Spiritual Board Research Articles

The role of Muslim organizations in North Ossetia in the development of interfaith relations in the republic in the early 1990s and late 2010s.

This article is devoted to the study of the specific features of the participation of North Ossetian Islamic spiritual organizations in the development of interreligious relations in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania in the late twentieth and the first decades of the 21st centuries and their role in the development of the spiritual sphere of the republic’s public life and the stabilization of the political situation in this territorial subject of the Russian Federation. This study examines the features of the peacekeeping activities of the Muslim community of North Ossetia in the republic and in the North Caucasus as a whole. This article examines the role of the chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of North Ossetia A.H. Evteev, H.M. Tavkazakhov and H.H. Gatsalov in the formation and the development of interfaith dialogue in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania.

Practices of the Interaction of Muslim Communities of the Steppes with the Government (The 2nd Half of the 19th – Early 20th Century)

Based on the records of the central and local government of the Russian Empire, stored in the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Russian State Historical Archive, the article analyzes the aspects and practices of interaction between the authorities and Muslim communities of the Steppe Region in the 2nd half of the 19th – early 20th century. Unlike the Orthodox population living in this administrative-territorial division, whose spiritual life was controlled by the officials assigned by the Holy Synod, Muslims were in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Hence, the regional administration and several central ministries were directly involved in solving the problems of the spiritual life of Muslims of the Steppes. The competence of these authorities included establishing new parish organizations and constructing the worship places, founding confessional schools and religious and charitable societies, and organizing the believers’ pilgrimage to holy places. The legislation regulating the decision-making process for such tasks required submitting a petition to the local authorities, followed by their step-by-step consideration and then resolution. The central aspect of communication between the governing bodies and the Muslim communities was the establishment of the Spiritual Board in the Steppe region. The Kazakh population filed countless petitions to the central government during the first Russian Revolution of 1905–1907. As a result of the petition campaign, the practice of holding special and private meetings with the participation of representatives from authorities and Muslim communities of the region emerged. As sources evidence, when making decisions concerning the Muslims of the Steppe Region, local administrations relied on the trends in ethno-confessional policy implemented by the central government. Therefore, quite often, outcomes did not benefit the local Muslim population. However, in other aspects, the communication between the authorities and the Muslim communities can be characterized as constructive.

Мектебы рушдие в правовом поле Российского государства в начале ХХ века (на примере Таврической губернии)

Rushdie mektebs established in the Crimea during the revolution of 1905 were an alternative to the new-method mektebs of I. Gasprinsky and the state ministerial Russian-Tatar schools. Rushdie schools appeared under the influence of the generation that grew up on the ideas of Jadidism and Young Turks. Rushdie schools combined Islamic and secular sciences in the educational process. The schools were opened without consent of the local authorities, they did not meet the require-ments of the Ministry of Public Education and did not fit into the legal field of the Russian state. At the discretion of the provincial government, some rushdie mektebs were transferred to the jurisdic-tion of the Tauride Mohammedan Spiritual Board and became confessional schools, some were reas-signed to the Ministry of Public Education according to the rules of 1907 or closed.

Territorial Aspects of Parish System Formation in Barnaul Spiritual Government's Rural Parishes (the Second Half of the 18th — Early 19th Centuries)

This article examines the issues of the rural parish’s system formation of the Barnaul Spiritual Government (BSG) of the second half in the 18th — early 19th centuries. The work is aimed at studying the number and composition of settlements (constituent parts of parishes), the allocation of borders and the construction of parish territories.
 It is concluded that the network of the BSG rural parishes was formed by the end of the 1780s. According to the data for 1755, there were 157 villages in seven rural parishes (64.9% of the total number of BSG settlements). In 1820, with the maximum number of rural parishes (13) as well as the Spiritual Board as a whole (23), the figures increased to 536 (68.7%). By the end of the study period, after reducing the number of BSG rural parishes to seven, there were 316 settlements in their composition (58% of the total number of BSG settlements). Communities with the largest concentration of settlements stand out among rural parishes. These are, for example, such parishes with centers in the Beloyarskaya Sloboda and the Genghis village (numbering about 100 villages in their composition). Territorially small church units also existed in the BSG. The leading position in terms of the growth rate of the villages number was occupied by the Petropavlovsk parish of Genghis village: from 1755 to 1820 the indicators increased 9 times. Most of the BSG rural parishes were formed at the expense of the village population. The presence of settlements with the status of military fortifications was recorded by sources in two parishes. They belonged to the Kolyvan-Kuznetsk military line.

