Kokand (uzb. Qo‘qon, Қўқon) is a city in the Fergana region in the east of Uzbekistan, in the southwestern part of the Fergana Valley. One of the oldest cities, the capital of the Kokand Khanate, which existed from 1709 to 1876 on the territory of modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, southern Kazakhstan and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China (East Turkestan).
The population as of January 1, 2016 is 239.9 thousand inhabitants.
Since 1709 Kokand has been the capital of the Khanate of the same name. Since 1876 - as part of the Fergana region of the Russian Empire, then the Uzbek SSR. Now part of the Fergana region of Uzbekistan.
Kokand connects two main routes to the Fergana Valley, one northwest over the mountains to Tashkent, and the other west through Khujand. Under various names, Kokand has been known since the 10th century, but its heyday falls on the 18th century, when the city became the capital of the Kokand Khanate.
Kokand has preserved a very ancient structure, it consists of new and old parts. The new city was saturated in the 19th century with commercial enterprises, administrative buildings, banks, mansions of industrialists, and in the old part of the city the khan's palace - Urda, monuments of folk residential architecture, mosques, madrasahs and memorial buildings - all of the 19th, early 20th centuries were preserved.

Geography
Kokand is located 228 km southeast of Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, 115 km west of Andijan and 88 km west of the city of Fergana. Kokand is connected by two main routes into the Ferghana Valley, one northwest over the mountains to Tashkent, and the other west through Khujand, Tajikistan.

History
In the State of Davan
Conducted archaeological research of the monuments of Muyi-Mubarak, Tepakurgan, Eski Kurgan and others located in the city of Kokand: In Muyi-Mubarak, several clay shards of the 5th-6th centuries were found, a clay platform, which in the 5th-7th centuries served as the foundation of a monumental building, the remains of a fortress wall, erected in the I-II centuries from pakhsa and mud bricks, which functioned for more than 400 years. At a depth of five meters, a lower cultural layer with materials dating back two thousand years was discovered. In Tepakurgan, located in the center of the city, a platform of the early medieval period was found, as in Muyi-Mubarak, which served as the foundation of a monumental castle with semicircular towers. From the lower layers, a rich collection of pottery with red engobe was obtained, which dates back to the 2nd-1st centuries BC. e. All of it is made on a potter's wheel by city skilled craftsmen. In general, archaeological materials indicate that under these two monuments - Muyi-Mubarak and Tepakurgan - the ancient history of Kokand is hidden.
The resulting artifacts give reason to say and think that no later than the 7th century BC, a certain part of the territory of the present city was developed for irrigated agriculture, and the city appeared no later than the second half of the 2nd century BC and was the center of the Sokh oasis, that is, as the capital of the regional possession, which was part of the confederate state of Fergana (“Davan” of Chinese chronicles).

Khowakend or Khokand
Arab geographers and travelers of the 10th century, Al-Istakhri and Ibn Haukal, mention the city of Khovakend or Khokand, which, in terms of distance from the Shash River (Syrdarya) and from Askha, corresponds to the current Kokand; According to written sources and local legends, in Ferghana, already in the era of its conquest by the Arabs who established Islam here, that is, already at the beginning of the 8th century, there were ancient cities of Akhsy-Kent, Kubo (Kuva), Rishtan, Osh, Bab (Pop), Kas(sh)an, Mo-ar-gilon (Margelan), Andigan (Andijan), Uzgent, Isfara, Varukh, Sokh, Kanibadam and Khujand. Arab travelers of the 10th century also mention many other cities and generally notice that in addition to cities, there were many large villages in Ferghana. Hovakend or Hokan, located on the Great Silk Caravan Route between India and China on the one hand and Persia and the Middle East on the other, may have been a major center of trade of its time. In the XIII century it was destroyed by the Mongols.

