Under Solomon’s Throne Central Eurasia in Context Douglas Northrop, Editor Under Solomon’s Throne Uzbek Visions of Renewal in Osh MORGAN Y. LIU University of Pittsburgh Press Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15260 Copyright © 2012, University of Pittsburgh Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Liu, Morgan Y. Under Solomon’s throne : Uzbek visions of renewal in Osh / Morgan Y. Liu. p. cm. — (Central Eurasia in context) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8229-6177-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Uzbeks—Kyrgyzstan—Osh—Social conditions. 2. Uzbeks—Kyrgyzstan—Osh—Eco- nomic conditions. 3. Uzbeks—Kyrgyzstan—Osh—Government relations. 4. Post- communism—Kyrgyzstan—Osh. 5. Nativistic movements—Kyrgyzstan—Osh. 6. Osh (Kyrgyzstan)—Ethnic relations. 7. Osh (Kyrgyzstan)—Politics and government. I. Title. DK917.15.U93L58 2012 305.89’432505843—dc23 2011048871 Small portions of chapter 1 appeared in earlier form in “A Central Asian Tale of Two Cit- ies: Locating Lives and Aspirations in a Shifting Post-Soviet Cityscape,” in Everyday Life in Central Asia, Past and Present, edited by Jeff Sahadeo and Russell Zanca (Blooming- ton: Indiana University Press, 2007), 78–98. Small portions of chapter 6 appeared in earlier form in “Post-Soviet Paternalism and Personhood: Why Culture Matters to Democratization in Central Asia,” in Prospects of Democracy in Central Asia, edited by Birgit Schlyter (Stockholm: Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 2005), 225–38. Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Notes on Interviews, Translations, and Transliteration xi Introduction: A City for Thought 1 Chapter 1. Bazaar and Mediation 20 Chapter 2. Border and Post-Soviet Predicament 43 Chapter 3. Divided City and Relating to the State 74 Chapter 4. Neighborhood and Making Proper Persons 105 Chapter 5. House and Dwelling in the World 125 Chapter 6. Republic and Virtuous Leadership 148 Conclusion: Central Asian Visions of Societal Renewal 185 Notes 201 References 243 Index 269 Illustrations Figure 1. Women on a mahalla street 4 Figure 2. Solomon Mountain and mausoleum 21 Figure 3. The Stone Monument, commemorating the Osh riots of 4 June 1990 23 Figure 4. Bazaar tables 26 Figure 5. Goods piled at the bazaar 27 Figure 6. A Kyrgyz man (right) selling wool to an Uzbek man at the bazaar 29 Figure 7. Youth at Imom Buhori Friday Mosque 41 Figure 8. The bustle to board buses to Tashkent 46 Figure 9. Fergana Valley topographic map 50 Figure 10. Article in Mezon headlined, “Why is the Osh-Andijan border closed to mass transit?” 61 Figure 11. Lenin statue in front of Osh provincial government complex 71 Figure 12. Panorama of Osh’s “New City” 78 Figure 13. Apartment buildings and street in Oshskii micro-district 90 viii Illustrations Figure 14. Street scene in mahalla near Solomon Mountain 128 Figure 15. Uzbek house courtyards 137 Figure 16. Wearing an undershirt and being at ease in one’s own courtyard 138 Figure 17. Schematic diagram of an Uzbek house 139 Acknowledgments Many interlocutors made possible my work and life in Kyrgyzstan, and they were generous in sharing their thoughts, homes, and tea. Particularly key to enabling and enriching my fieldwork were my colleagues Ertabyldy Sulai- manov, Tamara Nuridinova, Shavkat Atakhanov, Alisher Ilkhamov, Thomas Hale III, Kent Mathieson, Alisher Khamidov, Duishon Shamatov, Bakyt Beshimov, Tashbolot Joraev, Anara Jamasheva, Turgunbek Niyazov, and Svet- lana Gugulovna Pashenko. Contributing most crucially to the intellectual development and exposi- tion of this book were Nick Megoran, Ed Schatz, Laura Adams, Adrienne Ed- gar, Joel Wainwright, John Schoeberlein, Madeleine Reeves, Jeff Maskovsky, Scott Levi, Dorry Noyes, Barry Shank, Marianne Kamp, Nazif Shahrani, Bruce Grant, Brian Silverstein, Engseng Ho, Eric McGlinchey, David Abramson, Uli Schamiloglu, David Gullette, Russell Zanca, Jeff Sahadeo, Dru Gladney, Cyn- thia Werner, and Jennifer Patico. Brinkley Messick opened the possibility of original intellectual spaces and exemplifies the kind of scholar I most admire. Jane Burbank showed me how to tease meaning out of sources and to imagine differently. Katherine Verdery inspired the reach for the highest standards of rigor and integrity. Erik Mueggler revealed a vision of the bold and brilliant. ix x Acknowledgements Stefan Senders creatively expanded my boundaries of ethnographic writing. Norma Diamond inculcated the love for Asia and anthropology. Val Daniel indexed what anthropology could become. Several institutions have supported my fieldwork and writing. My sin- cerest thanks go to the Social Science Research Council (especially Seteney Shami, Anthony Koliha, and Holly Danzeisen) and the International Research Exchange Board, as well as to the Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad program (especially to Joanna Kukielka-Blaser) and the American Collegiate Consortium. I am also grateful to the Ministry of Education of