This article is dedicated to the development of Muslim community of Republic of Tatarstan in 2016-early 2018. The author continues his series of books and articles, dedicated to the development of Muslim community in Tatarstan in 2000–2010-s. He comes to a conclusion that the stability in the religious sphere prevails in the republic, as a whole. The abridgement of the rights of republic, the abolition of national-regional component in schools and compulsory teaching of Tatar language leads to an upheaval of the role of Islam in spiritual sphere in whole, and education and culture spheres in particular. The Muslim Spiritual Administration of Republic of Tatarstan continues to secure its monopoly among the Muslim organizations in RT. Meanwhile the representatives of the radical organizations, which activities are forbidden in Russia, such as ISIS, Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, Tablighi Jamaat continue their activities. Law enforcing organs continue their struggle against these organizations, which leads to the liquidation of their branches, arrests and penalties with real terms in jail. In 2016-early 2018 we see the decrease of terrorism connected crimes and absence of terrorist attacks in Tatarstan.

The article is devoted to the study of the written heritage of Musa Bigiev. The authors off er its classifi cation by types. Results of their scientifi c work, which are presented in this text, consist in the detection and identifi - cation of Bigiev’s lifetime published books, as in the sketching of the most complete list of his works available for research at the moment. One of goals of this article was an attempt to defi ne the total number of Bigiev’s works, which were published during his lifetime. At the same time the authors intended to sketch the list of works which still could be found in the archives.

The article reveals the peculiarities of the development of the religious policy of the Russian Empire in relation to the Kazakh population in XVIII — XIX centuries. The author uses previously unpublished materials from the holdings of the Historical archive of Omsk region. This perspective of the study is of practical importance, as in the modern world it is impossible to imagine a multiconfessional state without a certain model of religious policy. One of the variants of such a model was the religious policy of the government of Catherine II. In an eff ort to culturally integrate the Kazakhs into Russia and to protect them from the influence of the Tashkent, Bukhara and Khiva anti-Petersburg teachers of Islam, the Russian government in the XVIII century made the Tatar mullahs official representatives and guides of the Russian influence among the Muslim Kazakhs. Tatars had to make the prospect of Russian citizenship more attractive for the Kazakh population than the possibility of political unity with Muslims of Central Asian khanates. At the same time, the Central Asian teachers of Islam have already begun their preaching in the Kazakh steppe. But after the conquest of Central Asia the Russian authorities had no more need for the active Tatar presence in the region. The Russian government organizationally separated Muslim Tatars from Muslim Kazakhs, strengthened the secular direction of development of Kazakh culture, maintaining the loyalty of the Kazakh people. At the same time, any illegal initiatives, which restricted the Muslim population of the Empire, were stopped. Thus, the successful expansion of the borders of the Russian Empire in the XIX century is not only an indicator of the military power of the Empire, but also the result of a flexible religious policy.

The paper deals with the important question of correlation between the development of general erudition and increasing the level of professional competences in Islamic theological education. The imams from the first day of their work must understand and resolve difficult psychological, philosophical and moral problems in the community of believers. So, the author points out the case-methode as the best possibility of the elaboration of practical theological competences. The author describes theoretical positions of Islamic theologians of Russia, who paid a lot of attention to the professional and pedagogical problems of religious activities of Muslim community leaders. One case, which is tied with the translation of Arabic religious terms, is presented in the paper.

The present article is devoted to the study of famous Ottoman historian Kâtip Çelebi’s views in the context of Ibn Khaldūn’s teaching. The prominent Muslim historian Ibn Khaldūn (1332–1406) adheres to a scientific method in the fi eld of historical studies and gives economic priority over religious in the formation and development of the state and civilization. The political changes in the Islamic world in 15th century (the territorial expansion and culmination of Ottoman Empire) were of the utmost signifi cance to the development of Ottoman historiographical tradition. Ibn Khaldūn’s dominate infl uence on Ottoman intellectual thought remained until 20th century; hence the modern Turkish scientists designate this centuries-old tradition as “Ibn Khaldūnizm” (İbn Haldunculuk). Kâtip Çelebi shared Ibn Khaldūn’s method of historical criticism. The author considers that Katib Celebi should be viewed not only as historian, but also as an important representative of the Islamic sociological tradition established by Ibn Khaldūn. Kâtip Çelebi rethought and developed Ibn Khaldūn’s views on state.

