Russia and the Islamic World

ABSTRACT

This article offers a historical retrospective of the interactions between Russia and the Islamic world in all their diversity, beginning from the first trade contacts of Medieval Rus with the Arabs and Persians of the Abbasid era, as well as with the Turkic-speaking residents of Volga Bulgaria. The author concludes that except for the initial sporadic period, the connections between Russian and Muslim worlds have been stable and close throughout all the following periods. Moreover, with time, these two civilizational communities turned into communicating vessels because of the growing number of Muslims within the Russian State and in Russian society. Special attention is paid to Russian-Turkish relations across several centuries. A complete comprehension of the relations between Russia and the Islamic world through an example of the historical retrospective of Russian interactions with the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey helps to provide a full appreciation of the importance of joint efforts to secure a bridge connecting East and West and the oriental civilizations with Russia.

This article is the republished version of:

Russia and the Islamic World

Notes

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2. “Puteshestvie Akhmeda Ibn-Fadlana posla khalifa al’-Maktadira k tsariu sakaliba,” in Na styke kontinentov i tsivilizatsii. Iz opyta obrazovaniia i raspada imperii X–XVI vv. (Moscow, 1996), p. 40.

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5. Dzhovani del’ Plano Karpini, Istoriia mongolov [Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, Ystoria Mongalorum]; Gil’om Rubruk, Puteshestvie v vostochnye strany [William of Rubruck, Itinerarium fratris Willielmi de Rubruquis de ordine fratrum Minorum, Galli, Anno gratiae 1253 ad partes Orientales] (Moscow, 1957), p. 88.

6. Kniga khozhdenii. Zapiski russkikh puteshestvennikov XI–XV vv., comp. text prep., trans., intro. art. and comment. N.I. Prokov’ev (Moscow, 1984), text—pp. 56, 70; translation—pp. 232, 246; O.V. Tvorogov, “Daniil,” in Slovar’ knizhnikov i knizhnosti Drevnei Rusi, no. 1, pp. 34–35.

7. M.S. Meier [Meyer], “Znachenie Evrazii v mirovoi istorii,” in Evraziistvo. Istoki-kontseptsiia-real’nost’ (Moscow, 2014), pp. 32–46.

8. This is recounted in detail in the Povest’ o Mitiaie, written no later than 1382–1383. See G.M. Prokhorov, Povest’o Mitiae (Rus’ i Vizantiia v epokhu Kulikovskoi bitvy) (Leningrad, 1978), appendix II.

9. Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei (PSRL), vol. XI (St. Petersburg, 1897), p. 97.

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12. K.V. Bazilevich, Vneshniaia politika russkogo tsentralizovannogo gosudarstva. Vtoraia polovina XV v. (Moscow, 1952), pp. 72–88; K.M. Setton, The Papacy and the Levant (1205–1571), vol. 2 (Philadelphia, 1978), pp. 318–20.

13. PSRL, vol. IV, part 1, issue 2, p. 151. Pamiatniki literatury Drevnei Rusi. Vtoraia polovina XV v. (Moscow, 1982), pp. 518–22.

14. Povest’ o Drakule, res. and text prep. Ia.S. Lur’e (Moscow/Leningrad, 1964). About the author, see Ia.S. Lur’e and A.Iu. Grigorenko, “F.V. Kuritsyn,” Slovar’ knizhnikov, no. 2, pt. 1, pp. 504–10.

15. See in greater detail M.S. Meier [Meyer], “Rossiia i Osmanskaia imperiia ot nachala XVI v. do 1569 g. Stanovlenie obshchikh granits dvukh gosudarstv,” in Ot Stambula do Moskvy. Sbornik statei v chest’ 100-letiia professora A.F. Millera (Moscow, 2003), pp. 91–116.

16. A. Bennigsen, P.N. Boratov, D. Desaive, and Ch. Lemercier-Quelquejay, Le Khanate de Crimée dans les Archives du Musée du Palais Topkapi (Documents concernant l’Empire Ottoman et l’Europe orientale) (Paris, 1978), p. 9.

