The Most Famous

POLITICIANS from Uzbekistan

This page contains a list of the greatest Uzbekistani Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 19,576 Politicians, 26 of which were born in Uzbekistan. This makes Uzbekistan the birth place of the 90th most number of Politicians behind Madagascar, and Moldova.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Uzbekistani Politicians of all time. This list of famous Uzbekistani Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Uzbekistani Politicians.

1. Babur (1483 - 1530)

With an HPI of 78.20, Babur is the most famous Uzbekistani Politician. His biography has been translated into 89 different languages on wikipedia.

Babur (Persian: [βɑː.βuɾ]; 14 February 1483 – 26 December 1530; born Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad) was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively. He was also given the posthumous name of Firdaws Makani ('Dwelling in Paradise'). Born in Andijan in the Fergana Valley (now in Uzbekistan), Babur was the eldest son of Umar Shaikh Mirza II (1456–1494, governor of Fergana from 1469 to 1494) and a great-great-great-grandson of Timur (1336–1405). Babur ascended the throne of Fergana in its capital Akhsikath in 1494 at the age of twelve and faced rebellion. He conquered Samarkand two years later, only to lose Fergana soon after. In his attempt to reconquer Fergana, he lost control of Samarkand. In 1501, his attempt to recapture both the regions failed when the Uzbek prince Muhammad Shaybani defeated him and founded the Khanate of Bukhara. In 1504, he conquered Kabul, which was under the putative rule of Abdur Razaq Mirza, the infant heir of Ulugh Beg II. Babur formed a partnership with the Safavid emperor Ismail I and reconquered parts of Turkestan, including Samarkand, only to again lose it and the other newly conquered lands to the Shaybanids. After losing Samarkand for the third time, Babur turned his attention to India and employed aid from the neighbouring Safavid and Ottoman empires. He defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the Sultan of Delhi, at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 and founded the Mughal Empire. Before the defeat of Lodi at Delhi, the Sultanate of Delhi had been a spent force, long in a state of decline. The rival adjacent Kingdom of Mewar under the rule of Rana Sanga had become the most powerful native power in North India. Sanga unified several Rajput clans for the first time after Prithviraj Chauhan and advanced on Babur with a grand coalition of 80,000-100,000 Rajputs, engaging Babur in the Battle of Khanwa. Babur arrived at Khanwa with 40,000-50,000 soldiers. Nonetheless, Sanga suffered a major defeat due to Babur's skillful troop positioning and use of gunpowder, specifically matchlocks and small cannons. The Battle of Khanwa was one of the most decisive battles in Indian history, more so than the First Battle of Panipat, as the defeat of Rana Sanga was a watershed event in the Mughal conquest of North India. Religiously, Babur started his life as a staunch Sunni Muslim, but he underwent significant evolution. Babur became more tolerant as he conquered new territories and grew older, allowing other religions to peacefully coexist in his empire and at his court. He also displayed a certain attraction to theology, poetry, geography, history, and biology—disciplines he promoted at his court—earning him a frequent association with representatives of the Timurid Renaissance. His religious and philosophical stances are characterized as humanistic. Babur married several times. Notable among his children are Humayun, Kamran Mirza, Hindal Mirza, Masuma Sultan Begum, and the author Gulbadan Begum. Babur died in 1530 in Agra and Humayun succeeded him. Babur was first buried in Agra but, as per his wishes, his remains were moved to Kabul and reburied. He ranks as a national hero in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Many of his poems have become popular folk songs. He wrote the Baburnama in Chaghatai Turkic; it was translated into Persian during the reign (1556–1605) of his grandson, the emperor Akbar.

2. Islam Karimov (1938 - 2016)

With an HPI of 71.08, Islam Karimov is the 2nd most famous Uzbekistani Politician. His biography has been translated into 89 different languages.

Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov (Uzbek: Islom Abdugʻaniyevich Karimov / Ислом Абдуғаниевич Каримов; Russian: Ислам Абдуганиевич Каримов; 30 January 1938 – 2 September 2016) was an Uzbek politician who served as the first president of Uzbekistan, from the country's independence in 1991 until his death in 2016. He was the last First Secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan from 1989 to 1991, when the party was reconstituted as the People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (O‘zXDP); he led the O‘zXDP until 1996. He was the President of the Uzbek SSR from 24 March 1990 until he declared the independence of Uzbekistan on 1 September 1991. He declared Uzbekistan as an independent nation on 31 August 1991. He subsequently won the presidential election on 29 December 1991, with 86% of the vote. Foreign observers and the opposition cited voting irregularities, alleging state-run propaganda and a falsified vote count. Karimov's first presidential term was extended to 2000 by way of a referendum, and he was re-elected in 2000, 2007 and 2015, each time receiving over 90% of the vote. He died from a stroke on 2 September 2016, after being president of the country for 25 years. He ruled a repressive authoritarian regime in Uzbekistan where political opponents were assassinated, human rights were repressed, and dissent was prohibited; however, capital punishment was repealed in 1998.

3. Shavkat Mirziyoyev (b. 1957)

With an HPI of 67.23, Shavkat Mirziyoyev is the 3rd most famous Uzbekistani Politician. His biography has been translated into 82 different languages.

Shavkat Miromonovich Mirziyoyev (born 24 July 1957) is an Uzbek politician who has served as President of Uzbekistan and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Uzbekistan since 14 December 2016. Previously, Mirziyoyev led the government as a Prime Minister of Uzbekistan from 2003 to 2016. Mirziyoyev joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. He was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR in 1990. From mid-1990s, he headed several regions of Jizzakh and Samarqand as a governor (hakim) before his appointment as the head of government by then-President Islam Karimov. Following the death of President Karimov, Mirziyoyev was appointed by the Oliy Majlis as acting president of Uzbekistan on 8 September 2016. He was subsequently elected to a full five-year term as president in the 2016 election from the Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party (OʻzLiDeP), winning 88.6% of the vote. Mirziyoyev was re-elected for second five-year term with 80.3% of the vote in the 2021 presidential election, and then again for a renewed first seven-year term with 87.7% of the vote in a snap 2023 presidential election as an independent candidate with the OʻzLiDeP backing, after a constitutional amendment had granted him to legally run for third time after resetting his presidential term of office. Under his presidency, Mirziyoyev implemented a range of liberal reforms in Uzbekistan’s political and economic system by attracting foreign investment, improving relations with neighboring Central Asian countries, as well as release of political prisoners that was notably accompanied by closure of the infamous Jaslyk Prison in 2019. In late 2021, he announced a series of constitutional reforms which included an abolition of capital punishment and the protection of human rights, which were ratified following the 2023 constitutional referendum with an overwhelming 90.6% of support. One of the proposed changes had initially included a removal of the semi-autonomous Karakalpakstan's right to secession, which led to deadly unrest in the region in July 2022 with the protests being brutally suppressed and resulting in the scrapping of the controversial proposal.

4. Shah Rukh (1377 - 1447)

With an HPI of 66.88, Shah Rukh is the 4th most famous Uzbekistani Politician. His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Shah Rukh or Shahrukh Mirza (Persian: شاهرخ, Šāhrokh; 20 August 1377 – 13 March 1447) was the ruler of the Timurid Empire between 1405 and 1447. He was the son of the Central Asian conqueror Timur (Tamerlane), who founded the Timurid dynasty in 1370. However, Shah Rukh ruled only over the eastern portion of the empire established by his father, comprising most of Persia and Transoxiana, the western territories having been lost to invaders in the aftermath of Timur's death. In spite of this, Shah Rukh's empire remained a cohesive dominion of considerable extent throughout his reign, as well as a dominant power in Asia. Shah Rukh controlled the main trade routes between Asia and Europe, including the legendary Silk Road, and became immensely wealthy as a result. He chose to have his capital not in Samarqand as his father had done, but in Herat. This was to become the political centre of the Timurid empire and residence of his principal successors, though both cities benefited from the wealth and privilege of Shah Rukh's court. Shah Rukh was a great patron of the arts and sciences, which flourished under his rule. He spent his reign focusing on the stability of his lands, as well as maintaining political and economic relations with neighbouring kingdoms. In the view of historians Thomas W. Lentz and Glenn D. Lowry, "unlike his father, Shahrukh ruled the Timurid empire, not as a Turco-Mongol warlord-conqueror, but as an Islamic sultan. In dynastic chronicles he is exalted as a man of great piety, diplomacy, and modesty—a model Islamic ruler who repaired much of the physical and psychological damage caused by his father."

