Our Bukhara Experience

Bukhara is one of the three most important cities along the Silkroad, in this country. It lies in between Samarkand (which is 5 hours by car form Tashkent) and Khiva, 3 hours flight into the desert, nearer to the Aral sea. And it has always had a crucuial role, due to its many sweet waterponds (important in the middel of the desert) and its strategic location.

Since we‘ ve been in Samarkand we know a lot about the history of this country and of all the peoples moving in, conquering and deserting it . Our main source is the marvelous book I happened to buy just before leaving (at amazon.com):  “ Uzbekistan, the golden road to Samarkand”

Once upon a time there was a Sogdian empire of Persion origin from about 700 BC till 700 AD. They already had irrigation, fountains in the cities and a sewage system! Which we didn’t even have in Amsterdam in the 16^th century yet!  There was a highly developed civilization with contact in China, India, Turkey; witnessed by remains of frescoes. The copy on the right is a bit too colourful, but otherwise a just representation. All sorts of religions existed together, the Zoroastrians most prominently.

In 329 BC  Alexander the Great remarked, when seeing its capital Samarkand, after his famous crossing of the river Oxus (now the Syr Daria, the river which is the southern border to Afghanistan and Turkmenistan) that the city was even more beautiful than the stories told. Samarkand in that time was known as Marakand, and its remains, now called Afrosiab, lay a bit outside of the present town. So we explored the eroded claybrick ruins of the old city and the city walls, which originally were 15 kms long.  

Notice the shape- it looks very much like the now restored citadelwalls of Bukhara, further down!

Around 640 AD the Islam was brought here (to Transoxiana as they called it) by no one less than the cousin of Mohammed himself. It was a rough time! Either you turned Moslim or died, or at best became a slave. The city of Bukhara held out the longest of all but had to succumb in 709.

After the Arab empire weakened, a true Golden Age followed under the Samanyid rulers from 900- 1100, attracting the finest intellectuals of the time. The irrigation networks were expanded, the population of Bukhara grew to 300.000, more than in soviet times, and Bukhara had the biggest library of the Islamic world.

Below: the now restored wall of the Citadel of Bukhara, the city within a city where the Emir resided. Bukhara is now a Unesco heritage. 

 All this to be disturbed by invasions, first by the Turkoman around 1100, then in 1220 by Dhengis Khan with his fierce Mongol fighting force.

The once beautiful city of Bukhara was razed to a level plain. Everything was demolished, apart from the beautiful Kalon(Grand tower, to the right, detail directly below),  the mausoleum of Ismael Samani -at that time hidden in desert below,  and the Magok–I-attari Mosk.

Each of these buildings  have a remarkable architecture, and decorations, still without colours, but made by a variety of brick patterns.

Interesting to discover are the very old culture symbols like the circles ( the Zoroastrian sun) Swastika, th flower of life, and the yin-yang symbol.

Around 1500 Abdullah Khan reunited the Uzbek clans and prepared the gound for Bukhara’s 2d golden age.  Craftsmen abducted from Herat (Afghanistan) fuelled a flowering of decorative arts and the city began to take its present shape.

To the left a Caravanserai: notice the entrance being high enough for laden camels to pass through!

To the right is another mausoleum, mainly beautiful from the outside. The picture at the bottom shows the cupola of one of the Mosks from the inside.

Around 1600 Bukhara boasted 150 madrassahs(schools) and 200 district mosks. The picture below shows the inside court of one of the Madrassahs. I think you could compare its role and impresiiveness at that time to a university like Oxford and Cambridge, or a big monastery. Each student had his own cell.

Between 1600 and 1800 there was a strong decline, as overland routes withered since the Dutch, British and  Portugese were operating a succesfull sailing route to the spice islands and China.

Actualy the soviets did improve a lot for the country, if only to restore the same rights for men and women.