BUKHARA

THE WRITINGS OF FAMOUS TRAVELERS AND HISTORIANS

Bukhara’s History stretches back millennia. It is now considered the fifth largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of the Bukhara Province. Established along the Silk Road around 500 BCE, the city has long been a center of trade, scholarship, culture, and religion. During the golden age of the Samanid Empire, Bukhara became the intellectual center of the Islamic world & the terminus of the Silk Road in the West.

IBN FADLAN’S DESCRIPTION OF BUKHARA

(c. 921-922 CE)

Ibn Fadlan writes: “We stayed in Bukhara for twenty eight days. Al-Fadl ibn-Musa also

agreed with 'Abdallah ibn-Bashtu and others of our comrades who began to say: "If we

extend our stay, the winter will suddenly come and will miss time to go (to the new

country), and Ahmad - ibn-Musa, when he comes to us, will follow us.”

An interesting fact about the money which were in use in Bukhara was preserved by Idn

Fadlan’s writing: "I saw dirkhems of Bukhara of different sorts called al-gitrifi, they

consists of copper, red copper and yellow copper, from which quantity without weights

is taken. Hundred of them are equal to silver dirkhem. And here is their conditions

regarding kalyms for their women: son of such and such marries the daughter of such

and such for so much and so much thousand dirkhems gitrif. And in such a way

purchasing of their real estates and purchasing of their slaves are being done: they do

not mention the other sorts of dirkhems". This money, which so appreciated in Bukhara,

was minted by Gitrif ibn Ata, governor of Khorasan. “Forty of them are equal to (one)

danak. They (still) have dirhams, (for which) only the yellow copper is used, called

Samarkandian. Six of them are equal to one danak.”

Fadlan continued writing: So, when I heard the words of 'Abdallah ibn-Bashtu and the

words of others, warning me about unexpected approach of the winter, we left Bukhara,

coming back to the river, and hired a ship to Khoresm. And the distance to it from the

place where we hired the ship, is more than two hundred farsahs, so we went for a few

days.

Source: IBN-FADLAN'S TRAVEL TO THE VOLGA (921 – 922),Translated by I.J.Krachkovsky, 1939.

IBN HAWQAL’S DECRIPTION OF BUKHARA

(c. 943-969 CE)

Muḥ ammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal was a 10th century Muslim writer, geographer, and

chronicler who travelled the Middle East and Central Asia from 943-969 CE. His famous work,

called Ṣ ūrat al-’Arḍ ("The face of the Earth") was written in 977 CE.

Bukhara is the seat of the government of the entire Khurasan; the province lies on the

road that leads to the districts of Transoxania. Adjacent regions also enter under its

jurisdiction. The name of the city is Numijkat. It lies in a plain. Houses built with lattice

arranged in a trellis manner crowd the place. [However], the city has [also] palaces,

orchards, paved roads, and neighborhoods which extend over twelve parasangs

lengthwise and crosswise. This whole complex – the palaces, buildings, neighborhoods

and inner city – is surrounded by a wall. None of this space is deserted or dilapidated or

uncultivated, and the city is a real home, summer and winter, for its citizens. There is in

the interior another wall, a strong rampart which encompasses [the inner] city with a

diameter of one parasang; the citadel stands outside this rampart but next to it, so that

this part has the appearance of a small town provided with a fortress. The Samanid

lords of Khurasan live in this citadel. There is an extensive suburb; the Friday mosque

rises in the [inner] city by the gate of the citadel. The prison is inside the citadel,

whereas the bazars are in the suburb. No city of Khurasan and Transoxania is more

densely populated than Bukhara. The suburb and the bazars are traversed by the

Sughd River, which reaches here its terminus; it drives the water mills, waters the

domains and cultivated land, and the surplus devolves into a basin near Baykand.

Ibn Hawqal (Haukal) thus describes here the classical Central Asian city of the early

Islamic period. It consisted of three basic segments: the citadel (ark, quhandiz, qala),

inner city or city proper (shahristan, madina), and outer city or suburb (rabad ).He then

gives a detailed description of Bukhara’s topography, especially of its gates and of the

irrigation canals into which the Zarafshan River ramifies as it enters the area, and he

continues:

The fruits of Bukhara are the best and tastiest of all Transoxania.A remarkable proof of

the soil‟s fertility is that the yield of a single jarib can provide enough sustenance for a

man with his family and servants. Nevertheless, the density of Bukhara‟s population is

so high and the living expenses so great that the food produced there covers only one

half of the need, so that they have to acquire the rest from other parts of Transoxania.

IBN HAWQAL’S DECRIPTION OF BUKHARA (Cont.)