Международный научный конгресс «XVIII Фаизхановские чтения» на тему «Ислам в России: прошлое, настоящее, будущее»

On November 1–2, 2022, the International Scientific Congress “XVIII Faizkhanov Readings: Islam in Russia: Past, Present, Future” was held in Moscow. The congress was timed to coincide with the 1100th anniversary of the official adoption of Islam by the peoples of the Volga Bulgaria, the Year of the Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of Russia and the 15th anniversary of the Medina Publishing House. The participants of the XVIII Faizkhanov readings were religious figures, represen­tatives of research institutes, statesmen and public figures from Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Russia. The organizers were: Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Russian Federation, Moscow Islamic Institute, Center for Islamic Studies of St. Petersburg State University, Press Service of the Spiritual Muslim Board of the Russian Federation. Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences was one of the co-organizers of the Congress. Issues of the history of the material culture of Islam, written monuments of Islam, the history of Islam in archival sources were discussed within the framework of the Congress. The participants shared the results of their research on the history of Islam in Russia, discussed a wide range of issues on the history of Islam in international relations, the current situation and prospects for the development of the Muslim community in Russia. Employees of the Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences made presentations at seven sections. In the section “Islam from the Bulgar State to the Russian Empire” the staff of the Usmanov Center for Research on the Golden Horde and Tatar Khanates also made reports.

CONTRIBUTION OF STRUCTURAL DIVISIONS AND MOSQUES TO THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE REPUBLIC OF TATARSTAN

The role of religion in the modern world has increased significantly, and Muslim religious organizations have an increasing influence on the social life of various regions of Russia in general and Tatarstan in particular. Today, many social projects are working in the Republic of Tatarstan. Some of them are the initiative of the Muslim spiritual board and its structural units directly. Another part of the projects is being developed under the patronage of other public organizations. They are also brought to life with the support of spiritual governance. The structural divisions of the spiritual administration in this study refer to the propaganda department, the “Zakat” Foundation, kaziyats, mukhtasibats, and mosques. Organizations such as the Association of Muslim Businessmen of the Russian Federation are engaged in the development of the second direction of the charity. But they are not considered in this study because they go beyond the scope of the research topic. The analysis of the research materials showed that today the activities of religious organizations are multifaceted, influencing the sphere of education, sports, cultural events, charity, etc. They provide significant assistance to the state in solving various social problems of modern society. In this regard, further interaction of state bodies and Islamic religious organizations in matters of charity, leisure, education, and the upbringing of Muslims can have a significant impact on the preservation and strengthening of stability in the region. The purpose of the study is to identify the contribution of Muslim religious organizations to the social life of the Republic of Tatarstan. Research materials: the source base of the study was mainly made up of publications on the activities of Islamic religious organizations on the Internet, as well as research by the author. Research results: the main activities of religious organizations in the Republic of Tatarstan and their impact on social life were identified. The novelty of the study: within the framework of this study, for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of materials on the activities of Islamic religious organizations was carried out.

About the 1905 Petition by the Taurian mufti A. Karashaysky*

The article reveals the reasons and prerequisites of 1905 Additional Petition by the Taurian mufti A. Karashaysky on behalf of Muslims of the Crimean Peninsula that was addressed to the Chairman of the Minsters’ Committee and where he wrote about the expansion of the Taurian Mohammedan Spiritual Board’s competence and about the necessity of increasing the status of Islamic institutes. Providing comparative analysis between the Additional Petition and the Public Petition from Crimean Tatars the author allocates the general and specifi c matters of their contents. Thus, the research paper concludes that the Public Petition, via the values of liberal social movement, mostly declared the social, religious and spiritual needs of Crimean Tatars, while the petition prepared by the group of Muslims and clergy under the leadership of the Taurian mufti A. Karashaysky had strictly corporate, confessional orientation.

