Bukhara- the pearl of the East

Bukhara- the pearl of the East

• Bukhara. Uzbek Bukhoro or Buxoro also spelled Buchara or Bukhara city, south-central Uzbekistan located about 140 miles (225km) west of Samarkand. The city lies on the Shakhrud Canal in the delta of the Zerafshon River, at the centre of Bukhara oasis. Founded not later than the 1st century.(and possibly as early as the 3rd or 4th century).

• Bukhara was already a major. trade and the crafts centre alongthe famous Silk Road when it was captured by Arab forces in 709. İt was the capital of the Samanid dynasty in the 9th and 10th centuries. Later it was seized by thhe Qarakhanids and Karakitas before falling to Gengis Khan in 1220 and to Timur (Tamerlane)in 1370.

• İn 1506 Bukhara was conqured by the Uzbek-Shaybanids who from the mid 16th century made it the capital of their state, which become known as the khanate of Bukhara.

• Bukhara attained its greatest importance in the later 16th century, when the Shaybanids possessions included most of the Central Asia as well as northern Persia and Afghanistan. The emir Muhammad Mohammad Rahim freed himself from Persian vassalage in the mid 18th century and founded the Mangit dynasty.

İn 1868 the khanate was a Russian protecturate, and in 1920 the emir was overthrown by Red Army troops .Bukhara remained the capital of the Bukharan People's