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Located in the mountainous region of Central Asia, the Republic of Tajikistan shares borders with China, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Linguistically and anthropologically, Tajiks, like Iranians and Afghans, are a Persian-speaking, Indo-European indigenous people, distinct from their predominantly Turkic neighbors. Although Islam bears a long history in this region, it was not the first religion to be adopted by the local population. From the last centuries before the Christian Era through the first few centuries C.E., the leading religion of the area was Zoroastrianism....