Исламский фактор в борьбе альтернатив развития Дагестана в условиях революции 1917 г.

The article examines the revolutionary events of 1917 in Dagestan from the standpoint of legal awareness of Muslim public figures and clergy and their participation in the socio-political life of the region. The events had both common for the entire Russia and specific features due to the level of socio-economic and political development of the region and the role of Islam in its society. The article examines how the turbulent revolutionary time brought authoritative Muslim leaders to the political scene. Later, they aspired to develop their own tactics and strategy in order to influence the course of events in Dagestan after the February Revolution of 1917. Each representative of the secular and spiritual intelligentsia had their own attitude to the political forces that emerged during the struggle for the revolutionary democracy. The author notes such a characteristic feature of the revolutionary democracy of 1917 in Dagestan as the active involvement of the Muslim clergy in the new government institutions, their appeal to Islam and Sharia when clarifying and resolving various issues of socio-political importance. It is shown that the most important and discussed issue was the election of the head of the Caucasian Spiritual Board of Muslims from among muftis or imams by the Muslims of Dagestan and the North Caucasus. The healthy socio-political forces of the region aspired to preserve law and order in the region appealing to Sharia and Islam.

TO THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION OF CHRISTIAN TEXTS INTO THE UDMURT LANGUAGE IN THE GLAZOV СOUNTY OF THE VYATKA GOVERNORATE IN 1803

The article deals with the history of the first translations of Christian religious texts and prayers into the Udmurt language in Glazovsky Uyezd of Vyatka Governorate. Involvement in the study of archival documents from the funds of the Vyatka spiritual Consistory and Glazovsky spiritual Board allowed the author to describe in detail - chronologically accurately and thoroughly - the process of creating translations, to identify the authors of the translation of specific texts. In particular, it was established that at the initial stage there were no volunteers among the clergy of Glazovsky uyezd willing to engage in the compilation of translations. The spiritual Board turned to coercive measures and itself appointed translators from among the clergy who knew the Udmurt language, ordering them to appear for translation in Glazov. The first translation was performed jointly by priests N. Nevostruev, Z. Krotov, S. Anisimov and A. Babaylov ahead of events - even before receiving the list of texts assigned for translation. After receiving the list, the translation of the missing texts was carried out by the same persons individually, but only one of the translators sent his translation to the Glazov Board in time. In early July, translations from Glazov were sent to Vyatka. In the ecclesiastical Consistory the translations were checked and rewritten. As a result, the Synod was presented with a translation composed of two parts, one of which was performed by 4 priests together, and the other-alone by A. Babaylov. The study of the circumstances of the creation of the translation allowed to give answers to questions that remained unexplained for more than a hundred years, and to reveal new, previously unknown facts, including the previously unknown manuscript of the translation by N. Nevostruev and Z. Krotov.

From Russian Guberniya to Part of Finland: The Legislative Position of the Orthodox Church and People in the Grand Duchy of Finland in the Nineteenth Century

What is today the Republic of Finland, had since the twelfth century been more or less a part of Sweden. In 1807 Russia promised to support the French supremacy policy in Western Europe in return for French support for the Russian seizure of Finland. A year later, Russia invaded Finland and occupied the whole country. In the 1809 Treaty of Fredikshamn (in Finnish, Hamina), Finland was annexed to Russia as an autonomous Grand Duchy. Three years later the southeastern part of Finland, the so-called 'Old Finland, or what in Russian was called the guberniya of Vyborg (in Finnish, Viipuri) — a territory Russia had taken between 1721 and 1743 — was incorporated into the rest of Finland. An overwhelming majority of around twenty-five to thirty thousand Orthodox people2 on Finnish soil lived in that territory, particularly in the Finno-Russian border area called Karelia. Administratively they were part of the Metropolinate of St Petersburg, although their closest superior was the Spiritual Board (later Consistory) at Vyborg (a town close to St Petersburg). At the local level they were divided into eight Finnish or Karelian-speaking parishes. In addition, there were three Russian-speaking parishes consisting of a few thousand members. During the nineteenth century, new parishes were established so that in 1890, there were 26 parishes with nearly 51 000 members, of which some one-fifth were Russian-speaking

