Tradition or Sharia: transformation of funeral culture in post-Soviet Tatarstan

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of modern effects of the information field in the sphere of ritual Islamic practices in the context of the social crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on issues related to the performance of ritual practices in Islam. New regulations of state medical institutions introduced in connection with the 2020 pandemic have influenced the violation of centuries-old traditional norms and practices in the funeral culture of the Tatars. The emerging contradictions and inconsistencies stimulated the actualisation of expert knowledge on the part of Muslim spiritual leaders. In the article, the author analyses the interaction between Muslim Tatars and religious authorities on the issues of solving everyday life and religious problems that believers encountered due to extraordinary circumstances (COVID-19). The source of the study was the Tatar-language media and Internet resources. The obtained results indicate the flexibility and adaptability of the information environment – traditional print media and digital technologies to rapidly developing social turbulence. At the same time, the influence of non-standard social factors (the pandemic) in a rather conservative and strictly regulated sphere of Muslim funeral and ritual culture is shown. The second aspect of the study is related to the gradual transformation of the ideas of Muslim Tatars about the culture of grave decoration. Epigraphic expeditions conducted by the author indicate that the deepening and dissemination of religious norms among them leads to gradual rejection of the practice of using photographs of deceased relatives on monuments that developed in the Soviet times. The totality of the collected materials allows us to trace how changes in family structure and relationships affect religious practices and the perception of Islam. The processes recorded by the author reflect the dynamics of the formation of theological Islam among Muslim Tatars in modern Tatarstan.

Keywords

• tatars
• post-soviet tatarstan
• islam in tatarstan
• ritual practices
• funeral culture
• covid-19