A city of southern Uzbekistan west of Samarqand. It is one of the oldest cultural and trade centers of Asia and was capital of the former emirate of Bukhara from the 16th to the 19th century. Population: 247,000.
Bukhoro
Dictionary:
Bu·kho·ro (bū-kôr'ō, -KHô'rō)  or Bu·kha·ra
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A city of southern Uzbekistan west of Samarqand. It is one of the oldest cultural and trade centers of Asia and was capital of the former emirate of Bukhara from the 16th to the 19th century. Population: 247,000.
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Bukhara |
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| Russian History Encyclopedia: Bukhara |
Established in the sixteenth century, the Bukharan khanate maintained commercial and diplomatic contact with Russia. Territorial conflicts with neighboring Khiva and Kokand prevented formation of a united front against Russia's encroachment in the mid-nineteenth century.
War from 1866 to 1868 ended with Russia's occupation of the middle Zarafshan River valley, including Samarkand, and the grant of trading privileges to Russian merchants. The 1873 treaty opened the Amu Darya to Russian ships; pledged the emir to extradite fugitive Russians and abolish the slave trade; and ceded Samarkand, leaving Russia in control of the water supply of the lower Zarafshan, including that of the capital.
Bukhara as a Russian protectorate was slightly larger than Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with a population of two and a half to three million. Urban residents comprised 10 to 14 percent of the total; the largest town was the capital, with population of 70,000 to 100,000. The dominant ethnic group was the Uzbeks (55 - 60%), followed by the Tajiks (30%) and the Turkmen (5 - 10%). Bukhara was ruled by an hereditary autocratic emir. Muzaffar ad-Din (1860 - 1885) was succeeded by his son Abd al-Ahad (1885 - 1910) and the latter's son Alim (1910 - 1920).
In reducing Bukhara to a wholly dependent but internally self-governing polity, Russia aimed to acquire a stable frontier in Central Asia, to prevent Britain alone from filling the political vacuum between the two empires, and to avoid the burdens of direct rule. This policy succeeded for half a century. After 1868 no emir contemplated using his army against his protector; in 1873 Britain and Russia recognized the Amu Darya as separating a Russian sphere of influence (Bukhara) from a British sphere (Afghanistan); and the emirs maintained sufficient domestic order.
Russia's impact increased over the years. In the mid-1880s Bukhara's capital was connected by telegraph with Tashkent; a Russian political agency was established; and the Central Asian Railroad was built across the khanate. In the latter part of the 1880s three Russian urban enclaves, and a fourth at the turn of the century, were established; by the eve of World War I they contained from thirty-five to forty thousand civilians and soldiers. In 1895 the khanate was included in Russia's customs frontier, and Russian troops and customs officials were stationed along the border with Afghanistan.
Russo-Bukharan trade increased sixfold from the coming of the railroad to 1913. Production of cotton, which represented three-fourths of the value of Bukhara's exports to Russia, expanded two and a half times between the mid-1880s and the early 1890s, grew slowly thereafter, but doubled during World War I. Unlike Turkestan, the khanate remained self-sufficient in foodstuffs.
After the fall of the tsarist regime, Emir Alim resisted pressure for reforms from the Provisional Government and the Bukharan Djadids (modernizers). With the Bolsheviks in control of the railroad, the Russian enclaves, and the water supply of his capital from December 1917, the emir maintained strained but correct relations with the Soviet government during the Russian civil war.
In the late summer of 1920 the Red Army over-threw Alim. A Bukharan People's Soviet Republic, led by Djadids, was proclaimed. Russia renounced its former rights, privileges, and property in Bukhara, but controlled the latter's military and economic affairs. The Djadids were purged in 1923, and the following year the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic was divided along ethnic lines between the newly formed Uzbek and Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republics.
