Samarkand is the second-largest city in
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
and the capital of
Samarqand ProvinceSamarqand Province is a viloyat of Uzbekistan located in the center of the country in the basin of Zarafshan River. It borders with Tajikstan, Navoiy Province, Jizzakh Province and Qashqadaryo Province. It covers an area of 16,400 km²...
. The city is most noted for its central position on the
Silk RoadThe Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe...
between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study. The
Bibi-Khanym MosqueBibi-Khanym Mosque is a famous historical mosque in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, whose name comes from the wife of 14th-century warlord, Timur.After his Indian campaign in 1399 Timur decided to undertake the construction of a gigantic mosque in his new capital, Samarkand. The outer walls are 167 metres...
remains one of the city's most famous landmarks. The
RegistanThe Registan was the heart of the ancient Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The name Registan means "Sandy place" in Persian.It is said, the sand was strewn on the ground to soak up the blood from the public executions that were held there until early in the 20th century...
was the ancient centre of the city.
In 2001,
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
inscribed the 2,750-year-old city on the World Heritage List as
Samarkand - Crossroads of Cultures.
Etymology
Samarkand derives its name from the Old Persian
asmara, "stone", "rock", and
Sogdian- Overview :The Sogdian language is a Middle Iranian language that was spoken in Sogdiana , located in modern day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ....
kand, "fort", "town".
Population
In 1939 Samarkand had a population of 134,346, and in 2008 an urban population of 596,300. They are mostly
Persian-speakingTajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a modern variety of Persian spoken in Central Asia. Most speakers of Tajik live in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan...
Tajiks. Along with
BukharaBukhara , also transliterated Bukhoro and Bokhara, from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 237,900...
, Samarkand is one of the historical centers of the Tajik people in Central Asia.
History
Samarkand is one of the
oldest inhabited cities in the world, prospering from its location on the trade route between
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and the Mediterranean (
Silk RoadThe Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe...
). At times Samarkand has been one of the greatest cities of
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
. Founded circa 700 BC by the Persians it was already the capital of the
SogdianSogdian may refer to* anything pertaining to Sogdiana, an ancient civilization of Iranian peoplesand in particular to* the Sogdian language* or the Sogdian people...
satrapSatrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient Median and Persian empires, including the Achaemenid Empire and in several of their heirs, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic empires....
y under the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia when
Alexander the GreatAlexander III of Macedon, popularly known as Alexander the Great , was an Ancient Greek king of Macedon who created one of the largest empires in ancient history...
conquered it in
329 BC-Macedonian Empire:* From Phrada, Alexander the Great presses on up the valley of the Helmand River, through Arachosia, and over the mountains past the site of modern Kabul into the country of the Paropamisade, where he founds Alexandria by the Caucasus....
(see
AfrasiabAfrasiab , is the name of the mythical King and hero of Turan and an archenemy of Iran.-The Mythical King and Hero:...
,
SogdianaSogdiana or Sogdia was the ancient civilization of an Iranian people and a province of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the eighteenth in the list in the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great...
). Samarkand has been one of the main centres of Persian civilization from its early days.
Although a
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran between the times of Alexander and the Arab conquest. The Greeks referred to Samarkand as
Maracanda. In the 6th Century it was within the domains of a Turkish kingdom.
At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came under Arab control.
Under
AbbasidThe Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but Al Andalus....
rule, the legend goes , the secret of
papermakingPapermaking is the process of making paper, a substance which is used ubiquitously today for writing and packaging.In papermaking a dilute suspension of fibers in water is drained through a screen, so that a mat of randomly interwoven fibers is laid down. Water is removed from this mat of fibers by...
was obtained from two
ChineseHan Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and, by most modern definitions, the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92 percent of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98 percent of the population of the Republic of China , 75 percent of the...
prisoners from the
Battle of TalasThe Battle of Talas in 751 AD was a conflict between the Arab Abbasid Caliphate and the Chinese Tang Dynasty for control of the Syr Darya. On July 751, The Abbasides started a massive attack against the Chinese on the banks of the Talas river; 200,000 Muslim troops met the combined army of 10,000...
in 751, which led to the first
paper millA paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from wood pulp and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier Machine or similar apparatus.A website that collects and distributes essay papers on the internet, either free or for a fee is known as "web paper mills"...
in the Islamic world to be founded in Samarkand. The invention then spread to the rest of the Islamic world, and from there to Europe.
