Margilan (Uzb. Marg‘ilon, Margilon) is a city in the Fergana region of Uzbekistan.
Margilan is located in the southeast of the Fergana Valley, in the foothills of the Alai Range, 9 km northwest of the city of Fergana, the regional center. An ancient center for the production of silk fabrics in Central Asia.

History
In ancient times
Margilan is one of the ancient cities of the Ferghana Valley. The city arose about 2 thousand years ago. In 1994-2004, employees of the Institute of Archeology of Uzbekistan worked in the city, revealing the existence of irrigated agriculture in the Margilan oasis since no later than the 4th-3rd centuries BC. e.

The settlement has been known in sources since the 9th century. The name has been known since the 10th century.
According to the existing hypothesis, the meaning of the word “Margilon” is formed from two Persian-Tajik words: “Marg” – “meadow, lawn, clearing, green grass, green lowland” and the suffix “lon” meaning – “locality”. When these two words are merged, it turns out “Margilon” – a green area.
The founder of the Mughal Empire, Babur, lists the inhabitants as speakers of the Persian dialect. According to him, in the XV century. The population of the Ferghana Valley consisted of Turks and Sarts. Babur attributed the inhabitants of Margelan, Sokh, Rishdan, Isfara and Kanibadam to the Sarts, and Andijan and its environs to the Turks. In his book “Babur-name” he writes that –

Another city is Marginan, to the west of Andijan, seven miles away. It is a good city, full of all grace. Pomegranates and apricots are plentiful and good there. There is one type of pomegranate called donakalan; in its sweetness, a light pleasant sour taste of apricot is felt. These grenades can be preferred over Semnan grenades. There is also a variety of apricots, from which the bones are taken out, and instead of them, the nucleoli are placed inside the fruit and dried; they call it subhani, it is very tasty. The game is good there; white kiyiki come across close. The inhabitants of Marginan are Sarts; they are a quarrelsome and restless people. The custom of fighting with fists is common in Maverannahr; most of the famous fist fighters in Samarkand and Bukhara are Marginans. The author Hidai is a native of a village in the Marginan region called Rishdan.
Central Asian, Uzbek and Soviet traveler, writer, polyglot translator, historian and Jadidist Iskhokhon Ibrat (real name Iskhokhon Tura Junaydullo-Khoja oglu), in his historical book “History of Fergana” (Tarihi Fargona) refers Margilan to the ancient cities of Fergana.

The author associates the time of foundation and the name of the city with settlers from Persia, and dates it to 833, i.e. 9th century
These settlers indicated in the studies of Ibrat were most likely Gilans from Persia, i.e. Iranian-speaking people living in the north of Iran, the main population of the province of Gilan, with the administrative center of Rasht. The traditional occupation of which from ancient times was sericulture. And now Gilan is considered the main center of sericulture of Iran, as well as the production of carpets and weaving. Since ancient times, there has been a legend in Rishtan about the ancient inhabitants of Rasht or Dorulomon (the ancient name of Rasht) from Gilan, who arrived in the 8th century and formed the Dorulomon quarter, which exists to this day. They were introduced to the Rishtans as “Mo-ar-gilyan” i.e. “We are from Gilan” and therefore the next version may clarify the date of formation and the name of Margilan ..

During the reign of the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), the fourth righteous caliph Ali ibn Abu Talib (656-661), some Quraysh from the family of the first righteous caliph, a companion and father-in-law of the prophet Muhammad Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, led by The nobility of the city of Medina began to move to the northeast to the shores of the Caspian Sea, where on the territory of the Gilan Valley they create a powerful state of Seyids with the capital in the city of Rasht.
The tribe of Gilians behind the settlement of the Lurs, in the meadow meadow – “marg” (Tajik) create a small settlement and called it “margigilon” i.e. meadow-lawn or glade of Gilians. After that, everyone began to call this area the glade of the Gilans “Marggilon” or they are from the Gilan “Mo-ar-gilon” i.e. settlement of inhabitants “from-Gilyan”. In this settlement, the Gilyans organized the production of silk fabrics, which they did in their historical homeland. In subsequent centuries, the settlements were called differently according to the sound and spelling Moargylon – Marginon – Margilon, but the meaning was reduced to one “We-from-Gilyan”. In the XII century. it turned into a large Persian-speaking city (history is known that until the 17th century, Margilon was a Persian-speaking city, the stay of the Turkic-speaking tribes of the Mings, Yuzs, etc., gradual assimilation with the autochthonous population led to the Turkization of the city’s population.), which is still considered the largest center production of silk fabrics in Central Asia.
The above versions are also confirmed by the anthropological data of the inhabitants of the city, most of whom belong to the Pamir-Fergana race, a large Caucasoid race with a partial admixture of Mongoloid elements. In addition to the Gilans and Persians, one of the ancestors of the Margilans may be representatives of the Pamir peoples – the Yazgulims, who arrived from the state of Miron Zamin, who consider themselves direct descendants of Alexander the Great, as evidenced by the legends that exist in Central Asia.

