Toshkent

Toshkent or Tashkent, city in eastern Uzbekistan, capital of the country and of Toshkent Viloyat (Toshkent Oblast). Located in an oasis near the Chirchik River in a cotton- and fruit-growing region, Toshkent is one of the oldest settlements in the area, and was once a stop on the ancient trade route between China and Europe known as the Silk Route. Since then, its strategic setting has helped it evolve into the biggest industrial centre of Central Asia, as well as a regional air and ground transport hub. It has industries producing machinery, cotton and silk textiles, chemicals, tobacco products, and furniture. A centre of Uzbek culture, Toshkent has several large libraries, and is the seat of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences and numerous other institutions of higher education. An underground railway system was opened here in 1977.

Although Toshkent was probably first settled around the 1st century bc, written records date the city to its Arab occupation in the 8th century AD. The 13th-century defeat to Genghis Khan and his Mongolian forces threw Toshkent into an era of turmoil. The Mongols lost the city in the 14th century when the Timurid Empire seized control. The Timurid Empire ruled Toshkent until the late 15th century, when the Shaybanids swept through the region. After this empire crumbled, Toshkent became independent and remained so until 1809, when it came under the rule of the khanate of Quqon, centred in the nearby Fergana Valley.

Later in the 19th century, Russia attacked Toshkent for control of the key trade route. Once Russia annexed this strategic city Russian trading firms rapidly descended on Toshkent. Imperial rulers were able to accommodate the expanding population by building a new Russian city around the older town.

However, Russian rule soon began antagonizing the city’s predominately Muslim population, and, by the late 19th century, tensions were high. Tensions finally exploded in Toshkent during a cholera epidemic in 1892 when Russian sanitation regulations—particularly those imposed on funerals—offended local customs and religious practices. When officials then arrested city residents for violating these regulations, a small riot erupted.

In 1917 Bolsheviks took control of Toshkent along with most of Uzbekistan, making the city capital of the new Turkistan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. A resistance army comprised of White Russians, Uzbek nationalists, and British troops forced Soviet forces to withdraw in 1918, but Moscow soon regained control. In 1924 Toshkent was named the capital of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

The industrial base of Toshkent was expanded under Soviet rule. Its textile industry, based on the region’s huge cotton crop, boomed after the city was connected to the Russian transport centre of Orenburg by rail. The flourishing textile mills and related industries brought thousands of new residents, causing the city’s population to almost triple between 1926 and 1959.

In 1966 an enormous earthquake levelled most of the city. Because of the extensive earthquake damage, only a handful of the city’s original buildings can still be seen today. These include a number of remarkably strong mud-walled houses, a religious school, and several 15th- and 16th-century mosques. The new, rebuilt Toshkent was designed in typical Soviet urban fashion—an organized grid built around a large public square located in the heart of the city. The city’s textile sector recovered quickly from the devastation wrought by the earthquake, helping the region to regain its position as the largest cotton producer in the Soviet Union.

Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Toshkent experienced economic chaos as it lost its trade ties with Russia and other markets. Toshkent became the capital of independent Uzbekistan in 1991, and today the city’s economy is dominated by agricultural equipment and cotton-cloth manufacturers. Toshkent continues to prosper as the economic centre of this resource-rich region. Population 2,155,000 (2003 estimate).