Taraz

• Location: Kazakhstan
• Variant names: Talas/Taraz, Auliye-Ata, Mirzoyan, Dzhambul/Zhambyl

Founded in the 6th century on the Talas River after which the city was first named. Talas was an important halt on the Silk Road until it was destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th century. It was rebuilt by the Emirs of Kokand in the 18th century as a northern frontier fort and given the name Auliye-Ata 'Holy Father' from the Uzbek auliye 'holy' and ata 'father'. It was captured by the Russians in 1864 and became part of Russia. In 1936 it was renamed after Levon Mirzoyan (1897–1939), an Azeri who was sent to Kazakhstan in 1933 and became the senior Communist Party official (first secretary of the Central Committee) there in 1937. It was renamed Dzhambul, or Zhambyl, in 1938 after the Kazakh folk poet and singer, Dzhambul Dzhabayev (1846–1945). This is the Russian spelling of his name; in Kazakh his name is spelt Zhambyl Zhabaev and Zhambyl was the accepted spelling in 1992–7. Zhambyl reverted to its original name in 1997.

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