Mantra: a Review Essay on Islam in Soviet Central Asia

Abstract

This paper traces the development of the historiography of Islam in Soviet Central Asia from the Cold War’s outset to the present by illustrating its uncritical reproduction of modernist and communist templates for describing Muslim religiosity, and its debt to two foundational frames of Soviet antireligious propaganda: “survivals” and “nationalized Islam.” It highlights the important implications of these frames for this scholarship’s development, i.e., its assumptions concerning “normativity” and the “poverty” of Central Asian Islam, as well as the urban-rural divide’s salience in religious life. The essay concludes with a survey of recent scholarship on the subject.

Why Soviet Islam Matters

“…More importantly, I argue that, like elsewhere in the Muslim world, be it in South Asia or Western China, shrines constituted a memory space, that is a cultural environment where Soviet Muslims were exposed to Islamic historical practices. This argument has been criticised for failing 22 Abashin 2014;Sartori 2019;Tasar 2020;Bigozhin 2023. to do justice to "a society that has undergone radical transformations in the last two centuries" and therefore for reifying "a highly essentialized version of Islam." 23 Adeeb Khalid is right, of course, to note the importance of the changes which the Soviet state wrought upon its citizens; and if one wants to read in 20 th -century Central Asia a history of radical transformations alone, one is best advised to turn to his work.…”

Круглый Стол «Быть Мусульманином В России: Контексты, Теории И Методы Изучения Мусульманской Идентичности»

“…Мы вчера с Альфридом немножко пообсуждали недавно вышедшее эссе Тасара о том, как изучается ислам в Центральной Азии (Tasar, 2020). Он провел историографический анализ, начиная с А. Беннингсена и заканчивая теми, кто занимается исламоведением.…”