The Chagatai Ulus and the formation of the Uzbek people

In the mid-13th century the great khagan Möngke issued a yarliq easing the order of taxes and labour duties: the number of horses at the yams was fixed and demanding extra horses and food from the people was forbidden. In 1271 Mas’udbek carried out a monetary reform, striking pure silver coins of equal weight in 16 cities of Transoxiana. Khan Kebek (1318–1326) moved his residence to Transoxiana and built a palace (“Qarshi”) near Nasaf, and the city was later called Karshi; he introduced the “kepeki” coins — a silver dinar of 8 grams and a dirham of 1 gram. Urgench and Bukhara were rebuilt, and Samarkand rose anew beside its old ruins. Land ownership was of four kinds: mulk-i divan, mulk-i inju, mulk-i waqf and mulk; land given for service, tax-exempt and inheritable was called suyurghal. Among Mongol nobles tension grew between those who favoured settled life and those who wanted to destroy towns and turn farmland into pasture; in the 1340s the ulus split in two: the eastern part, Moghulistan (Tughluq Timur became khan in 1348), and the western part, Transoxiana.