Uzbek, Northern

The Uzbeks are the largest Turkic people of Central Asia, about 40 million in all, most of them in Uzbekistan and in the neighbouring Fergana valley of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Northern Uzbeks are those of the former Soviet lands, speakers of Northern Uzbek; the Uzbeks of Afghanistan speak Southern Uzbek and form their own group. They formed from the settled Iranian-speaking townspeople and farmers of Transoxiana, Turkic and Mongol nomads who arrived between the 11th and 15th centuries, and the Kipchak Uzbek tribes led south by Muhammad Shaybani in the early 16th century, whose name the region took. The name may come from Özbeg Khan of the Golden Horde. Before the Soviet era settled Turkic speakers were often called Sarts, and identity rested on city, region and the 92 tribes; the Soviet Union created the Uzbek nation and republic in 1924, folding in Sarts and some Tajiks. Uzbekistan became independent in 1991 and moved from Cyrillic to a Latin alphabet.

Uzbek family life is close-knit and extended, with elders honoured and large gatherings for weddings, circumcisions and funerals. Palov (plov, osh), rice cooked with mutton, carrots and onions, is the national dish and a symbol of Uzbek identity, with regional styles from Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent; it is served in the morning (oshi nahor) during wedding celebrations. Dumplings (chuchvara, manti), somsa and green tea follow. Men wear the loose striped chapan coat with a belbog sash, and men and women the square doppi skullcap, black for men and beaded and colourful for women; colours of women's dress once marked age and status. Navruz at the spring equinox is the most popular festival, with the sumalak wheat pudding boiled through the night.

Uzbeks are Hanafi Sunni Muslims with a deep Sufi heritage, above all the Naqshbandi order of Bukhara, whose dervishes founded lodges as far as Istanbul. Soviet state atheism closed mosques and madrasas, banned religious literature and drove religious life out of sight, leaving many Uzbeks of the former USSR practising a lighter, more cultural Islam shaped also by the Jadid reformers, while Uzbeks in Afghanistan stayed more conservative. Independence in 1991 brought a broad revival, under state control after the 1992 Namangan unrest. Islam marks identity and the life cycle for most; in a 2012 survey 16% of Uzbekistan's people said they were not religious.

The complete Bible in Uzbek was published in 2016, with the JESUS Film, audio recordings and online resources. In Uzbekistan most Christians are Russian Orthodox and Protestants are under 1.5% of the population; a 2015 study counted about 10,000 believers from a Muslim Uzbek background. Labour migration to Russia, Kazakhstan and Türkiye brings many Uzbeks into settings away from family and state oversight.