Khujand,[a] sometimes spelledKhodjent and formerly known asLeninabad[b] from 1936 to 1991, is the second-largest city ofTajikistan and the capital of Tajikistan's northernmostSughd province.
Khujand may have been the site ofCyropolis (Κυρούπολις) which was established when KingCyrus the Great founded the city during his last expedition against the Saka tribe ofMassagetae shortly before his death.Alexander the Great later built his furthestGreek settlement near Cyropolis in 329 BC and named itAlexandria Eschate (Greek: Ἀλεξάνδρεια Ἐσχάτη) or "Alexandria The Furthest".[4] The city would form a bastion for the Greek settlers against the nomadicScythian tribes who lived north of theSyr Darya River. According to the Roman writerCurtius,Alexandria Ultima (Alexandria the Furthest) retained itsHellenistic culture as late as 30 BC. The city became a major staging point on the northernSilk Road.[5] It also became a cultural hub, and several famous poets and scientists came from this city.
The Sheik Muslihiddin Mausoleum and Jami Masjidi Yami mosque, together with the fortress of Khujand, which was built over 2,500 years ago and underwent several cycles of destruction and renovation, are preserved in Khujand, as are some monuments from the 16th–17th century.[6]
In the early eighth century AD, Khujand was captured by the forces of theUmayyad Caliphate, underQutayba ibn Muslim. The city was incorporated into the Umayyad and subsequentAbbasid Caliphates, and a process ofIslamicization began. In the late ninth century, however, it reverted to local rule and was incorporated into theSamanid Empire. It came under the rule of theKara-Khanid Khanate in 999 and after the division of Kara Khanids in 1042, it was initially part of Eastern Kara Khanids, and then later passed to the western one. Molana Wajeeh-ud-Din Khujandi was a Muslim scholar of Khujand who migrated to Dilli. Hafiz Khawaja Sheikh Mehmood (Moena Doz) was his nephew. His daughter Bibi Qursam Khatoon was mother Of Baba Fareed ud Din Ganj e Shakr.
Karakhitans conquered it in 1137, but it passed toKhwarazmshahs in 1211. In 1220, it strongly resisted theMongol hordes and was thus laid to waste. In the 14th century, the city was part of theChagatai Khanate until it was incorporated into theTimurid dynasty in the late 14th century, under which it flourished greatly. TheShaybanid dynasty ofBukhara next annexed Khujand, until it was taken over by theKokand Khanate in 1802, however, Bukhara regained it in 1842 until it was lost a few decades later to Russia.
In 1866, as most ofCentral Asia was occupied byRussian Empire, the city became part of the GeneralGovernorate ofTurkestan, underTsarist Russia. The threat of forced conscription duringWorld War I led to protests in the city in July 1916, which turned violent when demonstrators attacked Russian soldiers.[7]
During the initial period ofSoviet power in Central Asia, Khujand was part of theTurkestan ASSR that was created in 1918. When the latter was dismantled in 1924 on the principle ofnational delimitation, the city became a part of theUzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1929, the previously createdTajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (contained within the Uzbek SSR) was upgraded to union-level republic as theTajik Soviet Socialist Republic, and in order to gain a sufficient number of inhabitants (preferably from the titular ethnic group) the city of Khujand and the surrounding area, inhabited mainly by ethnicTajiks, was transferred by Soviets from the Uzbek SSR to the Tajik SSR.
The city was renamed Leninabad (in honour ofVladimir Lenin) on 10 January 1936[8] and it remained part of the Soviet Union until 1991.
Sheikh Muslihiddin Mosque and Mausoleum
Now a part of the Tajik SSR, Leninabad became the second-largest city in the republic, though the city's location within the historically more urban, prosperous, and commercially central Fergana Valley and a long history of being a densely populated urban centre meant that Khujand and its region were sometimes viewed as more developed and cosmopolitan than the newly designated capital and boom-town ofDushanbe/Stalinabad (the latter was a small town of 6,000 when the Tajik SSR was created in 1926 and had reached over 200,000 inhabitants ten years later).[9]
It reverted to its original name in 1992 after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the independence of Tajikistan, and the city continued to be the second-largest city in the nation.
