The Namaz Practice in the Structure of the Middle Volga Tatars’ Daily Life at the End of the 19th - Beginning of the 20th Centuries

Ildar F Shafikov

doi:10.5539/jsd.v8n5p86

Abstract

The urgency of the problem is determined by an increased public interest in Islam, its history in the Russian Federation, and particularly to the rituals and practices. The aim is: to show the role of fivefold prayer (namaz) in the everyday life space of Muslims of the Middle Volga region at the turn of XIX - XX centuries. The leading approach to the study of this problem is a thorough analysis of the periodic and journalistic press as a source of the most authentic conveyance of the contemporaries’ attitude. Development of this type of sources shows that prayer demonstrates remained an inherent part of the Muslims’ life, but at the same time under the influence of westernization and the lack of religious education some followers have partially or completely ceased to fulfill the religious requirements. The materials of the article can be useful for the ethnographers, historians and religious scholars investigating profile problems.

Highlights

The Volga Region is the unique region where Islam and Orthodoxy coexist for over five hundred years
The urgency of the problem is determined by an increased public interest in Islam, its history in the Russian Federation, and to the rituals and practices
The system approach assuming the analysis of all factors which affected of a religious ritualism in everyday life; a historical and comparative method is necessary for comparison of the existence of forms of religiosity in daily occurrence space; a historical and descriptive method as in work the memoirs and documents describing different parties of Tatar society life are used

Summary

Introduction

The Volga Region is the unique region where Islam and Orthodoxy coexist for over five hundred years. Despite there always was certain interference, the spheres of religious life remained autonomous and independent, entering only the intellectual disputes caused first of all by the missionary activity. Such inaccessibility was defined by the adherents’ religiosity of both religion and it was the way to keep its ethnicity and culture for Muslim Tatars. The namaz was one of basic elements of everyday religiosity. As-salat) is the salat, one of five Islam precepts. The order of prayers by the Quran was not clearly defined. It is considered that all ritual was developed as the imitation of the devotional attitude and Mahomed's movements

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Conclusion