Madrasas in the Region of the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly as a National Institution

Abstract

Aydar Khabutdinov gives a general historical overview of Muslim schools, their staff and students in the Volga-Ural region under the Russian rule. He distinguishes five periods in their historical development including that of independent abyz activities in the 17^th -18^th  century, successive Dagestani and Bukharan influences from the late 18th to the mid-19^th centuries, qadim and jadid movements till the 1920s. Given the lack of territorial autonomy and national estate, network of local madrasas constituted the formative level of national institutions and mentality of Russian Muslims making Tatar religious elite. Under the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly in 1789-1917 madrasas played an important role in the Tatar national development.