Osh in the Book "Baburnama"
In ancient times, the territory of Osh and the areas to its south were inhabited by the Saka tribal clan of herders known as "Ush," which is also associated with the name of the city Osh. This is mentioned in Chinese sources and in the work of Sultan Babur, the famous Uzbek poet and historian, who left behind the fascinating book "Baburnama."
Composed of three parts — Fergana, Kabul, Hindustan — "Baburnama" records events from 1493 to 1529. In the work, the ideas of the philosopher are presented in poetic fragments, which indicates the author is not only an outstanding chronicler but also an extraordinary poet. The great Babur describes the seven cities of Fergana with admiration. He writes with particular warmth about ancient Osh. Today, it is interesting to know what the city of Osh was like during Babur's time: Babur wrote, "Another city — Osh. It lies to the southeast (more to the east) of Andijan, about 24 km away, the air there is wonderful, there is plenty of running water, and spring is very beautiful." Furthermore, Babur enthusiastically noted that in the Fergana Valley "there is no city equal to Osh in pleasantness and air purity." And we, often speaking about ecology, should not forget these words of Babur and protect the city's ecology as the apple of our eye, keeping future generations in mind. Babur continues: "To the southeast of the fortress stands the beautiful mountain Bara-Kukh. At the top of this mountain, Sultan Mahmud Khan built a hujra. Below it, on a ledge of the mountain, I also built a hujra with a ayvan in the year 902. Although his hujra is higher than mine, mine is located much better: the whole city and its suburbs stretch out beneath it."
In the 10th century, Arab travelers and geographers Abu Ishaq Istakhri and Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Muqaddasi wrote that Osh was the third largest city in the Fergana Valley, the center of the Samanid state. They characterized the city as a flourishing and pleasant place at the foot of the mountain, well supplied with water.
The city of Osh was visited by travelers, historians, geographers, archaeologists, orientalists, and architects. Among them were such figures as Marco Polo, Joseph Martin, Marie Bourdon de Juzfala, F. Efremov, V. Novitsky, E. Markov, L. Zimin, K. Polei.
Under-officer Philip Efremov, one of the first Russian travelers to Central Asia, Western China, and India, visited the city of Osh in 1780 and wrote in his memoirs: "I was in the city of Osh, and the local population calls their city Ush."
Written sources report the following about the city of Osh in the 6th to 12th centuries: "In Osh, there is an inner city, an inhabited fortress, and the ruler's house, and in the fortress — a 'prison; around the city is a suburb surrounded by a wall... in the city there are three gates: the al-Jabal (mountain) gate, the al-Mai (river) gate, and the Muchkadah gate; the city gates are fortified." From the 2nd millennium BC to the 15th century AD, Osh was not only one of the points on the Silk Road but also served as a transcontinental gateway connecting western and eastern countries.
In the 10th to 12th centuries, Osh was the center of the Samanid and Karakhanid states. In the second half of the 15th century, Osh was under the control of Omar Sheikh — a descendant of Emir Timur, and later — under the control of Z. Babur. In the 16th to 17th centuries, the city of Osh was taken over by the Mongol state, and later the Kalmyks began to dominate it. In the second half of the 18th century (1762), Osh was captured by the Kokand Khan Erdene. Osh became a center of the Islamic religion, and Sulayman-Too became a pilgrimage site throughout Central Asia. This contributed to further improvement of the city's architectural design. The city had more than 150 pilgrimage sites: mosques, madrasas; and numerous caravanserais; among them, the madrasa of Alymbek occupied 25 hundredths of land and was not inferior in beauty to the madrasas of Kokand and Bukhara. The large two-story madrasa of Alymbek Datka was located in the center of the lower part of the city, consisting of more than 30 rooms, which housed prayer and study rooms, hotels. The madrasa had minarets on both sides. In its architectural design, it resembled the famous Samarkand Registan.
The second large madrasa was located in the center of the city (on the site of the modern cinema "Kosmo"), the third - at the foot of Sulayman Mountain (now a canning factory), the fourth – on Telman Street (the current archive building). Unfortunately, only a few religious buildings have survived to this day as architectural monuments — these include, first of all, the mausoleum of Asaf ibn Burhiya and the Jami Mosque of Rabat Abdullah Khan — truly ancient structures dating back to the 16th-18th centuries.
Two cities with the same name — Osh