First settled in the sixth or seventh century BC, Samarkand has known periods of prosperity and decline – its craftsmen traded and settled as far afield as the Chinese borders, and its great military leader Tamerlane fought wars against Persia, Syria and India. Samarkand is best known as a centre of Islamic learning and architecture. The photographs collected here were taken during the key period from 1871 to the 1890s, following the Tsarist conquest of 1868, but before the Soviet rule which resulted in the destruction of many Islamic landmarks.