Bukhara

Bukhara (bəkä`rə), city (1991 pop. 231,000), capital of Bukhara region, Uzbekistan, in the Zeravshan River valley. On the Shkhrud irrigation canal system, it is the center of a large cotton district and has textile mills as well as cotton-ginning industries and a large karakul skin processing plant. The population is mainly Uzbek, with Tajik, Arab, and Afghan minorities and a much-dwindled Jewish minority. First mentioned in Chinese chronicles in the 5th cent. A.D., Bukhara is one of the oldest trade and cultural centers in central Asia. It was a long-time center of Judaism. It came under the Arab caliphate in the 8th cent. and became a major center of Islamic learning. During the 9th and 10th cent. it was the capital of the Samanid state. From the 16th cent. to 1920 it was the capital of the khanate of Bukhara, which was ceded to Russia in 1868. From 1920 to 1924 it was the capital of the Bukhara People's Republic. Its many monuments include the mausoleum of Ismail Samanid (892–907), the minaret of Kalyan (1127), the mosque of Magoki-Attari (12th cent.), the Ulughbek (1417–18) and Mir-Arab (1535–36) madaris (theological schools), and the madrasah of Abdulaziz-Khan (1651–52). The name is also spelled Bokhara.

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Bukhara

 or Bokhara or Buxoro

City (pop., 1999 est.: 237,900), west-central Uzbekistan. Lying east of the Amu Darya, it was founded in the 1st century AD and was a major trade centre when the Arabs captured it c. 710. Built up by the Samanid dynasty, it became the capital of their realm, which at its height encompassed much of southern Central Asia. After falling to Genghis Khan in 1220 and to Timur in 1370, it was taken by the Uzbeks, who in the 16th century made it the capital of the khanate of Bukhara. In 1868 the khanate was made a Russian protectorate and in 1920 a Soviet republic. Bukhara was the capital until the republic was absorbed into the Uzbek S.S.R. in 1924. It became part of Uzbekistan on that country's independence in 1991. Historic buildings in the central city were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993.

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Bukhara, Bokhara

1. a city in S Uzbekistan. Pop.: 299 000 (2005 est.)

2. a former emirate of central Asia: a powerful kingdom and centre of Islam; became a territory of the Soviet Union (1920) and was divided between the former Uzbek, Tajik, and Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republics