Islamic Education in the Soviet Daghestan (the late 1920s – early 1980s)

Abstract

The article of Vladimir Bobrovnikov, Amir Navruzov and Shamil Shikhaliev gives a general survey of Islamic education as it was practiced and interacted with state institutions at the republican, district and village levels in early Soviet Dagestan in 1927-1986. It argues that the Soviet era was not the time of endless anti-Muslim repression as it is often portrayed by contemporary researchers. Periods of interaction between state and Muslim elites appeared to be much longer. Basing on the analysis of first-hand archival and field materials the paper proposes the following chronology of Islamic education in Dagestan under the Soviet rule: mass repressions against Muslims during the enforcement of Socialist reforms (from the end of the 1920s to the mid-1940s); the legalization of Muslim institutions after the foundation of the Muslim Directorate for the North Caucasian Muslims (from 1944 until the early 1950s); a new state attack against Islam (from the mid 1950s to the early 1960s); a stabilized relationship between the Soviet power and Muslim communities during the "stagnation" period. As such the paper continues the study by Vladimir Bobrovnikov published in PI l(2)/2009.