Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan

(Hardback, Third Edition)

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Tajikistan is the poorest and only Persian-speaking country among the post-Soviet independent states. Historically, the Tajiks of Central Asia and Afghanistan along with the Persians of modern Iran came from a related ethnic group. When the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established in late 1924, it became the first modern Tajik state that remained one of the 15 union republics of the Soviet Union until 1991. Almost immediately after the collapse of the USSR, Tajikistan became a scene of brutal civil war, taking place in one of the global hubs of religiously motivated political struggle, militancy, mass cross-border refugee flows, insurgency, and drug trafficking. During the first decade of the 21st century, the country was making modest progress toward stability. However, the heavy burden of socio-economic problems, in addition to continuing conflict in the neighboring Afghanistan-Pakistan, presented even bigger challenges for Tajikistan. In addition, Western economic sanctions against Russia in 2014, coinciding with continuing lower oil prices, have negatively affected one million of Tajik labor migrants in Russia. Yet Tajikistan has become neither weaker nor less important as a player in world politics. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 800 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Tajikistan.

Reviews

The overall structure of the thirdedition of thiswell-receiveddictionaryremainsthe same. It still features an AZ format with useful cross-references. Along with these entries comes a valuable, thorough introductory essay that gives an overview of thehistoryof thenation. There remainsa detailedchronology, particularly for the 21stcentury. There is also an extensivebibliography,separatedinto different sections, such as the arts or the economy.It is clear Abdullaevsought to update this work across all sections.Theappendixeswere expanded and provide more information than previous editions. Both the bibliographyand the chronologyhave new material. There are additional entrieson culture and society and on earlier periods of Tajikistan history. . . . This source is recommended, particularly for scholarsand libraries that focus on the Central Asian region. Recommended. * CHOICE *

Author Bio

Kamoludin Abdullaev is an independent historian from Tajikistan who studied and taught the modern history of Central Asia for more than 40 years. Since 1992, he has been a policy analyst and independent consultant in international non-governmental research organizations involved in conflict resolution, conflict prevention, peace-building, civil society building and education in Central Asia. He has taught courses on modern Central Asia from a multidisciplinary perspective at Yale University and the Ohio State University from 2001-2013. He has written, co-written, or edited eight books including Ot Sintsiana do Khorasana. Iz Istorii Sredneaziatskoi Emigratsii 20 veka (From Xingjiang to Khurasan: From the History of the 20th Century Central Asia's Emigration).