The earliest references to Tashkent, under the name of Chach or Shash, are found in Chinese chronicles of the 2nd century B.C., where it is mentioned as the trade and administrative center of the fertile Chirchik Valley. The settlement of Binkent rose on its site in the Samanid time (9th-11th centuries A.D.). It received the Turkic name of Tashkent in the 11th century, and bears it to this day. Antiquity and the Middle Ages knew Tashkent as a major center of commerce and handicrafts, an essential transshipment center of the Great Silk Route, and an outpost of settled culture on the border of nomad-populated plains. This borderline situation and the absence of natural fortifications made it easy prey for conquerors.
The Russian period in the history of Tashkent started in 1865, when it was incorporated in the Russian Empire after a six-month campaign under General Chernyaev. Russian colonists launched active construction. Tashkent became the administrative center of the Province of Turkestan and the governor general's residence in 1867.
European-style construction started in the Ming-Uryuk neighborhood, whose name means "a thousand apricot trees". Russia has its embassy there. Tashkent received its present-day architectural look in the Soviet years, mainly after the disastrous earthquake of 1966, when all the Soviet republics took part in reconstructing the city center, and built several neighborhoods and a number of public buildings-the Peoples' Friendship Palace, the Turkeston Palace, the Durmen government residence, a circus, several theatres, and others. At present, Tashkent has a population of 2.3 million, about 10% of the total population of Uzbekistan. The city remains multi-ethnic, though the share of Uzbeks is steadily growing. They accounted for 60% in 1998 as against 45% in 1989. Russian speakers make 35% of the population.