BOKHARA (Bokhara-i-Sherif)  , capital of the state of Bokhara, on the left 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 rail W. of Samarkand, in 390 47' N. 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 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 water-supply is very unhealthy . The city has no less than 36o mosques . Nearly ro,000 pupils are said to receive their education in its 140 madrasas or theological colleges; primary schools are kept at most mosques . Some of these buildings exhibit very, 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-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 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 roofs . Bokhara has for ages been a centre of learning and religious life . The mysticism which took hold on Persia in the 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 independent, continued to be a chief seat of Islamitic learning . The madrasa 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 Turkish bibliophiles still repair to Bokhara to buy rare books . Bokhara is, in fact, the principal book-market of central Asia . The population is supposed by 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 town in central Asia . In the city bazaars are made or sold silk stuffs, metal (especially copper) wares, Kara-kul (i.e. 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 .