해빙기 소비에트 정부의 중앙아시아 이슬람 정책의 특징 : 반-종교 캠페인(anti-religious campaign)’과 ‘반-제국주의 아젠다(anti-colonial agenda)’사이에서

The Soviet government, which advocated atheism, is believed to have adopted consistently repressive policies against Islam. But in fact, depending on domestic and international circumstances, sometimes oppressed, sometimes formed a partnership with the Islamic communities. After the October Revolution, the revolutionary government implemented repression policies against religion in general. But as the war between Germany and the Soviet Union broke out in 1941, the Soviet government, which decided to draw the support of religious communities, tried to appease the Orthodox, Judaism, and Islamic communities.BR However, as the Cold War system was established, it led to different course of actions for different religions. In particular, after Stalin`s death, Khrushchev, who wanted to strengthen his power, launched a massive anti-religious campaign, denouncing Stalin’s appeasement policy on religion. The Orthodox Church was subjected to massive repression as part of this de-Stalinist movement. Judaism and Islam were influenced not only by this domestic situation but also by the external conditions set by the Cold War. The Jews of the Soviet Union were oppressed as Israel, as a new nation, took a pro-Western line. But the policy on Central Asian Muslims was that of relative appeasement.BR Moreover, the Thaw in the wake of Khrushchev’s coming to power was a time when the anti-colonial struggle in Asian and African countries came to fruition and became liberated from Western empires. Many of these new independent states were mostly Muslims. The Soviet Union, which wanted to bring them under its sphere of influence in the Cold War, used Central Asian Islamic organizations to smooth up the relations with former colonies believing in Islam. The Spiritual Board of Central Asia served as a spring board for the Soviet government in the course of strengthening relations with the newly independent Islamic countries. In return, the Soviet Muslims were allowed to relatively freely engage in religious activities.

“CHILDREN’S PLAGUE”: SMALLPOX IN EUROPE 16TH - 18TH CENTURIES AND THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO PREVENT IT IN POLTAVA REGION

The article deals with the morbidity and mortality of smallpox in Western Europe and the Russian Empire from the 16th to the beginning of the 19th century. At that time smallpox was almost a childhood disease, because before the introduction of vaccination in the 18th century about 80% of its victims were children under the age of 10. Widespread was the theory that the pathogens are present in the human body from birth. Effective treatment for smallpox has never existed, but the main procedures were correspond to the general level of medicine (bloodletting, laxative, herbal treatment). The first thing that really could protect for the disease was variolation. It is an artificial infection of a healthy person with smallpox material from a sick person with the hope that it can cause a mild illness with a small rash. It spread in Europe in the first quarter of the 17th century, thanks to E. Timoni, J. Woodworth and Lady M. Montague. Vaccination was the inoculation of humans with cowpox material, which also gave immunity from smallpox. It was invented in 1796 by the English doctor E. Jenner. His experiment based on the common belief that milkmaids never get sick with smallpox, but only with the cowpox. Since 1800, this method has spread into the Europe, displacing variolation. In the Russian Empire in 1811 the decree about the spreading the cowpox vaccinations was officially issued. It include the point about origination of the provincial and county smallpox committees to promote vaccination. Imperial officials in the case of the introduction of mass vaccination were relied on a church organization. It allows us to track smallpox control measures in the local level. In particular, the documents about the fight against smallpox in Pyriatyn County are concentrated in the fund of the Pyriatyn Spiritual Board of the State Archives of Poltava region (F. 801). The first official appeal to the Pyriatyn Spiritual Board in the case of encourage the population to vaccinate cowpox took place in 1804. In 1806 in each church was send the book about the useful of cowpox vaccination and the practice of this procedure. In 1831 the Pyriatyn Spiritual Board, for appeal of the County doctor, was call for priests to practice the vaccination against smallpox himself in their parishes. Poltava spiritual consistory established a number of decrees that introduce the duty of parishes clire to sent the semi-annual reports. They‘s content was different in different decree, and include the number of birth, death and vaccine children. The first was issued in 1806, and the next were after the establishment of smallpox committee in 1812, 1824 and 1833. The last of them provided the fixation of the number of death of smallpox among the children for every 6 month, from the second half of 1832. There was preserved corresponding reports of parish priests for the period from the second half of 1832 to the end of 1841. The most completed they was in 1833. In this year the general number of smallpox victim in the whole county was about 985 person. The following reports show significantly smaller numbers of them - less than 20 deaths per year in 1835, 1837, 1840 and 1841. This issue needs further investigation. Key words: smallpox, vaccination, morbidity, mortality, children mortality.

