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Republic of Uzbekistan

O‘zbekiston Respublikasi / Ўзбекистон Республикаси (Uzbek)
Anthem: O‘zbekiston Respublikasining Davlat Madhiyasi / Ўзбекистон Республикасининг Давлат Мадҳияси
"State Anthem of the Republic of Uzbekistan"
Location of Uzbekistan (red)
Location of Uzbekistan (red)
Capital
and largest city
Tashkent
41°19′N 69°16′E / 41.317°N 69.267°E / 41.317; 69.267
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Official languagesUzbek[1][2]
Recognised regional languagesKarakalpaka
Other languagessRussianTajikKoryo-marTurkmenUkrainianAzerbaijaniUyghurCentral Asian ArabicBukhori and others
Ethnic groups
(2021[3])
  • 84.5% Uzbeks
  • 4.8% Tajiks
  • 2.4% Kazakhs
  • 2.2% Karakalpaks
  • 2.1% Russians
  • 4.0% Others
Religion
(2021)[4]
  • 96.1% Islam
  • 2.2% Christianity
  • 1.7% Others
Demonym(s)Uzbekistani
GovernmentUnitary dominant-party presidential republic
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• President
Shavkat Mirziyoyev
• Prime Minister
Abdulla Aripov
LegislatureOliy Majlis
• Upper house
Senate
• Lower house
Legislative Chamber
Formation
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• Uzbek Khanate
1428
• Turkestan ASSR
1918
• Uzbek SSR established after national delimitation
27 October 1924
• Declared independence from the Soviet Union
31 August 1991
• Formally recognised
26 December 1991
• Current constitution
8 December 1992
Area
• Total
448,978 km2 (173,351 sq mi) (56th)
• Water (%)
4.9
Population
• 2022 estimate
36,024,000[5] (40th)
• Density
74.1/km2 (191.9/sq mi) (128th)
GDP (PPP)2022 estimate
• Total
Increase $420 billion[6] (58th)
• Per capita
Increase $11,500[6] (124th)
GDP (nominal)2022 estimate
• Total
Increase $93 billion[6] (75th)
• Per capita
Increase $3,478[6] (147th)
Gini (2013)Positive decrease 36.7[7][8]
medium
HDI (2021)Increase 0.727[9]
high · 101st
CurrencyUzbek sum (UZS)
Time zoneUTC+5 (UZT)
Date formatdd/mm yyyyc
Driving sideright
Calling code+998
ISO 3166 codeUZ
Internet TLD.uz
Website
gov.uz
  1. Co-official in Karakalpakstan.[1]
  2. On 31 August 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR voted to declare the country independent from the Soviet Union. The next day was declared a national holiday by the Uzbek government, and became an Independence Day.
  3. dd.mm.yyyy format is used in Cyrillic scripts, including Russian.

Uzbekistan[lower-alpha 1] (English pronunciation: , English pronunciation: ;[10][11] officially the Republic of Uzbekistan[lower-alpha 2], is a doubly landlocked country located in Central Asia. It is surrounded by five landlocked countries: Kazakhstan to the north; Kyrgyzstan to the northeast; Tajikistan to the southeast; Afghanistan to the south; and Turkmenistan to the southwest. Its capital and largest city is Tashkent. Uzbekistan is part of the Turkic world, as well as a member of the Organization of Turkic States. Uzbek is the majority-spoken language in Uzbekistan, while Russian is widely spoken and understood throughout the country. Tajik is also spoken as a minority language, predominantly in Samarkand and Bukhara. Islam is the predominant religion in Uzbekistan, most Uzbeks being Sunni Muslims.[12]

The first recorded settlers in what is now Uzbekistan were Eastern Iranian nomads, known as Scythians, who founded kingdoms in Khwarazm, Bactria, and Sogdia in the 8th–6th centuries BC, as well as Fergana and Margiana in the 3rd century BC – 6th century AD.[13] The area was incorporated into the Iranian Achaemenid Empire and, after a period of Greco-Bactrian rule, was ruled by the Iranian Parthian Empire and later by the Sasanian Empire, until the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century.

