Karakalpakstan
Karakalpakstan is an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan in Central Asia. It occupies the whole northwestern end of Uzbekistan. The capital is Nukus (Karakalpak: No'kis (Нөкис)). The Republic of Karakalpakstan has an area of 160,000 square kilometres (62,000 sq mi). Its territory covers the classical land of Khwarezm, though in classical Persian literature the area was known as "Kāt" (کات).
Jat clans
History
From about 500 BC to 500 AD, the region of Karakalpakstan was a thriving agricultural area supported by extensive irrigation.[1] The Karakalpak people, who were formerly nomadic herders and fishers, were first recorded in the 16th century.[2] Karakapakstan was ceded to the Russian Empire by the Khanate of Khiva in 1873.[6] Under Soviet rule, it was originally an autonomous area within Kazakhstan before becoming part of Uzbekistan in 1936. The region was probably at its most prosperous in the 1960s and 1970s when irrigation from the Amu Darya was being expanded. Today, however, the drainage of the Aral Sea has rendered Karakalpakstan one of Uzbekistan's poorest regions. The region is suffering from extensive drought, partly due to weather patterns, but also largely because the Amu and Syr Darya rivers are exploited mostly in the eastern part of the country.