Emirate of Bukhara
The territory of the future Kokand Khanate in 1571-1626 was part of the Emirate of Bukhara. Biy of the city of Akhsy Tangri-Yar Khudoyar II Ilik-Sultan, who at the end of his life moved his residence to Rushdon. According to local legends, his descendants ruled Ferghana from here until Rustem Hadji-Sultan moved the political center of the Ferghana Valley back to Akhsy. The supposed heir of Rustem Hadji-Sultan was the eldest son of Pazyl-Atalyk, the head of the city of Rishtan, but his younger brother Ashur-Kul became the new ruler of Fergana. During 1701 to 1704 Ferghana was ruled from Rishtan and Asha, which led to an internecine war. In 1704 Ashur-Kul troops besieged and destroyed Rishtan. At the same time, Ashur-Kul and Pazyl-Atalyk fell in battle.
Ethnographer and researcher of Central Asia V.P. Nalivkin, based on the information of Mulla-Shamsi, in his research work “A Brief History of the Kokand Khanate”, Kazan, 1886, p.55. writes:
After the death of Rustem Hadji-Sultan, the courtiers proclaimed the ruler of Ashir-kul instead of his elder brother Pazyl-Atalyk, who went to Rishtan and after some time raised a rebellion. In 1704, Ashur-Kul moved with troops to Rishtan and surrounded it, but was killed in battle. Then the army proclaimed the minor Shah Rukh as the ruler and continued the siege. Soon, Pazyl-Atalyk also died, after which Rishtan surrendered and recognized Shahrukh as the supreme ruler.
After the capture of Rishtan, the southern and northwestern provinces of the Ferghana Valley united and Shahrukh-bay became the first sovereign bek and founder of a single state.
M. A. Mahmud-Khoja in his research work "Tarikh-i Turkestan" Tashkent, 1915, pp. 8-11. writes:
Shah Rukh instructed to choose a convenient place for the construction of an urda and a barrow. The sent people considered as such a place the territory between the two sai, where the “kўk tunliklar” lived. Here they erected an arch and around it began to build palaces and buildings.
Subsequently, on the site of four small villages-citadels "kўk tunliklar": Kalvak, Aktepe, Eski-Kurgan and Khokand, a large city of Kokand, the capital of the Kokand Khanate, arose.

Kokand Khanate
The Kokand khans strove to give their dynasty the brilliance of antiquity, which was zealously promoted by local historians, raising this dynasty even to Tamerlane and claiming that it had owned all of Fergana since ancient times. According to local legends, the famous Sultan Babur (see), a descendant of Tamerlane, was heading from Samarkand to India through Fergana, where one of his wives gave birth to a boy on the road between Khojent and Kanibadam; the child, nicknamed Altun-bashik († in 1545), was sheltered by the Uzbek clan Ming, who wandered there (hence the name of the dynasty), when his origin became clear, Altun-bashik was proclaimed a biy and settled in Ashy. The title of biy became hereditary in his offspring. One of the descendants of Altun-bashik, Abdu-Raim, settled in the village of Dikan-Toda, but subsequently, the city of Kokand, which he founded around 1732 and which was originally called Iski-Kurgan or Kala-i-Raim-bay (after the name of its founder), became the main place of his stay.
The construction of the city founded under Shahrukh was continued by his sons Abd ar-Rahim-biy and Abd al-Karim. The convenient geographical location at the entrance to the rich Fergana Valley contributed to the fact that Kokand is rapidly growing and expanding. The young state gradually grew stronger, adding more and more lands to its possessions.
Like medieval cities, Kokand was surrounded by an eighteen-kilometer adobe fortress wall with twelve gates. Deep ditches in three rows that ran around the outer walls were filled with water. The construction of the fortress wall was finally completed under the ruler Sheralikhan, in 1842-1843.
Two brick bridges led to the city. One of them, Gisht-kuprik, of an original design, with light shops arranged for trade, was built during the reign of Madali Khan (1822-1842), Kushbegi Khoja-Datkhoy (this bridge existed until 1936). The second Derezlik bridge, built under Khudoyarkhan by the local builder Musulmankul, in 1856, was located opposite the Ark. Also, like Gisht-kuprik, it was lined with benches, it was with ceilings that protected people from the scorching rays of the sun.
Palace of Khudoyar Khan (1871-1873) "Urda", built by Khudoyarkhan. This building is also called the "Palace of Khudoyarkhan". Mir Waidulla is called the planner and architect of the palace. The masters of Kokand, Rishtan, Kanibadam, Chust, Namangan, Ura-Tube, Kashgar participated in the construction of the palace. The total area of ​​the palace is 4 hectares, its foundation is raised by three meters. In the upper part of the darvozakhona, it is written in Arabic letters: “Great Said Muhammad Khudoyarkhan”. For this reason, a special ramp road was built to enter the main gate from the east side. The palace was built in the traditions of Central Asian architecture. A high entrance portal with colored blue-and-blue tiled lining, on the sides of which two minarets rise; on both sides of the facade stretch long walls with decorative niches, two more minarets are located at the corners of the building. The entire facade of the palace was covered with colorful carved typesetting mosaics. The names of those wonderful folk craftsmen who worked on the construction and decoration of the palace: these are the builders of Mullah Suyarkul, usto Salikhoja, usto Fazyl-Khoja, ganchkors usto Mamasadyk, usto Yuldash Najar-bashi. The facing masters from Rishtan Usto Abdullo, Usto Jamil, Usto Jalil and Usto Zakir were especially distinguished. Their art