Building an Archival Persona: The Transformation of Sufi Ijāza Culture in Russia, 1880s-1920s (original) (raw)
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SUFISM AND MODERN MUSLIM ETHICS IN 14 TH /20 TH CENTURY RUSSIAN ISLAMIC THOUGHT
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The first Russian Revolution of 1905 opened a whole set of new opportunities for different segments of society. For the first time in Imperial Russia, ten million Muslims received the right to establish religiously or ethnically based institutions, such as political parties, print media, and different social and cultural associations. 1 Wide discussions were initiated about reform of the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly (est. in 1789) 2 and issues related to native languages. 3 The key point of all these debates was the question of educational reform. 4 It is noteworthy that this theme concerned a very wide range of problems, including the proportion of religious vs. secular subjects in the maktab and madrasa curricula, the content of courses, the production of new textbooks, reinterpretation of traditional concepts of Muslim theology (kalam) and Sufism (taṣawwuf), and many others. 5 The discussion on education represented a sort of mirror that reflected all of the social problems and issues of the time.
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graduatehistoryjournal.boun.edu.tr
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