The Uzbeks, as one of the main peoples of present-day Central Asia, seem to have originated very late in history. The Turkmens to the west are actually another translation of the Turks, the Tajiks to the east are ancient Iranian-speaking inhabitants, and the Southern Turks are descendants of the Iranian Persians. The Uzbeks, on the other hand, seem to have appeared on the stage of history only after the Mongol Conquest of the West. So, are they descendants of the Mongols? Or are they descendants of some other ethnic group?
Today's Uzbekistan basically controls most of the ancient river region
Today's Uzbekistan covers roughly the entire river region. It is also the only way to migrate peoples of scale many times in history. The ancestors of the Uzbeks are, in terms of numbers, the descendants of the indigenous, Scythian, Turkic, and Mongols of Eastern Iran. Of course, there were also a small number of Persians, Greeks, Moons, and even Huns.
At first, the river region, where Uzbekistan is located, belonged to the Eastern Iranian branch of the Iranian language family. Other branches of this branch included Bactria , eastern Iran , parts of North India , and later the nomadic Scythians who later returned from the west. After the Scythians occupied the main parts of the area, the river region was divided into a mixture of oasis agricultural settlements and nomadic pastures according to the production model.
When the Persian Empire conquered the river, the early ancestors of the Uzbeks were also divided in two. The city dwellers submitted to the Persians, and the steppe tribes were allies of the Persians. Later Greeks who entered the area, especially after occupying Samarkand, did not change this pattern.
The Scythian nomadic culture had a great influence on the ancient river
With the southward migration of the Parthian tribes and the establishment of the Parthian Empire, the river began to be in a period of relatively independent chaos. It was sometimes subordinate to the Parthian Empire, sometimes to the Bactrian Greeks, and later to the Kushan Empire in Northern India.
The gradual prosperity of the Silk Road allowed the local urban economy to develop rapidly. Some of the Yueshi people who fled west from China also began to migrate to the local area. But the population in general is still Scythian Iran. The mixture of these people with local economic development eventually gave rise to a Central Asian hegemony known as the White Huns in the late Classical period.
Before and after the Kushan Empire, the hezhong region has become the territory of the new ethnic group
The White Huns fought with the Sassanid Persian Dynasty in the west. Finally defeated by the Persians and the newly emerging Turks. The Turks, using their iron-smelting techniques and trading positions, began to enter the river region. During this period, groups known as the Sogdians by the ancient Chinese began to emerge. Most of the so-called Zhaowu nine surnames come from the local area. They monopolized silk road trade until the arrival of Arab conquerors.
The Sogdian era was the golden age of ancient times in the present-day Uzbek region
Ultimately, it was the closer Turks who benefited from the Arab conquests. The Abbasid dynasty of the Arab Empire, in particular, was itself a dynasty that favored Central Asian-Iranian power. A large number of Turks began to enter the Guards and court institutions, gradually replacing the original Persians. The Abbasids, though still alive for a long time, had lost control of the river region. The region became the main target of competition for local military power established by the Persian-Turkic dynasties or the Turks themselves.
This crucial stage became the cause of the Turkification of Central and Western Asia. A large number of Turks occupied military positions and infiltrated commercial teams, thus contributing to the Turkification of the locals. Typical examples are the Qarakhanids, the Seljuk Empire, and the Turkic dynasties of Central Asia. Their era came to an abrupt end in the 13th century after the First Mongol Expedition.
The region where the Uzbeks are located is also the source of Turkification in Central Asia
After the Mongol conquest, the ancestral residence of the Uzbeks was largely divided between the Golden Horde and the Chagatai Khanate. The Mongols, with the exception of a small number of tribes that operated on marginal meadows, were largely assimilated over a period of 100 years by the Persian-Turkic cultures of the city and surrounding areas. The immediate ancestors of today's Uzbeks come from the part of the Golden Horde that originally belonged to the Golden Horde. They took the Uzbek Khan in the history of the Golden Horde as the ancestor of the nation, and took the name of the Great Khan as the name of their own population.
The Mongol conquest was actually the beginning of a new round of Turkification
But in the south, the Timurid Empire, which belonged to the Chagatai lineage, sprung up. The great Turkic empire with Samarkand at its core, the Golden Horde, swept through the region where the Uzbeks were located each time. This forced them to be more united. After Tamerlane's own death, they began to counterattack the south-central part of the river. The division of the Timurid princes contributed to their success. After nearly a century of hard work, he finally entered the river and occupied Samarkand. Eventually, they even hunted down the timurid vassals and controlled most of Central Asia.
Uzbek Khan of the Golden Horde The humanistic ancestors of the modern Uzbeks
Since then, the Uzbeks have fought against the Safavid Dynasty of Persia, which originated in Azerbaijan, for the fruits of their conquest of the river region. In the famous Battle of Moufu, the Persian Emperor Ismail I killed the most important leader in Uzbek history, Shaybani Khan. The Uzbeks were forced to split, forming later smaller khanates such as Braha and Khiva.
These small Uzbek states, in order to counter the pressure of Persia's eastward expansion, began to seek help from the Ottoman Empire in the west. Since the Ottoman Empire began in the 16th century, the Sultan himself served as the leader of the Islamic world, the Caliph. Therefore, the Uzbeks, who have always supported the same Sunni faith, have been holding back the Shiite Persia in the east. Some European military technology mastered by the Ottomans also continued to be imported into the river region at this time.
The war between the Uzbeks and Persia
The Persians always had no way to deal with these areas, and this situation was maintained until the 19th century. As the Russians moved south from Siberia and the Caucasus in the 19th century, these khanates became central Asian territories of the Russian Empire in a short time. After the October Revolution and the political reorganization of Soviet power, it was the Uzbek region that today took shape.
After briefly talking about this history, I believe that everyone will have a clearer understanding of the ancestral origin of the Uzbek people. Scythian Iran, Turks, and Mongols were undoubtedly their most important sources of blood and culture.