Modern history
Samarkand was invaded by Uzbek Turks in 1500. Approximately at that time new Uzbek leaders emerged, who were called Shaybanids.
In the XVI-th century the Shaybanids moved metropolis to Bukhara. This was the beginning of Samarkand’s decay. In the XVIII-th century, around 1720 or later, the town was forsaken after an attack by Nadir Shah, the king of Persia.
The Ashtarkhanid dynasty of Bukhara was ruling Samarkand starting from 1599 till 1756. And Manghyt emirs of Bukhara ruled it from 1756 till 1868.
In 1868 Samarkand was taken by the Russians, when Colonel Konstantin Petrovich Kaufman seized the citadel by force. It has not been long when a small division with 500 Russians found itself in the siege. Suffering heavy losses they managed to rebuff the attack of Abdul Malik Tura, the disloyal son of Bukharan Emir, and Bek of Shahrisabz. The first head of the military district, with Samarkand as administrative center, was Alexander Abramov. After that the Russians constructed their own section of the town, which is situated mostly westwards of the old city.
The city was designated as the metropolis of the new Samarkand district in the Russian Turkestan. Its importance strongly increased in 1888, when Samarkand was reached by Trans-Caspian railway. In 1925 it was named the capital of Uzbek SSR, and in 1930 it was replaced by Tashkent.