Al-Mesbar Center’s monthly book for December 2013 — its 84th volume — examined Islam in Russia, from its historical roots to the present. It scrutinized the rainbow of Islamist movements, from political and quietist to extra-systemic and jihadist, both as local phenomena and in terms of their geo-strategic significance. It traced as well the range of historical memories that informed the outlook of these groups. From a cultural standpoint, as the research demonstrated, there is a distinctively Russian Islamic ethos — a “Russian Islam” — much the way that there is an African, European, or American Islam. It is a local manifestation of that universal syncretism whereby any religion gives and takes with the culture and values of the “other” within a discrete geographic space.
The Center’s eighty-fifth monthly book, for January 2014, examines “Central Asia and the Northern Caucasus: Salafis, Shi’ites, and Jihadists.” Like the prior volume, it brings together historical, political, and cultural analysis. The volume divides the subject among three historical periods: Czarist Russia (1547-1721), the Russian empire (1721-1917), and the Soviet period (1922-1991). The papers were penned by researchers from the Arab world as well as Central Asia, and cover Dagestan, Azerbaijan, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Circassia, Abkhazia, Karaclays, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. The studies cover present conditions, as well as pivotal historical conflicts. The latter include the movement of resistance against Czarist Russia in the northern Caucasus, which was led by the “Imam al-Shamil” — the Dagestani leader and third “Imam” of a revolutionary offshoot of the Sufi Naqshbandiya order — from 1797 to 1871. The volume also covers the movement known as “Jadidism,” an Islamist reformist intellectual stream among Muslims of the Russian empire in Central Asia who adopted “enlightenment” discourse as a basis for reconciling Islam and modernity.
The first study comes to us from Hajimurad Dunghu, professor and head of the humanities faculty at the University of Dagestan. He chronicles the life and times of the Imam al-Shamil and his resistance to Czarism as remembered by Caucasians today. Al-Shamil, who hailed from the village of Jimri, became the spiritual leader of Dagestan in 1834, and drew lessons from his ancestors in leading a struggle against the central government. Dunghu breaks down the history into three stages: The first stage, 1829-39, was a period of unification of disaffected elements into a single movement under the leadership of three successive Imams (Ghazi Muhammad, 1829-1832; Imam Jam Zat, 1832-34; and Imam al-Shamil, 1834-39). The second stage, 1840-1852, is described by some historians as the “golden age” of the Imam al-Shamil, during which Chechens opened their arms to his movement, along with leading figures in the area such as Haji Tashu, Mulla Shu’ayb, and Majuma Akhfirdi. He also managed to bring together jihadist groups in Dagestan and Chechnya, which also supported his movement. The third stage, from 1853 to 1859, was a period of economic crisis which had added to the disaffection of residents of the mountains in particular. Yet Russian forces and their local representatives in the area managed to gain in strength and influence. This dynamic coincided with growing strains in relations between the Russian empire and Turkey. War broke out between the two. Following the historical narration, Dunghu explains the period’s importance in the history of the region. He also observes that while the outcome of the struggle was the annexation of Chechnya, Dagestan, and the northwest Caucasus by the Russian empire, there were also positive results for the indigenous people of the region: They were able to develop their economy and cultures to a modest degree. But the root causes of disaffection lingered and resentments seethed through the Soviet period and to this day.
Adeeb Khalid, a professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, examines the Jadidiya movement in Central Asia, one of several intellectual movements in the area which sought to reconcile Islam and modernity. The Jadidiya achieved influence in various parts of the Russian empire. In addition to its interest in cultural modernization, it also called for the use of Arabic script to write the local languages. He also explains how the movement came to an end after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. Though there had been some common ground between the Jadidists and the early Bolsheviks, early Russian communism came to reject the former in favor of a rigid universalist ideology aiming to supplant religion.
A study by Muhammad Kasht, a Jordanian researcher on Circassian affairs, examines Islamist movements in Kabardino-Balkaria and the Karachay-Cherkess Republic — lands whose people suffered forced migration. Circassians have long lived under foreign occupation and experienced particularly harsh treatment under Czarist Russia from 1722 to 1864. According to official Russian sources, only 80,000 of the 1.5 million Circassians who had lived there remained by the end of the period. The vast majority were either killed or banished to Ottoman lands. Kasht goes on to cover Islamist movements presently active in Circassia, their historical roots, and links between these movements and regional and international Islamist networks.
