Juma mosque in Baku, built in 1606, was ordered to close in 2004 because worshipers supposedly posed a threat to the architectural integrity of the mosque. The mosque operated outside the control of state and its imam was a vocal critic of President Ilham Aliyev.

Approximately 96 percent of the population of Azerbaijan is nominally Muslim. The rest of the population adheres to other faiths or consists of nonbelievers. Among the Muslim majority, religious observance is relatively low and Muslim identity tends to be based more on culture and ethnicity rather than religion; however, imams reported increased attendance at mosques during 2003. The Muslim population is approximately 70 percent Shi'a and 30 percent Sunni; differences traditionally have not been defined sharply. Juma mosque in Baku, built in 1606, was ordered to close in 2004 because worshipers supposedly posed a threat to the architectural integrity of the mosque. ... Juma mosque in Baku, built in 1606, was ordered to close in 2004 because worshipers supposedly posed a threat to the architectural integrity of the mosque. ... Jump to: navigation, search Mosque; Aswan, Egypt. ... Jump to: navigation, search Satellite view of Baku The Baku harbour on the south of Absheron peninsula The Maiden Tower in old town Baku Bakı (Azeri: Bakı, Russian: Баку), also known as Baku, is the capital of Azerbaijan. ... Events January 27 - The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins ending in their execution on January 31 May 17 - Supporters of Vasili Shusky invade the Kremlin and kill Premier Dmitri December 26 - Shakespeares King Lear performed in court Storm buries a village of St Ismails near... Jump to: navigation, search 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev (Azerbaijani in full: Ä°lham HeydÉ™r oÄŸlu Əliyev) (born December 24, 1961) has been president of Azerbaijan for the New Azerbaijan Party since 2003. ... Jump to: navigation, search A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) is an adherent of Islam. ... Jump to: navigation, search Imam (Arabic: إمام) is an Arabic word meaning Leader. The ruler of a country might be called the Imam, for example. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2003 (MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Shia Islam ( Arabic شيعى follower; English has traditionally used Shiite or Shiite) is the second largest Islamic denomination; some 20-25% of all Muslims are said to follow a Shia tradition. ... Sunni Islam (Arabic سنّة) is the largest denomination of Islam. ...

There are fairly sizeable expatriate Christian and Muslim communities in the capital city of Baku; authorities generally permit these groups to worship freely. Jump to: navigation, search Satellite view of Baku The Baku harbour on the south of Absheron peninsula The Maiden Tower in old town Baku Bakı (Azeri: Bakı, Russian: Баку), also known as Baku, is the capital of Azerbaijan. ...

History

Islam arrived in Azerbaijan with Arabs in the seventh century, gradually supplanting Zoroastrianism and Azerbaijani pagan cults. In the seventh and eighth centuries, many Zoroastrians fled Muslim persecution and moved to India, where they became known as Parsis. Until Soviet Bolsheviks ended the practice, Zoroastrian pilgrims from India and Iran traveled to Azerbaijan to worship at sacred sites, including the Surakhany Temple on the Apsheron Peninsula near Baku. Jump to: navigation, search Islam ▶(?) (Arabic: الإسلام al-islām) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions and the worlds second-largest religion. ... ( 6th century - 7th century - 8th century - other centuries) Events Islam starts in Arabia, the Quran is written, and Arabs subjugate Syria, Iraq, Persia, Egypt, North Africa and Central Asia to Islam. ... Jump to: navigation, search Faravahar (or Ferohar), the depiction of the human soul before birth and after death. ... Jump to: navigation, search Look up pagan on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Jump to: navigation, search A Parsi is: A person from Pars (the middle-Persian word for Fars), a region now within the geographical boundaries of Iran, and is roughly the original homeland of the Persian people. ... Soviet redirects here. ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... Apsheron (Abseron Yasaqligi) is a peninsula and a Rayon in eastern Caucasus in the historical region of Arran. ... Jump to: navigation, search Satellite view of Baku The Baku harbour on the south of Absheron peninsula The Maiden Tower in old town Baku Bakı (Azeri: Bakı, Russian: Баку), also known as Baku, is the capital of Azerbaijan. ...

