The Islamic revival and the national question in post‐Soviet Dagestan

Abstract

Over the last 4-5 years the institutions and values of Islam have quickly regained their former influence on the social and political life of Dagestan, which they had lost in the Soviet era. Only at the end of perestroika did persecution of Muslims cease, and at once the Muslim congregations (jamaat) at the functioning village and town mosques which had remained intact in Soviet times were legalised. From the beginning of 1990 the number of mosques grew rapidly, and new congregations together with them: from 27 in 1988 they rose to 800 by the autumn of 1992, and then to almost 5000 by the beginning of 1994. For comparison, let us note that before the 1917 Revolution there were about 1702 mosques in Dagestan. 1 From 1993 to 1994 part of the lands (vaqj) belonging to them before the Revolution were returned to mosques in a good dozen mountain villages (aul), though, it is true, not always publicly. In some places, for example in Gergebil' district, this undertaking had the support of the local administration. Moreover, from the beginning of the 1990s, after an interval of almost 70 years, the ha} to the holy places was renewed. With today's hyperinflation the cost is rising fast and by the summer of 1994 it had reached 800,000 roubles. Nonetheless tens of thousands of Dagestanis have performed the haj, some of them two or three times. Today, as a rule, not a single important question at village assemblies or sessions of the local administration is decided without the participation of the Muslim scholars (alim) and imams (dibir), including quarrels over land, which have intensified since the fall of the Soviet regime. Teaching of the Arabic language and courses in Islamic science are openly conducted in reopened schools and madrassah attached to mosques. Their graduates can continue their education in Islamic institutes founded in the republic and also in Islamic universities in Turkey and Arab countries, where several hundred Dagestanis are already studying• From autumn 1992 a course on the history of religion has been introduced in secondary schools and groups for the optional study of the Arabic language have been started, with Muslim alims admitted as lecturers. For Dagestani politicians of different persuasions it has become a rule of accepted behaviour to advertise one's adherence to 'Islamic traditions'. The Islamic factor was actively employed by the majority of republican party blocs during campaigning for elections to the Russian parliament on 12 December 1993. In 1992 to 1994 the questions of proclaiming Islam the state religion of Dagestan, introducing compulsory courses on basics of the Koran in schools, changing the day off to Friday and compulsory slaughter of cattle and birds according to the sharia were raised more than