TAJIKISTAN

officially Republic of Tajikistan, Tajikistan also spelled Tadzhikistan, Tajik Tojikiston, or Jumhurii Tojikiston country of Central Asia that gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Tajikistan is bounded by China to the east, Afghanistan to the south, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and Uzbekistan to the north and west. The autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan is located in the eastern half of the country. The capital is Dushanbe. Area 55,300 square miles (143,100 square km). Pop. (1995 est.) 5,832,000. officially Republic of Tajikistan, Tajikistan also spelled Tadzhikistan, Tajik, Tojikiston, or Jumhuri Tojikiston country lying in the heart of Central Asia. It is bordered by Kyrgyzstan on the north, China on the east, Afghanistan on the south, and Uzbekistan on the west and northwest. Tajikistan includes the Gorno-Badakhshan (Mountain Badakhshan) autonomous region, with its capital at Khorugh (Khorog). With an area of approximately 55,250 square miles (143,100 square kilometres), Tajikistan encompasses the smallest amount of land among the five Central Asian states, but in terms of elevation it surpasses them all, enclosing more and higher mountains than any other country in the region. Tajikistan was a constituent (union) republic of the Soviet Union from 1929 until its independence in 1991. The capital is Dushanbe. Several ethnic ties and outside influences complicate Tajikistan's national identity to a greater extent than in other Central Asian republics. The Tajik people share close kinship and their language with a much larger population of the same nationality living in northeastern Afghanistan, whose population also includes a large proportion speaking Dari, a dialect of Persian intelligible to Tajiks. Despite sectarian differences (most Tajiks are Sunnite Muslims, while Iranians are predominantly Shi'ites), Tajiks also have strong ties to the culture and people of Iran; the Tajik and Persian languages are closely related and mutually intelligible. The Tajiks' centuries-old economic symbiosis with oasis-dwelling Uzbeks also somewhat confuses the expression of a distinctive Tajik national identity. Since the early years of independence, Tajikistan has been wracked by conflict between the government and the Islamic opposition and its allies. Additional reading Geography Recent accounts from travelers to Central Asian countries include Philip Glazebrook, Journey to Khiva (1992); Georgie Anne Geyer, Waiting for Winter to End: An Extraordinary Journey Through Soviet Central Asia (1994); and Charles Undeland and Nicholas Platt, The Central Asian Republics: Fragments of Empire, Magnets of Wealth (1994). International Monetary Fund, Tajikistan (1992), studies the economy. History Ren Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia (1970; originally published in French, 1939), although dated, is still the most comprehensive and basically sound survey of the region in English. Denis Sinor, Inner Asia: HistoryCivilizationLanguages, 2nd rev. ed. (1971), serves as a broad overview. Additional works on the region's history include Gavin Hambly (ed.), Central Asia (1969; originally published in German, 1966); Geoffrey Wheeler, The Modern History of Soviet Central Asia (1964, reprinted 1975); and A.H. Dani et al. (eds.), History of Civilizations of Central Asia (1992 ). Various topics on Central Asia are treated in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed. (1954 ). The best short sketch on the region's history is found in Eshan Yarshater (ed.), Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 5, fascicles 23 (199091). On Tajikistan itself, studies include Teresa Rakowska-Harmstone, Russia and Nationalism in Central Asia: The Case of Tadzhikistan (1970); Muriel Atkin, The Subtlest Battle: Islam in Soviet Tajikistan (1989); and Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, The Bloody Path of Change: The Case of Post-Soviet Tajikistan, The Harriman Institute Forum, 6(11):110 (July 1993). Edward Allworth David Roger Smith Gavin R.G. Hambly Denis Sinor Administration and social conditions Government In 1994 voters approved a new constitution to replace the Soviet-era constitution that had been in effect since 1978 and amended after independence. The new constitution establishes legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Unique among Central Asian republics, Tajikistan's constitution provides for a strong legislature rather than a dominant executive, though the president is head of state. Members of the legislature, a unicameral National Assembly, are elected to five-year terms. The legislature has the authority to enact and annul laws, interpret the constitution, and confirm presidential appointees. The president is elected directly for a maximum of two five-year terms and appoints the cabinet and high court