Legal Status of the Muslims in the Central Asian Suburbs of the Russian Empire and “Muslim Question” in the System of the Regional Administrating (the Second Half of the 19th — the Beginning of the 20th Century)

Abstract

The article presents the analysis of “Muslim aspect” of Russian religious policy in the Central Asian suburbs and the legal status of the Muslims in this region. Administratively it was a part of two territorial units — Steppe and Turkestan general governorships and was the most populated by the Muslims. However the extent of penetration of dogmas and ceremonies of Islam in daily life and consciousness of the people was different. So, syncretism in religious consciousness — synthesis of the pagan and Muslim norms prevailed mainly among the nomadic people of Steppes and Turkestan: Islamic dominant was prevailing among the settled population of the region. This peculiarity defined the policy of the state in terms of regulation of the development of Islam in the Central Asian national suburbs. So, for “nomadic Islam” at the legislative level the policy directed at restriction of its further distribution among nomads and suppression of their attempts of integration into the all-Russian Muslim movement was pursued. As to the settled Muslim people, the position of the central and regional authorities was reduced to complete ignoring of Islamic institutes with the subsequent stage-by-stage dismantling of the most influential ones. That is why the policy of the state in the sphere of Islam regulation had a restrictive character. The hardest line of the power was in a question of granting to the Muslim population of the Steppe and Turkestan territories to be entitled to have own spiritual department of religious affairs on an example of the Orenburg, Taurian and Caucasian Muslim spiritual meetings. Despite numerous petitions of the population of Central Asia to the government the question was not solved positively up to 1917.

DOI 10.14258/izvasu(2016)2-18