After the implementation of the national-administrative divisions of Central Asia, the question of "Whether the People of Bukhara are Tajik or Uzbek" came to the fore and is, gradually, gaining prominence. We can say, without a doubt, that the Party and the Soviet government will soon recognize the significance of this problem-as a part of the nationality problem-and will direct their efforts towards its resolution. Because the present situation is intolerable, in this article we intend to provide information on the history and the current status of this problem and bring it to the attention of those concerned with its resolution.

Thirteen centuries have elapsed since the Arabs overtook Bukhara. The history of events thereafter is recorded. These records prove that at the time of the Arab takeover, the Sughdians were the ancestors of the inhabitants of Bukhara, i.e., the ancestors of the Tajiks. Narshakhi's Ta'rikh-i Bukhara as the first and the most ancient historical document dealing with the victory of the Arabs attests to this. ¹

Qutaiba Ibn-i Muslim built a mosque in Bukhara in A.H. 94 where previously a pagan sanctuary stood. Then he ordered that every Friday, the people of Bukhara should gather there and pray; and every Friday, the town crier announced, "Everyone in Bukhara who attends the Friday prayer will receive two dirhams. In the early stages, because they did not know Arabic, the people of Bukhara, read the Qur'an in Farsi. During the prayers, at the time of bowing, from behind the rows someone shouted 'bow!' and at the time of prostration shouted, 'Prostrate yourselves!'"

Even though Bukhara is the center of the one-thousand-year-long literature of the Persian-speaking peoples, its population is not exclusively Tajik. Besides, because during their takeover the Arabs burned all the books that were written in the Persian language, very little of the literature produced by the Persians remains. ²

After the Arab invasion, the first great Perso-Tajik dynasty to be established in Central Asia was the dynasty of the House of Saman. ³ During the rule of the Samanids, Persian literature was revived and promoted. The works of Rudaki, Firdowsi, and the other ancient sages and men of letter also were written during the rule of the Samanids of Bukhara.

After the demise of the Samanid dynasty, although the rulership passed from one Turkish hand into another, Bukhara continued to be recognized as the center of literature and culture. The language of instruction, authorship, and conversation among the people of Bukhara continued to be Persian. The details of this summary can be found in Kirmani and Ambari's Ta'rikh-i Bukhara and Barthold's Turkistan Down to the Mongol Invasion.

During the first century of the rule of the Manghits, the dynasty that was overthrown by the Bukhara Revolution in 1920, the language of the court was Turkish, because most of the courtiers were representatives of Turkish uluses and tribes. But all the directives of the Amir, reports, and vasiqahs were written in Persian. The language of the city and its environs was Persian. In the elementary schools and the theological seminaries, the language of instruction was Persian. All authorship was in Persian. Conversely, there is not even one book written in Turkish that had been published in Bukhara during the last one thousand years.

Following the Chaqatai styles of Navoi or Fuzuli, some of the poets of Bukhara, on a whim, have tried to compose poetry in Turkish, but they have not been successful. The people of Bukhara, too, whether at home or work, have always spoken and continue to speak Tajiki. The women of Bukhara, without an exception, do not know Uzbeki.

Before the Bukhara Revolution, the Amir's officials who served in areas inhabited by Uzbeks and some of the traders who had commercial relations with the Uzbeks, learned some Uzbeki. And there are five or six families who are racially Turkish and speak Turkish, in the Durman district of Bukhara. They are from the Durman tribe and are referred to as Surmani. The rest of the population of the city is Tajik and has remained Tajik.

From the tumans of Bukhara, only the Qaraqul tuman is mostly Turkish. In the tumans of Vghanza, Ghijduvan, and Vabkent half, or sometimes more than half, are Tajik. Their native language and the language of trade among them is Tajik...

But after the Revolution, the language issue took a totally different turn.

From the establishment of the Republic of Bukhara (September 1920), Uzbeki became the official language of the Bukhara Soviet. This pertained not only to the city of Bukhara, but included Eastern Bukhara as well. Even though the absolute majority of the people of Eastern Bukhara did not know Uzbeki, Turkish became the official language and the language of instruction. After the national-administrative divisions in Central Asia and the establishment of the Republic of Tajikistan, this mistake was corrected and Tajiki became the official language and the language of instruction.

What motivated this drastic change in the language of Bukhara? Why did the government choose Uzbeki as the official language for the Uzbeks and the Tajiks? What was the rationale for the Soviet of Bukhara to try very hard to eliminate the Tajiki language and make Uzbeki the language of the Uzbeks and non-Uzbeks?

The answer lies in Pan-Islamism and Pan-Turkism, the ideology that directed the activities of the leaders of the Soviet Republic of Bukhara.

