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Uzbekistan
Early History
The first people known to have occupied Central Asia were Iranian
nomads who arrived from the northern grasslands of what is now
Uzbekistan sometime in the first millennium B.C. These nomads,
who spoke Iranian (see Glossary) 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 Bukhoro (Bukhara)
and Samarqand (Samarkand) began to appear as centers of government
and culture. By the fifth century B.C., the Bactrian, Soghdian,
and Tokharian states dominated the region. As China began to develop
its silk trade with the West, Iranian cities took advantage of
this commerce by becoming centers of trade. Using an extensive
network of cities and settlements in the province of Mawarannahr
(a name given the region after the Arab conquest) in Uzbekistan
and farther east in what is today China's Xinjiang Uygur Auton-omous
Region, the Soghdian intermediaries became the wealthiest of these
Iranian merchants. Because of this trade on what became known
as the Silk Route, Bukhoro and Samarqand eventually became extremely
wealthy cities, and at times Mawarannahr was one of the most influential
and powerful Persian (see Glossary) provinces of antiquity.
The wealth of Mawarannahr was a constant magnet for invasions
from the northern steppes and from China. Numerous intraregional
wars were fought between Soghdian states and the other states
in Mawarannahr, and the Persians and the Chinese were in perpetual
conflict over the region. Alexander the Great conquered the region
in 328 B.C., bringing it briefly under the control of his Macedonian
Empire.
In the same centuries, however, the region also was an important
center of intellectual life and religion. Until the first centuries
after Christ, the dominant religion in the region was Zoroastrianism
(see Glossary), but Buddhism, Manichaeism (see Glossary), and
Christianity also attracted large numbers of followers.
Data as of March 1996
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