he article considers a unique document – the diary of Musa Bigeev dedicated to the Hajj that he performed in 1927. The material reveals us little-known facts about the life of the Tatar theologian. The article summarizes the part of Musa Bigeev’s personal archive consisting of his diaries and presents a detailed description of the diary entries about Bigeev’s Hajj journey. Also, the article briefl y discusses the history of hajjname as a Tatar literary genre, considers the events, preceding Bigeev’s Hajj, our knowledge about this journey and particular features and contents of Hajj travel diaries. It published the fi rst part "Notes", ending at No 4. Fully document in Russian and Tatar languages to be published in the Publishing House "Medina". Translation and comments made by Aidar G. Khairutdinov. Scientifi c translation editor Shamil R. Kashaf.

The article deals with Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali’s principles of interpretation of Quran (tafsir). Al-Ghazzali criticizes traditionalist approach, which implies that every interpretation outside the verbal or scriptural tradition is wrong. Al-Ghazzali maintains that genuinely universalistic vision is sufi vision, which implies that Quran is always actualized in present moment, is addressed to faithful man and as divine attribute has fathomless profound. Quran is an ocean of knowledge without shore. Man could plunge into it if he opened his hearth for the light of God. If he hasn’t done that, he is situated on the periphery of Quran. In his works al-Ghazzali gives theological and legal argumentation for the sufi mystical approach. He also analyzes explicit and implicit principles of Quranic recitation. Al-Ghazzali’s sufi hermeneutics represents original phenomenon in the history of Islamic thought.

The article analyzes the views and ideas of the Tatar enlightener and theologian Gabdulla Bubi (1871–1922) on nasih and mansuh ayahs in Islamic theological culture.
Gabdulla Bubi considers revision of the classical understanding of this issue and tends to show that there cannot be nash in the holy Quran. The article examines the category of nasih and mansuh in his own theological re-examination.

Quranic metaphors describing theological ideas in commercial terms are an important source of knowledge about social and economic conditions and values existing in the Arabian society at the time of the Quran’s revelation to the prophet Muhammad. A comparison of the frequency of the metaphors’ appearance in the Mec-can and the Medinan suras shows equal importance of commerce for the populations of both Mecca and Medina (Yathrib). The concrete use of certain metaphors and images in the Meccan and the Medinan suras depends on the content of the verses, their audiences and the specifi c circumstances of the Revelation.

The article analyzes the transformation of the bodies of self-government, which existed in the Tatar Mahalla during Soviet times. This work is based on the case study of religious communities of the Ulyanovsk region and uses the documents of the Council for Religious Aff airs of the Ulyanovsk region as source materials. The article analyzes the dynamics of age and social composition of self-administration, in particular, an executive body, a revision commission and ‘the twenty’ — an institution of staff rotation. Mutawalliats, as well as all religious communities, suff ered harsh devastation, while Muslim clergy and the members of the «twenties» were subjected to mass repressions during the period of staunch Soviet atheism. We can distinguish several interrelated processes in the 1950–1980’s: aging of the members of administrative bodies and reduction of the average number of «twenties». Their social structure was determined by countryside residency. By the 1970’s, administrative bodies had been dominated by the elderly. The analysis of empirical data revealed several patterns of personnel rotation in the bodies of self-government in the Tatar Mahalla of the Ulyanovsk region.

This article aims at identifying the needs for rethinking theological opinion on the conditions of Muslim Hajj through the prism of historical analysis of the organization of the pilgrimage in the post-industrial period of societal development.

Article deals with views and policies of the Soviet military leader Mikhail Frunze towards Mus-lim peoples and countries (Central Asia, Afghanistan and Turkey).

The article analyzes the fundamental principles of Islamic conception of caliphate as an ideal model of Islamic rule. The author also considers the views of modern Sunni thinkers on caliphate in the light of historic evolution of Islamic rule and today’s state of the Muslim world.

