Chala (Tajik: чала [tʃala]) is a Tajik term meaning "neither this nor that," referring to Bukharan Jews who were forcibly converted to Islam beginning in the late eighteenth century. In response, these chala Jews outwardly practiced Islam, but secretly retained their Jewish traditions. These crypto-Jews married among themselves and lived in their own neighborhoods that bordered on existing Jewish neighoborhoods. By the 19th century, chala communities emerged in Samarkand, Khiva, Kokand, Margilan, and Shahrisabz. Often, it took two to three generations for the Chala to begin intermarrying with local Muslims and shedding any remaining Jewish traditions.
The return of the chala to Judaism began with the Russian conquest of Central Asia in 1867. While the Khiva and Kokand khanates were incorporated into the Turkestan governorate, the Bukhara Khanate remained autonomous and continued to enforce the death penalty against those who abandoned Islam. As a result, many chala Jews illegally immigrated into the Russian-controlled areas. While Russian law required these newcomers to be deported back to Bukhara and face certain death, the deportation orders were continuously delayed, thus they remained permanent non-citizens of the Russian Turkestan region. Some chala Jews also joined merchant guilds in order to prove their economic use to the empire.
Following the installation of Soviet rule in 1920, the religious distinction among the population was no longer officially recognized, but ethnic distinctions on passports allowed many Chala Jews to continue being counted among the local Uzbeks and Tajiks, rather than Jews. Because Muslim law was retained in Bukhara longer than in surrounding cities, by the time communist rule arrived in Bukhara, many members of the local chala no longer identified with the Jews.
In 2000, author Mansur Surosh published a novel Chala ("The Outcasts"), which describes the experiences of the chala.[1]