justices, subject to approval by the legislature. The highest courts include the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Economic Court (for commercial cases), and a Court of Gorno-Badakhshan, which has jurisdiction over the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region. Although the constitution lists numerous rights and freedoms of citizens, it provides a mechanism by which these rights and freedoms can be, and are, severely restricted by law. Education With Tajikistan's government immobilized by domestic political instability, the educational system has received insufficient direction and support. Early in the 20th century, Tajiks in those Central Asian communities where the Jadid reformist movement had installed its New Method schools received the rudiments of a modern, though still Muslim, education. The educational establishment was dominated until the 1920s, however, by the standard network of Muslim maktabs and madrasahs. Soviet efforts eventually brought secular education to the entire population, and levels of Tajik literacy are now relatively high. The country's higher educational establishments included numerous research institutes that functioned under the separate budget of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow until the breakup of the U.S.S.R. Since then, a drastic decrease in financial support from the government has curtailed much of these institutions' former activity. The chronic problem of placing indigenous graduates in employment commensurate with their training besets the Tajiks, for outsiders such as Slavs, Tatars, and Jews have long held most academic and bureaucratic positions in the republic. Cultural life The area now called Tajikistan has an ancient culture, and many popular traditions and customs have been retained, including the costumes worn by both men and women and such ancient festivals as the New Year celebration, known as Nauruz, which takes place on March 21, the period of the vernal equinox. A newer festival celebrates the gathering of the cotton crop. These colourful affairs incorporate horse races, horsemanship, and wrestling contests. Although religion was actively persecuted during the Soviet period, Muslims (mostly Sunnite) continued regular mosque worship and observed religious holidays where possible. In the late 1980s, religious persecution abated and religious practices revived. The principal language of the republic, Tajik (known to its speakers as Tojiki), with distinct northern and southern dialects, belongs to the southwest group of Iranian languages, in the Indo-European family; it is very closely related to Dari and is also used widely in neighbouring Afghanistan. The language of the Pamir Tajiks belongs to the eastern Iranian group. Tajik was formerly written in a modified Arabic and later in the Roman alphabet, but since 1940 it has used a modified Cyrillic script. Writers from this region have made notable contributions to literature since the 10th century AD, and a vigorous folk literature continues. A number of Tajik poets and novelists achieved fame during the 20th century. They include Abdalrauf Fitrat, whose dialogues Munazr (1909; The Dispute) and Qiyamt (1923; Last Judgment) have been reprinted many times in Tajik, Russian, and Uzbek, and Sadriddin Ayni, known for his novel Dokhunda (1930; The Mountain Villager) and for his autobiography, Yoddoshtho (194954; published in English as Bukhara); both Fitrat and Ayni were bilingual in Uzbek and Tajik. Abu al-Qasim Lahuti's poem Taj va bayraq (1935; Crown and Banner) and Mirzo Tursunzade's Hasani arobakash (1954; Hasan the Cart Driver) respond to the changes of the Soviet era; the latter's lyric cycle Sadoyi Osiyo (1956; The Voice of Asia) won major communist awards. A number of young female writers, notably the popular poet Gulrukhsor Safieva, have begun circulating their work in newspapers, magazines, and Tajik-language collections. Tajikistan's government recognized Tajik as the official language of the state in 1989, and the new constitution affirms this status while according Russian special privilege. The Tajik language has secure status in cultural lifewhich the widespread use of Russian, and at one time Uzbek, had limitedas well as in administration and education. The Tajik National Theatre, which was established in 1929, long presented opera, ballet, musical comedy, and puppetry. Regional theatres and troupes later appeared in towns such as Nau. Tajik studios have produced feature films and documentaries and have dubbed films from elsewhere. Radio and television services expanded during the later decades of Soviet rule, and Dushanbe has had a television centre since 1960. Broadcasting and the performing arts suffered deep cutbacks after 1985, however, when Soviet subsidies diminished and then ceased entirely. Aleksandr Ilyich Imshenetsky Edward Allworth