Panjakent

Panjakent (Tajik: Панҷакент) or Penjikent (Russian: Пенджикент^{[lower-alpha 1]}) is a city in the Sughd province of Tajikistan on the river Zeravshan, with a population of 52,500 (2020 estimate). It was once an ancient town in Sogdiana. The ruins of the old town are on the outskirts of the modern city. The Sarazm Important Bird Area lies downstream of the city on the tugay-vegetated floodplain of the river.

Panjakent Панҷакент Пенджикент
From the top to bottom-right, View over Panjakent, Entrance Sign to the City, Panjakent Bazaar, Monument in the City Centre
Panjakent Location of Panjakent Show map of Tajikistan Panjakent Panjakent (Central Asia) Show map of Central Asia
Coordinates: 39.486769°N 67.619734°E / 39.486769; 67.619734
Country	Tajikistan
Region	Sughd Region
Elevation [1]	996 m (3,268 ft)
Population  (2020)[2]
• City	303,000
• Urban	52,500
Time zone	UTC+5
Official languages	Russian (Interethnic) Tajik (State)[3]

History

Ancient Panjakent was a small but flourishing town of the Sogdians in pre-Islamic Central Asia. It was known as Panchekanth.^[4] It means five towns (villages) in Persian. The ethnic and territorial name "Soghd/Soghdian" or Sughd/Sughdian was mentioned in history as early as the Iranian Achaemenid dynasty (6th century BC). The Achaemenids founded several city-states, as well as cities along the ancient Silk Road and in the Zarafshan valley.

Caryatid, 7th–8th century. From Panjakent, Tajikistan.

The town grew in the 5th century AD and many professionals such as established businessmen and landowners made their livelihoods in Panjakent. In AD 722, Arab Muslims forces besieged and took the town. The last ruler of the town Divashtich fled into upper Zarafshan but he was captured and sentenced to death. For around 50 years, ancient Panjakent was ruled by new administrators but towards the end of the 8th century the town on the upper terraces was depopulated and relocated. Many ancient ruins of the old city, particularly the city architecture and works of art remain today.

Numerous records of a Penjikent rulership, written in Sogdian, were located not far of Penjikent on Mount Mug. Through their reading of these texts, the public of Central Asia in the 8th century will judge on social, economic and political life.^[5]

Ruins of ancient Penjikent in Tajikistan.39.488°N 67.616°E / 39.488; 67.616

According to Arab geographers, Panjakent in the 10th century had a formal Friday mosque that distinguished the place as a town from a village. It was the easternmost city of Soghd, and became well known for its walnuts.^[6]

Russian archaeologist Boris Marshak spent more than fifty years excavating the ruins at Panjakent.^[7] He remained there even after Tajik independence as director of the excavation of the Panjakent ruins, during the years of Civil War in Tajikistan from 1992 to 1997. Through close cooperation with the government of Tajikistan, Marshak ensured the protection and continued excavation of the Panjakent ruins.

Ancient murals and artifacts

Main article: Penjikent murals

Numerous murals were recovered from the site of Panjikent, and many of them are now on display in the Hermitage Museum and in the National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan in Dushanbe. A great variety influences are visible in the paintings, which show details of dress and daily life: Greek decorative styles encounter the Iranian narratives of the Shahnameh and the epic cycle of Rostam, scenes of festivities alternate with depictions of combats, local cults mix with Iranian and Hindu deities. Shaivism was popular in Sogdiana and Eastern Turkestan as found from the wall painting from Penjikent on the river Zervashan. In this depiction, Shiva is portrayed with a sacred halo and a sacred thread ("Yajnopavita"). He is clad in a tigerskin while his attendants are wearing Sogdian dress. There is a depiction of him four-legged seated cross-legged on a cushioned seat supported by two bulls.

The production of paintings started in the 5th century AD and stopped in 722 AD with the invasion of the Abbasid Caliphate, and many works of art were damaged or destroyed at that time.^[8][9]

• 
  Chinese-style coinage of the rulers of Penjikent, Tajikistan, 7-8th century CE
• 
  She-wolf suckling two infants ("Romulus and Remus"), Penjikent, 5th century CE, National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan (KP 208–243).^[10]
• 
  Uma-Maheshvara: ithyphallic Shiva with spouse Uma riding the bull Nandi, Penjikent Temple II, 690-722 CE, National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan (60).^[11]
• 
  Penjikent, figures with halos, Hermitage Museum
• 
  Men banquet, pigment on plaster. Pendjikent, Tajikistan
• 
  Panjikent mural (6th-7th century AD). Hermitage Museum
• 
  Panjakent (Panjīkant) mural, 6th-8th centuries AD. Hermitage Museum
• 
  Panjakent (Panjīkant) mural, 6th-8th centuries AD. National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan
• 
  Panjakent (Panjīkant) mural, 6th-8th centuries AD
• 
  Shiva with Trisula. Penjikent 7th–8th century AD. Hermitage Museum
• 
  Lion and Goddess Anahita, Penjikent, 6th-8th c AD
• 
  Multi-armed deity in armour

