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Samarkand is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia. Samarkand is the capital of the Samarkand Region and a district-level city, that includes the urban-type settlements Kimyogarlar, Farxod and Xishrav. With 551,700 inhabitants (2021), it is the third-largest city in Uzbekistan.
There is evidence of human activity in the area of the city dating 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 BC. Prospering from its location on the Silk Road between East Asia, Persia and Europe, at times Samarkand was one of the largest cities in Central Asia,Guidebook of history of Samarkand", and was an important city of the empires of Greater Iran. By the time of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, it was the capital of the . The city was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 BC, when it was known as Markanda, which was rendered in Greek language as Μαράκανδα. The city was ruled by a succession of Iranian peoples and Turkic peoples rulers until it was conquered by the Mongols under Genghis Khan in 1220.
The city is noted as a centre of Ulama study and the birthplace of the Timurid Renaissance. In the 14th century, Timur made it the capital of his empire and the site of his mausoleum, the Gur-e Amir. The Bibi-Khanym Mosque, rebuilt during the Soviet era, remains one of the city's most notable landmarks. Samarkand's Registan 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, goldwork, silk weaving, copper engraving, ceramics, wood carving, and wood painting.Энциклопедия туризма Кирилла и Мефодия. 2008. In 2001, UNESCO added the city to its World Heritage List as Samarkand – Crossroads of Cultures.
Modern Samarkand is divided into two parts: the old city, which includes historical monuments, shops, and old private houses; and the new city, which was developed during the days of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union and includes administrative buildings along with cultural centres and educational institutions. On 15 and 16 September 2022, the city hosted the 2022 SCO summit.
Samarkand has a multicultural and plurilingualism history that was significantly modified by the process of national delimitation in Central Asia. Many inhabitants of the city are native or bilingual speakers of the Tajik language,"The Persian-speaking cities of Bukhara and Samarkand, rightly considered by today’s Tajiks as the constituting the historical centres of Tajik civilization" Foltz, Richard. A History of the Tajiks: Iranians of the East. I.B. Tauris, 2019. p.9D.I. Kertzer/D. Arel, Census and identity , Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 186–188. whereas Uzbek language is the official language and Russian is also widely used in the public sphere, as per Uzbekistan's language policy.
According to 11th-century scholar Mahmud al-Kashghari, the city was known in Karakhanid as (), meaning "fat city." 16th-century Mughal emperor Babur also mentioned the city under this name, and 15th-century Castillian traveler Ruy González de Clavijo stated that Samarkand was simply a distorted form of it.
Archaeology 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. A group of Mesolithic (12th–7th millennia BC) archaeological sites were discovered in the suburbs of Sazag'on-1, Zamichatosh, and Okhalik. The Syob and Darg'om , supplying the city and its suburbs with water, appeared around the 7th–5th centuries BC (early Iron Age).
From its earliest days, Samarkand was one of the main centres of Sogdia civilization. By the time of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia, the city had become the capital of the Sogdian satrapy.
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 and plastering were introduced.
Alexander's conquests introduced classical Greek culture into Central Asia and 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, the Greek Seleucid Empire, Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and Kushan Empire (even though the Yuezhi themselves originated in Central Asia). After the Kushan state lost control of Sogdia during the 3rd century AD, Samarkand went into decline as a centre of economic, cultural, and political power. It did not significantly revive until the 5th century.
After the Hephthalites ("White Huns") conquered Samarkand, they controlled it until the Göktürks, in an alliance with the Sassanid Persians, won it at the Battle of Bukhara, c. 560 AD.
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 after the people of the Turks, which were headed by the ruler – the Khagan. From 557 to 561, the Hephthalites 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.History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations, AD 250 to 750. Vol. 3. Unesco, 1996. p. 332
In the early Middle Ages, Samarkand was surrounded by four rows of defensive walls and had four gates.Belenitskiy A.M., Bentovich I.B., Bolshakov O.G. Srednevekovyy gorod Sredney Azii. L., 1973.
An ancient Turkic burial with a horse was investigated on the territory of Samarkand. It dates back to the 6th century. Sprishevskiy V.I. Pogrebeniye s konem serediny I tysyacheletiya n.e., obnaruzhennoye okolo observatorii Ulugbeka. // Tr. Muzeya istorii narodov Uzbekistana. T.1.- Tashkent, 1951.
