Amul

Amul, also called Amuya: a town on the Oxus river. Its people fought Abd Allah ibn al-Rabi ibn Ziyad when he was appointed to succeed as governor of Khurasan, and then he made peace with them, according to al-Baladhuri. ¹

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) treats this Amul, the town also called Amuya or Amu, as lying about 3 miles from the left bank of the Oxus, at 39 degrees 5 minutes N and 63 degrees 41 minutes E. In the Arabic Middle Ages it belonged to the large province of Khurasan. Although surrounded on all sides by desert, it was once of great importance for the caravan trade, as the meeting place of the roads that linked Khurasan with Transoxiana and Khiva. ²

The Samanid Isma'il routed Muhammad ibn Bashir and his army near Amul in 287/900. The town is often mentioned in the sources on the Mongol invasion and on Timur's campaigns. Medieval writers distinguished it from the other Amul by adding a qualifier: Amul Zamin, 'near Zamm' (modern Kerki), Amul Djayhun, or Amul al-Shatt. Its names Amuya and Amu may be older local names for the Oxus, from which the later name Amu Darya was perhaps derived. The modern name Cardjuy, 'the four streams', refers to the ford over the Oxus near by. ²

Under the Uzbeks the Oxus crossing at Cardjuy was the most important on the river, with boats kept ready and bridges of boats for large armies; Nadir Shah's army crossed in 1153/1740. The town was never a large one or a princely seat in this period. Russian railways reached the Amu Darya in 1886, and a railway bridge was built in 1901. Before the Revolution the old town was the residence of a beg of Bukhara; beside the station a new Russian town with a military commandant had about 4,000 to 5,000 people in 1914. ²

Under the Soviet regime New Cardjuy became an administrative and industrial centre. Its population rose from 13,959 in 1926 to 54,500 in 1933, with Turkmens a small minority. In 1955 it was the second town of the Turkmen Soviet Republic, and it has been the chief town of the oblast since 21 November 1939. It is a planned town on a rectilinear plan, a railway, road and river centre, and the Amu Darya is navigable from Termez to the Aral Sea. ²