FERETORY, in architecture, the enclosure or chapel within which the shrine or bier-shaped tomb was placed. FERGHANA, (I) A range of mountains in Asiatic Russia, branching off about lat. 41° N. and long. 75° E. from the Tian Shan range, and rising to altitudes of 12,000 feet or more.
(2) The name given to the rich and fertile valley lying south of this range and north of the Alai mountains, and opening out towards the south west. The climate is dry and warm, with an average temperature of 68° F in March, rising rapidly to through June, July and August. Snow and frost occur in Decem ber and January, when the temperature may fall to —4° F. No rain falls during the 5 months following April, and the valley owes its fertility to irrigation from the rivers Naryn and Kara darya, which unite near Namangan to form the Syr-darya or Jaxartes river. On the right bank of the Syr-darya, from Namangan to Khojent, are vast expanses of barren shifting river sand, a menace to the fertile, irrigated areas, upon which they encroach under the influence of the south west wind. The chief crop is cotton; wheat, millet, maize and rice take the next place. Fruits, especially apricots, are widely cultivated and there are numerous vineyards. The area under lucerne is increasing. Silk worm breeding is dying out, probably through the increasing intensity of cotton cultivation and manufacture. The extension of the Transcaspian railway into Ferghana and the open ing of the Orenburg–Tashkent railway (1906) gave a great impetus to trade and helped to develop the cotton growing indus try. In northern Ferghana a rubber-producing euphorbia and other medicinal and aromatic herbs are found. The Ferghana valley has had an eventful history ; its fertility has always proved attractive and the Khojent pass made it vulnerable to invaders. It was overrun by Arabs in A.D. 719. In the 9th and loth cen turies it was ruled by the Persian Samanid dynasty, while in the 12th century, it became subject to Kara-Kitai, the fore-runner of Jenghiz Khan, who later conquered it. Tamerlane conquered it later on. In 1513 the Uzbeks expelled Baber, the last descendant of Tamerlane, and until about 1770 the separate cities and clans had each its own Bek, or ruler. From that time until its conquest by Russia, it was ruled by the Khans of Khokand. In 1876 it became part of a much larger unit called Ferghana, which was cre ated as a province of Russian Turkistan, with new Marghelan (now Ferghana) as its administrative centre. Since the fall of the Tsarist regime, the valley has become part of the Uzbekistan S.S.R., though for a time it was an independent Soviet province. Irrigated areas are essentially dependent upon law and order for their productivity, not only because of the need for equable dis tribution of water to the cultivators, but also because of the con stant care and labour necessary to preserve the channels in good order and to prevent bogging or salting of the land. Ferghana consequently suffered severely during the war and civil war of 1914 onwards, and the cotton and other harvests are still below the 1913 level. The Soviet government hopes to introduce modern methods of irrigation and agriculture, but capital is not yet forthcoming, and the cultural level of the population is not such as to make the introduction of scientific methods easy. See also UZBEK REPUBLIC.
(3) A town formerly known as New Marghelan or Skobelev (after the Russian general M. D. Skobelev q.v.). It is situated in the Khokand district of the Uzbekistan S.S.R., in lat. 32' N. long. 71° 48' E., in the south-east of the Ferghana valley. It was built by the Russians, after their conquest of the Khanate of Khokand, ten miles south east of the old town of Marghelan, and became the administrative centre for the Ferghana province of the former Russian Turkistan. A branch line links it with the Khokand-Andijan railway, and it has an electric power station and two cotton factories. Pop. (1926) 11,910.