Religious tourism in Kazakhstan: history and modern challenges

Relying on historic and ethnographic sources, modern literature and her on-site research, the author looks into religious tourism in Kazakhstan's history on traditions and rituals accompanying pilgrimage to the town of Turkestan. Conceptually the author is based on the idea of regional Islam substantiated by S. M. Prozorov, a Russian Islam Researcher. The article unveils Kazakhstan Islamization history, the role of Sufism, Akhmed Yassavi's cult development and contents, the rules of pilgrimage to Yassavi's mausoleum and other sacred sites of Sothern Kazakhstan, traditions and innovations connected with the religious views evolution and the modern trends in Sufism tradition revival