Russian Muslims Research Articles

Countering Radicalization in the North Caucasus

Abstract By the mid-2010s, a significant decrease in the number of jihadists in the North Caucasus, in addition to internal ideological differences, was facilitated by fundamental factors: the lack of mass support in local Muslim communities, the anti-terrorism activities of the state, its informational and ideological support, and the policy of post-conflict integration. The number of supporters of the Caucasus Emirate decreased due to the split after the 2014 Olympics in Sochi; in 2015, the Caucasus Emirate officially ceased its activities, and after 2017, the flow of radical Islamists leaving Russia and joining ISIS stopped—violent extremism has begun to de-escalate in the region. To reduce ethnoreligious extremism and strengthen the integration of Muslims into Russian society, the federal government adopted a multi-level deradicalization strategy, including anti-terrorism operations and a large-scale policy of co-optation and support for moderate Russian Muslim leaders and their traditional communities.

Theology as a factor of sociocultural development of society in the works of ‘Ata’ Allah Bayazitov

The article attempts to determine the role and historical significance of the innovative views of ‘Ata’ Allah Bayazitov (1846–1911) in the development of the cultural potential of the Tatar people. The author draws attention to the time and essence of innovations in traditional Russian Muslim society. A number of Tatar intellectuals laid down approaches and methods that met scientific requirements, tools suitable for discussing a new understanding and interaction of theological and philosophical knowledge. Innovators proposed new concepts of the theory of knowledge, aimed at revealing religious thought in its modern understanding: such as confidence in the human mind, the primacy of man, the immanence of God. Through understanding a number of conceptual issues of Islamic Theology, Tatar educational theologians developed methods for overcoming the ideological problems of the Muslim community. This, in turn, made it possible to lay the foundations for building a state-confessional dialogue. The author concludes that the paradigm of thinking built by the innovators was the need to implement divine instructions in social and production activities, and not just in the spiritual sphere. This is the key to the development of the cognitive function and the decisive criterion in the search for truth. Thus, we can observe the process of transformation of Theology from the medieval science of God into the modern science of faith.

The Spoken and “Unspoken” Political Agenda in the Virtual Space of Russian Muslims

ABSTRACT The article is devoted to the analysis of Russian Muslims’ communications in social networks. I show a unique mode of interdependence of online and offline, which takes shape in the special context of the dominant discourse of traditional Islam and the securitization of Islamic activism. The construction of “right” and “wrong” Islam determines the special structure of media consumption of Russian Muslims and the content of the political agenda. In addition to verbalized political agendas, I describe the phenomenon of an “unspoken” political agenda hidden beyond religious messages and identified precisely only through background by actors transmitting it.

Muslim Women and Educational Reform in the Early-Twentieth-Century Southern Caucasus: Urbanization and Heterosocialization at the Dawn of Revolution

Abstract: In 1901 the Empress Alexandra Russian Muslim Boarding School for Girls, better known as Taghiyev's Girls' School for the industrialist who founded it, opened in Baku to celebration in the press and to protests in the street. Its opening initiated a period of expanded educational opportunities for Muslim girls in the southern Caucasus and increased the visibility and social and political influence of Muslim women teachers. This article investigates how girls' schools marked a transformation in Muslim women's sociality in the southern Caucasus. Heterosocialization characterized this transformation, enabling women's participation in public life through venues such as the theater, the press, and voluntary associations. These late imperial transformations and the women who led them would play an important role in shaping early Soviet Azerbaijan.

