CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 03/2023

LE MONDE UZBEKISTAN
Khiva - aerial view
(left), TV tower in
Tashkent.
UZBEKISTAN
PHOTOS: ADOBE STOCK
Ancient towns along the Silk Road such as Samarkand,
Bukhara and Khiva alone justify a
visit to Uzbekistan. Anyone admiring the
three ornate madrasahs from the 15th century on Registan
Square in Samarkand will quickly succumb to
the magic of the Orient. In the city of Bukhara, just a
two-hour train ride away on the new Afrosiyob highspeed
rail, the main attraction is the Poi-Kalon complex
of 12th century structures, including the 46 metres
high minaret with the Kalon Mosque, which
seats 10,000 worshippers. Even Genghis Khan is said
to have been so impressed by the buildings that he
spared them.
The most beautiful buildings go back to the ruler
Amir Timur, (also called Tamerlane), who in the
14th century created a world empire from today’s
Uzbekistan that stretched from Asia Minor through
Persia and India up to China. Uzbekistan owes many
of its monuments with the typical domes covered
with turquoise tiles to this ruler, who was in no way
inferior to the Mongol prince Genghis Khan in terms
of cruelty and warfare.
No wonder, Timur is revered today as the ancestor
of modern Uzbekistan. Evidence of this is his
museum in the capital Tashkent and monuments in
his native town of Shahrisabz and in Samarkand.
Timur’s favourite grandson, Ulugh Beg, left battlefields
to devote himself to science and especially
astronomy. With an observatory including a built-in,
huge sextant in Samarkand, he measured the solar
year between 1424-28 so precisely that only a few
hours differ from today’s measurement. He also detected
and described over 1000 stars. Thus, Ulugh
Beg found out about 100 years before Galileo Galilei
that the earth revolved around the sun.
Amir Timur immortalized his favourite wife Bibixonim
with the mosque named after her in Samarkand,
which was built in 1399 as the then largest
mosque in the Islamic world. Timur’s traditional
motto: “If you doubt our power, look at our buildings!”
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,
Uzbekistan became independent. The first president
was Islam Karimov, who ruled with an iron fist and
initiated the country’s upswing in an authoritarian
manner.
Official name: Republic of Uzbekistan
Form of government: Presidential
constitutional republic
Population: 35.2 million
Capital: Tashkent
Area: 448,900 km 2
Official language: Uzbek, Russian
widespread
Currency: Som
GDP per capita: 8,000 US Dollar (2022)
Skyscrapers in the capital Tashkent.
Khiva: Old city Itchan Kala oasis in the
desert.
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Cercle Diplomatique 3/2023
Cercle Diplomatique 3/2023
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