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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Kyrgyzstan
Index
Islam was introduced to the Kyrgyz tribes between the ninth and twelfth
centuries. The most intense exposure to Islam occurred in the seventeenth
century, when the Jungars drove the Kyrgyz of the Tian Shan region into
the Fergana Valley, whose population was totally Islamic. However, as the
danger from the Jungars subsided and Kyrgyz groups returned to their
previous region, the influence of Islam became weaker. When the Quqon
Khanate conquered the territory of the Kyrgyz in the eighteenth century,
the nomadic Kyrgyz remained aloof from the official Islamic practices of
that regime. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, most of the
Kyrgyz population had been converted to at least a superficial recognition
of Islamic practice.
Data as of March 1996
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