After having described the surroundings of Bukhara, Ibn Hawqal (Haukal) describes the

city’s inhabitants:

The language of Bukhara is Sogdian (lisan al-Sughd), with some minor peculiarities, but

the people also speak Dari (la-hum lisan bi „l-dariya; i.e. Farsi, Persian).The inhabitants

surpass all other Khurasanians in their culture their knowledge of religion and their legal

expertise, their religious spirit, their loyalty, their good manners and perfect social

relationships, their absence of bad instincts, their zeal for good works, their excellent

intentions and the purity of their sentiments… Their basic coin is the dirham, whereas

the dinar serves only as the theoretical monetary unit….

…They say that the population of Bukhara was in remote antiquity composed of

immigrants from Istakhr [a city in Fars].The Samanids chose Bukhara as their capital

because it was the closest Transoxanian city to Khurasan: whoever possesses this city

has Khurasan before him and Transoxania behind him …T he territory of Bukhara

borders Sogdia on the east; some people, however, consider Bukhara, Kesh and Nasaf

to be part of Sogdia….T he chief city of Sogdia is Samarkand.

Source: THE BOOK OF WAYS AND PROVINCES Concerning the Travels of Ibn Hawqal (943 - 969).

AL-MUQUADDASI’S DESCRIPTION OF BUKHARA (c. 980 CE)

Al-Muqaddasi (c. 945/946 - 1000) was a medieval Arab geographer, author of Ahsan at-

Taqasim fi Ma`rifat il-Aqalim (The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions).

Al-Muqaddasi briefly mentions the city of Bukhara in his writing:

“The city is extremely comfortable. It has seven iron plated gates, which belong to the

sultan. They have a treasury and a custody . . . The mosque is inside the city. It has

several yards and all are clean . . . The markets of the city are full with expensive things

and in Rabad there are ten big roads. . . and there is not such a confortable and

populous city in this part of this world. One can find there nice food, beautiful baths,

broad roads, clean water and beautiful buildings. . .

YAQUT’S DESCRIPTION OF BUKHARA (c. 1224-1228 CE)

Yaqut ibn-'Abdullah al-Rumi al-Hamawi (1179-1229) was a Syrian biographer and

geographer renowned for his encyclopedic writings on the Muslim world known as Kitab mu'jam

al-buldan "Dictionary of Countries,” written between 1224-1228.

Undoubtedly this is a very ancient city with plenty of gardens and nice fruits. During my

stay in Bukhara the fruits were supplies to Marw [Merv], which is eighteen passages

away and to Khorezm, which is fifteen days to march. . . As far as the beauty [of the

region] is concerned, I never saw and never heard of a city among the Islamic countries

which has such a beautiful appearance as Bukhara, Because on tip of the castle one

can see the green landscape going up as high as the blue sky and there is not a country

throughout Khurasan where the people could till the land as well as the citizes of

Bukhara. . . . .As for Bukhara this is on a plain and the buildings have a wooden

carcass. All the buildings, including castles, gardens, the shops, paved roads and an

endless row of settlements, are surrounded by a wall as long as twelve farsakhs

composing a unique ensemble to embrace the castles, buildings, settlements and the

centre of the city. Nor is there any open space, nor ruins. Besides this wall there is no

more surrounding the palaces, dwelling houses, shops and gardens which belong to the

city and where people stay throughout the winter and summer. And there is not a city

[in the region] more populous than Bukhara . . .

IBN BATTUTA’S DESCRIPTION OF BUKHARA.

(c. 1334 CE)

Thence we travelled for a whole day through a continuous series of orchards, streams,

trees, and buildings, and reached the city of Bukhara. This city was formerly the capital

of the lands beyond the Oxus. It was destroyed by the accursed Chingiz (Chinggis

Khan) the Tatar. The ancestor of the Kings of Iraq, and all but a few of its mosques,

academies, and bazaars are now lying in ruins. Its inhabitants are humiliated and

looked down upon, their testimonies are not recognized in Khorezm because of their

reputation for fanaticism, falsehood, and denial of the truth. There is not one of its

inhabitants today who possess any theological or scientific learning or makes any

attempt to acquire it. . . . The lands of one of the villages of Bukhara were occupied by

the newly planted gardens and there was much soil to be used and difficulties to be

counted because of their abundance and lack of boundaries. All of this soil is suitable

for tilling and sowing; as for the estates there is a lonely hill, desolate, with a deserted

landscape in place of the former buildings and houses . . . The first boundary of the

village, the eastern one, stretches along the salt marsh bank and serves as a mark to

divide the wasteland.. . . .