Online Encyclopedia

BOKHARA (Bokhara-i-Sherif)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 158 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

BOKHARA (Bokhara-i-Sherif)  , capital of the state of Bokhara, on the
See also:
left
See also:
bank of the Zarafshan, and on the irrigation canal of Shahri-rud, situated in a fertile plain . It is 8 m. from the Bokhara station of the Transcaspian railway, 162 m. by
See also:
rail W. of
See also:
Samarkand, in 390 47' N.
See also:
lat. and 64° 27' E. long . The city is surrounded by a stone wall 28 ft. high and 8 m. long, with semicircular towers and eleven gates of little value as a defence . The
See also:
present city was begun in A.U . 830 on the site of an older city, was destroyed by Jenghiz Khan in 1220, and rebuilt subsequently . The
See also:
water-supply is very unhealthy . The city has no less than 36o mosques . Nearly ro,000 pupils are said to receive their
See also:
education in its 140 madrasas or theological colleges;
See also:
primary
See also:
schools are kept at most mosques . Some of these buildings exhibit very,
See also:
fine architecture . The most notable of the mosques is the Mir-Arab, built in the 16th century, with its beautiful lecture halls; the chief mosque of the emir is the Mejid-
See also:
kalyan, or Kok-humbez, close by which stands a brick minaret, 203 ft. high, from the top of which state criminals used to be thrown until 1871 . Of the numerous squares the Raghistan is the
See also:
principal . It has on one side the citadel, erected on an artificially made eminence 45 ft. high, surrounded by a wall r m. long, and containing the palace of the emir, the houses of the chief functionaries, the prison and the water-cisterns .

The houses are mostly one-storeyed, built of unburned bricks, and have

flat
See also:
roofs . Bokhara has for ages been a centre of learning and religious
See also:
life . The mysticism which took hold on
See also:
Persia in the
See also:
middle ages spread;also to Bokhara, and later, when the Mongol invasions of the 13th century laid waste Samarkand and other Moslem cities, Bokhara, remaining
See also:
independent, continued to be a chief seat of Islamitic learning . The madrasa
See also:
libraries, some of which were very rich, have been scattered and lost, or confiscated by the emirs, or have perished in conflagrations . But there are still treasures of literature concealed in private libraries, and Afghan, Persian, Armenian and
See also:
Turkish bibliophiles still repair to Bokhara to buy rare books . Bokhara is, in fact, the principal
See also:
book-market of central
See also:
Asia . The population is supposed by
See also:
Russian travellers not to exceed 50,000 or 60,000, but is otherwise estimated at 75,000 to 100,000 . Amongst them is a large and ancient colony of Jews . Bokhara is the most important trading
See also:
town in central Asia . In the city bazaars are made or sold
See also:
silk stuffs, metal (especially copper) wares, Kara-kul (i.e.
See also:
astrakhan) lamb-skins and carpets . New Bokhara, or Kagan, a Russian town near the railway station, 8 m. from Bokhara itself, is rapidly growing, on a territory ceded by the emir . Pop .

2000 . (P . A .

End of Article: BOKHARA (Bokhara-i-Sherif)
[back]
OSBERN BOKENAM (1393?-1447?)
[next]
BOKHARA, or BUKHARA (the common central Asian pronu...

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.