Uzbekistan travel guide

Alexander the Great to Muslim Rule
The early cities of the Silk Road, known at that time as Mawarannahr, were Samarkand and Bukhara, the former having been conquered by Alexander the Great in 328 BC, bringing it briefly under control of his Macedonian Empire. The biggest influence to follow, however, was the arrival of Muslim Arab rule, during the 7th and 8th centuries and whose influences took over from the region’s indigenous Iranian nomads, and can still be seen today. Such as in Samarkand, where the central Registan square still has magnificent remnants of ancient Islamic architecture. The whole area that makes up today’s Uzbekistan flourished economically, culturally and academically under Muslim Arab rule, which also resulted in an inevitable conversion to Islam. Bukhara also thrived as a center for Islamic culture during that time, and these stunning influences can still be seen in its buzzing, old city so steeped in tradition.

Genghis Khan & Timur
Genghis Khan invaded in the 13th century and opened up the region to nomadic Turkics from the northern steppe, who joined Khan’s forces. Khan also established a tradition that any ruler of Central Asia from that point on had to be a blood descendant. This period is sometimes described as the ‘Turkification’ of the region, which had a cultural influence for sure, but also a destructive one with cities like Bukhara suffering severely under the Mongol conquest. Following Khan’s death in 1227, his blood relations ruled on for over a century until one tribal chieftain, and non blood relation, Timur (aka Tamerlane) stood ground and became ruler in the 1380, making his capital Samarkand once more. No ordinary chieftain, he sought his own empire by conquering Central Asia, Iran, Asia Minor and then bits of Russia, finally dying during an invasion of China in 1405. Somewhat extraordinary, given that most of us say, Timur who?

The Khanates
At least, that is what the Uzbek tribes said, as they arrived in from the north in 1501, hearing that the Timurid Empire had broken up post the main man’s death. He created three independent khanates, or centers of power, were created at Bukahra, Khiva, and Kokand. Fighting between these khanates led to the eventual demise of this Uzbek era, not helped by the fact that the Silk Road was becoming less influential economically, with international trade taking to the oceans rather than the roads, as led by the Europeans. This weakness was exploited by the Persians who attacked various regions, leading to a long period of instability.

From silk to cotton
At this point, enter the Russians from stage north in 1865, taking Tashkent and making it their capital of Turkestan at that time. They subsequently took over the emirates of Bukhara and khanates of Samarkand, Khiva and Kokand. Although the khanates had a certain amount of autonomy, this new part of the Russian Empire continued through the 19th and 20th centuries, with a socialist republic established in 1924, despite local resistance to the Red Army following WW1.

A big part of this Russian history is wrapped up in cotton as local agricultural traditions were changed to produce cotton intensively, as it was seen to be ‘white gold’. This led to the overuse of land, depletion of soil quality and also water, including the drying up of the Aral Sea, which many areas are still recovering from today. Indeed, the annual cotton harvest is still seen as a massive event in Uzbekistan, when labour is mobilised to attain high quotas in ways that are considered highly unethical by labour law and human rights organisations.

“Uzbekistan was the world’s second biggest user of modern-day slavery according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index.” – Amnesty International

Control from Moscow continued for years, and it is interesting to note that other cultural influences occurred during both World Wars, when not only Russians moved here, but also Crimean Tatars, Chechens, and Koreans who were exiled here, because the Soviets considered them to be subversive. There are still people from all of these different groups in Uzbekistan today. For example, there are nearly 200,000 Uzbek Koreans, who refer to themselves as ‘Koryo-saram’, meaning ‘Korean person’. While the majority of people identify as Uzbeks, other ethnic groups include Russians, Tajiks, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks and Tatars, with the major religion being Islam. There are a lot of stories to be told here.

Karimov – empire or epic?
The Russian story in Uzbekistan lasted until 1991, when it became independent following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Islam Karimov, who had been in control under Soviet rule, remained president until his death in 2016, following years of controversial rule regarding human rights, torture and killings, according to Amnesty International and other worldwide human rights organisations. These policies led to political isolation for many years with the EU, for example, putting sanctions in place following the government troops’ shooting of protesters in 2005, known as the Andijan massacre.

The new Uzbekistan?
Today, Uzbekistan still struggles to gain financial independence. Although it is resource rich, the big earners are few and far between. Corruption at government level was accentuated by the infamous Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Karimov, who was placed under house arrest in 2014 while her father was still in power, for money laundering and involvement with a crime network connected with her business empire. Uzbekistan is, therefore, seen to be starting anew after the years of Kremlin then Karimov rule. The current president is Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who was prime minster under Karimov and in regional positions of power for years. One of his policies is to open up the country to good international relations again, of which tourism will be a vital key, of course. But for organisations like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, the jury is still out.