RUDN Journal of World History (Mar 2023)
High Hopes, Lost Illusions: General Islamic Congress in Jerusalem (1931)
Abstract
The significance of the research topic is due to the relevance of the problem of the caliphate in the social and political life of the modern Arab-Muslim world. The purpose of this research project is to analyze the causes and consequences of the emergence of caliphate movements, which were the reaction of the Muslim world to the destruction of the Ottoman Empire and the liquidation of the institution of the caliphate in 1924 by the republican leadership of Turkey. At the same time, the authors focus on the General Islamic Congress in Jerusalem (1931) as a concrete example of the socio-political discussions of Muslims about the unity of the Ummah and the future fate of the caliphate. Based on the materials of historical sources, the authors identified contradictions in the diversity of ideological and value views of the caliphatists in the main areas of Islamic world - in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, analyzed methodological, spiritual and political obstacles that stood in the way of the ideologists of caliphatism by the example of contradictions in the activities of the Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini (c. 1895-1974), who advocated the independent statehood of Arab Palestine, and the leader of Indian Muslims Shaukat Ali (1873-1938), who advocated the internationalization of the cause of the revival of the caliphate. The authors prove that “Islamic internationalism” in the 1930s began to acquire more and more national, ethno-culturally conditioned forms, which was due to the distrust of caliphatism on the part of the British colonial officials and the political elites of Turkey and Egypt in the geopolitical conditions that changed after the First World War. In addition, the importance of studying higher Muslim education for the characterization of the political, value, religious and philosophical positions of the caliphists and their opponents is revealed.
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