The Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly (russian: Оренбургское магометанское духовное собрание) was a state-controlled religious administration in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

that had jurisdiction over certain aspects of Islamic activity in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...

, the

Volga-Ural region Idel-Ural ( tt-Cyrl, Идел-Урал, translit=Idel-Üral, russian: Идель-Урал), literally Volga-Ural, is a historical region in Eastern Europe, in what is today Russia. The name literally means ''Volga-Urals'' in the Tatar language. T ...

, and parts of

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...

, including the Kazakh steppe. It was established in 1788 by order of Russian Empress

Catherine II , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...

. It was one of several religious bodies created in the Russian Empire, forming state-allied 'clergies' to manage non-Orthodox religions.

History

In 1791, the similar Tauride Muslim Spiritual Authority was created, presiding over Crimean Tatars. In the 1830s, the Department of Religious Affairs gave support to the Orenburg Assembly in religious disputes with the

Hanafi The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named a ...

and

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...

schools of thought The Kazakhs were removed from the assembly's jurisdiction in the 1860s as part of a policy to decrease the exposure of the Kazakhs to Tartar influence. According to statistics from 1883, the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly presided over 4,093 mosques, 7,341

ulema In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...

, and 2.14 million Muslims.

Structure

The head position in the assembly was

mufti A Mufti (; ar, مفتي) is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion (''fatwa'') on a point of Islamic law (''sharia''). The act of issuing fatwas is called ''iftāʾ''. Muftis and their ''fatwas'' played an important role ...

, under whom there were 5 or 6 qazis.

Mufti

The role of the mufti was established in the assembly's founding documents of 1788, however neither his social status or the scope of his powers were made clear.Azamatov, 356. The first mufti, Mukhamedzhan Khusainov, immediately began to push for more power, demanding the same status as the

Metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

of the

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

. He met several times with Catherine II in St. Petersburg, and began to see himself as an important political figure in the Volga-Ural region. This worried local Russian administrators, who requested and received permission from Prince Alexander Bezborodko to severely limit Khusainov's influence and keep him under their control. Local authorities then decreed "his he mufti'sduty is to administer strictly religious matters, and not to touch secular ones, except when the administrations sees fit to use him for these". According to an 1802 decree the mufti could not make any decisions without the consent of his deputies, however this was rarely followed by Khusainov. The first mufti was constantly dogged with lawsuits and complaints concerning bribery, swindling, and failure to follow ''

salat (, plural , romanized: or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːh, ( or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːtʰin construct state) ), also known as ( fa, نماز) and also spelled , are prayers performed by Muslims. Facing the , the direction of the Kaaba with ...

''. Though Emperor

Alexander I Alexander I may refer to: * Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC * Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus * Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome * Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of A ...

send a letter supporting Khusainov, and in effect granting him legal immunity, charges over Khusainov's abuse of power continued for the duration of his time as mufti.Azamatov, 357-361.

Notes

References

* * * {{Citation , last = Martin , first = Virginia , title = Law and Custom in the Steppe: The Kazakhs of the Middle Horde and Russian Colonialism in the Nineteenth Century , publisher = Curzon Press , year = 2001 , location = Richmond, Surrey, UK , isbn = 0-7007-1405-7 History of Central Asia Religion in Central Asia Islamic organizations based in Russia Russian Empire Religious organizations established in 1788 1788 establishments in the Russian Empire

History

Structure

Mufti

See also

Notes

References