Spread of IslamThe spread of Islam spans about 1,400 years. Muslim conquests following Muhammad's death led to the creation of the caliphates, occupying a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted by Arab Muslim forces conquering vast territories and building imperial structures over time. Most of the significant expansion occurred during the reign of the Rashidun from 632 to 661 CE, which was the reign of the first four successors of Muhammad.
Tajik languageTajik, also called Tajiki Persian or Tajiki, is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by Tajiks. It is closely related to neighbouring Dari of Afghanistan with which it forms a continuum of mutually intelligible varieties of the Persian language. Several scholars consider Tajik as a dialectal variety of Persian rather than a language on its own.
Zeravshan (river)The Zeravshan (Uzbek: Zarafshon, Tajik: Зарафшон)is a river in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Central Asia. Its name, "spreader of gold" in Persian, refers to the presence of gold-bearing sands in the upper reaches of the river. To the ancient Greeks it was known as the Polytimetus. It was also formerly known as Sughd River. The river is long and has a basin area of . It rises at the Zeravshan Glacier, close to where the Turkestan Range and the Zeravshan Range of the Pamir-Alay mountains meet, in Tajikistan.
ShaybanidsThe Shibanids or Shaybanids (Shayboniylar, دودمان شیبانیان) or more accurately the Abu'l-Khayrid-Shibanids were a dynasty, of Turko-Mongol origin, in Central Asia who ruled over most of modern-day Kazakhstan, much of Uzbekistan, and parts of southern Russia (including Siberia) in the 15th century. They were the patrilineal descendants of Shiban, the fifth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. Until the mid-14th century, they acknowledged the authority of the descendants of Shiban's brothers Batu Khan and Orda Khan, such as Öz Beg Khan.
SamarkandSamarkand or Samarqand (ˈsæmərkænd ; Uzbek and Самарқанд, sæmærqænd, -ænt; سمرقند) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia. Samarkand is the capital of Samarqand Region and a district-level city, that includes the urban-type settlements Kimyogarlar, Farxod and Xishrav. With 551,700 inhabitants (2021), it is the second-largest city of Uzbekistan. Most of the inhabitants of the city are native speakers of the Tajik dialect of the Persian language.
TurkestanTurkestan, also spelled Turkistan (from Torkestân), is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang. Known as Turan to the Persians, western Turkestan has also been known historically as Sogdia, "Ma wara'u'n-nahr" (by its Arab conquerors), and Transoxiana by western travelers. The latter two names refer to its position beyond the River Oxus when approached from the south, emphasizing Turkestan's long-standing relationship with Iran, the Persian Empires, and the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates.
DayuanDayuan (or Tayuan; ; Middle Chinese dâiC-jwɐn < LHC: dɑh-ʔyɑn) is the Chinese exonym for a country that existed in Ferghana valley in Central Asia, described in the Chinese historical works of Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han. It is mentioned in the accounts of the Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 130 BCE and the numerous embassies that followed him into Central Asia. The country of Dayuan is generally accepted as relating to the Ferghana Valley, controlled by the Hellenistic polis Alexandria Eschate (modern Khujand, Tajikistan), which can probably be understood as "Greco-Fergana city-state" in English language.
Koryo-saramKoryo-saram (고려사람; Корё сарам; Корьо-сарам; Uzbek: Корё-сарам / Koryo-saram) is the name which ethnic Koreans in the post-Soviet states use to refer to themselves. The term is composed of two Korean words: "Koryo", a historical name for Korea, and "saram", meaning "person" or "people". Approximately 500,000 ethnic Koreans reside in the former Soviet Union, primarily in the now-independent states of Central Asia. There are also large Korean communities in Southern Russia (around Volgograd), Russian Far East (around Vladivostok), the Caucasus and southern Ukraine.
Tajikistani Civil WarThe Tajikistani Civil War, also known as the Tajik Civil War, began in May 1992 and ended in 1997. Regional groups from the Garm and Gorno-Badakhshan regions of Tajikistan rose up against the newly formed government of President Rahmon Nabiyev, which was dominated by people from the Khujand and Kulob regions. The rebel groups were led by a combination of liberal democratic reformers and Islamists, who would later organize under the banner of the United Tajik Opposition. The government was supported by Russian military and border guards.
Syr DaryaThe Syr Darya (ˌsɪər_ˈdɑr.jə, siːɾ dæɾˈjɒː), historically known as the Jaxartes (dZaekˈsɑrti:z, Ἰαξάρτης), is a river in Central Asia. The name, which is Persian, literally means Syr Sea or Syr River. It originates in the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan and flows for west and north-west through Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan to the northern remnants of the Aral Sea. It is the northern and eastern of the two main rivers in the endorheic basin of the Aral Sea, the other being the Amu Darya (Jayhun).
