New Britain herald., 1930-07-11
WOMAN RULES CITY
 OF OLD CONQUEROR
Sanarkand, Where 1amerlane
 Lived, Is Capital Again

1 Izhekistan, T.S.SR., July il (UP) Samarkand, Soviet Republic of The pampered capital of Timur the Lame, known to history as Tam erlane, once more after a lapse of centuries is the sea of a government. It is the capital of Uzbekistan whose frontiers enclose also the famed cit les of Tashkent and Bokhara.
 But the new governors think little of their magnificent predecessor. The one who came to greet us at the railroad station, vice president of the republic, would certainly have shocked old Timur. She-and the little pronoun gives away the secret with "Comrade" Obidova. a young and rather handsome Uzbek woman, as brisk and business-like as you please, her hair bobbed and cig- arette between her lips.
 Comrade Abidova made it quite clear what she thought of the lame Timur, his beloved wife Bibi Khan mum and their family. We ar- rived all excited to gaze at last upon the magnificent tombs of these two. their relatives and generals. But Comrade Abidova had other plans. Having mobilized us around the long red table where the Uzbek council of peoples commissars meets, she out lined program for the day: the new irrigation works far out of the city. silk mills, hospitals, etc.
 Bob-haired Abidova cared noth- ing for all the old richly-inlaid and crumbling splendors of the past. It was evident enough that the new rulers of the Uzbeks male and fe- male, were rather nonplussed by our 1nfdel lack of enthusiasm for the new shrines and medresse of Soviet industrialism.
 We managed, however, to see both the old and the new, and each gain ed vividness because of the other.
 Samarkand has been the goal of many conquerors. of whom Alexan- der the Great is the first known to history. After him came the Tad jiks, who left most of their language and culture. Next the Arabs, to be followed by the Turks. They in turn were covered by the floodtide of Mongol fordes under Ghengis Khan early in the 18th century and under Tamerlane two centuries later. With the disintegration of Tamerlane's empire, the city was ruled by local Emir5 until conquered by the Rus Sians about GO years ago.
 Of them all, the impress of Tam erlane is strongest. Tamerlane loved his Samarkand and lavished his choicest spells upon it. He brought the best artisans in Asia and Europe to build mosques and tombs and religious schools. The ruins of those monuments to his fame and taste still dominate the Old City.
 The lofty minarets of the Regis tan are badly cracked and lean dangerously. The tomb of Bib: Khannum is shattered. Tamerlane's tomb has lost most of it's mosiacs and seems in bad condition gener- ally.
 4 Enough Of these monuments re- main though to give some idea of their ancient grandeur. Glimpsed from -afar, silhouetted against the warm Oriental sky. their beauty is breath taking. A closer inspection strengthens the impression. Here and there a cornice or niche has remained almost intact, a complete mosaic has been preserved. The mind fills in missing decorations, heals gaping wounds, and is startled by the vision of opulent beauty which must have been here of old.
 Below, the streets and alleys hum with life, for Samarkand's bazaar is centered around this oldest part of the town. There is the street of capmakers, ablaze with gold and silver and purple skullcaps; the street of silversmiths, where gor- geous confections of semiprecious stones set in silver are for sale; streets of coopers. silk dealers, etc.
 The district is thick and loud and odorous with buyers and sellers Uz- beh lads balance on their heads trays piled high with thin round bread loaves; water carriers tread through the crowds; beggars wall monoton- ously. Above the noises of hawking and bargaining are the shouts of the drivers of high wheeled carts, of camel drivers and large men riding tiny donl.eys, all pushing their way through the knotted mass. The long multicolored robes of men and women, the turbans, the black tri- angles of horsehair cloth over wom- ems faces. contribute to scene that remains electric in the memory long afterwards.
 1nvessant hammering of hundreds. perhaps thousands, of artisans at work in their open cupboard-like shops, is the most characteristic sound in Samarkand. Its pleasant tones are always in ones ears, filling the interstices as it were between larger and louder noises.
 The exotic past, all observers seem to agree, is dying fast. Even the hammering of the artisans must soon be silenced by the hum of factories The new age has reached Samar- kand.
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