Islam is the largest religion practiced in Kazakhstan, with 69.3% of the country's population being Muslim according to the 2021 census. Ethnic Kazakhs are predominantly non-denominational and Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school.International Religious Freedom Report 2006 U.S. Embassy in Astana, Kazakhstan Geographically, Kazakhstan is the northernmost Muslim-majority country in the world,Muslim-majority Tatarstan lies further north of Kazakhstan, but is a non-sovereign federal subject republic of Russia. and the largest in terms of land area. Kazakhs make up over half of the total population, and other ethnic groups of Muslim background include Uzbeks, Uyghurs and Tatars.Kazakhstan - International Religious Freedom Report 2009 U.S. Department of State. Retrieved on 2009-09-07. According to the Constitution, The Republic of Kazakhstan proclaims itself as a democratic, secular, legal and social state whose supreme values are the individual, his or her life, rights, and freedoms. According to a survey by Central Asian Affairs, self-identification as Muslim among "ethnic Muslims" (members of traditionally Muslim ethnic groups including Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tatars, Uyghurs, and others) in Kazakhstan rose from 79% in 2007 to 93% in 2012, however the share of people praying daily and attending mosque weekly declined during the same period, from 22.94% to 18.20%. According to another study in 2012, 10% of the Kazakhs practice Islam in its totality and stated youth were frequenting mosques more often.Achilov, D. (2012). “Islamic Education in Central Asia: Evidence from Kazakhstan”. Asia Policy, 14, pp. 85-86. In 2019, there were 2500 mosques in the country, a number which increased 37-fold since the fall of the Soviet Union.Bilal A. Malik (2019). “Islam in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan: Experiencing Public Revival of Islam through Institutionalisation”, Asian Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, 13:3, pp. 7-8.
History
Islam was first brought to the southern fringes of modern day Kazakhstan in 8th century, when the Arabs arrived in southern parts of Central Asia. Then it gradually spread across the Kazakh Steppe over following centuries.
The initial push to spread was given by the Battle of Talas in 751 AD, where nomads of Karluk Yabghu state allied themselves with Abbasid Arabs to stop the Chinese Tan dynasty advance. In the following years, Islam took hold in the southern portions of Turkestan and thereafter gradually spread northward.Atabaki, Touraj. Central Asia and the Caucasus: transnationalism and diaspora, pg. 24 Islam also took root due to zealous subjugation from Samanid rulers, notably in areas surrounding TarazIbn Athir, volume 8, pg. 396 where a significant number of indigenous people converted to Islam.
In 1000s, Khoja Ahmad Yasawi, a Turkic poet and religions leader of Sufi Order made a big impact in spreading Islam among both sedentary and nomadic peoples of Central Asia, by writing in Middle Turkic language. He was widely regarded as one of the great spiritual leaders of the region. Which lead Timur to erect a Mausoleum in his name several centuries later.
The Dasht-i Qipchaq region as a whole had been Muslim since the first half of the 14th century, with Kazakhs already considering Islam their ancestral religion adopted by their ancestors in the distant past.
During Golden Horde period, the first ruler to convert to Islam was Berke Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan. However Berke did not promote it to his subordinates. Only in 1321, ruler of the Horde - Özbeg Khan publicly converts to Islam by Ibn Abdul Hamid, a Sunni Sufi Bukharan sayyid and sheikh of the Yassawi order. Further he makes the Islam official religion of the state, and starts promoting it among his subordinates. From that point on, all of the khans adopt Islamic names following Turco-Mongol tradition. Following centuries, after dissolution of Golden Horde, all khans of Kazakh Khanate being from Jochi lineage would continue to have Islamic names.
Russian Imperial Period During the 18th century, Russian influence rapidly increased toward the region. Led by Empress Catherine, the Russians initially demonstrated a willingness in allowing Islam to flourish as Muslim clerics were invited into the region to preach to the Kazakhs whom the Russians viewed as "savages", ignorant of morals and ethics.Khodarkovsky, Michael. Russia's Steppe Frontier: The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500-1800, pg. 39.Ember, Carol R. and Melvin Ember. Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Men and Women in the World's Cultures, pg. 572
The growth of Islamic institutions among Kazakh nomads occurred alongside a broader Islamic revival that had been taking place among Muslim communities in the Volga-Ural region and Siberia since the late eighteenth century. The spread of Islam across the steppe, particularly by Muslim merchants from Russia, was closely connected to the Kazakh steppe’s incorporation into the Russian economic sphere.
