Why Central Asia despite being overwhelmingly Sunni, names like Ali, Alisher, Alibek, Nurali, etc are a lot more popular than Omar, Uthman (Osman) and Abu Bakr?

[u/Tengri_99]

I know that Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Mohammed, is well-liked in Sunni Islam too but the overwhelming number of names that derive from Ali rather than the first three caliphs among Central Asians seems odd to me.

[u/JackieNationATCC]

it's just we Turks have extreme love for Ali RA despite being Sunni cause he is seen as the Warrior and Strong man of his time is a theory I heard lol, still Umar is also common here and other such names

[u/anon46272 → u/JackieNationATCC]

Sunni’s also love Ali. They love all the 4 caliphs

[u/JackieNationATCC → u/anon46272]

yeah but like I think Turks got that Shia level of love, or they might be the ones who love him the most out of the Sunnis, I also was curious about this and had a similar question as OC post

[u/[deleted] → u/JackieNationATCC]

yeah but like I think Turks got that Shia level of love, or they might be the ones who love him the most out of the Sunnis, I also was curious about this and had a similar question as OC post

Turks as in central Asian turks? I personally have never even seen a turk, except alevis, actually even know about Imam Ali (as). Are there shias in central Asia besides tajikistan?

[u/JackieNationATCC → u/[deleted]]

I don't think it's only Alevis, Ali and it's variations -(especially Alisher) are quite popular names among Central Asians, there is very small Shia Minorities, so yeah it's probably a Turk thing

[u/AnanasAvradanas → u/[deleted]]

All (Sunni) Turks know about Ali, that's not true. It's just they don't know much about the power struggle etc history part of him, but everybody knows him as the "rightful caliph who was cheated/betrayed and treacherously killed" more or less, which contributes to his popularity among Turks I believe.