Gur-e Amir in Samarkand was built by the order of Timur, a ferocious Central Asian warlord, who, proclaiming his royal descent from Genghis Khan, in the 14th century conquered much of the Middle East, Turkey, Central Asia, and India.

Islam in Uzbekistan is by far the dominant religious faith. In the early 1990s, many of the Russians remaining in the republic (about 8% of the population) were Orthodox Christians. An estimated 93,000 Jews also were present. Despite its predominance, Islam is far from monolithic, however. Many versions of the faith have been practiced in Uzbekistan. The conflict of Islamic tradition with various agendas of reform or secularization throughout the 20th century has left the outside world with a confused notion of Islamic practices in Central Asia. In Uzbekistan the end of Soviet power did not bring an upsurge of Islamic fundamentalism, as many had predicted, but rather a gradual reacquaintance with the precepts of the faith. mosque in samarkand (donation) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... mosque in samarkand (donation) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Timurs mausoleum Gur-e Amir at Samarkand Gur-e Amir is the mausoleum of the Asian conqueror Timur in Samarkand (now in Uzbekistan). ... Samarkand (Samarqand or Самарқанд in Uzbek, in Persian سمرقند) (population 400,000) is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan, capital of Samarqand Province. ... Reconstruction of Timur from exhumation of his tomb. ... Central Asia is a region of Asia. ... For the German pop band, see Dschinghis Khan Genghis Khan (1155/1162/1167–August 18, 1227) (Cyrillic: Чингис Хаан), (also spelled as Chingis Khan, Jenghis Khan, etc. ... (13th century - 14th century - 15th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 14th century was that century which lasted from 1301 to 1400. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible boundaries for the region Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ... 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Eastern Orthodoxy (also called Greek Orthodoxy and Russian Orthodoxy) is a Christian tradition which represents the majority of Eastern Christianity. ... Islam   listen? (Arabic: al-islām) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second largest religion. ... Reform can refer to: Reform (think tank) Reform, Alabama Reform Judaism Reform movement Reform Party (disambiguation page) See also: Reformation, Reformed This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Secularization, as understood by sociologists of religion, is a varied term with multiple definitions and levels of meaning. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible boundaries for the region Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ... The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Russian: (СССР)   listen?; tr. ... The phrase Islamic fundamentalism is primarily used in the West to describe Islamist groups. ...

Islam in the Soviet Era

Soviet authorities did not prohibit the practice of Islam as much as they sought to coopt and utilize religion to placate a population that often was unaware of the tenets of its faith. After its introduction in the 7th century, Islam in many ways formed the basis of life in Uzbekistan. The Soviet government encouraged continuation of the role played by Islam in secular society. During the Soviet era, Uzbekistan had sixty-five registered mosques and as many as 3,000 active mullahs and other Muslim clerics. For almost forty years, the Muslim Board of Central Asia, the official, Soviet-approved governing agency of the Muslim faith in the region, was based in Tashkent. The grand mufti who headed the board met with hundreds of foreign delegations each year in his official capacity, and the board published a journal on Islamic issues, Muslims of the Soviet East. // Events Islam starts in Arabia, the Quran is written, and Syria, Iraq, Persia, North Africa and Central Asia convert to Islam. ... Tulip Mosque in Ufa, Russia. ... Mullahs are Islamic clergy who have studied the Quran and the Hadith and are considered experts on related religious matters in this religion. ... Tashkent Tashkent (Toshkent or Тошкент in Uzbek, Ташке́нт in Russian; its name is Turkoman language for Stone City It is the current capital of Uzbekistan. ... A Mufti (Arabic: مفتى) is an Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law (Sharia), capable of issuing fataawa (fatwas). See also Grand Mufti Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mufti also refers to ordinary clothes, especially when worn by one who normally wears, or has long worn, a...

However, the Muslims working or participating in any of these organizations were carefully screened for political reliability. Furthermore, as the Uzbekistani government ostensibly was promoting Islam with the one hand, it was working hard to eradicate it with the other. The government sponsored official antireligious campaigns and severe crackdowns on any hint of an Islamic movement or network outside of the control of the state.

Moscow's efforts to eradicate and coopt Islam not only sharpened differences between Muslims and others. They also greatly distorted the understanding of Islam among Uzbekistan's population and created competing Islamic ideologies among the Central Asians themselves.

Political Islam

In light of the role that Islam has played throughout Uzbekistan's history, many observers expected that Islamism would gain a strong hold after independence brought the end of the Soviet Union's official atheism. The expectation was that an Islamic country long denied freedom of religious practice would undergo a very rapid increase in the expression of its dominant faith. President Islam Karimov has justified authoritarian controls over the populations of his and other Central Asian countries by the threat of upheavals and instability caused by growing Islamic political movements, and other Central Asian leaders also have cited this danger. Islamism is a neologism of Western etymological origins referring to a set of political ideologies derived from conservative religious views of Muslim fundamentalism 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. ... Atheism is the state either of being without theistic beliefs, or of actively believing in the non-existence of deities. ... Islam Karimov Islam Abduganievich Karimov (in modern Uzbek: Islom Karimov) (born January 30, 1938) has been the President of Uzbekistan since 1991. ... Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible boundaries for the region Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ...

In the early 1990s, however, Uzbekistan did not witness a surge of political Islam as much as a search to recapture a history and culture with which few Uzbeks were familiar. To be sure, Uzbekistan is witnessing a vast increase in religious teaching and interest in Islam. Since 1991, hundreds of mosques and religious schools have been built or restored and reopened. And some of the Islamic groups and parties that have emerged might give leaders pause. // Events and trends The 1990s are generally classified as having moved slightly away from the more conservative 1980s, but keeping the same mind-set. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Mainstream Islam

1990s

For the most part, however, in the first years of independence Uzbekistan is seeing a resurgence of a more secular Islam, and even that movement is in its very early stages. According to a public opinion survey conducted in 1994, interest in Islam is growing rapidly, but personal understanding of Islam by Uzbeks remains limited or distorted. For example, about half of ethnic Uzbek respondents professed belief in Islam when asked to identify their religious faith. Among that number, however, knowledge or practice of the main precepts of Islam was weak. Despite a reported spread of Islam among Uzbekistan's younger population, the survey suggested that Islamic belief is still weakest among the younger generations. Few respondents showed interest in a form of Islam that would participate actively in political issues. Thus, the first years of post-Soviet religious freedom seem to have fostered a form of Islam related to the Uzbek population more in traditional and cultural terms than in religious ones, weakening Karimov's claims that a growing widespread fundamentalism poses a threat to Uzbekistan's survival. 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Uzbeks (Ozbek, Pl. ...

2000s

Experts previously assumed that Islam itself was probably not the root cause of growing unrest as much as a vehicle for expressing other grievances that are more immediate causes of dissension and despair. This theory was quickly dismissed following the May 2005 Unrest in Uzbekistan. Both Akramiya and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan aim to overthrow the government of Uzbekistan turn Uzbekistan into a province of a Central Asian theocratic republic. Akramiya this is a mujahideen group in Uzbekistan. ... The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is a movement to overthrow the government of Uzbekistan and replace it with a theocracy. ...

See also

• Islam by country
• Demographics of Uzbekistan

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

References

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