Dushanbe: Ancient and Modern

Панфилов, Олег И
Dubovitskii, Viktor. Душанбе: Молодой И Древний. Душанбе: Адиб, 1991,
43c.

Panfilov, Oleg and
Dubovitskii, Viktor. Dushanbe:
Molodoi i Drevnii.
Dushanbe: Adib, 1991, 43pp.

ABSTRACT

Dushanbe: Ancient and Modern

Душанбе:
Молодой
И
Древний

Dushanbe: Ancient
and Modern was written during Tajikistan's first year of independence. The
book discusses both the early and modern history of Dushanbe and is aimed at a
wide readership, including those with a general interest in history and tourists
visiting the city. A slim volume, it contains a significant amount of valuable
information on Dushanbe’s establishment as a cultural and administrative
centre. (According to the authors, Dushanbe’s history stretches back more than
2,300 years to the third century BC.)

On the
whole, the book is a valuable source of
information on an understudied topic, especially since extensive historical and
archaeological research on Dushanbe has yet to be conducted. The work’s chief
value resides in the fact that unlike other books on the subject it offers a
significant treatment of the city’s early history. Information is presented
concisely and supported with photographs, including images of archaeological
finds made in the Dushanbe area. Concision is also the work’s principal
shortcoming since this means the quality of the research it presents cannot
easily be assessed. As a result the book cannot be considered the most
authoritative among scholarly resources on the history of Dushanbe.

Askarshko Kalanov

Translated by B.D. Morgan