5. Isma'il ibn Ahmad (849 - 907)

With an HPI of 65.11, Isma'il ibn Ahmad is the 5th most famous Uzbekistani Politician. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Abū Ibrāhīm Ismā'īl ibn-i Aḥmad-i Sāmāni (Persian: ابو ابراهیم اسماعیل بن احمد سامانی; May 849 – 24 November 907), better known simply as Ismail-i Samani (اسماعیل سامانی), and also known as Isma'il ibn-i Ahmad (اسماعیل بن احمد), was the Samanid amir of Transoxiana (892–907) and Khorasan (900–907). His reign saw the emergence of the Samanids as a powerful force. He was the son of Ahmad ibn-i Asad and a descendant of Saman Khuda, the eponymous ancestor of the Samanid dynasty who renounced Zoroastrianism and embraced Islam.

6. Alp-Tegin (963 - 963)

With an HPI of 64.47, Alp-Tegin is the 6th most famous Uzbekistani Politician. Her biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Alp-Tegin, (Persian: الپتگین Alptegīn or Alptigīn) or Alptekin, was a Turkic slave commander of the Samanid Empire, who would later become the semi-independent governor of Ghazna from 962 until his death in 963. Before becoming governor of Ghazni, Alp-Tegin was the commander-in-chief (sipahsalar) of the Samanid army in Khorasan. In a political fallout over succession of the Samanids he crossed the Hindu Kush mountains southward and captured Ghazna, located strategically between Kabul and Kandahar in present-day Afghanistan, and thereby establishing his own principality, which, however, was still under Samanid authority. He was succeeded by his son, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim.

7. Mohammed Alim Khan (1880 - 1944)

With an HPI of 61.55, Mohammed Alim Khan is the 7th most famous Uzbekistani Politician. His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Emir Sayyid Mir Muhammad Alim Khan (Chagatai and Persian: سید میر محمد عالم خان, 3 January 1880 – 28 April 1944) was the last emir of the Uzbek Manghit dynasty, rulers of the Emirate of Bukhara in Central Asia. Although Bukhara was a protectorate of the Russian Empire from 1873, the Emir presided over the internal affairs of his emirate as an absolute monarch and reigned from 3 January 1911 to 30 August 1920.

8. Habibullah Khan (1872 - 1919)

With an HPI of 60.92, Habibullah Khan is the 8th most famous Uzbekistani Politician. His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Habibullah Khan (Pashto/Dari: حبيب الله خان ; 3 June 1872 – 20 February 1919) was the Emir of Afghanistan from 1901 until his assassination in 1919. He was the eldest son of the Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, whom he succeeded by right of primogeniture in October 1901. His grandfather was Mohammad Afzal Khan.

9. Yaqub Beg (1820 - 1877)

With an HPI of 60.56, Yaqub Beg is the 9th most famous Uzbekistani Politician. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Muhammad Yakub Beg (c. 1820 – 30 May 1877), later known as Yakub Padishah, was the Kokandi ruler of Yettishar (Kashgaria), a state he established during his invasion of Xinjiang from 1865 to 1877. He was recognized as Emir of Yettishar by the Ottoman Empire and held the title of "Champion Father of the Faithful".

10. Abdal-Latif Mirza (1420 - 1450)

With an HPI of 60.45, Abdal-Latif Mirza is the 10th most famous Uzbekistani Politician. Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Abdal-Latif Mirza (c. 1420 – 9 May 1450) was the great-grandson of Central Asian emperor Timur. He was the third son of Ulugh Beg, Timurid ruler of Transoxiana (modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and parts of Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan) and Roqya Katun Arolat.

People

Pantheon has 32 people classified as Uzbekistani politicians born between 849 and 1982. Of these 32, 11 (34.38%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Uzbekistani politicians include Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Abdulla Aripov, and Boris Nadezhdin. The most famous deceased Uzbekistani politicians include Babur, Islam Karimov, and Shah Rukh. As of April 2024, 5 new Uzbekistani politicians have been added to Pantheon including Boris Nadezhdin, Rustem Umerov, and Akmal Ikramov.