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Islam arrived in Azerbaijan with Arabs in the seventh century, gradually supplanting Christianity and pagan cults. [ 8 ] In the sixteenth century, the first shah of the Safavid Dynasty, Ismail I (r. 1501-1524), established Shi'a Islam as the state religion, [ 8 ] although a portion of people remained Sunni.
The Bibi-Heybat Mosque in Baku, Azerbaijan. Islam is the majority religion in Azerbaijan, but the country is considered to be the most secular in the Muslim world. [5] Estimates include 90% (The World Factbook, 2020) [6] and 99.2% (Pew Research Center, 2006) [7] of the population identifying as Muslim.
The remainder of the population consists mostly of Russian Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic (Almost all of which live in the break-away region of Nagorno-Karabakh), Jews, and nonbelievers. Among the Muslim majority, religious observance is relatively low, and Muslim identity tends to be based more on culture and ethnicity than religion.
Islam is divided into two major denominations, Sunni and Shi'a. Of the total Muslim population, 87–90% are Sunni and 10–13% are Shi'a. Most Shi'as (between 68% and 80%) live in mainly four countries: Iran, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, and Iraq. [31]
On December 29, 2023, the State Department placed Azerbaijan on its Special Watch List for severe vioations of religious freedom. [1] The government uses mosque closures to repress independent Muslim groups that act independently of the state. [ 2 ]
The Imamzadeh Complex is an important Islamic site, located near Ganja, in Azerbaijan.The complex comprises a mausoleum that houses the grave of a prominent figure in Shia Islam, several mosques including the Goy Imam Mosque, a garden, gated walls, and various funerary monuments. [1]
After the declaration of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic on May 28, 1918, the government of Azerbaijan faced such an issue: the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of the Caucasus (Transcaucasia) located in the city of Tbilisi should be transferred to the city of Baku and the post of shaykh al-Islam, which was abolished in 1917 should be re-established.
The Ashur Mosque (Azerbaijani: Aşur Məscidi), also known as the Lezgi Mosque (Arabic: مسجد عاشور), is a Sunni Islam mosque in the Old City of Baku, Azerbaijan.It was founded in 1169 by the master Najaf Ashur son of Ibrahim.