History of Tajikistan
From the Sogdian kingdom of the 7th century BCE through Persian, Arab, Mongol, Russian and Soviet rule to independence in 1991.
Tajikistan's history has been shaped by a succession of empires and states. The region was influenced by the Persian Empire, the Uzbek Khanate and the Russian Empire, and more recently by the Soviet Union and its collapse.
The earliest known civilisation in what is now Tajikistan was Sogdiana, which existed around the 7th century BCE. Sogdiana was a powerful kingdom that controlled trade routes between China, India and the Mediterranean, and the Sogdians were known for their literature, art and architecture.
In the 4th century BCE the Persian Achaemenid Empire conquered Sogdiana and the region became part of the Persian Empire. The empire of Alexander the Great followed, and the region later came under the control of the Seleucids.
In the 8th century CE Arab armies conquered the region and brought Islam to the area. Arab rule was followed by the Samanid Empire, a Persian dynasty that held the region for nearly a century and under which Persian literature and learning flourished. Tajiks generally regard the Samanid period as the foundation of their national identity, which is why Ismoil Somoni, the dynasty's founder, gives his name to both the currency and the country's highest peak.
In the 13th century the Mongol Empire took the area and established the Chaghatai Khanate, ruled by Genghis Khan's descendants. The Khanate was later divided into smaller states, among them the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Kokand.
The Russian Empire expanded into Central Asia in the late 19th century, and by the early 20th the entire region, including present-day Tajikistan, was under Russian control.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Tajikistan became a Soviet Socialist Republic in 1929. Soviet policy set out to modernise and industrialise the country while promoting atheism and suppressing traditional culture and religion.
Tajikistan declared independence in 1991. The country was soon plunged into a civil war that lasted five years and killed tens of thousands of people.
A peace agreement was reached in 1997 and the country has been relatively stable since. It continues to face significant economic and social difficulties, including widespread poverty and unemployment, and a large share of the working-age population still seeks work abroad.
What runs through all of this is position. Tajikistan sits on the routes between Persia, the Turkic steppe, China and South Asia, and each of those worlds has left something behind in its languages, its religion and its architecture.