INTERACTION BETWEEN POWER AND RELIGION IN DAGHESTAN: EXPERIENCE, ERRORS, AND LESSONS

Abstract

At no time could Daghestan be described as an ethnically, politically, or confessionally homogeneous territory. It is an ethnic patchwork Russia’s and the world’s most ethnically diverse region. The past of this mountainous country is filled with the efforts of its peoples to beat off the attempts of their neighbors to establish total domination over them (with the exception of some cases of economic or political dependence).
Local traditions contributed to the region’s political diversity. Nearly all specialists on Daghestan pointed to the varied forms of administration and political-administrative structures as one of the key features typical of the mountain communities. M. Aglarov, for example, described the community of the northeast Caucasian peoples as a “museum of a multitude of political units with varied forms of political and administrative structures.”1 Indeed, khanates, aristocratic and democratic jamaats,unions of jamaats (“free societies”), and democratic “federative societies” under the nominal rules of the khans coexisted in Daghestan. The efforts of some of them to spread their rule to neighboring territories invariably triggered powerful, sometimes “suicidal,” opposition.
As distinct from the rest of the Northern Caucasus, the Muslim expanse of Daghestan has never been homogeneous either. Three types of religious world outlook dominated Daghestan’s religious culture: Sufism, schools of the Shafi‘ite legal experts, and Salafi (fundamentalism). Sufism has pre-served its strong foothold in the republic. This is a mystical-ascetic teaching which preaches humility and retirement from the world. Some of its numerous interpretations and applications served as an ideology for rebels and anti-colonial wars. Three of its Tariqahs (orders) exist in Daghestan: Qadiriya, Naqshbandiya, and Jazuliya; they are spiritual schools which combine the means and methods of mystical cognition of the truth, a special code of moral and ethical rules, and forms of its internal organization.
The school of Shafi‘ite legal experts (faqihs) appeared in the Darghinian free societies where Muslim legal experts and judges were strong enough to challenge the position of the elected rulers.
The Akusha-Dargo society lived under the dual power of two political leaders: the elected one and the judge (qadi).

Contrary to the opinion actively promoted by state propaganda that Salafi (fundamentalist)Islam is alien to Daghestan and has no local roots there, it has existed in Daghestan for over 300 years now. It preaches a return to Islamic fundamentals, the way of life of the Prophet Muhammad and the “righteous ancestors” (as-salaf as-salikhun in Arabic), and purification of Islam of later additions.