Junaid Khan (Basmachi leader)

However, after a short period of time Junaid arranged Isfandiyar's assassination and later enthroned the murdered Khan's uncle Sayid Abdullah as a puppet ruler, while himself becoming the real master of the Khanate.

Disillusioned with his ineffective policies that ultimately led to a new revolt, a number of influential leaders of other Turkmen tribes and Uzbek population appealed to the Bolsheviks, who were gaining a foothold in Russian Turkestan after the October Revolution.

Muhammet-Kurban himself, despite his illiteracy, also enjoyed relevant authority among his tribesmen, which allowed him to become first kazi (judge) in the village, and later a water distributor (mirab).

By uniting previously warring Turkmen tribes and establishing close relations with Colonel Ivan Zaitsev [ru], the head of the detachment sent to Khiva by the Provisional Government of Russia, he became one of the most influential people in the Khanate.

Having defeated and expelled by mid-September 1918 his main adversaries in the Khanate – the Turkmen leaders of Koshmammet Khan, Gulam-ali, Shamyrat-Bakhshi – Muhammed-Kurban actually became the ruler of Khiva.