Samarkand
Samarkand or Samarkand ( Samarqand or Uzbek Самарқанд in ) (population 400 000) is a town of Ouzbékistan, capital of the Area of Samarkand (Samarqand Viloyati). Its name probably means “place of the meeting” or “place of the conflict” ( will samara : meet, conflict in Sanskrit, kand , kent : city, center-Asian term) and illustrates well its position in extreme cases of the worlds Turkish and Persan.
History
The occupation of the site of the town of Samarkand dates from the Paléolithique inferior it is one of the cradles of the civilization of the people of the Central Asia. The museum of Samarkand offers some examples of cut flints found on the spot. The archeological site is called Afrasiab .Samarkand, known then under the name of Marakanda , saw Alexandre Large the (329 av. J. - C.). It will go further towards India but Sogdiane marks the limit of its conquests in direction of the Central Asia: to see Alexandria Eskhate. It brought vine to it: the local cabernet is not worth the voyage.
The famous pilgrim Chinese Xuanzang passed towards 631 by Tachkent and Samarkand at the time of his voyage in India in the crowned search of Manuscrit S Buddhist. Here its testimony on Samarkand:
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Its capital (of Sogdiane) has more than 20 Li of turn (approximately 10 km), excessively strong with an important population. The country has a large commercial warehouse, is very fertile, abundant in flowers and trees and provides many beautiful horses. Its inhabitants are skilful and energetic craftsmen. All the Hu countries (Iranian) regard this kingdom as their center and are made a model of its institutions. The king is a man of spirit and courage which the Neighboring states obey. He has a superb army where the majority of the soldiers are to chakir . They are men of great value, who see in death a return towards their parents, and against which no enemy can hold with the combat.
It was conquered by the Arab in 712 and shone particularly under the reign of the Samanides. After the Battle of Catholic students in 751, where the Arabs captured paper craftsmen Chinese, Samarkand became the first center of manufacture of the Papier of the Moslem world .
The Mathematician, Astronomer and Persan Poète Omar Khayyam (1048 - 1131) there remained of 1072 with 1074, before settling with Ispahan in Iran with the invitation of the Sultan seldjoukide Malik Shah I {{er}}.
It was ruined by Gengis Khan in 1220.
Marco Polo (towards 1272) did not pass to Samarkand, its route towards the China is more in the south in Afghanistan. But his/her father and his uncle went until Bukhara by the traditional road of the silk whose natural prolongation is Samarkand before crossing the Pamir towards Kachgar in China.
- Samarkand is a very noble and grandissime quoted, where very beautiful gardens and all the fruits are that man can wish. People are Christian there and buckwheats. They are to the nephew of Large Khan, which is not his/her friend, but very often was in quarrel with him
Ibn Khaldûn tells the push towards the China by the Omeyyades:
- In year 96 (715) Qutayba made the decision to make the conquest of Kachgar, the Chinese city nearest. It thus began its forwarding, took along with him the families of the soldiers whom it left in Samarkand, crossed the river Syr Daria and laid out a quota to keep the passage and to prevent the troops from retrogressing without its authorization. Then, it sent its avant-garde to Kachgar, where it collected spoils and made prisoners. One put at those the collar tributaries and one further pushed forwarding inside China.
- the king of China wrote in Qutayba while requiring of him to send noble Arabic to him to inform it about Arabic and their religion. Qutayba chooses ten Arabic among whom there was Huhayra ibn Mushamraj Al-Kilâbî, and gave the order to equip them with good equipment, clothes out of silk and fabric with warbling, and of four horses. He says to them: “State to him that I will not leave before to have pressed the ground of the Chinese, connected their princes and receipt their spoils. ”
Ibn Battûta remains in Samarkand (towards 1335). At that time Samarkand had been destroyed by Mongolian of Gengis Khan in 1220, and was not rebuilt yet (towards 1370) by Tamerlan which was born a few years after the passage from Ibn Battûta. It describes monuments which do not exist any more.
- I moved towards the town of Samarkand, one of largest, most beautiful and the most splendid cities of the world. It is built on the edge of a river named river of the Fullers, and covered with hydraulic machines, which sprinkle gardens. It is close to this river that the inhabitants of the city gather, after the four hour old prayer of the evening, to divert itself and to walk. They have there estrades and seats to sit down, and shops where one sells fruits and other food. There was also on the edge of the river of the considerable palates and the monuments which announced the rise in the spirit of the inhabitants of Samarkand. The majority are ruined, and most of the city was also devastated. It has neither wall nor doors. Gardens are included/understood in the interior of the city. The inhabitants of Samarkand have generous qualities, and have friendship for the foreigners; they are better than those of Bukhara
It became the capital of Tamerlan in 1369. The monuments built by the Timurides make the glory of the city. Oulough Beg (1394 - 1449), grandson of Tamerlan, prince and Astronomer, made there build a observatory where it undertakes work of great quality with some 70 scientists of which Qadi-zadeh Roumi, Al-Kachi and Ali Quchtchi. After its death, the intellectual and artistic life of the Timurides concentrates with Hérat in Afghanistan, in particular in his/her relative the prince and patron Husayn Bayqara (reign 1469 - 1506).
In 1507, Timurides are reversed by the Uzbek of the dynasty of the Chaybanides. During the parcelling out of current the Ouzbékistan in three Khanat S (Khiva, Bukhara and Kokand) which will intervene thereafter, Samarkand is attached to the khanat Bukhara.
In 1868, it passes under Russian domination, before becoming, in 1925, the capital of the Soviet Ouzbékistan. It will lose this place with the profit of Tachkent in 1930.
In May 2007 UNESCO celebrates the 2750e birthday of Samarkand and with the 2000e birthday of Marguilan. An International Conference devoted to the role of these cities in the history of world civilization will proceed on May 29th, 2007 with the head office of UNESCO with Paris.
Monuments
Principal monuments:- Archeological site of Afrāsiab (XIII {{E}} with the VII {{E}} century before J. - C.)
- Observatory of Ulugh Beg (1428 - 1429)
- the necropolis Shah E Zindeh.
- Mosque Hazrat-Hizr (middle of the 19th century)
- Mosque Bibi-Khanym (1399 - 1404).
- Régistan (three madrasas)
- Mausoleum of Gur-Emir (Children and small children of Tamerlan) (1404).
Samarkand was registered on the Liste of the world heritage of UNESCO in 2001.
See too
- History of Ouzbékistan
- Silk route
- Sogdiens
- Islamic Sciences and technology
- Arts of Islam
- Rebirth timouride
Homonymy
- Samarkand is the title of a novel of Amin Maalouf putting in scene Omar Khayyam, Hassan Sabbah and Nizam Al-Mulk.
- One of the adventures of Corto Maltese, the hero of Hugo Pratt, is entitled the gilded House of Samarkand .
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