Namjan

Namjan was a trading town described by the twelfth-century geographer al-Idrisi among the lands of the Bashkirs. Copper, precious stones, fox and beaver furs, and fish were carried from it towards Central Asia and the Caspian coast. Its exact site is uncertain, but the country near the meeting of the Or and the Ural offers a plausible setting for a town at the crossroads of these routes.

In 1735 a Russian expedition founded a new Russian fortress called Orenburg at that confluence, where Bashkir and Kazakh lands met. The Kazakh leader Abulkhair had proposed the site, hoping that an alliance with Russia would strengthen his position. The name Orenburg was later transferred downstream, while the original fortress became known as Orsk.