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POLITIZATION OF ISLAM IN DAGHESTAN: THE FACTORS BEHIND IT (1987-2002)
Amirkhan MAGOMEDDADAEV
Amirkhan Magomeddadaev, Ph.D. (Hist.), assistant professor, State University of Daghestan, head, Center of Oriental Studies, Institute of History, Archaeology, and Ethnography, Scientific Center of Daghestan, RAS (Makhachkala, Russia)
There is a widely shared opinion that the Islamic boom of the Northern Caucasus started in the early 1990s. Indeed, while in 1983 there had been 27 mosques in Daghestan, by 2001, there were 1,595 of them—an increase of 59 times. In the latter half of 1987 and 1988 the republic was shaken by mass rallies of the faithful who demanded a permission to build mosques, open madrasahs, perform hajj, etc. It is common knowledge that Daghestan is the most Islamic of all the subjects of the Russian Federation. The share of the faithful in the total population is probably the greatest in the former Soviet Union.
It should be said that as soon as perestroika started all sorts of Arab, and not only Arab, missionaries flocked to the republic. At first it was hard to find out who they were and what aims they pursued in Daghestan. They brought huge amounts of Islamic literature of all sorts: the Koran, tafsirs, etc. In 1986 in the village of Orota (Khunzakh District) I personally saw how an Uzbek from Bukhara and a Pakistani student from Kiev were distributing books published in Saudi Arabia. The local Muslims who did not know the Arabic and could read only Adjam (the Avar language written in Arabic script) willingly snatched the books and reverently kissed them as published in the Prophet’s homeland. When I asked about the reason to distribute Arabic books among those who could not read them I got an answer that in 10 to 15 year time there would be enough people to read and understand the books.
The 70 years of building “the shining future” left Daghestan nearly without experts to assess the books. As a rule these people lived (or are living) high in the mountains and sympathized neither with the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims nor with the state power structures. On the whole, the antireligious policies the authorities were pursuing in the past deprived the republic of “intellectual” Islam. There are practically no Muslim theologians and faqihs left who would know both Islam and the Arabic language, two only keys to genuinely profound and competent judgment of the meaning of Islam. At the same time, one can agree with K. Khanbabaev who has written that despite repressions there were clandestine lessons of the Koran and the most necessary Islamic rites (janaz-namaz, makhara, etc.). This was especially widespread in Muslim schools in Avar, Darghinian, and Kumyk villages.
Some of the most talented and dedicated pupils from deeply religious families continued studies in other schools irrespective of their ethnic affiliation. (It should be added that the………………
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