At the beginning of the establishment of (the Republic of) Bukhara, events were influenced by three groups:

1. The Turkish prisoners of WWI
2. The Ferghana and Tashkent Uzbeks, most of whom were supporters of the ideology of the Jadids of Bukhara.
3. We, the jadids of Bukhara who, for some time, had received Pan-Islamic and Pan-Turkic instruction in Central Asia. For a while, we were heavily influenced by the Pan-Islamic and Pan-Turkic ways of thinking.

The Pan-Turkists argued that the Uzbeks, Kyrgyzes, Kazakhs, Turkmens, and others who share the Mongol blood and who are divided today into independent nations are, in reality, members of the same large family. They also argued that the Tajiki-speaking people of Bukhara, are, in reality, Turks who have been heavily influenced by the literature and culture of the Iranians to the point that they have lost their original language. They must be returned to the Turkish fold to create one Turkish nation. Influenced by this ideology and determined to realize these objectives, we had become the real enemies of the Tajiki language. While our activities against the Tajiks bordered on treason, we were ardent supporters of Turkish unity and the Turkish language.

During the last years of the Republic of Bukhara, we were no longer as involved in the Pan-Islamic and Pan-Turkic ideologies as before. Instead, we were concerned with the language problems of the Tajiks and the opening of schools for them in their native language.

Meanwhile the national-administrative divisions of Central Asia took place and Bukhara was included in Uzbekistan. Finally, Uzbekistan became heir to all the mistakes, deliberate or otherwise, and political treasons committed by the Republic of Bukhara and its Pan-Islamic and Pan-Turkist past.

Those political mistakes and treasonous acts which Uzbekistan inherited from the Republic of Bukhara, were not corrected by Uzbekistan, they were further strengthened. Today, it is a "sin" for the people of Bukhara and environs to call themselves Tajik. The 1926 census identifies everyone, except the Iranians, as Uzbek. According to those statistics, the Tajiks of Bukhara have registered themselves as "Uzbeks."

In Bukhara, a number of Tajiks have identified themselves as Perso-Tajik. Who are those? Is this language different from the language of the other people of Bukhara? Are their customs different? No. How about their race and their past history? No. They, too, like the other people of Bukhara speak Persian. The difference is that they are Muslims who follow the Imam Ja'far Sadiq. The followers of this sect are known as the Shi'a. The other people of Bukhara are Muslims who follow Imam Abu Hanifa. They are known as the Sunni. Our statisticians have registered the Uzbeks as Sunni and the Perso-Tajiks as Shi'a.

But since when has religion been related to defining nationality? Ask the Bureau of Statistics of Uzbekistan! And as I said, they consider the Tajik people of Bukhara to be Uzbek and they use Uzbeki to teach in their schools. The official language of the village soviets and the language of the executive of the Bukhara Okrug also is Uzbeki. The reasons that the supporters of this line of thought give in their own defense are the following:

1. The people of Bukhara and environs are Uzbek and speak Uzbeki. This is an absolute lie, believed only by those who hide the truth.
2. In ancient times, the people of Bukhara and its environs had been Uzbek. They have become speakers of Tajiki under the influence of the literature and culture of the Persians. We shall return them to their original language and nationality.

The Communist Party and the Soviet government refuse to examine this puzzle.

3. If we can successfully change the Tajik people of Bukhara to Uzbeks, that will be a success story. This will not only set an example, but will also be a service.

Neither the Party nor the Soviet government has set itself this task.

4. Even if the Pan-Islamic and Pan-Turkist ideologies have lost their momentum, in their place a new type of nationalism-Uzbekism-has emerged. Uzbekism requires that we change the Tajiks of Bukhara into Uzbeks. This followings the Uzbek ideology exactly. But this is not the ideology of the Uzbek leaders. The Party and the Soviet government cannot push this ideology forward.

And this process of Uzbekization is taking place at a time when the government, through the Communist and Soviet rule, has been in force for eleven years. We should not forget that this is also the time when in the entire Soviet Union, including Central Asia, the just ordinances devised by Lenin are in force.

The general Tajik-speaking population of Bukhara and environs as yet has not reached the maturity to raise its voice. This is, to a degree, our fault; for we have not communicated the message of the Party to them. Of those who hold positions, some have accepted a new variety of Pan-Turkism. Therefore, they choose silence and, for the most part, do not see this problem to be useful for their own purposes.

We confess to our political treason and past mistakes and find it necessary that they be corrected: Alas that those who criticize us for this shortcoming and slap our faces do not help the issue; they only strengthen the error and the treason.

It is necessary for the Party to solve this important, political problem.

Soviet Tajikistan
January 26, 1988

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