page_title: Islam in Armenia
section_title: Cultural heritage
hierarchical_section_title: Islam in Armenia / Cultural heritage
caption_attribution_description: English: Muslims (light green - shia muslims, dark green - sunni muslims) in modern borders of Armenia, 1886-1890
context_page_description: Islam began to make inroads into the Armenian Plateau during the seventh century. Arab, and later Kurdish, tribes began to settle in Armenia following the first Arab invasions and played a considerable role in the political and social history of Armenia. With the Seljuk invasions of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Turkic element eventually superseded that of the Arab and Kurdish. With the establishment of the Iranian Safavid Dynasty, Afsharid Dynasty, Zand Dynasty and Qajar Dynasty, Armenia became an integral part of the Shia world, while still maintaining a relatively independent Christian identity. The pressures brought upon the imposition of foreign rule by a succession of Muslim states forced many lead Armenians in Anatolia and what is today Armenia to convert to Islam and assimilate into the Muslim community. Many Armenians were also forced to convert to Islam, on the penalty of death, during the years of the Armenian Genocide.
context_section_description: A significant number of mosques were erected in historical Armenia during the period antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the modern age, though it was not unusual for Armenian and other Christian churches to be converted into mosques, as was the case, for example, of the Cathedral of Kars.
  In the territory of the modern Armenian republic, only a single mosque, that of the Blue Mosque, has survived to the present day.
caption: Distribution of Muslims in modern borders of Armenia, 1886–1890.
    Shias  Sunnis
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