emirate of Bukhara

emirate of Bukhara former state, central Asia, in Turkistan , in the Amu Darya River basin. Part of ancient Sogdiana , it was ruled (AD 709-874) by the Umayyad Arabs and played an important role under the Samanid dynasties (875-1000). It was a trade, transport, and cultural center of the Islamic world. The Seljuk Turks ruled from 1004 to 1133; later, the realm was conquered by Jenghiz Khan (1220) and in the 14th cent. by Timur . The Timurid dynasties ruled until the invasion of Uzbek tribes early in the 16th cent. The Bukhara emirate was founded by the Uzbek Khan Sheybani, who between 1500 and 1507 conquered the Timurid domains in Transoxania. In 1555, Abdullah Khan transferred the capital from Samarkand to Bukhara , from which the state then took its name. Internal feuds weakened Bukhara, it split into a number of principalities, and in 1740 it was conquered by Nadir Shah of Persia. In 1753, Bukhara again became an independent emirate but did not recover its supremacy over Khwarazm, Merv, Badakhshan, Tashkent, and the Fergana Valley. Bukhara's population consisted principally of Uzbeks (who remained politically dominant), Sarts, and Tajiks. Defeated by Russia in 1866, the emirate became a Russian protectorate in 1868. In 1920, after a prolonged battle with Bolshevik forces, the last emir was driven into Afghanistan. The Bukhara People's Soviet Republic was established (1920) and lasted until 1924. In the same year it was proclaimed a socialist republic and was included in the USSR; a few months later, however, it was dismembered and divided between Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

Bukhara (Bukhoro/Buxoro), Uzbekistan Numijent, Bukhar A province and a city. Numijent was the Sogdian name. The present name comes from bukhar, a Turkish‐Mongol form of the Sanskrit vihāra ‘monastery’, although the Chinese and Uighur name, Bukhar, meant ‘Temple of Idols’. The city was captured by the Arabs in 709 and became the capital of the vast Sāmānid Empire in the 9th century. The Emirate of Bukhara was founded in the early 16th century. It became a Russian protectorate in 1868, although still ruled by its emir, and was annexed by Soviet Russia in 1920, becoming the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic. In 1924 the Republic's territory was divided between the Turkmen and Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republics. It may have given its name to buckram, a kind of linen or cotton fabric.