In 1996 the city experienced theAshurov protests during which citizens called for the President,Emomali Rakhmonov, to step down. The popular protests were followed by a protest from the city's prisoners, many of whom had been sentenced to long jail terms for minor crimes and who were living in poor conditions. The protest led to theKhujand prison riot in which between 24 and 150 prisoners were killed.
In the early 2000s many residents of Khujand had little to no access to water, and what water they did have was unsafe to drink and had to be boiled. In 2004, The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and theEuropean Bank of Reconstruction and Development joined to help improve the situation, providing 32,000 water meters for inhabitants and developing improved access to water. Residents pay for their water supply, which in turn helps Khujand's municipal water company to continue to renovate and improve their services. The project is in its third stage of development and was to be completed by 2017. In comparison to other Central Asian projects aiming to improve access to water, this project is considered a success and has been applied to Kyrgyz cities and towns such asOsh,Jalal-Abad,Karabalta, andTalas, with a possible extension into the Kyrgyz capital ofBishkek.[10]
On 3 September 2010, a suicide attack was committed in the city by the al-Qaeda linkedJamaat Ansarullah militant group, resulting in the deaths of 4 people.[11][12]
In April 2017, Pastor Bakhrom Kholmatov was detained after a raid on Sunmin Sunbogym Protestant Church in Khujand. Kholmatov was accused of singing too loudly and "interfering with the comfort and rest" of people who lived nearby, and jailed for three years.[13][better source needed]
The 5-km tunnel, located 80 km northwest ofDushanbe and built with assistance from Iran, is also a transit route betweenDushanbe and theUzbek capital ofTashkent. Previously, particularly during cold seasons, the lack of a direct link between northern and southernTajikistan often led to disruptions of commercial activities in the region.[16]
Khujand is mainly inhabited by ethnicTajiks. Results of population census carried out in 2010:Tajiks – 84%,Uzbeks – 14%,Russians – 0.4%, and others – 1.6%.Sunni Islam is a mainly practiced religion in the city.[8] The population of the city is 181,600 (Report of Statistical Agency 2019).[8] The population in Khujand agglomeration is 931,900 people (2019).
The city is home to theHistorical Museum of Sughd located within the Khujand Fortress and having around 1200 exhibitions with most being open to the public.[17] TheSheikh Muslihiddin mausoleum is located on the main square across the Panjshanbe Market (Бозори Панҷшанбе / Persian for "Thursday's Market"), one of the largest covered markets in Central Asia.[18]
Khujand experiences a temperatesemi-arid climate (Köppen climate classificationBSk) with cold, snowy winters and hot, dry summers. Precipitation is light, and it generally falls in winter and autumn.
Climate data for Khujand (1991–2020, extremes 1936–present)
^Prevas, John. (2004).Envy of the Gods: Alexander the Great's Ill-Fated Journey across Asia, p. 121. Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MassachusettsISBN0-306-81268-1.
^Kalinovsky, Artemy M. (15 May 2018).Laboratory of socialist development: Cold War politics and decolonization in Soviet Tajikistan. Ithaca. p. 116.ISBN978-1-5017-1558-7.OCLC1013988565.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Pannier, Bruce (13 May 2022)."Northern Afghanistan and the New Threat to Central Asia".Foreign Policy Research Institute.Archived from the original on 15 May 2022. Retrieved15 May 2022.Jamaat Ansarullah, for instance, is a terrorist group from Tajikistan that claimed responsibility for a suicide bomber attack in the northern Tajik city of Khujand in September 2010 that killed four people.[7] The Tajik government launched a crackdown on suspected Jamaat Ansarullah members and since then the group has been operating alongside the Taliban in northern Afghanistan.
^Zenn, Jacob; Kuehnast, Kathleen (October 2014)."Preventing Violent Extremism in Kyrgyzstan"(PDF).United States Institute of Peace. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 20 March 2015. Retrieved15 May 2022.Jamaat Ansarullah first carried out an attack in 2010, when it claimed responsibility for an al-Qaeda-trained member's suicide bombing at a police station in Khujand, a city in Tajikistan's northern province of Sughd in the Fergana Valley.
Hill, John E. 2004.The Peoples of the West from the Weilue 魏略by Yu Huan 魚豢: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265. Draft annotated English translation.Weilue: The Peoples of the West (See under the heading for "Northern Wuyi").
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