Syr Darya
Farghana was a frontier province bordering the lands of Islam during the Umayyad and early Abbasid caliphates. Occupying the entire valley to the east of Khujand, it was surrounded to the north, east and south by mountains, with the Syr Darya running through it. The capital of the region was for some time at Kasan in the north; by the Islamic period, however, it had moved to the city of Akhsikath on the bank of the Syr Darya.