History of Samarkand
There are cities which centuries-old
history embodies the history of whole nation and countries,
reflecting the way passed by many generations.
Such is Samarkand-one of the most ancient city in
the world.
As other first centers of human civilization-Babylon
and Memphis, Athens and Rome, Alexandria and Byzantium-Samarkand
was intended to go through rapid events and shakes.
Samarkand history goes deep into thousand years. Archeological
finds and annalistic proceedings of eyewitnesses and
ancient historians allowed to establish with full
reliability that a man had been living on the territory
of modern city many thousand years ago B.C.
Special advantageous geographical location, comparatively
cool climate, abundance of natural springs with fine
water, “obi rahmat”-“mercy water”,
nearness of mountains with large wild fowl, flowing
near Zaravshan river - all these always provided favorable
conditions for human settlings in that area, where
strong walls, castles, majestic buildings and temples
of Samarkand raised some centuries ago B.C.
In historical proceedings of ancient time the earliest
mention about Samarkand-that was famous then as Marakand-related
to 329th year B.C., in descriptions of eyewitnesses
and participants of Alexandr Macedonian’s aggressive
tours.
Already at that time Samarkand was a big city with
crowded population, developed crafts, trade, and culture.
He had unassailable citadel and outside defensive
wall about 10 and half kilometers long.
With new archeological finds scientists concluded
that Samarkand occurred much earlier than Greek-Macedonian
winnings and already during the epoch of the state
development of ahemenids (6-4 BC) was quite developed
city. That is why the “age” of Samarkand
amounted to round chronological data of 2500 years
starting from the day of its birth on the forest hill
of Afrosiab, though it is greatly older.
During its history the city saw half savage sacs and
massagets on the streets, iron “flanks”
of greek-macedonins, hordes of cruel karakitays, the
city withstood destructive invasion of fanatic Arabic
commanders-the followers of Islam religion founder
Mohammed. Bloody hordes of Chigiz-han came down on
its peaceful houses with fire and sword. Samarkand
became the capital of World Empire ranged from Ind
River to Bosfor with cruel Timur.
After Timur’s death all his empire goes to the
power of his children and grandchildren. Samarkand
and bordered to it areas devolved to the ownership
of Ulugbek, Timur’s grandson. Ulugbek ruled
Samarkand during 40 years. During the whole history
Uligbek was the most peace-loving ruler. He almost
did not participate in aggressive campaigns over ruling
his state. He visited other countries many times but
only for learning traditions, culture, and customs
of those countries. He was great scientist, astronomer,
and mathematician; that is why he brought many scientists
from different countries for science development in
his government.
In reality Timur’s grandson was called Muhhmad
Taragay, and his grandmother, Timur’s wife,
gave Ulugbek name to him because from early childhood
he was very clever boy, and Timur means “clever,
talented”; that is why in history Timur’s
grandson mentioned only under the name Ulugbek.
Now Samarkand like most cities of Central Asia is
a city divided into two parts: old and new ones. New
part is an administrative part of the city where industrial
and cultural centers, high educational institutions
are situated. There are 5 institutes in Samarkand:
medical, agricultural, architectural, cooperative,
institute of foreign languages, and also State University
that has 10 faculties.
Old part this is part where historical monuments,
shops, small school are situated. Our entire excursion
will be in the old part of the city.
Population of Samarkand is about 500 thousands. This
is multinational city, more that 100 nations live
in Samarkand. Samarkand takes second place in Uzbekistan
by number of population and territory.
|
