Uzbeks
The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, being the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Tajiks and Karakalpak minorities, and also form minority groups in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Russia, and China. Uzbek diaspora communities also exist in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United States, Ukraine, Pakistan, and other countries.
Etymology
The origin of the word "Uzbek" is disputed. One view holds that it is eponymously named after Oghuz Khagan, also known as Oghuz Beg, became the word Uzbeg or Uzbek. Another theory states that the name means independent, genuine man, or the lord himself, from Öz and the Turkic title bek/bey/beg. A third theory holds that the variant Uz, of the word uğuz, earlier oğuz, united with the word bek to form Uğuz-bek > Uz-bek, meaning "leader of an oğuz".The personal name "Uzbek" is found in Arabic and Persian historical writings. Historian Usama ibn Munqidh, describing the events in Iran under the Seljuk Empire, notes that one of the leaders of Bursuk's troops in 1115–1116 was the "emir of the troops" Uzbek, the ruler of Mosul. According to Rashid ad-din, the last representative of the Oghuz dynasty of Ildegizids who ruled in Tabriz was Uzbek Muzaffar 1210–1225.
The name Uzbek seems to have become widely adopted as an ethnonym under the rule of Ozbeg Khan, who converted the Golden Horde to Islam.
Origins
Before the 5th century, what is today's Uzbekistan was part of Sogdia, Khwarazm, Bactria mainly inhabited by Sogdians, Bactrians, and Khwarazmians, all Indo-Iranian peoples. It was part of the Achaemenid Empire in the sixth to fourth centuries BC and, by the 3rd century CE, part of Sasanian Empire.From the fifth to sixth century, what is today's Uzbekistan was part of the Hephthalite Empire. From 6th to 8th century, what is today's Uzbekistan was under the rule of First Turkic Khaganate.
The Turkic component was part of the Kidarites in the fifth century. The seal of the Kidarites, made in the 5th century in Samarkand, has a Bactrian inscription containing the title of the ruler: "Oglar Khun", of Turkic origin.
Since the entry of Central Asia into the Turkic Khaganate, the process of Turkicization has intensified. In subsequent centuries, the main ethnocultural process that took place on the territory of the Central Asian interfluve was the convergence and partial merging of the settled, Iranian-speaking and Turkic-speaking, with the nomadic, mainly Turkic-speaking population.
Turkic and Chinese migration into Central Asia occurred during the Chinese Tang dynasty, and Chinese armies commanded by Turkic generals stationed in large parts of Central Asia. But Chinese influence ended with the An Lushan Rebellion. During the ninth and tenth centuries, Transoxiana was ruled by the Persian Samanid Empire. From the 11th century on, Transoxiana was under the rule of the Turkic Kara-Khanid Khanate, their arrival in Transoxiana signalled a definitive shift from Iranian to Turkic predominance in Central Asia. The Kara-Khanid ruler Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan was the first Turkic ruler to convert to Islam, most people of Central Asia soon followed. In the 12th century, Transoxiana was conquered by the Qara Khitai, a sinicized Khitan dynasty, they brought to Central Asia the Chinese system of government. In the 13th century, Kara-Khanid Khanate was destroyed by the Turkic Anushtegin dynasty, a former vassal of the Qara Khitai.
Although Turko-Mongol infiltration into Central Asia had started early, and the influence of the Turkic tribes was felt in Khwarazm before the campaigns of the Mongols, after the beginning of the Chingizid rule, bilingualism became more common. It is generally believed that these ancient Indo-European-speaking peoples were linguistically assimilated by smaller but dominant Turkic-speaking groups while the sedentary population finally adopted the Persian language, the traditional lingua franca of the eastern Islamic lands. The language-shift from Middle Iranian to Turkic and New Persian was predominantly the result of an elite dominance process. Peter B. Golden listed three basic ethnic elements contributing to the Uzbeks' ethnogenesis:
- the Turkicized, formerly Iranian-speaking sedentary Sarts, a composite population including both Iranians and some Arab elements;
- the pre-Uzbek amalgam of nomadic Türk or Chagatays, who consisted of Karluks, Yaghmas and other tribes of the Göktürks' khaganates, and later of the Kara-Khanid Khanate, Oghuz Turks, the Kangly-Kipchaks and many Turkicized Mongol tribes, who entered Central Asia with the Mongol and Timurid conquests and invasions.
- The East Kipchak-speaking "Pure Uzbeks".
When the Shaybanids – originally Kipchak-speaking nomads – conquered Transoxiana in the 16th century, their elite designation "Uzbek" became an ethnic label for the entire region's Turkic-speaking population, including non-Kipchaks.
