Muslim Charitable and Educational Societies in the Orenburg Province

Abstract

Basing on archival data gathered in Orenburg Denis Denisov's paper investigates history of Muslim charitable and educational societies that acted in a traditional Islamic region of central Russia. The author argues that their emergence seemed to be an adequate response to challenges of the epoch at the turn of the 19 th and the 20 th centuries. These organizations much helped in consolidation of growing financial resources of new Muslim bourgeoisie of region and their redistribution into social aid sphere. They united different social strata of the regional Muslim society. On the other hand, tsarist authorities treated them much more liberally than they did in other regions of Russia due to an important role the local Muslims played in regional economy.