Before the founding of Uzbekistan, preceding colonies and the Russian conquest of Central Asia had significantly impacted Uzbek literature and continued to mark its presence until the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991.
Yūsuf Balasaguni, Mahmud al-Kashgari, and Ahmad Yugnaki were among the leading writers of that time who flourished Uzbek literature by adopting language reforms.
Yesevi's poetry collection Divan-i hikmet (Book of Wisdom) is composed of various dialects, such as Arabic and Persian, which features Turkic metre.
One of poets of that time was Khwārizmī who wrote Muhabbatnamah (Love Letters) that was preserved in the region and serves as a historical reference for modern literature.
Later, when Mughal emperors such as Timur and Babur conquered the region, Uzbek was influenced by Turkish literature as well as culture, and it lost its golden period.
A new generation of writers, including Razzaq Abdurashid, Abduqahhar Ibrahim, Jamal Kamal, Erkin Wahid, Rauf Parfi, Halima Khudayberdiy, Muhammad Ali, Sharaf Bashbek, and Mamadali Mahmud, emerged with voices less burdened by Soviet "Socialist Realism.