Khodjend

(Travellers | Cities | Routes | Trade Goods | Themes)

by Sally K. Church

The city of Khodjend, also written Khojend and Khujand (40° 17′ 00″ N, 69° 37′ 00″ E), is on the Syr Darya or Jaxartes river (present-day Tajikistan). It was the northernmost place reached by Alexander the Great in 329 BCE, and the site of the Battle of Jaxartes. Alexander placed a garrison there, which he first called the city of Cyrus (Cyropolis) and later renamed as Alexandria Eschate, "the furthest Alexandria".

Yelü Chucai mentions it among several cities in Ferghana, noting its pomegranates and its cotton. He says:

K'u djan abounds in pomegranates. They are as large as two fists and of a sour-sweet taste. People take from three to five of this fruit, and press out the juice into a vessel. That makes a delicious beverage for slaking thirst.

- Emil Bretschneider, “Extract from the Si Yu Lu” (Ye-Lü Ch’u Ts’ai, 1219), in Mediaeval Researches: From Eastern Asiatic Sources, Fragments towards the knowledge of the Geography and History of Central and Western Asia from the 13th to the 17th century (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1888), pp. 19-20, notes 24-25.