Bukhara

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Bukhara
Buxoro
Mir-i Arab madrasah
Bukhara is located in Uzbekistan
Bukhara
Location in Uzbekistan
Coordinates: 39°46′N 64°26′E / 39.767°N 64.433°E / 39.767; 64.433
Country  Uzbekistan
Province Bukhara Province
Population (1999)
 - Total 237,900

Bukhara (Uzbek: Buxoro, Tajik: Бухоро, Persian: بُخارا, Russian: Бухара), also transliterated Bukhoro and Bokhara, from the Soghdian βuxārak ("lucky place"), is the capital of the Bukhara Province (viloyat) of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 237,900 (1999 census estimate). The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia and the city itself has existed for half that time. Located on the Silk Road, the city has long been a center of trade, scholarship, culture, and religion. The historic center of Bukhara, which contains numerous mosques and madrassas, has been listed by UNESCO as one of the World Heritage Sites.

Contents

[edit] Names

Bukhara was also known as Bokhara in 19th and early 20th century English publications and as Buhe/Puhe（捕喝） in Tang Chinese.[1]

Iranic/farsi/tajik Soghdians inhabited the area and some centuries later the Persian/tajik language became dominant among them. Encyclopedia Iranica mentions that the name Bukhara is possibly derived from the Soghdian βuxārak ("Place of Good Fortune").[2] Another possible source of the name Bukhara may be an evolution of the Sanskrit word "Vihara" (monastery), and may be linked to the predominance of Buddhism before the rise of Islam in the 8th century AD.[3]

[edit] History

Main article: History of Bukhara

[edit] Major sights

Fitzroy Maclean, then a young diplomat in the British Embassy in Moscow, made a surreptitious visit to Bokhara in 1938, sight-seeing and sleeping in parks. In his memoir Eastern Approaches, he judged it an "enchanted city", with buildings that rivalled "the finest architecture of the Italian Renaissance".

[edit] Po-i-Kalyan complex

The Kalyan minaret

The title Po-i-Kalyan (also Poi Kalyan, Persian پای کلان meaning "The foot of the great"), belongs to the architectural complex located at the base of the great minaret Kalyan.

  • Kalyan minaret. The minaret is made in the form of a circular-pillar brick tower, narrowing upwards, of 9 meters (29.53 ft) diameter at the bottom, 6 meters (19.69 ft) overhead and 45.6 meters (149.61 ft) high. Also known as the Tower of Death, as for centuries criminals were executed by being tossed off the top.
  • Kalyan Mosque (Masjid-i kalyan), arguably completed in 1514, is equal to the Bibi-Khanym Mosque in Samarkand in size. Although they are of the same type of building, they are absolutely different in terms of art of building.
  • Mir-i Arab Madrassah. There is little known about its origin, although its construction is ascribed to Sheikh Abdullah Yamani of Yemen, the spiritual mentor of early Shaybanids. He was in charge of donations of Ubaidollah Khan (gov. 1533-1539), devoted to construction of madrasah.
Samanids mausoleum (between 892 and 943)

[edit] Ismail Samani mausoleum

The Ismail Samani mausoleum (9th-10th century), one of the most esteemed sights of Central Asian architecture, was built in the 9th century (between 892 and 943) as the resting-place of Ismail Samani - the founder of the Samanid dynasty, the last Persian dynasty to rule in Central Asia, which held the city in the 9th and 10th centuries. Although in the first instance the Samanids were Governors of Khorasan and Ma wara'u'n-nahr under the suzerainty of the Abbasid Caliphate, the dynasty soon established virtual independence from Baghdad.

[edit] Chashma-Ayub mausoleum

Chashma-Ayub is located near the Samani mausoleum. Its name means Job's well due to the legend according to which Job (Ayub) visited this place and made a well by the blow of his staff. The water of this well is still pure and is considered healing. The current building was constructed during the reign of Timur and features a Khwarazm-style conical dome uncommon in Bukhara.

