What is the religion here? Uzbekistan, its spiritual traditions and history

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Probably, not every inhabitant of our country can show off knowledge in the field of the history of Uzbekistan. Today we know this country mainly by the migrants who come to us and are ready to work in the lowest paid positions.

Meanwhile, this country with its ancient history and culture. Of course, there is also the main religion here, Uzbekistan is a Muslim country, although representatives of other faiths can also be found here.

Current State

Today, according to statistics, about 88% of the country's population is Muslim. These are the indigenous people of Uzbekistan, as well as representatives of the Turkic-speaking peoples. Uzbeks are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi persuasion (it should be noted that there are much more Sunnis in the Muslim world than Shiites, moreover, these two directions are fighting fiercely against each other).

Therefore, to the question of which religion dominates in Uzbekistan today, we can give a confident answer: it is Sunni Islam.

Other faiths

The rest of the confessions here are as follows: Orthodox Christians,represented by Russians who never left this country after the collapse of the USSR, Poles professing Catholicism (Polish families were exiled to Central Asia in the last century, so they stayed here). There are also Bukharan Jews who profess Judaism, like their distant ancestors. Adepts of modern Protestant movements are also represented: Baptists, Lutherans, Adventists and others.

Thus, everyone in this country has its own religion, Uzbekistan, according to the Constitution, reserves the right to freedom of religion for its citizens.

History of the Christian religion in Uzbekistan

Traditionally, different peoples lived on the territory of modern Uzbekistan. They professed their pagan cults. From the 5th century AD, Christianity, known as Sogdiana, came to this land. However, it was almost completely destroyed in the Middle Ages, when Islam began to assert itself.

Only in the 19th century, when the Russian Empire, trying to prevent the capture of these lands by the British and the closure of English expansion at its borders, conquered these lands, Orthodox churches began to open in Uzbekistan. They were intended for Russians and for those local people who want to accept Christianity. However, there were very few of them. And the Russian government, by its tradition, did not captivate its new subjects. As a result, there were very few conversions from Islam to Christianity.

Therefore, even today the Christian religion is so little represented here, Uzbekistan is a state whose peoples were firstpagans, and then, in obedience to the will of the khan, they adopted Mohammedanism.

Why was Islam adopted here?

We must not forget that the most powerful state of the Middle Ages - the Golden Horde partially occupied the territory of modern Uzbekistan.

Therefore, the Muslim religion was adopted here, Uzbekistan as a state would not have arisen if the great Horde khans had not thought about how they could spiritually strengthen their country.

A spiritual upheaval was made by a khan named Uzbek. It was he who abandoned the generic pagan religion, according to which there are many gods who need to be worshiped, becoming the first Muslim in his country.

By the way, there is a legend that our noble prince Alexander Nevsky, knowing that the enemies who attacked Russia were pagans, tried to persuade the Khan of the Horde to accept Christianity. However, the retinue of the Khan, having learned about the intentions of the Russian prince and not accepting Christianity for his too merciful attitude towards people, poisoned the great Russian commander and diplomat.

How to know, if Alexander Nevsky had succeeded in accomplishing his plan, was there now such a country on the world map called Uzbekistan, whose religion is now unchanged?

History of Uzbek

So, Khan Uzbek, who later took the Islamic title of Sultan Giyas ad-Din Mohammed, lived at the beginning of the 14th century. He was the most famous Khan of the Golden Horde, who significantly strengthened the power of the state.

The religion of Uzbekistan before Islam is a mixture of tribal beliefs andtraditional cults that hindered the development of the Golden Horde. Something urgently needed to be done. And Khan Uzbek realized that he had to make a serious choice in his life.

The fact is that Uzbek was not a direct recipient of the Horde throne. He seized power by killing the legitimate heirs to the throne.

Khan was helped by those who dreamed of the Islamization of this region. A fierce struggle began for the religious future of the country, in which it was not the supporters of the tribal religion that won, but the supporters of the Muslimization of the Horde. By the way, Islam has always won with fire and sword, since its very appearance in the 6th century AD (even Mohammed was a good commander, and there’s no need to talk about 4 great viziers). Uzbek adopted Islam in 1320.

Resistance to his decision among the Tatar-Mongol elite was huge. So, he had to execute about 120 of his direct relatives from the Genghisides family in order to establish a new faith.

The desire to make his subjects faithful was dictated by the pragmatic interests of the khan. He sought to strengthen his power by all means. Who knows if he thought that after many centuries the country of Uzbekistan, whose religion would be so close to him, would be named after him?

Islam Today

Today Central Asia is a zone of tension. This is due to the fact that bloody events are taking place next to it, heavily implicated in heretical teachings that claim to be true Islam. It's calledWahhabism doctrine. It is practiced by members of the sect better known as ISIS. Members of this sect strive to conquer all nations, retraining them in their own way. Central Asia is a tasty morsel for them. Therefore, the problem, consisting of three components: "Uzbekistan - religion - Islam" is currently more relevant than ever.