The republic has some mineral wealth, little developed as yet. Naphtha near Ferghana gives an annual output of about 28,000 tons and coal, formerly exploited by peasants in a primitive way, but now under government control, yielded i o i,000 tons from the mountains near the town of Andijan. This development is due to the efforts of the Soviet government to encourage local supply so as to leave the Donetz coal for the factories in European Russia. Ozokerite is worked in Ferghana and its output in 1926-27 ex ceeded that of 1913. Radioactive ores have been found at Tyuya Muyun in the Ferghana valley and are being exploited. Iron, silver, lead and copper are mined by the peasants for local use, but have little economic importance.
Industry and Communications.—Peasant industries every where supply local needs and supplement income. They include the making of clothing and of felt for the tents of the herdsmen, of leathern bottles and shoes, paper, woollen and silk goods (in cluding carpets and shawls) and metal goods. Dried fruits are an important export. Brick-making is unnecessary, for the loess, owing to its lime content, hardens and loess mud huts are common.
Many types of life are found within the republic. There still exist some purely nomadic herdsmen seeking different pastures according to opportunity, but their numbers are rapidly diminish ing; others are semi-nomads with fixed summer and winter quarters. In the foothills there is some mixed farming with cattle raising and grain cultivation dependent on rain, while in the oases there is intensive grain and fruit cultivation under irrigation.
City life, with ancient trading bazaars and more recent begin nings of factory industry, is well developed. Tashkent has a popu lation of nearly 500,000, Samarkand of over 150,00o, while Andi jan, Namangan and Kokand have between 8o and loo thousand inhabitants. Marghelan, Bokhara and Khojent are between 37,000 and 6o,000. Khiva is much reduced and has less than 20,000 inhabitants. For an account of the ancient importance and present conditions of these famous cities see the separate articles on them. It should be noted that all, with the exception of Khiva, are on the railway, a vital factor in their revival. The two main lines are the Orenburg-Tashkent and the line from the Caspian which meet at Tashkent. A branch goes along the Ferghana valley with a north and south loop from Khokand, and a branch from Bokhara goes south to Termez on the Amu Darya, with a loop which will ultimately reach Samarkand. Air communication is an important development since the revolution and Tashkent, Samarkand, Termez and Diushambe are linked by regular air services and fortnightly services from Diushambe through Kulyab to Sarai on the Afghan frontier are planned. There is no railway
to Diushambe and the road is difficult; so that the value of this air link which brings Diushambe into touch with Tashkent and the railway by a six hours' flight cannot be overestimated. In this region of sharp contrasts, the camel caravan still crosses the desert and depends on wells which yield somewhat salty water or on the rare fresh water springs.
The Population diminished markedly during the civil war. The most densely peopled regions are the Andijan and Ferghana districts and the Tashkent and Khiva oases. The total population of the latter oasis is little more than that of Tashkent city.
Uzbegs form about 74%, and other nationalities include Tad zhiks, Russians, Ukrainians, Kazaks, Kirghiz, Arabs and Jews. The latter are possibly descendants of Jewish prisoners brought here by Assyrian and Babylonian kings. They speak Persian, but retain their ancient customs and are known as Bukhara Jews, be cause of the numbers in that city. The name Uzbeg dates back to the reign of Uzbeg Khan, a chief of the Golden Horde, who died in 1340 and who introduced Islamism among his subjects ; his coins have been found minted at all the towns of the Horde which struck money up to that date. Bef ore the Mongol invasion, the Turks, of whom the Kazaks, Uzbegs, Turkmens and Osmanli are the four chief groups, occupied Dzungaria and the Mongolian desert. The great effect of the Mongol invasion was to push the Turks westward, and it was apparently Turkish tribes who adopted the name of Uzbeg from their Mongol ruler who introduced Islamism. The term Uzbeg is used by 14th and 15th century writers to indicate Mohammedan as opposed to Shamanistic Turks.
Klaproth gives four divisions of the Uzbegs, the Naiman, Kip chak, Kungrad and Mangut. The Kunkurats or Kungrads were driven from their original home near Lake Dalai Nor by the Mongols, and their name survives in the town of Kungrad on the Amu Darya delta. The Kipchaks form an important element in Khokand, while Tatar Uzbegs predominate in Khwarezm, where they founded an independent principality but allowed the Sart and Turkmen cultivators to remain. In the 15th century Timur defeated the Uzbegs and sacked Samarkand, but the struggle between the Uzbegs and the Kalmucks in the early 16th century resulted in the former again occupying Samarkand.