ABSTRACT
Informal cultural and religious networks define the social and political processes of the Ferghana Valley. The strength of these networks is assured by the region’s powerful informal leaders, who are responsible for preserving and transmitting cultural and religious values to the next generations, and to the valley’s geographical isolation from the major external political centers. Thanks to the latter, the region became a natural home to many religious and political figures and intellectuals fleeing persecution. This gave rise to a paradoxical combination of tendencies there: the valley always has been a conserver of cultural and religious traditions and, at the same time, a magnet for new and in some cases dissident ideas. This assured a permanent tension between tradition and innovation, with the full realization of each being constrained by the other. In many respects, the dynamics of this interrelationship in the Ferghana Valley shapes social, political, religious, and cultural processes more broadly in modern Central Asia.
