Amol

Amol stood beside an important crossing of the Oxus on the road from Merv to Bukhara. Desert surrounded the river oasis, but the crossing joined Khorasan with Transoxiana. The town of Farab lay opposite on the other bank. Medieval writers distinguished this Amol from its namesake near the Caspian by calling it Amol on the Oxus or Amol of the desert. Its name was also associated with the river itself, later called the Amu Darya.

Restored after the Mongol conquest, Amol remained inhabited through the fourteenth century and served the Timurids as a strategic crossing. From the late fifteenth century the name Charjuy, referring to four channels, gradually replaced the older name. Muhammad Shaybani took the town in 1504, and it became part of the Uzbek realm associated with Bukhara. Boats carried travellers and merchants across the broad river; armies could be moved over on bridges of boats. In 1740 Nader Shah crossed here during his campaign against Bukhara, demonstrating the continuing importance of the passage.