PROJECTS OF REFORMING OF MANAGEMENT OF SPIRITUAL AFFAIRS OF THE CRIMEAN TATARS 1865–1869 YEARS

The article deals with the reasons of transformation of views of the administration of Novorossiya and Taurida governorates on reforming of management of Muslim spiritual affairs in the region.The main reasons are: (1) the status of the territory as an ‘internal’ province, where the government of Alexander II successfully implemented liberal reforms, (2) the project of of unifi cation of spiritual aff airs management of the Crimean and Volga-Ural Tatars as SunniMuslims, equally belonging to the Hanafi Madhab, proposed by the orientalist A. K. Kazembek, (3) the project of reform, elaborated by the Orenburg Governor-General Kryzhanovsky (1867), which proposed measures of struggle against the islamization of the East Russia, and (4) aiming of the Russian government at the political ’reforms’. The author analyzes measuresof local authorities (1867–1869) on controlling over Waqf lands of the abolished mosques, on spreading of the Russian education among the Crimean Tatars, on transforming the Taurida Mohammedan Spiritual Board to the section of the Taurida Governorate board, on the disaffi rmation of heredity of the Crimean Tatar clergy.

Советская идеология в медресе: политические контексты и учебная практика

In 1946, under the Spiritual Board of the Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, the Miri Arab (Bukhara) and later Barakhan Madrasas (1956-1961, Tashkent) were opened. In 1971, the Higher Institute / Oliy Ma'had was opened at SADUM. Both madrasas became the most popular Muslim educational institutions, in which many eminent theologians of the former USSR were trained. However, like any institution created by decree and under the control of the authorities, madrasas were not free from the direct and indirect influence of political, ideological, general educational and other institutions of Soviet power, which sometimes gave rise to unusual eclecticism in the language, thinking or norms of behavior of students of these educational institutions, especially generations of the 1970s - 1980s. In this article, on the basis of archival materials, we research the forms of control over the activities of madrassas, changes in training programs, motivation of initiators of changes in curricula, the extent to which state control agencies invade this process, consider attempts to form a special type of loyal "Soviet Imam" with a new way of thinking, a new dress code, in which the tie was supposed to symbolize the compromise with secular authorities, a complete retirement from the "old world", and therefore, the old ways of teaching.

