THE REPUBLIC OF ADIGEY: SLAM AND SOCIETY AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

Abstract

So far, the Republic of Adigey (RA) has received much less attention from researchers of Islam than other Muslim regions of the Russian Federation. This is explained by the fact that in the 1990s Islam was less developed there than in other RF regions, as well as by the republic’s more “peaceful” social and political development. Today, Islam is developing at a fast pace.  This is amply demonstrated by the growing number of newly built mosques and newly organized Muslim communities. During Soviet power all mosques were closed down; the mosque in the village of Takhtamukay was the first to reopen after the Soviet era in 1992; the village preserved the old building, which was then restored.1 According to information supplied by the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Adigey and the Krasnodar Territory (hereinafter SAM RA and KT), early in 2004 there were 30 functioning mosques in the republic and the same number of registered Muslim communities, the most active among them being the communities of the Takhtamukay and Teuchezh districts, and the least active the communities of the Shovgen and Krasnogvardeyskoe districts.2
 Today, the total population of the Krasnodar Territory is 5,300,000. There are about 160,000 Muslims among them (counted as such for purely formal reasons), including 20,000 Adighe; there are 103,000 Muslims among the total RA population of 440,000. The largest communities are found in the RA capital of Maykop (about 500 members) and in Adygeisk (about 150 Muslims).3 Small communities (about 20 to 40 members) are found in mountain villages. Ethnically, the communities are usually patchy: there are Chechens,Daghestanis, and Tartars in the Maykop community together with the Adighe. In 1999, the administration of the RF Southern Federal Okrug moved about 4,000-5,000 Chechens to Adigey (mainly to Maykop), who became the core of the Maykop Muslim community; it also has several Russian members.4
 The communities of Adygeisk and of the Takhtamukay and Teuchezh districts are also ethnically mixed. This is explained by their closeness to Krasnodar, which has no mosque of its own: the large ethnically mixed Muslim community, which includes Azeris, Afghans, Chechens, Daghestanis, Kurds and other ethnic groups, has to attend the nearest mosques outside the territorial center. Muslims in other cities and towns of the Krasnodar Territory also pray in the mosques of Adigey. On Fridays, the Muslims of the town of Kurganinsk (Daghestanis and Chechens) attend the mosque in the village of Koshekhabl.
 The Tartar and Chechen communities are the largest in the RA; they take part in all events organized by the SAM RA and KT. The Tartar Cultural-Educational Society Duslyk functions in Adigey; its leaders are also involved in Muslim activities. It was at their request that one of the community’s representatives in the SAM RA and KT was replaced. This shows that the SAM RA and KT takes into account the opinions of the leaders of the Tartar community (who, together with the Adighe, are Hanafis5) when it comes to training mosque heads and teaching the fundamentals of Islam to community members. Local Chechens who are Shafiites (a madhab practically unknown in the North-Western Caucasus in the previous period) find it hard to blend with the local religious activities.