Uzbeks

PRONUNCIATION: OOZ-beks
LOCATION: Uzbekistan; Afghanistan; China
POPULATION: 27 million
LANGUAGE: Uzbek
RELIGION: Islam (Sunni Muslim)

INTRODUCTION

The modern Uzbeks are believed to have originated from a group of tribes called the Kipchak Khanate, whose domain stretched from the Irtish River valley in the north to the shores of the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea in the south. In the 15th century, a southern migration of one of the tribes began. Th is tribe captured territory in the Syr Darya and Amu Darya (darya means "river" in Persian), as well as the city of Samarkand. The Uzbeks mixed with the earlier settlers of the area, including the Persian peoples of Khorezm and Soghdia. This area became consolidated under three separate khanates (Bukhara, Khiva, and Khokand) that ruled as city-states in the region until the 19th century. Uzbeks accounted for more than 50% of the Khiva khanate population and almost 35% of the Bukhara khanate inhabitants. Although originally nomads, most Uzbeks have been sedentary now for more than 300 years. The mixed heritage of the Uzbeks means that their physical features range from East Asian to European. A small percentage of Uzbeks have light hair and light eyes.

Russian encroachment increased in the mid-1800s. All three khanates fell to the Russians between 1865 and 1873. The imperial Russian government renamed the annexed area Russian Turkistan and allowed Bukhara and Khiva to retain some degree of home rule. After the Bolshevik Revolution, the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Turkestan was created in 1918. In 1924, the Soviet government began a major revision of Central Asian political boundaries based on ethnic populations. Even though the German army never made it all the way to Central Asia during World War II, that war had a profound effect on Uzbek culture. Entire towns were evacuated from the European part of the Soviet Union to Central Asia (along with their factories and workers). This massive influx of people disturbed the native Uzbek culture and legitimized the imposition of the Russian language and culture into the area that had already started by the turn of the 20th century.

The Soviet era brought tremendous cultural changes to Uzbek society. Perhaps the biggest change was the transformation from informal herding and subsistence agriculture to enormous state-operated farms, the collectivized agriculture imposed in the 1930s. Heavy reliance on irrigation combined with the Soviet cotton monoculture (growing only one crop—cotton—at the expense of others) became prevalent. When Soviet power began crumbling in 1990, leaders in the Uzbek Communist Party hesitated to denounce the Soviet system until it was clear that the Soviet Union had indeed dissolved. Since independence in 1991, the government was slow to institute democratization or market-oriented economic reforms, although commercial development and capitalist property relations were accelerated in the late 1990s. Uzbeks live under a very harsh political regime that has functioned as a self-aggrandizing organization where political and economic liberties are sharply curtailed. Since 2001, thousands of Uzbeks have been jailed and repressed in the name of defense against Islamic extremism, but countless charges against ordinary citizens have been trumped up and prosecuted with little to no evidence of extremist activities. Political oppression is so great today that many Uzbeks claim life was fairer and freer during the late Soviet period.

LOCATION AND HOMELAND

After the Turks of Turkey, the Uzbeks are the largest ethnic group of Turkic people in the world. The Uzbeks were the third largest ethnic group of the former Soviet Union when it collapsed in 1991, with a population of more than 16.7 million, of which 85% lived in what is now Uzbekistan. The population of Uzbekistan increased by 7 million from 1970 to the mid-1980s. Its current population growth rate rivals that of many sub-Saharan African countries. There are also more than 1 million Uzbeks in Afghanistan, and about 800,000 living in the Sinkiang-Uygur Autonomous Region of China.