From the 6th to the 13th century it grew larger and more populous than modern Samarkand and was controlled by the
Western TurksThe Western Turkic Khaganate was formed as a result of the internecine wars in the beginning of the 7th century after the Göktürk Khaganate had splintered into two polities – Eastern and Western.The Western Turks sought friendly relations with the Byzantine Empire...
,
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
s (who converted the area to
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
), Persian
SamanidThe Samanid dynasty , also known as the Samanid Empire or simply Samanids was an important Persian state and empire in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan, named after its founder Saman Khuda who converted to Sunni Islam despite being from Zoroastrian theocratic nobility...
s,
Kara-KhanidKara-Khanid Khanate was a Turkic Khanate founded by the Karakhanids or Qarakhānids, also called the Ilek Khanids , who were a Turkic dynasty. The Khanate ruled Transoxania in Central Asia from 840-1211. Their capitals included Kashgar, Balasagun, Uzgen and then again Kashgar. The name of the state...
Turks, Seljuk Turks,
Kara-KhitanThe Kara-Khitan Khanate, or Western Liao was a Khitan empire in Central Asia. The dynasty was founded by Yelü Dashi, who led the remnants of the Chinese Liao Dynasty to Central Asia after fleeing from the Jurchen conquest of their homeland in North and Northeast China...
, and Khorezmshah before being sacked by the
MongolsThe name Mongol specifies one or several ethnic groups, now mainly located in Mongolia, China, and Russia.-Definition:...
under
Genghis KhanGenghis Khan , ; 1162–1227), born , was the founder, Khan and Khagan of the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history....
in 1220 . A small part of the population survived, but Samarkand suffered at least another Mongol sack by
Khan BaraqBaraq was a khan of the Chagatai Khanate . He was the son of Yesünto'a, and a grandson of Chagatai Khan.Baraq's family had moved to China following his father's exile by the Great Khan Möngke Khan for his support of the house of Ögedei Khan. Baraq grew up in the camp of Kublai Khan and gained...
to get treasure he needed to pay an army with. The town took many decades to recover from these disasters.
In 1365 a revolt against Mongol control occurred in Samarkand.
In 1370,
TimurTimur , also known as Tamerlane , was a 14th-century conqueror of much of western and central Asia, and founder of the Timurid Empire and Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, which survived until 1857 as the Mughal...
the Lame, or Tamerlane, decided to make Samarkand the capital of his empire, which extended from
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
to
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
. During the next 35 years he built a new city and populated it with artisans and craftsmen from all of the places he had conquered. Timur gained a reputation as a patron of the arts and Samarkand grew to become the centre of the region of
TransoxianaTransoxiana is the ancient name used for the portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and southwest Kazakhstan. Geographically, it means the region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers...
. During this time the city had a population of about 150,000.
In 1499 the Uzbek Turks took control of Samarkand. The Shaybanids emerged as the Uzbek leaders at or about this time.
In the 16th century, the
ShaybanidsThe Shaybanids are the patrilineal descendants of Shayban , the fifth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. Until the mid-14th century, they acknowledged the authority of the descendants of Batu Khan and Orda Khan, such as Uzbeg Khan...
moved their capital to
BukharaBukhara , also transliterated Bukhoro and Bokhara, from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 237,900...
and Samarkand went into decline. After an assault by the Persian king, Nadir Shah, the city was abandoned in the 18th century, about 1720 or a few years later.
From 1784, Samarkand was ruled by the emirs of
BukharaBukhara , also transliterated Bukhoro and Bokhara, from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 237,900...
.
The city came under
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n rule after the citadel had been taken by a force under Colonel Alexander Abramov in 1868. Shortly thereafter the small Russian garrison of 500 men were themselves besieged. The assault, which was led by Abdul Malik Tura, the rebellious elder son of the
Bukharan EmirThe Emirate of Bukhara was a Central Asian state that existed from 1785 to 1920. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, known formerly as Transoxiana. Its core territory was the land along the lower Zarafshan River, and its urban centres were the ancient cities of...
