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Feb. 27, 2005 If you enter a subway station in downtown Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, board a train and get off at Sobir Rakhimov Bekati, you'll find yourself at Tashkent Avtovokshal, where, after getting an authorization slip from a police officer, you can buy a bus ticket to Samarkand for a very reasonable amount, $3 or $4. After a four-ride through Uzbekistan's cotton fields, you'll find yourself at a smaller terminal, which is outside of town a good way. So, instead of starting to walk, you should look for a minibus to town, which will cost about 25 cents. Once downtown, you should be able to find a hotel room right away. Samarkand is a very beautiful city, and has long been considered one of the wonders of the Islamic world. Its archeology and history go back thousands of years, perhaps to the third or second millenium BC. Around 800 or 700 BC, the ancestor city of Afrasiab, or Afrosiob, was founded. Somewhat later the city was called Maracanda, and was incorporated into the ancient Persian Empire by King Cyrus the Great, or one of his immediate successors, probably in the neighborhood of 500 BC. Alexander the Great conquered Maracanda- Samarkand in 329 BC, and it was there that he selected Roxane, reputedly the most beautiful woman in Asia, to be his wife. At that time, Uzbekistan was called Sogdiana. The Roman Empire did not reach Sogdiana, which the Romans called Transoxiana or Transoxania, and this means Land Beyond the Oxus, a river whose modern name is the Amu Darya, south of Samarkand. About 101 BC, Li Guangli, a Chinese general of the Han Dynasty, conquered part of what is today called Uzbekistan, and the area lay subject to intermittent Chinese influence until the first half of the 7th century AD, when Qutayba ibn Muslim conquered Samarkand and the surrounding region. The Arabs called the region Mawaraannakhr, just a translation of Transoxiana, and in Uzbek, this is Movaranakhr. In the battle of Talas, in 751, the Muslim Abbasids defeated the Chinese Tang Dynasty, and Samarkand became fully Islamized. In this battle, the Arabs learned the art of paper making from Chinese captives, and soon built paper mills in Samarkand, Baghdad and other Islamic cities, centuries before paper was introduced to Europe by the Moors in Spain. The Silk Road, called Ipak Yoli in Uzbek, ran through Samarkand, and there the Arabs also learnt sericulture and mulberry cultivation from the Chinese in their clash of civilizations, again centuries before silkens were introduced to Europe by Arabs in Spain and Sicily. After the Arab conquest, the Persian Samanid Dynasty governed from Samarkand till 999 AD. By this time Turkish migrations had reached Central Asia from China, and Turks had begun to rule Islam. In 1220, the Mongols took Samarkand. The name Uzbekistan is the Russian version of the true Uzbek name, which is Özbekiston, named after Öz Bek, or Prince Öz, a Shaybanid Mongol of the Golden Horde who died in 1342. So you might say that consciousness of an Uzbek nationality began with him, around 665 years ago. The greatest Uzbek of all though was Prince Timur, who is sometimes called Tamerlane in English. He was of Turko-Mongolian descent, claiming Genghiz as one of his forebears. He conquered what is today all of Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, as well as parts of Turkey, Iraq, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, second only to Genghiz among conquerors. He died in 1405. His descendants ruled wide domains, and founded the Mughal or Moghul Dynasty of India that lasted till 1857, when the British took over. Prince Timur's capětal and beloved city was Samarkand, which he embellished with splendid mosques, madrasahs, mausoleums and forums, all beautifully decorated with blue majolica tile. The most famous of these is the Registon, or Registan, which like all the others, can still be seen today. This consists of three magnificent madrasahs around a square, one of the most famous of Islamic architectural wonders. Inside vendors sell paintings, robes, hookahs, tabuteikas, musical instruments and rugs, all in a million dazzling colors and gorgeous Islamic designs. The lovely blue domes of these buildings can be seen from all over town, gleaming in the Sun on a clear summer day. Near the Registon is the famous Afrosiob Museum. The wide avenues of Samarkand are loaded with greenery, and lined with handsome buildings and houses. Here is a picture: http://www.into- nature.de/IMAGES/Zentralasien/Registan.jpg. In the 19th century, Uzbekistan was broken up into a number of khanates, including Samarkand, Kokand and Khiva, but Tsarist Russia entered the region about 1865, partly at the instance of the neighboring Kazakhs and partly out of apprehension of the British northward expansion from India, which led Britain to three wars with Afghanistan. Later, Uzbekistan became one of the 15 republics of the USSR, gaining its independence in 1991. The president is Islam Karimov. Despite his name, he is secular and reputedly anti-Muslim. Samarkand has a population of 400,000, Uzbekistan's second city. Chief ethnic groups are Uzbeks, Tajiks or Persians, and Russians. Everyone speaks Russian, and Uzbeks, but not Russians, generally speak Uzbek as well. Uzbek is akin to Turkish, but with many loan words from Arabic, Persian and Russian. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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