound either to the tail of the horse or to the pommel of the saddle; besides all which, he had buckled behind him a large sack containing the heads of his enemies, the evidence of his heroic exploits.On coming up he handed over the prisoners as presents to the Khan, or some other great personage, then loosened his sack, seized it by its two lower corners, as if he were about to empty potatoes, and there rolled the bearded or beardless heads before the accountant, who kicked them together with his feet until a large heap was composed, consisting of several hundreds. Each hero had a receipt given to him for the number of heads delivered, and a few days later came the day of payment."

Arminius Vambery - Travels in Central Asia -1864

Captain Burnaby was fortunate enough to visit the Khanate twenty years later, long after the demise of Said Mohammed Khan. Despite his aversion toTsarist spin and the wild rumours circulated about the state of justice in the Khanate, Burnaby noted that the Khan's judgement was not always what the British would consider 'fair play'.

'Market niches could be left open and unattended with few willing to risk theft and the draconian punishments this incurred'

"The scene must be a striking one when the Khan surrounded by his court and officers of state, administers justice...There the delinquents are brought, and, if they do not at once confess their guilt to their lord and master, he orders them to be taken to the mullah, a learned man, whose business it is to investigate into all such matters. The latter produces a copy of the Koran, and desires the suspected individual to swear his innocence; if this is done, and there are no eye witnesses to prove the man's guilt, he is allowed to go free. Should he perjure himself, the Khivans believe that the vengeance of Allah will speedily overtake him, and that the retribution will then be much greater than any punishment which man's justice could inflict.
"But," I inquired, "are there never some wretches amongst you who will risk the wrath of Allah, and perjuring themselves, be released to commit other crimes?"
"No," was the answer. "The fear of God's vengeance is happily too great to admit such wickedness."
"But, supposing that there are witnesses who can prove that the person committed the crime, and he still denies it; what will you do then?"
"Why, we beat him with rods, put salt in his mouth and expose him to the burning rays of the sun, until at last he confesses, and is then punished for his breach of the law."

Captain Frederick Burnaby - A Ride to Khiva - 1876