The reign of Muhammad Rahim II marked the peak of a cultural revival, during which "more than a hundred works were translated, mostly from
Persian into
Chagatai Turkic." Muhammad Rahim II introduced
printing to Khiva in 1874. He was also "a munificent patron" and wrote poetry under the pen name
Feruz. Muhammad Rahim II also abolished the
Khivan slave trade and slavery. When the Russian general
Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufmann and his army approached the city of Khiva during the
Khivan campaign of 1873, the Khan fled to hide among the Yomuts, and the slaves in Khiva rebelled, informed about the eminent downfall of the city. When Kaufmann's Russian army entered Khiva on 28 March, he was approached by Khivans who begged him to put down the ongoing slave uprising, during which slaves avenged themselves on their former enslavers. When the Khan returned to his capital after the Russian conquest, the Russian General Kaufmann presented him with a demand to abolish the Khivan slave trade and slavery, which he did. ==Excerpt from
Ghazals==