Akhsīkath was the pre-Islamic capital city of Farghāna (Fergana, in present-day Uzbekistan). It was called in Soghdian 'γsyknδh or γsyknδh (Freyman and Livshits, 2:144, 193), which was shortened in the tenth/sixteenth century to Akhsī. The Arabs captured the city in 86/705 (Ibn al-Athīr, 4:524; al-Balādhurī, 409: Kh-sh-k-t = Akhsīkath). The principal city of Farghāna into the fourth/tenth century, it was "the residence of the amīr and [his] lieutenants" ( Ḥudūd , trans. Minorsky, 116). Kāsān (al-Yaʿqūbī, 394: the city "in