Tajikistan
POPULATION 6,719,567
ISLAM 95 percent
OTHER 5 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
Located in the mountainous region of Central Asia, the Republic of Tajikistan shares borders with China, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Linguistically and anthropologically, Tajiks, like Iranians and Afghans, are a Persian-speaking, Indo-European indigenous people, distinct from their predominantly Turkic neighbors.
Although Islam bears a long history in this region, it was not the first religion to be adopted by the local population. From the last centuries before the Christian Era through the first few centuries C.E., the leading religion of the area was Zoroastrianism. Founded by the prophet Zoroaster, Zoroastrianism is recognized as one of the earliest religions to espouse a monotheistic philosophy. At the same time, Hellenistic beliefs, Nestorian Christianity, Buddhism, and other faiths proved influential among the area's inhabitants. In the seventh century C.E., however, the region's invasion by Islamic forces resulted in the total elimination of any other faiths but Islam.
The Russian colonial period, which began in the 1860s, lasted until the Soviets completely incorporated Tajikistan into the U.S.S.R. in the 1920s. With the collapse of Communism, Tajikistan declared independence in 1991, but it was immediately beset by civil war that lasted until 1997, when a national reconciliation was initiated.
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