the Kyrgyz Republic; Kyrgyz State National University, Bishkek; Osh State University; Kyrgyz-Uzbek University, Osh; at the University of Michigan, the Center for Russian and East European Studies, the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, the Department of Anthropology, and the Institute for Hu- manities; as well as the Harvard University Society of Fellows (especially Nur Yalman, Diana Morse, and Amy Parker) and the Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences (especially Dick Davis, Sabra Webber, and Seb Knowles). To the University of Pittsburgh Press I express deep appreciation for the comments of peer reviewers and for the generous spirit of Peter Kracht and Doug Northrop during the editing process. I would also like to thank special friends, including Don and Elizabeth Stahl, Norm and Jacque Friberg, Linda Mathieson, Becky Hale, Willem and Karolien den Blanken, Tracy Moffet, Richbek and Lyn Pierce, and Ron and Londa Taylor. We will not forget how Londa gave her life, and then gave it up, in service to the people of Osh. My greatest human gratitude goes to my family, for many years of unceasing support, both in Kyrgyzstan and at home: my wife Swan Bee, son Declan, daughter Deirdre, and my parents, Molly and Rory Liu. Notes on Fieldwork, Interviews, Translations, and Transliteration Fieldwork was conducted in Kyrgyzstan on eleven trips lasting one month to one year in duration from 1993 through 2011. The names given for all in- terviewees, usually first name only, are pseudonyms. Real names are used for well-known public figures and in a few instances for scholarly colleagues. Di- rect quotations are either verbatim from recorded conversation, or close to verbatim, as reconstructed by notes and memory of unrecorded comments. All interviews and conversations with Uzbeks were held in the Uzbek lan- guage, unless otherwise noted; in Kyrgyz language with Kyrgyz speakers; in Russian with Russians and others resident in Central Asia; and in Mandarin with a few Chinese businessmen. All translations from Uzbek, Russian, and Kyrgyz are by the author. Rus- sian words are transliterated according to the Library of Congress system. Uzbek words are spelled according to Uzbekistan’s official 1996 Uzbek Latin alphabet. Kyrgyz word transliterations follow the 1979 romanization of Kyr- gyz promulgated by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (BGN/PCGN). Exceptions occur for proper names with widely accepted standard English spellings (e.g., Yeltsin, Moscow, Uzbek, Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Bukhara, An- xi xii Notes on Fieldwork dijan, Uzgen, and Akaev, rather than Ieltsin, Moskva, O’zbek, O’zbekiston, Toshkent, Buxoro, Andijon, Özgön, and Akayev). Out of personal preference I use the Kyrgyz and Russian form of Fergana rather than Ferghana, Far- gana, or Farg’ona. Place names in Kyrgyzstan are rendered with their official post-Soviet Kyrgyz designations (Osh, Jalalabat, Kara-Suu, rather than O’sh, Jalal-Abad, Qorasuv), with the exception of the Osh-Andijan border crossing, which I call Do’stlik (in Uzbek) rather than Dostuk (in Kyrgyz), and Uzbek- majority urban districts (To’qqiz Adir rather than Toguz Adyr). As for Russian loan words in Uzbek or, as is commonly done, outright Russian words inserted in an Uzbek sentence and inflected with Uzbek grammar (Uzbek, as an agglu- tinating language, adds its own affixes to the Russian word), I have chosen to transliterate according to the Uzbek rather than Russian system. Under Solomon’s Throne to to BishkekBishkek KAZAKHSTANKAZAKHSTAN KYRGYZSTANKYRGYZSTAN yn yn N N ar ar N N TashkentTashkent UZBEKISTANUZBEKISTAN NamanganNamangan JalalabatJalalabat r D ry Da ya Kara-SuKara-Su UzgenUzgen S y Sayr ar AndijanAndijan L E LYE Y OshOsh S S V A VL A L yr yr A A D D N N a a G AG A ry ry R R a a E E F F TAJIKISTANTAJIKISTAN KokandKokand FerganaFergana KhojentKhojent BatkenBatken KYRGYZSTANKYRGYZSTAN ElevationElevation 200–500200–500 meters meters 500–1000500–1000 1000–20001000–2000 CHINACHINA 2000–30002000–3000 0 01010 20 203030 40 4050 mi50 mi 3000–40003000–4000 0 0 20 20 4040 60 60 80 km80 km 4000–50004000–5000 TAJIKISTANTAJIKISTAN 5000–60005000–6000 Fergana Valley topographic map, showing roads from Osh to Jalalabat and Bishkek. Map by Bill Nelson. xiv to Bishkek KAZAKHSTAN KYRGYZSTAN yn N ar N Tashkent UZBEKISTAN Namangan Jalalabat r D ya Kara-Su Uzgen Sy ar Andijan L E Y Osh S V A L yr A D N a G A ry R a E F TAJIKISTAN Kokand Fergana Khojent Batken KYRGYZSTAN Elevation 200–500 meters 500–1000 1000–2000 CHINA 2000–3000 0 2010 30 40 50 mi 3000–4000 0 20 40 60 80 km 4000–5000 TAJIKISTAN 5000–6000 xv Introduction: A City for Thought The tale of one city can tell a story about a society, a region, and a historical moment. The story told here is about how an urban community responded to a political dilemma for two decades and how the community’s response offers broader insight on Central Asia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.