Language

• Uzbek is the official language of Uzbekistan and its dialects are spoken by about 25 million people worldwide. The language derives from the literary Turkic language Chagatay, named after one of the sons of Genghis Khan, and can be written in Cyrillic, Arabic and Latin scripts. Kyrgyz, on the other hand, is one of two official languages of Kyrgyzstan. Its dialects are spoken by about 4 million people worldwide. It is most closely related to Altay, a Turkic language that grew distinct in the Altai mountain region.
  
  

Religion

• Uzbeks predominantly practice the Hanafi version of Sunni Islam. Hanafi is one of four systems of Islamic jurisprudence. Although, according to a Pew report from 2009, 86 percent of the Kyrgyz also practice Sunni Islam, many practice a synthesized form of Islam and Tengriism, a shamanistic and animistic religion indigenous to Central Asia. In fact, within Kyrgyzstan, the southern region centered around Osh is made of mainly Sunni Islamic practitioners, largely made of Uzbeks; whereas northern Kyrgyzstan features a more varied mix of Tengriism, atheism and Islam.
  
  

History

• The histories of the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz discourage simple descriptions and sweeping claims. In general, the story of the Uzbeks begins in the Ural mountains and along the silk road, continues through to their invasion of Islamic Turkestan in the 15th century, their conquest by the Russians in the middle of the 19th, and their independence through Uzbekistan in 1990. The Kyrgyz were a nomadic hunting and raiding people of northwest Mongolia who had an independent state for over a thousand years before they fell into vassalage under the Golden Horde in the 15th century. Despite a relatively brief independence in the 17th century, they remained under rule by Mongolians, Chinese and Russians until the 1990s.
  
  

Culture

• The cultures of the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz differ. The traditional home of the Uzbeks is one story and built around a courtyard; the traditional home of the Kyrgyz is a yurta, a felt-lined family-sized tent made of willow poles. The central element of Uzbek cooking is bread, tandir non, which is eaten with everything and torn apart by hand. For the Kyrgyz, Besh barmak is an important meal made of many parts of a sheep served with rice and stew. Meals are concluded with a ritual "omin," a thanksgiving to God.