The Uzbek Character Plan: Etymology Ancient history

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 people, Central Asia experienced numerous invasions emanating out of Southern Siberia and Mongolia that would drastically affect the region.^[32]

According to a recent study on various Central Asian populations, the Kyrgyz and Kazakhs share more of their gene pool with various East Asian populations, than with West Asian or European populations, while Uzbeks are positioned between the two groups. The study further suggests that both migration and linguistic assimilation helped to spread the Turkic languages in Eurasia.^[33][34] Zhabagin et al. 2017 note that Turkic tribes arrived in the 7th century AD and became the dominant population in the region. Shortly afterwards, in the 8th century AD, the Islamic expansion reached the region but had no significant demographic impact. In the 13th century AD, the Mongolian invasion of Central Asia brought most of the region under Mongolian influence, which had "enormous demographic success", but did not impact the cultural or linguistic landscape.^[35][36]

Genetic studies analyzing the full genome of Uzbeks and other Central Asian populations found that on average, 60% of the Uzbek ancestry is derived from East Asian sources, with the remainder ancestry (40%) being made up by European and Middle Eastern components

Ancient history

Female statuette bearing the kaunakes. Chlorite and limestone, Bactria, beginning of the 2nd millennium BC
In the southern part of Central Asia there was a Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex, which has recently been dated to c. 2250–1700 BC.^[38][39] 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.^[38]
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.^[40]
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 (Transoxiana) was one of the most influential and powerful Persian provinces of antiquity.^{[41][full citation needed]}
In 350–375 AD, Sogdiana and Tashkent oasis were captured by the nomadic Xionite tribes who arrived from the steppe regions of Central Asia
T urkish officers during a audience with king Varkhuman of Samarkand. 648-651 CE, Afrasiyab murals, Samarkand^[43][44]
The First Turkic Khaganate and migration of the population played a large role in the formation of a sedentary Turkic population in the territory of the oases of Central Asia in the 6th-8th centuries.
In the Western Turkic Khaganate, in addition to various Turkic tribes, there were Iranian nomadic elements, which were gradually assimilated by the Turks. The urban population of Sogd, Khwarazm, Bactria was in close contact with the Turks.^[22]
Turkic names and titles are found in Bactrian documents of the 7th-8th centuries: kagan, tapaglig eltabir, tarkhan, tudun, the names Kutlug Tapaglig Bilga savuk, Kara-tongi, Tongaspar, Turkic ethnic names: halach, Turk^[45] During the excavations of the Sogdian Penjikent, a fragment of a draft letter in the Sogdian language was discovered, in the text of which there is a Turkic name Turkash ^[46]
The Turkic population of the Fergana Valley had their own runic writing. The Turkic rulers of Ferghana, Tokharistan, Bukhara and Chach issued their own coins.^[47][48]
The Turkic population of certain regions of Central Asia in the early Middle Ages had their own urban culture and used the proper Turkic terms, for example, baliq, which meant city.^[49]
The Turks had a great influence in the development of the armament of the Sogdians.^[50] The Turks are depicted in the wall paintings of ancient Samarkand.
The conquest of Central Asia by Muslim Arabs, which was completed in the 8th century AD, brought to the region a new religion that continues to be dominant. The Arabs first invaded Mawarannahr in the middle of the 7th century through sporadic raids during their conquest of Persia. Available sources on the Arab conquest suggest that the Soghdians and other Iranian peoples of Central Asia were unable to defend their land against the Arabs because of internal divisions and the lack of strong indigenous leadership. The Arabs, on the other hand, were led by a brilliant general, Qutaybah ibn Muslim, and were also highly motivated by the desire to spread their new faith, Islam, the official beginning of which was in AD 622. Because of these factors, the population of Mawarannahr was easily subdued. The new religion brought by the Arabs spread gradually into the region. The native religious identities, which in some respects were already being displaced by Persian influences before the Arabs arrived, were further displaced in the ensuing centuries. Nevertheless, the destiny of Central Asia as an Islamic region was firmly established by the Arab victory over the Chinese armies in 750 in a battle at the Talas River.^{[51][full citation needed]}
Despite brief Arab rule, Central Asia successfully retained much of its Iranian characteristic, remaining an important center of culture and trade for centuries after the adoption of the new religion. Mawarannahr continued to be an important political player in regional affairs, as it had been under various Persian dynasties. In fact, the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled the Arab world for five centuries beginning in 750, was established thanks in great part to assistance from Central Asian supporters in their struggle against the then-ruling Umayyad Caliphate.^[51]