Виникнення та діяльність Таврійського Магометанського Духовного Правління (до історіографії питання)

Виникнення та діяльність Таврійського Магометанського Духовного Правління (до історіографії питання)

YAKUTIA AS A PART OF THE KAMCHATKA DIOCESE (1856 – 1869): FEATURES OF CHURCH MANAGEMENT

The paper addresses the Kamchatka period of the history of Orthodoxy in Yakutia (1856 – 1869) as one of the stages of activity of the Russian Orthodox Church on the edge of the Empire’s borders in the context of the state policy which included the tool for integration of the ethnic group of the region in the all-Russian social and economic structure in the course of intercivilization interaction. The civilization method of research was used.The role and importance of the activities of Archbishop Innokenty (Veniaminov) in changing the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church in Yakutia are defined, which contributed to the emergence of the Church’s administrative autonomy, with the establishment of the Vicariate and the reform of the Spiritual Board, and also the clergy of Yakutia with the opportunities for a number of benefits associated with specific features of living in the Far North: the payment of travel, the increased size of the salary, pension content outer payment etc. It was discovered that during the studied period the Kamchatka Bishop was granted the right to admit representatives of the local population in the clergy, which allowed to further solve the problem of staff shortages, which is topical for the Republic of Yakutia. It is revealed that being a part of the Kamchatka Diocese created the preconditions for the establishment of an independent Yakutsk and Vilyuysk Diocese.

THE MUSLIMS OF THE CRIMEA AND THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT: A VIEW FROM MOSCOW OF THE 1920s

The article presents archival materials of the 1920s, preserved in the central archives of the Russian Federation, on Muslims’ condition, positions of Islamic leaders in the Crimea and their interrelations with Muslims in the other regions of the former Russian Empire. The author considers cooperation between the Central Spiritual Board of Muslims (CSBM) in Ufa and the People’s Office for Religious Affairs of Muslims of the Crimea in the 1920s. The article contains a comparative analysis of management practices of the Soviet authorities towards Muslims of the Crimea and Volga-Ural region.

Contextualized violence: politics and terror in Dagestan

Despite the escalating terrorist actions, there is no polarized constellation in the Islamic politics of Dagestan. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) officers regard the corrupt Dagestan authorities to be significantly responsible for the massive conversion of youths to terrorism, and began to contact with moderate Salafis to isolate the “forest brothers” (armed Salafis) in 2010. Exploiting the FSB's soft strategy, secular intellectuals requested to reform the Muslim Spiritual Board of Dagestan by electing a legitimate mufti. Having seen the incompetence of intra-Sufi opposition (non-Avar sheikhs) in the War on Terror, the Spiritual Board jumped on the bandwagon of dialog strategy in 2012. The secular authorities of Dagestan, indifferent to intra-Muslim politics, limit their activities to the call for dialog between the secular authorities and the forest brothers. In this way, political actors hijack the master narrative of the “War on Terror” and these narratives are imported to local politics.

Islam in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan: in Sear of New Representations

This paper examines the role of Islam in public life following the active re-Islamization of the Kazakh society in the beginning of the 1990s. The author studies Muslim organizations at local and republican levels, namely the Spiritual Board of Kazakhstan’s Muslims and the Association of Kazakhstan’s Pilgrims (Hajjis). The focus is made on local particularities of a “new religious cultural space” in the polity during the last 10 or 15 years.

Muslim Spiritual Boards in Post-Soviet Сhесhnуа: а Historical Survey

Ваsing оn а wide rаngе of nоrmаtivе аnd nаrrаtivе sources, writtеn аnd oral еvidеnсеs inсluding his оwn data gathered during ехtеnsivе field work in the Сhесhеn republic the author ехаminеs а nеw political dimеnsiоn of Muslim hierarchies set up in Сhесhnуа after the disintеgrаtiоn of the Soviet Uniоn and the Soviet rеgiоnаl Spiritual Board of North Caucasus Muslims. А special аttеntiоn is paid to the rеlаtiоnship bеtwееn сhаnging republican gоvеrnmеnts аnd the authorities of Chechen Muslim Spiritual Board, the influеnсе of the two Russiаn-Сhесhеn wars оn оrgаnizаtiоn аnd ideology of Islam in the republic. In addition, the author investigates the role of Muslim Spiritual Boards in post-Soviet schism of the Sunni Muslim соmmunitу into trаditiоnаlists аnd Wahhabi religious аnd political dissidеnts.