Khiva, also called Kharasm, Khwarizm, or Urgenj (anc. Chorasmia), a khanate of Turkestan in central Asia, lies between 37° 45' - 44° 30' N. lat. and 50° 15' - 63° E. long., and contains about 25,000 sq. m., the surface being mostly a sandy desert, with many fertile tracts scattered over it. It is bounded N. by the Russian territory and Sea of Aral, B. by Bokhara, S. by Persia, and W. by the Caspian Sea. The chief oasis, in which the capital Khiva is situated, stretches from the mouth of the Oxus or Amu-Daria for 200 miles along its banks, and is watered by canals fed by it. The inhabited area is about 5000 sq. m.; the pop. about 260,000 settled inhabitants and nearly as many nomads. Khiva, successively subject to Bactria, Parthia, Persia, and the Califate, became an independent monarchy in 1092 a.d., but in 1221 succumbed to the Mongols, under Genghis Khan, and in 1370 came to Timur. Timur's descendants were subdued in 1511 by a chief of the Uzbegs. In 1717 Peter the Great endeavoured to conquer Khiva, in 1839 the attempt was renewed by the Czar Nicholas ; but it was not till 1873 that a great and final effort was made to crush Khiva. The Russians entered it on 10th June; and the khan had to cede to Bokhara the Khivan possessions on the right bank of the Amu-Daria. The rest of Khiva is ruled by the khan, under Russian suzerainty. - Khiva, the capital of the khanate, is on the Hazveti Pehlivan Canal, in the western portion of the great oasis. It consists almost entirely of earth-huts. Pop. 20,000. Other towns are Yenghi-Urgenj, the commercial centre of the khanate, and Kungrat, not far from the Aral. See works by Vambery (1864), Burnaby (1876), Stomal (Eng. trans. 1885), and Lansdell (1885).