In the first half of the eighteenth century the sedentary regions of Central Asia experienced, to various degrees, a political and economic crisis, which manifested itself in the decline of the ruling dynasties in the two Uzbek khanates, Bukhara and Khiva, the weakening or even the total collapse of the central governments, the resurgence of tribal forces, increasing interference by the steppe nomads in the affairs of the sedentary states, and the disruption of economic life.

An important factor in the history of Central Asia since the late seventeenth century was the gradual movement of Turkmen tribes, most of whom until then had inhabited the arid regions of the Qaqa-Qum desert and the Mangïshlaq peninsula, to the oases of northern Khorasan and Khorezm. Among the major tribes, the Chowdur came to Khorezm from Mangïshlaq partly at the end of the seventeenth and partly in the early eighteenth centuries; one branch of the tribe Yomut came to Khorezm in the early eighteenth century (the other one remained in south-western Turkmenia); and the tribe Teke began to infiltrate the oases of northern Khorasan.