"You may stretch yourself out on a piece of
carpet in some nook or corner, and watch the ever varying group and the
succession of strange, wild faces for hours with unflagging interest.
Representatives of all the people of Central Asia may be found in the
motley crowd." | ||||||||||
Ask the average Uzbek in Tashkent or in the Fergana
Valley what they think about people from Khorezm and they will tell you,
"They're different from us. They speak their own language and have
their own customs." Khorezmliks (people from Khorezm) will also attest
to this fact, proudly citing their distinct culture and a dialect that
could almost be classified as a different language. | ||||||||||
Whilst the people of Khorezm are easily marked out by their accents, they are not so easy to distinguish racially. Conquered by Alexander the Great from the west and Genghis Khan from the east and influenced by large Persian and Kurdish slave populations, Khorezmliks vary widely in appearance. The Macedonian features of Alexander's armies have left their legacy and many Khorezmliks have lighter hair and blue eyes. Complexions vary widely from the darker tones of the Persian and Kurdish slave descendants to the yellower tones of the Mongols and the lighter tones of the original Turki people. | ||||||||||
Today people call themselves Khorezmliks regardless of whether they have a Persian, Mongolian, Turkoman or Kurdish background and many people do not know their own particular racial heritage. However in the 1830's clearer distinctions existed between the different people groups living in the Khiva khanate. Captain Muraviev identified four different races. | ||||||||||
"Khiva is inhabited by four different races:
The relation of the four races to one another used,
at first, to be as follows: | ||||||||||
"The Khivite has a legitimate pride in the
purity of his ancient Uzbek nationality, as contrasted with that of Bukhara
and Kashgar. At the very first sight, however, the Khivan betrays the
mixture of his blood with the Iran elements, for he has a beard, always
to be regarded by the Turanis as a foreign peculiarity, but his complexion
and form of countenance indicate very often genuine Tartar origin." | ||||||||||
In 1924 Stalin bundled together the Khorezmliks with
the mixture of peoples living from the Aral Sea to the Fergana Valley
in order to form the new republic of Uzbekistan. Today, seventy years
after Soviet rule, the government of modern Uzbekistan is pursuing a proactive
nationalistic policy in an attempt to rediscover what it means to be 'Uzbeg'
(pronounced in other regions: Uzbek) which literally means, 'ruler of
self'. Unfortunately the large Tajik and Kazakh minorities are often discriminated
against and so many have 'Uzbek' written in their passport in order to
find work. However this process of 'uzbekification' of other ethnic groups
within the region is actually nothing new. | ||||||||||
The more obvious minority groups are the Russians and
Koreans who settled in Khorezm during the Soviet era. They now find themselves
at a distinct disadvantage since many are unable to speak Uzbek. Whilst
Russians are often resented as the colonial oppressors the Koreans, who
were deported from North Korea to Central Asia by Stalin, are treated
with more acceptance despite the fact that they have adopted the Russian
language. There are also a number of Tartars living in Urgench from both
Kazan in Russia and the Crimea. Most Tartars are more russified than other
Turkic people but often intermarry with Uzbeks and are predominantly Muslim
in religion. | ||||||||||
Just over the border in Turkmenistan, the Khorezmliks
are racially the same and make up the majority of the population in the
regional capital of Dashaouz. During the Soviet era it made little difference
on which side of the border people lived, but with the collapse of the
Soviet Union and an increase in border restrictions, Khorezmliks in Turkmenistan
have felt increasingly isolated. | ||||||||||
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