The Transformation of the Religious Environment

The religious and intellectual landscape of the Volga-Ural region changed significantly over the course of the 19th century. This chapter addresses those changes, focusing on three main historical phenomena: the adoption of European approaches and subjects in Islamic education and pedagogy, the introduction of Arabic-script printing and periodical publishing, and the fragmentation of Islamic religious authority. These phenomena all contributed to a new religious and intellectual landscape that arises following the 1905 Revolution, which is marked by debates over the ulama’s stature as foremost religious interpreters and non-ulama elites speaking for Islam and for Muslims alongside scholars. Characterized by conflicts over the continued validity of the Islamic scholarly tradition and the role of ulama, the discourse of this period included new debates and movements, including Jadidism, which emerges out of the broad changes taking place.