EARLY SIGNS OF RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL SYNCRETISM IN THE ISLAMIZATION OF CENTRAL ASIA

• Azizbek Amiriddin ogli Ungalov

  Author

This article examines the early signs of religious and cultural syncretism in the Islamization of Central Asia. Islamization is treated not merely as formal conversion or the disappearance of earlier beliefs, but as a social and cultural transformation in which Islam interacted with Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Christian, Tengrian, local cultic, urban, rural, and steppe traditions. The analysis focuses on sacred spaces, ritual continuity, local elites, urban and rural communities, material culture, social memory, and cultural transformation. The available evidence suggests that early syncretic signs were not a mechanical mixture of Islam and older religions, but historically conditioned forms of adaptation, reinterpretation, negotiation, and gradual incorporation into Islamic society.

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