Early history The name of the city of Osh derives from the river
Vakhsh, anthropomorphised there as a water goddess of the same name, who was worshipped (in tandem with
Atar, sacred fire) in a Zoroastrian shrine or fire temple situated in the Eagle Cave in the ancient sacred mountain
Sulaiman-Too. The river Vakhsh itself, known also as Surkhob or Kyzyl-Suu ( Turkic: "red water") is a tributary of the Amu Darya, the course of the Vakhsh lying outside and to the South of the Fergana valley, rising as it does on the west side of the 3,536m Taunmurun pass (east of the village of
Sary-Tash) and flowing southwest to its confluence with the
Panj at
Takht-i Sangin to form the Amu Darya. Oxus, the ancient name of the Amu Darya, like Osh, is cognate with the river name Vakhsh, revealing that the present day Vakhsh/Kyzyl-Suu was conceived to form the upper reaches of the river now known as the Amu Darya. . The city is among the oldest settlements in
Central Asia. Osh was known as early as the 8th century as a center for silk production along the
Silk Road. The famous trading route crossed
Alay Mountains to reach
Kashgar to the east.
Babur, founder of the
Mughal Empire and descendant of
Tamerlane, was born in nearby
Andijan, in the
Fergana Valley, pondered his future on Sulayman Mountain and even constructed a mosque atop of the mountain. Babur somehow concludes that the confines of the Fergana would cramp his aspirations as a descendant of famous conquering warrior princes. He wrote of the city: "There are many sayings about the excellence of Osh. On the southeastern side of the Osh fortress is a well-proportioned mountain called Bara-Koh, where, on its summit, Sultan Mahmud Khan built a pavilion. Farther down, on a spur of the same mountain, I had a porticoed pavilion built in 902 (1496-7)"
Imperial Russian and Soviet rule The city was occupied and annexed by the
Russian Empire in 1876 when Russia overwhelmed the Central Asian
khanates during the so-called "
Great Game", the contest between
Britain and Russia for dominance in
Central Asia. This conquest was achieved and the inclusion to the Russian Empire made by the mid-1880s, with main credit to General
von Kaufman and General
Mikhail Skobelev. In the 1960s Osh and other towns in the south of the
Kyrgyz SSR began to be industrialized. The population of Osh and other towns in the Fergana Valley that falls within Kyrgyzstan has traditionally consisted of a significant number of ethnic Uzbeks. When Osh started to industrialize the ethnic "Kyrgyz were encouraged to move from the Kyrgyz populated countryside to the cities to work in industrial jobs and public administration."
2010 ethnic violence In 2010, after
riots in
Bishkek and other major Kyrgyz cities, President
Kurmanbek Bakiyev took refuge in the city to hide from protesters denouncing his government and its response to the nation's struggling economy. On May 13, 2010, Bakiyev supporters took over government buildings in Osh and seized the airport, preventing interim government officials from landing. The protesters demanded Bakiev's return, and forced the regional governor to flee. The former Osh regional governor
Mamasadyk Bakirov was reinstated. On June 10, 2010, riots erupted in Osh, killing at least 81 and injuring hundreds of others. "An explosion of violence, destruction and looting in southern Kyrgyzstan on 11–14 June 2010 killed many dozens of Kyrgyz and Uzbek people. The total of over 2000 buildings were destroyed, mostly homes, and deepened the divide between the country's ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks." Local media reported that gangs of young men armed with sticks and stones smashed shop windows and set cars aflame in the city center. Several buildings and homes across the city were also set on fire. The city's police force proved incapable of restoring order resulting in a state of emergency being declared and the
army being mobilised. The Kyrgyz intelligence agency claimed that the just-deposed president initiated the 2010 violence, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who is said to have made a deal with foreign narco-jihadist gangs to take over southern Kyrgyzstan and initiate a shariah state in exchange for the Bakiyev family's being returned to controlling Bishkek. However, to the day no serious proof has been presented to the public and media. According to various sources, up to 100,000 ethnic Uzbek refugees fled to Uzbekistan. Many refugee camps have been organized in the Andijan, Fergana and Namangan regions of Uzbekistan for Uzbek citizens of Kyrgyzstan who cross the border seeking safety. ==Geography==