Early Islam in Volga Bulgaria in the Studies of E.A. Khalikova and A.Kh. Khalikov (to the 1100th anniversary of the official adoption of islam by the bulgarian ancestors of the Volga tatars)

Abstract

The authors analyze the works of well-known soviet archaeologists – doctor of historical sciences, professor A.Kh. Khalikov and his wife, candidate of historical sciences E.A. Khalikova, who made a significant contribution to solving the issues of the history of early Islam in the Volga Bulgaria. E.A. Khalikova for the first time carried out systematic and planned excavations of urban and rural burial grounds at the pre-Mongol Bulgar, the materials of which are deeply analyzed with using of written sources, indicated the beginning of the muslimization of the population in the IX century and the wide spread of Islam among the Bulgarians in subsequent periods, especially in the pre-Mongolian time. A.Kh. Khalikov entered the history of Bulgarian studies as a researcher of ruins of white-stone mosques at Bilyar and medieval Alabuga - unique pre-Mongol Bulgarian religious buildings. He for the first time posed the issue of relationship between the adoption of Islam and urbanization processes of Bulgarian society.

Keywords

• archaeology
• volga bulgaria
• the x – early xiii centuries
• muslim necropolises
• mosques
• islamization of the population
• paganism and islam