Chach

[Azadan Januspar]

Chach was an important land according to Iranian mythology, in Shahname there's reference to it, under which Chach is known for its skillful bowyers.

"The city probably dates from the 2nd or the 1st century BC and was variously known as Dzhadzh, Chachkent, Shashkent, and Binkent; the name Tashkent, which means “stone village” in Uzbek, was first mentioned in the 11th century."

Encyclopaedia Britannica


Are there any ruins of its citadels in or near the todays city of Tashkent?

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

I don't know

One small note: the name of this town is interesting. The original is Čāč (Châch), which is probably an Iranic name. The Arabs turned it to Šâš because Arabic doesn't have the Č (Ch) sound. The Táng (T'ang) 唐 period Chinese name Shí 石 (Shih) drives from these; however, that character also means "Stone" in Chinese. Appearantly, the Turkic name Taškend (Uzbek Toshkent) is a corruption of the Arabised form of the Iranic original, but in coincidence, Taš also means "Stone" like the Chinese version. I dont know if the similarity between Chinese and Turkic versions are just a coincidence, or the Chinese borrowed it from the Turks; if this is true, this means that the Turks used the name Taškend or just Taš several centuries before the earliest known useage. Or maybe they are just coincidences.