Culture of Samarkand

In Islamic literature and discussions, Samarkand has taken on a semi-mythological status and is often cited as an ideal of Islamic philosophy and society, a place of justice, fairness, and righteous moderation.

Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, explores the metaphysical significance of the marketplace in a volume of poetry entitled Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known, 2002.

Samarkand has a large featuring in the originally Russian film Day Watch, originally written by Sergei Lukyanenko as part of a Trilogy. Samarkand is the place where the fictional battle for the "Chalk of fate" takes place.

The American musical Once Upon a Mattress features a character known as the Nightingale of Samarkand. The bird supposedly sings people to sleep.

Non-fiction

Ibn Battuta, the Muslim 14th century traveler, spent time in Samarkand in the 1330s

Murder in Samarkand by Craig Murray is a book about the UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan's experiences in this role, until he resigned over human rights abuses in the country in October 2004.

In her 2010 memoir The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them Elif Batuman writes three chapters about her experiences studying the Uzbek language as a graduate exchange student in Samarkand.

Music

In 1972, Swedish composer Thorstein Bergman wrote "Om du någonsin kommer fram till