Islamic Thought and Revivalism in the Russian Empire

Résumé du livre

"Abu Nasr Qursawi is a seminal figure in the history of the Muslim communities of the Russian Empire. Controversial in his own time, as well as posthumously, he came to be seen as an inspiration for Jadidism, the modernist Muslim reform movement in the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. During his lifetime, he was intimately involved in the most important debates within these Muslim communities regarding issues central to their religious and social self-conception as Muslims. This dissertation explores Qursawi's writings and thought in light of his socio-historical circumstances and within the context of the classical Islamic scholarly tradition, and addresses his connection with Jadidism. The dissertation is divided into two sections. The first presents the events of Qursawi's life within the broader history of the Muslims of the Russian Empire between 1750 and 1850. This section shows the ways in which these Muslim communities, particularly the scholarly class ('ulama'), were affected as a result of their incorporation into the governing structures of the Russian imperial state. It attempts to fit Qursawi into this specific historical context. The second section features an analysis of Qursawi's thought based on an in-depth study of his entire extant oeuvre. This analysis focuses on the two most pressing issues of the religious discourse among these communities: debates on the theological issue of God's attributes (sifat) and the permissibility and purpose of independent legal interpretation (ijtihad). Qursawi's respective positions on these two issues reflect his view regarding religious belief, the Islamic theological tradition (kalam) and Islamic legal institutions and their role within the Islamic social order. I analyze Qursawi's stance on each in light of the discursive tradition of pre-modern Islamic scholarship and show the ways in which he adheres to, or departs from, that tradition. I conclude that although Qursawi's thought is firmly grounded within that tradition, and he is not the radical modernizer he is often depicted as in secondary scholarship, he does indeed depart from tradition in a number of significant ways. This was the result of the social marginalization of Islamic institutions under the Russian state. Qursawi's stance on legal issues is more unconventional than his stance on theological issues due to the fact that legal institutions were impacted to a greater degree by imperial rule. Furthermore, while his socio-religious Weltanschauung bears virtually no relation to the self-conscious modernism of Jadidism, it is evident how some of Qursawi's views, particularly those regarding education and religious knowledge, could serve as a basis for modernist reforms as espoused by Jadids."--