Uzbekistan

Heir to the Transoxianan khanates; independent 1991.

☾ The Coming of Islam

Bukhara, Samarkand and the conquest of Transoxiana

Islam reached Transoxiana with the Arab conquest under Qutayba ibn Muslim in the early 8th century; Bukhara and Samarkand grew into world centres of Islamic learning under the Sāmānids and, later, the Timurids.

☾ Religious Composition

A Sunni-Ḥanafī majority with deep scholarly roots

Uzbeks are predominantly Sunni Muslim of the Ḥanafī school and Māturīdī theology, with the Naqshbandī Sufi order historically prominent; religious observance revived strongly after the Soviet period.

Demographic shares are approximate.

▤ Scholars & Institutions

The homeland of al-Bukhārī and al-Māturīdī

Bukhara gave its name to al-Bukhārī, compiler of the most revered Sunni hadith collection, and Samarkand was the home of al-Māturīdī, founder of one of Sunni Islam's two main theological schools — a heritage that made the region a fountainhead of Islamic scholarship.

At a glance