Tatar Empire: Kazan's Muslims and the Making of Imperial Russia

by Danielle Ross

In the 1700s, Kazan Tatar (Muslim scholars of Kazan) and scholarly networks stood at the forefront of Russia's expansion into the South Urals, western Siberia, and the Kazakh steppe. It was there that the Tatars worked with Russian agents, established settlements, and spread their own religious and intellectual cuture that helped shaped their identity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Kazan Tatars profited economically from Russia's commercial and military expansion to Muslim lands and began to present themselves as leaders capable of bringing Islamic modernity to the rest of Russia's Muslim population. Danielle Ross bridges the history of Russia's imperial project with the history of Russia's Muslims by exploring the Kazan Tatars as participants in the construction of the Russian empire. Ross focuses on Muslim clerical and commercial networks to reconstruct the ongoing interaction among Russian imperial policy, nonstate actors, and intellectual developments within Kazan's Muslim community and also considers the evolving relationship with Central Asia, the Kazakh steppe, and western China. Tatar Empire offers a more Muslim-centered narrative of Russian empire building, making clear the links between cultural reformism and Kazan Tatar participation in the Russian eastward expansion.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Islam, Religion, Russia

288 pages, Hardcover

Published February 4, 2020

Reviews

[Beth Cato · Rating 3 out of 5]

This academic work didn’t provide the exact research angle I needed, so I ended up skimming a good bit, but it was still interesting, as I began knowing very little about the relationship between Russia and Kazan Muslims. The book goes deep into the religious teaching schools that formed the backdrop of society for centuries, and how different Russian powers fought against or worked with them. I did highlight several passages of interest.

[Wesley Giesbrecht · Rating 4 out of 5]

If an interested reader would pick up this book under the impression that the author lays out how the Russian Imperial government used the Kazan Tatars in their imperial expansions East and South, they would be slightly disappointed. While the author does occasionally bring up concrete examples of Kazan Tatars acting as colonists, interpreters, and merchants in newly conquered Muslim lands, overall the book is focused on particular networks of Kazan Muslim scholars and how they expanded into Western Siberia and the Kazakh Steppes.

Some chapters focus specifically on identifying important scholarly and sheikhly lines, on cultural and religious developments within their communities, as well as the jeopordization of their own privileged positions due to the intellectual/spiritual/economic/social changes that emerged over the centuries. These chapters also address the typical historical evaluations that scholars have made regarding various religious movements, individuals, and communities. It engages with other scholarly opinions and the author then presents her own position of said topic.

This book is definitely not for someone who is unfamiliar with the history of the Kazan Tatars, the history of Islam in the Russian Empire, or Islamic theological/jurispredential distinctions. This book is definitely not for a popular audience and is more appropriate for specialists on the Volga-Ural Muslim communities from the 16th to 20th centuries.