The Chagatai Ulus and the formation of the Uzbek people

An ethnic process means related groups mixing over a long time and gradually becoming one people. According to the textbook, the base of the Uzbek people was formed by the Sogdians, Bactrians, Khwarazmians, Ferganans, Chachians, Saka-Massagetae and the semi-nomadic Kangju who had lived here since ancient times. Later the Kushans, Chionites, Kidarites, Eftalites and the Turkic tribes who came in the Turk Khaganate period also took part. From the 9th century the Turkic language environment grew in Transoxiana, and the Sogdians and other local peoples gradually became Turkicised. Under the Karakhanids, when power passed to Turkic dynasties, the process reached its final stage and a common language of the people took shape; according to the book the Uzbek people formed in the 9th–12th centuries. The formation of peoples is a long and complex process, and historians divide it into periods in different ways. Together with the Uzbeks, Tajiks, Karakalpaks, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, Turkmens and other peoples have lived in the region, and their histories are closely linked.