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Samarkand
Samarkand is a thousand-year-old city and Silk Road hub in Transoxiana, core Samanid territory in the 10th century;…
Timeline
- c. 901–960Samarkand · TransoxianaAs the Samanid dynasty's second city, Samarkand had markets and workshops around the Registan Square, active trade in silk, metalware, and paper, with mosques and madrasas gradually replacing earlier Sogdian religious buildings as city landmarks.
- c. 960–992Samarkand · UzbekistanAfter the Samanids' internal split, Samarkand was effectively controlled by local emirs; the city maintained its Silk Road relay function, attracting Persian scholars and craftsmen, with city walls expanded to meet military pressure from the northern steppes.
- c. 992–1000Samarkand · UzbekistanAfter the Karakhanid conquest of Samarkand, the city's political affiliation shifted from the Persianized Samanid system into a Turkic khanate framework; Islam continued to deepen, Turkic and Persian were used side by side, and trade networks were not interrupted by the change of rulers.
Sources
- Samarkand: The History and Legacy of One of Asia's Oldest Cities — Charles River Editors (2018)
- The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4: The Period from the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs — R. N. Frye et al. (1975)