During the period of the ruler of the Western Turkic Khaganate, Tong Yabghu Qaghan (618–630), family relations were established with the ruler of Samarkand – Tong Yabghu Qaghan gave him his daughter.Klyashtornyy S. G., Savinov D. G., Stepnyye imperii drevney Yevrazii. Sankt-Peterburg: Filologicheskiy fakul'tet SPbGU, 2005 god, s. 97
Some parts of Samarkand have been Christian since the 4th century. In the 5th century, a Nestorian chair was established in Samarkand. At the beginning of the 8th century, it was transformed into a Nestorian metropolitanate.Masson M.Ye., Proiskhozhdeniye dvukh nestorianskikh namogilnykh galek Sredney Azii // Obshchestvennyye nauki v Uzbekistane, 1978, №10, p. 53. Discussions and polemics arose between the Sogdian followers of Christianity and Manichaeism, reflected in the documents.Sims-Williams Nicholas, A Christian sogdian polemic against the manichaens // Religious themes and texts of pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia. Edited by Carlo G. Cereti, Mauro Maggi and Elio Provasi. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2003, pp. 399–407
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 were razed, and a mosque 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. At the end of the 740s, a Abbasid dynasty of those dissatisfied with the power of the Umayyad dynasty 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.Bartold V. V., Abu Muslim//Akademik V. V. Bartol'd. Sochineniya. Tom VII. Moskva: Nauka, 1971
Legend has it that during Abbasid rule,Quraishi, Silim "A survey of the development of papermaking in Islamic Countries", Bookbinder, 1989 (3): 29–36. the secret of papermaking was obtained from two Han Chinese 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.
Abbasid control of Samarkand soon dissipated and was replaced with that of the Samanids (875–999), though the Samanids were still nominal vassals of the Abbasid caliph 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 around 999. Over the next 200 years, Samarkand would be ruled by a succession of Turkic peoples tribes, including the Seljuqs and the Khwarazmshahs.
The 10th-century Persian author Istakhri, who travelled in Transoxiana, 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... extends eight days travel through unbroken greenery and gardens... . The greenery of the trees and sown land extends along both sides of the river Sogd... 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.
The memorial complex Shah-i-Zinda was founded by the rulers of the Karakhanid dynasty in the 11th century.Nemtseva, N.B., Shvab, IU. Ansambl Shah-i Zinda: istoriko-arkhitektymyi ocherk. Tashent: 1979.
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.Karev, Yury. Qarakhanid wall paintings in the citadel of Samarqand: First report and preliminary observations in Muqarnas 22 (2005): 45–84.
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 area had a community of weavers of Chinese origin, and Samarkand and Outer Mongolia both had artisans of Chinese origin, as reported by Qiu Chuji. 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).
In 1365, a revolt against Chagatai Mongol control occurred in Samarkand. Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th Ed, p. 204 In 1370, the conqueror Timur (Tamerlane), the founder and ruler of the Timurid Empire, made Samarkand his capital. Timur used various tools for legitimisation, including urban planning in his capital, Samarkand.Malikov Azim, The cultural traditions of urban planning in Samarkand during the epoch of Timur. In: Baumer, C., Novák, M. and Rutishauser, S., Cultures in Contact. Central Asia as Focus of Trade, Cultural Exchange and Knowledge Transmission. Harrassowitz. 2022, p.343 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. 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 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 of Castile's ambassador Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, who visited Samarkand between 8 September and 20 November 1404, 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."
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.Fazlallakh ibn Ruzbikhan Isfakhani. Mikhman-name-yi Bukhara (Zapiski bukharskogo gostya). M. Vostochnaya literatura. 1976, p. 3 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 from 1540 to 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.B.V. Norik. Rol' shibanidskikh praviteley v literaturnoy zhizni Maverannakhra XVI veka. Sankt-Peterburg: Rakhmat-name, 2008. p. 233.
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.
Zarafshan Water Bridge is a brick bridge built on the left bank of the Zarafshan River, 7–8 km northeast of the center of Samarkand, built by Shaibani Khan at the beginning of the 16th century.
After an assault by the Afsharid dynasty Nader Shah, the city was abandoned in the early 1720s. Britannica. 15th Ed, p. 204 From 1599 to 1756, Samarkand was ruled by the Ashtrakhanid branch of the Khanate of Bukhara.
In 1886, the city became the capital of the newly formed Samarkand Oblast of Russian Turkestan and regained even more importance when the Trans-Caspian railway reached it in 1888.
On the initiative of Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR I. Muminov and with the support of Sharof Rashidov, the 2500th anniversary of Samarkand was widely celebrated in 1970. In this regard, a monument to Ulugh Beg was opened, the Museum of the History of Samarkand was founded, and a two-volume history of Samarkand was prepared and published.Istoriya Samarkanda v dvukh tomakh. Pod redaktsiyey I. Muminova. Tashkent, 1970Montgomery David, Review of Samarkand taarikhi by I. M. Muminov et al. // The American historical review, volume 81, no. 4 (October 1976)
After Uzbekistan gained independence, several monographs were published on the ancient and medieval history of Samarkand.Shirinov T.SH., Isamiddinov M.KH. Arkheologiya drevnego Samarkanda. Tashkent, 2007Malikov A.M. Istoriya Samarkanda (s drevnikh vremen do serediny XIV veka). Tom. 1. Tashkent: Paradigma, 2017.
