Madrasa Reform as a Secularizing Process: A View from the Late Russian Empire

Tuna, Mustafa

doi:10.1017/s0010417511000247

Cited by 17 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The other source was the Ottoman and European universities and intellectual circles. Advancement in modes of transportation made it possible for the Muslims of Russia to travel to the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe to pursue higher education and acquaint themselves with new ideas and people (Tuna, 2011, p. 543).…”

Section: The Roots Of Azerbaijani Intelligentsiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Secular nationalist revolution and the construction of the Azerbaijani identity, nation and state

Ahmadoghlu

2020

Nations and Nationalism

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This article traces the emergence and development of Azerbaijani nationalism, identity and the establishment of an independent nation‐state, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first Muslim democracy in 1918. Before, the Azerbaijani Turks had lacked a distinct national identity and had been called “Caucasian Muslims” or “Tatars.” This study addresses what actors and processes played roles in the construction of the “Azerbaijani” nation and identity and in the establishment of the new nation‐state. This article, from a constructivist perspective, argues that the key factor behind this emergence was the secular nationalist revolution of the Azerbaijani nationalist elite. While agreeing with Benedict Anderson on the “imagined” nature of nations, about the links between secularization and nationalism, and about the print media's role in the nationalist imagining, this study departs from his structuralist approach, which neglects or underestimates agency, interests, strategy, resources and power. In explaining the development of the Azerbaijani identity and nation, this study offers a theoretical explanation that moves agency—the secular nationalist Azerbaijani elite—to the foreground and also acknowledges the impact of structural factors.

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Section: The Roots Of Azerbaijani Intelligentsiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Secular nationalist revolution and the construction of the Azerbaijani identity, nation and state

Ahmadoghlu

2020

Nations and Nationalism

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“…Jadids were Muslim reformists who promoted educational reform and the emancipation of women and who embraced ideas of progress and modernity from the West. Soviet historiography has tended to emphasise their role as modernists while painting a rather negative picture of the Qadimists, or the traditional ulama – a picture that has been corrected in recent scholarship (Frank, 2001; Garipova, 2016; Kefeli, 2015; Tuna, 2011). 2 While the dichotomy between Jadid and Qadimist views in Volga-Ural has been referred to as a struggle between modern, secular values on the one hand and conservative religious values on the other, it ought instead to be understood as a religious debate characterised by different attitudes towards changes prompted by Western modernity – a debate that has affected the rest of the Muslim world.…”

Section: The Islamic Revival and Tatar Muslimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The paradoxes of a localised Islamic orthodoxy: Rethinking Tatar traditional Islam in Russia

Puppo

2019

Ethnicities

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The question of the process of developing national or local forms of Islam is often approached through the lens of the domestication of Islam and by emphasising the role of the state or Muslim officials close to the state in this process. In my analysis of the process, undertaken by certain Tatar Muslim representatives in Russia, of developing what I call a localised Islamic orthodoxy, I aim to study shifts in the debate on ‘traditional Islam’ towards a more theological understanding of the term. I examine attempts to develop a local interpretation of Islam that, while based on universal religious fundaments, is not in opposition to Tatar national traditions and a secular modern lifestyle. The representation of an ‘orthodox traditional Islam’ is necessarily paradoxical to the extent that a localised orthodoxy claims to be timeless, ‘natural’ and established but still needs to be defined, learned and taught following decades of Soviet atheist policies. Furthermore, this representation relies on the projection of orthodoxy onto the past in a process in which certain elements of a complex Tatar Muslim identity are made visible and emphasised (in particular, the Hanafi tradition), while others are obscured. By referring to the literature on orthodoxy in the anthropology and sociology of Islam and in Islamic studies, I aim to examine the theological dimension of the process of defining a local Islam that is currently being pursued by certain Tatar Muslim representatives in Russia.

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“…Taraqqiyyat is thus indispensable for both a return to pure religion and for reaching the level of Western civilization. In other words, interpreting taraqqiyyat only as Westernization (Tuna 2011) and a linear forward progression is misleading when it comes to Bubi's narrative. For him progress is not simply movement toward the future; it is also a movement backward toward an idealized past.…”

Section: T 131a)mentioning

confidence: 99%