Ubiquitously Uzbekistan – The Amir Timur Square and Hotel Uzbekistan
After visiting metro art, we exited the Amir Timur station and arrived at the vicinity of the Amir Timur Square. When we saw Hotel Uzbekistan, we decided that we could take a break and have coffee there. Our coffee session turned out to be an other-worldly, dreamy-spy-movie-like experience.
Hotel Uzbekistan
Calum Macleod said in The Golden Road to Samarkand that Hotel Uzbekistan is “so ugly that it’s almost beautiful.” Upon seeing the building, I tended to agree with him. The hotel was built by the Soviets and the government only sold it to private hands in 2018.
The building shapes like a book with opened leaves and standing upright. The oddest of its appearance is what looks like an additional layer of steely, or wooden, material in absolute uniformity that covers the hotel’s windows. This additional layer comes in rectangular shapes with overlapping corners, which makes the hotel look cold and rigid, but intriguing at the same time.
Perhaps the ugliness comes from its still-shiny steel adornments, including the sign of Hotel Uzbekistan and this odd, seemingly unnecessary layer of window façade, that remain golden, but a gaudy kind of golden.
The sight of the hotel itself was education to me. I have probably not ever seen anything that is truly “Soviet Union,” although the gaudy gold does somewhat echo the state hotels of China built in an earlier era. This architecture expresses what “grand” entails in an ideological era long bygone. Hotel Uzbekistan was meant to be top-of-the-line when it was built, and certainly it still markets itself as a luxurious hotel in Tashkent now.
A Chanced Encounter with Uzbek Youth
Just as we were heading to the hotel, a group of young women approached us. They were students of English and they would like to interview us. This would be the first conversation with the locals that is in-depth. They asked us how old we were, but we told them it is not polite to do so, especially in asking women. Then we discussed what they wanted to do in life. They were students of English so they were thinking of becoming teachers. I told them the only Uzbek word that I knew so far, and that was “honym,” referring to the “Uzbek lasagna” that we had at the Chorsu Bazaar earlier.
Bar Vienna – Spy Movie Setting in Old Soviet Style
We bid farewell with this group of youth and headed right into the hotel. There are two sections, Café Bar and Bar Vienna. Bar Vienna was a whole lot more interesting so we sat down there at a compartment seating on the side.
I said our coffee there was other-worldly-dreamy because this setting was the perfect backdrop for a spy movie. It felt like a 1950s classics there. I sat down and started imagining Soviet agents eavesdropping on foreigners discussing the affairs of the world.
I did the super silly thing of asking the only English-speaking waitress whether what we were about to order on the menu was Russian. We went through a few choices, to which she confirmed that they were Russian. But then soon she came back saying that both were out of stock. Our only choice was the brownie, and that would not have been Russian. I acted so silly because Hotel Uzbekistan does induce this strange rush of nostalgia. I imagined that I could relive Soviet Union there.
The Amir Timur Square
The Amir Timur Square lies at the very heart of Tashkent. A tree-lined public space in an open area, the square has gone through an interesting history of “changing hands.” The key statue that stands in its focal point has changed depending on the political correctness of the times.
The Amir Timur Square was originally built in 1882 by Nikolai Ulyanov working under Mikhail Chernyayev. At different times of history, the statues of General von Kaufmann, Lenin, Stalin and Karl Marx had sat on the very spot of the Amir Timur statue. The current statue of Amir Timur was erected in 1994, and as one of the three in the country to commemorate the 660th anniversary of Amir Timur’s birthday in 1996.
Perhaps it won’t be so surprising that the celebration of Amir Timur as a national hero was also motivated by political intentions. The dictator Islam Karimov, who led Uzbekistan during the Soviet times and well into the Republic, had wanted to position himself as a Timurid-like ruler. It was under his auspices that Amir Timur again found his recognition revived and memorialized in the Amir Timur Square.
Amir Timur the Warrior and Learned Statesman
The appreciation of Uzbekistan would not be complete without knowing something about Amir Timur. For the western audience, the most familiar cultural reference to Amir Timur would be Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great, a Play in Two Parts. The 1588 play was based loosely on Amir Timur’s life. Tamerlane, another name for which Amir Timur is known in the west, came from the idea of “Timur the Lame,” owing to the fact that Amir Timur had sustained a leg injury from an enemy early in his life.
He is the 14th to early 15th century ruler of Uzbekistan. He is hands down the greatest national hero for the Uzbeks. Amir means “commander,” referring to his title. Timur means “iron.”
Amir Timur was born in 1336 to a minor chief of the Barlas clan south of Samarkand. The early signs of Amir Timur’s strategic and warrior capabilities would come to full blossom in 1380 or so. By then he had already established his stronghold in Samarkand. Onward he would rage military campaigns, spanning as far as northern India and southern Russia. There was no question that he blazed a bloody trail as he sacked Urgench, Baghdad Damascus, Herat, Delhi and more.
Amir Timur built his military prowess by fully engaging the mobility and skills of horsemanship, archery and swordcraft, all of which are the strengths of nomadic warfare. Timur further enhanced classic nomadic warfare with strategic planning. His brutality would exceed that of Genghis Khan in the 12th and 13th centuries. Tens and millions died due to his ruthlessness in war.
Amir Timur’s reign would usher in a golden era for Uzbekistan. The Timurid dynasty followed a period of periodic invasions by various powers in that part of the world during the 10th to 13th centuries, after the Islamic period. The Genghis Khan Mongols were eventually victorious. They ransacked the ancient cities, including Tashkent, Bukhara, Khiva and Samarkan, rendering them to abject ruins. By the time Amir Timur was born, the Genghis Khan Mongols that ruled this part of Central Asia were slowly losing their grip on power. Amir Timur’s rise would bring to the region the stability that enables a revival of learning and culture, perhaps in both the Turkic Mongol and the Islamic ways.
During his lifetime, Amir Timur dominated this part of Central Asia with a centralized rule. Commonly viewed as a Turkic-Mongol ruler, Amir Timur was fluent in both Turkic and Persian. Besides being a warrior, Amir Timur also had an exceptional intellect. He was very serious about history, architecture, astronomy, medicine and general matters of culture. Along with the loot from his military campaigns he also brought back skilled artisans, who would eventually build Samarkand into a city of glory during his time.
Amir Timur died in 1405, but the Timurid dynasty did not survive for very long after his death, perhaps lasting for less than a century into the early 16th century. Although seemingly short-lived, the Timurid dynasty did establish a centralized empire and it is remembered for its glory to this day.
As we headed on to other parts of Uzbekistan, we would be learning more about Amir Timur’s posterity.
Samarkand was the origin of Amir Timur’s greatness. It was also the capital of the Timurid Empire. With this learning in my bag I would be heading out to Samarkand on the next leg of the journey in Uzbekistan.
Dinner at Navvat
After a quick walk around the area, we decided that we were good in our first day in Uzbekistan. We simply searched for a restaurant with good reviews in the vicinity. Navvat was in the vicinity with excellent ambiance and English speaking staff. We ordered a Plov and a vegetarian salad. The food was fair although on the more expensive end.
Sources
The Wikipedia on Amir Timur Square.
The Wikipedia on Tamburlaine.
Calum Macleod, Uzbekistan: the Golden Road to Samarkand (2014).
Sophie Ibbotson, Uzbekistan, Bradt Travel Guide (2020).