Uzbeks O‘zbeklar
Total population
22 to 28 million Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1488 × 1984 pixel, file size: 647 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Uzbeks Metadata This file contains additional...
Regions with significant populations
Uzbekistan 15.6 million 21.48 million [1] [2]  Afghanistan 2.7 million [3]  Tajikistan 1.12 million [4]  Kyrgyzstan 711,000 [5]  Turkmenistan 450,000 [6]  Kazakhstan 371,000 [1]  Russia 126,000 [2]  Pakistan 80,000  China 14,800 [3]  Ukraine 13,000 [4]
Languages
Uzbek (northern and southern dialects)
Religions
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
other Turk peoples (Uyghurs · Mongols · Tuvans · Karluks · Iranic Tajiks)

The Uzbeks (Self designation sg. O‘zbek, pl. O‘zbeklar) are a Turk people of Central Asia and comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan and are also located in other adjacent countries in the region. Uzbeks can be found primarily in Uzbekistan, along with large populations in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Xinjiang province of China. Smaller diaspora populations of Uzbeks from Central Asia are also found in Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, North America and Western Europe. Image File history File links Flag_of_Uzbekistan. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Afghanistan. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Tajikistan. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Kyrgyzstan. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Turkmenistan. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Kazakhstan. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Russia_(bordered). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Pakistan_(bordered). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Peoples_Republic_of_China. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Ukraine. ... Sunni Muslims are the largest denomination of Islam. ... Uyghurs (also called Uighurs, Uygurs, or Uigurs) (Chinese:维吾尔 or 維吾爾 ; in pinyin: wéiwúěr) are a Turkic ethnic group of people living in northwestern China (mainly in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where they are the dominant ethnic group together with Han people... The name Mongols (Mongolian: Mongol) specifies one or several ethnic groups. ... Tuvans or Tuvinians (Tuvan: Тывалар, Tyvalar) are a group of Turkic people who make up about two thirds of the population of Tuva, Russia. ... The Qarluq (Karluk) were originally a nomadic turkic tribe based on the transoxania steppes (roughly east and south of the Aral Sea) in Central Asia. ... Languages Persian (varieties of Dari and Tajik) Religions Islam (predominantly Sunni) Related ethnic groups Other Iranian peoples TājÄ«k (Persian: ; UniPers: Tâjik; Cyrillic: ) is a term generally applied to Persian-speaking peoples of Iranian origin living east of Iran. ... Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible boundaries for the region Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ... The Republic of Tajikistan (Тоҷикистон), formerly known as the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, is a country in Central Asia. ... For the county in Shanxi province, see Xinjiang County. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... A common post-WWII understanding of Western Europe Western Europe in its most common understanding is a socio-political concept coined and used during the Cold War. ...

Name

The origin of the name Uzbek remains disputed. One view holds that it is eponymously named after Uzbeg Khan, although the nomadic Uzbeks were never entirely subject to him. An etymological argument states that the name means independent or the lord itself, from O'z (self) and Bek (a noble title of leadership) ^[7].According to Harold Lamb in his biography of Babur, ``Uzbek`` means red headgear. Mikhail of Tver before Uzbeg Khan, by Vasili Vereshchagin. ...

History

The roots of the Uzbek people stretch back for many millennia, while the identity of modern Uzbeks was shaped by events during the early 2nd millennium CE. Different tribes and peoples, have inhabited Central Asia and have made contributions to the modern Uzbek population.

Many of the ancient peoples who lived in Central Asia were Iranian peoples including Sogdians, Bactrians, Ferganians and the Saka–Messagetae tribes. It is believed that these populations were either absorbed into larger invading Turk tribes^{[citation needed]} and/or were pushed into smaller pockets, as in Tajikistan, or retreated further south into Iran and Afghanistan. This article is about the group of peoples who speak Iranian languages. ... The Sogdians were an ancient people of Central Asia, who inhabited the region known to the West as Sogdiana. ... Bactria (Bactriana) was the ancient Greek name of the country between the range of the Hindu Kush (Caucasus Indicus) and the Amu Darya (Oxus), with the capital Bactra (now Balkh). ... The Sakas were Iranian people stock who lived in what is now Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of Iran, Ukraine, and Altay Mountains and Siberia in Russia, in the centuries before 300 AD. They are considered to be a branch of Scythians by most scholars. ... The Massagetae were a largely nomadic, pastoralist nation living somewhere in Central Asia, who warred with and killed Cyrus the Great of Persia around 530 BC, according to the early Greek historian Herodotus. ...

