fa, سمرقند
, native_name_lang =
, settlement_type = City
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Clockwise from the top:
Registan
The Registan (Uzbek language, Uzbek: Регистон, Registon) was the heart of the ancient city of Samarkand of the Timurid Empire, now in Uzbekistan. The name ''Rēgistan'' () means "sandy place" or "desert" in Persian language, Persian.
Th ...
square,
Shah-i-Zinda
Shah-i-Zinda ( uz, Shohizinda; fa, شاه زنده, meaning "The Living King") is a necropolis in the north-eastern part of Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
History
The Shah-i-Zinda Ensemble includes mausoleums and other ritual buildings of 11th – 15th ...
necropolis,
Bibi-Khanym Mosque
The Bibi-Khanym Mosque ( uz, Bibi-Xonim masjidi; fa, مسجد بی بی خانم; also variously spelled as Khanum, Khanom, Hanum, Hanim) is one of the most important monuments of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. In the 15th century, it was one of the la ...
, view inside
Shah-i-Zinda
Shah-i-Zinda ( uz, Shohizinda; fa, شاه زنده, meaning "The Living King") is a necropolis in the north-eastern part of Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
History
The Shah-i-Zinda Ensemble includes mausoleums and other ritual buildings of 11th – 15th ...
, Sher-Dor Madrasah in Registan,
Timur
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kü ...
's Mausoleum
Gur-e-Amir
The Gūr-i Amīr or Guri Amir ( uz, Amir Temur maqbarasi, Go'ri Amir, fa, گورِ امیر) is a mausoleum of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (also known as Tamerlane) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It occupies an important place in the history of ...
.
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Vilayat
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Samarkand Vilayat
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Samarkand (; uz, Самарқанд, Samarqand, ; tg, Самарқанд; fa, سمرقند; sog, *smā́rkąθ, , ), also known as Samarqand, is a city in southeastern
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...
and among the
oldest continuously inhabited cities
This is a list of present-day cities by the time period over which they have been continuously inhabited as a city. The age claims listed are generally disputed. Differences in opinion can result from different definitions of "city" as well as "c ...
in
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
. There is evidence of human activity in the area of the city from the late
Paleolithic Era. Though there is no direct evidence of when Samarkand was founded, several theories propose that it was founded between the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. Prospering from its location on the
Silk Road between
China and
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, at times Samarkand was one of the largest cities of Central Asia.
[Guidebook of history of Samarkand", ] Most of the inhabitants of this city are native Persian-speakers and speak the Tajik Persian dialect. This city is one of the historical centers of the Tajik people in Central Asia, which in the past was one of the important cities of the great empires of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
.
By the time of the
Achaemenid Empire of
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, it was the capital of the
Sogdian
satrapy. The city was conquered by
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
in 329 BCE, when it was known as Markanda, which was rendered in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
as .
The city was ruled by a succession of
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
and
Turkic rulers until it was conquered by the
Mongols
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...
under
Genghis Khan in 1220. Today, Samarkand is the capital of
Samarqand Region
Samarqand Region (Samarkand Region) ( uz, Самарқанд вилояти, Samarqand viloyati, russian: Самаркандская область) is the most populous region of Uzbekistan. It is located in the center of the country in the basi ...
and a district-level city, that includes the
urban-type settlement
Urban-type settlementrussian: посёлок городско́го ти́па, translit=posyolok gorodskogo tipa, abbreviated: russian: п.г.т., translit=p.g.t.; ua, селище міського типу, translit=selyshche mis'koho typu, ab ...
s
Kimyogarlar
Kimyogarlar ( uz, Kimyogarlar/Кимёгарлар, russian: Кимёгарлар) is an urban-type settlement in Samarkand Region, Uzbekistan. Administratively, it is part of the city Samarkand
fa, سمرقند
, native_name_lang =
, s ...
,
Farxod
Farxod ( uz, Farxod/Фарход, russian: Фархад, Farkhad) is an urban-type settlement in Samarkand Region, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekis ...
and
Xishrav
Xishrav ( uz, Xishrav, russian: Хишрау, Khishrau) is an urban-type settlement in Samarkand Region, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, ...
.
With 551,700 inhabitants (2021),
it is the
second-largest city of Uzbekistan.
The city is noted as a centre of
Islamic
scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...
ly study and the birthplace of the
Timurid Renaissance
The Timurid Renaissance was a historical period in Asian and Islamic history spanning the late 14th, the 15th, and the early 16th centuries. Following the gradual downturn of the Islamic Golden Age, the Timurid Empire, based in Central Asia rul ...
. In the 14th century,
Timur
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kü ...
(Tamerlane) made it the capital of his empire and the site of his
mausoleum, the
Gur-e Amir
The Gūr-i Amīr or Guri Amir ( uz, Amir Temur maqbarasi, Go'ri Amir, fa, گورِ امیر) is a mausoleum of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (also known as Tamerlane) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It occupies an important place in the history of ...
. The
Bibi-Khanym Mosque
The Bibi-Khanym Mosque ( uz, Bibi-Xonim masjidi; fa, مسجد بی بی خانم; also variously spelled as Khanum, Khanom, Hanum, Hanim) is one of the most important monuments of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. In the 15th century, it was one of the la ...
, rebuilt during the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
era, remains one of the city's most notable
landmarks. Samarkand's
Registan
The Registan (Uzbek language, Uzbek: Регистон, Registon) was the heart of the ancient city of Samarkand of the Timurid Empire, now in Uzbekistan. The name ''Rēgistan'' () means "sandy place" or "desert" in Persian language, Persian.
Th ...
square was the city's ancient centre and is bounded by three monumental religious buildings. The city has carefully preserved the traditions of ancient crafts:
embroidery
Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen ...
,
goldwork,
silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the ...
weaving,
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...
,
ceramics
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
,
wood carving
Wood carving is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation ...
, and wood painting. In 2001,
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
added the city to its
World Heritage List
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
as ''Samarkand – Crossroads of Cultures.''
Modern Samarkand is divided into two parts: the old city, and the new city, which was developed during the days of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
and
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. The old city includes historical monuments, shops, and old private houses; the new city includes
administrative
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...
buildings along with cultural centres and
educational institutions. On September 15–16, 2022, the city hosted the
2022 SCO summit
The 2022 SCO summit was the 22nd annual summit of heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation held between 15 and 16 September 2022 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Proceedings
As part of the meetings, general secretary of the Chinese C ...
.
Etymology
The name comes from
Sogdian "stone, rock" and "fort, town." In this respect, ''Samarkand'' shares the same meaning as the name of the Uzbek capital
Tashkent
Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2 ...
, with ''tash-'' being the Turkic term for "stone" and ''-kent'' the Turkic analogue of ''kand''.
History
Early history
Along with
Bukhara, Samarkand is one of the oldest inhabited cities in
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
, prospering from its location on the trade route between China and Europe. There is no direct evidence of when it was founded. Researchers at the Institute of Archaeology of Samarkand date the city's founding to the 8th–7th centuries BCE.
Archaeological excavations conducted within the city limits (Syob and midtown) as well as suburban areas (Hojamazgil, Sazag'on) unearthed 40,000-year-old evidence of human activity, dating back to the
Upper Paleolithic
The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...
. A group of
Mesolithic (12th–7th millennia BCE) archaeological sites were discovered in the suburbs of Sazag'on-1, Zamichatosh, and Okhalik. The Syob and Darg'om
canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...
s, supplying the city and its suburbs with water, appeared around the 7th–5th centuries BCE (early
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
).
From its earliest days, Samarkand was one of the main centres of
Sogdian civilization. By the time of the
Achaemenid
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...
dynasty of Persia, the city had become the capital of the Sogdian
satrapy
A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires.
The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with consid ...
.
Hellenistic period
![Daniël de Blieck - Alexander Slaying Cleitus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Dani%C3%ABl_de_Blieck_-_Alexander_Slaying_Cleitus.jpg)
Alexander the Great conquered Samarkand in 329 BCE. The city was known as Maracanda by the Greeks. Written sources offer small clues as to the subsequent system of government; they mention one Orepius who became ruler "not from ancestors, but as a gift of Alexander."
While Samarkand suffered significant damage during Alexander's initial conquest, the city recovered rapidly and flourished under the new Hellenic influence. There were also major new construction techniques; oblong bricks were replaced with square ones and superior methods of
masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...
and
plastering
Plasterwork is construction or ornamentation done with plaster, such as a layer of plaster on an interior or exterior wall structure, or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. This is also sometimes called pargeting. The process of ...
were introduced.
Alexander's conquests introduced classical Greek culture into Central Asia; for a time, Greek aesthetics heavily influenced local artisans. This Hellenistic legacy continued as the city became part of various successor states in the centuries following Alexander's death, i.e. the
Seleucid Empire,
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and
Kushan Empire (even though the
Kushana themselves originated in Central Asia). After the Kushan state lost control of Sogdia during the 3rd century CE, Samarkand went into decline as a centre of economic, cultural, and political power. It did not significantly revive until the 5th century.
Sassanian era
Samarkand was conquered by the Persian
Sassanians
The Sasanian dynasty was the house that founded the Sasanian Empire, ruling this empire from 224 to 651 AD in Persia (modern-day Iran). It began with Ardashir I, who named the dynasty as ''Sasanian'' in honour of his grandfather (or father), Sa ...
c. 260 CE. Under Sassanian rule, the region became an essential site for
Manichaeism
Manichaeism (;
in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...
and facilitated the dissemination of the religion throughout Central Asia.
