The Sunni branch of Islam has a 1,200-year-old[citation needed] tradition among the sedentary population of Central Asia, including the Tajiks. A minority group, the Pamiris, are members of a much smaller denomination of Shia Islam, Nizari Ismailism, which first won adherents in Central Asia in the early tenth century.[citation needed] Despite persecution, Ismailism has survived in the remote Pamir Mountains and they are followers of the Aga Khan.