ISLAMIC THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT
This article opens the cycle of works timed to the 200th anniversary of Khusain Faizkhanov’s (1823–1866) birth and conceived to review some aspects of his life and activity. Directly this work clarifies some details of Faizkhanov’s biography and offers a corrected assessment of his interactions with such prominent scholars as A. K. Kazembek and Sh. Marjani, who played an important role in the beginning of his career. Kh. Faizkhanov’s communication with Kazembek during their stay in Kazan was not long, but resulted in productive cooperation and close contacts which continued thereafter. Kazembek was able to appreciate Faizkhanov’s thirst for knowledge and his outstanding intellectual abilities, entrusting him with responsible scientific work. It is not clear to what extent other scientists in Kazan probably influenced Faizkhanov. It should be emphasized once again that it was Faizkhanov who introduced Sh. Marjani to the circle of Kazan orientalists, and not vice versa. I draw attention to the dependence of Marjani’s historical texts from Faizkhanov’s works, which were published only at the beginning of the 21th century. Without denying the authority of Sh. Marjani as a major theologian, I propose to see his influence on Faizkhanov as overrated. New materials allow us to confirm the fact that Faizkhanov was present in St.-Petersburg at the very beginning of 1854.
This article opens a series of publications of the commented translation into Russian of the interpretation to the Surah “al-Fatiha” (No. 1) by the founder of classical Muslim exegesis Muḥammad ibn Jarīr aṭ-Ṭabari (839–923) from the book “Jāmi‘ al-bayān fī ta’wīl al-Qur’ān” (The Comprehensive Exposition of the interpretation of the Qur’ān). This part contains sections devoted to the names of this surah — “Mother of the Qur’ān” (umm al-qur’an), “Opening the Scripture” (fātiḥat al-kitāb) and “The seven repeatable” (as-sab‘u al-mathānī), as well as the prayer formulas with which the Holy Scripture of Islam begins — Isti‘ādha and Basmalla. In the last sections, special attention is paid to the etymology of the words used in these formulas on the based the examples of preslamic poetry and the traditions of the “ancient fathers” of the Ummah.
The first article was devoted to arguing that cardiocentrism is a generally significant feature not only of Orthodox-Slavic culture and religion, but also of Islam. We showed that the entire Islamic worldview is built on the principle of harmony of faith and reason and is free from the extremes of rationalism and irrationalism. Its cornerstone is the concept of the heart. In this article the theme is continued, but from a special angle of consideration-through revealing the peculiarities of the spiritual-hearted vision of being and its differences from the usual sensual, visual perception of the world. The main feature of heart mechanisms of perception of the world is that through them there appears the unique ability of inner vision, realizing the accession to the special knowledge, given by Allah. It is given as a divine gift only to selected people, who can see such facet of existence that are inaccessible to ordinary vision. This ability of “excessive” vision greatly enhances the drama of life, as it allows to see many manifestations of imperfection of the world and man, while it greatly complicates the already complex life.
This publication is devoted to the consideration of the main concepts of Islamic theology such as the “territory of Islam” (dar al-Islam) and the “territory of war” (dar al-harb), which was developed in the works of Fiqh scholars. The author studies semantic development of this concept on the example of a number of modern Muslim scholars and theologians’ points of view, and their position regarding the related Shari‘a norms.
The article is devoted to the problem of studying the issues of marriage and family relations in the Muslim theological discourse. Theologians have paid special attention to the institution of the family since the early epoch of the Fiqh, and their works bear witness to this. They contain concise principles with the help of which they justified theological conclusions aimed at solving marital and family problems. A deep analysis of these works helped to identify these principles, the study of which will help modern theologians to understand the goals of Sharia in the field of family relations and will effectively resolve the problems of marriage and family relations.
ISLAM IN RUSSIAN SOCIO-POLITICAL LIFE
In the era of the collapse of the Golden Horde, representatives of non-dynastic nobility, leaders of Turkic tribes, gained access to power in some polities. In the Nogay Horde, these were the leaders of the Manghyt tribe. Since they did not belong to the descendants of Genghis Khan as the only basis for legitimate rule, they had to invent other ways to legitimize their managerial prerogatives. Inside the court environment of Manghyt leaders, a genealogical combination was compiled regarding the pedigree of the founder of the Nogay ruling dynasty, Bek Ӓdigü. His origin was artificially erected to the Sufi preacher of the 14th century Khoja Ahmad Baba Tükles, and he, in turn, was declared a direct descendant of the first caliph Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. In this pedigree, there was a mixture of purely Sufi silsila (as a succession of pious sheikhs) and a succession of purely secular rulers, including clearly legendary ones.
