Samarkand

From the muddy depths of my memory, an unreliable source, namely a little-known Turkish translation of Hayyam's Rubaiyat, claimed that 'Samarkand' was found by Turkics and its name originally meant 'fruit of the mountain' or maybe 'fruit of the desert' something like that. It doesn't sound very Turkic to me, but it could be, I am not sure.

The city was founded by Iranic peoples, it was the center of Soghdians for many centuries.

It's name during the Ancient Times was M�rak�nda; K�nd means "City" in Soghdian (Kent in Modern Turkish), it later became Sam�rk�nd.

The Sohgdians were definitially not Turkic (though Mahm�d of K�shg�r says they were Turkified by the 11th century), they were Eastern Iranic.

The earliest Turkic prescence in Soghdiana was that of Zhizhi Chanyu's Western Xiongnu in the 1st century BC, but this was temporary. The Turkic peoples started migrating and settling there only after the 6th century AD.

No, the city was mostly Turkified by the 11th century, but not fully even now. Tajik is still used widely in Samarkand today (but not in Bukhara).

Claiming that K�nd was Turkic is a funny theory. Kand is Soghdian and not Turkic. Besides, the Turks already had a word for "city": Bal�q (coming from "Balch�q" meaning "Mud").

Look, trying to find a Turkic ethymology for Samarkand is useless and illogical, that name doesn't have anything to do with Turkic words like Semiz or Semer/Semir, the city was already there with that name before the Turkic peoples came there. Samarkand isn't Turkic and it definitially doesn't mean "Well Developed, Closely Packed", Samarkand is evolved from M�rak�nda, an Iranic name.

I didn't get you, what do you mean?

Quote:  IHSAN WROTE

Claiming that K�nd was Turkic is a funny theory. Kand is Soghdian and not Turkic. Besides, the Turks already had a word for "city": Bal�q (coming from "Balch�q" meaning "Mud").

doesn't kand mean little village,  I am not sure if it means city Ihsan ,

BTW, are you sure that Baliq comes from the word balchiq meaning mud,  where did you read this, are there any source which confirms your estate ,

How did you come to this conclusion? Any sources? The only thing we know for sure is that Samarkand was called Marakanda by greeks and romans. No more no less. First time it was mentioned in 329 B.C. We can't say for sure that the real name was Marakanda.
The affirmation that the name Marakanda somehow later evolved  into Samarkand is purely fictional. I think it's time to call Steven Spielberg and offer him a script for a new movie "Marakanda". I hope it will make more money than "Troy".

There's a controversy surrounding the actual name. So, nobody has a definite answer.

What do we have to speculate about the name Samarkand? From where the name originated?

1. from sanscrit word Samarya meaning meeting and gathering
2. from  soghdian Smarkans.   There's a notion that Marakanda is a corrupted greek version of Smarkans.
3. from turkic SemizKent

As far as I know only turkic version was substantiated by ancient historians. In 11th century Al Biruni and Mahmud Al Kashgari derived name Samarkand from turkic SemizKent.
Hopefully Al Biruni and Mahmud Al Kashgari were not illogical and useless. Perhaps they knew where political winds would blow in the 20th century and decided to turkify the name Samarkand ahead of time (900 years ahead) purely for personal enjoyment of future Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.  May be they had a time machine as in the movie "Back to the future"!

Probably we'll never know for sure what really the name Samarkand means.

Let me make another set of educated guesses (hypotheses).

The name Samarkand comes from:

1. Sumer + Kent.  Sumerians rule! I wonder if they had SumerBank and Yapi-Kredi Bankasi in Samarkand back then! I hope if they had those banks, samarkandians could use Visa and Mastercard in their supermarkets (bazaars)!

2. Samar + Kent. In Urdu/Panjabi word Samar means Fruit. So, Samarkand means City of Fruits. Is that where the devil offered an apple to Eve!?

3. Samaria + Kent. Solomon's People of Northern Kingdom established Samarkand, the new capital of Israel in their struggle against jewish kingdom of Judah. Now I know where all Good Samaritans fled!!

4. Sama + Kant.  In my native kyrgyz language (turkic), Sama means a Strong Desire and Kant means Sugar or City! In Northern Kyrgyzstan there's a town called Kant.
So, in kyrgyz Samarkand is a City of Desire or Sugar of Desire!

Please let me know what version do you like the most!!

What else can I add?  Oh Yeah, Aksak Temir/Amir Temur/Temirlang was the most famous ruler of Samarkand. He was a turkic leader with mongolian ancestry. His mongolian tribe Burlas settled around Samarkand after Ghengiz Khan's conquest of Central Asia.
I hope there's no need to mention who was Ulugbek....

Oh, well... I read about many leaders whom you can call "evil bastards  from the depths of hell itself".... You know Amir Temur is a national hero in Uzbekistan. Undoubtedly he was a great leader of his time.

I didn't really get your point. What's that? The Hauge War Tribunal of atrocities against humanity? Forget about Cyrus the Great! Why don't we compare Temirlang to Mahatma Gandhi, "a true hero and a man"? 

Temirlang was a great leader of his time. He was a lover of science and architecture. Samarkand under his rule boomed. His grandson Ulugbek was a great astronomer, and one of his decendants Babur founded Empire of Mughals. The Icon of India, Taj-Mahal was build by Akbar, in turn decendant of Babur.