Hephtalites and Turkic Khaganate era
In 350–375 Samarkand was conquered by the nomadic tribes of
Xionites
Xionites, Chionites, or Chionitae (Middle Persian: ''Xiyōn'' or ''Hiyōn''; Avestan: ''Xiiaona''; Sogdian ''xwn''; Pahlavi ''Xyon'') were a nomadic people in the Central Asian regions of Transoxiana and Bactria.
The Xionites appear to be syno ...
, the origin of which remains controversial.
The resettlement of nomadic groups to Samarkand confirms archaeological material from the 4th century. The culture of nomads from the Middle
Syrdarya basin is spreading in the region. In 457-509 Samarkand was part of the
Kidarite
The Kidarites, or Kidara Huns, were a dynasty that ruled Bactria and adjoining parts of Central Asia and South Asia in the 4th and 5th centuries. The Kidarites belonged to a complex of peoples known collectively in India as the Huna, and in Euro ...
state.
![Turkish officers during a audience with king Varkhuman of Samarkand](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Turkish_officers_during_a_audience_with_king_Varkhuman_of_Samarkand._648-651_CE%2C_Afrasiyab%2C_Samarkand.jpg)
After the
Hephtalites ("White Huns") conquered Samarkand, they controlled it until the
Göktürks, in an alliance with the Sassanid Persians, won it at the
Battle of Bukhara
The Battle of Gol-Zarriun, also Battle of Bukhara, took place in c. 560 when the Sasanian Empire allied with the First Turkic Khaganate against the Hephthalite Empire.
Context
In 484, Peroz I, the grandfather of Khosrow I Anushirvan (), was k ...
, c. 560 CE.
In the middle of the 6th century, a Turkic state was formed in Altai, founded by the Ashina dynasty. The new state formation was named the
Turkic Khaganate The Göktürks founded two major khanates known as the Turkic Khaganate:
* First Turkic Khaganate, which then fractured into
** Western Turkic Khaganate
** Eastern Turkic Khaganate
* Second Turkic Khaganate
See also
* Turkic khanate
* List of Turk ...
after the people of the Turks, which were headed by the ruler - the Khagan. In 557-561, the
Hephthalites
The Hephthalites ( xbc, ηβοδαλο, translit= Ebodalo), sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian as the ''Spet Xyon'' and in Sanskrit as the ''Sveta-huna''), were a people who lived in Central Asia during th ...
empire was defeated by the joint actions of the Turks and Sassanids, which led to the establishment of a common border between the two empires.
In the early Middle Ages, Samarkand was surrounded by four rows of defensive walls and had four gates.
An ancient Turkic burial with a horse was investigated on the territory of Samarkand. It dates back to the 6th century.
During the period of the ruler of the Western Turkic Kaganate,
Tong Yabghu Qaghan
Tong Yabghu Qaghan (r. 618–628 or 630) (also known as T'ung Yabghu, Tong Yabghu Khagan, and Tong Yabğu, Traditional Chinese 統葉護可汗, Simplified Chinese: 统叶护可汗, pinyin ''Tǒng Yèhù Kěhán'', Wade-Giles: ''T'ung Yeh-hu K'o-h ...
(618-630), family relations were established with the ruler of Samarkand - Tong Yabghu Qaghan gave him his daughter.
Some parts of Samarkand have been Christians since the 4th century. In the 5th century, a
Nestorian
Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian ...
chair was established in Samarkand. At the beginning of the 8th century, it was transformed into a Nestorian metropolitanate. Discussions and polemics arose between the Sogdian followers of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
and
Manichaeism
Manichaeism (;
in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...
, reflected in the documents.
Early Islamic era
The armies of the
Umayyad Caliphate
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...
under
Qutayba ibn Muslim
Abū Ḥafṣ Qutayba ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ Muslim ibn ʿAmr al-Bāhilī ( ar, أبو حفص قتيبة بن أبي صالح مسلم بن عمرو الباهلي; 669–715/6) was an Arab commander of the Umayyad Caliphate who became governor of ...
captured the city from the Turks c. 710 CE.
During this period, Samarkand was a diverse religious community and was home to a number of religions, including
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...
,
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...
,
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
,
Manichaeism
Manichaeism (;
in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...
,
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...
, and
Nestorian Christianity
The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...
, with most of the population following Zoroastrianism.
Qutayba generally did not settle Arabs in Central Asia; he forced the local rulers to pay him tribute but largely left them to their own devices. Samarkand was the major exception to this policy: Qutayba established an Arab
garrison and Arab governmental administration in the city, its Zoroastrian
fire temples were razed, and a
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
was built.
Much of the city's population converted to Islam.
As a long-term result, Samarkand developed into a center of Islamic and Arabic learning.
![Dinar of Al-Musta'in, AH 248-252](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Dinar_of_Al-Musta%27in%2C_AH_248-252.jpg)
At the end of the 740s, a
movement of those dissatisfied with the power of the
Umayyads Umayyads may refer to:
*Umayyad dynasty, a Muslim ruling family of the Caliphate (661–750) and in Spain (756–1031)
*Umayyad Caliphate (661–750)
:*Emirate of Córdoba (756–929)
:*Caliphate of Córdoba
The Caliphate of Córdoba ( ar, خ ...
emerged in the Arab Caliphate, led by the Abbasid commander
Abu Muslim, who, after the victory of the uprising, became the governor of Khorasan and Maverannahr (750-755). He chose Samarkand as his residence. His name is associated with the construction of a multi-kilometer defensive wall around the city and the palace.
Legend has it that during
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
rule, the secret of
papermaking was obtained from two
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
prisoners from the
Battle of Talas in 751, which led to the foundation of the first
paper mill in the Islamic world at Samarkand. The invention then spread to the rest of the Islamic world and thence to Europe.
![Dinar of al-Mu'tazz, AH 253](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Dinar_of_al-Mu%27tazz%2C_AH_253.jpg)
Abbasid
control of Samarkand soon dissipated and was replaced with that of the
Samanids People
Samanid
Samanid
Samanid
The Samanid Empire ( fa, سامانیان, Sāmāniyān) also known as the Samanian Empire, Samanid dynasty, Samanid amirate, or simply as the Samanids) was a Persianate Sunni Muslim empire, of Iranian dehqan orig ...
(875–999), though the Samanids were still nominal vassals of the
Caliph
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
during their control of Samarkand. Under Samanid rule the city became a capital of the Samanid dynasty and an even more important node of numerous trade routes. The Samanids were overthrown by the
Karakhanids
The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia in the 9th through the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek K ...
around 999. Over the next 200 years, Samarkand would be ruled by a succession of
Turkic tribes, including the
Seljuqs
The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes
by the Turk ...
and the
Khwarazmshahs
Khwarazmshah was an ancient title used regularly by the rulers of the Central Asian region of Khwarazm starting from the Late Antiquity until the advent of the Mongols in the early 13th-century, after which it was used infrequently. There were a to ...
.
The 10th-century Persian author
Istakhri
Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Farisi al-Istakhri () (also ''Estakhri'', fa, استخری, i.e. from the Iranian city of Istakhr, b. - d. 346 AH/AD 957) was a 10th-century travel-author and geographer who wrote valuable accounts in Arab ...
, who travelled in
Transoxiana
Transoxiana or Transoxania (Land beyond the Oxus) is the Latin name for a region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to modern-day eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...
, provides a vivid description of the natural riches of the region he calls "Smarkandian Sogd":
I know no place in it or in Samarkand itself where if one ascends some elevated ground one does not see greenery and a pleasant place, and nowhere near it are mountains lacking in trees or a dusty steppe... Samakandian Sogd... xtendseight days travel through unbroken greenery and gardens... . The greenery of the trees and sown land extends along both sides of the river ogd.. and beyond these fields is pasture for flocks. Every town and settlement has a fortress... It is the most fruitful of all the countries of Allah; in it are the best trees and fruits, in every home are gardens, cisterns and flowing water.
Karakhanid (Ilek-Khanid) period (11th–12th centuries)
![Shah-i-Zinda](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Shah-i-Zinda.jpg)
After the fall of the
Samanids People
Samanid
Samanid
Samanid
The Samanid Empire ( fa, سامانیان, Sāmāniyān) also known as the Samanian Empire, Samanid dynasty, Samanid amirate, or simply as the Samanids) was a Persianate Sunni Muslim empire, of Iranian dehqan orig ...
state in the year 999, it was replaced by the Qarakhanid State, where the Turkic Qarakhanid dynasty ruled.
[Kochnev B. D., Numizmaticheskaya istoriya Karakhanidskogo kaganata (991—1209 gg.). Moskva «Sofiya», 2006] After the state of the Qarakhanids split into two parts, Samarkand became a part of the West
Karakhanid Kaganate and in 1040-1212 was its capital.
The founder of the Western Qarakhanid Kaganate was Ibrahim Tamgach Khan (1040–1068).
For the first time, he built a madrasah in Samarkand with state funds and supported the development of culture in the region. During his reign, a public hospital (bemoristan) and a madrasah were established in Samarkand, where medicine was also taught.
