Abstract
Being constitutionally recognized as a secular country, due to its Muslim majority Azerbaijan is known as a Muslim country in the world. Most of the Muslim population belongs to Shia sect, which is a minor part of Muslims all over the world and this peculiarity differentiates Azerbaijan from other Islam dominated countries. The issue of division of Islam shows itself, not that distinctly, but somehow in Azerbaijan too. Considering the geographic position of Azerbaijan that is one of the crucial factors being lucrative for the foreign actors to some extent led to an imbalance between the Sunni-Shia sects. Since the analysis of Sunni-Shia controversies, the history and spread of Islam in Azerbaijan are being studied by a number of researches, this article will not be focused on the same issues. The reason why Azerbaijan does not witness Sunni-Shia controversies comparing with other Islamic countries has always been a topic of discussion and this article aims to shed a light on some aspects of this question. However, the fact that the recent developments in rivalry between sects due to internal and foreign influences makes us concern about its nature to cause hazardous situation in all spheres of life.
Highlights
Back in VII century Arabs started to storm the northern borders of Middle East as well as Azerbaijan, started the spread of Islam in the territory of Modern Azerbaijan
Most of the Muslim population belongs to Shia sect, which is a minor part of Muslims all over the world and this peculiarity differentiates Azerbaijan from other Islam dominated countries
To conclude all the noted facts, it should be emphasized that strong political Islam does not exist in Azerbaijan
Summary
One of the interesting sides of Islam is the adaptation to the local conditions of different areas It had spread and got various regional forms without damaging the common principles. One of them was Safaviyya brotherhood [3], which was the first to raise Irfan or Shi’ite Sufism to the rank of a state ideology in XVI century, distinguishing Iranian Turks from others Because of this policy Azerbaijan became a battlefield for endless wars between Safavids and Ottomans in XVI-XVIII centuries. His son, Ismail II showed interest to Sunnis, and tried to remove radical form of Shiism and extreme hostile attitude towards Sunnis, but he couldn’t. Because of his attempts he was killed in the second year of his reign [4] [5] [6]
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