Heroes in the Turkic-Muslim Environment: Reasons and Criteria of Heroization

The purpose of research is to study the content of the process of heroization in the Muslim environment. The implementation of the purpose is carried out on a heterogeneous source basis. In the article, the author examines specific features of the process of glorification in the Muslim environment based on the study of previously unknown or less-known archival documents, legislative acts, memoirs of Muslims or their descendants (“voice of Islam”). The perspective of presenting historical material with an emphasis on the religious phenomenon of heroism is original. For the first time in Russian historiography, the author used the optics of studying glorification in relation to the Turkic-Muslim environment, examining the factors influencing the transformation of this process: the connection between ethnic and religious principles, the deeds of outstanding Muslim heroes, and the state-ethnic-confessional policy. Conceptually, the article provides an analysis of the interweaving of religious and ethnic principles in the historical memory and objective reality of the Muslim part of the Russian population, which allows for a more in-depth study of the basic foundations of Pan-Turkism and Pan-Islamism. Particular attention is focused on the criteria for defining a hero or a group of heroes. It is concluded that the criteria for defining heroes of the Muslim world are: the deep faith in Allah, the ability to defend this faith even to the point of losing one’s own life, the knowledge of the fundamentals of Islamic doctrine, the adherence to the norms of Sharia in daily life, and the nurturing children in the spirit of Islam. In addition to that, there is a set of certain factors that contribute to the consolidation of the names of heroes in historical memory or, on the contrary, reduce their significance. Traditional society preserves the memory of its heroes from generation to generation, adding new names in the process of developing national self-awareness. A person who loves his multi-confessional Motherland extrapolates his understanding of the criteria of heroism depending on interfaith interactions.

1. Carlyle T. (2008) Geroi, pochitanie geroev i geroicheskoe v istorii [On Heroes, Hero- Worship, & the Heroic in History]. Moscow: Eksmo Publ. 864 p.

2. Faizhanov G. (2005) Kniga sobesedovanii (traktaty) o sredstvakh k zhizni i izobiliiu [Book of Interviews (Treatises) On the Means to Life and Abundance]. Sabirov S. V. Mulla Gabdulgalliam Faizkhanov: kratkii ocherk zhizni i deiatel’nosti. Prilozhenie 1 [Mullah Gabdulgallam Faizhanov: A Brief Essay on Life and Activity. Appendix 1]. Nizhny Novgorod: ID «Medina» Publ. Pp. 41–43.

3. Islam na evropeiskom Vostoke: entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ [Islam in the European East: an Encyclopedic Dictionary] (2004) Kazan. 383 p.

4. Khabutdinov A. Yu. (2003) Lidery natsii [Leaders of the Nation]. Kazan. 159 p.

5. Mukhetdinov D. (2021) Rossiiskoe musul’manstvo: v poiskakh politicheskoi sub”ektnosti [Russian Muslims: In Search of Political Subjectivity]. Moscow: ID «Medina» Publ. 360 p.

6. Musul’manskaia blagotvoritel’nost’ i formirovanie sistemy samoupravleniia [Muslim Charity and the Formation of a System of Self-Governance] (2022) Istoriia islama v Rossii [History of Islam in Russia]. General Editorship of R. M. Mukhametshin. Kirov. Pp. 307–320.

7. Nizhegorodskie tatary: biografi cheskii slovar’ [Nizhny Novgorod Tatars: A Biographical Dictionary] (2008) Nizhny Novgorod. 576 p.

8. Ovsyannikov N. N. (1867) O torgovle na Nizhegorodskoi yarmarke [On Trade at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair]. Nizhny Novgorod. [4], 167 p.

9. Senutkin S. B., Idrisov U. Y., Senutkina О. N., Guseva Yu. N. (1998) Istoriia islamskikh obshchin Nizhegorodskoi oblasti [History of Islamic Communities in Nizhny Novgorod Region]. Nizhny Novgorod. 550 p.

10. Senutkina О. N. (2009) Iz istorii tatarskoi derevni Bazlovo [From the History of the Tatar Village of Bazlovo]. Nizhny Novgorod. 31 p.

11. Sobranie gosudarstvennykh gramot i dogovorov, khraniashchikhsia v Gosudarstvennoi kollegii inostrannykh del (SGGD) [Collection of State Certifi cates and Treaties, Stored in the State Collegium of Foreign Aff airs] (1828) Vol. 4. Moscow. Pp. 396–410.

12. Tabel’ o rangakh vsekh chinov, voinskikh, statskikh i pridvornykh, kotorye v kotorom klasse chiny i kotorye v odnom klasse, te imeiut po starshestvu vremeni vstupleniia v chin mezhdu soboiu, odnako zh voinskie vyshe protchikh, khotia b i staree kto v tom klasse pozhalovan byl [Table of Ranks of All Ranks, Military, Civil, and Courtiers, Which in Which Class of Ranks, and Which in the Same Class, They Have Seniority of Time, Entry into Rank among Themselves, However, Military Ones Are Higher Than Others, Even If the One in That Class Was Granted Older] (1722) [Moscow]: Pechatano v Moskovskoi tipografi i Publ., 30 January 1722. 16 p.

13. Al-T urbani J. (2018) 100 velikikh liudei islama [100 Great People of Islam]. Nur Book Publ. 640 p.

14. Zakirov G. (2008) Vstupitel’noe slovo [Introduction]. Nizhegorodskie tatary: biografi cheskii slovar’ [Nizhny Novgorod Tatars: A Biographical Dictionary]. Nizhny Novgorod. 576 p.