True. Samarkand is quite a spot. It is very old and represents quite a rich ancient culture. People used to laugh about Uzbeks but they were quite an advanced civilization ahead of any Arab counterpart including Iraq at the time. It was basically a center of Islamic Golden Age in medieval.
I learned over there that the 1,001 tales of Scheherazade in the so-called “Arabian Nights” were originally published in Samarkand. Very likely in that golden age.
However, the Uzbek girls told me that Aleksandr Makedonsky paused before invading India to take an Uzbek wife. And that Uzbeks with blond or red hair got that from Macedonian ancestors.
Xorosho......!
;^)