Qarshi ( ; ) 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.
History
Originally the
Sogdiana city of
Nakhshab (which could be possibly named
Eucratideia during the rule of Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
[The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana: Or Universal Dictionary of Knowledge, Volume 23, edited by Edward Smedley, Hugh James Rose, Henry John Rose, 1923, page 260.]), and the
Islamic Uzbek (Turkic) city of
Nasaf, and the
Chagatai Khanate city of
Qarshi (pronounced
Kharsh), Qarshi was the second city of the Emirate of Bukhara. It is in the center of a fertile
oasis that produces
wheat,
cotton, and
silk and was a stop on the 11-day
Camel train route between
Balkh and
Bukhara. The Mongol
Chagatai Khanate khans
Kebek and Qazan built palaces here on the site of
Chinggis Khaan's summer pasture.
[ states that both khans used Qarshi as a capital] In 1364,
Timur also built a fortified palace with moats in what is now the southern part of the city. The modern name "Qarshi" means fort.
Qarshi developed steadily from the 14th century. During the Sheyban dynasty the town grew violently (16th century). It was the second largest town of Bukhara Khanate in the 18th century. During these centuries much of the city's magnificent architectural monuments were built.[1]
In the early 1970s, the first section of a major irrigation project was completed to divert water from the Amu Darya River in Turkmenistan eastward into Uzbekistan in order to irrigate the land surrounding Qarshi. Almost all of these irrigated lands around Qarshi are planted with cotton.
Main sites
Odina Mosque
-
Odina Mosque was built in the 16th century and is on the southeast side of Qarshi's Eski Bazaar. The mosque was built on the site of an older Mongol Empire palace, which had also been used as a prison.
Madrassas
-
There are three Madrasa in Qarshi, all on the same square. These are the Kalizbek, Bakmir, and Khodjaev Abdul Aziz Madrasas, which were all built between 1904 and 1915.
-
Rabiya Madrassah – a late 19th-century female madrassah
Kok Gumbaz Mosque
-
Kok Gumbaz (which means "blue dome") is Qarshi's Jama masjid. It is the largest such mosque in the region, and was constructed by Ulugh Beg on behalf of his father, Shah Rukh, in the late 16th century.
Qarshi Bridge
-
Qarshi Bridge is an ancient brick bridge built over the Qashqadaryo River, constructed in the second half of the 16th century.
World War II Memorial
-
Qarshi's war memorial to casualties of the Great Patriotic War is one of the largest Soviet Union era memorials in Central Asia. It is a mix of walkways, plaques, an eternal flame, and a red star-topped tower with a series of stained-glass windows. It is possible to access the upper levels of the memorial on request.
Climate
Köppen climate classification system classifies its climate as cold semi-arid (BSk).
Industry
A
gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant, located 40 km south of Qarshi, is under construction. This plant will be based on
Sasol’s GTL technology and will have a capacity of 1.4 million metric tons per year, with following product slate: GTL diesel, kerosene, naphtha and liquid petroleum gas. The total cost of the project is around $4 billion and it is the first such a high-tech plant on the Eurasian continent. The joint project GTL Uzbekistan, where Sasol and Uzbekistan's state oil company
Uzbekneftgas each hold 44.5% interest, and the rest 11% belonging to Malaysian
Petronas, was founded in 2009. The plant will be built on the basis of the Shurtan gas and chemical complex.
Culture
Sports
Qarshi is home to
FC Nasaf which was founded in 1986. Nasaf plays its home matches at the Markaziy Stadium, built in 2006.
Education
-
One university and one institution of higher education:
-
Karshi State University
[QDU]
-
Karshi engineering-economics institute
-
Karshi branch of Tashkent University of Information Technologies
Local infrastructure
Transportation
Landmarks
-
Khoja Abdul Aziz Madrassah – largest in town, now housing the Regional Museum
-
Rabiya Madrassah – a late 19th-century female madrassah
-
Kok Gumbaz Mosque – part of a 16th-century complex of buildings
-
World War II Memorial – Perhaps one of the ex-Soviet Union's most monumental monuments
Notable people
-
Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Nasafi (d. 943 CE), Isma'ili missionary and theologian
-
Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi (d. 508 AH/1114 CE).
-
Abu Hafs Umar an-Nasafi was a Muslim jurist, theologian, mufassir, muhaddith and historian. A Persian people scholar born in Transoxiana, he wrote mostly in Arabic.
-
Abu al-Barakat al-Nasafi (d. 710 AH/1310 CE).
-
Poyon Ravshan (1941-2021) – uzbek historian
Bibliography
External links
