Adjarians - Religion

Religion

Many Adjarians were converted to Islam by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries when the Ottomans occupied southwestern Georgian lands.

The Georgian population of Adjara had been generally known as Muslim Georgians until the 1926 Soviet census which listed them as Adjarians, separate from the rest of Georgians, and counted 71,498 of them. In subsequent censuses (1939–1989) they were listed with other Georgians, as no official Soviet census asked about religion. In the 1920s, the suppression of religion and compulsory collectivization led to armed resistance to Communist authorities by Adjarians. Following suppression of the disturbances, many Adjarians were deported to Central Asia.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the re-establishment of Georgian independence accelerated the Christianization of Adjarians, especially among the young. However a significant number of Ajarians, particularly in and around Khulo remain Sunni Muslims. According to estimates recently published by the Department of Statistics of Adjara, 63% are Georgian Orthodox Christians, and 30% Muslim.