The early Muslim conquests and the subsequent Samanid Empire converted most of the people, including the local ruling classes, into adherents of Islam. During this period, cities such as Samarkand, Khiva, and Bukhara began to grow rich from the Silk Road, and became a center of the Islamic Golden Age, with figures such as Muhammad al-Bukhari, Al-Tirmidhi, al Khwarizmi, al-Biruni, Avicenna, and Omar Khayyam.

The local Khwarazmian dynasty was destroyed by the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, leading to a dominance by Turkic peoples. Timur (Tamerlane), who in the 14th century established the Timurid Empire, was from Shahrisabz. Its capital was Samarkand, which became a centre of science under the rule of Ulugh Beg, giving birth to the Timurid Renaissance.

The territories of the Timurid dynasty were conquered by Uzbek Shaybanids in the 16th century, moving the centre of power to Bukhara. The region was split into three states: the Khanate of Khiva, Khanate of Kokand, and Emirate of Bukhara. Conquests by Emperor Babur towards the east led to the foundation of the Mughal Empire in India.

All of Central Asia was gradually incorporated into the Russian Empire during the 19th century, with Tashkent becoming the political center of Russian Turkestan. In 1924, national delimitation created the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic as a republic of the Soviet Union. Shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it declared independence as the Republic of Uzbekistan on 31 August 1991.

Uzbekistan is a secular state, with a presidential constitutional government in place. Uzbekistan comprises 12 regions (vilayats), Tashkent City, and one autonomous republic, Karakalpakstan. While non-governmental human rights organisations have defined Uzbekistan as "an authoritarian state with limited civil rights",[14][15] significant reforms under Uzbekistan's second president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, have been made following the death of the first president, Islam Karimov. Owing to these reforms, relations with the neighbouring countries of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan have drastically improved.[16][17][18][19] A United Nations report of 2020 found much progress toward achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.[20]

The Uzbek economy is in a gradual transition to the market economy, with foreign trade policy being based on import substitution. In September 2017, the country's currency became fully convertible at market rates. Uzbekistan is a major producer and exporter of cotton. With the gigantic power-generation facilities from the Soviet era and an ample supply of natural gas, Uzbekistan has become the largest electricity producer in Central Asia.[21]

From 2018 to 2021, the republic received a BB- sovereign credit rating by both Standard and Poor (S&P) and Fitch Ratings.[22] The Brookings Institution described Uzbekistan as having large liquid assets, high economic growth, low public debt, and a low GDP per capita.[23] Uzbekistan is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), United Nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Etymology[]

The name "Uzbegistán" appears in the 16th century Tarikh-i Rashidi.[24]

The origin of the word Uzbek remains disputed.

  1. "free", "independent" or "own master/leader", requiring an amalgamation of uz (Turkic: "own"), bek ("master" or "leader")[25]
  2. eponymously named after Oghuz Khagan, also known as Oghuz Beg[25]
  3. A contraction of Uğuz, earlier Oğuz, that is, Oghuz (tribe), amalgamated with bek "oguz-leader".[26]

All three have the middle syllable/phoneme being cognate with the Turkic title Beg.

The name of the country was often spelled as "Ўзбекистон" in Uzbek Cyrillic or "Узбекистан" in Russian during Soviet rule.

History[]

Main article: History of Uzbekistan
File:Kaunakes Bactria Louvre AO31917.jpg

Female statuette wearing the kaunakes. Chlorite and limestone, Bactria, beginning of the second millennium BC.

The first people known to have inhabited Central Asia were Scythians who came from the northern grasslands of what is now Uzbekistan, sometime in the first millennium BC; when these nomads settled in the region they built an extensive irrigation system along the rivers.[27] At this time, cities such as Bukhoro (Bukhara) and Samarqand (Samarkand) emerged as centres of government and high culture.[27] By the fifth century BC, the Bactrian, Sogdian, and Tokharian states dominated the region.[27]

As East Asia began to develop its silk trade with the West, Using an extensive network of cities and rural settlements in the province of Transoxiana, and further east in what is today Xinjiang, the Sogdian intermediaries became the wealthiest of these merchants. As a result of this trade on what became known as the Silk Route, Bukhara and Samarkand eventually became extremely wealthy cities, and at times Transoxiana (Mawarannahr) was one of the most influential and powerful provinces of antiquity.[27]

File:Napoli BW 2013-05-16 16-24-01.jpg

Alexander the Great at the Battle of Issus. Mosaic in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples.

