Jizzakh is a city (population 138,400 in 2004) and the center of Jizzakh Province

Jizzakh Province

Jizzakh Province is a viloyat of Uzbekistan located in the center of the country. It borders with Tajikstan to the south and south-east, Samarqand Province to the west, Navoiy Province to the north-west, Kazakhstan to the north, and Sirdaryo Province to the east. It covers an area of 20,500 km²...

 in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

, northeast of Samarkand

Samarkand

Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...

.

Jizzakh was an important Silk Road

Silk Road

The Silk Road or Silk Route refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa...

 junction on the road connecting Samarkand with Fergana Valley

Fergana Valley

The Fergana Valley or Farghana Valley is a region in Central Asia spreading across eastern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Divided across three subdivisions of the former Soviet Union, the valley is ethnically diverse, and in the early 21st century was the scene of ethnic conflict...

. It is at the edge of Golodnaya Steppe

Golodnaya Steppe

Golodnaya Steppe is a loess plain of some 10,000 km2 on the left bank of Syr Darya in Uzbekistan, extending from the mouth of Ferghana Valley on the border with Tajikistan to the east across Syrdarya Province and the northern part of Jizzakh Province to the west. To the south it is bounded by...

, and next to the strategic Pass of Jilanuti (Timur

Timur

Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...

's Gate) in the Turkestan Mountains

Turkestan Range

One of the westernmost extensions of the massive Tian Shan system, the Turkestan Range stretches for a total length of 340 km from the Alay Mountains on the border of Kyrgyzstan with Tajikistan to the Samarkand oasis in Uzbekistan...

, controlling the approach to the Zeravshan Valley, Samarkand and Bukhara

Bukhara

Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...

.

The name Jizzakh derives from the Sogdian

Sogdian language

The Sogdian language is a Middle Iranian language that was spoken in Sogdiana , located in modern day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ....

 word for "small fort" and the present city is built of the site of the Sogdian town of Osrūshana. After the Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 conquest of Sogdiana

Sogdiana

Sogdiana or Sogdia was the ancient civilization of an Iranian people and a province of the Achaemenid Empire, eighteenth in the list on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great . Sogdiana is "listed" as the second of the "good lands and countries" that Ahura Mazda created...

, Jizzakh served as a market town between the nomadic raiders and settled farmers. The Arabs built a series of rabats (blockhouses) at Jizzakh, housing ghazis to protect the people. By the 19th century, these blockhouses had evolved into a major fortress for the Emirate of Bukhara

Emirate of Bukhara

The Emirate of Bukhara was a Central Asian state that existed from 1785 to 1920. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, known formerly as Transoxiana. Its core territory was the land along the lower Zarafshan River, and its urban centres were the ancient cities of...

. Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n General Mikhail Chernyayev

Mikhail Chernyayev

Mikhail Grigorievich Chernyayev was a Russian general, who, together with Konstantin Kaufman and Mikhail Skobelev, led the Russian conquest of Central Asia under Alexander II....

, the “Lion of Tashkent” failed in his first attempt to take Jizzakh, but succeed in his second try, with a loss of 6 men, against 6000 dead for the defenders. The old town was mostly destroyed, its remaining inhabitants evicted, and Russian settlers brought in.

In 1916, Jizzakh was the center of an anti-Russian uprising, which was quickly suppressed. In 1917, Jizzakh most famous native son, Sharof Rashidov, future secretary of the Communist Party

Communist party

A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...

 of Uzbekistan, was born.

Modern Jizzakh is quietly tree-lined European, with almost nothing remaining of the pre-Rashidov era. The city has two universities, with a total of approximately 7,000 students, and is home to a football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 team, Sogdiana Jizzakh, which plays in the Uzbek League

Uzbek League

The Uzbekistan Professional Football League , is the top division of football in Uzbekistan, and is operated under the auspices of the Uzbekistan Football Federation.-Soviet time champions:*1926 : FC Tashkent*1927 : FC Tashkent*1928 : FC Fergana...

 (Oliy Liga).

Famous people born in Jizzakh

• Patokh Chodiev
  Patokh Chodiev
  Patokh Chodiev , born 15 April 1953, in Jizzakh , is a London-based Uzbek oligarch with Belgian citizenship who, with Alexander Mashkevich and Alijan Ibragimov, is part of the "Trio," a group of Central Asian businessmen who made their fortune through deals in minerals, oil, gas, and banking in...