Kokand

History

Kokand guards the western gateway to the valley, where the roads to Tashkent and Khujand meet. Tenth-century Arab geographers mention a town called Khavakand or Khokand, and archaeologists have found far older layers at the Tepakurgan and Muyi Muborak mounds. In the early 18th century it became the capital of the khanate founded by Shahrukh Biy.

Under Umar Khan, who wrote verse as Amiri, and his wife, the poet Nodira, more than seventy poets worked in Kokand; later Mukimi, Furqat and Hamza all came from here. The khanate was abolished in 1876, and in 1917–1918 the short-lived Turkestan Autonomy was proclaimed in the city.

What to see

The old town preserves the Palace of Khudayar Khan, the Jami Mosque on Chorsu Square, the Narbuta Biy, Kamol Qozi and Miyon Hazrat madrasas, and the Dakhma-i-Shakhon and Modari Khan mausoleums. The newer quarter has early-20th-century banks and merchant houses. The museums are grouped into the Kokand State Museum-Reserve.