The article is devoted to the problem of dialogue between religions, which is associated with a wider range of issues as (cor)relations between religions, society and the state. The author concentrates on the case of the Russian Federation, while his paper deals with such issues as how to define subjects of interreligious dialogue, as well as which are its main traits and topics. As intermediate conclusions it could be marked that: (1) the discussion on theological issues and challenges should never be considered as a pretext for mutual rejection; (2) dialectics of tradition and renewal has to be a key topic of conversation; (3) each investigation of ethical issues must take in account the task of prevention of youth extremism, which can probably emerge in some contexts; (4) challenges of progress affect not only religious institutions but also societies as whole.

This paper aims to continue and develop the research cycle on history of Qur’an translations in Europe. The paper deals with rethinking of possible background of Russian Qur’an translations, commonly traced back up to the first half of the 19th century. Ca. 1800 the tradition of Qur’an translating in Russia was already rich and varied in its scientific, literary and religious contexts. However, its origin could be found in the earlier similar tradition of Lithuanian Tatars, which was developed at least from the 16th century in intellectual space of the three states, namely Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rzeczpospolita and Tsardom of Russia. This Muslim ethnocultural group shaped their own Qur’an translation school in the West Russian (Ruthenian, Old Belorusian) language closely related to modern Russian.

The author of this article shortly describes the philosophical aspects of the thought of Hasan Alqadari. A Lezghian Sunni Muslim scholar Hasan Alqadari (1834–1910) is widely regarded as one of the prominent and impressive jurist and historian in Imperial Russia’s Caucasian Dagestan region. Contemporary Islamic scholars present him as Shafi‘i jurist, historian, teacher and enlightener. This article sets out to reconsider Hasan Alqadari’s legacy and to study his representative writings such as Divan alMamnun and Djirab al- Mamnun that allow rethinking Hasan Alqadari as a Muslim thinker. It demonstrates that Hasan Alqadari developed ideas on philosophical issues and topics. The article analyzes those ideas of Hasan Alqadari that he considered the most important for Muslim community. It examines his philosophical and social views and ethical thought. The author outlines specific directions for future research on Hasan Alqadari’s legacy.

This article is devoted to the ideas of Rizaetdin Fakhretdin (1859‒1936) concerning the statehood of the Late Modern (19th century) period. His main theological work “Dini ve ijtimagy meseleler” (“Religious and Social Issues” (1914)) was devoted to the justification of the modernization reforms as well as to ways of their understanding from the Muslim point of view. R. Fakhraddin analyzed reforms of the political and legal system, the introduction of the Constitution, the construction of the rule of law, the creation of Parliament. He justified the necessity and legitimacy of these reforms from the point of view of the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

The article deals with the history of the Tatar Sloboda in Moscow at the end of the 18^th century, when a small Tatar Muslim community of the second Russian capital experienced upheavals in connection with the plague epidemic of 1770–1771. As a result of the epidemic, the number of the community and of the Tatar households in Moscow has significantly decreased; the old cemetery behind the Kaluga Gate was taken from the Tatars. In addition, this group of the population, which developed as an ethnoconfessional one, lost its sacred center — a mosque in Ovchinnaya Sloboda on Tatarskaya Street. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the publication of archival documents from the repositories of Moscow, including the first published document from the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts with the data of the census of the Tatar Sloboda in 1773.

The paper is devoted to the description of Musa Bigeev’s social and political activity. The research deals with Musa Bigeev’s correspondence (1917–1923) with highly controversial Turkish politician Enver Paşa, which was unstudied earlier.

There are still many lacunae in the biographies of the Russian and Turkestan prominent religious scholars of the 19th and 20th centuries. In some cases, the biographies of their acquaintances and counterparts could provide some important data which are missing elsewhere. The present article describes two episodes from the history of acquaintance of the renowned Tatar theologian Musa Bigeev and Sayyid Mahmud Tarazi, a prominent scholar from Turkestan, who was forced to emigrate from early Soviet Central Asia and later became one of the leaders of the Turkestan diaspora in the Middle East. The author cites information from the biographies of both scholars and argues that they may have temporarily belonged to the same émigré circles, and were acquainted with each other. A research of their respective biographies indicates that Bigeev and Tarazi met in Bombay in the 1930s and also may have known each other for twenty years prior to their emigration.The subject addressed in this article is of particular significance in reconstructing the history of contacts between the Russian and Turkestan religious scholars during their emigration and in the period preceding it.Key words: Musa Bigeev, Sayyid Mahmud Tarazi, biography, emigration, Kabul, Bombay, Bukhara.

The offered to the reader article analyzes the first chapters of monumental commentary by Ṣadaqah b. Munajjā al-Ḥakīm on Genesis (XIII c.). On the base of the conducted analysis of the Middle Age Arab-speaking theologian, philosopher and doctor, the author comes to the conclusion that Samaritan thought depends on the most important achievements of Muslim one — especially, on Mu‘talizi and peripatetic natural- philosophical and metaphysical theories that don’t become less of an issue until the decline of classical era of Arab culture. For the first time in the history of orientalism it is shown that the basic principles of anthropological theories by al- Hakim retroduce the conceptions by Mu‘tazili Mu‘ammar ibn ‘Abbād alSulamī, faylasuf al- Kindī and ‘the Main Sheikh’, Ibn Sīnā. Separately is observed the connection between the ‘Hexameron’ by Ṣadaqah and works by other Samaritan theologians: the author notices that some particular anthropological notes by the theologian made a basis for an unpublished commentary by Muslim ibn Murjān and Ibrāhīm al-‘Ayyah (XVIII c.) on ‘Grizim’s’ Pentateuch. The conclusion of the work is dedicated to the general eclectic character of early and late exegetic tradition of Samaritan who accepted Muslim study of God and human as the most important for them.