In Quest for God and Freedom. The Sufi Response to the Russian Advance in the North Caucasus by Anna s> Zelkina (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 747 of a well-organized delegation from Belorussia which secured the Jews' inclusionaftera formalpresentationbefore the Senate. This is an outstanding piece of social history and a major contribution to our understanding of the relations of Jews with the local and national authoritiesin post-partitionEasternEurope. Research librariesshould make an effortto securea copy before it becomes a bibliographicalrarity. Department ofHebrew andJ7ewish Studies J. D. KLIER University College London Zelkina,Anna. InQuestfor GodandFreedom. TheSufi Response totheRussian Advance intheNorthCaucasus. C. Hurst&Company, London, 2000. XXiii + 265 pp. Notes. Maps. Illustrations.Glossary.Bibliography.Index. ?45.??. IN a world galvanized into discussionof Muslim responsesto the challenge of theWest, thisnew historyof Islamicresponsesto the Russianadvance into the North Caucasus could not be more timely. Anna Zelkina examines the religiousrevivalin what is present-dayDagestan and Chechnya, beginning in the late eighteenth centuryand culminatingin the defeatof the 'thirdimam of the Caucasus', Shamil, in I859. Her focus is the remarkablerise of the Sufi Naqshbandiyya order (tariqa),and its impact not only on anti-colonial resistance,but more significantly,on patternsof social and political organization in the region. Hitherto this topic has been researchedmainly in terms of the militaryhistoryof the Russian conquest, as a purely anti-colonial struggle or, in Soviet historiography, through an ideologically skewed view of 'fundamentalism'.Zelkinabrings a new perspectiveto this period in focusing on the religious and social aspects of the Naqshbandi movement, thereby redressing the past denial of a wider Islamic dimension to the Naqshbandi phenomenon. To do so, she draws upon on a wide range of primary sources in both Russianand Arabic, includinghithertountranslatedwritingsof North CaucasianNaqshbandi sheikhs. Zelkinatracesthe development of the Naqshbandiyyaorderfrom Iran and Central Asia, through permutations first in Moghul India and later in Ottoman lands in the eighteenth century. She argues that by adapting Naqshbandi principles to local political prerogatives, Naqshbandi sheikhs increasingly emphasized the legal (/iqh)as well as spiritualaspects of shari?a, and the principle of 'solitudewithin the crowd', implying a more active role for Naqshbandi adepts in social and political matters. This established the Naqshbandi order as a powerful potential force for social and political mobilization. The north-easternCaucasus,home to a long-standingtradition of Islam, proved fertile ground for this increasinglypolitical and revisionist viewv of Muslim priorities. Confronted with military and technological superiority in the form of the Russian Empire, communities in the north Caucasus were faced with an urgent crisis of moral, social and political decline. Zelkina's key and highly plausible thesis is that the Naqshbandi order provided the ideology and organizational structure necessary for a coherent response to the Russian challenge. Over time, the initially separate mystical 748 SEER, 8o, 4, 2002 and political aspects of Naqshbandi merged, and a pattern of political leadershiplegitimatedby spiritualauthorityemerged, supplantingtraditional secular leadership. The first Naqshbandi leader to effectively combine both aspects was Ghazi Muhammad (?I793-i832), who declared ghazavat('holy war') as key to the establishmentof shari"a. Pursuitof this goal culminated in the creation of the firststateformationamongstthe North Caucasianpeoples, Shamil'simamate. The Naqshbandi movement representsthe firstattemptat modernization in the North Caucasus, introducing recognizably modern formsof political leadership, social contract and collective identity.As such it stands as the neplus ultraof indigenous, as opposed to Russian- or Sovietimposed modernization in the region. The chapters on the imamate provide an overdue focus on Shamil's administrative, fiscal, military and religious reforms. The account presented here provides a fascinating basis for comparison with more recent events. As the word play in the book's title suggests, the Naqshbandi search for responses to external challenges took the form of an introspectiveinquest,ajudicial enquiryinto the currentmoraland socialstate of Muslim communities. Initial targets for Naqshbandi activists were the recognized Muslim authorities advocating a more conciliatory relationship with the Russians. Ghazavat was therefore a bi-focal phenomenon, aimed at both the establishedMuslimauthorities,lambastedascorrupting'trueMuslim values', and the Russian menace. The radical orthodoxy of the Naqshbandi engendered a dual debate, on one frontbetween Muslims as to the formsthat a modern Islam should take, and on the other with the non-Muslim world. The extraordinary success of the Naqshbandiyya reflects the capacity of radical orthodoxy, reliant on other-worldly values, to feed an ideology of resistanceto challengesfirmlyrooted in thisworld. Adapted from a PhD thesis, this lucid, well-written account presents...