Khojand

Industrial city and capital of Khojand oblast, northern Tajikistan, 200 km/124 mi north of Dushanbe; population (1995) 164,500. Khojand, Tajikistan's second city, is situated on the Syr Darya River and stands at the entrance to the Fergana Valley. A large silk industry is based here, together with cotton processing, and fruit-packing.

Khojand is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, having been founded by Alexander the Great in 329 BC as a far eastern outpost of his empire. It grew prosperous from its important strategic position near the Fergana Valley and on the Silk Route trade road from the Mediterranean to China. Part of the Kokand Khanate in the 18th and 19th centuries, the city was annexed to Russia in 1866.

Khojand

Oblast in northern Tajikistan; area 26,100 sq km/10,077 sq mi; population (1996) 1,636,000. The capital is Khojand and Uroteppa is another city. The oblast is in the southwest of the highly fertile Fergana Valley, crossed by the Syr Darya. It is isolated from the rest of the country by the Turkestan and Zeravshan mountain ranges. The large Kayrakkum reservoir on the Syr Darya east of Khojand. Industries include mining (coal, lead, zinc, uranium, and rare earths) and oil extraction, textile manufacture (cotton and silk production and carpet weaving), food processing, and metalworking; agriculture centres on irrigated cotton and fruit growing in the Fergana Valley; and silkworm breeding.

History Until 1929 the Khojand region was part of Uzbekistan (the Uzbek SSR); when Tajikistan was constituted as a full republic within the USSR, Khojand (Leninabad) was annexed to it. It is the wealthiest region of Tajikistan, accounting for two-thirds of its industrial output. With its majority Uzbek population and pro-communist political tradition, Khojand threatened to secede from newly independent Tajikistan when Islamic rebels in the south briefly overthrew the former communist government in 1992.