, and
BekBek or BEK may refer to:*Beck, birthname of the American musician Beck*Khagan Bek, the title of the king of the Khazars*Bek Ohmsford, a character in the Shannara series of books*Bruce Eric Kaplan, a cartoonist for The New Yorker...
of
ShahrisabzShahrisabz or Shahr-e Sabz , is a city in Uzbekistan located approximately 80 km south of Samarkand with the population of 53,000 . It is located at the altitude of 622 m. Once a major city of Central Asia, it is primarily known today as the birthplace of 14th century Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur...
, was beaten off with heavy losses. Abramov, now a general, became the first Governor of the Military
OkrugOkrug is an administrative division of some Eastern European Slavic states. The word "okrug" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "district", or "region"...
which the Russians established along the course of the River
ZeravshanZeravshan River is a river in Central Asia. Its name, "sprayer of gold" in Persian, refers to the presence of gold-bearing sands in the upper reaches of the river. To the ancient Greeks it was known as the Polytimetus...
, with Samarkand as the administrative centre. The Russian section of the city was built after this point, largely to the west of the old city.
The city later became the capital of the Samarkand
OblastOblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...
of
Russian TurkestanRussian Turkestan was the western part of Turkestan within the Russian Empire , comprising the oasis region to the south of the Kazakh steppes, but not the protectorates of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva.-History:Although Russia had been pushing south into the steppes from...
and grew in importance still further when the
Trans-Caspian railwayThe Trans-Caspian Railway is a railway that follows the path of the Silk Road through much of western Central Asia. It was built by the Russian Empire during its expansion into Central Asia in the 19th century. The railway was started in 1879, following the Russian defeat of Khokand...
reached the city in 1888. It became the capital of the
Uzbek SSRThe Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Uzbek SSR for short, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union since its creation in 1924...
in 1925 before being replaced by
TashkentTashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and also of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was 2.18 million. According to unofficial data, the population is more than 3 million.- History :...
in 1930.
Climate
The climate is sharp continental. Summers are dry and hot, whilst winters are cold. July and August are the hottest months of the year with temperatures reaching, and exceeding, . Most of the little annual precipitation is received from December through April.
Notable People born in Samarkand
- Amoghavajra
Amoghavajra was a prolific translator who became one of the most politically powerful Buddhist monks in Chinese history, acknowledged as one of the eight patriarchs of the doctrine in Shingon lineages.-Life:...
, an 8th century Buddhist monk who translated VajrayanaVajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle. The period of Vajrayana Buddhism has been classified as the fifth or final period of Indian Buddhism...
scripture, became a powerful figure in the Tang court, and is remembered one of the three founders of Chinese esoteric Buddhism.
- Babur
Zahir ud-din Muhammad Jalal ud-din Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of India. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his...
Al-Sultan al-'Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram Zahir ud-din Muhammad Jalal ud-din Babur Padshah Ghazi, founder of the Mughal EmpireThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
.
- Qulich Khan Siddiqi (Nawab Khwaja Abid Siddiqi) and Ghazi Uddin Khan Siddiqi, father and grand father of Qamar-ud-din Khan, Asaf Jah I (Nizam I). Nizam I founded the dynasty that ruled Hyderabad (India) for over 200 years.
- Islom Karimov
Islom Abdug‘aniyevich Karimov has served as the President of Uzbekistan since 1991....
, President of Uzbekistan.
In fiction
- In The Arabian Nights (ca. AD 900), King Shah Zaman is king of Samarkand.
- In Jinyong
Louis Cha, GBM, OBE , better known by his pen name Jin Yong , is one of the most influential modern Chinese-language novelists...
's wuxia novel The Legend of the Condor HeroesThe Legend of Condor Heroes is one of the most acclaimed Wuxia novels by Louis Cha. It is first serialized in 1957 in Hong Kong Commercial Daily. This is the first part of the Condor Trilogy...
(1957), the Mongol conquest is mentioned in the story.
- Samarkand can appear as an archetype of romantic exoticism, notably in the work by James Elroy Flecker
James Elroy Flecker was an English poet, novelist and playwright. As a poet he was most influenced by the Parnassian poets.-Biography:...
: The Golden Journey to Samarkand (1913).
- Samarcande (1988) is the title of a novel by Amin Maalouf
Amin Maalouf , born 25 February 1947 in Beirut, is a Lebanese author. Although his native language is Arabic, he writes in French, and his works have been translated into many languages. He received the Prix Goncourt in 1993 for his novel The Rock of Tanios .He is the second of four children...
