Taken from 'Khiva Caught in Time'

Following the assassination of Murad Inaq Khan, the Khivans went wild and began butchering any Turkoman they could get their hands on. The resulting carnage was so great that it took six days to clean up. By now the Khivans were running low on prospective rulers, and even resorted to calling on Said Mahmoud Tore to be their new ruler. Said Mahmoud politely declined, preferring his quiet life of opium addiction to the rigours of leadership. The court was getting desperate until someone remembered the elderly Said Mohammed, the brother of Allah Kuli Khan, and he was duly placed on the throne. A bad choice, the geriatric Khan was unable to contain the insurrections of the Yomuts and the Jamshids, and began losing territory fast. Despite the horrific punishments meted out to Yomut captives (as witnessed by the Hungarian Vambery, disguised as a dervish), the Khan made little progress. The economy began to decline and the city fell into disrepair.

The city was also under the predatory gaze of Russia, and in 1858 the Khan received an emissary from the Tsar, Nikolai Ignatiev, armed with lavish gifts including an organ. Ostensibly his aim was to sign a peace agreement, although Ignatiev made little secret of his desire to see 'the destruction of the harmful interference of the English who are trying to penetrate Central Asia and lure it into their sphere of influence'. The Khan was, quite rightly, suspicious of such offers and was reluctant to sign any agreement or allow his guest access to the city or its defences, sending him back to Russia as rapidly as possible.

The geriatric Khan managed to stay on the throne for a full seven years before finally dying. Needless to say, the Khan, whom Vambery described, 'with deep set eyes, his chin thinly covered with hair, his white lips and trembling voice', was not particularly missed on his demise.