In ancient times, various Altaic-speaking tribes began to move to the area between the Amu Darya (Oxus in Greek) and Syr Darya (Jaxartes in Greek) rivers. Some of these early tribes included the Huns who eventually occupied this region around the 3rd century BCE and continued their conquests further south and west. The Amu Darya (Darya means river) rises in the Pamirs and flows mainly north-west through the Hindu Kush, Uzbekistan to join the Aral Sea in a large delta. ... Syr Darya (also known as Syrdarya or Sirdaryo) is a river in Central Asia. ... The Huns were a confederation of Central Asian equestrian nomads or semi-nomads. ...

Following Arab incursions into the region, Islam supplanted Buddhism and other religions in Central Asia (such as Nestorian Christianity), while local Iranian languages survived into the next 2nd millennium. What drastically changed the demographics of Central Asia was the invasion of the Mongols led by Genghis Khan in the 13th century. Numerous native populations were wiped out by the Mongols and a process of population replacement began in earnest. During this period numerous Turk tribes began to migrate and ultimately replace many of the Iranian peoples who were largely killed, absorbed by larger Turk-Mongol groups, and/or pushed further south and Central Asia came to be known as Turkestan. Much of modern Uzbekistan took shape during the reign of Tamerlane, a prominent Turk-Mongol conqueror who reigned over a vast empire from his capital at Samarkand. Later, between the 15th and 16th centuries, various nomadic tribes arrived from the steppes including the Kipchaks, Naymans, Kanglis, Kungrats, Manġits and others and these tribes were led by Muhammad Shaybani who was the Khan of the Uzbeks. This period marked the beginnings of the modern Uzbek nationality and formation of an Uzbek state in what is today Uzbekistan, as these tribes were the first to use the name 'Uzbek'. So powerful was this early Uzbek state that it challenged much larger empires, the Safavids and Mughals, for control over Khorasan and Afghanistan. The term Nestorianism is eponymous, even though the person who lent his name to it always denied the associated belief. ... The name Mongols (Mongolian: Mongol) specifies one or several ethnic groups. ... For other uses, see Genghis Khan (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... For the chess engine Tamerlane, see Tamerlane. ... Samarkand (Tajik: Самарқанд, Persian: ‎ , Uzbek: , Russian: ), population 412,300 in 2005, is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of Samarqand Province. ... The Manghit dynasty ruled the Emirate of Bukhara from 1756 to 1920. ... Portrait of Muhammad Shaybani Abu I-Fath Muhammad Shaybani Khan (c. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... The Safavid Empire at its 1512 borders. ... The Mughal Empire (alternative spelling Mogul, which is the origin of the word Mogul) of India was founded by Babur in 1526, when he defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last of the Delhi Sultans at the First Battle of Panipat. ... Khorasan (Persian: خراسان) (also transcribed as Khurasan and Khorassan; Horasan in Turkish) is a region located in eastern Iran. ...

Within a few generations of Shaybani Khan's death, the Uzbek state broke up into three major khanates based in Bukhara, Khiva, and Kokand until the early 19th century. The Russian Empire eventually infiltrated Central Asia and the khanates were annexed to the empire during the mid to late 19th century. Until 1924, the bulk of the settled Turk population of Russian Turkestan, who were of very heterogeneous descent, were known as Sarts by the colonial authorities, and only those groups speaking Kipchak dialects who had arrived in the region with Muhammad Shaybani Khan were called 'Uzbeks'. In 1924, when the new Uzbek SSR was created, the Soviets abolished the term 'Sart' and decreed that all settled Turk speakers would henceforth be known as Uzbeks. Uzbekistan, under Russian and then later Soviet administration, became multi-ethnic as populations from throughout the former Soviet Union moved (or were exiled) to Central Asia. Anthem God Save the Tsar! The Russian Empire in 1914 Capital Saint Petersburg Language(s) Russian Government Monarchy Emperor  - 1721-1725 Peter the Great (first)  - 1894-1917 Nicholas II (last) History  - Established 22 October, 1721  - February Revolution 2 March, 1917 Area  - 1897 22,400,000 km2 8,648,688 sq... Russian Turkestan (Russian: Ру́сский Туркеста́н), also known as Turkestansky Krai (Туркеста́нский край), was a subdivision (Krai or Governor... Sart is a name for the settled inhabitants of Central Asia which has had shifting meanings over the centuries. ... Kipchaks (also Kypchaks, Qipchaqs) are an ancient Turkic people, first mentioned in the historical chronicles of Central Asia in the 1st millennium BC. Their language was also known as Kipchak. ... State motto: Uzbek: Бутун дунё пролетарлари, бирлашингиз! Translation: Workers of the world, unite! Capital Tashkent Official language None. ...

