The spiritual and educational activities of the Tatars in the Kazakh Steppe in the context of the Russian Empire’s domestic policy (second half of XVIII – the beginning of XX century)

Abstract

This paper discusses the spiritual and educational activities of the Tatars in Kazakhs steppe in pre-revolutionary period. The Empress Catherine II let mass penetration of the Tatar mullahs into the steppe zone. They performed some of the functions of the tsar officials in addition to religious and educational activities. They completed parish registers and directed civil proceedings. The Tatar language became the main language of the clerical work in the steppe zone. After the Crimean and Caucasian war the attitude of imperial administration to the activities of Tatar preachers changed dramatically. Since that time, Islam and Muslim education in the Steppe zone started to be considered by officials as a threat to the Russian state. The Russian government limited the powers of the mullahs, subdued Muslim schools to the Ministry of Education and strictly regulated it, tried to introduce the Russian language into the mosques and madrasas. Minister of Internal Affairs through its secret messages made local administration offices translate clerical works from the Tatar language on Arab ligature to the missionary Kazakh language on Cyrillic alphabet. It was also strongly recommended to replace Tatar interpreters to Kazakh or Russian ones. Despite the internal policy of the Russian state had changed, the Tartars built powerful spiritual and educational infrastructure in the Steppe zone. At the beginning of the XX century it included the old and new madrasas, mosques, Muslim Library and publishing houses. In Muslim schools prominent people of Tatar and Kazakh culture were educated, first books and newspapers in both languages were issued in theses publishing houses. The spiritual and educational activity of the Tatars played a significant role in the formation of the Kazakh and Tatar intelligentsia and led to the rise of religious and political consciousness of both nations.