Qarshi

Qarshi (Uzbek: Qarshi, Russian: Karshi) is a city in southern Uzbekistan. It is the capital of Qashqadaryo Province. It is about 520 km south-southwest of Tashkent, and about 335 km north of Uzbekistan's border with Afghanistan. "Qarshi" means fort.

History

Originally the Sogdian city of Nakhshab, and the Islamic Uzbek (Turkic) city of Nasaf, and the Mongolian Uzbek (East Asian) city of Qarshi (pronounced Kharsh), Qarshi was the second city of the Emirate of Bukhara. It is in the center of a fertile oasis that produces wheat, cotton, and silk and was a stop on the 11 day caravan route between Balkh and Bukhara. The Chagatai's Mongolian Khans Kebek and Qazan built palaces here on the site of Chinggis Khaan's summer pasture. In 1364, Timur also built a fortified palace with moats in what is now the southern part of the city. The modern name "Qarshi" means fort.

With the decline of Shahrisabz in the 18th century, Qarshi grew in importance, and was the seat of the Crown Prince to the Emirate of Bukhara. The city had a double set of walls, 10 caravanserais and 4 madrassahs during this time. By 1868, the Russians had annexed the Zarafshan Valley, and in 1873, the treaty turning Bukhara into a Russian protectorate was signed in Qarshi, much to the dismay of the Emir's son, Abdul Malik, who took to the hills in rebellion.

In the early 1970s, the first section of a major irrigation project was completed to divert water from the Amu Darya River in Turkmenistan eastward into Uzbekistan in order to irrigate the land surrounding Qarshi. Almost all of these irrigated lands around Qarshi are planted with cotton.

Jats, Their Settlements and Strongholds in Eurasia

Mangal Sen Jindal quotes Professor Cothburn Oneal in his work “Conquests of Tamerlane” published by Avon Publications Inc. 575 Madison Avenue – New York 22. This book mentions following cities as ‘Jat Strongholds’ in Russia and near about:

1. Almalyk (Alma – Ata): Pages 97, 232

2. Bokhara: Page 125,

3. Khojend (Khokand) now Ferghana, page 125,

4. Karshi (now Bek – Budi): Page 125,

5. Samarkand: Pages 103, 104, 106

6. Tashkant: Pages 108, 110

7. Otrar: Page 108

Jats who were residing there in strongholds in large numbers and were a source of permanent trouble to Timur-lung settled Uzbekistan.