Language

The Ethnolinguistic patchwork of Central Asia

The Uzbek language is an Altaic language and is part of the South-eastern (Central Asian) or Karluk group of Turk languages. Modern Uzbek bears the closest remblance to Uyghur,slightly less so to Kazakh, Turkmen, and more distantly, to Turkish and Mongol. Modern Uzbek is written in wide variety of scripts including Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic. After the independence of Uzbekistan from the former Soviet Union, the government decided to replace the Cyrillic script with a Latin alphabet. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2392x1504, 677 KB) Summary The ethnolinguitic patchwork of Central Asia - CIA map. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2392x1504, 677 KB) Summary The ethnolinguitic patchwork of Central Asia - CIA map. ... Uzbek (O‘zbek tili in Latin script, Ўзбек тили in Cyrillic script) is an Eastern Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. ... Altaic is a putative language family which would include 60 languages spoken by about 250 million people, mostly in and around central Asia. ... Uyghur (‎//, or ‎//)[1] is a Turkic language spoken by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang (also called East Turkestan or Uyghurstan), formerly also “Sinkiang” and “Chinese Turkestan,” a Central Asian region administered by China. ... Kazakh, also Kazak, Qazaq, Khazakh, Kosach, and Kaisak (Қазақ тілі in Cyrillic, Qazaq tili in the Latin alphabet, and قازاق تءىلءي in the Arabic alphabet) is a Western Turkic language closely related to Kyrgyz, Nogai and Karakalpak. ... Honorary guard of Mongolia. ... Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages; (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ...

Modern Uzbek has also absorbed a considerable vocabulary and - to a much lesser degree - certain grammatical elements from non-Turk languages, most of all from Persian as well as Arabic and Russian among others. Persian (Local names: فارسی Fârsi or پارسی Pârsi)* is an Indo-European language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan as well as by minorities in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, India, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Southern Russia, neighboring countries, and elsewhere. ... Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ...

Religion

Uzbeks come from a predominantly Sunni Muslim background, usually of the Hanafi school, but variations exist between northern and southern Uzbeks. The majority of Uzbeks from the former USSR came to practice religion with a more liberal interpretation due to the official Soviet policy of atheism, while Uzbeks in Afghanistan and other countries to the south have remained more conservative adherents of Islam. However, with Uzbek independence in 1991 came an Islamic revival amongst segments of the population. People living in the area of modern Uzbekistan were first converted to Islam as early as the 8th century AD, as Arab troops invaded the area, displacing the earlier faiths of Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. The Arab victory over the Chinese in 751, at the Battle of Talas, ensured the future dominance of Islam in Central Asia. Sunni Islam (Arabic سنّة) is the largest denomination of Islam. ... // The Hanafi (Arabic حنفي) school is the oldest of the four schools of thought (Madhhabs) or jurisprudence (Fiqh) within Sunni Islam. ... Islam (Arabic:  ) is a monotheistic religion based upon the teachings of Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure. ... Languages Arabic other languages (Arab minorities) Religions Predominantly Islam Some adherents of Druze, Judaism, Samaritan, Christianity Related ethnic groups Jews, Canaanites, other Semitic-speaking groups An Arab (Arabic: ); is a member of a Semitic group of people whose cultural, linguistic, and in certain cases, ancestral origins trace back to the... Zoroastrianism (Avestan DaÄ“nā Vañuhi the good religion)[1][2] is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster (Zarathustra, Zartosht). ... Buddhism is a dharmic, non-theistic religion and a philosophy. ... Events Pippin the Short is elected as king of the Franks by the Frankish nobility, marking the end of the Merovingian and beginning of the Carolingian dynasty. ... This article contains translated text and needs attention from someone approaching dual fluency. ...

Genetic origins

The modern Uzbek population represents varying degrees of diversity derived from the high traffic invasion routes through Central Asia. Once populated by Iranian tribes and other Indo-European peoples, Central Asia experienced numerous invasions emanating out of Mongolia that would drastically impact the region. According to recent Genetic genealogy testing from a University of Chicago study, the Uzbeks cluster somewhere between the Mongols and the Iranian peoples: For the language group see Indo-European languages; for other uses see Indo-European (disambiguation) Indo-Europeans are speakers of Indo-European languages. ... Genetic genealogy is the application of genetics to traditional genealogy. ... This article is about the group of peoples who speak Iranian languages. ...

