Afrasiab, near Samarkand, Uzbekistan is both a historical city and its legendary founder. Samarkand (Samarqand or Самарқанд in Uzbek, in Persian سمرقند) (population 400,000) is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan, capital of Samarqand Province. ...

The person Afrasiab, is said to be king of all Turan is mentioned in Persia's classic epic, Ferdowsi's Shahnameh ('Book of Kings'), where the legendary hero-king battles a legendary Iranian Shah, Kai Khosro. Al Biruni tells us that the Khwarezmian calendar starts with the arrival of Sijavus around 1300 BC, and it is thought that the two may be the same person. One view is that Khwar-Ezem is derived from Afr-Asiab. // INTRODUCTION Turanian lands The term Turan refers to the bulk of Eurasian landmass including the Siberian steppes, Central Asia including the Turkic republics, Mongolia, the Caucasus and other regions where historical Turkic, Hunnic, and Mongolic powers held sway. ... ... Statue of Ferdowsi in Tehran Ferdowsi Mausoleum in Tus Ferdowsi Tousi (فردوسی طوسی in Persian) (more commonly transliterated Firdausi) (935–1020) is considered to be one of the greatest Persian poets to have ever lived. ... Shahnameh Shahnameh The Shahnama (Book of Kings) also written Shahnameh, written by Ferdowsi around 1000 AD, is the national epic of Iran and one of the definite classics of world literature. ... Shah (in Persian: شاه), from the Old Persian word khshathra-pava (king), popularly referred to as satrap by the Greeks, is the Persian term for a monarch and used by the former rulers of Persia as well as the rulers of the Persian Empire. ... Abu Raihan Al-Biruni (also, Biruni, Alberuni Persian: ابوریحان بیرونی) ; Arabic: أبو الريحان البيروني; (September 15, 973 - December 13, 1048) was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, physicist, scholar, encyclopedist, philosopher, astrologer, traveller, historian, pharmacist and teacher, of Central Asian origin, who contributed greatly to the fields of mathematics, philosophy, medicine and... Khwarezmia (also spelled Chorasmia) was a state located on what was then the coast of the Aral Sea, including modern Karakalpakstan across the Ust-Urt plateau and perhaps extending to as far west as the eastern shores of the North Caspian Sea. ...

According to Ferdowsi, Afrasiab is the ancestor of the Hephthalites (q.v.), and the name apparently has also appeared as an Uighur dynasty as well as being claimed as ancestor by the Kara-Khanids. This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Uyghurs (also called Uighurs, Uygurs, or Uigurs) (Chinese: 維吾爾 or 维吾尔 in pinyin: wéiwúěr) are a Turkic ethnic group of people living in northwestern China (mainly in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where they are the dominant ethnic group together with Han people), Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. ...

Traditionally founded in the 8th-7th century BC, the city of Afrasiab has archeologically confirmed sites from c. 500 BC to the 13th century AD. The archeology of the site is interpreted in the Afrasiab Museum on the site. The museum contains the oldest surviving chessmen. The mural paintings of Afrasiab are famous. Afrasiab lay on the Silk Road, on the borders of Achaemenid Persia. (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... Many countries claim to have invented the chess game in some incipient form. ... The Silk Road (Traditional Chinese: 絲綢之路; Simplified Chinese: 丝绸之路; pinyin: sī chóu zhī lù, Persian راه ابریشم Râh-e Abrisham) was an interconnected series of routes through Southern Asia traversed by caravan and ocean vessel, and connecting Changan (todays Xian), China, with Antioch, Syria, as well as other points. ... Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Dynasty was a dynasty in the ancient Persian Empire, including Cyrus II the Great, Darius I and Xerxes I. At the height of their power, the Achaemenid rulers of Persia ruled over territories roughly emcompassing some parts of todays Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon...