Bukhara

[Travellers | Cities | Routes | Trade Goods | Themes]

by Caroline Stone

Bukhara (64º 38’ E, 39º 43’ N) lies on the lower Zarafshan River in present day Uzbekistan. Although at most periods it was smaller and politically less influential than Samarkand, Bukhara was of great importance as a center of Islamic learning, and was famed for its piety. It was also a major caravan city on the Silk Road, close to important gold mines, and its manufactures included arms and carpets.

The area which is now Bukhara was a marshy oasis, drained and inhabited from an early date. It had an elaborate system of canals, dating back to before Islam, traces of which can still be seen today. Narshakhi, in his Chronicle of Bukhara, c. 943 A.D., describes and names the canals.

Little is known about the pre-Islamic city; it does not appear to have been one of Alexander the Great’s foundations. The first literary references to it are in Chinese sources of the 7th c. A.D. and it is generally accepted that the name is derived from the Sanskrit vihara– monastery.

Narshakhi’s Chronicle describes the conquest of Bukhara by the Muslims, the problems of converting the populace to Islam and the numerous revolts against the Arab overlords. More than one mosque was built on the site of an ancient fire-temple, as modern archaeology has confirmed. Bukhara also had a Christian presence throughout the Middle Ages and Ata Malik Juvayni describes a Christian Mongol princess building a madrasa there, the Khaniyya.

Bukhara was not only one of the great centers of Islamic scholarship, but also the birthplace of one of the most important dervish orders, the Nakshbandi. Founded by Baha al-Din Nakshband in later 14th c., chapters were soon to be found across much of the Muslim world. This, together with its merchants, gave Bukhara a very wide range of international contacts.

Although Bukhara never enjoyed the reputation of Samarkand or Merv for scientific learning, it was nevertheless the center of the New Persian literary movement.

Bukhara’s mercantile network spread far and wide, as such names as the Caravanserai of the Indians, the Mir Arab Madrasa, founded by a Yemeni Sheikh, or the China Gate, indicate. There was a large and flourishing Jewish community, primarily engaged in trade, the textile and dyeing industry, and metal-working of various kinds, until the 20th century. Expatriate Central Asians from Russia to Chinese Turkestan were apt to be considered Bukharans – indicating the city’s dominance in the world of trade.

Silk, cotton, carpets and metal working, especially weapons, were among Bukhara’s most important exports, and the city traded with India, China, Iran, the Arab World, the Mediterranean and, as is made clear by Ibn Fadlan, north to the Volga and the lands of the Rus, and later Russia.

Several chroniclers describe the richness of the land in between Bukhara and Samarkand and the intensity of cultivation. Besides cotton, which now predominates throughout the region, and mulberries to feed the silkworms, Bukhara was famous for its fruit, and saffron, asafoetida, tobacco, hemp, poppies and other plants perceived as medicinal were also grown in the area and exported.

Bukhara is unusual in that in spite of being destroyed on several occasions – by earthquake in the 9th c., by several fires, by invaders: Genghiz Khan in 1220, Abaqa Il-Khan in 1273, and again 1316 – it was always rebuilt on the same site, unlike Samarkand and Merv, which shifted. Also, unlike other Central Asian cities, the citadel -- arg -- lies outside the main urban area, or medina, instead of being in the center of it.

From 1500, Bukhara declined in international importance, largely because of the shifting of trade routes from land to sea. This occurred in part because of the insecurity that followed the break-up of the Timurid empire, but on the other hand it was this fragmentation of power that allowed Bukhara to develop once again as a capital in its own right. At certain periods, it even outshone Samarkand in political importance, although with the decline of the Silk Road, this was at a relatively provincial level.