BUCHARA, BOKIIARA, or BocAn, a city of Asia, in Great Bucharia, from which that country derives its name, is situated on the river Sogd, about 100 miles west from Samarcand. It stands on a rising ground, and is surrounded with a slender wall of earth. It is large and populous, and divided into three quarters : The Khan, with his Tartar court, inhabits the one ; the offi cers of the court, and other servants of the prince, an other ; and the third, which is by for the most exten sive, is occupied by the citizens, merchants, and other inhabitants. This last is also subdivided in such a manner, that every trade has its particular department. The houses are low, and composed chiefly of mud ; but the mosques, baths, and other public buildings, are of brick, and well built. The city was anciently distin guished for its arts and sciences ; and it is even main tained by some, that it received its name from this cir cumstance : Buchar signifying, in the Mogul language, learned; and Bucharia, the country of the learned. Its university was frequented by students from every part of the Mahometan dominions, wilt re they were instruct ed in every branch of literature ; but particularly in the theology of the Moslems. From the situation of Bu chara, it soon rose to be the chief emporium of com merce in this country. It was the resort of merchants from India, Persia, Turkey, Russia, and Poland ; and its warehouses were filled with Oriental and European mer chandise. But since the subjection of Bucharia by the Usbeck Tartars, it has greatly fallen from its ancient opulence. Its commerce has languished under the op
pression of its rulers ; and it is now visited by few fo reign merchants, on account of the extraordinary extor tions to which they are exposed from the Khan and his officers. Its manufactures are soap, cotton•yarn, and calico, which, with the produce of the surrounding country, as cotton, lamb-furs, down, rice, and cattle, they export to Persia, and receive in return, velvet, silk, sashes, cloth, indigo, coral, and cochineal. But its fine linens, for which it was so famous in the tenth century, are now unknown. During the invasion of this country by Zengis Khan, Buchara, which was then strongly for tified, endured a protracted siege of nearly twelve months, which so exasperated the Mogul, that, after its surrender, he set fire to the city, which, being chiefly constructed of wood, was reduced to ashes, and nothing of it was left, but the sultan's palace and a few houses, that were built of stone. After continuing some time in this desolate state, Zengis ordered it to be rebuilt a little before his death. It is now the residence of the Khan of Buchara, who is a despotic prince, but whose power, however, reaches but a little way without the ci ty. N. Lat. 39° 20'; E. Long. 61° 58'. See Recueil de Voyage au Nord. tom. x. p. 158; and Hanway's Travels, Vol. I. p. 242.