The Uzbek homeland is situated on the site of the ancient Bactrian and Sogdianan civilizations. Ancient conquerors who laid claim to the territory included the Persian Empire of Darius the Great and the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great. The region was invaded by Arabs in the 8th century ad, at which time Islam was introduced. In the 13th century, the Mongol Empire controlled the area, and the Empire of Tamerlane gained power thereafter. Around the 15th century, the Uzbeks began to emerge as an organized group of tribes. The modern Uzbek homeland lies much farther south than the region originally inhabited by the Uzbeks centuries ago. Uzbekistan lies between the Aral Sea and the Fergana River valley in the East and includes parts of the Amu Darya River valley and the southern portion of the Kyzyl Kum Desert. The eastern border is in the foothills of the Tien Shan Mountains, which surrounds the Fergana River valley in the lowlands on three sides. Much of the landscape of Uzbekistan consists of three feature types: deserts, dry steppes, and fertile oases near the rivers.

The region of Uzbekistan west of the Aral Sea is called the Ust-Urt Flatland. This area is dry steppe that can only be used for light grazing. The Aral Sea, with an area once larger than Lake Michigan, is an important water resource for much of Central Asia. In the last 30–40 years, however, the area around the Aral Sea has become an environmental disaster as the sea has lost about 60% of its water volume.

LANGUAGE

The Uzbek language is considered part of the eastern or Aralo-Caspian branch of the Kipchak group of Turkic languages and is similar to Kazakh and Karakalpak. Contact with the Persian language over the years has influenced the dialect of Uzbeks living near Iran. The Iran-influenced dialect has become the basis of the modern Uzbek literary language. The modern standard for spoken Uzbek is based on the dialects of Tashkent and the Ferghana Valley. The Uzbek language borrowed many words with a Russian or European origin during the early Soviet years but has become more reliant on the incorporation of Turkic and Arabic words into the language since the 1960s.

Names given to Uzbek children, as in other Central Asian cultures, are an important mark of individuality. A person's name was traditionally used to help visitors and residents recognize someone's place of origin. Instead of using a surname, many Central Asian cultures attach the patronymic suffix -oqhli (son of) or -qizi (daughter of) onto the father's or grandfather's name. The Russian patronymics—which are transliterated as -aw, -awnä, and -awä became popular during the 1920s but had fallen out of favor by the 1960s. Families who trace their genealogy to Mohammed will often add the title Sayyid after their name, and those who are descended from one of the four Imams add the title Khoja. Uzbek Muslims who have completed the pilgrimage to Mecca sometimes affix the title Hajji before their names.

Everyday terms in the Uzbek language include salaam aleikhem ("hello"), shundei ("yes"), yok ("no"), markhamat ("please"), and rakhmat ("thank you"). Examples of Uzbek sayings include Äytkän gäp atqan oq ("A word said is a shot fired"); Kob oylä, az soylä ("Think lots, say little"); Yamandän yäkhshilik kutmä ("Don't expect good from evil"); and Yaman yolashän täyaq yäkhshi ("A beating with a cudgel is better than an evil companion").

FOLKLORE

Although the Uzbeks have not existed as a nation for very long, they are fascinated with researching their complex ethnic heritage. In the 4th century bc, Alexander of Macedonia came across the Uzbeks during his campaign to conquer India. He stopped in Maracanda, near the ancient city of Samarkand, and married Roxana, the daughter of a local leader. Over the centuries, the local legends surrounding Alexander (called Iskander Zulqornai by the Uzbeks) grew until he became a larger-than-life heroic figure.

Two historical heroes are often the subjects of modern Uzbek historical novels. One of these heroes of Uzbek culture is Tamerlane (1336–1405), a Turko-Mongol who ruled from Samarkand but conquered parts of present-day India, Syria, and southern Russia. His grandson Ulughbek (1394–1449) has become another legendary, semi-sacred figure owing to his monumental contributions to the sciences, especially astronomy.

