Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #bukhara
Most recents (3)
1. My #SamarkandSummit orientalistš§µon its toponym and etymology. Incorrect is #Wikipedia's #Samarkand etymon entry and false analogy to #Tashkent. Both #Samarkand, like neighbouring #Bukhara, remain extensively debated in eastern #MiddleIranian #philology.
2. #Samarkand, contra #Wikipedia, is not 'stone city'. The first element /smār/ remains unexplained. On #Sogdian smārknĪ“h [Ancient Letters], cf. Chin. Samojian é¢Æē§£å»ŗ Gr. ĪĪ±ĻĪ±ĪŗĪ¬Ī½Ī“ĪæĪ¹, scholarly consensus exists only on second compound, #Sogdian 'town, city'.
3. #Sogdian knĪ“h 'town, city' > #Christian #Sogdian qĪø; /smār/ element unmentioned in Gharib 1995 [Sogdian #Dictionary], @iranicaonline, or EI2 [Enc. of #Islam) entries. See @Brill_ME_Africa EI2, VIII/1995: 1031-032, s.v. #Samarkand Schaeder (rev. Bosworth). 
You might think looking at these paintings that Panjakent society was a society of warriors.
While there were the odd few pieces of arms and armour found there, so far, no stables have been found.
These paintings usually adorned ordinary houses and often told stories.
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While there were the odd few pieces of arms and armour found there, so far, no stables have been found.
These paintings usually adorned ordinary houses and often told stories.
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The most famous of these stories is the āRostam cycle,ā the earliest evidence of the famous hero from Ferdowsiās #Shahnameh. Rostam wears his leopard skin coat and has an elongated skull, a hark back to the Hunnic / Hephthalite kings of Bactria. ~NA @eranudturan
In this story, Rostam sets out to fight the divs (demons), encounters Avlad, has to fight a dragon, duels with the King of the divs, and fights the army of the divs. The whole composition bends around the corners of the room, and was probably copied from a scroll ~NA
Ok, lets talk about Varakhsha, a town near #Bukhara that contained a painted palace and became the seat of the #Sogdian rulers of Bukhara from the Arab conquest (early 8th C) until the rise of the Samanids (late 9th C)
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~ NA @eranudturan #HistoryofIran
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~ NA @eranudturan #HistoryofIran
The palace was built probably in the late 7th Century, but the most famous paintings, the Red Hall, date from the early 8th C from the reign of Tughshada, the son of the famous Queen of #Bukhara, about whom I wrote here: patreon.com/posts/who-was-ā¦
~ NA
~ NA
The Red Hall has a row of men in Indian attire, riding saddled elephants, fighting a series of beasts - leopards, tigers, and dragons. The same scene is repeated again over the length of the wall, with variations in whom the elephant rider is fighting against. ~NA