File:1872 Vereshchagin Triumphierend anagoria.JPG

Triumphant crowd at Registan, Sher-Dor Madrasah. The Emir of Bukhara viewing the severed heads of Russian soldiers on poles. Painting by Vasily Vereshchagin (1872).

File:KarazinNN VstRusVoyskGRM.jpg

Russian troops taking Samarkand in 1868, by Nikolay Karazin

In 327 BC, Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire provinces of Sogdiana and Bactria, which contained the territories of modern Uzbekistan. Popular resistance to the conquest was fierce, causing Alexander's army to be bogged down in the region that became the northern part of the Macedonian Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. The kingdom was replaced with the Yuezhi-dominated Kushan Empire in the first century BC. For many centuries thereafter the region of Uzbekistan was ruled by the Parthian and Sassanid Empires, as well as by other empires, for example, those formed by the Turkic Gokturk peoples.

The Muslim conquests from the seventh century onward saw the Arabs bring Islam to Uzbekistan. In the same period, Islam began to take root among the nomadic Turkic peoples.

In the eighth century, Transoxiana, the territory between the Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers, was conquered by the Arabs (Qutayba ibn Muslim), becoming a focal point soon after the Islamic Golden Age.

In the ninth and tenth centuries, Transoxiana was brought into the Samanid State. Later, it saw the incursion of the Turkic-ruled Karakhanids, as well as the Seljuks (Sultan Sanjar) and Kara-Khitans.[28]

The Mongol conquest under Genghis Khan during the 13th century brought change to the region. The invasions of Bukhara, Samarkand, Urgench and others resulted in mass murders and unprecedented destruction, which saw parts of Khwarezmia being completely razed.[29]

Following the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, his empire was divided among his four sons and his family members. Despite the potential for serious fragmentation, there was an orderly succession for several generations, and control of most of Transoxiana stayed in the hands of the direct descendants of Chagatai Khan, the second son of Genghis Khan. Orderly succession, prosperity, and internal peace prevailed in the Chaghatai lands, and the Mongol Empire as a whole remained a strong and united kingdom, the Golden Horde.[30]

After the decline of the Golden Horde, Khwarezm was briefly ruled by the Sufi Dynasty until Timur's conquest of it in 1388.[31] Sufids rules Khwarezm as vassals of alternatively Timurids, Golden Horde and the Khanate of Bukhara until Persian occupation in 1510.

In the early 14th century, however, as the empire began to break up into its constituent parts, the Chaghatai territory was disrupted as the princes of various tribal groups competed for influence. One tribal chieftain, Timur (Tamerlane),[32] emerged from these struggles in the 1380s as the dominant force in Transoxiana. Although he was not a descendant of Genghis Khan, Timur became the de facto ruler of Transoxiana and proceeded to conquer all of western Central Asia, Iran, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and the southern steppe region north of the Aral Sea. He also invaded Russia before dying during an invasion of China in 1405.[30] Timur was also known for his extreme brutality and his conquests were accompanied by genocidal massacres in the cities he occupied.[33]

Timur initiated the last flowering of Transoxiana by gathering together numerous artisans and scholars from the vast lands he had conquered into his capital, Samarkand, thus imbuing his empire with a rich Perso-Islamic culture. During his reign and the reigns of his immediate descendants, a wide range of religious and palatial construction masterpieces were undertaken in Samarkand and other population centres.[34] Amir Timur initiated an exchange of medical discoveries and patronised physicians, scientists and artists from the neighbouring regions such as India;[35] His grandson Ulugh Beg was one of the world's first great astronomers. It was during the Timurid dynasty that Turkic, in the form of the Chaghatai dialect, became a literary language in its own right in Transoxiana, although the Timurids were Persianate in culture. The greatest Chaghataid writer, Ali-Shir Nava'i, was active in the city of Herat (now in northwestern Afghanistan) in the second half of the 15th century.[30]

The Timurid state quickly split in half after the death of Timur. The chronic internal fighting of the Timurids attracted the attention of the Uzbek nomadic tribes living to the north of the Aral Sea. In 1501, the Uzbek forces began a wholesale invasion of Transoxiana.[30] The slave trade in the Emirate of Bukhara became prominent and was firmly established at this time.[36] Before the arrival of the Russians, present-day Uzbekistan was divided between the Emirate of Bukhara and the khanates of Khiva and Kokand.