The Study of Jadidism in Soviet and Russian Historiography

The article provides an overview of the history of the study of Muslim reformism, known in the scientific literature as Jadidism, in the works of Soviet and Russian researchers. At first, it included only the reform of Islamic education, and later it began to be understood as a broader movement of “Muslim enlightenment” aimed at reforming the entire Muslim society. The study of the history of Jadidism in Russia began in the 1920s. Soviet scientists through the prism of the Marxist theory of the development of socio- economic formations. In the post-war years, Soviet historians and social scientists wrote critically about Jadidism. During the years of Khrushchev’s “thaw”, scholars tried to reconsider the essence of Jadidism in the socialist context of historical research through the reinterpretation of Islam as a specific Tatar national cultural heritage, called “mirasism”. A new stage of Russian historiography in matters of Jadidism began in the post- Soviet period, when Jadidism began to be seen as a social movement of Russian Muslims aimed at forming a nation of the European type. In general, it can be said that studies in Russian and Soviet historiography on the history of Jadidism in the Crimea, the Volga-Ural region, Central Asia and the Caucasus are distinguished by different methodologies and conceptual approaches, while works on the history of the Jadid movement in the Volga-Ural region are more complete. Despite the fact that there is no common understanding of the phenomenon of Jadidism in the Volga-Ural region, nevertheless, scientists of different directions (historians, philologists, Islamic scholars) have done a lot of work in studying this issue. In this regard, the history of Muslim reformism in the North Caucasus, in particular in Dagestan, is practically not studied. As well as there is no special work on this region.

S.N. Maksudi and Russian Masons at the beginning of the XX century

The article investigates little-known facts in the life of the famous Tatar and Turkish public figure S.N. Maksudi – a turkologist, an educator, a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Empire and the Majlis of the Turkish Republic at different periods of his life. At the beginning of the XX century a graduate of the Sorbonne University, a young lawyer, Sadri Maksudi, found himself at the center of the political life of the Turkic-Muslim world of Russia. He lived in St. Petersburg and was actively engaged in political activities. Just then he met Russian Freemasons and became a participant in the Masonic movement.The attitude towards Masonry in the Russian history is characterized by different assessments, for example, they were credited with participation in conspiracies, possession of secret knowledge, etc. In fact, most Masons were liberals who advocated the introduction of a wide range of democratic freedoms in Russia, including expanding the rights of national minorities. This attracted one of the leaders of Russian Islam, who actively defended the ideas of equality and enlightenment of his people.The article presents the analysis of the history of the opening of Masonic lodges in St. Petersburg after the revolution of 1905-1907 and their activities during the inter-revolutionary period, in which S.N. Maksudi took part.The purpose of the study was to analyze the views of the Tatar politician S.N. Maksudi through the prism of his participation in Masonic organizations of the early XX century. For this purpose the author used biographical, historical-genetic and historical-comparative research methods, as well as general scientific and dialectical methods of analysis. As a result, we came to the conclusion that despite all the objective differences between the social movement of Muslims in Russia and the teachings of the Freemasons, there were common ideological ideas between them, which attracted the Tatar-Muslim leader Sadri Maksudi to the ranks of the masons, which was reflected in his political life.

Российский ислам и актуальные вызовы современности

The article highlights the results of the work of the International Scientific and Practical Conference dedicated to the celebration of the 1100th anniversary of the adoption of Islam by the Volga Bulgaria "Russian Islam as a factor in strengthening inter-ethnic and inter-faith peace and harmony", held on November 24–25, 2022 in Kazan. The main thematic areas of the conference are revealed: Islam as a significant factor in the Eurasian space, its historical retrospective, the Soviet legacy, post-Soviet transformation, current challenges of our time, Russian Islamic education, faith-based institutions, identification processes among Muslims in Russia and the CIS countries, the risks of religious radicalisation and extremism, their social grounds, search for ways of anticipating and preventing conflicts. The participants came to the conclusion about the importance of preserving and updating the historical heritage of Russian Islam, taking into account the contribution of religious organizations to consolidation of spiritual and moral values and public service and to strengthening inter-faith harmony and civil solidarity in Russia and the CIS countries.

Madrasa “Qazanli” on the pages of the Tatar periodical press of the beginning of the early 20<sup>th</sup> century

The work considers the problem of coverage in the Tatar periodical press at the beginning of the 20th century of some features of the activity of the Qazanli (قزانلى) madrasah. It was opened at the end of the 19th century in the city of Medina especially for the Tatar youths of the Volga-Ural region. The article touches upon the issue of the material support of the madrasah, which was of most interest to the Tatar public at the beginning of the 20th century. The madrasah was built at the expense of Kazan merchants, it was maintained by Russian Muslims. However, Tatar intellectuals believed that the invested funds did not justify their purpose; with this money, dozens of schools could be opened in the homeland, and they would bring more benefits to the nation than the Qazanli madrassah. The materials of the Tatar periodical press of the beginning of the 20th century were used in the work. Separate sources are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.

