At the Crossroads: A Brief History of Uzbekistan Quiz

Answer: Transoxiana

Oxus was the name given in antiquity to the river Amu Darya, which flows from the Pamir Mountains through Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The name Transoxiana (also spelled Transoxania) thus means "land beyond the Oxus". The Oxus also marked the border between Iran proper (Khorasan) and the eastern provinces of the Persian Empire, known collectively as Turan. After the Muslim conquest of the early 8th century AD, Transoxiana became known by the Arabic name of Mawarannahr, which means "what is beyond the river". The statuette in the photo, known as the "Daughter of the Bactrian Shah", dates from the early 2nd millennium BC: the woman is wearing a traditional Persian garment known as "kaunakes".

During his campaign against the Achaemenid Empire in the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great coined the name Transoxiana for the region, which the Persians called Sogdia. Following Alexander's death in 323 BC, Transoxiana became part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom founded by his successors; it then came under the rule of the Parthian Empire, the Kushan Empire, and eventually the Sasanian Empire, the last Iranian empire before the Muslim conquest.

The people who inhabited Transoxiana were mainly Iranians who spoke Sogdian, an Eastern Iranian language related to Pashto, one of the official languages of Afghanistan. They mainly practiced the Zoroastrian religion of Persia, though some also followed Buddhism, Christianity and Manichaeism. After the Arab conquest, the region became almost uniformly Muslim.

Caledonia was the Latin name of Scotland; Numidia included much of present-day Algeria, and Anatolia is also known as Asia Minor.

Answer: Samarkand and Bukhara

Probably the most famous of the cities associated with the Silk Road, the very names of Samarkand and Bukhara convey an aura of wealth, mystery and exoticism. Both cities are believed to be thousands of years old, though there is no direct evidence of their foundation. Conquered by many different powers throughout their long histories, both cities were capitals of states created within the territory now occupied by Uzbekistan, and thrived as hubs of commerce and culture.

Though affected by the violence and destruction of the Mongol conquest in the 13th century, Samarkand and Bukhara rebounded relatively quickly. Samarkand's period of greatest splendor was when it became the capital of the Timurid Empire in 1370. Many of the city's magnificent monuments - such as the stunning Registan Square - date from that era. On the other hand, Bukhara went on to became the capital of two states - the Khanate of Bukhara (1501-1785) and the Emirate of Bukhara (1785-1920). The photo shows the Ark of Bukhara, a fortress and royal residence built in the 5th century AD on the remains of a number of older buildings.

Samarkand and Bukhara are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Bukhara was inscribed in 1993, and Samarkand in 2001. The title of this quiz was inspired from the official designation of Samarkand, "Crossroads of Cultures".

The cities listed as wrong answers are all capitals of Central Asian countries: Uzbekistan (Tashkent), Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek), Kazakhstan (Astana), Turkmenistan (Ashgabat), Afghanistan (Kabul), and Mongolia (Ulaanbaatar).

Answer: a leader of Turkic people

Also known as Oghuz Khan, Oghuz Beg is a legendary figure of leader who gave his name to one of the largest tribal confederations of Turkic people, the Oghuz Turks - from whom many of the present-day inhabitants of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are descended. Oghuz Beg has often been associated with Mete Han (Modu Chanyu or Maodun), the founder of the Xiongnu Empire in 209 BC. As "oghuz" is also the Turkic word for clan or tribe, another theory posits that Uzbekistan simply means simply "land of the tribe leader". A third possible derivation is from the Turkic words "uz" (self) and "beg/bek" (lord, master) - which, followed by the suffix "-stan", would have the meaning of "land of the free".

Özbeg Khan, the longest-reigning ruler of the Golden Horde, the khanate that occupied the northwestern part of the Mongol Empire, may have been named after the mythical Oghuz Beg. In 1313, when taking the throne (the scene shown in the photo, from a Russian 16th-century manuscript), Özbeg converted to Islam, declaring it state religion. Under his rule, Uzbek was widely adopted as a name for the people of the region, a mix of various nomadic Turkic tribes with Mongol influences and Turkicized Iranians. The name Uzbegistan ("land of the Uzbeks") first appeared in a history of the Turco-Mongol peoples of Central Asia titled "Tarikh-i Rashidi", written by general Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat, governor of Kashmir, in 1541-1546.

Answer: Tamerlane

Born in 1336 in what is now southern Uzbekistan, Timur was of Mongolian ethnicity, and claimed to share ancestors with Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire. The name Tamerlane by which he is known in the West comes from the Persian "Temur-i Lang", Timur the Lame, a derogatory epithet given to him to mock a disability due to an injury sustained in his youth.

