Inherited Islam

Abstract

Muslims from Central Asian and the Caucasus have played a central role in the development of a bright Islamic civilization, thanks to several thinkers like Al Buhari and Al Farabi. With the decline of this civilization and the domination of the region by Russian and Soviet rules, local Islam has been completely transformed. A Soviet—and unique—style of Islam has emerged among local societies. Glasnost and perestroika made an Islamic revival possible in the middle of the 1980s. The end of the Soviet Union represented a new turning point for this Islam: local Central Asian and Caucasian Muslims developed various connections and cooperation with diverse Islamic trends from Turkey, Iran, Arab countries and the Indian subcontinent. In sum, with the independence and the emergence of new Republics, Soviet Islam met global Islam and was transform by it.