history of Tajikistan

The history of Tajikistan is rooted in the Iranian peoples who have inhabited Central Asia since the mid-1st millennium BCE. These ancestors were part of empires like Persia and Alexander the Great's, and later intermingled with invaders such as the Kushans and Hepthalites. The Arab conquest in the 7th century CE introduced Islam, and by the 9th century, Tajiks were under the rule of the Samanids, an Iranian dynasty. Turkic invaders seized control in 999 CE, leading to the Turkicization of the region, and the name "Tajik" eventually referred to those who continued to speak Iranian languages.1

Russian conquests in the 1860s and 1870s brought parts of Tajikistan under Russian control. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Tajiks were included in the Turkestan A.S.S.R.. In 1929, Tajikistan became a Soviet Socialist Republic, marking the first time the Tajik people had their own state, albeit within the Soviet Union. Despite economic development and modernization, Tajikistan remained the poorest republic in the Soviet Union.2

Upon the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan declared independence on September 9, 1991. This was followed by a civil war between communists and an alliance of Islamic and democratic forces, which lasted until a peace agreement in 1997. Since then, the country has been under the leadership of President Emomali Rahmon, with constitutional changes in 2016 further consolidating power within his family.345