For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia

474 Pages·2009·1.16 MB·English

by  Robert D. Crews

FOR PROPHET AND TSAR

For Prophet and Tsar
islam and empire in russia and central asia
Robert D. Crews
harvard university press
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
Copyright©2006bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege
allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
FirstHarvardUniversityPresspaperbackedition,2009.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Crews,RobertD.,1970–
Forprophetandtsar : IslamandempireinRussiaand
CentralAsia / RobertD.Crews.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-674-02164-8(cloth : alk.paper)
ISBN978-0-674-03223-1(pbk.)
1.Islamandstate—Russia(Federation). 2.Muslims—Russia(Federation)—
Politicalactivity. 3.Islamandstate—Asia,Central. 4.Muslims—Asia,Central—
Politicalactivity. 5.Russia(Federation)—Politicsandgovernment. 6.Asia,
Central—Politicsandgovernment. I.Title.
BP65.R8C742006
322′.10947—dc22 2005056387
CONTENTS
NoteonTransliterationandSpelling vii
Introduction 1
1 AChurchforIslam 31
2 TheStateintheMosque 92
3 AnImperialFamily 143
4 NomadsintoMuslims 192
5 CivilizingTurkestan 241
6 Heretics,Citizens,andRevolutionaries 293
Epilogue 350
Abbreviations 373
Notes 375
Acknowledgments 449
Index 455

NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND SPELLING
The Russian empire was constructed by peoples who, like the de-
scendantsofthebuildersoftheTowerofBabel,spokedozensofdif-
ferent languages and dialects and whose literatures appeared in a
dizzyingarrayofalphabetsandscripts.TheSovietsbuiltonthisim-
perial Babel by changing these writing systems. Post-Soviet elites
continuetodebatetheutilityofCyrillic,Roman,andArabicorthog-
raphies,whilescholarsdisagreeabouthowtotransliteratethem.
Thesourcesforthisstudyreflectonlyasmallpartofthislinguistic
heterogeneity. In the polyglot world of the empire, words appeared
indifferentforms,dependingonthecontextandthelanguageofthe
document; the name of one important Muslim religious figure was
written as “MuìammadjÁn bin al-ëusayn” in Tatar using Arabic
script, but became “Mukhamedzhan Khusainov” in Russian-lan-
guage texts. In transliterating such names, I have tried to follow
the spellings found in the original sources, while including alter-
natesinparenthesesorinthenotesthatfollowthetext.ForRussian
sources, I have followed the Library of Congress system, with some
simplifications (like “Kazan” in place of “Kazan’,” “Dostoevsky” for
n o t e o n t r a n s l i t e r a t i o n a n d s p e l l i n g
viii
“Dostoevskii”).Forothers,Ihavereliedonthetransliterationcharts
found in the International Journal of Middle East Studies and Ed-
wardAllworth’sNationalitiesoftheSovietEast;however,Iusemodi-
fiedspellingsofanumberoftermsthatarealreadyfamiliartoread-
ers in other forms (as in mullah for mullÁ, ‘ulama for ‘ulamÁ, and
fatwas for fatÁwa). Where names and places appear in a variety of
spellingseveninasinglelanguage,IdrawonthecomprehensiveIs-
lam na territorii byvshei Rossiskoi imperii. The builders of Babel
wouldunderstand.
FOR PROPHET AND TSAR