The article considers the history of a number of resonant political cases that illustrate in the best way possible the mechanism of decision-making not only in the administration of the Turkestan region, but also in the central government of the Russian Empire. The author also focuses on the role of the Turk-estani regional security offi ce in creating ‘manias’ and ‘phobias’. It was the incompetence of the Turkestani administration multiplied by the desire of career development of certain high-ranking offi cials that provided a breeding ground for such ‘manias’ and ‘phobias’.

A problem arose with the creation of the fi rst independent religious structure in Post-Soviet Tatarstan (Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Tatarstan) and that was an urgent need to train imams and mudarrises for Tatarstan’s mosques, madrasahs and maktabs. The ties between Kazan, Bukhara and Tashkent — traditional centers for the training of Tatar imams — were destroyed after the disintegration of the USSR; as a result, the absence of religious schools necessitated a search for new approaches. Help was received from various Arab funds and patrons, mainly from the Gulf States. At their expense, hundreds of young Muslim Tatars were trained abroad. By the example of the events in the religious sphere of Tatarstan in the last twenty years, we can see the dynamics of the government’s attitude towards the problem of foreign Muslim education: from neutral and sometimes optimistic to highly negative.

Religious instruction in Turkish schools is compulsory since 1982. However, Turkish nationals of non-Muslim origin are exempted from religious culture and ethics classes, while for Turkish nationals of Muslim origin these classes are compulsory.Although the majority of the population in Turkey is Sunni Hanafi Muslim, Islam is not a monolithic religion in this society. There are diff erent streams within Islam in Turkey, and maybe most signifi cant among those is Alevism. According to some Alevis, religious culture and ethics classes do not comply with the principles of objectivity and pluralism.This article discusses the case of Hasan and Eylem Zengin against Turkey held in the European Court of Human Rights and evaluates the infl uence of the ECHR’s decisions on modifi cation of the religious instruction in schools of Turkey.

Before the beginning of the 20th century, family law in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey (1923– 1926) had been mainly regulated by the Islamic law in accordance with the rules of the Hanafi legal school. However, since the second half of the 19th century, due to the objective changes in the domestic and foreign political and economic conditions, the Ottomans were forced to reform their legal system. This article addresses the problems of codifi cation of Islamic family law in the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic, the issues of Islamic law refl ected in the Civil Code of the Republic of Turkey today.

This article deals with the problem of a discrepancy between the law and rights as the concepts of Islamic legal thought and modern science. A proposed solution suggested by the author is to examine the approaches towards these concepts existing in the modern legal science. In addition, this work provides a number of examples of the law and rights’ interpretation in Islam. This article is an interdisciplinary study of rights, Islamic legal culture, Sharia and Fiqh through the prism of Islamic knowledge, legal theory and legal policy.

The article is devoted to the modern trends of formation of innovative ideas and practices in economics, socio-environmental issues and culture. They are analysed through the prism of the fundamental problems of world development. First of all, they are forming within the concept of sustainable development, elaborated under the auspices of the UNO, as well as in the theory of Islamic economy based on Quranic precept of Justice in all human relations. In many ways these models are alternatives to the radical postulates of neo-liberal capitalism and are guidelines for the approval of a new development paradigm.

The article analyzes France's Middle East and North Africa policy during the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy (2007–2012). The article examines various French projects in the region, among which are the Barcelona process, the Union for the Mediterranean and the program of the Deauville partnership. Apart from regional projects, Sarkozy was also successfully developing bilateral relations with the key states of the region. The author accentuates France's active position regarding the settlement of the Arab-Israeli confl ict and highlights France’s eff orts in overcoming the political crisis in Lebanon and its role in the ‘Arab Spring’. 

The article reviews the 3rd International Scientific and Theological Conference Bigiev Readings ‘All-Embracing Divine Mercy as a Principle of Interreligious Dialogue in the 21st Century’ held April, 27–28 2016 in Saint-Petersburg. The author considers main concepts of this issue and conference speakers’ main ideas.