Bukhara

Bukhara (Buxoro or Бухоро in Uzbek (the Cyrillic alphabet was officially phased out for Uzbek after independence); بُخارا /Bukhârâ/ in Persian, Buhe/Puhe Tang Chinese, Бухара in Russian; also Boxara in Tatar) is one of the major cities of Uzbekistan, and capital of the Bukhara region (Bukhoro Wiloyati). The majority of the city's population are Persian-speaking Tajiks. Bukhara and Samarkand are the two major centers of the Tajiki-Persian culture and history. During Soviet times these two Tajiki centers were annexed to the Uzbekistan SSR, much to the disgust of the Tajiks of Central Asia. Ever since, a harsh program of assimilation and cultural confinement has been carried out on the Tajiks of Uzbekistan by the Uzbek authority.

References

• Moorcroft, William and Trebeck, George. 1841. Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab; in Ladakh and Kashmir, in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz, and Bokhara... from 1819 to 1825, Vol. II. Reprint: New Delhi, Sagar Publications, 1971.

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Image:Prokudin-Gorskii-16.jpg|Study of a Stork's Nest at the top of a palace wall, before 1915

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Image:Buchara-zitadelle.jpg|Citadel of Bukhara

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Image:bukhara_city_skyline.jpg|City skyline of Bukhara, dominated by the Kalon minaret

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Image:bukhara_ark.jpg|Ark fortress walls, home to the Khans of Bukhara

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Image:bukhara_poi_kalon.jpg|A view from the inside of the Poi Kalon mosque, showing the Kalon minaret

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Image:bukhara_chor_minor.jpg|Chor Minor, the gatehouse to a now-disappeared madressah

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Image:Bokhara1909.jpg|Entrance to the emir's palace

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Image:Prokudin-Gorskii-19.jpg|Alim Khan (1880-1944), last emir of Bukhara

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