Bringing Order to the Muslim Family: Aleksandr Golitsyn and Imperial/Colonial Law for the Muslim Family
Bringing Order to the Muslim Family: Aleksandr Golitsyn and Imperial/Colonial Law for the Muslim Family

Summary/Abstract: On August 25, 1822, the Minister of Spiritual Affairs and Enlightenment, Aleksandr Golitsyn, wrote a letter to the Orenburg military governor, Petr Kirillovich Essen, introducing a new project of compiling rules concerning marital and family issues among the Muslims of the Orenburg province. Golitsyn initiated this compilation as a result of a complaint by a certain Muslim (subject) on a wrong decision by the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly in his marital case. He also requested information and an opinion on this case from the Orenburg civil governor. In response, the civil governor reported about various "disorders" in Muslim families, their negative consequences, and offered his opinion about the measures that could be taken to stop those disorders. As a result of this correspondence, Golitsyn decided to compile rules on Muslim marriage. In his letter to the military governor, he underlined that he had already consulted the Tauride 2 Mufti and the Tauride Muslim Spiritual Assembly 3 about the appropriateness of these rules and their conformity to Muslim laws and traditions. The Crimean (Tauride) Mufti approved the fact that "the rules on marriage were in accordance with Muslim laws and customs."4 Golitsyn also inquired with the Orenburg civil governor whether the rules were in accordance with the local civil laws and whether it was a good idea to translate the laws into "the local Tatar language, spoken in Orenburg province" and later publish them in Tatar.

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