RELIGION

The Uzbeks are among the most traditional people in Central Asia, and religion has an important place in traditional Uzbek culture. Most Uzbeks are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafisect. After the collapse of Communism, religious practices briefly were encouraged, because the new state wanted an antidote to the official Soviet position of atheism. As in other parts of Soviet Central Asia during Soviet rule, the Muslim clergy was persecuted. Since the end of Soviet rule, many new mosques have been built. Tashkent is perhaps the leading Islamic spiritual center in Central Asia, with many Islamic seminaries located there. Sufism (Islamic mysticism) is also practiced by some Uzbeks. A famous Sufischool, the Naqsh-bandi, is located in Bukhara. Today, Namangan in the Ferghana valley is perhaps the most conservatively religious city in all of Central Asia. However, since the late 1990s there has been a steady erosion of religious freedom, both for Muslims and Christians with Muslims bearing the heavier blows. The state claims it opposes religious expression for fear of extremism, but outsiders argue the state's harsh oppression only makes for a self-fulfilling prophecy.

MAJOR HOLIDAYS

No holiday is more enjoyable to Uzbeks than Novruz , and it is rapidly replacing New Year's Eve as the number one holiday. It coincides with the first day of spring and is an ancient Iranic/ Turkic holiday dating back at least 2,000 years. Speeches, school skits, dances, and town square celebrations with lots of feasting characterize this time. At home, people prepare sumalak , the beloved food of Novruz, a sweet pudding that is thick and brown. People cook young, vitamin-rich wheat plants in huge cauldrons overnight until the sumalak is done in the morning. All the holidays of the Islamic fast (Ramadan) and various forms of Haiit (days to remember one's departed relatives) are now officially recognized in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistani Independence Day is September 1, and people have been celebrating this holiday with great fanfare since 1991. Victory Day is May 9, and all Uzbekistani citizens pay tribute to the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. This holiday has both solemn and joyous sides.

RITES OF PASSAGE

Births, male circumcision, girls' first menstrual periods, marriage, and death are the primary events around which Uzbeki rites of passage occur. The sunnat toi (circumcision party) and the kelin toi (wedding) are events for which people spend the most money and celebrate most heartily.

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS

Uzbeks take a great deal of time to greet one another. Simply seeing a friend or acquaintance and saying, "Hi" or "What's up?" as one passes by is not acceptable. It is considered far more

polite to approach each other, shake hands, and rapidly fire off a number of questions about each other's health, family situation, and work. The elements of sociability are very important. Uzbeks also love to invite "guests" (strangers) into their homes and will signal a passerby in with hand gestures, indicating a cup of tea or something to eat. Once one is invited in, it is absolutely obligatory to serve food and tea, even if the food is just bread or nuts and candies.

Traditionally, Uzbek customs have been oriented toward a reserved patriarchal system. The Uzbeks maintain a strong sense of duty to the elderly and to the community. Children are typically taught that openly confronting adults is wrong, that they should be quiet and composed even if they are upset or angry with their elders. Dignity has an important role in Uzbek society. Someone who talks or laughs too much or is a show-off is considered undignified. In a gap , an Uzbek custom that continues today, men meet with friends and former classmates to eat, play games of cards or bingo, and discuss social and intellectual issues while helping one another out with personal problems.

LIVING CONDITIONS

Uzbek interior design emphasizes the use of traditional themes. Loomed rugs often cover the floors of Uzbek houses, and traditional folk art, emphasizing motifs from the natural world (such as mountains, deer, and peacocks), or scenes painted by local artists from Navoii's (Uzbekistan's Shakespeare) literature, are common wall decorations. Most homes have two or three rooms. Men (and boys) and women (and girls) have separate quarters. Outside the home stands a large eating and resting platform known as the sura, and a great deal of time is spent there during the hot weather. It is usually covered by the shade of the grape lattice. A kitchen area is a separate unit of most homes with a large hearth where all the cooking is done.

Medical services in the cities have suffered since the collapse of the centralized Soviet system. Today people turn to mystic healers and herbalists to treat many ailments once cured with modern medicines, which are now often hard to find. In rural areas, people's general knowledge of proper healthcare is poor.

Transportation systems are extensive but unreliable now, especially in the vast countryside. It is easy, convenient, and cheap to travel from city to city in Uzbekistan by bus, rail, or plane. Urban transportation is good overall, but because gasoline and spare parts are in short supply, all forms of mass transit are often very crowded. Tashkent boasts a beautiful and clean subway system.

