Blackwell Reference Online

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Tajikistan is a modern Central Asian state first created by the Bolshevik Soviet regime as part of its revolutionary experiment during the 1920s. However, the Tajiks first emerged as a distinct Persian-speaking ethno-linguistic group in the eighth century during the Arab conquest and Islamization of Central Asia. Between 1860 and 1900 Tajikistan underwent a divided existence, with the north under tsarist Russian rule and the south under the Emirate of Bukhara. In the early twentieth century a number of reformist trends developed in this traditional society, especially in Bukhara. Ahmed Donish (1826–97) was the first Tajik who sought to reform and regenerate the stagnating Bukhara through education. Arguing largely from the Quran and Hadith, Donish's writings also reflected western influences after three visits to Russia from 1857 and 1874 as the Bukhara Emir's delegate. He upheld secularization of madrasa (seminary) education offering history, natural sciences, and traditional Islamic law, theology, or logic. Supporting reform from above, Donish saw the Emir as the entitled servant of the people as long as he responded to popular aspirations. But the Bukhara Emir simply rejected his concept of reforms. By 1900 a novel educational approach began to be transformed into a sociocultural movement known as Jadid (a “new method” of teaching in schools) in different parts of Central ... log in or subscribe to read full text