Transoxiana

Transoxiana is a historical region of lower Central Asia whose name, meaning land beyond the Oxus, refers to its position beyond the Amu Darya river as seen from the Mediterranean world; the region lies between the Amu Darya to the south and the Syr Darya to the north, corresponding to parts of present day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. Alexander the Great gave the region its name during his fourth century BCE conquest, and his successors founded the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom there, sustaining a Greek cultural presence for more than two centuries. Wealth from Silk Road trade made Transoxiana a major cultural center under the Sasanian Empire, and its cities of Samarkand and Bukhara remained centers of Persian culture and civilization even after the Muslim conquest of the region was completed by the late eighth century. Before Islamization the region was home to Zoroastrianism alongside Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, Manichaeism, and Mazdakism, and it later flourished again as a center of Islamic civilization under rulers such as Timur, who made Samarkand his capital.