FAMILY LIFE

The average Uzbek family has five children, but any given home may house two, three, or four generations. Women have a particularly hard time in Uzbekistan because the Soviet era introduced them to the work force, but their duties at home never lessened. The kelin toi , or wedding, is the most important joyous celebration in Uzbek social life. Families save for their entire lives to ensure that their children are properly married, and that they themselves enjoy respect among other community members for the wedding party. The bride's family incurs the greatest expense because daughters receive a dowry. A new Uzbek bride will generally move in with her husband's family and do the majority of the work in the home until she has a few children and the next son is ready to marry. If she marries the youngest son, she will probably have to stay in her in-laws' household the rest of her life, because it is customary for the youngest son to stay in his father's home.

Women generally eat in a different room (often the kitchen) from men and guests, and they always eat separately at social gatherings. Family size is usually a joint decision between the couple, although Uzbek society, in general, values large families.

CLOTHING

The Uzbeks are among the most traditional peoples in Central Asia, and so conventional and national costumes are still commonly worn. Uzbeks are known for wearing the traditional doppilar—small, black, square-shaped skullcaps. Doppilar are embroidered with elaborate abstract swirling patterns that serve to indicate the wearer's family ties, place of birth, social status, or other personal information. Many men wear European-style clothes or mixed outfits of European and traditional Uzbek clothing, which often utilizes bright colors or patterns. Some men wear the traditional chopan, originally a long quilted robe used by shepherds. The chopan worn today is often ornamented with pastel designs or sequins. Both men and women often wear long tunics and broad trousers with colorful outer robes. Although many women wear European clothes, some wear the atlas pattern (the traditional silk dress). Atlas is a boldly colored and patterned tie-dyed style. In summer, women wear white head coverings or brightly colored kerchiefs. During winter, they don large woolen shawls that keep their heads and necks warm. Most ethnic Uzbek women have thick black hair traditionally worn in two braids, but Uzbek girls may wear their hair in dozens of small braids.

FOOD

Uzbek cuisine includes a huge variety of baked, fried, and steamed dishes that make frequent use of Eastern spices such as cumin, coriander, and spicy dried red pepper. Traditional Uzbek dishes include lagman (homemade noodles with mutton, garlic, and vegetables), d'ighman (meat with pastry in a rich broth), dymlama (a layered vegetable and beef steamed stew), and the all-time favorite, plov . Plov is rice with beef (or mutton or chicken), cottonseed oil or dumba (sheep tail fat), vegetables, spices, garlic, and quinces. Breakfast fare consists of bread, some fruits or nuts, and tea, with occasional servings of qattiq (yogurt).

EDUCATION

Education in Uzbekistan is universal and mandatory until age 16. City schools are often much better than rural and, historically the Russian-language schools were of higher quality than Uzbek schools. But this is now changing gradually. Turkish lycees (European-style high schools) and medresses (Muslim schools) have opened in all of the major cities, so education has become much more diversified. Aside from conservative parents, who think daughters need only the minimal schooling, almost all Uzbek parents want a high degree of education for their children, and many hope that their children will be accepted to Tashkent State University or be able to study abroad. Overall, Uzbek people greatly revere study and intellectual life.

CULTURAL HERITAGE

Classical Uzbek music involves instruments such as the rubob r dutor accompanying a single singer, whose style is drawn out and plaintive—a kind of wailing. Popular Uzbek music is a mixture of traditional styles with rock and pop. The hand-held doira, a tambourine-drum, has a deep, sharp sound, adding very rich beats and rhythms to musical pieces. Some folk singing is accompanied only by the doira.

One of the most famous examples of classic literature revered by the Uzbeks is Baburname (the memoirs of Babur), which was originally written in an eastern Turkish variant. Babur (1483–1530) was a descendant of Turko-Mongol warriors who led a military campaign through present-day Afghanistan and India, where he founded the Mogul Empire and became its first emperor. Babur is respected as a soldier and a statesman by modern Uzbeks.

