Uzbeks

The Uzbeks are descendants of the Mongol horde of Genghiz Khan.  In the 14th century they converted to Islam and emigrated from their home in Southern Siberia looking for conquest.  By the 15th century they were already established in what the land that Uzbekistan now occupies.  The Uzbek Khans fought battles with both the existing population  - and amongst themselves - but eventually established themselves as rulers over the land.  The Uzbek people settled down from a nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary agrarian one in the fertile regions such as the Ferghana valley.  

The three khanates of Kokand, Khiva and Bukhara emerged to fill the void left by the collapsed Iranian regime in 1747.  They were committed rivals - but all three seemed to live in splendid isolation from the rest of the outside world.  Surrounded by troublesome nomadic tribes, with boundaries impossible to delimitate and constant disputes with distant states over several outlying provinces, led to a precarious and "violent" history.  The Khans ruled as feudal despots and some were despised by the people they ruled, but were cowed by tradition and fear.  They were supported in their position by the fact that trade was good - although the Silk Road had long since disappeared - including a huge trade surplus with the Russian Empire.       

They resisted the expansion of the Russian empire but the three Khanates fell, one by one: first Kokand, then Bukhara and finally Khiva.  (The last of the Central Asian peoples to hold out against thjis expansion were probably the Turkmen Tekke nomads.)    In 1917 there was an attempt to re-launch an independent Kokand state - but this was put down by the Bolsheviks after the Revolution

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union the Uzbeks have reestablished themselves as a regional powerhouse with a strong sense of identity and tradition.   They tend to be firm believers in Islam.

Uzbek houses are fairly easy to identify.  They are spacious, built behind high walls - often with handsome gates, with a large yard, verandah and tapchan - a raised platform with a low lying table around which people sit for meals.

Uzbek males often wear a dopilar: a square, four sided skullcap - usually black with white embroidery.  If the men usually dress in sombre colours, the women prefer bright colours.  

Uzbekistan is the most populous nation in Central Asia.  Many Uzbeks, however, live outside its borders.  They are the largest of the Turkic peoples outside Turkey, and were the third largest nationality in the former Soviet Union - with many of their numbers spread throughout the various republics of the Union.  A considerable number - over half a million - live in Kyrgyzstan, (which over the centuries was subject to various of the Khanates which proceeded the modern state) where they make up about 13% of the total population.  In some areas, however, (especially in the South) they form the majority of the population.

Typically, they are traders and farmers - they dominate the cotton farms of the republic.

Although relations between the Kyrgyz and the Uzbeks tends to be good, ethnic tension between them seems, sometimes, to just "under the surface" and threatening to explode, shattering the image of social cohesion in the multi-ethnic Kyrgyz State.  Occasional incidents do occur - and the most serious was the Osh riots of 1990. Clashes in 2010 between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz also illustrate this, although they seem to be provoked by third parties.