“Shi’ite and Sunni Islamist Movements in Azerbaijan” is the title of a paper by the dean of humanities at the University of Dagestan. The paper distinguishes between groups that appear to have spawned indigenously and others which were “imported.” Among other aspects of the study, he describes the training of hundreds of Azerbaijani Shi’ite youth in Hezbollah camps hosted in Iran. Following their graduation from the training programs, they were given the choice of either fighting Israel in Lebanon or spreading Hezbollah’s ideology back home. The author examines, as well, the assassination in Baku of an Azeri academic, Ziya Bunyadov, in all likelihood by Hezbollah; the movement regarded him as a “Mossad agent” who had promoted a pro-Israel agenda in Azerbaijan. As to the spread of Salafism in the area, which began in the 1990s, the researcher identifies three principal factors: first, a proactive effort to offset the influence of Iranian influence in Azerbaijan; second, a function of the growing polarization and impoverishment of many Azeris amid a conflict between tradition and Western democratic values; and third, a reaction to government corruption, a rising crime wave, and the supposed degradation of public “morals.”
Canadian scholar Andrew McGregor contributes a paper on the foreign connections of Islamist movements in Central Asia. He describes the Islamist “Uzbekiya” movement, which is closely tied to the Pakistani Taliban and “Islamic jihad” movement. He also notes the presence of Hizb al-Tahrir, calling for the establishment of a Caliphate in Central Asia. The group, which has a nonviolent unit focused on proselytism as well as an armed wing, has been banned in Tajikistan since 2006. McGregor observes that these so-called “Mujahideen” are not the only armed groups in the region and are probably smaller in number than some of their rivals. Some of the jihadists are also involved in drug smuggling; they exploit the area’s porous national borders.
Mikhael Rushkin of the Institute for Oriental Studies in Moscow profiles Islamist movements in Dagestan and Northern Ossetia. In Dagestan before 1917 there had been 1700 mosques, as well as 356 cathedrals which had been converted into mosques. Both Salafi and Sufi groups were active prior to the breakup of the communist system, but entered the public sphere after the fall of the Iron Curtain. He traces the roots of Dagestani Salafis to the late-19th century, when extremists rivaling Sufis in the area formed an organization called the “Jama’at al-Muslimeen” (Muslim Society), headed by Muhammad Bajudin. Due to opposition to the Jama’ah from Sufis together with the Russian government, it was forced to retreat to Chechnya — a migration which the movement’s leaders refer to as the “little Hijra,” alluding to the prophet Muhammad’s migration from Mecca to Medina in 622.
A professor of Arabic studies at the University of Moscow focuses his research on Shamil Basayev (1965-2006), the leader of the Liberation Army of the Northern Caucasus who led the Chechens in war on Russia; as well as Thamir Salih Abdullah al-Suwaylem (1969-2000), known as “Khattab.” The latter is a prominent figure in the history as well as the lore of the “Arab Mujahideen,” who came to be known as the “Afghan Arabs.” The paper also provides substantive coverage of the situation in North Ossetia.
The final study comes to us from Mirbik Fatshaghev, a French researcher of Chechen origin. “Caucasian Jihadism and its Development in the Chechen and Syrian Wars” looks to the development of the jihadist movement in the northern Caucasus beginning with the second Chechen war, from 1999 to the present. He traces the rise of jihadism as well as the decline of Sufism in the region, in addition to the Russian government’s measures to crack down on the former. He then takes on the more recent migration of volunteer jihadists from the northern Caucasus to support Syria’s armed opposition to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. In March 2013, several “brigades” of Syrian warriors with a substantial Caucasian presence — the Al-Khattab brigades, the “Jaysh Muhammad” and the “Muhajireen” under the leadership of Amir Omar al-Shishani — decided to merge into the Jaysh al-Muhajireen al-Ansar.
Al-Mesbar Center would like to thank all our colleagues and fellow researchers for their contribution to this volume — and in particular, Murad Batal al-Shishani, who coordinated the research efforts.