The memorial complex
Shah-i-Zinda
Shah-i-Zinda ( uz, Shohizinda; fa, شاه زنده, meaning "The Living King") is a necropolis in the north-eastern part of Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
History
The Shah-i-Zinda Ensemble includes mausoleums and other ritual buildings of 11th – 15th ...
was founded by the rulers of the Karakhanid dynasty in the 11th century.
The most striking monument of the Qarakhanid era in Samarkand was the palace of Ibrahim ibn Hussein (1178-1202), which was built in the citadel in the 12th century. During the excavations, fragments of monumental painting were discovered. On the eastern wall, a Turkic warrior was depicted, dressed in a yellow caftan and holding a bow. Horses, hunting dogs, birds and periodlike women were also depicted here.
Mongol period
![Afrosiab (8145369219)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Afrosiab_%288145369219%29.jpg)
The Mongols
conquered Samarkand in 1220.
Juvaini writes that Genghis killed all who took refuge in the
citadel
A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core.
I ...
and the mosque, pillaged the city completely, and
conscripted
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...
30,000 young men along with 30,000 craftsmen. Samarkand suffered at least one other Mongol sack by
Khan Baraq to get treasure he needed to pay an army. It remained part of the
Chagatai Khanate
The Chagatai Khanate, or Chagatai Ulus ( xng, , translit=Čaɣatay-yin Ulus; mn, Цагаадайн улс, translit=Tsagaadain Uls; chg, , translit=Čağatāy Ulusi; fa, , translit=Xânât-e Joghatây) was a Mongol and later Turkicized kh ...
(one of four Mongol successor realms) until 1370.
''
The Travels'' of
Marco Polo, where Polo records his journey along the Silk Road in the late 13th century, describes Samarkand as "a very large and splendid city..."
The
Yenisei
The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas: Ким суғ, ''Kim suğ''; Ket: Ӄук, ...
area had
a community of weavers of Chinese origin, and Samarkand and
Outer Mongolia both had artisans of Chinese origin, as reported by
Changchun.
After Genghis Khan conquered Central Asia, foreigners were chosen as governmental administrators; Chinese and Qara-Khitays (Khitans) were appointed as co-managers of gardens and fields in Samarkand, which Muslims were not permitted to manage on their own. The khanate allowed the establishment of Christian bishoprics (see below).
Timur's rule (1370–1405)
Ibn Battuta, who visited in 1333, called Samarkand "one of the greatest and finest of cities, and most perfect of them in beauty." He also noted that the orchards were supplied water via ''
noria
A noria ( ar, ناعورة, ''nā‘ūra'', plural ''nawāʿīr'', from syr, ܢܥܘܪܐ, ''nā‘orā'', lit. "growler") is a hydropowered '' scoop wheel'' used to lift water into a small aqueduct, either for the purpose of irrigation or to s ...
s''.
In 1365, a revolt against Chagatai Mongol control occurred in Samarkand. In 1370, the conqueror
Timur
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kü ...
(Tamerlane), the founder and ruler of the
Timurid Empire
The Timurid Empire ( chg, , fa, ), self-designated as Gurkani (Chagatai language, Chagatai: کورگن, ''Küregen''; fa, , ''Gūrkāniyān''), was a PersianateB.F. Manz, ''"Tīmūr Lang"'', in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Online Edition, 2006 Tu ...
, made Samarkand his capital. Over the next 35 years, he rebuilt most of the city and populated it with great artisans and craftsmen from across the empire. Timur gained a reputation as a patron of the arts, and Samarkand grew to become the centre of the region of
Transoxiana
Transoxiana or Transoxania (Land beyond the Oxus) is the Latin name for a region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to modern-day eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...
. Timur's commitment to the arts is evident in how, in contrast with the ruthlessness he showed his enemies, he demonstrated mercy toward those with special artistic abilities. The lives of artists, craftsmen, and
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
s were spared so that they could improve and beautify Timur's capital.
Timur was also directly involved in construction projects, and his visions often exceeded the technical abilities of his workers. The city was in a state of constant construction, and Timur would often order buildings to be done and redone quickly if he was unsatisfied with the results.
By his orders, Samarkand could be reached only by roads; deep ditches were dug, and walls in circumference separated the city from its surrounding neighbors. At this time, the city had a population of about 150,000.
[''Columbia-Lippincott Gazetteer'', p. 1657]
Henry III's ambassador
Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, who was stationed at Samarkand between 1403 and 1406, attested to the never-ending construction that went on in the city. "The Mosque which Timur had built seemed to us the noblest of all those we visited in the city of Samarkand. "
Ulugbek's period (1409–1449)
![Ulugh Beg Madrasa (220363337)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Ulugh_Beg_Madrasa_%28220363337%29.jpeg/1200px-Ulugh_Beg_Madrasa_%28220363337%29.jpeg)
In 1417-1420, Timur's grandson Ulugbek built a madrasah in Samarkand, which became the first building in the architectural ensemble of Registan. Ulugbek invited a large number of astronomers and mathematicians of the Islamic world to this madrasah. Under Ulugbek Samarkand became one of the world centers of medieval science. Here, in the first half of the 15th century, a whole scientific school arose around Ulugbek, uniting prominent astronomers and mathematicians - Giyasiddin Jamshid Kashi, Kazizade Rumi, al-Kushchi. Ulugbek's main interest in science was astronomy. In 1428, the construction of the Ulugbek observatory was completed. Her main instrument was the wall quadrant, which had no equal in the world.
16th–18th centuries
![Registan square Samarkand](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Registan_square_Samarkand.jpg)
In 1500,
nomad
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...
ic
Uzbek warriors took control of Samarkand.
The
Shaybanids
The Shibanids or Shaybanids ( fa, سلسله شیبانیان) or more accurately the Abu'l-Khayrid-Shibanids were a Persianized''Introduction: The Turko-Persian tradition'', Robert L. Canfield, Turko-Persia in Historical Perspective, ed. Robert L. ...
emerged as the city's leaders at or about this time. In 1501, Samarkand was finally taken by
Muhammad Shaybani
Muhammad Shaybani Khan ( uz, Muhammad Shayboniy, also known as Abul-Fath Shaybani Khan or Shayabak Khan or Shahi Beg Khan, originally named "Shibägh", which means " wormwood" or "obsidian") (c. 1451 – 2 December 1510), was an Uzbek leader ...
from the Uzbek dynasty of
Shaybanid
The Shibanids or Shaybanids ( fa, سلسله شیبانیان) or more accurately the Abu'l-Khayrid-Shibanids were a Persianized''Introduction: The Turko-Persian tradition'', Robert L. Canfield, Turko-Persia in Historical Perspective, ed. Robert L ...
s, and the city became part of the newly formed “Bukhara Khanate”. Samarkand was chosen as the capital of this state, in which Muhammad Shaybani Khan was crowned. In Samarkand, Muhammad Shaybani Khan ordered to build a large madrasah, where he later took part in scientific and religious disputes. The first dated news about the Shaybani Khan madrasah dates back to 1504 (it was completely destroyed during the years of Soviet power). Muhammad Salikh wrote that Sheibani Khan built a madrasah in Samarkand to perpetuate the memory of his brother Mahmud Sultan.
[Mukminova R. G., K istorii agrarnykh otnosheniy v Uzbekistane XVI veke. Po materialam «Vakf-name». Tashkent. Nauka. 1966]
Fazlallah ibn Ruzbihan in "Mikhmon-namei Bukhara" expresses his admiration for the majestic building of the madrasah, its gilded roof, high hujras, spacious courtyard and quotes a verse praising the madrasah. Zayn ad-din Vasifi, who visited the Sheibani-khan madrasah several years later, wrote in his memoirs that the veranda, hall and courtyard of the madrassah are spacious and magnificent.
Abdulatif Khan, the son of Mirzo Ulugbek's grandson Kuchkunji Khan, who ruled in Samarkand in 1540-1551, was considered an expert in the history of Maverannahr and the Shibanid dynasty. He patronized poets and scientists. Abdulatif Khan himself wrote poetry under the literary pseudonym Khush.
During the reign of the Ashtarkhanid
Imam Quli Khan (1611-1642) famous architectural masterpieces were built in Samarkand. In 1612-1656, the governor of Samarkand, Yalangtush Bahadur, built a cathedral mosque, Tillya-Kari madrasah and Sherdor madrasah.
After an assault by the
Afshar Shah
Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...
anshah
Nader Shah, the city was abandoned in the early 1720s. From 1599 to 1756, Samarkand was ruled by the
Ashtrakhanid branch of the
Khanate of Bukhara.
File:Rajasthan3.jpg, Ulugh Beg Madrasah
File:Rajasthan.jpg, Sher-Dor Madrasah
File:Registan Tillya-Kari madrasah2014.JPG, Tilya Kori Madrasah
Ulugh-beg Madrassa courtyard.JPG, Ulugh Beg Madrasah courtyard
File:Lion(or tiger) on the Sher-dor madrassa.JPG, Tiger on the Sher-Dor Madrasah iwan
An iwan ( fa, ایوان , ar, إيوان , also spelled ivan) is a rectangular hall or space, usually vaulted, walled on three sides, with one end entirely open. The formal gateway to the iwan is called , a Persian term for a portal projecting ...