According to various independent sources, Tajiks are Samarkand's majority ethnic group. Ethnic Uzbek people are the second-largest groupPaul Bergne: The Birth of Tajikistan. National Identity and the Origins of the Republic. International Library of Central Asia Studies. I.B. Tauris. 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 Tajik language 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:
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 villages in 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 "Iranian peoples" (the old, Persian language-speaking, Shia population of Merv city and oasis, deported en masse to this area in the late 18th century), Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Armenians, Azeris, Tatars, Koryo-saram, Polish people, and Germans, 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. In eastern Samarkand there was once a large mahallah of Bukharian Jews, but starting in the 1970s, hundreds of thousands of Jews left Uzbekistan for Israel, United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. 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, Djugi, Parya language, and other groups) live. These peoples began to arrive in Samarkand several centuries ago from what are now India and Pakistan. They mainly speak a dialect of the Tajik language, as well as their own languages, most notably Parya language.
As in the rest of Uzbekistan, the Russian language is the de facto second official language in Samarkand, and about 5% of signs and inscriptions in Samarkand are in this language. Russians, Belarusians, Polish people, Germans, Koryo-saram, the majority of Ukrainians, the majority of Armenians, Greeks, some Tatars, and some Azerbaijanis in Samarkand speak Russian. Several Russian-language newspapers are published in Samarkand, the most popular of which is (Russian: Самаркандский вестник, lit. the Samarkand Herald). The Samarkandian TV channel STV conducts some broadcasts in Russian.
De facto, the most common native language in Samarkand is Tajik language, which is a dialect or variant of the Persian language. Samarkand was one of the cities in which the Persian language developed. Many classical Persian poetry and writers lived in or visited Samarkand over the millennia, the most famous being Ferdowsi, Omar Khayyam, Jami, 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). Nevertheless, at Samarkand State University ten faculties offer courses in Tajiki, and the Tajik Language and Literature Department has an enrolment of over 170 students. (2025). 9780755649648, Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9780755649648 Only one newspaper in Samarkand is published in Tajiki, in the Tajik alphabet: Ovozi Samarqand (Tajik: Овози Самарқанд — Voice of Samarkand). Local Samarkandian STV and "Samarkand" TV channels offer some broadcasts in Tajik, as does one regional radio station. In 2022 a quarterly literary magazine in Tajiki, Durdonai Sharq, was launched in Samarkand.
In addition to Uzbek, Tajik, and Russian, native languages spoken in Samarkand include Ukrainian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Tatar language, Crimean Tatar, Arabic (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. Samarkand Marathon. In 2022 this also included a full marathon for the first time.
Most inhabitants of Samarkand are Muslim, primarily Sunni Islam (mostly Hanafi) and Sufism. Approximately 80–85% of Muslims in the city are Sunni, comprising almost all Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Samarkandian Arabs living therein. Samarkand'
Malikov A. and Djuraeva D. 2021. Women, Islam, and politics in Samarkand (1991–2021), International Journal of Modern Anthropology. 2 (16): 561
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 Samarkandian Iranians, who call themselves Irani. Their ancestors began to arrive in Samarkand in the 18th century. Some migrated there in search of a better life, others were sold as slavery there by Turkmens captors, and others were soldiers who were posted to Samarkand. Mostly they came from Khorasan, Mashhad, Sabzevar, Nishapur, and Merv; and secondarily from Iranian Azerbaijan, Zanjan, Tabriz, and Ardabil. 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 leaked diplomatic cables, in 2007–2008, the US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom held a series of meetings with Sunni and Shiite 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 Vilayat and 1 million in the Samarkand 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 Samarkand is characterized by great religious tolerance toward other religions and sects, including Shiism.
In the three decades of 1329–1359, the Samarkand eparchy of the Catholic Church served several thousand Catholics who lived in the city. According to Marco Polo and Johann Elemosina, a descendant of Chagatai Khan, the founder of the Chagatai Khanate, Eljigidey, 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. 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.