The majority of the population were Karluk-speaking Turks and Chagatais. The Shaybanid Kipchak-speaking Uzbeks, who were a minority, assimilated with the Karluk majority and eventually adopted the Karluk language, which developed into modern Uzbek.
Today, approximately 85–90% of Uzbeks speak a Karluk dialect, while minorities in Khorezm and Surxondaryo retain Kipchak or Oghuz dialects.
Although the Timurids were historically enemies of the early Uzbeks, they are now considered part of the Uzbek cultural heritage by Majority of Uzbeks, because:
- Chagatai is a direct predecessor of Uzbek.
- Majority of Uzbeks descend from Karluks who lived in the region long before the Shaybanid conquest.
Genetic origins
Uzbeks share a large portion of their ancestry with nearby Turkic populations, including Kyrgyz people, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Bashkirs.The western ancestry of Uzbeks includes a Caucasus component, and a European component, the Uzbeks eastern ancestry includes an Eastern Asian component, and a Siberian component. The best proxy for their western ancestry are modern day Abkhaz people, while the best proxy for their eastern ancestry are Yakuts.
A study on modern Central Asians comparing them to ancient historical samples found that Uzbeks can be modeled as 59.1% Iron Age Indo-Iranians, and 40.9% Eastern Steppe Xiongnu, from the Mongolian Plateau.
Paternal haplogroups
Based on the research of several studies, the paternal lineages of Uzbeks have been described:- Haplogroup R1a1, a West Eurasian haplogroup, occurs at a rate of 17-32% among Uzbek men, making it the predominant Y-DNA lineage among Uzbeks. It is unclear if this haplogroup in Uzbeks came from local Bronze Age Indo-European pastoralists, or if it originates from Turkic migrants, because despite being considered a diagnostic Indo-Iranian haplogroup, it occurs at a high frequency among Turkic males from Siberia.
- Haplogroup J, a West Eurasian haplogroup, occurs at a rate of 5.9–21.4% in Uzbek males. This haplogroup has been present in the Middle East for tens of thousands of years.
- Haplogroup C2, an East Eurasian haplogroup, occurs at a rate of 4–18% among Uzbek men. In one sample from Afghanistan, 41.2% of Uzbek men carried this haplogroup. Lee & Kuang posit that the males in this sample are descended from the nomadic Uzbeks of the Qipchaq steppe. It is likely that haplogroup C2 was brought to the middle east by Turkic or Mongolic peoples, along with minor Uzbek haplogroups O3 and N.
Maternal haplogroups
A majority of Uzbeks from Ferghana belong to East Eurasian and South Asian maternal haplogroups, while considerably fewer belong to West Eurasian haplogroups.
In Khorzem and Qashkadarya, a majority of Uzbeks belong to West Eurasian maternal haplogroups, while considerably fewer belong to East Eurasian and South Asian haplogroups.
History
Ancient history
In the southern part of Central Asia, there was a Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex, which has recently been dated to c. 2250–1700 BC. That name is the modern archaeological designation for a Bronze Age civilization of Central Asia, previously dated to c. 2400–1900 BC by Sandro Salvatori.Iranian nomads arrived from the northern grasslands of what is now Uzbekistan sometime in the first millennium BC. These nomads, who spoke Iranian dialects, settled in Central Asia and began to build an extensive irrigation system along the rivers of the region. At this time, cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand began to appear as centers of government and culture. By the 5th century BC, the Bactrian, Khwarazm, Soghdian, and Tokharian states dominated the region.
Alexander the Great conquered Sogdiana and Bactria in 329 BC, marrying Roxana, daughter of a local Bactrian chieftain. The conquest was supposedly of little help to Alexander as popular resistance was fierce, causing Alexander's army to be bogged down in the region that became the northern part of Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. For many centuries the region of Uzbekistan was ruled by Persian empires, including the Parthian and Sassanid Empires.
In the first centuries, the northern territories of modern Uzbekistan were part of the Kangju nomad state.
With the arrival of the Greeks, writing based on the Greek alphabet began to spread on the territory of Bactria and Sogdiana. As a result of archaeological research on the territory of Sogdiana and Bactria, fragments of pottery with Greek inscriptions have been found.
In 2nd century BC China began to develop its silk trade with the West. Because of this trade on what became known as the Silk Route, Bukhara and Samarkand eventually became extremely wealthy cities, and at times Mawarannahr was one of the most influential and powerful Persian provinces of antiquity.
In 350–375 AD, Sogdiana and Tashkent oasis were captured by the nomadic Xionite tribes who arrived from the steppe regions of Central Asia.