Qualla: Qirqqiz Fortress

Qirqqiz Fortress: Introduction

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TwoWings, CC BY-SA 4.0. Nobody agrees on what Qirqqiz Fortress was built for. Archaeologists have called it a palace, a caravanserai, a Sufi khanqah, a military outpost, and -- most intriguingly -- the first Islamic academy for girls. The name itself offers the strongest clue: Qirqqiz, from the Uzbek for "forty girls." According to folk epics from the region, when the Samanid dynasty began to fracture and succession struggles intensified, a fortress was raised near the ancient city of Termez. Its first students, the stories say, were the forty most talented young women in the country.

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Image: TwoWings | CC BY-SA 4.0

Qirqqiz Fortress: A Building That Defies Classification

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TwoWings, CC BY-SA 4.0. The fortress sits in the Surxondaryo region of southern Uzbekistan, preserved in a state of ruin in Termiz District. Built by the Samanids in the 9th century, its construction drew master craftsmen from Iran and India. The rectangular structure measures roughly 53 by 55 meters an...

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Image: TwoWings | CC BY-SA 4.0

Qirqqiz Fortress: Forty Girls and a Lost Curriculum

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TwoWings, CC BY-SA 4.0. The folk tradition is specific: the fortress was a school for science and art, and the forty girls who studied there were chosen for their intelligence and talent. Whether this oral history reflects actual practice is impossible to confirm, but the building's design supports an e...

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Image: TwoWings | CC BY-SA 4.0

Qirqqiz Fortress: A Century of Competing Theories

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonibek Qo'zimurodov, CC BY-SA 4.0. Archaeologists have been arguing about Qirqqiz since 1926, when an expedition from the Museum of Oriental Culture first studied the site. V. Zgura described it as a small palace or an outlying fortress, comparing it to a structure built by Harun al-Rashid near the Froth River. In...

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Image: Jonibek Qo'zimurodov | CC BY-SA 4.0

Qirqqiz Fortress: Mud Brick and Memory

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Lechhansl at German Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. What survives today is a skeleton of mud brick and fired brick, its arches and vaults still showing the skill of craftsmen who traveled hundreds of miles to build it. The fortress was rebuilt several times between the 9th and 15th centuries, which partly explains the confusion ov...

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Image: The original uploader was Lechhansl at German Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0