РОССИЙСКИЕ МУЛЛЫ В ОСМАНСКОЙ ИМПЕРИИ (1685–1924 ГГ.) ПО ДАННЫМ ТАТАРСКИХ ИСТОРИКО-БИОГРАФИЧЕСКИХ ЭНЦИКЛОПЕДИЙ
RUSSIAN “MULLAHS” IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE ACCORDING TO TATAR HISTORICAL-BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIAS

Summary/Abstract: This paper for the first time explores the religious ties between Russian and Ottoman Muslims. It is a pilot project, a draft of the future, more deep and complete, investigation. We tried to demonstrate the connections and fates of some persons during the loss of the historical leadership by the Ottoman Empire in the Black Sea since the end of the 17th century. The purpose of our study is to show the dynamics and significance of these personalities in the Islamic centers, such as the Anatolian Peninsula, Egypt, and Hijaz, as well as the specificity of religious contacts between the extreme northern and extreme western parts of “Dar al-Turk” (World of Turks). Our data are based on the information of Tatar biographical encyclopedias published in Arabic, Old Tatar, and Tatar. We studied only one area of contacts: the social status and worldview of imams from Russia (mainly Tatars) in the above-mentioned foreign lands. Since the Ottoman Empire was the only “window to the Ummah” for Tatar Muslims, it became associated with some kind of myth of “unmissed” opportunities for self-expression, without substantially changing religious views and only slightly “adjusting” national identity. This idea can be found in the religious works written by Tatar Muslims after 1552. The Ottoman Empire became a platform for implementation of the educational and socio-political plans of both Sufi and progressive kind. The success and adaptation of Tatar imams depended on their positive attitude, energy, as well as willingness and readiness to solve the new challenges. Among close but little investigated areas concerning the Ottoman-Tatar religious contacts, there are the problems of popularity of medieval Ottoman religious literature among the Tatars based on the manuscripts and printed sources, reception of the all-Muslim (Quranic and Hadith-based) features in the Ottoman (Turkish) and Tatar cultures, actual functioning of Islam (“Muslimness”) in Turkish and Tatar regions, as well as spiritual and material tradition of both nations.

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