A modern industrial city, Türkmenabat's history spans 2,000 years. In ancient times, it was known as Āmul (to be distinguished from the Iranian city of
Amol). The river
Amu Darya is said to mean
River of Āmul, named after this ancient city. Türkmenabat was the hub in an intersection of three routes of the Great
Silk Road leading to
Bukhara,
Khiva and
Merv. For centuries, Āmul was an important town of the Uzbek feudal
khanate (later
emirate) of Bukhara. When the
Russian Empire began annexing Central Asian
Turkestan, Āmul was surrendered to Russians by the Bukhara
emirate, which subsequently became a
vassal of Russia and pledged allegiance to the Russian emperor. The modern city was founded in 1886, when Russian
Cossacks settled in Uralka in what is now the eastern part of Türkmenabat, naming their settlement
New-Chardjuy. Settlement here was necessary to complete construction of the
Trans-Caspian railway. After the 1917
Russian Revolution, during which the
Bolsheviks came into power, communists merged the former Central Asian oblasts of the Russian Empire along with the former Khanates of Khiva (Khorezm) and Bukhara into republics on the basis of nationality. In 1924, Türkmenabat (known as Çärjew at the time) city's sedentary and urban population was
Uzbek. But at the time, as
Turkmens were a largely nomadic nation, and Soviet economic and industrialization plans for the proposed Turkmen SSR required a relatively large anchor city; thus the city was passed to the newly created
Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic. Its role as a
railway junction, and the high fertility of the Amu Darya region, made it the major trade center for agricultural products in the northeast region of the country. The city features
food processing,
textile (
cotton processing and
silk) factories. Çärjew was Turkmenistan's industrial and transport hub during the Soviet period, but most of these related jobs and transport opportunities have been relocated to
Ashgabat or closed since Turkmenistan's independence. From the article about Çärjew in the
Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (beginning of the 20th century): Chardjuy is an urban settlement formed near the Amu-Darya station (1070 c. from Krasnovodsk) of the Central Asian Railway, on the left bank of the Amu-Darya River, on land ceded by the emir of Bukhara to the Russian government. There are 4,068 inhabitants (2,651 men and 1,417 women), including 3,501 Russians. There are wide straight streets, enough greenery, many shops, and a rather lively bazaar. Chardjuy is an important trade center, where goods going to Bukhara, Khiva, and partly to Afghanistan, are loaded onto river vessels. The steamboat of the Amu Darya fleet maintains communication between Patta Gissar (Termez) in the south and Petro-Aleksandrovsky (Khiva)... At 16 verst from Chardjuy lies the rather large Bukharan city of Chardjuy (native Chardjuy), the center of Chardjuy province (bekstvo), with the remains of walls and a fortress; 15 thousand inhabitants. Old Chardjuy (Amu-Darya) is characterized by a lively trade exchange. In 1900, 1820244 pd arrived at the station. (military supplies, sugar, timber, building material, iron, flour, tea, rice, etc.); Sent from the Chardjuy station in the same year: 963382 (leather, carpets, sheepskin, cotton seed, cotton - 516641 pd, wool, etc.). The third edition of the
Great Soviet Encyclopedia wrote of the city:Chardzhou, city, center of Chardzhou oblast of Turkmen SSR, pier on the left bank of the Amu Darya (where the Krasnovodsk-Tashkent railroad line crosses). From Chardzhou the Kungrad-Makat rail line begins. 113,000 residents in 1977 (51,000 in 1939). It arose in the 1880s as a Russian fortification on the territory of the Khanate of Bukhara. From 1886 the city, named New Chardzou, was a commercial and transportation hub of Central Asia (in 1888 the Central Asian Railway came through Chardzhou). From 1918-24 it was part of the Turkestan ASSR; from 1924, the Turkmen SSR. From 1937, it was named Chardzhou. From 1939-63 and since 1970, it was an oblast center. ==Climate==