Tajikistan is a landlocked nation in Central Asia. Its official name is the Republic of Tajikistan (Tajik: умурии oикистон, romanized: Jumhurii Tojikiston). It has a total land area of 143,100 km2 (55,300 sq mi) and a population of 9,537,645 people. Dushanbe is its capital and biggest city. It is bounded to the south by Afghanistan, to the west by Uzbekistan, to the north by Kyrgyzstan, and to the east by China. It is separated from Pakistan by the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan. Tajiks' ancestral homelands include present-day Tajikistan, as well as areas of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
Tajikistan's territory was previously home to several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic and Bronze Age city of Sarazm, and was later home to kingdoms ruled by people of various faiths and cultures, including the Oxus Valley Civilisation, Andronovo Culture, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Islam. Several empires and dynasties governed the region, including the Achaemenid Empire, Sasanian Empire, Hephthalite Empire, Samanid Empire, and Mongol Empire. The Timurid Renaissance developed after being dominated by the Timurid dynasty and the Khanate of Bukhara. Later, the Russian Empire and, later, the Soviet Union annexed the area. Inside the Soviet Union, the country's existing boundaries were established when it was an independent republic within Uzbekistan before becoming a full-fledged Soviet republic in 1929.
Tajikistan became an independent sovereign republic on September 9, 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. From 1992 to 1997, a civil war raged practically soon after independence. Since the war's conclusion, the country's economy has grown thanks to newly formed political stability and international help. Since 1994, President Emomali Rahmon has ruled the nation as an autocratic dictator. There is rampant corruption and human rights abuses, including as torture, arbitrary detention, escalating political repression, and a lack of religious freedom and other civil freedoms.
Tajikistan is a four-provincial presidential republic. Tajikistan is one of three Persian-speaking nations, along with Afghanistan and Iran, since the Tajik ethnic group speaks the Tajik language, the first official language. The official inter-ethnic language is Russian. Despite the fact that the country is legally secular, Islam is practiced by 98 percent of the people. Despite its small population, the Gorno-Badakhshan oblast has a rich linguistic variety, with Rushani, Shughni, Ishkashimi, Wakhi, and Tajik among the languages spoken. More than 90% of the country is covered by mountains. It is a developing nation with a transitional economy that is heavily reliant on remittances, aluminum manufacturing, and cotton cultivation. Tajikistan is a member of the United Nations, the CIS, the OSCE, the OIC, the ECO, the SCO, and the CSTO, as well as a NATO Partnership for Peace partner.