Accounted one of the greatest military geniuses of history (as well as one of the most brutal conquerors), Timur took advantage of the disintegration of the Ilkhanate, the khanate established by the Mongols in the territory of the former Persian Empire. Between 1375 and 1405, he engaged in a series of military campaigns against some of the major powers of the Middle East and Central Asia, expanding his reach east towards India, where he besieged and conquered Delhi, and west towards Anatolia, where he defeated and captured Ottoman sultan Bayezid I. However, in 1405 Timur suddenly fell ill and died during a campaign against Ming China. His mausoleum, Gur-e-Amir (in the photo), is one of the most significant monuments in his capital of Samarkand: its architecture is said to have influenced the iconic Taj Mahal.

Although generally reviled in the West and many Asian countries that suffered from his bloody campaigns, in Central Asia - and particularly in his native Uzbekistan - Timur is regarded as a national hero. A massive statue of the conqueror stands outside the ruins of his summer palace in his home town of Shahrisabz (formerly Kesh). Though the Timurid era was a period of revival of the arts and sciences, Timur's successors did not manage to hold on to the empire he had built, which ended in 1507 at the hands of the Uzbeks. However, in 1526 Babur, a descendant of Timur also born in present-day Uzbekistan, became the founder of the great Mughal Empire of the Indian subcontinent.

Vlad Tepes and Mehmed II the Conqueror were both born after Timur's death, while Genghis Khan lived over a century earlier.

Answer: the opening of ocean-based trade routes

In the early Middle Ages, nomadic Turkic tribes largely replaced the peoples of Iranian ethnicity who had lived in Central Asia at least since the 1st millennium BC. During the Timurid era, a group of 92 clans called Taza Uzbeks, who lived north of the Aral Sea, took advantage of the divisions within the Empire to launch a campaign of conquest of the lands known as Transoxiana (Mawarannahr). Led by Muhammad Shaybani Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan, in 1501 the Uzbeks conquered Bukhara and established the Khanate of Bukhara; then, between 1505 and 1507, they took the two capitals of the Timurid Empire, Samarkand and Herat (now in Afghanistan). A second Uzbek state, the Khanate of Khiva, was established in 1511 in the region of Khorazm, south of the Aral Sea.

As soon as these new states were established, they found themselves embroiled in territorial struggles with the Safavid Empire of Iran, and eventually also with each other. However, the weakness of the Uzbek khanates was also due to the loss of importance of their cities, whose reliance on the trade generated by the Silk Road was undermined by the opening of ocean trade routes in the Age of Exploration. Raids by Mongols and other nomadic tribes from the north further contributed to the decline of that once-vibrant territory.

In the 17th century, Khiva began to engage in a different kind of trade, becoming a major centre for the slave trade - in competition with Bukhara, who had been involved in that objectionable activity for centuries. The two cities' reputation as the slave capitals of the world lasted well into the 19th century. Many of the people sold in those markets were Russians, often kidnapped by Turkic nomads in the border regions, or shipwrecked on the shores of the Caspian Sea. This was one of the factors that brought the Khanates to the attention of Russia.

Answer: cotton

In the early 18th century, a third Uzbek khanate was established - the Khanate of Kokand, located between the Khanate of Bukhara and the Kazakh Khanate. The three khanates spent much of the 18th century as vassals of Iran; then, with the advent of new ruling dynasties in each state, they enjoyed a brief spell of renewed prosperity. The new rulers established strong, centralized governments, and invested in infrastructure - in particular irrigation works, which encouraged the cultivation of cotton, soon to become the region's primary source of wealth.

According to various sources, cotton had been grown in Central Asia since the IV century BC, possibly even earlier. While the cotton grown in the territory that is now Uzbekistan was renowned for its high quality, it was produced and exported in small quantities. However, with the development of scientific methods of cultivation, cotton farming gradually became an industry on a much larger scale - attracting the interest of Russia. However, the earliest contacts between the khanates and the Russian Empire were relatively peaceful. Russia imported large amounts of cotton from North America, which was very expensive because trade had to go through Europe. When the American Civil War cut off the cotton supply the Empire relied upon, Russia's attitude towards the three Uzbek states turned aggressive, and eventually led to the military conquest of the region between 1865 and 1876.

Uzbekistan's current coat of arms was adopted on 2 July 1992. The wreath of wheat ears and cotton with open bolls, entwined with a ribbon with the colours of the state flag, symbolizes the natural wealth of the country.

Answer: modernization of society

For the Russian Empire, gaining control of Central Asia was both politically and economically advantageous. The Russians did not only gain access to a secure source of cotton, but also managed to curb the growing British influence in that part of the world: the 19th-century rivalry between the two empires was known as the Great Game. For the people of the Uzbek khanates, at first the change in rule was not particularly significant, as the two populations - the Russian and the indigenous one - tended to lead their own separate lives without mingling. However, as the century drew to a close Russian presence increased, marginalizing the natives and trying to force them to abandon their ways.

