Bukhara is the seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents as of 1 January 2020. It is the capital of Bukhara Region. The mother tongue of the majority of people of Bukhara is the Tajik dialect of the Persian language, although Uzbek is spoken as a second language by most residents.

The Emirate of Bukhara was a Muslim polity in Central Asia that existed from 1785 to 1920 in what is now Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, known formerly as Transoxiana. Its core territory was the fertile land along the lower Zarafshon river, and its urban centres were the ancient cities of Samarqand and the emirate's capital, Bukhara. It was contemporaneous with the Khanate of Khiva to the west, in Khwarazm, and the Khanate of Kokand to the east, in Fergana. In 1920, it ceased to exist with the establishment of the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic.