10 Facts About Uzbeks

Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group native to wider Central Asia, being the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area.

Uzbeks invaded Russia before dying during an invasion of China in 1405.

Under the leadership of Muhammad Shaybani, the Uzbeks conquered the key cities of Samarkand and Herat in 1505 and 1507, respectively, and founded the Khanate of Bukhara.

The Pashtuns battled and conquered the Uzbeks and forced them into the status of ruled people who were discriminated against.

In 1989, a series of violent ethnic clashes, involving Uzbeks, brought the appointment of ethnic Uzbek outsider Islam Karimov as Communist Party chief.

Related searches

Uzbeks went to British India was educated at Darul Uloom Deoband, and then returned to Turkestan where he preached against Communist Russian rule.

Uzbeks then fled to Afghanistan, then to British India and then to Hijaz where he continued his education in Mecca and Medina and wrote several works on Islam and engaged in anti-Soviet activities.

Many ethnic Uzbeks moved from Afghanistan to Pakistan owing to the Afghan War.

Historically, the nomadic Uzbeks who founded the Uzbek Khanate and its other successor states spoke various dialects of Turkic language.

Uzbeks come from a predominantly Sunni Muslim background, usually of the Hanafi school, but variations exist between northern and southern Uzbeks.