Kazakhstan

Largest Central-Asian republic, independent 1991; its steppe peoples were drawn to Islam along the Silk Road and by Sufi missionaries — above all the Yasawī order of Aḥmad Yasawī — giving a Sunni-Ḥanafī majority within a constitutionally secular state shaped by Soviet rule.

☾ The Coming of Islam

Islam along the Silk Road and the Sufi orders

Islam reached the Kazakh steppe along the Silk Road and, decisively, through Sufi missionaries — above all the Yasawī order founded by Aḥmad Yasawī of Turkestan (12th century) — with earlier footholds under the Sāmānids and Qarakhanids in the settled south. Conversion among the nomads was gradual, deepening under the Golden Horde and the Kazakh Khanate.

☾ Religious Composition

A Sunni-Ḥanafī majority in a secular state

Most Kazakhs are Sunni Muslims of the Ḥanafī school within a constitutionally secular republic; decades of Soviet atheism left much practice nominal, and there is a large Christian (mainly Russian Orthodox) minority.

Demographic shares are approximate; observance is often nominal.

▤ Scholars & Institutions

The shrine of Aḥmad Yasawī at Turkestan

The mausoleum of the Sufi master Aḥmad Yasawī at Turkestan — built under Tīmūr — is the country's greatest Islamic monument and a major pilgrimage site, emblem of the Yasawī tradition that carried Islam to the Turkic steppe.

At a glance