Халил Рахимов. Фрагменты из «Защиты избранников Аллаха от поношений заблудших людей» (Химайат ал-авлийа’ мин иханат ал-агвийа’)

The present article reveals insufficiently studied aspects of Islamic Mysticism (Sufism) in Russia’s Volga-Ural region at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century in the context of modernization in late imperial Russia. A special attention is paid to the analysis of the contribution made by pedagogue, Sufi and scholar Khalil Rahimov to moderate Muslim reformism. He led extramural polemic with outstanding Russian Muslim reformists on the ways of development of the Muslim community, the role of Islamic Mystical tradition (Sufism) in the life of Muslims. He criticized their religious and philosophical teachings and views on the issues of faith and reason, the adaptation of scientific achievements and cultural models of advanced countries. Khalil Rahimov believed that Muslim education, culture and society should be developed without undermining the foundations of religion. Alongside the research, the article provides a Russian annotated translation of excerpts from Khalil Rahimov’s book “Himayat al-awliya’ min ihanat al-agwiya’” [The Protection of the Saints from the abuse of erring men].

Религиозно-духовные и гражданско-деятельностные аспекты программных документов российских мусульман в общественно-политическом контексте

This article provides information on how relevant the role of religious organizations as subjects of civil initiatives, presented as subjects of civil society, and highlights the main and functional features of these organizations. A content analysis of the text from the Moscow Theological Declaration on Jihad, Takfir and Caliphate as a document of the Russian Muslim Ummah is carried out, with an emphasis on the religious spiritual and civil affairs aspects of this document.

The Tatars of Siberia learning the Russian language in the late 19<sup>th</sup> – early 20<sup>th</sup> centuries

This article is devoted to the history of Russian language learning by the Tatars of Siberia in the late 19th–early 20th centuries. In accordance with the Rules on Measures for the Education of the Inorodets (national minority) Inhabiting Russia, Approved by His Majesty on March 26, 1870, schools were established where Muslims learned Russian and other secular disciplines as part of the primary school curriculum. The Tomsk Russian-Tatar School was the first to be established. It was opened in the 1875-1876 academic year. With the development of Jadid education in Siberia, from the end of the 19th century and especially after the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, the Russian language was introduced in madrasahsand maktabs. The most important phenomenon was the creation of women’s maktabs, where, along with religious subjects, girls began to study secular disciplines. At the same time, Russian-Tatar schools were created in accordance with the education reform carried out by P. Stolypin, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire, and the introduction of a number of new Rules of the Ministry of Public Education (MNE) on the education of non-Russian peoples. In Siberia, the most significant examples were the Russian-Tatar school in Tyumen, opened in 1913, and the Tomsk two-class Russian-Tatar school, opened in 1913 in memory of the centenary of the Patriotic War of 1812. Along with education for Tatar children in Tomsk, courses for adults were run in Tomsk from 1909. In 1916, training courses were organized in Tomsk, where Muslim youths (primarily Tatars and Kazakhs) could prepare for a teacher’s certificate and a certificate of maturity exams. Russian Muslim libraries played an important role in familiarizing the Tatar population with Russian culture. Along with the periodicals and books in Tatar, other Turkic languages of the peoples of Russia and Arabic, there were periodicals and books in Russian. Thus, by the revolution of 1917, a whole set of Tatar Muslim educational and cultural-educational institutions had emerged in Siberia, which made it possible to study and further improve the level of proficiency in the Russian language and literature.