During the 1960s, several prominent Uzbek playwrights produced works that questioned the Soviet policies against the Uzbek cultural and social leadership from the 1930s to the 1950s. The most famous of these dramas are Izzat Sultan's Iman ("Faith," 1960) and Rahmatullah A. Uyghun's Dostlär ("Friends," 1961), which both show the consequences upon a society when suspicion, malice, and injustice are common in its leadership.

WORK

Most Uzbeks continue to work in the agricultural sector; about 65% remain rural. This work has cyclical patterns. Spring, summer, and fall are periods of great diligence, while winter is a time to rest and relax. In addition to working in the collective fields growing wheat, cotton, fruits, and so on, many also raise silkworms for cocoon production (from which comes silk) and labor very hard on their small household plots, growing the bulk of the nation's fruits and vegetables. Many people sell these crops in the peasant markets of major population centers. The industrial and service sectors of the Uzbek economy cover everything from aircraft manufacturing to gold mining and oil extraction. Today, retail trade in the form of private shops is growing, and private business is bustling. Women have participated in almost all sectors of the economy, but there is a growing trend to have them work primarily in the non-industrial sectors. Uzbek women themselves have mixed feelings about this.

SPORTS

Table tennis became popular during the Soviet era and remains so today. Since the mid-1980s, softball has been a popular women's sport. Soccer is the number one team and spectator sport, and basketball and volleyball are very popular in schools.

Kurash is a unique form of wrestling beloved by Uzbek men and boys. It involves facing and holding an opponent by the back of the neck with one hand while gripping the back of his thigh with the other.

The martial arts have become especially popular over the last decade, and many children train seriously in local clubs. Another sport is a form of polo in which hundreds or even thousands of horsemen participate. The two huge teams attempt to capture the carcass of a goat or sheep and get it to the opponents' goal. The game is incredibly dusty and can be violent as the stakes are often high. This form of polo is a very popular spectator sport, especially in the areas of Samarqand and Tashkent.

ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION

A popular and ancient form of entertainment among the Uzbeks is payr, an unrehearsed public debate that tests the quick-witted abilities of the opponents. Two competitors stand on a platform and exchange witty and clever comments about each other within the context of a topic chosen before the competition. Each speaker must immediately respond to the other one with a crafty remark. The first one who fails to respond quickly enough is the loser, as determined by the assembled crowd. Sometimes a good payr match will draw thousands of spectators. Bakka (tight-rope walking) also draws big crowds during celebrations or parties; it is one of the most common forms of popular entertainment.

Children love to play games such as top tosh and askiia. Top tosh is equivalent to jacks, except Uzbek children play with rocks or pebbles. Askiia is a word-riddle game where one player makes up questions about a given thing, and the other child must answer to show that he knows what the object of the riddle is.

Movies and television enjoy wide popularity. The most popular genres are martial arts movies, action movies, comedies, and Hindu films, also known as Bombay cinema.

FOLK ART, CRAFTS, AND HOBBIES

Pottery is the oldest craft practiced among the Uzbeks. Archeologists have found ornamental pieces of Uzbek pottery that are nearly 3,000 years old. Folk arts have a rich tradition in Uzbek culture. In addition to internal house paintings, silk weaving, quilt-making, skullcap-making, and suzama (cloth embroidery) are well-known elements of Uzbek folk art. Hunarmandlik (craftsmanship) shines through in naqsh (wood carving) and mosaic tile work in architecture. The best examples of carving are seen in the doors of family homes and in the columns that support buildings. Ceramics (especially fine porcelain tea sets), metalworking (especially urns and pitchers), and boot-making are other examples of traditional crafts in Uzbek culture. Stamp collecting and corresponding with pen-pals are favorite hobbies for young people.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