In present time, Christianity is the second-largest religious group in Samarkand with the predominant form is the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). More than 5% of Samarkand residents are Orthodox, mostly Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians, and also some Koryo-saram and Greeks. Samarkand is the center of the Samarkand branch (which includes the Samarqand Region, 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.В. А. Нильсен. У истоков современного градостроительства Узбекистана (ΧΙΧ — начало ΧΧ веков). —Ташкент: Издательство литературы и искусства имени Гафура Гуляма, 1988. 208 с. Голенберг В. А. «Старинные храмы туркестанского края». Ташкент 2011 год
There are also a few tens of thousands of Catholic Church in Samarkand, mostly Polish people, Germans, and some Ukrainians. 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.Католичество в Узбекистане. Ташкент, 1990.
The third largest Christian sect in Samarkand is the Armenian Apostolic Church, 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.Armenians. Ethnic atlas of Uzbekistan, 2000. In the west of Samarkand is the Armenian Church Surb Astvatsatsin.Назарьян Р.Г. Армяне Самарканда. Москва. 2007
Samarkand also has several thousand Protestantism, including Lutheranism, Baptists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventism, and members of the Korean Presbyterian church. These Christian movements appeared in Samarkand mainly after the independence of Uzbekistan in 1991.Бабина Ю. Ё. Новые христианские течения и страны мира. Фолкв, 1995.
Eternal city situated in Silk Road Samarkand complex. This site which occupies 17 hectares accurately recreates the spirit of the ancient city backed up by the history and traditions of Uzbek lands and Uzbek people for the guests of the Silk Road Samarkand. The narrow streets here house multiple shops of artists, artisans, and craftsmen. The pavilions of the Eternal City were inspired by real houses and picturesque squares described in ancient books. This is where you can plunge into a beautiful oriental fairy tale: with turquoise domes, mosaics on palaces, and high minarets that pierce the sky.
Visitors to the Eternal City can taste national dishes from different eras and regions of the country and also see authentic street performances. The Eternal City showcases a unique mix of Parthian, Hellenistic, and Islamic cultures so that the guests could imagine the versatile heritage of bygone centuries in full splendor. The project was inspired and designed by Bobur Ismoilov, a famous modern artist.
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. 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 faience, 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" 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 Yurt, 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" 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 and Transoxiana. Mongol leaders like Ögedei Khan built textile workshops in their cities to be able to produce gold fabrics themselves.
Samarkand has friendly relations with:
The poet James Elroy Flecker published the poem The Golden Journey to Samarkand in 1913. It was included in his play, Hassan. Hassan ( The Story of Hassan of Bagdad and How He Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand) is a five-act drama in prose with verse passages. It tells the story of Hassan, a young man from Baghdad who embarks on a journey to Samarkand. Along the way, he encounters various challenges and obstacles, including bandits, treacherous terrain, and political turmoil.
In 2002, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka titled his collection of poetry Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known.
English author Jonathan Stroud published his book The Amulet of Samarkand in 2003. The book contains no allusions to Samarkand other than namesake.
The city of Samarkand is famous for being the subject of an Uzbek tale called "The Rendezvous at Samarkand."
It was recounted by a 12th-century Persian storyteller and mystic, Farid Al-Din Attar.
In a legendary Baghdad, ruled by a powerful caliph, lived a young, healthy vizier. He seemed to have his whole life ahead of him. One day, he went to the city market, incognito, as he often did. Amidst the stalls of the spice merchants, he encountered a skeletal woman, who turned around as he passed and reached out to him. The vizier, a wise man, immediately recognized death. Terrified by what he saw, he begged his caliph to let him flee Baghdad, explaining that death was here and wanted to take him. His only hope was to immediately saddle his fastest horse and gallop off far from the city. The caliph therefore granted him permission to leave and asked him where he would be going. The vizier replies that to escape death, he is going to Samarkand, the desert city, on the edge of the kingdom, on the borders of Asia and the Middle East, thinking he will be safe there, far from the death that lurks in Baghdad! However, the caliph also decides to go to the market to check for the presence of death. He recognizes her very quickly and addresses her without fear, asking her the meaning of the gesture she made towards the vizier. "It was only a gesture of surprise..." replies death "Because I saw him in Baghdad while I must take him tonight in Samarkand..."
This tale illustrates the inevitability of human destiny in the face of death.
This tale also inspired Agatha Christie to title her novel "Appointment with Death."
In literature
The frame story of One Thousand and One Nights involves a Sasanian Empire king who assigns his brother, Shah Zaman, to rule over Samarkand.
Notable people
See also
Notes
Citations
General and cited references
External links
Categories: Archaeological Sites In Uzbekistan, Cities In Uzbekistan, Former Capitals Of Iran, Former National Capitals, Populated Places Along The Silk Road, Populated Places Established In The 1st Millennium Bc, Populated Places In Samarqand Region, Samarkand Oblast, Sasanian Cities, Sogdian Cities, World Heritage Sites In Uzbekistan
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