Geography

Climate

Panjakent bazaar

Panjakent has a hot summer humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dsa). The average annual temperature is 10.7 °C (51.3 °F). The warmest month is July with an average temperature of 22.8 °C (73.0 °F) and the coolest month is January with an average temperature of −1.6 °C (29.1 °F). The average annual precipitation is 468.5 mm (18.44 in) and has an average of 87.9 days with precipitation. The wettest month is April with an average of 94 mm (3.7 in) of precipitation and the driest month is August with an average of 2.6 mm (0.10 in) of precipitation.^[1]

Climate data for Panjakent (Pendzikent-38705)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Daily mean °C (°F)	−1.6 (29.1)	−0.4 (31.3)	4.9 (40.8)	11.2 (52.2)	15.6 (60.1)	20.5 (68.9)	22.8 (73.0)	21.1 (70.0)	16.4 (61.5)	10.4 (50.7)	5.5 (41.9)	1.4 (34.5)	10.7 (51.3)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	53.0 (2.09)	53.2 (2.09)	85.0 (3.35)	94.0 (3.70)	62.6 (2.46)	11.1 (0.44)	6.0 (0.24)	2.6 (0.10)	4.6 (0.18)	31.8 (1.25)	33.9 (1.33)	48.7 (1.92)	468.5 (18.44)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)	10.7	11.3	13.5	12.1	9.3	3.1	2.3	1.2	1.7	5.6	7.5	9.6	87.9
Average relative humidity (%)	66.1	66.9	64.4	60.9	53.8	42.3	41.3	42.1	45.3	55.1	59.1	64.4	55.1
Source: "The Climate of Panjakent". Weatherbase. Retrieved 7 August 2014.

Subdivisions

Before ca. 2018, Panjakent was the seat of Panjakent District, which covered the rural part of the present city of Panjakent.^[12] The city of Panjakent covers Panjakent proper and fourteen jamoats.^[2] These are as follows:^[13]

Jamoat	Population (Jan. 2015)[13]
Amondara	13,380
Chinor	6,879
Farob	8,650
Khalifa Hassan	14,728
Khurmi	10,451
Kosatarosh	18,986
Loiq Sherali	18,675
Moghiyon	19,553
Rudaki	18,465
Sarazm	27,877
Shing	10,873
Sujina	12,285
Voru	12,347
Yori	19,045

Notable people

The Rudaki Tomb of Panjakent

• Nigina Amonkulova, folk singer^[14]
• Khayrinisso Yusufi, vice-premier of Tajikistan, member of the Assembly of Representatives.^[15]
• Otakhon Latifi (Tajik: Отахон Латифи) (1936–1998), was a noted journalist and politician^[16]
• Yaqub Beg, leader of Uighur state of Yettishar during the Dungan Revolt against the Qing dynasty in years 1865–1877^{[17][circular reference]}
• Rustem Umierov (b. 1982), Ukrainian Crimean Tatar politician

See also

• List of cities in Tajikistan

Notes

1. Also spelled or romanized as Pendzhikent, Penjikent, Panjekent, Panjikent, etc.

References

1. "Climate of Panjakent". Weatherbase.com. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
2. "Population of the Republic of Tajikistan as of 1 January 2020" (PDF) (in Russian). Statistics office of Tajikistan. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 June 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
3. "КОНСТИТУЦИЯ РЕСПУБЛИКИ ТАДЖИКИСТАН". prokuratura.tj. Parliament of Tajikistan. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
4. Gorgâni, Tirdâd. "Welcome to Penjakent". GEOCITIES. Archived from the original on 2009-07-28. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
5. "Panjikent". Retrieved March 30, 2021.
6. Marshak, B.I. "Panjikant". Encyclopædia Iranica. Archived from the original on 2015-11-16. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
7. Shkoda, V. (October 2003). "Marshak's Bibliography and CV". Transoxiana Webfestschrift Series I. Transoxiana: Journal Libre de Estudios Orientales. Archived from the original on 2007-01-01. Retrieved 2006-10-14.
8. "PANJIKANT – Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org.
9. Compareti, Matteo (2012). "Classical elements in Sogdian art: Aesop's fables represented in the mural paintings at Penjikent". Iranica Antiqua. XLVII: 303–316.
10. [978-9461616272 Tadjikistan : au pays des fleuves d'or]. Paris, Gand: Musée Guimet, Snoek. 2021. p. 133. ISBN 978-94-6161-627-2. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help)
11. [978-9461616272 Tadjikistan : au pays des fleuves d'or]. Paris, Gand: Musée Guimet, Snoek. 2021. p. 164. ISBN 978-94-6161-627-2. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help)
12. "Population of the Republic of Tajikistan as of 1 January 2015" (PDF) (in Russian). Statistics office of Tajikistan. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 July 2015. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
13. Jamoat-level basic indicators, United Nations Development Programme in Tajikistan, accessed 3 October 2020
14. "Nigina Amonkulova (Amonqulova)". life.ansor.info. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
15. Kamoludin Abdullaev; Shahram Akbarzaheh (27 April 2010). Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-7379-7. Archived from the original on 31 May 2014. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
16. "Opposition-Chief-Dies". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2018-01-03. Retrieved 2018-01-02.
17. "Yaqub Beg".

External links

• Panjakent travel guide from Wikivoyage

39°30′N 67°37′E