Talk:Samarkand

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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 08:36, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Why is the city declared to be in Tajikistan?

As far as I know, Samarkand is located in Uzbekistan so why does the article state that the city is located in Tajikistan? This should be corrected. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.154.34.38 (talk) 00:38, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Popular culture section

Popular culture sections can be useful, though random pieces of unsourced and unencyclopedic information are not. The Popular culture section in this article has attracted a lot of random pieces of unsourced and trivial information. Leaving the section in place will likely encourage more unsourced and dubious material, so I have moved it here for editors to evaluate the material, find sources, and look to see if the information can be incorporated into the main body of the article per WP:MISCELLANEA, or a more robust Popular culture section built. SilkTork ^{✔Tea time} 16:08, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

Popular culture material for evaluation

[[:File:'Claudius Bombarnac' by Léon Benett 28.jpg|thumb|Bazaar in Samarkand, illustration by Léon Benett for a Jules Verne novel]] "The Golden Horde" was a 1951 movie starring David Farrar and Ann Blyth. It depicted a defence of the city against the forces of Genghis Khan.

• Samarkand is the title of a 1988 novel by Amin Maalouf, about Omar Khayyám's life.
• The Amulet of Samarkand is the first book in the Bartimaeus Trilogy written by Jonathan Stroud.
• The Road to Samarcand is one of Patrick O'Brian's early novels (1954) about an American teenage boy, the son of recently deceased missionary parents, who travels from China with a small party on the Silk Road en route to the West.
• For part of the history espoused in Clive Barker's novel Galilee, the city of Samarkand is held as a shining light of humanity, and one of the characters longs to go there.
• Lord of Samarcand is a work of historical fiction by Robert E. Howard.
• In Sergei Lukyanenko's The Last Watch, the main character Anton Gorodetsky visits Samarkand as part of his investigation and the city's landmarks feature heavily.
• Samarkand can appear as an archetype of romantic exoticism, notably in the work by James Elroy Flecker: The Golden Journey to Samarkand (1913).
• In Islamic literature and discussions, Samarkand has taken on a semi-mythological status and is often cited as an ideal of Islamic philosophy and society, a place of justice, fairness, and righteous moderation.
• Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, explores the metaphysical significance of the marketplace in a volume of poetry entitled Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known, 2002.
• Embassy to Samarkand by Ali Bey (Ruy González de Clavijo) is a narrative of the journey to Samarkand by the Spanish nobleman Ruy González de Clavijo, who travelled disguised as a Syrian notable (Ali Beg or Bey in Spanish), sent by the king of Spain as ambassador to Timur in the late 14th century. The book was published in 1406 after González de Clavijo's return to the metropolis.
• Murder in Samarkand by Craig Murray is a book about the UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan's experiences in this role, until he resigned over human rights abuses in the country in October 2004.
• In 1972, Swedish composer Thorstein Bergman wrote "Om du nånsin kommer fram till Samarkand" ("If you ever reach Samarkand") made notable by Swedish singer Lill Lindfors in 1978.
• The objective of the fourth mission in the Genghis Khan campaign of the video game Age of Empires 2 is to destroy the city of Samarkand.
• The fictional city of Zanarkand in the Final Fantasy series used Samarkand as inspiration.
• Samarkand, along with Baghdad, was mentioned by George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life as a place he would like to visit .
• Samarkand appears in the video game Civilization V as a neutral city-state.

References

Leo1pard (talk) 15:05, 5 January 2018 (UTC)

Can anyone verify Samarkand being under Sasanian Persian rule via a source or citation?

I am beginning to notice a lot of unsourced content within articles such as Bactria and Samarkand lately, namely with the Sassanid Persian Empire.

Essentially, I am saying that this sentence "The Turks ruled over Samarkand until they were defeated by the Sassanids during the Göktürk–Persian Wars." should be removed if there is no source to back it up. Kirby (talk) 04:29, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Name

Russian name?

Does the Russian name of the city warrant inclusion in the article? --Lingveno (talk) 06:23, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

Tajik name?

Does the Tajik name of the city warrant inclusion in the article? --Lingveno (talk) 06:23, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

Photos

There seem to be two photos of Shah-i-Zinda in the infobox. Shouldn't the pictures all be of different landmarks? (The captions are also wrong, which led me to notice this in the first place.)--Vellidragon (talk) 19:25, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion:

• Registan Samarkand Timurid Renaissance.jpg

You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 21:52, 22 April 2022 (UTC)

Ishratkhana

I'm uzbek and I was born in Samarkand. In this article has a picture of historical building, which named "Ishratkhana". It's not true name of building. It is "Ashratkhana". Ashratkhona arabic name. It means "ten (10) room". Becouse, in history that building had a 10 rooms. This memorial built by Temurid emperor Abu Said for her wife Habiba Sulton.

Current name "Ishratkhana" means "brothel room" in uzbek language. That is why, we shuold change name of building for original name. For more information see https://zarnews.uz/uz/post/habiba-sulton-begim-maqbarasi-yoxud-ashratxona-nega-xalqimiz-orasida-notogri-talqin-qilinadi Ravshan Burxonov (talk) 09:07, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Samarkand population 1050.000 people (2020)

Akrom Jumaqulov 92.63.205.147 (talk) 04:13, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

Samarkand one of the most important silk road centre at the middle century

samrkand sayqali ruyi zaminas 92.63.205.147 (talk) 04:16, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

Inconsistency with name in article

The standing title of the article is Samarkand. However, a majority of the article uses "Samarqand" instead as an alternate name. Shouldn't these be edited to be more consistent? HaapsaluYT (talk) 18:14, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

Looks like about a year ago, one single user went through and changed all the Ks to Qs in a series of 5 edits.

