ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the Islamic situation in post-Soviet Azerbaijan. The Islamic dynamic there has been affected by three major factors. The fi rst factor is the specifi c geographic location of Azerbaijan, situated on the frontier between the East and the West,and its close proximity to Iran and Turkey. The second factor is the predominance of Shi’ite Islam in Azerbaijan, while the rest of the ex-Soviet Muslim regions are dominated by Sunnis. The third factor is Azerbaijan’s oil resources which contributed to its increasing international profi le following the break-up of the USSR. Compared to the extensive research on Islam in some other ex-Soviet Muslim regions, Islam, and especially political Islam and Islamic activism, in Azerbaijan have remained greatly under-researched by Azerbaijani, Russian and Western academics. This chapter, therefore, presents one of the fi rst attempts of comprehensive scholarly analysis of the role of Islam in Azerbaijan’s history and present. It examines specifi c forms of ‘Islamic revival’ and Islamic activism in independent Azerbaijan and assesses its future perspectives.2