[edit] Lyab-i Hauz

Phoenix on the portal of Nadir Divan-Beghi madrasah (part of Lyab-i Hauz complex)

The Lyab-i Hauz (or Lyab-i Khauz, Persian: لب حوض, meaning by the pond) Ensemble (1568-1622) is the name of the area surrounding one of the few remaining hauz (ponds) in the city of Bukhara. Until the Soviet period there were many such ponds, which were the city's principal source of water, but they were notorious for spreading disease and were mostly filled in during the 1920s and 1930s. The Lyab-i Hauz survived because it is the centrepiece of a magnificent architectural ensemble, created during the 16th and 17th centuries, which has not been significantly changed since. The Lyab-i Hauz ensemble, surrounding the pond on three sides, consists of the Kukeldash Madrasah[4] (1568-1569), the largest in the city (on the north side of the pont), and of two religious edifices built by Nadir Divan-Beghi: a khanaka[5] (1620), or lodging-house for itinerant Sufis, and a madrasah[6] (1622) that stand on the west and east sides of the pond respectively.

[edit] Transportation

The M37 highway connects the city to most of the major cities in Turkmenistan including Ashgabat.

[edit] Demographics

Bukhara (along with Samarkand) is one of the two major centres of Uzbekistan's Tajik minority. Bukhara was also home to the Bukharian Jews, whose ancestors settled in the city during Roman times. Most Bukharian Jews left Bukhara between 1925 and 2000.

[edit] Poetry and literature

Being a cultural magnet, Bukhara has long appeared in much local and Persian literature. Many examples can be sought.

ای بخارا شاد باش و دیر زی
Oh Bukhara! Be joyous and live long!
شاه زی تو میهمان آید همی
Your King comes to you in ceremony.
---Rudaki

Dehkhoda defines the name Bukhara itself as meaning "full of knowledge", referring to the fact that in antiquity, Bukhara was a scientific and scholarship powerhouse. Rumi verifies this when he praises the city as such:

آن بخارا معدن دانش بود
"Bukhara was a mine of knowledge,
پس بخاراییست هرک آنش بود
Of Bukhara is he who possesses knowledge."

In the Italian romantic epic Orlando innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo, Bukhara is called Albracca and described as a major city of Cathay. There, within its walled city and fortress, Angelica and the knights she has befriended make their stand when attacked by Agrican, emperor of Tartary. As described, this siege by Agrican resembles the historic siege by Genghis Khan in 1220.[7]

[edit] Notable people

Many prominent people lived in Bukhara in the past. Most famous of them are:

[edit] Sister cities

These cities were major cities of Greater Khorasan:

Other cities:

[edit] References

  1. ^ "UMID" Foundation, Uzbekistan. "General Info". http://www.umid.uz/Main/Uzbekistan/General_Info/general_info.html. Retrieved 2007-10-04. 
  2. ^ Richard N Frye, 'Bukhara i. In pre-Islamic times', Encyclopedia Iranica, 512.
  3. ^ Gregoire Frumkin, Archaeology in Soviet Central Asia, Brill, Leiden, 1970.
  4. ^ Dmitriy Page, Pagetour.narod.ru. "Kukeldash Madrasah". http://www.pagetour.narod.ru/bukhara/bu/Kukeldash.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-04. 
  5. ^ Dmitriy Page, Pagetour.narod.ru. "Nadir Divan-Begi Khanaka". http://www.pagetour.narod.ru/bukhara/bu/Khanaka.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-04. 
  6. ^ Dmitriy Page, Pagetour.narod.ru. "Nadir Divan-Begi Madrasah". http://www.pagetour.narod.ru/bukhara/bu/Nadir_Divan_Begi.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-04. 
  7. ^ Boiardo: Orlando innamorato, verse translation by Charles Stanley Ross (Oxford University Press, 1995), Book I, Cantos 10-19 and Explanatory Notes, pp. 401-402. ISBN 0-19-282438-4

[edit] Further reading

  • Moorcroft, William and Trebeck, George. 1841. Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab; in Ladakh and Kashmir, in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz, and Bokhara... from 1819 to 1825, Vol. II. Reprint: New Delhi, Sagar Publications, 1971.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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Coordinates: 39°46′N 64°26′E / 39.767°N 64.433°E / 39.767; 64.433


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Capital: Bukhara
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