This thesis explores two factors that have been instrumental in the evolution of society and ethnic and national identities in southern Central Asia. It is argued that the development of these identities (and the obstacles encountered in the process) are closely linked to the place of Islam in central Asian society, and the delicate ethnic balance between the Turkic and the Iranian cultural spheres -- which also manifested itself as the symbiosis between sedentary-agrarian and nomadic populations. It was the disruption of these two factors under Soviet rule which led to lasting problems that continue to bedevil the region to this day.

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