Karategin

Karategin was a mountain principality in the Vakhsh valley, with its chief town at Garm. Local princes claimed descent from Alexander the Great.

In the 16th century some 12,000 Kyrgyz families migrated to the valley and formed a Kyrgyz-led tribal confederation. In 1636 Nadr Muhammad Khan of Bukhara sent Haji Atalik, governor of Ferghana, to seize Karategin. One account says the valley then became part of the Bukhara Khanate; the incoming Kyrgyz later accepted Islam.