Islam penetrated into Middle Asia in the VIII-IX-th centuries. Owing to the favorable social grounds reflected by settled ethnoses Islam had consolidated its hold to such an extent that it became a supreme religion and the big cities of Bukhara, Samarkand, Khiva transformed into spiritual centers of all the Islamic civilization. In the Muslim world the following locution came into a proverb in society: "That one who didn't do a hajj to Mecca should visit twice Bukhoroi Sharif ("the noble Bukhara") and that'll be enough". If Samarkand was considered to be the finest city of the world Bukhara was a buttress of Muslim religion.
The Ferghana Valley is one of the ancientest hotbets of the agrarian culture in Middle Asia. In VI-VII c.c. on the eve of Arabs' advent Ferghana was governed both by local Sughdian rulers and Turks who had invaded this area in the first half of the VII-th century. Kuteiba ibn Muslim, a governor-general of Khorasan, captured the town of Kosan in 713. Islam gained finally a firm footing in Ferghana in the period of the governance of Samanid Nuh ibn Asad and Baghdad Khalif Al Muntasir (816-862). However, as the data left by scholar Al-Ferghana testify, yet in the X-th century there functioned the Sun Temple.
In the Middle Ages epoch and in that one of the new time Ferghana was an abode of renowned Moslem theologists, Seiyd Ahmad ibn Mavlano Jaloliddin ibn Ahmadi Kasani (1461-1542); well-known scholar and soofi inclusive, for his profound knowledge he got the nickname of "Makhdumi Azam". In the XV-XVI-th centuries Makhdumi Azam enjoyed great authoritativeness in the field of soofism. The Muslims of Maverannahr, Khorasan and India considered him to be their pir - "Piri khud". Makhdumi Azam also laid the foundations of the House of Juibar sheikhs in Bukhara (XVI c.) whose progenitor was Khoja Islam. Makhdumi Azam was the author of over 30 treatises on theology, ethnics, philosophy and history.
Islam in Ferghana as the most important propellants of society strongly consolidated its hold at the end of the XVIII-th - at the beginning of the XIX-th c.c. in the period of Kokand khans governance, especially of that one named Madalikhan who looked upon clergy as a buttress of his power. Ishans, seiyds, hojis and other layers of clergy enjoyed a great authority in Ferghana actively intruding into politics. In particular, in the period of active confrontation between Bukhara emirat and Kokand khandom which evinced mostly strikingly under the governance of Bukhara emir Nasrullo (1827-1860) Kokand clergy upheld entirely their khans in their struggle against Bukhara diktat. For example, Margelan ishan Azim Khoja supported to the utmost Sheralikhan in his struggle against Nasrullo.
Ishan Azim Khoja sent a letter to all Ferghana ishans with a call for help against Bukhara emir. In Margelan he assembled over 2000 shooters-levies and under white banners they moved towards Kokand for supporting Sheralikhan. The clergy of the Ferghana Valley having gathered in 1842 in Kokand adopted fetva at their congress (anjuman) and announced a murder of a Mangit warrior to be a God-pleasing matter. Or in 1843 when Khujand found itself being captured by Kokand citizens who governed there on behalf of Bukhara emir one of the representatives of Juibar sheikhs of Bukhara Khoja Kaloni Juibori voluntarily surrendered Khujand to Kokand khan Sherali having changed sides; now he served in the latter's palace.
In the opinion of Professor Abdullo Mirboboyev, Dr. of History, and other scientists, the bulk of the Ferghana Valley clergy both in the past and in the present consisted and consists of ethnical Tajiks, originating chiefly from the Karategin Valley who set up their staff there in the period of going for seasonal jobs (mardikors). A part of the Tajik clergy having passed to Uzbek colloquial language nonetheless preserved Tajik modus vivendi in mentality, culture, domesticity. Rank and file Muslims of the Ferghana Valley being not competent in the subtleties of the Arabic language always performed namaz in Farsi, i.e. in the Tajik language.