Bibliography
Becker, Seymour. (1968). Russia's Protectorates in Central Asia: Bukhara and Khiva, 1865 - 1924. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
—SEYMOUR BECKER
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Bukhara |
Bukhara (bəkä'rə), city (1991 pop. 231,000), capital of Bukhara region, Uzbekistan, in the Zeravshan River valley. On the Shkhrud irrigation canal system, it is the center of a large cotton district and has textile mills as well as cotton-ginning industries and a large karakul skin processing plant. The population is mainly Uzbek, with Tajik, Arab, and Afghan minorities and a much-dwindled Jewish minority. First mentioned in Chinese chronicles in the 5th cent. A.D., Bukhara is one of the oldest trade and cultural centers in central Asia. It was a long-time center of Judaism. It came under the Arab caliphate in the 8th cent. and became a major center of Islamic learning. During the 9th and 10th cent. it was the capital of the Samanid state. From the 16th cent. to 1920 it was the capital of the khanate of Bukhara, which was ceded to Russia in 1868. From 1920 to 1924 it was the capital of the Bukhara People's Republic. Its many monuments include the mausoleum of Ismail Samanid (892-907), the minaret of Kalyan (1127), the mosque of Magoki-Attari (12th cent.), the Ulughbek (1417-18) and Mir-Arab (1535-36) madaris (theological schools), and the madrasah of Abdulaziz-Khan (1651-52). The name is also spelled Bokhara.
| Wikipedia: Bukhara |
For other uses, see Bukhara (disambiguation).
| Bukhara Buxoro |
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  Bukhara
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| Coordinates: 39°46′N 64°26′E / 39.767°N 64.433°E | |
| 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.
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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]
History
Main article: History of Bukhara
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".
Po-i-Kalyan complex
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.
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.
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.
Lyab-i Hauz
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.
Transportation
The M37 highway connects the city to most of the major cities in Turkmenistan including Ashgabat.
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.
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]
Notable people
Many prominent people lived in Bukhara in the past. Most famous of them are:
- Muhammad Ibn Ismail Ibn Ibrahim Ibn al-Mughirah Ibn Bardiziyeh al-Bukhari (810-870) - Islamic scholar and compiler of hadiths
- Avicenna (Abu Ali ibn Sina) (980-1037) - physician and person of encyclopedic knowledge
- Bal'ami: Abolfazl Muhammad and his son Abu-Ali Mohammad, two famous viziers of Samanid kings, historians and patrons of art and literature
- Abubakr Narshakhi (10th century) - the outstanding historian who wrote History of Bukhara
- Utabi (11th century)
- Ismatallah Bukhari (1365-1426) - known as Khawjeh Ismat, the illustrious poet during Timurids.
- Molana Abd-al-Hakim (16th century) - the renowned physician
- Mirza Abd al-Aziz Bukhari (the end the 18th century - the beginning of the 19th century) - the calligrapher.
- Rahmat-Allah Bukhari (died in 1893) - the specialist in study of literature
- Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari
- Ibn Sina
- Zamakhshari
- Muhammad al-Bukhari
- Kiromi Bukhoroi
- An Lushan
- Oksana Chusovitina
- Hazrat Syed Jalaluddin Surkh-Posh Bukhari
Sister cities
These cities were major cities of Greater Khorasan:
Other cities:
References
- ^ "UMID" Foundation, Uzbekistan. "General Info". http://www.umid.uz/Main/Uzbekistan/General_Info/general_info.html. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
- ^ Richard N Frye, 'Bukhara i. In pre-Islamic times', Encyclopedia Iranica, 512.
- ^ Gregoire Frumkin, Archaeology in Soviet Central Asia, Brill, Leiden, 1970.
- ^ Dmitriy Page, Pagetour.narod.ru. "Kukeldash Madrasah". http://www.pagetour.narod.ru/bukhara/bu/Kukeldash.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
- ^ Dmitriy Page, Pagetour.narod.ru. "Nadir Divan-Begi Khanaka". http://www.pagetour.narod.ru/bukhara/bu/Khanaka.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
- ^ Dmitriy Page, Pagetour.narod.ru. "Nadir Divan-Begi Madrasah". http://www.pagetour.narod.ru/bukhara/bu/Nadir_Divan_Begi.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
- ^ 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
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.
See also
External links
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- "הבית של העדה הבוכרית" ("www.Bukhara.co.il"), in Hebrew
- Bukhara Project in Cambridge by Saxena
- Dmitriy Page. Bukhara - the center of enlightenment in the East
- Bukhara Information & Culture Center
- Bukhara Travel Guide
- Uzbek Visa
- Bukhara museums
Coordinates: 39°46′N 64°26′E / 39.767°N 64.433°E
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