proper noun

• A mountainous republic in central Asia, north of Afghanistan; population 8,500,000 (estimated 2015); languages, Tajik (official), Russian; capital, Dushanbe.

The region was conquered by the Mongols in the 13th century and absorbed into the Russian empire during the 1880s and 1890s. From 1929 Tajikistan formed a constituent republic of the Soviet Union; it became an independent republic within the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1991