Kokand

Oasis city in Fergana wiloyat (region) in eastern Uzbekistan, 160 km/99 mi southeast of Tashkent; population (1996) 176,000. Industries include the manufacture of fertilizers, cotton, and silk. Kokand lies on the southwestern fringe of the agriculturally important Fergana Valley, and is a major transportation hub for the region.

Kokand was the capital of the Kokand Khanate, which was established in 1740, and was the last Central Asian khanate to be annexed by Russia, in 1876. A settlement had existed on this site since the 10th century; the present city was founded as a fort in 1732 and was a major religious centre (with over 300 mosques) before the Soviet era. A nationalist uprising against the establishment of Soviet rule here in 1918 was suppressed brutally, with the slaughter of between 5,000 and 14,000 of the town's inhabitants. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and Uzbekistani independence, mosques and madrasahs (Muslim theological colleges) have reopened here.