, about Omar KhayyámOmar Khayyám , , was a Persian polymath, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and poet. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, music and was a physicist....
's life.
- Samarkand is one of the cities Audre Lorde
Audre Geraldine Lorde was a Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist.-Life:Lorde was born in New York City to Caribbean immigrants Frederick Byron Lorde and Linda Gertrude Belmar Lorde, who settled in Harlem...
describes visiting in her collection of essays and speeches, Sister Outsider.
- Samarqand is the center of the Islamic Renaissance in Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer known for his award-winning Mars trilogy. His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the fifteen years of research...
's The Years of Rice and SaltThe Years of Rice and Salt is an alternate history novel with major Buddhist and Islamic religious elements written by science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson, a thought experiment about a world in which neither Christianity nor the European cultures based on it achieve lasting impact on world...
.
- The flowers of Samarkand are mentioned in the Douglas Fairbanks Jr. movie, Sinbad the Sailor
- The Nightingale of Samarkand is a character in the Broadway musical Once Upon a Mattress
Once Upon a Mattress is a musical comedy that opened off-Broadway on May 11, 1959, and then moved to Broadway. The play was written as an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Princess and the Pea...
.
- Angela Carter
Angela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism and science fiction works.-Biography:...
's short story The Kiss discusses the legend of Tamburlaine's mosque in Samarkand.
- In Islamic literature and discussions, Samarkand has taken on a semi-mythological status and is often cited as an ideal of Islamic philosophy and society, a place of justice, fairness, and righteous moderation.
- For part of the history espoused in Clive Barker
Clive Barker is an English author, film director and visual artist best known for his work in both fantasy and horror fiction....
's Galilee, the city of Samarkand is held as a shining light of humanity, and one of the characters longs to go there.
- The markets of Samrkand are referenced to more than once in the 1920 Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton was an American novelist, short story writer and designer.- Early life :Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones to parents George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander. She had two brothers, Frederic Rhinelander and Henry Edward. The saying "Keeping up with the Joneses" is...
novel The Age of InnocenceThe Age of Innocence is a novel by Edith Wharton, which won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize. The story is set in upper class New York City in the 1870s....
.
- The Amulet of Samarkand
The Amulet of Samarkand is the first book in the Bartimaeus Trilogy written by Jonathan Stroud. It is well known for its liberal use of footnotes to voice the title character's sarcastic comments, as well as story background.-Plot introduction:...
is the first book in the Bartimaeus TrilogyThe Bartimaeus Trilogy is a fantasy series by Jonathan Stroud and was published as a series of three novels between 2003 and 2005.The three novels are:* The Amulet of Samarkand* The Golem's Eye* Ptolemy's Gate...
written by Jonathan StroudJonathan Anthony Stroud is an author of fantasy books, mainly for children and youths.-Biography:Born in 1970 in Bedford, England, Stroud began to write stories at a very young age. He grew up in St Albans where he enjoyed reading books, drawing pictures, and writing stories...
.
- Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, the first African to be so honoured...
, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in LiteratureThe Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
, explores the metaphysical significance of the marketplace in a volume of poetry entitled Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known, 2002.
- From W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer...
's classic novel Of Human BondageOf Human Bondage is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It is generally agreed to be his masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although Maugham stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography, though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure invention." Maugham, who had...
: "O, my uncle, this cloth knew not the weavers of Samarkand, and those colours were never made in the vats of Bokhara."
- Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. His most famous character — created in the pages of the Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales — is Conan the Barbarian.With Conan and his other heroes, Howard created the genre of...
wrote a short story in 1932 for Oriental Stories titled "Lord of Samarkand".
- In the American film classic It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life is an American drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and loosely based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....
, the character George Bailey (played by James StewartJames Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart was an American film and stage actor, best known for his self-effacing persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
) shops for a suitcase, saying, "I want something for a thousand and one nights, with plenty of room for labels from Italy and Baghdad, Samarkand... a great big one."
- In Iris Murdoch
Dame Iris Murdoch DBE was an English author and philosopher, best known for her novels about sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her first published novel, Under the Net, was selected in 2001 by the editorial board of the American Modern Library as one of the 100...
