Title:
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Leadership and authority of Ismailis : a case study of Badakhshani community in Tajikistan
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This work explores the role of religious and political authority among the Ismailis of
Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan. Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) is a
mountainous region located in the eastern part of Tajikistan. It shares a long border
with Afghanistan, China and Kirgizstan, and, in places, is only twenty miles from
Pakistan. Badakhshan is inhabited by approximately 215000 people, most of whom
identify themselves as being Nizari Ismaili Shia Muslims; they speak their various
local Pamiri languages, whilst Tajik is the official language of education and state
bureaucracy.
This thesis documents the ways in which expressions of political and religious
authority have evolved through time, and accommodated to different political
contexts, which are summarised as representing four identifiable historical periods
between 1895-2008. These periods are: the Afghan invasion, which ended in 1895;
Russian imperial rule (1895-1917); Soviet power (1917-1991); and the aftermath of
the Soviet period (1991-2008). This thesis suggests that, as is the case with many
Muslim societies, political leadership and religious authority in Badakhshan were
fused, and this was the pattern of secular and religious life in this area until the
1920s. In contrast, under Soviet rule, traditional norms ofleadership and authority
in Badakhshan were supplanted by a secular nationalist yet indigenous leadership
that was closely tied to central Soviet power. These changes followed a series of
radical social and political upheavals.
This thesis identifies traditional forms of religious authority with the network of
religious functionaries at a range of levels. Equally, it discusses the functionaries of
Ismaili political leaders that have evolved through the aforementioned periods. It
does not juxtapose traditional authority with secular political power, but merely
records the interaction, various degrees of conflict and accommodation, and
competition between secular and religious worldviews. It intends to develop a
structural explanation for the survival of religious and political authorities of
Badakhshani Ismailis through the use of written sources and fieldwork data.
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