Definition of "Samarkand"

Look ’round thee now on Samarcand! —Is she not queen of Earth? her prideAbove all cities? in her handTheir destinies?

1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems

In the quaver of his voice was a remembering of long muletrains jingling through the gate, queens in litters hung with patchwork curtains from Samarcand, […]

1922, John Dos Passos, “Antonio Machado: Poet of Castile”, in Rosinante to the Road Again, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company

When the tsarist government crumbled with the abdication of Nicholas II in March 1917 a dual administration was established in Samarkand, as it was throughout the entire country.

1977, Eugenie and Jeffrey Gross, The Soviet Union, page 393

Formerly Samarkand, the city, after the 1991 independence of Uzbekistan, adopted the Uzbek form, Samarqand.

2001, “Samarqand”, in Encyclopedia Americana‎, page 177

Originating in the ancient city of Afrasiab, Samarqand is one of the centers of Tajik culture and history. At the time of the Soviet delimitation of Central Asia in 1924, Samarqand was included in Uzbekistan, where it is a provincial center.

2010, Kamoludin Abdullaev, Shahram Akbarzadeh, Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan, page 316