Catherine II's late 18th-century policies institutionalized Muslim religious life, with Russians appointing an akhund for Orenburg by 1742. Beginning in 1782, Empress Catherine subsidized mosque and madrasa construction in steppe settlements like Orenburg, Troitsk, and Petropavlovsk, staffed by politically reliable Volga-Ural clerics. These towns became major commercial and Islamic learning centers that attracted Kazakh nomads. The establishment of the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly (OMSA) in 1788 made officially registered imams responsible for encouraging congregant loyalty to the Russian state, integrating Kazakhs into "Russian Islam" institutional structures.
During the first half of the 19th century, Russian administrators typically appointed Volga-Ural mullas as imams of Kazakh administrative units. Large numbers of Volga-Ural Muslims emigrated to cities on the northern periphery of the Kazakh steppe, bringing Islamic institutions and educational structures that educated Kazakhs through madrasas and itinerant teachers in nomadic encampments. The Volga-Ural-centered Islamic publishing business produced inexpensive Islamic books and pamphlets in Kazakh vernacular specifically for the Kazakh market.
However, this period also witnessed significant resistance. Kazakh hagiographic sources document numerous conflicts between Sufi ishans and Imperial Russian authorities, with notable examples including Maral Ishan, who led a holy war against Russian expansion from 1819 to 1822. Russian missionary accounts from 1910 accused ishans of "fanatizing" "simple Kazakhs" and inciting disobedience against colonial authority.
By the second half of the 19th century, Kazakh society was undergoing a profound Islamic revival that reshaped both social structures and collective identity. Although Islam had long been embedded in Kazakh life prior to the 18th century, this period marked a renewed and intensified expression of Islamic identity. Toward the century’s end, Kazakh authors began producing Islamic literature specifically for Kazakh readers, using a deliberately vernacular Kazakh language.
Russian policy gradually changed toward weakening Islam by introducing pre-Islamic elements of collective consciousness.Hunter, Shireen. "Islam in Russia: The Politics of Identity and Security", pg. 14 Such attempts included methods of eulogizing pre-Islamic historical figures and imposing a sense of inferiority by sending Kazakhs to highly elite Russian military institutions. In response, Kazakh religious leaders attempted to bring religious fervor by espousing pan-Turkism, though many were persecuted as a result.Farah, Caesar E. Islam: Beliefs and Observances, pg. 304 During the Soviet era, Muslim institutions survived only in areas where Kazakhs significantly outnumbered non-Muslims due to everyday Muslim practices.Farah, Caesar E. Islam: Beliefs and Observances, pg. 340 In an attempt to conform Kazakhs into Communist ideologies, gender relations and other aspects of the Kazakh culture were key targets of social change.
Soviet Era The early Soviet period brought devastating changes to Kazakh Islamic institutions through systematic anti-religious campaigns. Soviet religious policies were initially inconsistent before 1928, with Islamic education banned in 1923 and madrasas effectively closed, while simultaneously placing the Kazakh steppe under the Ufa muftiate's authority and expanding mosque communities. Beginning in 1928, however, authorities systematically closed mosques and destroyed minarets, with virtually all mosques in Kazakhstan ceasing to function by 1932, converted into barns, clubs, and schools.
Stalinist repression systematically targeted Islamic institutions and religious figures as part of Soviet cultural policy. The campaigns of the 1920s and 1930s targeted not only mosques and madrasas, but also kinship-based religious structures central to Kazakh social organization. Soviet authorities specifically targeted religious leaders including the ulama and Sufi ishans, along with their families, threatening the survival of entire religious lineages. This repression fell particularly heavily on Kazakh society, where holy lineages constituted a prominent feature of social organization. The First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh АSSR Filipp Goloshchekin in 1930 accused ishans and clergy of leading opposition to collectivization, while the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) documents specifically targeted "bandit bay-ishan elements" and made hereditary ishan status sufficient grounds for persecution. Political repression intensified in 1937-1938 against prominent religious leaders, with persecution continuing through the Stalin era.
With the outbreak of World War II in 1941, Stalin's religious policy shifted toward a partial relaxation of restrictions, permitting Muslim communities, including Kazakhs, somewhat greater scope for religious expression in order to mobilize support for the war effort. Kazakh Muslim religious leaders adopted the wartime practices of Volga-Ural and Crimean leaders from World War I, organizing fundraising efforts and offering religious endorsement for the Soviet war effort, which fostered the development of Soviet patriotism expressed through Islamic frameworks. Many Kazakhs maintained an integral collective identity that simultaneously encompassed being Kazakhs, Muslims, Soviets, and Red Army soldiers, demonstrating how Islamic identity could coexist with Soviet patriotism during wartime.
Soviet authorities attempted to encourage a controlled form of Islam under the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan as a unifying force in the Central Asian societies, while at the same time prohibiting true religious freedom.