Kokand is a town in Fergana Region in Uzbekistan, at the southern edge of the Fergana Valley. Kokand is at the crossroads of the two main ancient trade routes into the Fergana Valley, leading northwest over the mountains to Tashkent and the other west through Khujand. As a result, Kokand is the main transportation junction in the Fergana Valley.
Historians referenced it as early as the 10th Century with its first written documents about Havokande (old name) found at that time. In the 13th Century, Kokand was ruined like most Central Asian cities then, but it still stands to this day thanks to Mongols, who were also invaders. However, they did not raze down all buildings or burn everything on sight, which spared some old mosques and temples from utter destruction before being conquered over again later during Russian rule after the 1860s when Russians finally pulled out, leaving town mostly intact while others left behind was looted or destroyed.
The city of Kokand has been populated since the 10th Century and was mentioned frequently by travelers on what is now known as The Silk Road. It wasn’t until 1st Century B.C. that China’s Han Dynasty conquered it; this lasted for about four centuries before Arab forces took over in 751 AD during their conquest to Islamize Central Asia (which they had reached). Marco Polo traveled through Khavakand when he visited the area with a group of merchants, which marks his first trip out East after visiting Europe–he even mentions how impressed everyone seemed with them due to their size!
The Mongols eventually invaded and destroyed much of Khavakand in 1220 A.D.
It is said that the present-day city of Khiva, the capital of Uzbekistan’s autonomous republic and UNESCO world heritage site, began as a fort in 1732. This was on the same sight where another older fortress called Eski-Kurgan once stood. In 1740 CE, it became the capital of an Uzbek kingdom, the Khanate of Kokand, which reached as far as Bishkek to the northeast. and Kyzylorda to the west
The city of Kokand was captured by Russian forces in 1883, at which point it became part of Imperial Russia. After joining all of Central Asia to the empire, peace and order came for 40 years until World War I, when two revolutions happened. Separatists took advantage of this situation to destabilize their capital and prevent revolutionary change from happening again. They did just that with 72 days (1917-18) as a short-lived autonomous government ruled over Turkistan before being overthrown by Bolshevik revolutionaries who were trying not only to retake control but also achieve social equality among various ethnicities across Eurasia while enforcing secularism on groups such as Christians or Muslims living there.
