From Muslim Chronicles to National Historiographies? (The Conceptual Introduction)

Abstract

The formation of national Muslim historiographies is still understudied in the context of inter-imperial transfers of knowledge in the era of the creation of national republics on the ruins of colonial empires. Meanwhile, its investigation sheds light on a number of key historical subjects of nation-building in nationalizing empires, hybriditization of Muslim historiography, subjectivity of Islamic historical knowledge. Based on the materials of historical works composed by the Muslim scholars of the Russian and Ottoman-Turkish nationalities such as ‘Ali Kayaev (al-Ghumuqi, 1878–1943), Jamal al-Din of Karabudakhkent (al-Gharabudaghi, 1858–1947), Murad Ramzi (1854–1934) and Yusuf Akçura (1876–1935), the authors of the article attempted to trace modern historical narratives of the former Muslim borderlands in the Russian and Ottoman empires, to establish their similarities and differences, contribution of Muslim reformers, who were close to the majority of these four historians, in the formation of national historiographies of the Caucasus, the Volga region and the former Ottoman Empire, including the popularization of national history in Muslim periodicals.