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Dushanbe (Tajik: Душанбе, IPA: [duʃæmˈbe]; significance Monday in Persian) is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan. As of January 2020, Dushanbe had a population of 863,400 and as of 2010 that population was largely Tajik. Until 1929, the town was known in Russian as Dyushambe (Russian: Дюшамбе, Dyushambe), and from 1929 to 1961 as Stalinabad (Tajik: Сталинобод, Stalinobod), after Joseph Stalin. Dushanbe is located in the Gissar valley, bounded by the Gissar Range in the north and east and the Babatag, Aktau, Rangontau and Karatau mountains in the south, and has an altitude of 750--900 m. The town is divided into four districts, all named after historical figures: Ismail Samani, Avicenna, Ferdowsi, and Shah Mansur.
In ancient times, what is currently or is near modern Dushanbe was settled by different empires and individuals, including Mousterian tool-users, various neolithic cultures, the Achaemenid Empire, Greco-Bactria, the Kushan Empire, and the Hephalites. In the Middle Ages, more settlements started near modern-day Dushanbe such as Hulbuk and its famous palace. In the 17th century to the early 20th, Dushanbe started to grow into a market village controlled at times by the Beg of Hisor, Balkh, and eventually Bukhara. Soon after the Russian invasion in 1922, the city was made the capital of the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1924, which initiated Dushanbe's development and rapid population growth that lasted until the Tajik Civil War. Following the war, the city became capital of an independent Tajikistan and continued its growth and development into a modern city which now is home to many international conventions.
Dushanbe's modern culture had its beginnings in the 1920s, where Soviet music, cinema, theatre, sculpture, film, and sports all started.
Doha | |
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Doha (Arabic: الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ad-Dōḥa, pronounced [adˈdawħa]) is the capital and most populous city of the State of Qatar. It has a population of 956,460 (2015). The city is located on the shore of the Persian Gulf in the east of the country, North of Al Wakrah and South of Al Khor. It is Qatar's fastest growing city, with over 80 percent of the country's population living in Doha or its surrounding suburbs, and it's the political and economic center of the nation.
Doha was founded in the 1820s as an offshoot of Al Bidda. It was officially declared as the nation's capital in 1971, when Qatar gained independence from being a British Protectorate. As the commercial capital of Qatar and one of the emergent financial centers in the Middle East, Doha is considered a beta-level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Doha accommodates Education City, an area dedicated to education and research; Hamad Medical City, an Hamad Medical Corporation administrative area of medical care which includes Hamad General Hospital, Heart Hospital, Women's Wellness and Research Center and Qatar Rehabilitation Institute as well as a number of specialty clinics and support infrastructure.