Second half of the 18th–19th centuries
![Mosque Hazrat-Hyzr (1)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Mosque_Hazrat-Hyzr_%281%29.JPG)
From 1756 to 1868, it was ruled by the
Manghud
The Mangghud, or Manghud ( mn, Мангуд, ''Mangud''), were a Mongol tribe of the Urud-Manghud federation. They established the Nogai Horde in the 14th century and the Manghit dynasty to rule the Emirate of Bukhara in 1785. They took the Isl ...
Emirs of
Bukhara.
[''Columbia-Lippincott Gazetteer''. p. 1657] The revival of the city began during the reign of the founder of the Uzbek dynasty, the Mangyts, Muhammad Rakhim (1756-1758), who became famous for his strong-willed qualities and military art. Muhammad Rakhimbiy made some attempts to revive Samarkand.
Russian Empire period
!['Claudius Bombarnac' by Léon Benett 28](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/%27Claudius_Bombarnac%27_by_L%C3%A9on_Benett_28.jpg)
The city came under
imperial Russian rule after the citadel had been taken by a force under Colonel
Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman
Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufmann (russian: Константи́н Петро́вич Ка́уфман; 2 March 1818 – 16 May 1882), was the first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan.
Early life
His family was German in origin (from Holste ...
in 1868. Shortly thereafter the small Russian garrison of 500 men were themselves
besieged
Besieged may refer to:
* the state of being under siege
* ''Besieged'' (film), a 1998 film by Bernardo Bertolucci
{{disambiguation ...
. The assault, which was led by Abdul Malik Tura, the rebellious elder son of the
Bukharan Emir, as well as Baba
Beg of
Shahrisabz
Shakhrisabz ( uz, Шаҳрисабз ; tg, Шаҳрисабз; fa, شهر سبز, shahr-e sabz: "city of green" / "verdant city"; russian: Шахрисабз) is a district-level city in Qashqadaryo Region in southern Uzbekistan. The Economic ...
and Jura Beg of
Kitab, was repelled with heavy losses. General
Alexander Konstantinovich Abramov became the first Governor of the Military
Okrug
An ''okrug, ; russian: о́круг, ókrug; sr, округ, okrug, ; uk, о́круг, о́kruh; be, акруга, akruha; pl, okręg; ab, оқрҿс; mhr, йырвел, '' is a type of administrative division in some Slavic states. Th ...
, which the Russians established along the course of the
Zeravshan River
The Zeravshan; uz, Zeravshon, Зеравшон, زېرەۋشان; from Persian fa, , Zarâfšân – meaning "the spreader of gold" is a river in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Central Asia. Its name, "spreader of gold" in Persian, refers to th ...
with Samarkand as the administrative centre. The Russian section of the city was built after this point, largely west of the old city.
In 1886, the city became the capital of the newly-formed
Samarkand Oblast
The Samarkand Oblast (russian: Самаркандская область) was an oblast (province) of the Russian Empire between 1868 and 1924. It roughly corresponded to most of present-day central Uzbekistan and northwestern Tajikistan. It was c ...
of
Russian Turkestan
Russian Turkestan (russian: Русский Туркестан, Russkiy Turkestan) was the western part of Turkestan within the Russian Empire’s Central Asian territories, and was administered as a Krai or Governor-Generalship. It comprised the ...
and regained even more importance when the
Trans-Caspian railway
The Trans-Caspian Railway (also called the Central Asian Railway, russian: Среднеазиатская железная дорога) is a railway that follows the path of the Silk Road through much of western Central Asia. It was built by ...
reached it in 1888.
Soviet period
Samarkand was the capital of the
Uzbek SSR
Uzbekistan (, ) is the common English name for the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR; uz, Ўзбекистон Совет Социалистик Республикаси, Oʻzbekiston Sovet Sotsialistik Respublikasi, in Russian: Уз ...
from 1925 to 1930, before being replaced by
Tashkent
Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2 ...
. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, after
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
invaded the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, a number of Samarkand's citizens were sent to
Smolensk
Smolensk ( rus, Смоленск, p=smɐˈlʲensk, a=smolensk_ru.ogg) is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest ...
to
fight the enemy. Many were
taken captive or killed by the Nazis.
Additionally, thousands of refugees from the occupied western regions of the USSR fled to the city, and it served as one of the main hubs for the fleeing civilians in the
Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic
Uzbekistan (, ) is the common English name for the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR; uz, Ўзбекистон Совет Социалистик Республикаси, Oʻzbekiston Sovet Sotsialistik Respublikasi, in Russian: Уз ...
and the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
as a whole.
![1872 Vereshchagin Triumphierend anagoria](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/1872_Vereshchagin_Triumphierend_anagoria.JPG)
The scientific study of the history of Samarkand begins after the conquest of Samarkand by the Russian Empire in 1868. The first studies of the history of Samarkand belong to N. Veselovsky, V. Bartold and V. Vyatkin. In the Soviet period, the generalization of materials on the history of Samarkand was reflected in the two-volume ''History of Samarkand'' edited by the academician of Uzbekistan Ibraghim Muminov.
On the initiative of Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR I. Muminov and with the support of Sharaf Rashidov, the 2500th anniversary of Samarkand was widely celebrated in 1970. In this regard, a monument to Mirzo Ulugbek was opened, the Museum of the History of Samarkand was founded, and a two-volume history of Samarkand was prepared and published.
After Uzbekistan gained independence, several monographs were published on the ancient and medieval history of Samarkand.
Geography
![Samarkand, Uzbekistan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Samarkand%2C_Uzbekistan.jpg)
Samarkand is located in southeastern Uzbekistan, in the
Zarefshan River valley, 135 km from
Qarshi
Qarshi ( uz, Qarshi/Қарши, ; fa, نخشب ''Nakhshab'') is a city in southern Uzbekistan. It is the capital of Qashqadaryo Region. Administratively, Qarshi is a district-level city, that includes the urban-type settlement Qashqadaryo. It ...
. Road M37 connects Samarkand to
Bukhara, 240 km away. Road M39 connects it to
Tashkent
Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2 ...
, 270 km away. The
Tajikistan
Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
border is about 35 km from Samarkand; the Tajik capital
Dushanbe
Dushanbe ( tg, Душанбе, ; ; russian: Душанбе) is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 863,400 and that population was largely Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe (ru ...
is 210 km away from Samarkand. Road M39 connects Samarkand to
Mazar-i-Sharif
, official_name =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline =
, pushpin_map = Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia
, pushpin_label = Mazar-i-Sharif
, pushpin ...
in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, which is 340 km away.
Climate
Samarkand has a
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
(
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
''Csa'') that closely borders on a
semi-arid climate
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of sem ...
(''BSk'') with hot, dry summers and relatively wet, variable winters that alternate periods of warm weather with periods of cold weather. July and August are the hottest months of the year, with temperatures reaching and exceeding . Precipitation is sparse from December through April. January 2008 was particularly cold; the temperature dropped to
People
According to official reports, a majority of Samarkand's inhabitants are
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak mino ...
, while many sources refer to the city as majority
Tajik,
[Lena Jonson (1976) "Tajikistan in the New Central Asia", I.B.Tauris, p. 108: "According to official Uzbek statistics there are slightly over 1 million Tajiks in Uzbekistan or about 3% of the population. The unofficial figure is over 6 million Tajiks. They are concentrated in the Sukhandarya, Samarqand and Bukhara regions."] up to 70 percent of the city's population.
Tajiks are especially concentrated in the eastern part of the city, where the main architectural landmarks are.
According to various independent sources, Tajiks are Samarkand's majority ethnic group. Ethnic
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak mino ...
are the second-largest group
Paul Bergne
Alexander Paul A'Court Bergne CBE (9 January 1937 – 5 April 2007) was a British diplomat and noted historian of Central Asia., ''The Independent'',16 April 2007
Life
Bergne's mother was Diana Holman-Hunt, a noted English memoir writer and ar ...
: ''The Birth of Tajikistan. National Identity and the Origins of the Republic''. International Library of Central Asia Studies. I.B. Tauris
I.B. Tauris is an educational publishing house and imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. It was an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York City until its purchase in May 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
It specialises in non ...
. 2007. Pg. 106 and are most concentrated in the west of Samarkand. Exact demographic figures are difficult to obtain since some people in Uzbekistan identify as "Uzbek" even though they speak
Tajiki
Tajik (Tajik: , , ), also called Tajiki Persian (Tajik: , , ) or Tajiki, is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by Tajiks. It is closely related to neighbouring Dari with which it forms a continuum of mutually intelligibl ...
as their first language, often because they are registered as Uzbeks by the central government despite their Tajiki language and identity. As explained by
Paul Bergne
Alexander Paul A'Court Bergne CBE (9 January 1937 – 5 April 2007) was a British diplomat and noted historian of Central Asia., ''The Independent'',16 April 2007
Life
Bergne's mother was Diana Holman-Hunt, a noted English memoir writer and ar ...
:
During the census of 1926 a significant part of the Tajik population was registered as Uzbek. Thus, for example, in the 1920 census in Samarkand city the Tajiks were recorded as numbering 44,758 and the Uzbeks only 3301. According to the 1926 census, the number of Uzbeks was recorded as 43,364 and the Tajiks as only 10,716. In a series of kishlaks illagesin the Khojand Okrug, whose population was registered as Tajik in 1920 e.g. in Asht, Kalacha, Akjar i Tajik and others, in the 1926 census they were registered as Uzbeks. Similar facts can be adduced also with regard to Ferghana, Samarkand, and especially the Bukhara oblasts.