File:Sartscrop.jpg

Two Sart men and two Sart boys in Samarkand, c. 1910

In the 19th century, the Russian Empire began to expand and spread into Central Asia. There were 210,306 Russians living in Uzbekistan in 1912.[37] The "Great Game" period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. A second, less intensive phase followed the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. At the start of the 19th century, there were some 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) separating British India and the outlying regions of Tsarist Russia. Much of the land between was unmapped. In the early 1890s, Sven Hedin passed through Uzbekistan, during his first expedition.

By the beginning of 1920, Central Asia was firmly in the hands of Russia and, despite some early resistance to the Bolsheviks, Uzbekistan and the rest of Central Asia became a part of the Soviet Union. On 27 October 1924 the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic was created. From 1941 to 1945, during World War II, 1,433,230 people from Uzbekistan fought in the Red Army against Nazi Germany. A number also fought on the German side. As many as 263,005 Uzbek soldiers died in the battlefields of the Eastern Front, and 32,670 went missing in action.[38]

On 20 June 1990, Uzbekistan declared its state sovereignty. On 31 August 1991, Uzbekistan declared independence after the failed coup attempt in Moscow. 1 September was proclaimed National Independence Day. The Soviet Union was dissolved on 26 December of that year. Islam Karimov, previously first secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan since 1989, was elected president of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in 1990. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, he was elected president of independent Uzbekistan.[39] An authoritarian ruler, Karimov died in September 2016.[40] He was replaced by his long-time Prime Minister, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, on 14 December of the same year.[41] On 6 November 2021, Mirziyoyev was sworn into his second term in office, after gaining a landslide victory in presidential election.[42][43]

See also[]

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  • Health in Uzbekistan
  • Outline of Uzbekistan

Notes[]

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    • Template:Lang-ru
    • Template:Lang-uz
    • Template:Lang-ru