In the sixteenth century, the first shah of the Safavid Dynasty, Ismail I (r. 1486-1524), established Shi'a Islam as the state religion, although large numbers of Azerbaijanis remained Sunni. The Safavid court was subject to both Turkic (Sunni) and Iranian (Shi'a) influences, however, which reinforced the dual nature of Azerbaijani religion and culture in that period. As elsewhere in the Muslim world, the two branches of Islam came into conflict in Azerbaijan. Enforcement of Shi'a Islam as the state religion brought contention between the Safavid rulers of Azerbaijan and the ruling Sunnis of the neighboring Ottoman Empire. (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... The Safavids were a long-lasting Turkic-speaking Iranian dynasty that ruled from 1501 to 1736 and first established Shiite Islam as Persias official religion. ... Jump to: navigation, search Shah Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid State. ... // Events Tízoc, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan dies of poisoning. ... Events March 1, 1524/5 - Giovanni da Verrazano lands near Cape Fear (approx. ... Shia Islam ( Arabic شيعى follower; English has traditionally used Shiite or Shiite) is the second largest Islamic denomination; some 20-25% of all Muslims are said to follow a Shia tradition. ... Sunni Islam (Arabic سنّة) is the largest denomination of Islam. ... Jump to: navigation, search Imperial motto (Ottoman Turkish) Devlet-i Ebed-müddet (the Eternal State) The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital Bursa (1335 - 1365), Edirne (1365-1453), Ä°stanbul (Constantinople) (1453-1922) Imperial anthem Ottoman imperial anthem Sovereigns Padishah of the Osmanli...

In the nineteenth century, many Sunni Muslims emigrated from Russian-controlled Azerbaijan because of Russia's series of wars with their coreligionists in the Ottoman Empire. Thus, by the late nineteenth century, the Shi'a population was in the majority in Russian Azerbaijan. Antagonism between the Sunnis and the Shi'a diminished in the late nineteenth century as Azerbaijani nationalism began to emphasize a common Turkic heritage and opposition to Iranian religious influences. Jump to: navigation, search Imperial motto (Ottoman Turkish) Devlet-i Ebed-müddet (the Eternal State) The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital Bursa (1335 - 1365), Edirne (1365-1453), Ä°stanbul (Constantinople) (1453-1922) Imperial anthem Ottoman imperial anthem Sovereigns Padishah of the Osmanli... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

There is also a small Jewish community in Azerbaijan. There are three sinagogues in Baku and a few in the provinces. Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade (head of Azeri Shi'a) has donated USD 40,000 for construction of Jewish House in Baku in 2000. Jewish leadership: Since 70 AD and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem there has been no single body that has a leadership position over the entire Jewish community. ...

Soviet era

In 1806, Azerbaijan was conquered by the Russians. In 1918, Azerbaijan declared independence from Russia, but was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920. 1806 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1920 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events WIKIPEDIA EATS VAGINA January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ...

Before Soviet power was established, about 2,000 mosques were active in Azerbaijan. Most mosques were closed in the 1930s, then some were allowed to reopen during World War II. The Soviet rule promoted an Azerbaijani national consciousness as a substitute for identification with the world Islamic community. Jump to: navigation, search Mosque; Aswan, Egypt. ... Jump to: navigation, search // Events and trends The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the global depression. ... Jump to: navigation, search World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb. ...

In the 1980s only two large and five smaller mosques held services in Baku, and only eleven others were operating in the rest of the country. Supplementing the officially sanctioned mosques were thousands of private houses of prayer and many secret Islamic sects. Jump to: navigation, search // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ...

