Between Russia’s Legal System and Sharia Norms: The Fate of the Law of 13 May 1830 On Prohibition of Any Deviations for Mohammedans from General Burial Regulations

Abstract

Introduction. The article deals with an aspect of religious policy of the Russian Empire in the second quarter of the nineteenth century that concerned the legal regulation of the terms of burial of the deceased, which affected the rules of burial for Muslims. It aims to analyze the case of state and police law interfering with the religious canons of Russian Muslims. Materials and methods. The office records of the Orenburg Muftiate help clarify the historiographical thesis on the controversy of the 1830 law and shed light on its social consequences. The research is based on the methodological approaches of the new imperial history and the socio-cultural analysis of Russian society as a “big society”. The research methods include comparative historical, source study, textual and psycho historical. Results. While preparing and implementing the law of 13 May 1830, “О neotstuplenii ot obshchikh pravil pri pogrebenii musulman” (On non-departure from the general rules for the burial of Muslims), the authorities used the Orenburg Muftiate, entrusted with the announcement of the law and administrative control over the parish clergy. The military administration took an active part in coordinating actions to comply with the new funeral order. The reactive policy of the authorities towards the mullahs and the population of the Bashkir cantons created tension around the religious issues. A petition to Nicholas I, attempting at a dialogue between Bashkirs and the authorities, had the opposite effect and led to increased polarization of the society and the government. Results. The legislative innovation on the unification of the terms of burial, including the territories with a Muslim population, was controversial from its very beginning. The officials in the center had a clearer understanding of the regional tasks of the administration when ready to admit that the Muslims may be excluded from the law. The Orenburg Mufti was somewhat unclear about the political plans to unify burial traditions and saw his principal goal in a diplomatic settlement of emerging bureaucratic issues. According to the present author, there is a connection between attempts to change the burial canons of Muslims and the religious agenda of the 1835 rebellion in the Urals. The state rulemaking attempt turned out to be ineffective in the realm of religious canons.

Keywords

• russian muslims
• orenburg muftiyate
• mufti gabdesalam gabdrahimov
• orenburg province
• shariah
• unrest in 1834–1835