Samarkand is also home to large ethnic communities of "
Iranis" (the old,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
-speaking,
Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mo ...
population of
Merv
Merv ( tk, Merw, ', مرو; fa, مرو, ''Marv''), also known as the Merve Oasis, formerly known as Alexandria ( grc-gre, Ἀλεξάνδρεια), Antiochia in Margiana ( grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐν τῇ Μαργιανῇ) and ...
city and oasis, deported en masse to this area in the late 18th century),
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
,
Ukrainians
Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...
,
Belarusians,
Armenians
Armenians ( hy, հայեր, '' hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diasp ...
,
Azeris
Azerbaijanis (; az, Azərbaycanlılar, ), Azeris ( az, Azərilər, ), or Azerbaijani Turks ( az, Azərbaycan Türkləri, ) are a Turkic people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. They are the second-most nume ...
,
Tatars
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different ,
Koreans
Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula.
Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply re ...
,
Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in C ...
, and
Germans
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
, all of whom live primarily in the centre and western neighborhoods of the city. These peoples have emigrated to Samarkand since the end of the 19th century, especially during the Soviet Era; by and large, they speak the
Russian language.
In the extreme west and southwest of Samarkand is a population of
Central Asian Arabs, who mostly speak Uzbek; only a small portion of the older generation speaks
Central Asian Arabic
Central Asian Arabic or Jugari Arabic (in Arabic: العربية الآسيوية الوسطى) is a variety of Arabic currently facing extinction and spoken predominantly by Arab communities living in portions of Central Asia.
It is a very ...
. In eastern Samarkand there was once a large mahallah of
Bukharian (Central Asian) Jews, but starting in the 1970s, hundreds of thousands of Jews left Uzbekistan for
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Australia, and
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
. Only a few Jewish families are left in Samarkand today.
Also in the eastern part of Samarkand there are several quarters where
Central Asian "Gypsies" (
Lyuli
The Lyuli, Jughi (self-name - ''Mugat'' and Ghorbati) or Jugi are a branch of the Ghorbati people living in Central Asia, primarily Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and southern Kyrgyzstan; also, related groups can be found in Turkey, Crimea, ...
, Djugi,
Parya, and other groups) live. These peoples began to arrive in Samarkand several centuries ago from what are now
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
. They mainly speak a dialect of the Tajik language, as well as their own languages, most notably
Parya.
Language
![Bilingual Samarkand](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Bilingual_Samarkand.jpg)
The state and official language in Samarkand, as in all Uzbekistan, is the
Uzbek language
Uzbek (''Oʻzbekcha, Oʻzbek tili or Ўзбекча, Ўзбек тили''), formerly known as ''Turki'' or ''Western Turki'', is a Turkic language spoken by Uzbeks. It is the official, and national language of Uzbekistan. Uzbek is spoken as ...
. Uzbek is one of the
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia ( Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...
and the mother tongue of
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak mino ...
,
Turkmens
Turkmens ( tk, , , , ; historically "the Turkmen"), sometimes referred to as Turkmen Turks ( tk, , ), are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, living mainly in Turkmenistan, northern and northeastern regions of Iran and north-weste ...
,
Samarkandian Iranians, and most
Samarkandian Arabs living in Samarkand.
As in the rest of Uzbekistan, the
Russian language is the
de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
second official language in Samarkand, and about 5% of signs and inscriptions in Samarkand are in this language.
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
,
Belarusians,
Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in C ...
,
Germans
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
,
Koreans
Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula.
Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply re ...
, the majority of
Ukrainians
Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...
, the majority of
Armenians
Armenians ( hy, հայեր, '' hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diasp ...
,
Greeks
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
, some
Tatars
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different , and some
Azerbaijanis in Samarkand speak Russian. Several Russian-language newspapers are published in Samarkand, the most popular of which is "
Samarkandskiy vestnik" (Russian: ''Самаркандский вестник'' — ''Samarkand Herald''). The Samarkandian TV channel STV conducts some broadcasts in Russian.
De facto, the most common native language in Samarkand is
Tajik, which is a dialect or variant of the
Persian language
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken a ...
. Samarkand was one of the cities in which the Persian language developed. Many classical Persian
poets and writers lived in or visited Samarkand over the millennia, the most famous being
Abulqasem Ferdowsi,
Omar Khayyam
Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīsābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131), commonly known as Omar Khayyam ( fa, عمر خیّام), was a polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, an ...
,
Abdurahman Jami,
Abu Abdullah Rudaki,
Suzani Samarqandi, and
Kamal Khujandi.
While the official stance is that Uzbek is the most common language in Samarkand, some data indicate that only about 30% of residents speak it as a native tongue. For the other 70%, Tajik is the native tongue, with Uzbek the second language and Russian the third. However, as no population census has been taken in Uzbekistan since 1989, there are no accurate data on this matter. Despite Tajik being the second most common language in Samarkand, it does not enjoy the status of an official or regional language.
[Karl Cordell, "Ethnicity and Democratisation in the New Europe", Routledge, 1998. p. 201: "Consequently, the number of citizens who regard themselves as Tajiks is difficult to determine. Tajikis within and outside of the republic, Samarkand State University (SamGU) academic and international commentators suggest that there may be between six and seven million Tajiks in Uzbekistan, constituting 30% of the republic's 22 million population, rather than the official figure of 4.7%(Foltz 1996;213; Carlisle 1995:88).]Richard Foltz
Richard Foltz is a Canadian scholar of American origin. He is a specialist in the history of Iranian civilization—what is sometimes referred to as "Greater Iran". He has also been active in the areas of environmental ethics and animal rights.
...
. A History of the Tajiks. Iranians of the East. London: I.B. Tauris
I.B. Tauris is an educational publishing house and imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. It was an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York City until its purchase in May 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
It specialises in non ...
, 2019 Only one newspaper in Samarkand is published in Tajik, in the Cyrillic Tajik alphabet: " Ovozi Samarqand" (Tajik: ''Овози Самарқанд'' — ''Voice of Samarkand''). Local Samarkandian STV and "Samarqand" TV channels offer some broadcasts in Tajik, as does one regional radio station.
In addition to Uzbek, Tajik, and Russian, native languages spoken in Samarkand include Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
, Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
, Azerbaijani, Tatar
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different , Crimean Tatar, Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
(for a very small percentage of Samarkandian Arabs), and others.
Modern Samarkand is a vibrant city, and in 2019 the city hosted the first Samarkand Half Marathon. In 2022 this also included a full marathon for the first time.
Religion
Islam
Islam entered Samarkand in the 8th century, during the invasion of the Arabs in Central Asia (Umayyad Caliphate
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...
). Before that, almost all inhabitants of Samarqand were Zoroastrians, and many Nestorians
Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian N ...
and Buddhists also lived in the city. From that point forward, throughout the reigns of many Muslim governing powers, numerous mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
s, madrasa
Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...
hs, minarets, shrine
A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of respect, wherein they ...
s, and mausoleums
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consi ...
were built in the city. Many have been preserved. For example, there is the Shrine of Imam Bukhari
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, serve ...
, an Islamic scholar
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
who authored the hadith collection known as '' Sahih al-Bukhari'', which Sunni Muslims regard as one of the most authentic (''sahih
Hadith terminology ( ar, مصطلح الحديث, muṣṭalaḥu l-ḥadīth) is the body of terminology in Islam which specifies the acceptability of the sayings (''hadith'') attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad by other early Islamic f ...
'') hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...
collections. His other books included ''Al-Adab al-Mufrad
''Al-adab al-mufrad'' ( ar, الأدب المفرد) is a topical book of hadiths collected by Muhammad al-Bukhari addressing the question of perfecting Muslim manners.
Description
The book has hadith about the manners of Islamic prophet Muha ...
''. Samarkand is also home to the Shrine of Imam Maturidi, the founder of Maturidi
Māturīdī theology or Māturīdism ( ar, الماتريدية: ''al-Māturīdiyyah'') is one of the main Sunnī schools of Islamic theology, founded by the Persian Muslim scholar, Ḥanafī jurist, reformer (''Mujaddid''), and scholastic ...
sm and the Mausoleum of the Prophet Daniel, who is revered in Islam, Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...
, and Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
.
Most inhabitants of Samarkand are Muslim, primarily Sunni (mostly Hanafi
The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named a ...
) and Sufi. Approximately 80-85% of Muslims in the city are Sunni, comprising almost all Tajiks
Tajiks ( fa, تاجيک، تاجک, ''Tājīk, Tājek''; tg, Тоҷик) are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Taj ...
, Uzbeks
The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak mino ...
, and Samarqandian Arabs living therein. Samarqand's best-known Islamic sacred lineages are the descendants of Sufi leaders
such as Khodja Akhror Wali (1404–1490) and Makhdumi A’zam (1461–1542), the descendants of Sayyid Ata (first half of 14th c.) and Mirakoni Xojas (Sayyids from Mirakon, a village in Iran).
