Bukhara

Bukhara (Buxoro or Uzbek Бухoрo in , Turkish Buhara in , Russian Бухара in , RTL F بُخارا in farsi) is a town of Ouzbékistan, located at the center-south of the country. There are two assumptions concerning the etymology of the word: Buqaraq of the Sogdien which would mean " fortuné" place; and Vihara in Sanskrit which wants to say a Monastère Bouddhiste. It is the capital of the province of Bukhara (Buxoro Viloyati).

Population

The city counts approximately 240.000 inhabitants. The Boukhariotes are Turkish-speaking of language ouzbèke, as in the majority of the country, but it is also of language Tadjik E (alternative of the Persan). One also counts a Jewish community , known as Juifs boukhariotes, formerly important, now declining.

History

The 140 monuments protected by UNESCO testify to the historical and cultural richness to this city. In the middle of the Silk route and Persian kingdom, Bukhara and Samarkand were attached to the Soviet socialist Republic of Ouzbékistan under Stalin.

Bukhara is the cradle of Al-Bukhari (810 - 870), an important compiler of Hadith S (collections of words allotted to Mahomet). It was the capital of the dynasty Persian of the Samanides.

Bukhara saw passing towards the year 1000 two of scientific glories of the Central Asia, large the Médecin and Philosophe Avicenne (Abu Ali Ibn Sînâ), born in the vicinity (980 - 1037) and the scientist encyclopedist Al-Biruni (Mathématicien, Physicien, Astronome, Historien, etc), born close to Khiva (973 - 1048), which corresponded with Avicenne.

During its history, Bukhara especially seems a religious city, less marked by the scientific life than Samarkand. It is in consideration of this religious importance that Ulugh Beg (1394 - 1449), the prince timouride and Astronome of Samarkand, made build a Médersa (institute), to the pediment of which it made engrave the sentence: " The study is a sacred duty for each Moslem and each musulmane".

Ulugh Beg accepted in Bukhara at the winter 1420 - 1421 an embassy of the Tibet, but no detail is known for us of this meeting.

The Khanat of Bukhara (1599 - 1920), which included Samarkand, was one of the three Khanat S Uzbek resulting from the dislocation of the Khanat de Djaghataï, with those of Khiva and Kokand.

Bukhara gave its name to the Bougran, a strong fabric used in the lining of clothing, spelled boquerant by Marco Polo. Bukhara is also the generic name given to the carpets turkhmenes, whose principal center of negotiation is the bazaar of Ashkabad. These carpets are subdivided in " téké" and " yomouth" , names of the two principal families of tribes turkhmenes. Their very typical style is recognized easily because the decoration of the field is consisted the repetition of the same decorative reason, the " goul" , emblem of the tribe of Tisserand.

It is the birthplace of Faïzoulla Khodjaïev (1896 - 1938), first leader of the Soviet socialist republic of Ouzbékistan, carried out during the Stalinist purgings .

Monuments

Bukhara has large madrasas: madrasa Abdullah Khan (1556-1598) opposite the madrasa Madar-i Khan (1566-67), madrasa Koukeldach (1568-1569), madrasa of Abdullaziz Khan (1588-1590), madrasa of Abdullah Khan (1589-90), madrasa Nadir Couch-Begui (1622-1623).

See too

Khanat of Bukhara

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