The eighteenth century presented Central Asians with an unprecedented opportunity to embark on a new understanding of their geographical and cultural space, indeed, their place in the world, and also begin to fashion their self-image. One way to examine how these insights were shaped in society's upper echelons is to review the rhetoric in the more official sources and to grasp how they had been exhibited by the regime. Elsewhere, I investigated the officially declared policy of the court (or court propaganda, if you will) through the prism of court ritual, and more specifically, through the inauguration ceremonies of new khans and amirs. These rituals were accorded distinction and privilege in the official chronicles, and their descriptions uncover many layers in the court's understanding of itself, its changing composition and functions over time, and in the court's perception of its sources of inspiration and, consequently, of its legitimacy.

Conversely, Central Asia's “popular history” that appeared in the eighteenth century brought before its audience extensive and compelling narratives about the region's most illustrious son and conqueror of much of Central Eurasia in the fourteenth century. The study of Tīmūr's heroic apocrypha opens a window into many expressions of Central Asian experiences, knowledge, and awareness in the eighteenth century. The two historical realms, the courtly and the popular, were connected by the circumstances of their formation and by the issues that they addressed – from the changing perceptions of the ruler's identity and the legitimacy of his rule, a question constantly invoked in all the narratives from the period, to the relationship between religion and state; from their interpretations of traditions and customs and invocation of sources of inspiration to their understanding of their place in the world.