Map from a 1903 Polish encyclopedia showing the Naiman people living north of Lake Balkhash in eastern Kazakhstan
Before the conquest of Genghis Khan there used to be a minority of Nestorians in the Kazakh region. A bishop's see existed in the town of Merv in the year 334 and Nestorians were in the country when Marco Polo arrived in the late 13th century.[8][9]
By the time Kazakhstan was conquered by Genghis Khan, most of the Naimans were Christians. They remained so after the Mongol conquest and were among the second wave of Christians to enter China with Kublai Khan.[10] Meanwhile, the Naimans who settled in the Western Khanates of the Mongol Empire were all eventually converted to Islam.
Russian Orthodoxy arrived in the country in the 18th and 19th centuries.[12]
Incorporation into the Soviet Union led to decades of Communist Party controls including confiscation of church property, control of education, and the detention and execution of clergy.
Political independence in 1991 led to more people taking an interest in religion, as they were now able to read and discuss matters of spirituality; this also led to a rise in the number of citizens identifying as Christians in the 1990s and the early 2000s.[13]
Converts to Christianity
A 2015 study estimates that some 50,000 Christians from a Muslim background reside in the country.[14]
The Christian mission group Open Doors ranks Kazakhstan as the 47th worst country in the world to be a Christian.[15]
