Khiva

Khiva , city (1989 pop. 40,001), S Uzbekistan, in the Khiva oasis and on the Amu Darya River. Industries include metalworking, cotton and silk spinning, wood carving, and carpetmaking. The city, in existence by the 6th cent., was the capital of the Khwarazm (Khorezm) kingdom in the 7th and 8th cent. From the late 16th until the early 20th cent., Khiva was the capital of the khanate of the same name (see Khiva, khanate of . The city was a significant trade and handicraft center in the late 18th and early 19th cent. It passed to Russia in 1873. It served as the capital of the Khorezm Soviet People's Republic from 1920 to 1923 and of the Khorezm SSR in 1923 and 1924. The ancient quarter of the city has been set aside to preserve such landmarks as an 18th-century fort, the khan's palace (now a museum), and a 19th-century mausoleum and minaret.

Khiva, Uzbekistan Khwārezm An ancient city which takes its name from that of an ancient well, known as Khejvak or Khivak, a name it retained until the 18th century. It was the capital of the former Khanate of Khiva in 1512–1920. Taken by the Russians in 1873, the khanate was abolished in 1920 and became the Khwārezm (or Khorezm) People's Soviet Republic; and in 1921 the Soviet Socialist Republic of Khwārezm. It was incorporated into the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan in 1924. Khwārezm may mean ‘Lowlands’ from the Persian zamin ‘land’ and khwar ‘low’ or ‘abject’, or ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ from khūrshīd ‘sun’. The khanate lay along the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus) River in what is now Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.