Islam in Mongolia is practiced by
approximately 5% of the population.[1] It is practised by the ethnic Kazakhs of Bayan-Ölgii Province (88.7% of total aimag
population) and Khovd Province (11.5% of total aimag population, living primarily
in the Khovd city, Khovd sum and Buyant sum)aimag in western Mongolia.
In addition, a number of small Kazakh communities can be found in various
cities and towns spread throughout the country.
The earliest evidence of Islam in Mongolia is dated
to 1254, when the Franciscan William of Rubruck visited the court of
the great khan Mongka at Karakorum. He celebrated Easter at a Nestorian Christian church but also noted
seven temples of the "idolators" (probably Buddhist and Taoist
temples), and two mosques. Therefore, historians date the arrival of Islam to
Mongolia to between 1222 and 1254. Islam also gained the notice of the Mongols,
after Genghis Khan had conquered Afghanistan.
In 1222 he, on his way back to Mongolia, visited Bukhara inTransoxiana.
It was believed he inquired about Islam, and subsequently approved of Muslim
tenets except the Hajj,
considering it unnecessary. Nevertheless, he continued his worship of Tengri as
his ancestors had done.
Genghis Khan's grandson Berke converted to
Islam due to the efforts of Saif ud-Din Dervish, a dervish from Khorazm,
thus Berke became one of the first Mongol rulers to convert. Other Mongol
leaders owed their conversion to Islam due to the influence of a Muslim wife.[2]Later,
it was the Mamluk ruler Baibars who
played an important role in bringing many Golden Horde Mongols
to Islam.
Baibars developed strong ties with the Mongols of the Golden Horde and
took steps for the Golden Horde Mongols to travel to Egypt. The arrival of the
Golden Horde Mongols to Egypt resulted in a significant number of Mongols
accepting Islam.[2] By
AD 1330s three of the four major khanates of the Mongol Empire had
become Muslim.[3] These
were the Golden Horde, Hulagu's Ulus and Chagatai's
Ulus. The YuanEmpire also embraced Muslim peoples such as
the Uyghurs and Persians.
Although the court of the Yuan Empire adopted Tibetan
Buddhism as the official religion, the majority of the ordinary Mongols,
especially those who continued living in Mongolia proper remained Shamanists.
After the decline of the Yuan Dynasty, Shamanism once
again became the dominant religion. To varying degrees, political and economic
relations with Muslim nations
such as Moghulistan and the Uyghurs continued.
The Muslim Kazakhs
began to settle in the Jungaria and Altai regions
since the late nineteenth century. The majority of these Kazakhs were the Kerei
and Naiman clans, many of them escaping persecution from Czarist Russia. When Bogdo Khan assumed
power in Mongolia on December 29, 1911, the Kazakhs in Xinjian and Altai
regions sought patronage of the restored Khanate. The Government ofBogdo Khan admitted
them and allowed them to settle in the western region of Mongolia's Kobdo
territory.
Communist
era
Bayan-Ölgii aimag was established as part of the
administrative reforms of the Mongolian People's Republic in 1940.
As a result of historically high birth rates, the Muslim population in Mongolia
increased between 1956-1989. However, there was a decline in theMuslim population [4][5] in
1990-1993 due to the large wave of repatriation of
ethnic Kazakhs (so called oralmans) to Kazakhstan following
the break-up of the Soviet Union. Islam is freely practised in the country
since Mongolia became a democracy in 1990.
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