In the 80-90-ies of the XIX-th century owing to the development of cotton-growing in Ferghana region there accrued significantly the revenues of vakufs - religious institutions of the Ferghana Valley - from cotton sale. In the outcome there enhanced an influx of poorly provided pupils from other cities of Middle Asia to the medreses located in the urban populated units of the Ferghana Valley. According to certain incomplete data over 30 medreses, 30 workshops and over 100 old schools functioned in the 70-ies of the XIX-th century only in Kokand. In that period over 300 medreses functioned on the territory of Kokand khandom; the number of pupils amounting up to 10-12 thousand. All the cultural life of Kokand was focused around medreses. In a word, the clergy and medrese pupils of Kokand and of the Ferghana Valley upon the whole were a powerful propellant having an active sway over political authorities. It is worth mentioning that a leading force of Andijan revolt of 1898 known as the revolt of Eshoni Dukchi was the clergy; at any rate it was considered to be such.
In the first years of the Soviet power the clergy was repressed being not guilty of anything, they were looked upon as a noxious urban social force. Those representatives who had survived went underground. The senior generation of the clergy was heterogeneous by their social position. There were no few educated well-red people in that milieu. As academician A. Semyonov wrote, many pupils of medreses really loved science, books, were interested in poetry. In the 30-ies of the XX-th century this unbreaking connection of Oriental form of education and upbringing was discontinued being entailed by unjustifiable repressions.
In the opinion of many historians the Soviet period in the history of Central Asian republics was a period of exclusive suppression of national culture and self-consciousness. Quoting the academician of RT Academy of sciences Muhammadjon Shukurov, the representatives of scientific and creative intellectuals of Tajikistan suffered in the years of repressions alongside with common people.
Merited votary of science of Uzbekistan Kh. Ziyayev tells in the newspaper "Narodnoye Slovo" (people's word) from August 23, 1997 how "artificially the Soviet mode of life was engrafted excluding religious convictions and national features". Summing up he defines the social system of Soviet Uzbekistan as state slavery: "there formed the society of educated slaves… Religion was banned, instead of it there was enforced the ideology of communism which suppressed personal freedom, initiative and interestedness".
Many Russian scientists have a polar opinion on that score. For example, A. V. Malashenko, the author of the article "Islamic Revival, Seen but non-Appreciated" in the journal "Azia I Afrika segodnya" (Asia and Africa today) writes (#9, 1996, p. 29): "It I a well-known fact that the Soviet power created a highly efficacious system of secondary and higher education, it managed to join its Muslim citizens in the European culture, let it be a restricted form". Thus, analyzing a cycle of scientific works of historians it is difficult to infer a unified opinion. Many experts assert that for the decades of the Soviet regime Sovietization of Central Asian peoples culture undoubtedly took place, but at the same time it was its secularization. The script reform (from Arabic alphabet into Latin and then Cyrillic) broke Muslim cultural continuity, but at the same time it afforded to involve in knowledge wide masses of population, to make them literate. Alongside with it the half-century isolation from the basic centers of the Muslim world provided:
a) formation of Central Asian peoples as a political nation;
b) depolitization of inward Islam, its conservation on ritual-domestic leve;
c) prerequisites for "secular Islam" which appeared in the 90-ies in the independent republics.
The plurality of opinions on this issue is observed up for today, but in order to imagine the problem taken up in a wider aspect we offer out readers the results of the research conducted by the employees of "Sharq" scientific-research center.
They, in particular, run to the effect that in spite of rigid atheistic pressing Islamic ideas developed in Middle Asia in the Soviet period too. Tradition and continuity interrupted. Beginning with Kokand mullahs who found their refuge in Eastern Bukhara in the 20-30-ies, through ishans and hojis who supported disfavored Islamic intellectuals in the 50-60-ies the Islamic law outlook continued to be evolving in various forms, reformations inclusive. In the course of this development they decided mostly acute and burning problems of Islam existence: relations between Islam and power, place of Islam in society, place and role of Islamic spiritual leaders in social and political life of society. In the course of spiritual and outlook quests there arose different trends, sometimes they were in severe conflicts with one another. In the 60-70-ies the schism of Islam took place having become a source for the appearance of new Islamic intellectuals and spiritual leaders of different trends. The formers shaped afterwards Islamic political organizations, such as "Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan", "Adolat" (justice), Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
Thus, in the opinion of not only local, but foreign experts either, over the latest decades Islam in the Ferghana Valley becomes the primal generator of social and political life in the region.