Islam in Uzbekistan

Islamic customs were broadly adopted by the ruling elite, and they began patronage of scholars and conquerors such as Muhammad al-Bukhari, Al-Tirmidhi, Ismail Samani, al-Biruni, Avicenna, Tamerlane, Ulugh Begh, and Babur.

Heavily authoritarian interpretations of the Qur’an, including Shariah Law, as seen in parts of the Middle East, are almost unheard of in Uzbekistan.

[citation needed] The Muslim Board of Uzbekistan holds the Mushaf Othmani, the earliest existing copy of the Quran.

The territory became a world leading center of science, medicine, philosophy and invention, ushering in the period of the Golden Age of Islam.

He also constructed one of his finest buildings at the tomb of Ahmed Yesevi, an influential Turkic Sufi saint who spread Sufism among the nomads.

Omar Aqta, Timur's court calligrapher, is said to have transcribed the Qur'an using letters so small that the entire text of the book fit on a signet ring.

In the long run, Islam enabled the khan to eliminate interfactional struggles in the Horde and to stabilize state institutions.

On August 15, 1905, the Jadidists of Gasprinsky managed to create Ittifaq al-Muslimin (اتفاق المسلمين: "Union of Muslims"), whose first congress was held in Nizhny Novgorod[13] on the steamer "Gustav Struve" and included 150 delegates[14] from Crimea, Transcaucasia, Urals, Turkestan and Siberia.

In 1908, the Jadids began in Orenburg to publish the magazine Shuro (شورا, "Council"), where Rizaitdin Fakhretdinov pursued the idea of succession Volga Bulgaria, Golden Horde and Kazan Khanate.

In 1917, on the wave of disintegration of the Russian Empire, Shura-i-Islam ("Council of Islam") was formed in Tashkent, and in Kokand was proclaimed the Turkestan Autonomy, a secular Republic.

[16] Abdurauf Fitrat, Sadriddin Aini, Mirzo Mukhiddin Mansurov, Majid Qadiri), and others joined the anti-Soviet Basmachi movement (Usman Khoja).

The government sponsored official anti-religious campaigns and severe crackdowns on any hint of an Islamic movement or network outside of the control of the state.

The regime, however, prevailed, and eventually struck down hard on the Islamic militant groups, leaders of which later fled to Afghanistan and Pakistan and were later killed in fights against coalition forces.

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 political ones.