Azerbaijanis believed they suffered greater repression than their South Caucasian neighbors, Armenia and Georgia, because of their identification with the world of Islam.

Islamic Revival

Gradually, during the Soviet imperial twilight, signs of religious reawakening not only multiplied but surfaced into the open. According to Soviet sources, during the late 1970s around 1,000 clandestine houses of prayer were in use, and some 300 places of pilgrimage were identifiable. This growth proved the prelude to the public openings of hundreds of mosques in the following decade. Jump to: navigation, search The 1970s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1970 and 1979. ...

During World War II, Soviet authorities established the Muslim Spiritual Board of Transcaucasia in Baku as the governing body of Islam in the Caucasus, in effect reviving the nineteenth century tsarist Muslim Ecclesiastical Board. During the tenures of Leonid I. Brezhnev and Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Moscow encouraged Muslim religious leaders in Azerbaijan to visit and host foreign Muslim leaders, with the goal of advertising the freedom of religion and superior living conditions reportedly enjoyed by Muslims under Soviet communism. Jump to: navigation, search The Caucasus , a region bordering Asia Minor, is located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea which includes the Caucasus Mountains and surrounding lowlands. ... Росси́йская Импе́рия, (also Imperial Russia) covers the period of Russian history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great into the Russian Empire stretching from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposition of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start of the Russian Revolution... Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (Russian: Леонид Ильич Брежнев) (December 19, 1906 - November 10, 1982) was effective ruler of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, though at first in partnership with others. ... Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: ; Pronunciation: mih-kha-ILL ser-GHE-ye-vich gor-bah-CHOFF) (born March 2, 1931), was leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. ... Jump to: navigation, search Moscow (Russian: Москва́, Moskva, IPA: listen â–¶(?)) is the capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva. ...

Beginning in the late Gorbachev period, and especially after independence, the number of mosques rose dramatically. Many were built with the support of other Islamic countries, such as Iran, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, which also contributed Qur'ans and religious instructors to the new Muslim states. A Muslim seminary has also been established since 1991. As in the other former Soviet Muslim republics, religious observances in Azerbaijan do not follow all the traditional precepts of Islam. For example, drinking wine is permitted, and women are not veiled or segregated. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: ; Pronunciation: mih-kha-ILL ser-GHE-ye-vich gor-bah-CHOFF) (born March 2, 1931), was leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Quran (Arabic: al-qurān literally the recitation; also called Al Qurān Al Karīm or The Noble Quran; or transliterated Quran, Koran, and less commonly Alcoran) is the holy book of Islam. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1991 (MCMXCI) is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search A glass of red wine Wine is an alcoholic beverage that is made by fermenting grapes or grape juice. ...

After independence, the laws regarding religion are quite clear. In Article 6 of the constitution, Azerbaijan is declared a secular state. This point is driven home in Article 19 with the statement of the separation of religion and state and the equality of all religions before the law as well as the secular character of the state educational system.

Secular politicians in Azerbaijan have raised concerns about the rise of political Islam, but others argue that Islam in Azerbaijan is a multifaceted phenomenon. Islam plays only a very limited role in the political sphere and only a small part of the population supports the idea of establishing an Islamic order. This is due to the long tradition of secularism in Azerbaijan and to the fact that the nationalistic movement is secular in character, even when fighting against its rival - Islamism. Yet, according to some analysts, on the longer run, if the politicians do not manage to improve the conditions of life of the vast majority of the people, the population may express its discontent through political Islam. Jump to: navigation, search Islamism refers to a set of political ideologies derived from various conservative religious views of Muslim fundamentalists, which hold that Islam is not only a religion, but also a political system that governs the legal, economic and social imperatives of the state. ...

See also

• Islam by country

Distribution of Islam Important note: There is currently no exact mechanism in place anywhere around the world for counting religious denomination membership with precision. ...

References

• This article incorporates public domain text from the Library of Congress Country Studies.