Russia's Legal Policy Against Diaspora Marriages in Muslim Communities

This article discusses the politics of marriage law in the Russian Muslim diaspora. The Muslim community in Russia faces challenges in carrying out their marriage according to the principles of the Islamic religion amidst the legal regulations in force. This article analyzes the political development of marriage law in the Russian Muslim diaspora, including the recognition of Islamic marriage law, the settlement of legal conflicts between Islamic marriage and state law, and the role of Islamic organizations in safeguarding Muslim marriage rights. This article also presents case studies, examples of legal marriage practices in the Russian Muslim diaspora, and obstacles and solutions encountered in dealing with different legal regulations. This study uses normative research methods. Conceptual, literary and sociological approaches are used in normative or doctrinal research. Data analysis in this study used qualitative analysis methods. The results of the study state that there are political implications of the marriage law of the Russian Muslim diaspora, in addition to the challenges and opportunities in fulfilling the elements of the rights of the Muslim community in Russia. Therefore, it is expected to contribute to broadening the understanding of the politics of marriage law in the Russian Muslim diaspora and exploring issues related to Muslim marriage rights in the context of that country.

The problem of the formation of Muslim identity in the Republic of Bashkortostan

The article analyzes the identity of followers of Islam in the Republic of Bashkortostan from the point of view of the discursive tradition.The purpose of this study is to establish the features of the formation of Muslim identity in the territory of modern Bashkortostan. The subject of the study is the formation of Muslim identity in modern Bashkortostan. The object of the study are individual residents of the Republic of Belarus who profess Islam. To conduct the study, a set of field research methods was applied: direct observation of the object of study, survey, questionnaire. In the course of the study, the author makes a distinction between different groups of Muslims in Bashkiria. The author of the article examines in detail the various types of religious identity of Muslims of Bashkortostan. The relevance of this study lies in the fact that in the conditions of modernization of Russian society, its religiosity is increasing. At the same time, there is a certain blurring of the religious identity of Russian Muslims due to the globalization of culture. The author of the article suggests the incompleteness of the formation of religious identity due to a number of objective factors, in particular, due to the lack of clear differentiation between religious and ethnic identity, as well as differences in the ideals and values of different generations. The novelty of the research lies in the establishment of new factors influencing the formation of the Muslim identity of the inhabitants of modern Bashkortostan.

In memory of Ziya Kamali (1873–1942) (to the 150th anniversary of his birth)

The year 2023 will be marked by the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Russian Muslim religious and public figure, theologian, teacher-reformer and educator Ziya Kamali (1873–1942). Anniversary events can serve as a good tool for analyzing trends and prospects for studying the creative heritage of the thinker. The relevance of the topic is due to the growing interest of researchers in the heritage of the thinkers of the Muslim East, the historical experience of various cultural and civilizational traditions in the modern multicultural and multi-confessional society in Russia and globalization in the world. This publication is intended to reflect the main milestones in the life and career of the hero of the day. Particular attention is focused on the personal contribution of Kamali to the formation and development of the Jadid Madrasah "Galiya" (Ufa, 1906–1919), as well as the Tatar women's education in Ufa. Under the leadership of Kamali, Galiya Madrasah became one of the leading Russian Muslim educational institutions, and the summer pedagogical courses organized by the Tatar theologian turned into a kind of educational and methodological center for Russian Muslim teachers. Descriptions are based on prior literature. In addition, for the reconstruction of the creative biography of the famous Jadid, both unpublished archival materials and published sources, in particular, the Tatar pre-revolutionary press, were involved.
 For citation: Akhtyamova A.V. In memory of Ziya Kamali (1873–1942) (to the 150th anniversary of his birth). From History and Culture of Peoples of the Middle Volga Region. 2023, vol.13, no.2, pp.128–142. https://doi.org/10.22378/2410-0765.2023-13-2.128-142 (In Russian)

Construction of Identity in Russia's Muslim Regions in the Context of the Emerging All-Russian Identity

Construction of Identity in Russia's Muslim Regions in the Context of the Emerging All-Russian Identity

Muslim subjectivities in Russian history

A researcher who studies the subjectivity of believers and religious people will have a number of unanswered questions. Through their work, the author has hoped to address the most prominent of them: the problem of sincerity, the relationship between external and internal subjectivity, the methodology of research of the subject, the multi-discursiveness of subjectivity, and, in many respects, the duality of the given (traditional) and the indefinite/unestablished (new) thought provoked by its study. Several definitions of the concept of “subjectivity” are also proposed by the author, and Muslim subjectivities are considered in the historical context of the period, and how they are represented and covered under a new form of historical research - the History of Muslim Subjectivities. The article ends with a brief review of the thematic themes on the subject, including: the Soviet view of Muslim childhood; the “prison experience” of Russian Muslims; female subjectivity; and Islamic rhetoric and discourse of modernity.

