The capital of Uzbekistan, and Central Asia’s premier metropolis, Tashkent (Toshkent) betrays little of a 2200-year history at the crossroad of ancient trade route. The population of Tashkent is more than 3 million and has an area of 320 square kilometers (fourth largest in the CIS after Moscow, St Petersburg and Kiev).
The information of political history of Tashkent was mentioned in different sources with different names such as Chach, Shash and Binkat.
In Russia of the XV century it was known as Tashkura. The modern name of Tashkent for the first time was mentioned in the work “The Dictionary of the Turkic Dialects” of Makhmud Kashgari (an XI century scholar and lexicographer of Turkic languages) and Abu Rayhan Beruni (973–1050, scholar and polymath) from XI century. Tashkent means “City of Stone” in Uzbek.
II-I centuries BC Tashkent became ancient city which was surrounded by strong defensive walls. I-IV AD centuries the city became the capital of newly independent state. In V century Tashkent was conquered by the Hephthalites or Ephthalites (an Indo-European tribe from Central Asia, expanded to the territory of modern Uzbekistan). In VI century Chach became the part of Turkic Khaganate and from that time Turkic language started to spread in the area. In VIII century Arab Caliphate started to enter to the territory and a century later Shash became part of Caliphate. At the end of IX century Shash became a part of Samanids Dynasty (also known as the Samanian Empire or Samanid Dynasty) and Bukhara became the capital of state in the IX century. Islam religion started strengthen in the area.