's The Nice and The Good, Kate Gray wants to go to Samarkand for holiday but knows nothing about it.
- In the Technicolor movie The Golden Horde, the main character, played by David Farrar
David Farrar was an English stage and film actor, born in Forest Gate, East London.Three of his most notable film roles were leads in the Powell and Pressburger films Black Narcissus , The Small Back Room , and Gone to Earth .He retired in 1962...
, defends Samarkand against the Horde. He utters the memorable line, "He who comes to destroy Samarkand shall himself be destroyed."
- In the Jonas Wergeland Trilogy by Jan Kjærstad
Jan Kjærstad is a Norwegian author. Kjærstad is a theology graduate from MF Norwegian School of Theology and the University of Oslo . He has written a string of novels, short stories and essays and was editor of the literary magazine Vinduet...
Samarkand plays a significant role in the first volume The Seducer (Forføreren)
- The second novel in author Janeen Webb
Janeen Webb is an Australian writer, critic, and editor working mainly in the field of science fiction and fantasy.Janeen Webb holds a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Newcastle, New South Wales...
's young adult series, the Sinbad Chronicles, is called The Silken Road to Samarkand.
- In Leon Uris
Leon Marcus Uris was an American novelist, known for his historical fiction and the deep research that went into his novels. His two bestselling books were Exodus, published in 1958, and Trinity, in 1976.-Life:...
' novel QB VIIQB VII by Leon Uris was a best seller published in 1970. This four-part novel highlights the events leading to a life-shattering libel trial in the United Kingdom.-Plot summary:...
, San Francisco is referred to as America's Samarkand, a city well-known as a cultural center.
- Samarkand (Maracanda) and its environs are central to the events in Stephen Pressfield's historical novel The Afghan Campaign
The Afghan Campaign is a historical novel by the American writer Steven Pressfield. It was first published in 2006 by the Broadway division of Random House...
.
- Samarkand has been cited as an inspiration for the fictional city of Zanarkand from Final Fantasy X
- The Road to Samarcand
The Road to Samarcand is a novel by Patrick O'Brian published in 1954 and set in Asia during the 1930's. Publisher's Weekly writes, "Six decades later, O'Brian's richly told adventure saga, with its muscular prose, supple dialogue and engaging characters, packs a nice old-school punch." The Road...
is one of Patrick O'BrianPatrick O'Brian, CBE , born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centered on the friendship of English Naval Captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician...
's early novels (1954) about an American teenage boy, the son of recently deceased missionary parents, who travels from China with a small party on the Silk Road en route to the West.
- In the song "Sheherazade," on his 1988 album One More Story
One More Story is the third solo album for music artist Peter Cetera and his second album after leaving the group Chicago. This album includes the hit "One Good Woman". It also includes the single "Best Of Times"...
, Peter CeteraPeter Paul Cetera is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitar player and producer best known for being an original member of the rock band Chicago, before launching a successful solo career...
refers to the "Sultan of Samarkand" as the enchanted king of the One Thousand and One Nights tale.
- In Dnevnoy dozor aka Daywatch (2006), Timur Bekmambetov's
Timur Nuruakhitovich Bekmambetov is a Kazakh and Russian film and advertisement director.-Biography:Bekmambetov was born on June 25, 1961 in Guryev, Kazakh SSR, USSR . His father Nuruakhit Bekmambetov is Kazakh, his mother Mira Bogoslovskaya is an Ashkenazi Jew...
epic tale of Good versus Evil, one of the main characters, Anton, sets himself on a mission to find the Chalk of Destiny which he believes is hidden in Timerlane's grave at the city of Samarkand.
- In Corto Maltese
Corto Maltese is a comics series featuring an eponymous character, a complex sailor-adventurer. It was created by Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt in 1967...
graphical novels by Hugo PrattHugo Eugenio Pratt was an Italian comic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such as Corto Maltese...
one episode is titled The Golden House of Samarkand.
- In The Venetian Betrayal suspense novel by Steve Berry
Steve Berry is an American author currently living in Camden County, Georgia. He is a graduate of Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law....
, the much of the plot involves a fictional Central Asian Federation composed of a united Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan and the threat its despotic ruler poses to the area fueled by biological weapons and the mysterious final resting place of Alexander the Great.
