Britannica: Tajikistan Ethnic Groups Languages Religion

Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on the people of Tajikistan (Edward Allworth and Britannica editors) provides an overview of ethnic groups, languages, religion and related social structures. The report states that more than four-fifths of the population is ethnically Tajik, a proportion that rose with the emigration of non-Tajiks during the civil war, and that the name Tajik came to denote a distinct nationality only in the modern period, with no official Tajik territorial-administrative unit existing under that name until the 1920s. The entry states the Tajiks can be subdivided into distinct groups, including the Pamir Tajiks of the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region who speak Wakhi, Shughni, Roshani, Khufi, Yazgulami, Ishkashimi and Bartang, and the Yaghnabis of the Zeravshan basin, descendants of the ancient Sogdians. It reports nearly one million Tajiks in Uzbekistan and more than one million Uzbeks in Tajikistan, and lists Russians, Tatars, Kyrgyz, Ukrainians, Germans, Jews and Armenians among other groups. Tajik is the official language, written in Cyrillic, while Uzbek is the second most widely spoken language, also written in Cyrillic in Tajikistan. The entry states the vast majority of Tajikistanis are Sunni Hanafi Muslims, with a small percentage of Ismaili Shia primarily in the Pamirs, and a Christian population that was predominantly Russian but has largely left since the Soviet collapse. It notes the constitution lists rights and freedoms but provides mechanisms by which they can be severely restricted by law.