The liberal policy of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev
Shavkat Miromonovich Mirziyoyev (Uzbek Latin: ''Shavkat Miromonovich (Miromon o‘g‘li) Mirziyoyev'', Uzbek Cyrillic: Шавкат Миромонович (Миромон ўғли) Мирзиёев ; born 24 July 1957) is an Uzbek politician ...
opened up new opportunities for the expression of the religious identity. In Samarkand, since 2018, there has been an increase in the number of women wearing the hijab.
File:AlBukhari mausoleum.jpg, Imam Bukhari Shrine
File:Imammaturidi.jpg, Imam Maturidi Shrine
File:Ruhabad.JPG, Ruhabad Mausoleum
File:Nuriddin Basir Mausoleum 1.jpg, Nuriddin Basir Shrine
File:Mausoleum Khoja Daniyar 5221.JPG, Khoja Daniyar Mausoleum
Shia Muslims
The Samarqand Vilayat is one of the two regions of Uzbekistan (along with Bukhara Vilayat) that is home to a large number of Shiites. The total population of the Samarqand Vilayat is more than 3,720,000 people (2019).
There are no exact data on the number of Shiites in the city of Samarkand, but the city has several Shiite mosques and madrasas. The largest of these are the Punjabi Mosque, the Punjabi Madrassah, and the Mausoleum of Mourad Avliya. Every year, the Shiites of Samarkand celebrate Ashura, as well as other memorable Shiite dates and holidays.
Shiites in Samarkand are mostly Samarqandian Iranians, who call themselves ''Irani''. Their ancestors began to arrive Samarkand in the 18th century. Some migrated there
in search of a better life, others were sold as slaves there by Turkmen captors, and others were soldiers who were posted to Samarkand. Mostly they came from Khorasan, Mashhad, Sabzevar
Sabzevar ( fa, سبزوار ), previously known as Beyhagh (also spelled "Beihagh"; fa, بيهق), is a city and capital of Sabzevar County, in Razavi Khorasan Province, approximately west of the provincial capital Mashhad, in northeastern ...
, Nishapur, and Merv
Merv ( tk, Merw, ', مرو; fa, مرو, ''Marv''), also known as the Merve Oasis, formerly known as Alexandria ( grc-gre, Ἀλεξάνδρεια), Antiochia in Margiana ( grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐν τῇ Μαργιανῇ) and ...
; and secondarily from Iranian Azerbaijan, Zanjan, Tabriz
Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...
, and Ardabil
Ardabil (, fa, اردبیل, Ardabīl or ''Ardebīl'') is a city in northwestern Iran, and the capital of Ardabil Province. As of the 2022 census, Ardabil's population was 588,000. The dominant majority in the city are ethnic Iranian Azerbaija ...
. Samarkandian Shiites also include Azerbaijanis, as well as small numbers of Tajiks and Uzbeks.
While there are no official data on the total number of Shiites in Uzbekistan, they are estimated to be "several hundred thousand." According to WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...
, in 2007–2008, the US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom held a series of meetings with Sunni mullahs and Shiite imams in Uzbekistan. During one of the talks, the imam of the Shiite mosque in Bukhara said that about 300,000 Shiites live in the Bukhara Vliayat and 1 million in the Samarqand Vilayat. The Ambassador slightly doubted the authenticity of these figures, emphasizing in his report that data on the numbers of religious and ethnic minorities provided by the government of Uzbekistan were considered a very "delicate topic" due to their potential to provoke interethnic and interreligious conflicts. All the ambassadors of the ambassador tried to emphasize that traditional Islam, especially Sufism and Sunnism, in the regions of Bukhara and Samarqand is characterized by great religious tolerance toward other religions and sects, including Shiism.
File:Panjab Shia Mosque in Samarkand.jpg, Panjab Shia Mosque
File:Panjab Madrasa in Samarkand.jpg, Panjab Shia Madrasa
File:Murad Avliya Mausoleum and Courtyard.jpg, Murad Avliya Shrine
Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
was introduced to Samarkand when it was part of Soghdiana, long before the penetration of Islam into Central Asia. The city then became one of the centers of Nestorianism in Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
. The majority of the population were then Zoroastrians, but since Samarkand was the crossroads of trade routes among China, Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, and Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, it was religiously tolerant. Under the Umayyad Caliphate
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...
, Zoroastrians and Nestorians were persecuted by the Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
conquerors; the survivors fled to other places or converted to Islam. Several Nestorian temples were built in Samarkand, but they have not survived. Their remains were found by archeologists at the ancient site of Afrasiyab and on the outskirts of Samarkand.
In the three decades of 1329–1359, the Samarkand eparchy of the Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
served several thousand Catholics who lived in the city. According to Marco Polo and Johann Elemosina, a descendant of Chaghatai Khan
Chagatai Khan ( Mongolian: ''; Čaɣatay''; mn, Цагадай, translit=Tsagadai; chg, , ''Čaġatāy''; ug, چاغاتاي خان, ''Chaghatay-Xan''; zh, 察合台, ''Chágětái''; fa, , ''Joghatây''; 22 December 1183 – 1 July 1242) ...
, the founder of the Chaghatai dynasty, Eljigidey
Eljigidey was khan of the Chagatai Khanate, a division of the Mongol Empire in 1326–1329. He was the son of Duwa. After the death of his brother Kebek, Eljigidey took control of the Chagatai Khanate. He was involved in the succession strug ...
, converted to Christianity and was baptized. With the assistance of Eljigidey, the Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist was built in Samarkand. After a while, however, Islam completely supplanted Catholicism.
Christianity reappeared in Samarkand several centuries later, from the mid-19th century onward, after the city was seized by the Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
. Russian Orthodoxy was introduced to Samarkand in 1868, and several churches and temples were built. In the early 20th century several more Orthodox cathedrals, churches, and temples were built, most of which were demolished while Samarkand was part of the USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
.
In present time, Christianity is the second-largest religious group in Samarkan with the predominant form is the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). More than 5% of Samarkand residents are Orthodox, mostly Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
, Ukrainians
Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...
, and Belarusians, and also some Koreans
Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula.
Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply re ...
and Greeks
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
. Samarkand is the center of the Samarkand branch (which includes the Samarkand, Qashqadarya, and Surkhandarya provinces of Uzbekistan) of the Uzbekistan and Tashkent eparchy of the Central Asian Metropolitan District of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The city has several active Orthodox churches: Cathedral of St. Alexiy Moscowskiy, Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin, and Church of St. George the Victorious. There are also a number of inactive Orthodox churches and temples, for example that of Church of St. George Pobedonosets.
There are also a few tens of thousands of Catholics in Samarkand, mostly Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in C ...
, Germans
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
, and some Ukrainians
Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...
. In the center of Samarkand is St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, which was built at the beginning of the 20th century. Samarkand is part of the Apostolic Administration of Uzbekistan The Apostolic Administration of Uzbekistan is a Roman Catholic (Latin Church) Apostolic Administration (pre-diocesan jurisdiction; originally an Independent Mission) for the Catholics of Uzbekistan ( West Turkistan, Central Asia).
It is exempt, i.e ...
.
The third largest Christian sect in Samarkand is the Armenian Apostolic Church
, native_name_lang = hy
, icon = Armenian Apostolic Church logo.svg
, icon_width = 100px
, icon_alt =
, image = Էջմիածնի_Մայր_Տաճար.jpg
, imagewidth = 250px
, a ...
, followed by a few tens of thousands of Armenian Samarkandians. Armenian Christians began emigrating to Samarkand at the end of the 19th century, this flow increasing especially in the Soviet era. In the west of Samarkand is the Armenian Church Surb Astvatsatsin.
File:Orthodox church in Samarkand 11-09.JPG, Orthodox Cathedral of St. Alexiy Moscowskiy
File:Church Cover Blessed Virgin in Samarkand 12-55.JPG, Orthodox Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin
File:Church of St. George Victorious Samarkand 08-19.JPG, Orthodox Church of St. George the Victorious
File:Church of St. George Victorious in Samarkand 08-18.JPG, Orthodox Church of St. George Pobedonosets
File:Church Saint John Baptist in Samarkand 23-38.JPG, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church
File:St. Mary Church in Samarkand 10-54.JPG, Armenian Church Surb Astvatsatsin
Samarkand also has several thousand Protestants, including Lutherans
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...
, Baptists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, and members of the Korean Presbyterian church
Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) was a Protestant denomination based in South Korea; it is currently separated into many branches.
History
The first Korean Presbyterian church was founded by Seo Sang-ryun in Hwanghae province in 1884. Shor ...
. These Christian movements appeared in Samarkand mainly after the independence of Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...
in 1991.
