This article is published on the occasion of the launch of the series “Qur’an in Russia”, which includes all historical translations of the Qur’an into Russian. The series was opened with the reprint of “The Al-Koran of Mohammed” published in 1716, the fi rst complete translation of the Qur’an into Russian. Another translation of the Qur’an into Russian, also made in the fi rst quarter of the 18th century and preserved in manuscript, is currently being transcribed and translated into modern Russian for the next edition. In the course of this work, the researchers of the Moscow Islamic Institute and the “Medina” publishing house have studied the manuscripts of the translations and the copies of the Qur’anic translation published in 1716, including the correction edition as well as its typeset manuscript. We also analysed the results of Russian historiographical studies on these documents. The main results of our research on this subject are reported in the present work.

This is a commented translation into Russian of the only publication of Ahmetjan Mustafi n (1902–1964) — the Muhtasib of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European part of the USSR and Siberia (DUMES) for the Moscow and Gorky regions, the Chuvash and Mordovian ASSR, imam-khatib of the Moscow Cathedral Mosque in 1964–1986. The publication, published in Arabic in issue 3–4 of the magazine “Al-muslimūn fī ash-sharq as-sufi ā tiy” (“Muslims of the Soviet East”) for 1970, is a transcript of the author’s speech at the International Conference “For the Unity of Muslims in the Struggle for Peace, against Imperialist Aggression”, which took place in the same year in Tashkent. The speech is mainly an apologetics of the socialist system and the foreign policy of the USSR from the point of view of Islam in it’s modernist understanding, expressed both in direct reference to the sacred primary sources and through quoting the main representatives of this movement of the late XIX — early XX centuries — ‘Abdo, Afghani, Marjani and Bigiev. 

In the second half of the 19th- early 20th century, many Russian Muslims pilgrims, on their way to Mecca and Medina, would stop in the capital of the caliphate, Istanbul. The city had by then became part of the pilgrimage route. In Istanbul, pilgrims could visit the graves of the Prophet’s companions, see sacred Islamic relics, pray in mosques alongside the caliph of all Muslims, and immerse themselves in the religious traditions of the Ottoman Empire. Additionally, pilgrims could participate in the processions of the sultan’s caravan known as surra-i humayun, and some were even fortunate enough to join it on the journey to Hajj. One such fortunate individual was the Tatar imam Nurgali bin Hasan (1852–1919), who was a guest at the sultan’s palace and embarked on a journey to the Hij az as part of the sultan’s caravan.

The article focuses on the development of socio-political activities of Tatar women in Moscow at the beginning of the 20th century. This research seeks to illustrate to the academic community the status of Tatar women in early 20th-century society, and to contemplate the socio-political and public issues specifi cally faced by contemporary Tatar Muslim women and more broadly by the Muslim community in Russia. These activities became possible because, by the early 20th century, the Tatars had established the phenomena of women’s education and a female middle class. Among Muslims of Russia, these phenomena were predominantly observed among the Tatars. It was during this period that the legal, political, and social rights of Tatar women began to be consolidated as a comprehensive set of rights aimed at ensuring genuine gender equality.

The novelty of this article is defi ned by the author’s attempt to analyze Muslim periodicals from the early 20th century to conduct a study on the activities of the Moscow Muslim women’s movement in protecting women’s rights, including political ones, as well as its participation in (including national) bodies and local self-governing bodies in April-May 1917.

The article is devoted to the history of the formation of the community of Persian Muslim subjects in the Grozny fortress of the Terek Oblast’ in the 19th century. An analysis of the correspondence between the Shiite Muslim community and the administration of the Terek Oblast’ regarding the construction of the mosque is presented. Thus, for the first time in a scientific aspect, the author interprets the themes of the appearance of foreign citizens in the fortress, their socio-economic interests in the region, the collection of funds for the construction of the mosque, and the stages of this construction. 

The projects and epistolary legacy of Soviet Marxist Orientalists in the 1920s are a poorly studied part of the intellectual history of Russian science. It is important to note that in the early USSR, the study of the “Orient” was associated with the ideological necessity of the Bolsheviks, who considered science like a tool for modernizing not only the former outskirts  the Russian Empire, but also the whole world. This research is devoted to the activities of the All-Union Scientifi c Association of Oriental Studies in Central Asia. Paid a special attention to M. P. Pavlovich who was the initiator of association and the magazine “New Orient”. The paper found that association employers were engaged in economic, political and cultural projects in the region, including the national-territorial demarcation of Central Asia, as well as archaeological research and restoration of ancient monuments. 

The article examines the process of formation of the russian model of state-confessional relations, which develops in conditions of equality of all traditional religions before the law. Its formation is based on an understanding of the importance of building constructive relations between the state and religious associations in Russian society, where the demand for the preservation of traditional values dominates.

According to the author, currently the Russian model of state-confessional relations is still at the stage of formation, but it is already possible to identify trends and contours of its development. The specificity of this model lies in the fact that the current legal norm of separation of the state and religious associations is not considered as a barrier excluding any contacts between them. The importance of establishing partnerships between authorities and religious associations is determined by the need to ensure stability in a multi-confessional and multi-ethnic Russian society.

During the period of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine and the confrontation with the bloc of western countries, criticism of the emerging state-confessional relations from the preachers of radical Islam living on the territory of Ukraine, Turkey and a number of European countries is increasing. The North Caucasian muftiats working in the Russian legal space are mainly the object of information pressure from abroad.

The purpose of the article is to analyse the Muslim intellectual tradition in Indonesia in contexts of social problems of Islam and the Ummah. The novelty of the study for Russian historiography and Indonesian studies lies in the comprehensive analysis of the main trends and directions in the development of Muslim social thought in modern Indonesia. Methodologically, the article is based on the principles of intellectual and social history, which allow us to perceive and analyse the experience and academic contribution of Muslim intellectuals involved in discussing the social problems of Islam, through the prism of the production and reproduction of meanings as a process of invention of traditions. The article analyses the main features of the perception and analysis of the problems of radicalisation of Islam and its consistent fragmentation in modern Muslim thought in Indonesia. It is expected that Ummah intellectuals, analysing the social characteristics of Islam, as well as the threats of radicalization and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism that Indonesia as a secular state face, contribute to the development of the identity of modern Indonesian society. The article shows that 1) Muslim intellectuals pay special attention to the problems of radicalisation of Islam, 2) the study of regional characteristics of Islam plays a signifi cant role in the development of the sociology of Islam, 3) the radicalisation of Islam is perceived as a multi-level process associated with the growth of political contradictions and the deepening of social and regional trends fragmentation of society. The author’s main conclusions are: 1) Muslim intellectuals make a signifi cant contribution to the development and progress of modern Muslim sociology in Indonesia, 2) academic scientifi c journals play a leading role in the production and relaying of social knowledge and experience of the Ummah, 3) the modern Muslim intellectual tradition in Islamic sociology is based based on the principles of interdisciplinarity and moderately fragmented.