Abramson, David M. and Elyor E. Karimov. "Sacred Sites, Profane Ideologies: Religious Pilgrimage and the Uzbek State." In Everyday Life in Central Asia: Past and Present, edited by Jeff Sahadeo and Russell Zanca, 319-338. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.

This chapter is very interesting and based on archival information and fieldwork. It reviews the contemporary practice of visiting sacred shrines in Uzbekistan. In doing so it shows the difference between Islam as interpreted by ordinary people and those who have religious education and how the state controls Islam in contemporary Uzbekistan.

Sections: Definition of a Sacred Site; Shared Shrines, Contested Practices (The Shrine of Ughlanjon-ota; The Tomb of Bahauddin Naqshband); Rethinking Religion in the Post-Soviet World; Conclusions: Islam and the Anthropology of Social Change