A muftiate[a] is an administrative territorial entity, mainly in the post-Soviet and Southeast European states, under the supervision of a mufti.
[3][4] The mufti's duties included overseeing the Muslim clergy, clerical appointments, the construction of mosques, marriages and divorces, inheritances, property disputes, endowments (waqf), cases of disobedience to parents by children, the correctness of the execution of Muslim worship, and birth registrations.
Today, each of the former Soviet Republics with significant Muslim populations have their own independent Spiritual Boards.
In the 19th century the Austrian Habsburgs and Russians expanded into southeastern Europe, carving territory out of the Ottoman Empire and helping establish newly independent countries.
Former republics of the Soviet Union that retained muftiates or "spiritual boards" after the breakup of the USSR: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
Countries in southern-eastern Europe who inherited large Muslim populations after gaining their independence from the Ottoman Empire between the 17th and 19th centuries include: Albania, Bosnia-and-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.