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Uzbekistan: Law "On Official Language"". Refworld. Archived from the original on 8 May 2019. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  2. "Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan". constitution.uz. Archived from the original on 15 December 2015. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  3. "Permanent population by national and / or ethnic group, urban / rural place of residence". Data.egov.uz. 2-001-1779. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  4. "2021 Report on International Religious Freedom: Uzbekistan". United States Department of State. Archived from the original on 2 June 2022. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  5. "Demografik holat (2022 yil yanvar-dekabr)". Archived from the original on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2022". IMF.org. International Monetary Fund. October 2022. Archived from the original on 24 October 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  7. "Income Gini coefficient | Human Development Reports". hdr.undp.org. Archived from the original on 10 June 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  8. "GINI index – Uzbekistan". MECOMeter – Macro Economy Meter. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  9. "Human Development Report 2021/2022" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 8 September 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 September 2022. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  10. Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0. . This source gives the British pronunciation as English pronunciation: , rather than English pronunciation: found in CEPD. It also does not list the English pronunciation: variant in American English.
  11. Roach, Peter (2011). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (18th ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-15253-2. This source does not list the English pronunciation: pronunciation in British English.
  12. "Chapter 1: Religious Affiliation". The World's Muslims: Unity and Diversity. Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 9 August 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  13. "Uzbek, the penguin of Turkic languages" Archived 13 November 2021 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  14. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named US State Dept - human rights
  15. "Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan". ksu.uz. Archived from the original on 27 June 2016. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  16. "Eurasia's Latest Economic Reboot Can Be Found in Uzbekistan". Forbes. 14 September 2017. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  17. Lillis, Joanna (3 October 2017). "Are decades of political repression making way for an 'Uzbek spring'?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  18. "Uzbekistan: A Quiet Revolution Taking Place – Analysis". Eurasia Review. 8 December 2017. Archived from the original on 8 December 2017. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  19. "The growing ties between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan – CSRS En". CSRS En. 28 January 2017. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  20. "Uzbekistan". UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Archived from the original on 13 November 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  21. "Uzbekistan | Energy 2018". GLI – Global Legal Insights. Archived from the original on 3 December 2017. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  22. "Uzbekistan Sovereign credit ratings - data, chart". TheGlobalEconomy.com. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  23. Pajank, Daniel (23 January 2019). "Uzbekistan's star appears in the credit rating universe". Brookings. Brookings Institution. Archived from the original on 19 December 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  24. Kenzheakhmet Nurlan (2013). The Qazaq Khanate as Documented in Ming Dynasty Sources. p. 140.
  25. 25.0 25.1 A. H. Keane, A. Hingston Quiggin, A. C. Haddon, Man: Past and Present, p.312, Cambridge University Press, 2011, Google Books, quoted: "Who take their name from a mythical Uz-beg, Prince Uz (beg in Turki=a chief, or hereditary ruler)."
  26. MacLeod, Calum; Bradley Mayhew. Uzbekistan: Golden Road to Samarkand. p. 31.
  27. 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 This section incorporates text from the following source, which is in the public domain: Lubin, Nancy (1997). "Uzbekistan", chapter 5 in: Glenn E. Curtis (Ed.), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Country Studies. Washington, DC: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. ISBN: 0844409383. pp. 375–468: Early History, pp. 385–386.
  28. Davidovich, E. A. (1998). "Chapter 6: The Karakhanids". In C.E. Bosworth (ed.). History of civilizations of Central Asia / 4.1 The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century; pt. 1, the historical, social and economic setting. UNESCO Publishing. pp. 119–144. ISBN 92-3-103467-7.
  29. Central Asian world cities (XI – XIII century). faculty.washington.edu
  30. 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 This section incorporates text from the following source, which is in the public domain: Lubin, Nancy (1997). "Uzbekistan", chapter 5 in: Glenn E. Curtis (Ed.), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Country Studies Archived 30 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Washington, DC: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. ISBN: 0844409383. p. 375–468; here: "The Rule of Timur ", p. 389–390.
  31. History of Civilizations of Central Asia (Vol. 4, Part 1). Motilal Banarsidass. 1992. p. 328. ISBN 978-81-208-1595-7. Archived from the original on 29 March 2018.
  32. Sicker, Martin (2000) The Islamic World in Ascendancy: From the Arab Conquests to the Siege of Vienna Archived 12 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 154. ISBN: 0-275-96892-8
  33. Totten, Samuel and Bartrop, Paul Robert (2008) Dictionary of Genocide: A-L Archived 18 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine, ABC-CLIO, p. 422, ISBN: 0313346429
  34. Forbes, Andrew, & Henley, David: Timur's Legacy: The Architecture of Bukhara and Samarkand Archived 24 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine (CPA Media).
  35. Medical Links between India & Uzbekistan in Medieval Times by Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, Historical and Cultural Links between India & Uzbekistan, Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library, Patna, 1996. pp. 353–381.
  36. "Adventure in the East". Time. 6 April 1959. Archived from the original on 1 February 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
  37. Shlapentokh, Vladimir; Sendich, Munir; Payin, Emil (1994) The New Russian Diaspora: Russian Minorities in the Former Soviet Republics Archived 8 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine. M.E. Sharpe. p. 108. ISBN: 1-56324-335-0.
  38. Chahryar Adle, Madhavan K. Palat, Anara Tabyshalieva (2005). "Towards the Contemporary Period: From the Mid-nineteenth to the End of the Twentieth Century Archived 29 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine". UNESCO. p.232. ISBN: 9231039857
  39. "Islam Karimov | president of Uzbekistan". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  40. "Obituary: Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov". BBC News. 2 October 2016. Archived from the original on 3 September 2016.
  41. "Uzbekistan elects Shavkat Mirziyoyev as president". TheGuardian.com. 5 December 2016.
  42. "Uzbek president secures second term in landslide election victory". www.aljazeera.com. 25 October 2021.
  43. "Uzbek president pledges constitutional reform | Eurasianet". eurasianet.org. 7 November 2021.

Further reading[]

See also: Bibliography of the history of Central Asia
  • Nahaylo, Bohdan and Victor Swoboda. Soviet Disunion: A History of the Nationalities problem in the USSR (1990) excerpt
  • Rashid, Ahmed. The Resurgence of Central Asia: Islam or Nationalism? (2017)
  • Smith, Graham, ed. The Nationalities Question in the Soviet Union (2nd ed. 1995)

External links[]

General information

Media

Template:Uzbekistan topics

Coordinates: 42°N 64°E / 42°N 64°E / 42; 64

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