Islam in Alanya-Ossetia: the Main Stages of History

Abstract

Islam has been known to the Alans-Ossetians since the times of the Islamic Caliphate. In the second half of the 13th century Sunni Islam became the religion of part of the urban population of Alania. Ossetian religious minority is the earliest Islamic community in the Central Caucasus. Lexical borrowings, having become an integral part of the folklife culture, are referred to the early period of the insight into the Islamic terminology. In the 15 – 17th centuries Islam was common among the nobles of the northern communities of mountain Alania-Ossetia, but by the end of the 18th century Islamization covered part of the middle class. Along with the annexation to Russia the politico-ideological significance of Islam increased, the authorities took into consideration the religious side of the social, economic and political decisions. In the first half of the 19th century the number of Ossetian Muslims of all social classes was steadily growing. On the background of the Caucasian War, different kinds of social protest and political oppositionism were incarnated into Islamic ideological shape. At the time of maximum spread of Islam in Ossetia the Muslim minority did not exceed 15 per cent of the population. In the middle of the 19th century during land survey of flat land separate settlement of Christians and Muslims took place. In response to the land reform the opposition nobles spearheaded the movement of Muhadjirun, who emigrated to the territory of the Ottoman Empire (their overall number did not exceed 4–5 thousand people). In the second half of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th century there functioned two dozens of mosques, the number of people who received Islamic education was steadily growing, as well as the number of pilgrims who carried out Hajj. Presence of its own Muslim minority estranged the Ossetian culture of the New Time from religious prejudices. Ossetian Muslims played a significant role in all-Russian Muslim movement. Nowadays in North Ossetia there function Muslim communities, old mosques are reconstructed along with the construction of new ones, dozens of young people take training in secondary and higher Islamic educational institutions.