From the 3d century B.C., Central Asia experienced nomadic expansions of Altaic-speaking East Asian-looking people, and their incursions continued for hundreds of years, beginning with the Hsiung-Nu (who may be ancestors of the Huns), in 300 B.C., and followed by the Turks, in the 1st millennium A.D., and the Mongol expansions of the 13th century. High levels of haplogroup 10 and its derivative, haplogroup 36, are found in most of the Altaic-speaking populations and are a good indicator of the genetic impact of these nomadic groups. The expanding waves of Altaic-speaking nomads involved not only eastern Central Asia, where their genetic contribution is strong, as is shown in figure 7d but also regions farther west, like Iran, Iraq, Anatolia, and the Caucasus, as well as Europe, which was reached by both the Huns and the Mongols. In these western regions, however, the genetic contribution is low or undetectable (Wells et al. 2001), even though the power of these invaders was sometimes strong enough to impose a language replacement, as in Turkey and Azerbaijan (Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1994). The difference could be due to the population density of the different geographical areas. Eastern regions of Central Asia must have had a low population density at the time, so an external contribution could have had a great genetic impact. In contrast, the western regions were more densely inhabited, and it is likely that the existing populations were more numerous than the conquering nomads, therefore leading to only a small genetic impact. Thus, the admixture estimate from northeast Asia is high in the east, but is barely detectable west of Uzbekistan. [5]

The Uzbek population, according to this study, shows substantial East Asian ancestry, with significant Caucasoid admixture. The Uzbeks display a genetic relationship with Turk-Mongols and Iranic populations to the south and west. East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. ...

Another study out of Uzbekistan corroborates this genetic evidence as to the origins of the modern Uzbeks and other regional Turk peoples:

These migrations are reflected in the DNA, too, and it is clear that despite the majority of modern Central Asians speaking Turk languages, they derive much of their genetic heritage from the conquering Mongol warriors of Genghis Khan. [6]

The Turk peoples as a whole share common languages and many common cultural traits, but do not have common origins. The Uzbeks are descended to a large degree from Turk-Mongol invaders whose invasions span literally millennia from the first millennium CE with the early migrations of the Göktürks to later invasions by the Uzbeks themselves during the early and mid period of the 2nd millennium. Throughout the centuries, these migrating Altaic peoples began to outnumber the native Iranian peoples of Central Asia and appear to have assimilated the vast majority through intermarriage, while mainly the Tajiks survived albeit with some Turk intermingling as well. Thus, in the case of Uzbekistan and most other Central Asian states, it was not only a process of language replacement, such as what took place in Turkey and Azerbaijan, but also a mass migration and population replacement that helped to shape the modern Turk peoples of Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states. The Göktürks or Kök-Türks were a Turkic people of ancient Central Asia and China. ... Altaic is a putative language family which would include 60 languages spoken by about 250 million people, mostly in and around central Asia. ... Languages Persian (varieties of Dari and Tajik) Religions Islam (predominantly Sunni) Related ethnic groups Other Iranian peoples TājÄ«k (Persian: ; UniPers: Tâjik; Cyrillic: ) is a term generally applied to Persian-speaking peoples of Iranian origin living east of Iran. ...

Uzbeks in China

Uzbeks (乌孜别克族 - Wūzībiékè Zú) are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They live mostly in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region and number around 15,000. For the county in Shanxi province, see Xinjiang County. ...

Notes

Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Founded in 1636,[2] Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning still operating in the United States. ...

See also

• Uzbek language

Uzbek (O‘zbek tili in Latin script, Ўзбек тили in Cyrillic script) is an Eastern Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. ...

References

• Allworth, Edward. The Modern Uzbeks: From the 14th Century to the Present, Hoover Institution Press (July, 1990).
• Calum MacLeod, Bradley Mayhew “Uzbekistan. Golden Road to Samarkand” page31.
• Critchlow, James. Nationalism in Uzbekistan: Soviet Republic's Road to Sovereignty, Westview Press (October, 1991).
• Noble, Ivan. BBC News, DNA analysis tracks Silk Road forbears
• Rashid, Ahmad. The Resurgence of Central Asia : Islam or Nationalism? Zed Books (April 15, 1995)
• Zerjal, Tatiana, et. al. A Genetic Landscape Reshaped by Recent Events: Y-Chromosomal Insights into Central Asia, Am. J. Hum. Genet., 71:466-482, 2002.
• Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Part 9, pages 483-489