Εμφανίζονται 1 τίτλοι με αναζήτηση: Ιστορία στην ευρύτερη περιοχή: "ΟΥΖΜΠΕΚΙΣΤΑΝ Χώρα ΒΟΡΕΙΑ & ΚΕΝΤΡΙΚΗ ΑΣΙΑ" .
ΣΑΜΑΡΚΑΝΔΗ (Πόλη) ΟΥΖΜΠΕΚΙΣΤΑΝ
Maracanda: ancient name of Samarkand.
Archaeological discoveries suggest that Maracanda was occupied in
the fourteenth century BCE. It is situated on the banks of the river Sravsan.
In the sixth century BCE, the Persian king Cyrus the Great (559-530) conquered
Maracanda and his successor Darius (522-486), who organized the Achaemenid empire,
made it the capital of the satrapy Sogdiana. During excavations of the 10-13th
century mosque, remains of the ancient temple of the Sogdians were found. Hardly
anything is known about this period, although it is likely that Maracanda was
sometimes visited by travelers who went from Babylonia, Assyria
and Persia to China.
(Their route was to become famous as the Silk road.)
Two centuries later, the Macedonian king Alexander the Great conquered
the Achaemenid empire. Between 329 and 327, he used Maracanda as his base for
expeditions in the region. It was in the palace of Maracanda that he celebrated
famous drinking parties, and it was by one of those occasion that he accidentally
killed his commander-in-chief Clitus.
After Alexander's death, Maracanda lost its status as satrapal capital;
in the Seleucid empire, Sogdiana was part of the satrapy Bactria. The city now
disappears from our sources. This is a bit strange, because at 130 BCE, the Chinese
authorities started an active policy to open the Silk road. The route flourished
until the third century CE. We would have expected that Maracanda played a role
of some importance, but if it did, it was not noticed by the historians.
When the Silk road was reopened by the emperors of the T'ang dynasty
(618-907), Maracanda was one of its most important stations. It became a center
for the spread of (Nestorian) Christianity. Until 711, it was a treasured possession
of the khan of the Western Turks; in that year, it was conquered by the Muslims.
The eighth century was a period of great splendor; Samarkand, as it was now called,
became one of the most important cultural centers of the Islamic world.
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Λάβετε το καθημερινό newsletter με τα πιο σημαντικά νέα της τουριστικής βιομηχανίας.
Εγγραφείτε τώρα!