- In the epistolary novel It's Getting Later All the Time, by Antonio Tabucchi
Antonio Tabucchi is an Italian writer and academic who teaches Portuguese language and literature at the University of Siena, Italy....
, the letter/chapter entitled "Books Never Written, Journeys Never Made" begins with the line, "Do you remember when we didn't go to Samarkand?"
- In the 2000 TV miniseries, Arabian Nights, starring Dougray Scott
Stephen Dougray Scott is a Scottish actor.-Early life:The son of Elma, a nurse, and Alan Scott, an actor and salesperson, Scott attended Auchmuty High School...
and Mili AvitalMili Avital is an Israeli actress. Avital built a successful stage and film career in Israel, winning the Israeli Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1992 and nominated for Best Actress in 1994.-Personal life:...
, Samarkand serves as the setting for Scheherazade's telling of the Aladdin tale.
- The city of Zanarkand in the 2001 console role-playing game
A console role-playing game is a video game genre that has its origin rooted in video game consoles and includes game mechanics and, frequently, settings derived from those of traditional role-playing games...
, Final Fantasy Xis a console role-playing game developed and published by Square as the tenth title in the Final Fantasy series. It was released in 2001 for Sony's PlayStation 2. The game marks the Final Fantasy series' transition from entirely pre-rendered backdrops to fully three-dimensional areas, and is also...
, was inspired by Samarkand.
- In the 2008 action role-playing game
An action role-playing game is an loosely-defined video game genre based on role-playing combat systems. Games in the genre features an gameplay much more similar to action games rather than an genuine Role-playing game system.-Classic action RPGs:...
, Fable 2Fable II is an action role-playing game developed by Lionhead and published by Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360. The sequel to Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters, it was originally announced in 2006 and released in October 2008....
, one of the main characters is said to have come from a place called Samarkand.
- In the Battletech
BattleTech is a wargaming and science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2000, and owned since 2003 by Topps. The series began with FASA's debut of the board game BattleTech by Jordan Weisman and L...
universe one of the key planets in the Draconis CombineIn the fictional BattleTech universe, the Draconis Combine is one of the Successor States in the "North-East" quarter of the Inner Sphere.-Intro:...
is called New Samarkand.
Non-fiction
- Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan berber scholar and traveller who is known for the account of his travels and excursions called the Rihla...
the great traveler of the 14th century spend time in Samarkand in the 1330s (see Ross Dunn The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14th century).
- In The Travels
The Travels of Marco Polo is the usual English title of Marco Polo's travel book, nicknamed Il Milione or Le Livre des Merveilles...
of Marco PoloMarco Polo was a merchant from the Venetian Republic who wrote Il Milione, which introduced Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, voyaged through Asia and met Kublai Khan. In 1269, they returned to Venice to meet Marco for...
, where Polo records his journey along the Silk Roads, Samarkand is described as a "a very large and splendid city..." Here also is related the story of Christian church in Samarkand, which miraculously remained standing after a portion of its central supporting columnA column in structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces. Other compression...
was removed.
- See No Evil
See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War Against Terrorism is a 2003 memoir by Robert Baer, a former CIA case officer in the Directorate of Operations. Baer begins with his upbringing in the US and Europe and continues with a tour of his CIA experiences across the globe...
by Robert BaerRobert "Bobby" Baer is an author and former case officer at the Central Intelligence Agency.-Early life:Baer was born in Los Angeles and raised in Aspen, Colorado, and aspired to become a professional skier. After a poor academic performance during his freshman year at high school, his mother...
is an autobiography about the author's experiences working for the CIAThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government.It is an independent agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers....
, at one point visiting Samarkand while serving in TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
in the early 1990s.
- Robert D. Kaplan
Robert David Kaplan is an American journalist, currently a National Correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly...
's 1996 political travelogue The Ends Of The Earth has him traversing through a number of places in Africa, Europe, and Asia. In that book, one of the countries is UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
, and Samarkand is one of the places in Uzbekistan he visits, along with a young translator whose namesake is Ulug BegUlugh Beg was a Timurid ruler as well as an astronomer, mathematician and sultan...
.
