It roughly corresponded to most of present-day central Uzbekistan and northwestern Tajikistan.

It was created out of the northeastern part of the Emirate of Bukhara.

Significant minorities consisted of Tajiks and Kazakhs.

The Turkic speaking population amounted to 609,204 (70,8%) people.

On October 27, 1924 as a result of the national-territorial reorganisation of Central Asia, the Samarkand region became a part of the Uzbek SSR of the Soviet Union.