[UZBEG, n.p. One of the modern tribes of the Turkish race. "Uzbeg is a political not an ethnological denomination, originating from Uzbeg Khān of the Golden Horde (1312-1340). It was used to distinguish the followers of Shaibāni Khān (16th century) from his antagonists, and became finally the name of the ruling Turks in the khanates as opposed to the Sarts, Tajiks, and such Turks as entered those regions at a later date...." (Encycl. Brit. 9th ed. xxiii. 661). Others give the derivation from uz, 'self,' bek, 'a ruler,' in the sense of independent. (Schuyler, Turkistan, i. 106, Vambéry, Sketches of C. Asia, 301).
[c. 1330.—"But other two empires of the Tartars ... that which was formerly of Cathay, but now is Osbet, which is called Gatzaria...."—Friar Jordanus, 54.
[1616.—"He ... intendeth the conquest of the Vzbiques, a nation between Samarchand and here."—Sir T. Roe, i. 113, Hak. Soc.
[c. 1660.—"There are probably no people more narrow-minded, sordid or uncleanly, than the Usbec Tartars."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 120.
[1727.—"The Uspecks entred the Provinces Muschet and Yesd...."—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, i. 108.
[1900.—"Uz-beg cavalry ('them House-bugs,' as the British soldiers at Rawal Pindi called them)."—Sir R. Warburton, Eighteen Years in the Khyber, 135.]
V
[VACCA, VAKEA-NEVIS, s. Ar. wāḳia'h, 'an event, news': wāḳi'ah-navīs, 'a news-writer.' These among the Moghuls were a sort of registrars or remembrancers. Later they became spies who were sent into the provinces to supply information to the central Government.
[c. 1590.—"Regulations regarding the Waqi'ahnawís. Keeping records is an excellent thing for a government.... His Majesty has appointed fourteen zealous, experienced, and impartial clerks...."—Āīn, i. 258.
[c. 1662.—"It is true that the Great Mogul sends a Vakea-nevis to the various provinces; that is persons whose business it is to communicate every event that takes place."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 231.