In article on the basis of the involvement of a wide range of sources is analyzed the population dynamics of the Muslim in Finland in historical perspective, as the ethno-cultural processes of self-organization and level of integration into the accepting society. It is well-known that the part of the Muslim population in Finland is represented, from the one side, by historical Tatar minority, which has been living in the country since the beginning of the XIX century and, from the other side, by the migrants of the ‘new wave’. The country has established flexible mechanisms of socio-cultural adaptation and integration of migrants. Currently Tatars are fully integrated into Finnish society. The government offers all the facilities for maintenance and development of ethnic cultures.

Religious messianism has always been one of the most important features of Judaism and infl uenced the history of the Jewish people and Jewish thought throughout their existence. One of the most famous cases of the manifestation of Jewish messianism was the movement of the Sabbateans, which arose on the territory of the Ottoman Empire in the mid-17th century. Sabbatai Zevi, the leader of the movement, was recognized as the Messiah by most Jewish communities of the time. After he converted to Islam in 1666, however, most of his former supporters rejected him. At the same time, his most radical adherents followed him and also adopted a new faith, forming closed groups of “believers” (Hebrew ma’aminim), or “apostates” (Turkish dönmeh). They secretly continued to profess an unorthodox (Sabbatean) version of Judaism, characterized by antinomianism and theological innovations. Dönmeh continued to exist on the territory of the Islamic world during the 18–20th centuries, becoming one of the factors that infl uenced the political and cultural life of the Ottoman Empire. The article examines the teaching of this messianic school, the attitude of its adherents to Islam, the role of Dönmeh in the processes of secularization in the Ottoman Empire and in the revolutionary movement in Turkey at the beginning of the 20th century. In addition, we analyze the myths about the Dönme conspiracy that spread in Turkish society throughout the 20th century and are actively used by various political forces nowadays.

The article examines the Sufi practices of female dhikr, which are used on the territory of Ingushetia. In the focus of attention there is a Qadiriyya rite of loud dhikr in the context of various rites of life cycles of man as well as Muslim holidays. It also shows the role of dhikr for socialization, consolidation and teaching the fundamentals of Islam to women. The article is based on the materials of fi eld research carried out in Ingushetia in 2010–2016.

The article deals with the religio-philosophical conception of Ismail Raji al-Faruqi (1921–1986) — Palestinian-American researcher, one of the founders of Islamic Studies in the USA. Emphasis in this article was made on his views on the essence of Islam as “meta-religion”. Author analyses the evolution of his ideas and his views on the specificity of Islam, the Tawhid, the problem of free will and predestination, the mission of Muslim, the Islamic Word-Order etc. Author concludes that it is difficult to associate al-Faruqi with particular direction of Islamic thought and that his views in general can be characterized as a synthesis of Salafism and Neomodernism.

The main objective of the article is to demonstrate the possible perspectives of development of theological knowledge by the example of conceptual problems of modern Islamic theological thought. Author suggests that the resolution of these problems can be considered as one of the basis of revival of national Islamic theological tradition under the circumstances of growing global threat to the interdenominational relations. The development of Islamic theology can resolve a wide range of issues related with the processes of radicalization of worldview of certain part of Islamic community. New attempts to interpret conceptions of jahiliyyah (barbarism), faith and repentance (iman wa tawba), predestination (taqdir), the elaboration and popularization of Islamic economical ethics represent a special importance. Author claims that stating of these problems and their resolution especially requires deep reevaluation of these problems by Islamic theologians through the prism of humanities with the objective for new interpretations of theological Islamic sources.

The article considers the peculiarities of counter propaganda methods against pseudo-Islamic extremist organizations in social networks and determines the degree of efficiency and improvement of counter-propaganda measures against ISIS in social networks, undertaken by the government and civil society activists. The author concludes that the counter-propaganda in social networks must be improved with the assistance of Muslim religious organizations. The improvement of PR-technologies presupposes a lot of factors: peculiarities of audience, sources of communication, content of messages etc.