Group of Jewish boys with their teacher in Samarkand, ca. 1910. Samarkand's Jews lived under Muslim rule until the late 18th century, when Sephardic Moroccan Rabbi, Maghribi, arrived and began a revival Jewish religious life. Russia annexed the region in 1868 and built the Trans-Caspian railroad, ending their isolation from Europe. 1910 color photograph by Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii.