Context

To understand what we saw, it helps to have some history.  This is the KK version,  compiled from our Iranian trip, our Uzbek guide and Wikipedia!

BC, present day Uzbekistan was part of Sogdiana.  Sogdia was an ancient Iranian civilisation  which  centered on cities such as Samarkand, Bukhara, and Shahriasabz.  The Sogidan states were never politically united but the Sogdians played an important role as middlemen in the trade route now called the Silk Road.  Our guide described them as traders.

So when you think of ruling dynasties in Sogdiana, think Persia.  For most of the time  from BC to when the Russians ruled, Persia and Uzbekistan were part of the same empire.

This huge period included  the incursions of Alexander the Great (if you are Greek) in  the 300s BC.  He is not popular in Iran, where he is called Alexander of Macedon.  According to our guide, he is not universally admired in Uzbekistan either.

The main religion of Sogdiana, brought from Iran, was Zoroastrianism.  Their god was Ahura Mazda, they worshipped fire (hence fire temples) and are known for their sky burials, where the bodies are left in towers of silence and exposed to the elements.  This keeps the ground clean.  other religions were Nestorian Christianity and Buddhism.

In 600AD in Persia and 700AD in Central Asia, the conversion to Islam began with the Muslim conquest.  The Sogdian conversion to Islam was virtually complete by 999, coinciding with the decline of the Sogdian language which was largely supplanted by  Persian as well as Turkic languages.

The dynasties of Persia still ruled this area, which became known as Transoxiana - the land beyond the River Oxus.  The home-grown hero is Emir Timur.  Transoxiana and Persia were still part of the same empire, but the ruler was a local lad. Because of injury to his right leg, he was known as Timur the Lame, (or Tamerlane).  Since independence, he has become a national hero in Uzbekistan.

Today, Uzbekistan is Sunni, whereas Iran is Shiite.

In the nineteenth century, the Russians expanded into Transoxiana.  This was part of the rivalry between Britain and Russia for dominance, known as the Great Game.  So Transoxania experienced life under Tsars, and then under the Soviets.  It was the Soviets who drew the "stan" boundaries and called the region the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic.  The Russians actively discouraged the practice of religion.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, these territories became independent, Uzbekistan in 1991.  Their first president, Karimov died just last year. 

The Silk Road was a network of trading routes.  Rarely did a trader begin at one end and go the whole distance.  Goods were exchanged at various centres along the route.  According to our guide, traders would also have pre-orders for particular goods.