Retrospect and Prospect: Situating Post-Soviet “Survivals” Scholarship Within a World Historiographical Frame

Abstract

Inasmuch as (both Tsarist and Soviet) Russian imperialism and colonialism in Central Asia were oppressive and agenda-driven—including specifically here the broadly shared agenda to ‘de-Islamize’ both the Central Asian peoples and their histories, at least from the mid-nineteenth century onward—the trends and aims of post-Soviet scholarship to ‘decolonize’ Central Asian history and historiography by helping properly to ‘re-Islamize’ it are necessary, good and right. This thrust within the post-Soviet aftermath is, in fact, part of a much longer, deeper trend of post-colonialist historiography going all the way back to the 1960s-70s and manifesting uniquely in various parts of the world as part of the interrelated processes of ‘decolonization.’ There is, however, need for much more nuanced and diversified approaches which go beyond mere binary oppositional choices, particularly those in this case of either a Russian-Soviet or Islamic studies approach. To that end, this chapter treats: post-colonialist agendas and the historian’s task; debates over terminology, particularly ‘syncretism’ and ‘pre-Islamic’ constructs; continuities and discontinuities in colonialist vs. post-colonialist historiography; the search for the historical end point of conversion; distinguishing between historical description, analysis and thesis (agenda); historiographical trends in the post-World War Two era; and ‘survivals’ as historical heritage in connection to ‘remnants’ of cross-cultural contact and exchange within broader world history.