PRE-ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL LANDSCAPES OF CENTRAL ASIA AS A BASIS FOR LATER SYNCRETISM

##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##

Azizbek Amiriddin ogli Ungalov

초록

This article analyses how the pre-Islamic religious and cultural landscapes of Central Asia became the historical basis for later syncretism. Its aim is to present syncretism not as an accidental mixture arising on empty ground after Islamization, but as the continuation of a complex environment shaped over centuries by Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Manichaeism, Christianity and local cults, by sacred spaces, burial customs, visual culture and social memory. Written and archaeological sources, ossuaries, fire temples, wall paintings and numismatic data are examined through source-critical, comparative and landscape approaches. The findings indicate that later syncretism was a long transformation of sacred geography, ritual habit and cultural memory rather than a sudden fusion.

##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##

세션

Articles

##submission.citations##

1. Soucek S. A History of Inner Asia. – Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. – 369 p.

2. Iminova Sh. Pre-Islamic Central Asia // Texas Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies. – 2024. – Vol. 36. – P. 30–33.

3. Wu X. The Sacred Landscape of Central Asia in the Achaemenid Period // Studia Hercynia. – 2023. – Vol. XXVII, No. 1. – P. 1–40.

4. Foltz R. Religions of the Silk Road: Premodern Patterns of Globalization. – 2nd ed. – New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. – 190 p.

5. Abdukadyr kyzy B. [et al.] Religious Development of Ancient Cities of Central Asia in the 9th–13th Centuries // Pharos Journal of Theology. – 2025. – Vol. 106 (3). – P. 1–12.

6. Yusuf J. B. [et al.] Islamic Religious Identity in Contemporary Kyrgyzstan // International Journal of Islamic Khazanah. – 2023. – Vol. 13, No. 2. – P. 120–135.

7. Sultanova R. From Shamanism to Sufism: Women, Islam and Culture in Central Asia. – London: I.B. Tauris, 2011. – 248 p.

8. Ungalov A. Syncretization of Islamic Civilization and Local Religious Beliefs: The Case of Central Asia (8th–10th Centuries) // International Conference on Advance Science and Technology. – 2025. – Vol. 2 (4). – P. 75–88.

9. Ungalov A. A. Syncretism between Sufism and Folk Oral Tradition: Formation of Religious-Spiritual Values in Transoxiana // International Journal of Recently Scientific Researcher’s Theory. – 2023. – Vol. 3, Issue 6. – P. 36–48.

10. Kurmanbek A. [et al.] The Roots of the Cultural Deviation of Sufism in the Ancient Turkic Nomadic Culture // Frontiers in Communication. – 2025. – Vol. 10. – P. 1–12.

11. Weller R. C. ‘Pre-Islamic Survivals’ in Muslim Central Asia: Tsarist, Soviet and Post-Soviet Ethnography in World Historical Perspective. – Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. – 385 p.

12. Jurayev S. [et al.] Elements of Christianity Found in Muslim Traditions on the Example of Central Asia // Multidisciplinary Journal of Science and Technology. – 2026. – Vol. 6 (3). – P. 420–430.

13. DeWeese D. A. Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde: Baba Tükles and Conversion to Islam in Historical and Epic Tradition. – University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994. – 638 p.