This seems like an awfully wide-reaching change to be done single-handedly without first establishing consensus.

(Edit: The same change was done to the Uzbekistan page last year as well, but was reverted as being nonconstructive.)240B:253:E1E3:1500:25F:0:0:1000 (talk) 12:50, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

Landmarks section seems to have be vandalized

The landmarks section seems to have be vandalized. All of the landmarks that were listed there have been removed and the section now only talks about that commercial complex which seems more like marketing than an actual knowledge article. I think something should be done about that. 88.247.114.17 (talk) 14:21, 5 August 2024 (UTC)

re:Samarkand Q spelling in sources

@Flemmish Nietzsche, I'm fairly sure the editor who changed k to q throughout the article also changed k to q in a lot of the sources, and we should probably go through them and see which ones are using the English spelling and which are using the Uzbek spelling.

Also, I'd conjecture we really don't need to be using "Samarqand" even for things like the Samarkand administrative region, seeing as neither the local gov't nor UNESCO (a body which generally always follows official naming dictats) seem to have any problem with the English spelling of the name. Thoughts? Kyoto Grand (talk) 05:11, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

I went and checked which mentions of "Samarqand" are actually correct, comparing with a diff prior to the mass changes to the alternative spelling, and these should be fixed now. On the administrative region naming, I simply chose to keep it as "Samarqand" as the linked article uses the same spelling; I don't see a problem with changing the spelling, I just think the appropriate article should be moved first. Flemmish Nietzsche (talk) 05:34, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

@Flemmish Nietzsche, @Kyoto Grand

I have found this whole issue quite puzzling too, so I did a strange thing - I went to Uzbeck Government website, which helpfully has an English version, presumably translated and authorised by the Uzbek Government webmaster, not some outside agency such as Google Translate!

I navigated my way through site until I came across the following;

Home page>STATE BODIES>Khokimiyats (these are the 12 regional administrations)

And the one of interest to us here is...<drum roll>....

SAMARKAND Regional Administration

If it is good enough for the Government website, it's good enough for me.

(FYI Samarqand is the Uzbek Latin script version, just as valid as Самарқанд)

WendlingCrusader (talk) 05:17, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

Those sources do not even claim that

Those sources do not even claim that Samarkand is 70% Tajik and 70% speaks Tajik. And many of the sources are on Russian with English users of Wiki will not understand. So can you please provide us with realable sources that claiming that and on English please?@HistoryOfIran Native.centralasian (talk) 12:39, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

Those sources do not even claim that Samarkand is 70% Tajik and 70% speaks Tajik. And many of the sources are on Russian with English users of Wiki will not understand. So can you please provide us with realable sources that claiming that and on English please? @HistoryofIran Native.centralasian (talk) 12:42, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

Wait for your block Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Anzor.akaev. And you have a history of lying , so I'm not going to look into it this time. HistoryofIran (talk) 12:45, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

When did I lie? About what? Native.centralasian (talk) 12:48, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Shaping of the Modern World

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 January 2025 and 21 May 2025. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ibrohim1.618 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: DenysKlym013.

— Assignment last updated by DocBui (talk) 20:56, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Derivation of modern name

In the introductory section, following the mention of Alexander's conquest and the city's name at the time as Marakanda (in greek Μαρακάνδα) it would be useful to add the following sentence: The modern name Samarkand likely derives from the Greek "Εις Μαρακάνδα" similarly to various placenames in modern Turkey, such as Ismir from "Εις Σμύρνην", Isnik from "Εις Νίκαιαν" and Istanbul from "Εις την Πόλιν". 2A02:1388:20F4:DE16:85DD:B3FA:3D48:D419 (talk) 13:06, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

Copied text

Eternal city situated in Silk Road Samarkand complex. This site which occupies 17 hectares accurately recreates the spirit of the ancient city backed up by the history and traditions of Uzbek lands and Uzbek people for the guests of the Silk Road Samarkand. The narrow streets here house multiple shops of artists, artisans, and craftsmen. The pavilions of the Eternal City were inspired by real houses and picturesque squares described in ancient books. This is where you can plunge into a beautiful oriental fairy tale: with turquoise domes, mosaics on palaces, and high minarets that pierce the sky.

Visitors to the Eternal City can taste national dishes from different eras and regions of the country and also see authentic street performances. The Eternal City showcases a unique mix of Parthian, Hellenistic, and Islamic cultures so that the guests could imagine the versatile heritage of bygone centuries in full splendor. The project was inspired and designed by Bobur Ismoilov, a famous modern artist.

This entire section is directly copied from its cited source (https://www.silkroad-samarkand.com/resort/eternal-city/), which itself is a promotional page, and is hence not worded encyclopedically. Needs to be changed. Chtonenamaidane (talk) 00:14, 9 January 2026 (UTC)

References in literature

Two points

1/ There is a citation needed for the reference to the Agatha Christie novel, "Appointment with Death". I am not familar with how to enter these directly, but here is a wikipedia citation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appointment_with_Death

2/ The John O'Hara novel "Appointment in Samarra" title as well as a reference in the foreward directly addresses the famous tale of "The Renedezvous in Samarkand", which O'Hara heard from Dororthy Parker who saw it in a Somerset Maughm play. The citation to the O'Hara novel is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appointment_in_Samarra

These might make worthy additions to the article if someone can enter them. Ravijainweb (talk) 18:31, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

I went ahead and made the edits. Ravijainweb (talk) 22:22, 25 July 2026 (UTC)