The first collective monograph ‘The History of Islam in Russia’ was presented at the Russian Islamic Institute as part of the events dedicated to the 1100th anniversary of the adoption of Islam by Volga Bulgaria. The publication of the book was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Foundation for the Support of Islamic Culture, Science and Education.
The speakers of the event are Rector of the Russian Islamic Institute Rafik Mukhametshin and Head of the Department of religious Disciplines at the Russian Islamic Institute Said Shagaviev.
According to scientific editor Rafik Mukhametshin, this is the first fundamental work, which provides a comprehensive study of the contribution of the Russian peoples to the development of the Islamic civilization through a consistent presentation of all stages of the history of Russian Islam.
The collective monograph also analyses the main tendencies in the revival of Islam in modern conditions in the Russian Federation. The reason for writing the book was the interest of the scientific community of the UAE in the history of the development of the Islamic civilization in the Russian federation.
The book ‘The History of Islam in Russia’ published in the Arabic is to be part of the major study of the development of the religion beyond the Arab world that is being prepared by Emirati scholars.
Books ‘Islam in China’, ‘Islam in Indonesia’ and ‘Islam in Malaysia’ have previously been published by Arab experts.
‘The book turned out to be the largest in volume, because Islam in Russia has a long history. We have a lot of interesting researches dedicated to the Golden Horde, the history of the Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly, Islam in Volga Bulgaria, etc. But there has never been a comprehensive monograph from and before,’ the Rector of the Russian Islamic Institute commented on one of the key reasons for creating the scientific work.
The scholar highlighted that the book was written by 22 well-known scholars on the history of Islam in the Russian Federation, including Iskander Izmailov, Vadim Trepavlov, Ilya Zaitsev and others. He noted that it was planning to publish the scientific work in Arabic and English by the end of the year. It is expected that the English version will be published soon by a publishing house in London. Scholars at the Russian Islamic Institute are working on the Arabic version, which will be published in Abu Dhabi within two months.
In his turn, speaker Said Shagaviev introduced his part of the research paper entitled ‘Unofficial Islam’, which dealt with ‘currents and groups called ‘Islamist’’.
‘In this section I cover the history of the emergence of modern non-traditional currents for Russian Islam on the territory of the Russian Federation. I tell how they spread, through which foundations and organizations. The main task was to bring the idea to the foreign reader, for those who will read in Arabic and English,’ Said Hazrat said.
In addition to it, during the event it was stated that Russian-language books in 1000 copies would replenish the libraries of Islamic educational institutions in Russia and the neighboring countries, as well as the largest libraries in the country. They will strengthen the base of educational and extracurricular activities, become a solid foundation for patriotic education of Muslim youth.
The presentation ended with experts answering journalists’ questions about the research process behind the unique monograph.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: RII