The article presents materials reflecting the religious culture of the Muslim peoples of Central Asia, which were collected by S. M. Dudin during his trips (1900–1902) on the instructions of the Ethnographic Department of the Russian Museum (now the Russian Ethnographic Museum). They include attributes of Islamic cult, photographs of rituals and places of worship, as well as descriptions of various phenomena in religious life of the local population. He noted a much greater influence of Islam on the everyday culture of sedentary Uzbeks and Tajiks than on culture of nomads. At the same time, some pre-Islamic ideas and practices were still in use, for example, divination, magic healing and so on. Dudin has drawn attention to the city-forming significance of Muslim architecture and the role of places of worship in social life. Describing the attributes of the cult, he characterizes the peculiarities of their presence among different peoples of the region. Dudin has pointed out unique information provided by him about the dervishes and their participation in the Andijan uprising (1898). At present, the materials of Dudin’s journey: clothing, collection of photo, documents present a valuable historical source on religious culture of the Central Asia of the late 19th — early 20th centuries.
This paper analyzes Arabic newspaper and magazine publications devoted to the assessment of the USSR foreign policy towards the East European countries after the signing of the Soviet-German non-aggression treaty of August 23, 1939. The article presents the opinions of Arab journalists and writers about the prerequisites and consequences of the signing of the so-called «Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact», the peculiarities of relations between Moscow and Berlin in the end of 1939, the reasons for the invasion of the Red Army in Poland, as well as the motives that prompted the Soviet leadership to strengthen its presence in the Baltic region. It is concluded that many authoritative Arabic newspapers and magazines, despite a dependence on the Western European information agenda, sought to independently comprehend the actions of the Soviet government in different parts of Europe, sometimes even emphasizing the forced nature of an aggressive and ultimatum policy. At the same time, it is impossible to talk about the existence of a dominant position on this problem. Arab authors frequently criticized the military and political actions of the Soviet government in the autumn-winter of 1939. It should be added that the volume and number of articles published in the press testify to the true interest of the Middle Eastern publics in the state of affairs in the distant Soviet Union.
Any political, especially religious movement or ideology, should have its historical predecessors, whose views and ideas would somehow affect them. Understanding the origins and sources contributes to a more realistic and objective view of modern phenomena, especially in such traditional countries as Afghanistan, where tradition indelibly leaves its mark on everything. The purpose of the article is to attempt to give a comprehensive and chronological description of the ideas and ideologies that formed the basis for the emergence of Islamist political parties in Afghanistan. The materials used are the works of domestic and foreign orientalists, including Afghan ones, as well as sources in the national languages of Afghanistan. The research is based on the method of consistent description of the source and its characteristics to demonstrate its connection with the modern phenomenon of political Islam. The paper presents a list of alleged ideological sources and precursors of political Islam in Afghanistan in the mid-20th century. Their historical and ideological characteristics are given. The main representatives and supporters of certain ideas, their social status and attitude to other movements and ideologies are described. Political Islam in Afghanistan did not arise as something exclusively external, but had under it, in addition to the external form and external borrowings (the ideology of “deobandism”, “Muslim Brotherhood”), also internal sources peculiar to Afghan society in the form of tribal chiefdom, which became a kind of general organizational beginning of any political and religious movement. The complexity of Islamism in Afghanistan lies in its mixed structure, which is especially evident at the moment, in the ideology and practice of the Taliban Movement, which, on the one hand, is based on the provisions of «deobandism», pan-Islamism, to a lesser extent the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, but on the other hand, it completely contradicts them, which is purely due to tribal traditional features of the social structure and worldview of the backbone of the movement.
ISLAM IN THE REGIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
The article analyzes the four-volume work of the orientalist of the XIX century V. V. Velyaminov-Zernov “Research on the Kasimov tsars and tsarevichs” (1863–1887), dedicated to the history of the Kasimov Khanate. The main attention is paid to the local history material about the city of Kasimov of the 17–19th centuries, including its Muslim district. The paper reveals novelty of the scientist’s approaches to history of Kasimov Tatar community. The first paragraph examines the conclusions of V. V. Velyaminov-Zernov regarding medieval fortresses located around Kasimov, the scientist concludes that these fortresses belonged to Tatar rulers during the period of the Kasimov Khanate. The second paragraph reveals the orientalist’s views on Orthodox-Muslim interaction in Kasimov in the 17–18th centuries. According to V. V. Velyaminov-Zernov, until the beginning of the 17th century there were two equivalent authorities in the city: the voivodeship court and the court of the Kasimov rulers. The article considers the history of Tatar heritage in Kasimov. The third paragraph is devoted to the 19th century. Velyaminov-Zernov’s research is useful for local historians dealing with the history of the Ryazan region.
OBITUARY
ISSN 2618-7221 (Online)