Discussions about Russian muslims future on the pages of the Crimean journal «Asri Musulmanliq» (1924–1927) (on the example of the publication of the Samara theologian-educator M.-F. Murtazin)

Abstract

For the first time in Russian historiography, a Russian-language translation from Turkish (literary version of Ottoman) of a manuscript of an article by the Samara imam Mukhammet-Fatykh Murtazin (18751938), sent to the religious and educational journal Asri Musulmanliq (Modern Islam, published in Simferopol in 19241927) editorial board of the People's Administration of Religious Affairs of Muslims of Crimea (NURDMK). The article entitled Islam and Civilization was planned for placement in № 13 for 1926, its translation was carried out by an employee of the Eastern Department of the OGPU in Crimea and sent for approval of the text to the Eastern Department of the OGPU in Moscow. Murtazin's manuscript contains a number of reformist ideas, loyal to the current political moment. He tried to adapt the Islamic tradition to new reality. The article was not allowed for publication due to the desire of its author to present the priority of Islamic civilization over the European and American worlds, which, obviously, did not correspond to the ideological attitudes of the workers of the Soviet special services. The authors also draw attention to the course and nature of intense theological discussion and the development of renovationist thought in the Muslim world of the Soviet Union in the 1920-ies, a discussion that took place under censorship and the emerging ideological pressure.

Keywords

• crimea
• islam in the ussr
• magazine
• «asri musulmanliq»
• islamic reformism
• samara
• m.-f. murtazin
• eastern department of the ogpu.