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‘TURKESTANI MUSLIM COMMUNITIES... HAVE BEEN DEPRIVED OF THIS HAPPINESS’. THE DISSEMINATION OF TARAZI’S QUR’AN TRANSLATION AND EXEGESIS IN SOVIET UZBEKISTAN
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Abstract
Among the theologians who influenced the processes of re-Islamisation in late Soviet and early post-Soviet Central Asia, the name of Sayyid Mahmud Tarazi (ca. 1895– 1991) deserves special attention. Better known by his honorary nickname Altin-khan-tura, he was an authoritative Turkestani emigrant and prominent scholar. The present article offers preliminary research on the dissemination in Soviet Uzbekistan of his most famous work: the first complete interlinear translation of the Qur’an with commentary in Central Asian Turki. In less than half a century, this work has undergone more than ten publications in various regions of the Muslim world. As archaeographic and field research indicates, Tarazi’s translation has been featuring in personal library collections of some local religious figures, including prominent “official” and “unofficial” theologians from the region, and could have impacted their own work. Since the personality of Tarazi has not yet wholly entered the academic discourse on “Soviet Islam”, the article also provides a brief biography of the scholar in the context of his direct and “secret” links to local 'ulamā. The focus of this article on the history of the dissemination of Tarazi’s Qur’an translation allows illuminating some of the re-Islamisation processes that took place in Central Asia during the period under review.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24848/islmlg.11.1.07