Osh
(2000 est. pop. 300,000). Between 2,500 and 3,000 years old, Osh is one of Central Asia's oldest settlements. Largely rebuilt during the twentieth century, it is located in southwestern Kyrgyzstan near the Uzbekistan border in the eastern section of the Fergana Valley. Its name has been known since at least the ninth century and is thought to have originated with an Iranian people known as the Ush, who used to live in the area. As early as the eighth century, Osh was a silk-production center along the Silk Road, and it remained a major trade post until the fifteenth century.
In the city's center is one of Central Asia's most sacred sites: a hill called Takht-i-Suleyman (Solomon's Throne), where the Prophet Muhammad is thought to have prayed and where Muslim pilgrims began visiting in the tenth century. Although Osh is an important Kyrgyzstan center, its population is mostly Uzbek. Consequently, ethnic discord has existed since Soviet dictator Stalin's rule and erupted into violence in 1990 when Uzbeks and Kyrgyz fought over land and water supplies and three hundred to one thousand were killed. Kyrgyz city government also oversees Uzbekdominated local business. Osh has two universities, a sanatorium, and an airport. Economic activity has been aided by beneficial reforms and consists of the Jayma bazaar; opium and silk trade; sheep grazing; mining of zinc, lead, and coal; food processing; and the production of silk, cotton, and wool.
Further Reading
MacLeod, Calum, and Bradley Mayhew. (1997) Uzbekistan: The Golden Road to Samarkand. 2d ed. Lincoln, IL: Odyssey/Passport.
Mayhew, Bradley, Richard Plunkett, and Simon Richmond. (2000) Central Asia. Oakland, CA: Lonely Planet.
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