Samarkand, located along the Silk Road, has a history that is often confused with a fabled image of the East. This book, however, deals with a real city, narrat

"In antiquity Samarkand was the capital of the Persian province of Sogdiana. Its language, culture, and "Zoroastrian" religion closely approximated those of the

The purpose of this book is to draw attention to the sites of life, politics and culture where current and past generations of the Islamic world have made their