Chirakchi

Chiroqchi (, ) is a city in Qashqadaryo Region, Uzbekistan. It is the capital of Chiroqchi District. Its population is 23,800 (2016). ==History== The name of the settlement is Chirakchi Fortress, known since the 14th century. It was the center of the Chirakchin district of the Bukhara Khanate. Around the modern city of Chirakchi, on the territory of the Mehnatkash collective farm, there are remains of the ancient city of Kishmishtepa. This city was founded around the 5th to 6th centuries AD. It consisted of a citadel, Shahristan. The Shahristan covers an area of 24 hectares and is surrounded by walls and a moat. The walls date back to the 7th to 8th centuries and were strengthened in the 9th to 10th centuries. The Shahristan began to expand in the 7th to 8th centuries and became a major city in the 9th to 10th centuries. After the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, the city fell into decline.

S. B. Lunin provides a description of this city, stating that "On the outskirts of the Chirakchin district center, not far from the bank of the Kashkadarya River, are the ruins of Kishmishtepa, which can be considered the remains of a medieval city. Research was conducted in this area in the 1960s. The dimensions of the Shahristan were estimated to be 700 by 350 meters. After the construction of brick and other factories, the ancient city was destroyed. Scholar Shamsuddin Kamoliddinov believes that the city of Khushminjakas, mentioned in the Kitab-al-Ansab by Abdul Karim ibn Muhammad al-Samani, who traveled through Central Asia in the 12th century, Kishmishtepa. The ancient city was discovered when children found silver and gold coins. To this day, people continue to find objects of daily life here. The most famous of these finds is a silver coin with the image of Mamun al-Rashid, the brother of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, a character from the world-renowned book "One Thousand and One Nights". Sources from the mid-18th century indicate the existence of the Chirakchi Fortress. According to academician V. V. Bartold, Chirakchi existed even earlier, during the reign of Ubaydullah Khan.