Bukhara Buxoro / Бухоро / بخارا
Mir-i Arab madrasah
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
Government
• Hokim	Rustamov Qiyomiddin Qahhorovich
Population (2009)
• City	263,400
• Urban	283,400
• Metro	328,400
Time zone	GMT +5
Postcode	2001ХХ
Area code(s)	local 365, int. +99865
Website	http://www.buxoro.uz/

Bukhara (Tajik: Бухоро Bukhoro, Persian: بخارا; Uzbek: Buxoro; Russian: Бухара Bukhara), 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 263,400 (2009 census estimate). The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city 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 a World Heritage Site. Ethnic Uzbek may constitute the largest element in Bukhara, with the native Tajiks being as numerous. The city long has had a mixed population including Jews and other ethnic minorities.

Names[link]

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

Persian-speaking Soghdians inhabited the area, and some centuries later the Persian language became dominant among them. Encyclopædia Iranica mentions that the name Bukhara is possibly derived from the Soghdian βuxārak (Place of Good Fortune).^[2]

Muhammad ibn Jafar Narshakhi in his History of Bukhara (completed 943-44 CE) mentions:

Bukhara has many names. One of its name was Numijkat. It has also been called "Bumiskat". It has 2 names in Arabic. One is "Madinat al Sufriya" meaning - "the copper city" and another is "Madinat Al Tujjar" meaning - "The city of Merchants". But, the name Bukhara is more known than all the other names. In Khorasan, there is no other city with so many names^[3]

History[link]

Major sights[link]

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".

Pоi Kаlоn Complex (12-14 century)
left: Mir-i Arab Madrassah; center: Minâra-i Kalân; right: Masjid-i Kalân

Po-i-Kalan complex[link]

Kalyan or Kalon Minor (Great Minaret)

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

• Kalyan minaret. More properly, Minâra-i Kalân, (Pesian/Tajik for the "Grand Minaret"). It 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.

• Kalân Mosque (Masjid-i Kalân), 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. Little is 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[link]

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[link]

Chashma-Ayub is located near the Samani mausoleum. Its name in Persian means Job's spring due to the legend according to which Job (Ayub) visited this place and brought forth a spring of water by the blow of his staff on the ground. 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.

Lab-i Hauz[link]

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

The Lab-i Hauz (or Lab-e hauz, 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 pond), 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.

Bukhara Fortress, the Ark[link]

Wall of the Bukhara Fortress, the Ark

Transportation[link]

• Bukhara Airport

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

Demographics[link]

The population of the city consists of Persian-speaking Tajiks and Uzbeks, who speak the Uzbek language.

Until the 20th century, Bukhara was also home to the Bukharan Jews, whose ancestors settled in the city during Roman times. Most Bukharan Jews left Bukhara between 1925 and 2000 and settled in Israel and the United States of America.

Poetry and literature[link]

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 is 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[link]

Stork's Nest at the top of a palace wall, before 1915

Trade dome Tagi Zargaron 16-th century (photo 2003)

Many notable people lived in Bukhara in the past. Among them are:

• Muhammad Ibn Ismail Ibn Ibrahim Ibn al-Mughirah Ibn Bardizbah 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) - historian who wrote History of Bukhara
• Hazrat Syed Jalaluddin Surkh-Posh Bukhari(c. 595-690 AH, 1199-1291 CE)
• Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari (1318–1389)
• Amir Kulal (died in 1370)
• Kiromi Bukhoroi
• An Lushan
• Sadriddin Ayni (1878–1954)
• Abdurauf Fitrat
• Oksana Chusovitina

Sister cities[link]

• Samarqand, Uzbekistan
• Dushanbe, Tajikistan
• Khudjand, Tajikistan
• Nishapur, Iran
• Santa Fe, USA
• Rueil-Malmaison, France
• Córdoba, Spain
• Malatya, Turkey
• West Kanpur, India

See also[link]

• Bukhara rug
• List of World Heritage Sites in Uzbekistan

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• 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.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bukhara

• UNESCO World Heritage list: Historic Centre of Bukhara
• Audio interview with Bukhara resident about life in Bukhara (English)

v t e Bukhara Province Capital: Bukhara Districts and seats Raionlar Alat District (Alat) · Bukhara District ( Galaasiya) · Gijduvan District (Gijduvan) · Jondor District (Jondor) · Kagan District (Kagan) · Qorako‘l District (Qorako‘l) · Karaulbazar District (Karaulbazar) · Peshku District (Yangibazar) · Romitan District (Romitan) · Shafirkan District (Shafirkan) · Vabkent District (Vabkent)

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