Main sights
Ensembles
File:Registan square Samarkand.jpg, Registan Ensemble and Square
File:Shakh-i-Zinda.jpg, Shahi Zinda Ensemble
Mausoleums and shrines
Mausoleums
File:ShrineofAmirTimur.jpg, Gure Amir (Shrine of Timur and Timurids)
File:Мавзолей Ак-Сарай.jpg, Aqsaray Timurids Mausoleum
File:Samarqand Bibi Khanum Mausoleum.jpg, Bibi Khanum Mausoleum
File:Mausoleum Ishrathona 05.JPG, Ishratkhana Mausoleum
File:Makhsumbobo Mausoleum.jpg, Makhsum Baba Mausoleum
Holy shrines and mausoleums
File:AlBukhari mausoleum.jpg, Imam Bukhari Shrine
File:Ruhabad.JPG, Ruhabad Mausoleum
File:Imammaturidi.jpg, Imam Maturidi Shrine
File:Murad Avliya Mausoleum.jpg, Murad Avliya Shrine
File:Mausoleum Khoja Daniyar 5221.JPG, Khoja Daniyar Mausoleum
File:Nuriddin Basir Mausoleum 1.jpg, Nuriddin Basir Shrine
Other complexes
File:Khodzha Abdu-Derun Mausoleum 03.jpg, Abdu Darun Complex
File:Entrance to the Abdu Berun Ensemble in Samarkand.jpg, Abdu Berun Complex
File:Chorsu.JPG, Chorsu (domed market)
File:Ulugh Beg observatory 2.JPG, Ulughbek Observatory
Madrasas
File:Samarkand, Registan, Ulugbek Medressa (6238565020).jpg, Ulughbek Madrasa
File:Rajasthan.jpg, Shirdar Madrasa
File:Tilla-Kori madrasah - Exterior views 1.JPG, Tilla Kari Madrasa
File:Khoja Ahrar entrance (cropped).jpg, Khoja Ahrar Madrasa
File:Panjab Madrasa in Samarkand.jpg, Panjab Madrasa
Mosques
File:Mosque Bibi Khanum (5).JPG, Bibi Khanum Mosque
File:Namazga mosque 4682.JPG, Namazgah Mosque
File:La mosquée Khazret Khyzr (Samarcande) (6009412301).jpg, Hazrat Hizir Mosque
File:Panjab Shia Mosque in Samarkand.jpg, Panjab Shia Mosque
File:Khodja Nisbatdor Mosque 1.jpg, Khoja Nisbatdar Mosque
Architecture
Timur initiated the building of Bibi Khanum after his 1398–1399 campaign in India. Bibi Khanum originally had about 450 marble columns, which were hauled there and set up with the help of 95 elephants that Timur had brought back from Hindustan. Artisans and stonemasons from India designed the mosque's dome, giving it its distinctive appearance amongst the other buildings. An 1897 earthquake destroyed the columns, which were not entirely restored in the subsequent reconstruction.
The best-known landmark of Samarkand is the mausoleum known as Gur-i Amir. It exhibits the influences of many cultures, past civilizations, neighboring peoples, and religions, especially those of Islam. Despite the devastation wrought by Mongols to Samarkand's pre-Timurid Islamic architecture, under Timur these architectural styles were revived, recreated, and restored. The blueprint and layout of the mosque itself, with their precise measurements, demonstrate the Islamic passion for geometry
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...
. The entrance to the Gur-i Amir is decorated with Arabic calligraphy and inscriptions, the latter a common feature in Islamic architecture. Timur's meticulous attention to detail is especially obvious inside the mausoleum: the tiled walls are a marvelous example of mosaic
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
faience
Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major a ...
, an Iranian technique in which each tile is cut, colored, and fit into place individually. The tiles of the Gur-i Amir were also arranged so that they spell out religious words such as "Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...
" and "Allah."
The ornamentation of the Gur-i Amir's walls includes floral and vegetal motifs, which signify gardens; the floor tiles feature uninterrupted floral patterns. In Islam, gardens are symbols of paradise, and as such, they were depicted on the walls of tombs and grown in Samarkand itself. Samarkand boasted two major gardens, the New Garden and the Garden of Heart's Delight, which became the central areas of entertainment for ambassadors and important guests. In 1218, a friend of Genghis Khan named Yelü Chucai reported that Samarkand was the most beautiful city of all, as "it was surrounded by numerous gardens. Every household had a garden, and all the gardens were well designed, with canals and water fountains that supplied water to round or square-shaped ponds. The landscape included rows of willows and cypress trees, and peach and plum orchards were shoulder to shoulder." Persian carpets with floral patterns have also been found in some Timurid buildings.
The elements of traditional Islamic architecture can be seen in traditional mud-brick Uzbek houses that are built around central courtyards with gardens. Most of these houses have painted wooden ceilings and walls. By contrast, houses in the west of the city are chiefly European-style homes built in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Turko-Mongol influence is also apparent in Samarkand's architecture. It is believed that the melon-shaped domes of the mausoleums were designed to echo ''yurts'' or ''gers'', traditional Mongol tents in which the bodies of the dead were displayed before burial or other disposition. Timur built his tents from more-durable materials, such as bricks and wood, but their purposes remained largely unchanged. The chamber in which Timur's own body was laid included " tugs", poles whose tops were hung with a circular arrangement of horse or yak tail hairs. These banners symbolized an ancient Turkic tradition of sacrificing horses, which were valuable commodities, to honor the dead. Tugs were also a type of cavalry standard used by many nomads, up to the time of the Ottoman Turks.
Colors of buildings in Samarkand also have significant meanings. The dominant architectural color is blue, which Timur used to convey a broad range of concepts. For example, the shades of blue in the Gur-i Amir are colors of mourning; in that era, blue was the color of mourning in Central Asia, as it still is in various cultures today. Blue was also considered the color that could ward off "the evil eye
The Evil Eye ( grc, ὀφθαλμὸς βάσκανος; grc-koi, ὀφθαλμὸς πονηρός; el, (κακό) μάτι; he, עַיִן הָרָע, ; Romanian: ''Deochi''; it, malocchio; es, mal de ojo; pt, mau-olhado, olho gordo; ar ...
" in Central Asia; this notion is evidenced by in the number of blue-painted doors in and around the city. Furthermore, blue represented water, a particularly rare resource in the Middle East and Central Asia; walls painted blue symbolized the wealth of the city.
Gold also has a strong presence in the city. Timur's fascination with vaulting explains the excessive use of gold in the Gur-i Amir, as well as the use of embroidered gold fabric in both the city and his buildings. The Mongols had great interests in Chinese- and Persian-style golden silk textiles, as well as ''nasij'' woven in Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
and Transoxiana. Mongol leaders like Ögedei Khan
Ögedei Khagan (also Ogodei;, Mongolian: ''Ögedei'', ''Ögüdei''; – 11 December 1241) was second khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire. The third son of Genghis Khan, he continued the expansion of the empire that his father had begun.
...
built textile workshops in their cities to be able to produce gold fabrics themselves.
Suburbs
Samarkand's recent expansion led to it having suburbs, including: Gulyakandoz, Superfosfatnyy, Bukharishlak, Ulugbek, Ravanak, Kattakishlak, Registan, Zebiniso, Kaftarkhona, Uzbankinty.
Transport
Local
Samarkand has a strong public-transport system. From Soviet times up through today, municipal bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
es and taxi
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choic ...
s (GAZ-21
The GAZ M21 Volga is an automobile produced in the Soviet Union by GAZ (Gorkovsky Avtomobilniy Zavod, in English "Gorky automobile factory") from 1956 to 1970. The first car to carry the Volga name, it was developed in the early 1950s. Volgas ...
, GAZ-24
The GAZ-24 "Volga" is a car manufactured by the Gorky Automobile Plant (Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod, GAZ) from 1970 to 1985 as a generation of its Volga marque. A largely redesigned version (practically, a new car in a modified old body) – G ...
, GAZ-3102
The GAZ-3102 Volga is an automobile manufactured by the Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod ( GAZ, Gorky Automobile Plant) from 1982 to 2010 as a generation of its Volga marque.
GAZ-3101 prototype
In 1976, the first prototypes were shown and under the ne ...
, VAZ-2101
The VAZ-2101 ''" Zhiguli"'', commonly nicknamed ''" Kopeyka"'' (for the smallest Soviet coin, 1/100 of the ''Ruble''), is a compact sedan car (''small class, passenger car, model 1'' in Soviet classification) produced by the Soviet manufacture ...
, VAZ-2106
The VAZ-2106 Zhiguli (alternatively Zhiguli 2106) is a sedan produced by the Soviet (later Russian) automaker VAZ, and later, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, also by Russian Izhevsk Avto and Ukrainian . In export markets, it was known sim ...
and VAZ-2107
In contemporary history, the third millennium of the anno Domini or Common Era in the Gregorian calendar is the current millennium spanning the years 2001 to 3000 (21st to 30th centuries). Ongoing futures studies seek to understand what is li ...
) have operated in Samarkand. Buses, mostly SamAuto and Isuzu buses, are the most common and popular mode of transport in the city. Taxis, which are mostly Chevrolets and Daewoo
Daewoo ( ; Hangul: , Hanja: , ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "dae" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomerat ...
sedans, are usually yellow in color. Since 2017, there have also been several Samarkandian tram lines, mostly Vario LF.S Czech trams. From the Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
Era up until 2005, Samarkandians also got around via trolleybus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trol ...
. Finally, Samarkand has the so-called "Marshrutka
''Marshrutka''[Daewoo Damas
Daewoo ( ; Hangul: , Hanja: , ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "dae" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomerat ...](_blank)
and GAZelle
A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus ''Gazella'' . This article also deals with the seven species included in two further genera, '' Eudorcas'' and '' Nanger'', which were formerly considered subgenera of ''Gazella''. A third ...
minibuses
A minibus, microbus, minicoach, or commuter (in Zimbabwe) is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, t ...
.
