Home > Uzbek

The Uzbeks predominatly follow Islam (mainly Sunni Islam) in a form that became weakened under the rule of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, however, Uzbek independence saw a revival in Islamic interest after 1991. Conversion to Islam of people living in the area of modern Uzbekistan came as early at the 8th Century AD as Arab troops invaded the area, displacing Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Nestorian Christianity. Victory of the Arabs over the Chinese at the Battle of Talas (north east of modern Tashkent - now called Dzhambul in Kazakhstan) in 751 ensured the future dominance of Islam in Turkic Central Asia.

The Uzbeks form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China PRC comprises most of the cultural, historic, and geographic area known as China. Since its founding in 1949, it has been led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). It is the world's most populous country, with a population.

The Uzbek languageUzbek (O'zbek tili in Latin script, in Cyrillic script) is a Turkic language spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia. Its closest relative, in vocabulary and grammar, is Uighur. Tajik and Russian have had significant influences on is a Turkic language, related to Uighur, KazakhKazakh also Kazak and Qazaq ( , Qazaq tili is a Turkic language with ISO 639 codes of kaz and kk''. It is one of the official languages of Kazakhstan, and is also spoken traditionally in Afghanistan, China, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan,, and more distantly to TurkishTurkish is a Turkic language, spoken by about 70 million speakers in Turkey and over 85 million speakers world-wide. The Turkish name for the language is Turkce''. Classification Turkish is a member of the Turkish family of languages, which includes Balka.