This paper explores the changes and challenges that the Tajik Ismaili community faced during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Focusing primarily on the role and significance of internal and external forces of Ismaili religious revival in Tajikistan, which were inspired by Gorbachev’s Perestroika in the last decade of Soviet rule, it advances a broader argument concerning modern Ismaili developments in the country in terms of transformation of religious ideas, institutions and values.

This paper explores the changes and challenges that the Tajik Ismaili community faced during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Focusing primarily on the role and significance of internal and external forces of Ismaili religious revival in Tajikistan, which were inspired by Gorbachev’s Perestroika in the last decade of Soviet rule, it advances a broader argument concerning modern Ismaili developments in the country in terms of transformation of religious ideas, institutions and values.