As violent resistance was easily quelled by the Russians, the only avenue left to the Uzbeks was Jadidism, a cultural and political movement that aimed to preserve Islamic Central Asian culture from Russian influence, all the while introducing modern, secular ideas into the region. The members of the Jadid movement made full use of the new technologies of that era in order to disseminate their ideas, entering into conflict with both the Tsarist authorities and the ultra-conservative Muslim clergy. Among the ideals pursued by the Jadids were educational reform and the end of gender discrimination: in particular, they encouraged girls to pursue an education. The cover of a 1908 satirical magazine from Azerbaijan depicted in the photo illustrates the contrast between the secular, progressive Jadidists and the Muslim clergy.

Not surprisingly, the Jadid movement was soon forced underground by Tsarist repression. The years leading to the Russian Revolution offered the reformers the opportunity to regroup, though for a short time, before the movement split between supporters of the Bolsheviks and those who violently resisted the spread of Soviet rule in Central Asia.

Answer: Tajikistan

Though resistance to the Soviets was strong in Uzbekistan, it was eventually crushed - while local Communist leaders loyal to Moscow gained in power and influence. In the early 1920s, the three political units created in Central Asia after the 1917 revolution were abolished, and replaced by five Soviet Socialist Republics, whose borders were determined along ethnic lines. One of these was the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, established on 27 October 1924, which also included the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, created just a couple of weeks earlier. The union lasted until 5 December 1929, when the Tajik SSR (now Tajikistan) was established.

In 1930, the capital of the Uzbek SSR was moved from Samarkand to the current capital of Tashkent, located in the northeast of the country, near the border with Kazakhstan. In 1936, the former Autonomous SSR of Karakalpakstan was added to the Uzbek territory. During World War II, the demographics of the Uzbek SSR were altered by the influx of Russians and other people from the western part of the Soviet Union, as well as the forced deportation of some ethnic groups accused of collaborating with the Axis powers. While Soviet rule entailed the persecution of Islam and other religions, it had the positive effect of eradicating illiteracy in nearly every part of the country.

The smallest of the five "stans", Tajikistan is also the only one where an Indo-European language - rather than a Turkic one - is spoken by the majority of the population: Tajik is a dialect of Farsi (Persian).

Answer: Aral Sea

Though totalitarian control over Uzbekistan and the other Central Asian republics relaxed somewhat after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, Russification remained the only key to achieving a desirable social status - in particular as a government or party official. The leadership in Moscow also expected the republic to supply cotton to the whole of the Soviet Union - which eventually led to the abandonment of any attempt at diversified agriculture. However, as Uzbekistan has a mostly hot, dry climate, a lot of water was needed for the irrigation of cotton fields.

In the 1960s, in order to turn Uzbek "white gold" into a major source of revenue, the country's two largest rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, were diverted from feeding the Aral Sea into irrigation canals that would allow cotton, cereals and melons to be grown in desert or semi-desert areas. At first, this massive endeavour was successful, and made the Uzbek SSR into the world's largest exporter of cotton in the late 20th century. However, the Aral Sea - an endorrheic lake, fed only by those two rivers - went from being the world's third-largest lake to shrinking to about 10% of its former size in less than forty years.

This disaster - probably the worst legacy of Soviet rule in Central Asia - also wreaked havoc on the environment, increasing pollution and negatively affecting the climate of the region. Though there have been attempts at replenishing what little is left of the once-mighty lake, it seems highly unlikely that the Aral Sea will ever be restored to what it used to be. The photo - which shows a comparison of the size of the Aral Sea in 1989 (left) and 2014 (right) - gives an idea of the magnitude of this environmental disaster.

All the three lakes listed as wrong choices are partly located in Russia.

Answer: presidential republic

Like the other Central Asian "stans", Uzbekistan is a presidential republic - or, to be more precise, a semi-presidential republic, in which an executive president, independent of the legislature and elected by the people, appoints the head of government (prime minister). France has this kind of hybrid system, while the USA, like most countries in the Americas, is a "true" presidential republic, with the president as head of government as well as head of state. Most former members of the Soviet Union (including Russia) are also semi-presidential republics.

The first president of independent Uzbekistan was Islam Karimov, the former First Secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, who was also the last president of the Uzbek SSR. He was elected at the end of December 1991 in a non-democratic election marred by numerous irregularities. His first term was extended until 2000 by a referendum, then he was re-elected three times, the last in 2015 -receiving almost 90% of the vote each time. When he passed away in 2016, he had been president of Uzbekistan for 25 years. His regime was an authoritarian one, characterized by repression of dissent and other human rights abuses. His successor, former Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev, began various liberal reforms in the hope of attracting foreign investment and improving the country's status in Central Asia.

The 2006 stamp in the photo depicts the Monument to the Independence of Uzbekistan (nicknamed "Globe of Uzbekistan"), located in Mustaqillik Maydoni (Independence Square) in Tashkent.