Islamic Culture and Pre-Islamic Beliefs in Central Asia

Auteur

Mihai Dragnea is president of the Balkan History Association and editor-in-chief of Hiperboreea.

Dorina Dragnea works in the Department of Intangible Heritage and Traditional Culture of the National Institute of Heritage, Bucharest, Romania.

Antonio Alonso Marcos is professor of political science at the Universidad San Pablo CEU, Madrid.

Texte du rabat

The introduction of Islam ushered in an era of social and cultural change to the region. Some pre-Islamic sacred places have been transformed into Islamic ones, and the cult of saints absorbed elements of both local and Arab mythology. This volume which is a project initiated by the Balkan History Association, focuses on Islamic culture, traditions, and pre-Islamic beliefs in Central Asia. The chapters emphasize the importance of religious life, the significance of certain "sacred places," and their role in the socio-spiritual life. The volume includes research spanning a period from antiquity to the Post-Soviet era to explore how landscapes of religious places and practices were interpreted and reinterpreted through time.

Contenu

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Religious Landscapes of Central Asia throughout History

Mihai Dragnea, Dorina Dragnea, Antonio Alonso Marcos, and Elissa Bullion

Soviet Religious Legislation

Chapter 1: Communist Atheism Overrides Islam: The Soviet Movement for Religious Control in Central Asia (1930s-1960s)

Rui Kai Xue

Chapter 2: Interpretation of the "Soviet Past" in Historical Policy Newly Independent States of Central Asia

Viachaslau Menkouski

Chapter 3: Impact of Communal Identity on the Notion of States in Soviet Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan

Shambhavi Thite

Political Islam and Islamic Social and Cultural Reformation

Chapter 4: Hizb ut Tahrir (HT) in Central Asia Since 2000: A Political Party, a Terrorist Group or a Social Movement?

Antonio Alonso Marcos

Chapter 5: Islam in Central Asia: Why Jadidism is 'Out' and Why Salafism is 'In'

Dareg Zabarah-Chulak

Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic Material Culture

Chapter 6: Ancient Religions and Beliefs: Pre-Islamic Cult Architecture of the Ancient States of Central Asia

Shoira Nurmukhamedova Zahidovna and Feruzjon Subkhonov Shukhratovich

Chapter 7: Heads or Altars: An Analysis of Religious Culture in Early Islamic Numismatics

Jonathan Ouellet

Sacred Spaces and Religious Mobility

Chapter 8: Islamic Shrines and pilgrimage in Samarkand (1992-2022)

Azim Malikov

Chapter 9: The Impact of the Seven Pir Shrines in the Bukhara Province on the Social-Spiritual Life of the Muslims in Uzbekistan

Fahri Türk and Dolunay Yusuf Baltürk

Language and Ethnic Identity

Chapter 10: The Semantic Analysis of Mythological Conceptual Units in Religious Discourse: A Case Study of the Karakalpak Language

Gulzira Kdirbaeva Kurbanbaevna

Chapter 11: Beliefs of the Semi-Nomadic Turkic-speaking Ethnic Group in Iran, the Qashqais

Venera Mustafayeva

About the Contributors