In the fall of 2026, the Kazan International Film Festival "Altyn Minbar" is scheduled to premiere the feature film "Teacher," dedicated to the life and spiritual journey of the great 19th-century Tatar theologian and educator Shihabetdin Marjani. Qayum Nasiri stands alongside this significant figure – an outstanding Tatar scientist, teacher and writer, whose image also found its embodiment in theater and cinema.
As KFU researcher Gulnara Zamaletdinova notes, during his lifetime, Qayum Nasiri was a controversial figure and was perceived ambivalently in Tatar society. His educational activities, aimed at fostering closer ties with Russian culture and science, studying the Russian language, and teaching in Russian-Tatar schools, provoked strong opposition from conservative circles. This duality in perception — an educated advisor to some, an apostate to others — is brilliantly captured in the historical dilogy "Mut. Muhajirs" by the writer Mahmud Galyau.
A radical shift in perception occurred during the Soviet era. Nasiri was "rehabilitated" and integrated into the ideological paradigm as a progressive educator and fighter against the tsarist regime. The play "Qayum Nasiri", staged in 1945 at the Kamal Theater in honor of the scientist's 120th birthday by director Khusain Urazikov, was built on a clear antithesis: Nasiri and the people versus the rich and the authorities.
The director's vision sought to portray an "ordinary mortal," emphasizing the hero's physical fragility and modest lifestyle. His basement room, cluttered with books and manuscripts, complete with a globe and a carpenter's workbench, created a multifaceted image of a hard-working scholar. The play's climax was the symbolic scene of the meeting with Mufti Tevkelev, who appeared in the uniform of a tsarist general, emphasizing the unity of religious and governmental reaction. A small but strong-willed old man, his head unbowed, delivered a prophetic monologue at the end about the coming enlightenment.
A new wave of interest, which researcher Azat Akhunov called the "canonization of heritage," occurred in the 1970s. Nasyri's name was finally elevated to the status of a national symbol, placed on par with Tukay and Jalil. His works began to be widely reprinted, including adaptations for children. During this period, he finally transformed in the public consciousness from a controversial figure into an undisputed authority on Tatar intellectual culture.
In the late 1980s and post-Soviet times, the image became more intimate, humane, and multifaceted. The television film "Qayum Nasiri's Street" (1989) and, especially, the documentary "Connecting Worlds" (2025) shifted the focus from the ideological struggle to the personal qualities and existential mission of the scientist. In the documentary, Nasiri is portrayed as a "bridge builder" – between Tatar and Russian cultures, between traditional Muslim and modern scientific worldviews, and between different social strata. The film's aesthetic, reminiscent of a travelogue, presents his legacy as a living, organic part of Kazan's contemporary landscape.
An important element of the latest interpretations has been the debunking of persistent myths: those of the impoverished and slovenly hermit, and those of the atheist. The promenade performance "Qayum Nasiri: A Fur Coat on the Street" uses the scholar's will and details of his daily life to demonstrate that he was a practical, well-off, and deeply religious man. The promenade route passes the following locations in Kazan: Sennoy Bazaar, Kirov Garden, Karl Fuchs's House, a bookstore, the Galiev Mosque, and the Qayum Nasiri Museum.
The image of Qayum Nasiri has evolved from a real person with an unusual social role for his time, one that provoked rejection, through an ideologically rigorous symbol of progress and struggle during the Soviet period, to a multifaceted, “humanized” icon of national culture today. Modern interpretations strive to portray him not as a fighter, but as a creative figure and integrator, whose main merit lies not in confrontation, but in the persistent affirmation of dialogue and education as the foundation for national development.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Kazan Federal University