Under the Samanids (IX-X centuries) it was a small town. Only one trade route passed through it, which went along southern Fergana. In written sources, it is referred to as Marginan. After the extinction under the influence of local causes of such large cities as Kuva and Rishtan in the XI century. the state of affairs is changing. Prosperity was facilitated by the fact that it was located at the crossroads of the Great Silk Road, going from West to East; after Khojent, it branched into two roads: northern and southern. The southern route after Kanibadam went to the Sokh mining region and further, through Khaidarkan, to Okhna, Kadamzhoy and, finally, to. The northern route after the city of Akhsikent (Akhsiket) was again divided into two: one went through “Miyan rudan” (“ikki suv orasi”, Naryn and Karadarya) to Uzgend, the second – to. During this period, the city territorially grows at the expense of rabad. All types of crafts are intensively developing. And as a result, (“Marginan”) in the XI-XII centuries. became one of the capital cities of Ferghana and had its own mint, where coins were minted on behalf of the governor of the Karakhanid state.

The well-known Russian orientalist, academician V.V. Bartold in his research pointed out:
There were cases of the destruction of the city during hostilities, in addition, under the influence of local causes, the city could turn into a village, and a village into a city. In Ferghana Marginan in the X century. was a small town, and in the XII century. was ranked among the “famous cities”, while Rishtan, which was in the 10th century. a city more significant than Marginan, became a village in the vicinity of Marginan.
Moved in the middle of the XII century. At the invitation of the ruler of Maverannahr to Samarkand, a native of the Dahbed quarter of the ancient city of Rishtan, an Islamic lawyer-faqih, theologian, Sheikh-ul-Islam, Abul-Hasan Ali ibn Abu Bakr ibn Abdul-Jalil al-Fergani al-Marginani ar-Roshidonii is better known as Burkhanuddin al-Marginani for himself and his murids (مريد|followers, students) Rishtan and Margilan chose a place to settle in the suburbs of Samarkand and called it Dahbed iv”). In the XIV-XV centuries. in Samarkand, the Dakhbeds participated in the design of the grandiose architectural complexes of the city. Since that time, the street where Dakhbed masters lived in Samarkand is still called Dakhbedskaya.
Medieval scholars, Islamic theologians and jurists-faqihs, Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdurazzoq ibn Abu Nasr ibn Ja’far ibn Sulaimon Marginoniy (1084), Abu Muhammad Umar al-Kandobiy al-Marginoniy (1093), Ali ibn Abu Bakr Marginoniy (1197), Abu ҳAFS Nizomiddin Umar Marguinonius (1203), Abul Maҳosan Knight Al-Hasan Ibn Ali Abdulaziz Marginius (1203), Abul Khasan Khiiriddin Ali Ibn Azizul Aimma Maҳmud Abu Shandiy (1112), Hassan ibn Ali Zahiriddin al-Kabir laqabi Abul Mahosindir, Burhoniddin Mahmud ibn as-Sadr as-Said Tozh ad-Din Ahmad ibn as-Sadr al-Kabir Abdal-aziz ibn Umar ibn Muaz al-Bukhori al-Marginoniy-mentor of Burhoniddin al-Marginoniy.
From 1710 to 1876 it was part of the Kokand Khanate, was the center.

Within the Russian Empire and the USSR
In 1875, after the conquest of the Kokand Khanate, the city became part of the Russian Empire (see Central Asian possessions of the Russian Empire). During the Russian Empire, the official name of the city was Margelan, or Old Margelan to distinguish it from New Margelan.
During the years of Soviet power, a silk factory, an art and sewing factory, a mechanical repair, tractor repair, woodworking, iron foundry, and dairy factories were built in the city.

As part of independent Uzbekistan
In 2007, the 2000th anniversary of the city was solemnly celebrated.