Shi'a Islam in Tajikistan - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Shi'a Islam is practiced by only a small percentage of the population of Tajikistan; a 2009 U.S. State Department report puts the proportion at 3% of the country, compared to 95% for Sunni Islam.

The base of the Shi'a population in Tajikistan is the Pamiri people

Pamiri people

Pamiri is the name of an Iranian ethnic group in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in Tajikistan.-Ethnic Identity:The Pamiris are composed of people who speak the Pamiri languages, the indigenous language in the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous province, and adhere to the Ismaili sect of Shia...

, who practice Nizari

Nizari

'The Shī‘a Imami Ismā‘īlī Tariqah also referred to as the Ismā‘īlī or Nizārī , is a path of Shī‘a Islām, emphasizing social justice, pluralism, and human reason within the framework of the mystical tradition of Islam. The Nizari are the second largest branch of Shia Islam and form the majority...

Ismaili

' is a branch of Shia Islam. It is the second largest branch of Shia Islam, after the Twelvers...

Shiism, a variant of Shi'a theology which holds that there is an unbroken chain of living imams down to the present day, currently represented by the Aga Khan

Aga Khan

Aga Khan is the hereditary title of the Imam of the largest branch of the Ismā'īlī followers of the Shī‘a faith. They affirm the Imamat of the descendants of Ismail ibn Jafar, eldest son of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, while the larger Twelver branch of Shi`ism follows Ismail's younger brother Musa...

, the 49th imam. The Pamiri Ismaili homeland is in Gorno-Badakhshan in Tajikistan's mountainous east, with their spiritual and cultural capital in the city of Khorog

Khorog

The town of Khorugh , also transliterated as Khoroq, Khorogh, Khorog, or Xoroq) is the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in Tajikistan. It is also the capital of the Shughnon District of Gorno-Badakhshan. It has a population of 28,000...

Further reading