File:Beruni street in Samarkand.jpg, Many yellow taxis on the streets of Samarkand
File:Hotel in Rudaki and Dahbed Streets in Samarkand.jpg, Taxi and tram on Rudaki Street in Samarkand
File:Tram in Samarkand.jpg, Tram in Samarkand
File:Beruni and Rudaki Streets in Samarkand.jpg, Beruni and Rudaki Streets in Samarkand
File:Mirzo Ulughbek Street in Samarkand 2.jpg, Taxi and bus on Mirzo Ulughbek Avenue in Samarkand
Until 1950, the main forms of transport in Samarkand were carriages and " arabas" with horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...
s and donkeys. However, the city had a steam tram in 1924–1930, and there were more-modern trams in 1947–1973.
File:Самарканд - 103 - Близ главного входа в Шахи-Зинде.jpg, "Araba" and donkey in Samarkand in 1890
File:Самарканд - 1 - Станция Самарканд, конечный пункт Закаспийской военной железной дороги.jpg, Samarkand railway station in 1890
File:Hammond Slides Samarkand 44.jpg, "Araba" in Samarkand in 1964
File:Hammond Slides Samarkand 04.jpg, "Araba" in Samarkand in 1964
Air transport
In the north of the city is Samarkand International Airport, which was opened in the 1930s, under the Soviets. As of spring 2019, Samarkand International Airport has flights to Tashkent
Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2 ...
, Nukus
Nukus ( kaa, Nókis / ; uz, Nukus / ; kk, Нүкіс / ) is the sixth-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of the autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan. The population of Nukus as of January 1, 2022 was 329,100. The Amu Darya river passe ...
, Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
, Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg ( ; rus, Екатеринбург, p=jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( rus, Свердло́вск, , svʲɪrˈdlofsk, 1924–1991), is a city and the administra ...
, Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering an ...
, Istanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_i ...
, and Dushanbe
Dushanbe ( tg, Душанбе, ; ; russian: Душанбе) is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 863,400 and that population was largely Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe (ru ...
; charter flights to other cities are also available.
Railway
Modern Samarkand is an important railway center of Uzbekistan; all national east–west railway routes pass through the city. The most important and longest of these is Tashkent
Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2 ...
– Kungrad. High-speed Tashkent–Samarkand high-speed rail line
The Tashkent–Samarkand high-speed rail line is a high-speed rail connection between Tashkent and Samarkand, the two largest Uzbekistan cities. The route passes through four regions: Tashkent, Sirdaryo, Jizzakh and Samarqand in Uzbekistan. Tra ...
trains run between Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara. Samarkand also has international railway connections: Saratov–Samarkand, Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
–Samarkand, and Nur-Sultan
Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan.
The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, tho ...
–Samarkand.
File:Samarkand Railway Station.jpg, Samarkand railway station
File:Afrosiyob Express Train in Station - Samarkand - Uzbekistan (7502824436) (3).jpg, Afrasiyab (Talgo 250) high-speed train in Samarkand railway station
File:Passengers Dismounting from Afrosiyab Express Train - Samarkand Train Station - Samarkand - Uzbekistan (7480148270).jpg, In Samarkand railway station
File:Talgo 250 Afrosiyob.jpg, Afrasiyab (Talgo 250) high-speed train
In 1879–1891, the Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
built the Trans-Caspian Railway
The Trans-Caspian Railway (also called the Central Asian Railway, russian: Среднеазиатская железная дорога) is a railway that follows the path of the Silk Road through much of western Central Asia. It was built by ...
to facilitate its expansion into Central Asia. The railway originated in Krasnovodsk (now Turkmenbashi) on the Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...
coast. Its terminus was originally Samarkand, whose station first opened in May 1888. However, a decade later, the railway was extended eastward to Tashkent and Andijan
Andijan (sometimes spelled Andijon or Andizhan in English) ( uz, Andijon / Андижон / ئەندىجان; fa, اندیجان, ''Andijân/Andīǰān''; russian: Андижан, ''Andižan'') is a city in Uzbekistan. It is the administrative, ...
, and its name was changed to Central Asian Railways. Nonetheless, Samarkand remained one of the largest and most important stations of the Uzbekistan SSR
Uzbekistan (, ) is the common English name for the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR; uz, Ўзбекистон Совет Социалистик Республикаси, Oʻzbekiston Sovet Sotsialistik Respublikasi, in Russian: Уз ...
and Soviet Central Asia
Soviet Central Asia (russian: link=no, Советская Средняя Азия, Sovetskaya Srednyaya Aziya) was the part of Central Asia administered by the Soviet Union between 1918 and 1991, when the Central Asian republics declared ind ...
.
International relations
Twin towns – sister cities
Samarkand is twinned with:
* Agra
Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra i ...
, India
* Balkh, Afghanistan
* Banda Aceh, Indonesia
* Cusco, Peru
* Jūrmala
Jūrmala (; "seaside") is a state city in Latvia, about west of Riga. Jūrmala is a resort town stretching and sandwiched between the Gulf of Riga and the Lielupe River. It has a stretch of white-sand beach, and a population of 49,325 in 2019 ...
, Latvia
* Kairouan
Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( ar, ٱلْقَيْرَوَان, al-Qayrawān , aeb, script=Latn, Qeirwān ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by t ...
, Tunisia
* Khujand
Khujand ( tg, Хуҷанд, Khujand; Uzbek: Хўжанд, romanized: Хo'jand; fa, خجند, Khojand), sometimes spelled Khodjent and known as Leninabad (russian: Ленинабад, Leninabad; tg, Ленинобод, Leninobod; fa, لنی ...
, Tajikistan
* Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk ( ; rus, Красноя́рск, a=Ru-Красноярск2.ogg, p=krəsnɐˈjarsk) (in semantic translation - Red Ravine City) is the largest city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yeni ...
, Russia
* Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...
, Pakistan
* Liège, Belgium
* Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
, Turkmenistan
* Merv
Merv ( tk, Merw, ', مرو; fa, مرو, ''Marv''), also known as the Merve Oasis, formerly known as Alexandria ( grc-gre, Ἀλεξάνδρεια), Antiochia in Margiana ( grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐν τῇ Μαργιανῇ) and ...
, Turkmenistan
* Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
, Mexico
* New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...
, India
* Nishapur, Iran
* Plovdiv, Bulgaria
* Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
, Brazil
* Samara, Russia
* Xi'an
Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqi ...
, China
Friendly cities
Samarkand has friendly relations with:
* Antalya
la, Attalensis grc, Ἀτταλειώτης
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 07xxx
, area_code = (+90) 242
, registration_plate = 07
, blank_name = Licence plate
...
, Turkey
* Babruysk
Babruysk, Babrujsk or Bobruisk ( be, Бабруйск , Łacinka: , rus, Бобруйск, Bobrujsk, bɐˈbruɪ̯s̪k, yi, באָברויסק ) is a city in the Mogilev Region of eastern Belarus on the Berezina River. , its population was 209 ...
, Belarus
* Bremen, Germany
* Eskişehir
Eskişehir ( , ; from "old" and "city") is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 898,369 with a metropolitan population of 797,708. The city is located on the banks of the ...
, Turkey
* Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
, Italy
* Gyeongju, South Korea
* Istanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_i ...
, Turkey
* İzmir
İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...
, Turkey
* Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...
, France
* Lviv
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...
, Ukraine
* Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
, Spain
Gallery
File:Samarkand city sights12.jpg
File:Samarkand city sights13.jpg
File:Samarkand city sights10.jpg
File:Samarkand city sights899.jpg
File:Samarkand city sights11.jpg
File:Samarkand city sights8.jpg
File:Samarkand city sights7.jpg
File:Samarkand city sights6.jpg
File:Samarkand city sights3.jpg
File:Samarkand city sights5.jpg
File:Samarkand city sights4.jpg
File:Samarkand city sights1.jpg
File:Samarkand city sights2.jpg
File:Samarkand city sights.jpg
See also
* Samarkand Airport
Citations
General and cited references
*Azim Malikov, "Cult of saints and shrines in the Samarqand province of Uzbekistan". ''International Journal of Modern Anthropology''. No. 4. 2010, pp. 116–123.
*Azim Malikov, "The politics of memory in Samarkand in post-Soviet period". ''International Journal of Modern Anthropology''. (2018) Vol. 2. Issue No. 11. pp. 127–145.
*Azim Malikov, "Sacred lineages of Samarqand: history and identity". ''Anthropology of the Middle East'', Volume 15, Issue 1, Summer 2020, рp. 34–49.
*Alexander Morrison, ''Russian Rule in Samarkand 1868–1910: A Comparison with British India'' (Oxford, OUP, 2008) (Oxford Historical Monographs).
External links
*Forbes, Andrew, & Henley, David:
Timur's Legacy: The Architecture of Bukhara and Samarkand
' (CPA Media).
University of Washington
according to Columbia University's Encyclopædia Iranica
Samarkand – Crossroad of Cultures
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
*
Samarkand: Photos, History, Sights
Useful information for travelers
About Samarkand in Uzbekistan Latest
Tilla-Kori Madrasa was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List
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Archaeological sites in Uzbekistan
Cities in Uzbekistan
Former capitals of Iran
Former national capitals
Populated places along the Silk Road
Populated places in Samarqand Region
Samarkand Oblast
Sasanian cities
Sogdian cities
World Heritage Sites in Uzbekistan