Ismail Gasprinsky's Open Letter to the Sheikh-al-Islam of the Ottoman State

The article analyzes an open letter of appeal to the Sheikh-al-Islam of the Ottoman Empire, which was delivered on the pages of one of the Ottoman publications by an outstanding public figure of Russian Muslims, Ismail Gasprinsky. In the letter, the author acts as a bright educator, harshly criticizes the intellectual and spiritual state of Muslim society, offers his own ways to solve the pressing problems, on which the future of the Islamic world depends. The transliteration of the source into the graphics of the modern Tatar language is also given.

Islam as Critical Practice: Young Muslims Discuss their Religious Development

In modern Russia, religion is seen as a conservative social force aimed at consolidating society on the basis of common values. At the same time, as human history shows, religions often acted as a powerful political force, leading to great social transformations. Such a dual approach to religion was embodied in the views of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory (M. Horkheimer and others), as well as a number of Islamic intellectuals of the "left" wing, such as G. Jemal and F. Isak. These thinkers emphasized that religion in certain historical periods could be a liberating force acting in the interests of the most oppressed members of society, while in others, on the contrary, it could promote oppression and support the interests of power elites. The paper presents the results of studies of young Russian Muslims based on the methodology of critical social psychology, which develops the views of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. The results show that a person's religious conversion is preceded by a critical rethinking of his own way of life, which was also noted in earlier studies conducted among representatives of Christianity and Judaism. At the same time, it was found that the critical attitude does not disappear with the adoption of Islam. The antagonism between the former “secular” and the current Islamic way of life is only strengthened by the opposition of the social position of Muslims and the “majority”. Initial dissatisfaction with the conditions of one's own life is transformed into a larger social criticism.

The legacy of Muslim theologians in the focus of historical analysis of the adaptation of the Islamic legal system to Russian realities

The article deals with historical development of the theological heritage of the Muslim peoples of Russia. Authors attempt to identify features specific to the formation of theological and legal Islamic thought. They research the activity of the important centres of Islamic scholarship in Russia, mainly the Northern Caucasus and the Ural-Volga region. The results reveal the successful adaptation of the legal system as developed for centuries within the framework of the Russian Muslim community as “the northern outpost of the Islamic world” to the realities of modern life. Modern times bring challenges to the spiritual security of the Russian Federation. Among them is global terrorism, as well as attempts to implant ideology historically and traditionally alien to the country into the religious communities of Russia as well as the Islamic Ummah. Within this context, the fatwa-making activity of the Russian muftis is of great importance. Having implemented the theological and legal heritage of Islamic thought into the modern spiritual practice of the Russia's Muslim community, spiritual leaders who stand on the position of moderate Islam have issued and continue the tradition to issue fatwas (decisions). These fatwas are aimed at preserving spiritual integrity, religious values, morality and compliance with religious prescriptions traditional for Islam in Russia. The system of Islamic education as formed in Russia based on unified methodological approaches, which should contribute to training Islamic theologians in Russia.

MAMMAD EMIN RASULZADEH1 : THOUGHTS AND STRUGGLE FOR THE REPUBLIC

The Azerbaijani socio-political figure, head of Azerbaijan National Council and Musavat Party, Mammad Emin Rasulzadeh, has played a significant role in developing the national liberation movements and as well as realization of its concept in the South Caucasian region in the early 1900s. Especially during the First World War and after the collapse of the Tsarist Russian Empire, as a party leader and an editor of the newspaper, he did important work towards to be met the demands of the nations of the South Caucasus and the Muslims of Russia from the request of autonomy to the implementation of the independent state. After the Soviet Russian occupation of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Mammad Emin Rasulzadeh continued his activities in Europe and wrote his thoughts about republicanism ideology in his published books and articles. This article studies such ideas as republicanism, musavatism and solidarism in the activities and works of Mammad Emin Rasulzadeh.