- Murder in Samarkand
Murder in Samarkand is a non-fiction book by British activist and former ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray. The book forms an account of Murray's controversial ambassadorship at the UK embassy in Tashkent in 2002–04...
by Craig MurrayCraig John Murray is a British political activist, former ambassador to Uzbekistan and current Rector of the University of Dundee....
is a book about the UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan's experiences in this role, until he resigned over human rights abuses in the country in October 2004.
Music
- In 1977, the Italian singer and composer Roberto Vecchioni
Roberto Vecchioni is an Italian singer-songwriter and writer.-Biography:Vecchioni was born in Carate Brianza, province of Milan, to a family of Neapolitan origin. In 1968 he graduated in Ancient Literatures at the Università Cattolica of Milan, where he remained for two years as assistant lecturer...
issued a LP titled SamarcandaSamarcanda is an album by Italian singer-songwriter Roberto Vecchioni, released in 1977. The work was highly successful, mostly thanks to the title track, and established him as one of the most popular singer-songwriters in Italy....
. It contains the eponymous song, which tells the story of a soldier riding to Samarkand to escape the image of death.
- In 1987, dance music group The Beyond, signed to Midnight Music Records, released the album Episcense which includes the song "Samarkand Sunrise".
- In 1994, the Spanish rock band La Frontera released the album La rueda de las armas afiladas which includes the song "Arenas de Samarkanda". It was released as a single.
- Also in 1994, the Esperanto folk duo Nataŝa & Ĵomart released the album Samarkand.
- In 2004, violinist Lucia Micarelli
Lucia Micarelli is an American violinist best known for her collaborations with Josh Groban and classic rock band Jethro Tull....
released the album Music from a Farther Room, which includes the song "Samarkand".
- In 1972, Swedish composer Thorstein Bergman wrote "Om du någonsin kommer fram till Samarkand" ("If you ever reach Samarkand") made famous by Swedish singer Lill Lindfors
Lillemor "Lill" Lindfors is a Swedish singer. She has been performing in Scandinavia with minor and major success since the 1960s. She lives in Stockholm, Sweden. She is famous in Scandinavia for her "one-woman-shows" where she mix music with a lot of comedy...
in 1978
Sister cities
These cities were major cities of
Greater KhorasanGreater Khorasan is a modern term for a historical geographic region spanning north-eastern and east of Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, western and northern Afghanistan and the North Western Areas of Pakistan...
: Nishapur,
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
BukharaBukhara , also transliterated Bukhoro and Bokhara, from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 237,900...
,
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
BalkhBalkh , known as Bactra to the Greeks and Baktri or Bagdhi to the Persians, was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in Northern Afghanistan...
,
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
MervMerv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan...
,
TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
Other sister cities
Cuzco,
PeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico...
LahoreLahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. Historically the main city of the undivided Punjab, it is often called the Garden of Mughals because of its rich Mughal heritage...
,
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
LvivLviv is a major city in western Ukraine.It is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically also for Ukraine’s neighbour Poland. The historic centre of Lviv with its old buildings and cobblestone roads has survived the Second World War and the Soviet presence...
,
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
IstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
,
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
İzmirİzmir, historically Smyrna, is Turkey's third most populous city and the country's largest port after Istanbul. It is located along the outlying waters of the Gulf of İzmir, by the Aegean Sea. It is the seat of İzmir Province, which has an area of 7350 km
2...
,
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
KairouanKairouan Kairouan (Arabic القيروان) Kairouan (Arabic القيروان) (also known as Kirwan, Al Qayrawan, it is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia. It was founded by the Arabs in around 670 in the period of Caliph Mu'awiya and the original name was derived from Arabic kairuwân, from...
,
TunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. Tunisia is located southwest of the island of Sicily and south of Sardinia. Its size is almost 165,000 km² with an estimated population of just...
KhujandKhujand , also transliterated as Khudzhand, , formerly Khodjend or Khodzhent until 1936 and Leninabad until 1991, is the second-largest city of Tajikistan. It is situated on the Syr Darya River at the mouth of the Fergana Valley. The population of the city is 149,000 , down from 160,000 in 1989...
,
TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
See also
- Samarkand Airport
Samarkand International Airport is an Airport of Entry in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.- Airlines and destinations :*Atlant-Soyuz Airlines *Domodedovo Airlines *Rossiya...
- Semerkand a monthly religious magazine published in Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
, named after this city because Samarkand has long been a major centre for Islamic scholars.
External links