Fergana

Fergana
Fergana
Fergana Location in Uzbekistan
Coordinates: 40°23′11″N 71°47′11″E / 40.38639°N 71.78639°E / 40.38639; 71.78639
Country	Uzbekistan
Province	Fergana Province
Population
- Total	214,000

Fergana or Farghana (Uzbek: Farg'ona; Persian: فرغانه, UniPers: "Farqāna" [Фарғона]; Russian: Фергана) is a city (population: 214,000^[1]), the capital of Fergana Province in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southern edge of the Fergana Valley in southern Central Asia, cutting across the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Fergana is about 420 km east of Tashkent, and about 75 km west of Andijan. It is located at 40°23′11″N 71°47′11″E / 40.38639°N 71.78639°E / 40.38639; 71.78639Coordinates: 40°23′11″N 71°47′11″E / 40.38639°N 71.78639°E / 40.38639; 71.78639.

History

Fergana, like most ancient Central Asian oasis, is situated on the Silk Roads (more precisely the North Silk Road), which connected the ancient Chinese capital of Xi'an to the west over the Wushao Ling Pass to Wuwei and emerging in Kashgar before linking to ancient Parthia.^[2]

Zoroastrian literature identifies the area as the Zoroastrian homeland. Fergana also played a central role in the history of the Mughal dynasty of South Asia in that Omar Sheikh Mirza, chieftain of Farghana, was the father of Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur (1483-1530), founder of the Mughal dynasty in India. At Mirza's death in 1498, Babur became chief although he was still a minor.

During the expansion of Russia in the nineteenth century the Russians invaded Turkistan, gradually taking it over between 1855 and 1884. They took the capital of the Kokand Khanate in 1873 and included it within what was named the Fergana province of the Russian empire.

Modern Fergana city was founded in 1876 as a garrison town and colonial appendage to Margelan (13.5 miles to the northwest) by the Russians. It was initially named New Margelan (Новый Маргелан), then renamed Skobelev (Скобелев) in 1910 after the first Russian military governor of Fergana Valley. In 1924, after the Bolshevik reconquest of the region in 1918–1920, the name was changed to Fergana, after the province of which it was the centre.^[3] The Fergana canal was constructed in the 1930s.^[4]

The third chapter of the Chinese chronicle of Bejshu (from the beginning of the VII c.) mentions Ferghana under the name of Bokhan.

Architecture

Fergana’s wide, orderly tree-shaded avenues and attractive blue-washed 19th century tsarist colonial-style houses are said to mimic the appearance of pre-modern and pre-earthquake Tashkent. There is a high proportion of Russian, Korean and Tatar inhabitants compared to other Fergana Valley cities. With Russian as the dominant language, the city has a distinctly different feel from most Uzbek cities. It retains an air of Soviet-era, pre-independence Uzbekistan.

Oil production

Fergana Airport

Fergana has been a center for oil production in the Fergana Valley since the region's first oil refinery was built near the city in 1908. Since then, more refineries have been added, and Fergana is one of the most important centers of oil refining in Uzbekistan. Natural gas from western Uzbekistan is transported by pipeline to the valley, where it is used to manufacture fertilizer. The Great Fergana Canal, built almost entirely by hand during the 1930s, passes through the northern part of the city and completed in 1939. During its construction, the canal and the city was widely photographed by the noted photographer Max Penson. With a western loan Fergana is able to modernize its refinery and also reduce air pollution^[5] emissions.

Tourist locations

• Museum of Local Studies – with displays of natural history, photographs, and local handicrafts
• Regional Theatre – in 1877 the house of General Mikhail “Old Bloody Eyes” Skobelev

Notes

See also

• Babur
• FK Neftchy Farg'ona

Bibliographie

• Jean-Marie Thiébaud, Personnages marquants d'Asie centrale, du Turkestan et de l'Ouzbékistan, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2004. ISBN 2-7475-7017-7.

External links

• portal on Ferghana and Central Asia
• Fine arts of Fergana and Uzbekistan
• Open Street Map