The Uzbeks currently face two great problems: the stagnation of the economy and a number of serious environmental problems, including the shrinking of the Aral Sea. The reluctance of the government to renounce the old Soviet ways has caused the standard of living to decline since independence. Heavy reliance on the cotton crop coupled with decades of socialist mismanagement has created ecological problems in the Aral Sea, which has lost much of its area since 1960. This loss has occurred because of the central role of growing päkhtä (cotton), which requires copious amounts of water. The irrigation in Uzbekistan (along with Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan) needed to grow cotton diverted most of the water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, the two main rivers that feed into the Aral Sea. Much of the soil around the Aral Sea is now too salty to grow any crops. Pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers have also polluted much of the remaining water supply. In the late 1980s, some Soviet scientists indicated that, unless water usage changed, the Aral Sea would completely dry up and disappear within 20 years. With these environmental problems, it may not be possible to grow as much cotton in the future as in the past, which could impede the economy from developing.

The Uzbek human rights record has not been good, especially because of the repression, in the forms of jailings and beatings, of leading opposition figures. However, some improvements were made during 1995–96, as the economy began to stabilize and the state administration relaxed its grip on power ever so slightly. Unfortunately, this all took a decided turn for the worse from the late 1990s and after 2001. Political and economic freedoms in Uzbekistan now appear to be at an all-time low. The state actually makes good profits from cotton, natural gas and oil, and gold mining, but the benefits rarely are shared with ordinary impoverished citizens. After 2005 political repression reached a new high point when the government shot to death hundreds of protesters in the eastern city of Andizhan. Since then the population has been very reluctant to express their myriad grievances in any organized and public forum. Criminal activity, unemployment, homelessness, and child abandonment all have become serious issues in the new millennium.

Alcoholism, drug addiction, and violent crime are the social diseases of present-day Uzbeks, a direct result of rising poverty since the late 1980s and contemporary political, religious, and entrepreneurial repression.

As is true of many other former Soviet territories, labor migration has become a huge social phenomenon today with millions of Uzbeks seeking work in Kazakhstan, Russia, Europe, and the U.S.A. Perhaps 15% of the entire working population lives abroad at least part of the year, and thousands of these people have been subject to myriad forms of abuse including various forms of slavery. It is still hard to determine the overall consequences of these displacements and forms of abuse on the population as a whole.

GENDER ISSUES

Uzbeks are among the most inequitable of the Central Asian peoples when it comes to gender. Strict forms of sex segregation are practiced within the domestic sphere as well as in public life. For example, men and women usually do not eat together, and girls are expected to carry out nearly all domestic chores as well as do almost all of the cotton sowing and harvesting work in the rural areas.

While the Soviet period enabled women to perform all kinds of work and receive a higher education, the great gains that Uzbek women made are in danger of being lost. Increasingly, the value of women's education has been lowered, and even though the state guarantees full equality between the sexes before the law, it seems clear that patriarchal values and practices are holding sway.

Traditionally, Uzbek women always marry exogamously— outside of their own patrilineages—and this long has functioned as a gateway to their oppression. With the collapse of Soviet power, Uzbek patriarchal values have become increasingly ascendant, especially with the very trying economic circumstances in which millions find themselves. Th us new available opportunities should go to men not women.

However, labor migration plays havoc with these traditionally discriminatory values as women leave to work abroad, sometimes legally, sometimes not. And when an Uzbek woman is not supervised by her own male kin, then her behavior simply becomes suspect. On the other hand, the labor migration gives women a new economic power, even if the practice may be greatly harming family dynamics. Overall, it is still too early to know the consequences of labor migration in terms of gender relations, but patterns no doubt are taking shape.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allworth, Edward A. The Modern Uzbeks: From the Fourteenth Century to the Present. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1990.

Critchlow, James. Nationalism in Uzbekistan: A Soviet Republic's Road to Sovereignty. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991.

Sahadeo, Jeff, and Russell Zanca, eds. Everyday Life in Central Asia: Past and Present . Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007.

"Uzbeks Prey to Modern Slave Trade," International War and Peace Reporting: Reporting Central Asia. http://www.iwpr.net/?p=rca&apc_state=henh&s=f&o=343132 (May 2008).

—revised by R. Zanca