An academic tells the story of how his mother escaped Nazis to arrive at the historic Fergana Valley

She did so as someone who had never visited the city, even though it is just one hour by bus southwest of Uzgen, the town where she lived in the Fergana Valley. Osh is the largest city in the Kyrgyz portion of the Fergana Valley. My mother never knew the name of the stone promontory in the Fergana Valley that had been named for an Israelite king. The Fergana Valley and the Indian subcontinent have been culturally and commercially connected for over two millennia. Local legend claims that Solomon visited the Fergana Valley and died in Osh; his grave is said to be at the summit of Sulaiman-Too.