17. T. Gökbilgin, “L’expédition ottoman contre Astrakhan en 1569,” Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique, vol. 11, no. 1 (1970), pp. 118–23.

18. O.E Kosheleva and T.A. Oparina, “Rossiia ot Smutnogo vremeni do Petrovskikh reform,” in Vsemirnaia istoriia, vol. 3, “Mir v rannee Novoe vremia” (Moscow, 2013), p. 638.

19. D.E. Eremeev and M.S. Meier [Meyer], Istoriia Turtsii v srednie veka i novoe vremia (MGU, 1992), p. 179.

20. About this in greater detail see M.S. Meier [Meyer], Osmanskaia imperiia v XVIII v. Cherty strukturnogo krizisa (Moscow, 1991), pp. 174–90.

21. S.F. Oreshkova, “Osmanskaia imperiia v XVIII v.,” in Istoriia Vostoka, vol. III, “Vostok na rubezhe srednevekov’ia i novogo vremeni. XVI–XVIII vv.” (Moscow, 1999), p. 387.

22. N.N. D’iakov, “Rossiia i strany Arabskogo Magriba (Alzhir, Tunis, Marokko),” in Rossiia i Vostok: Ucheb. posobie (SPbGU, 2000), pp. 48–74.

23. See in greater detail Vostochnyi vopros vo vneshnei politike Rossii (konets XVIII–nachalo XX v.) (Moscow, 1978). For a different interpretation of that same problem, see K.A. Zhukov, “Otnosheniia Rossii i osmanskoi Turtsii v kontse XV–nachale XX v.,” in Rossiia i Vostok: fenomenologiia vzaimodeistviia i identifikatsii v Novoe vremia (St. Petersburg, 2011), pp. 117–36.

24. E.Iu. Barkovskaia, “Islam i opyt gosudarstvennogo stroitel’stva v Rossiiskoi imperii,” in Rossiia i islamskii mir: istoricheskaia retrospektiva i sovremennye tendentsii (Moscow, 2010), pp. 409–14.

25. D.D. D’iakov and K.A. Zhukov, Rossiia i Blizhnii Vostok (Turtsiia, arabskie strany) v Novoe i Noveishee vremia (St. Petersburg, 2014), p. 45.

26. M.S. Meier [Meyer], “Osobennosti stanovleniia i razvitiia Osmanskoi imperii,” in Basileu: Sbornik statei, posviashchennykh 60-letiiu D.D. Vasil’eva (Moscow, 2007), pp. 237–38.

27. Iu.A. Petrosian, Osmanskaia imperiia: mogushchestvo i gibel’. Istoricheskie ocherki. (Moscow, 1990), pp. 206–7; R.A. Safrastian, Doktrina osmanizma v politicheskoi zhizni Osmanskoi imperii (Yerevan, 1985).

28. See in greater detail I.L. Fadeeva, Ofitsial’nye doktriny v ideologii i politike Osmanskoi imperii (osmanizm—panislamizm) XIX–nachalo XX v. (Moscow, 1985); F. Georgeon, Abdulhamid II Le sultan calife (1876–1909) (H., 2003).

29. T.K. Ibragim, F.M. Sultanov, and A.N. Iuzeev, Tatarskaia religiozno-filosofskaia mysl’ v obshchemusul’manskom kontekste (Kazan, 2002), pp. 137–39.

30. Iu.N. Rozaliev, Mustafa Kemal’ Atatiurk. Ocherk zhizni i deiatel’nosti (Moscow, 1995).

31. In greater detail see G.G. Kosach, Krasnyi flag nad Blizhnim Vostokom (Moscow, 2001).

32. N.G. Kireev, Istoriia Turtsii. XX vek. (Moscow, 2007), p. 350.

33. N.Iu. Ul’chenko and P.V. Shlykov, Dinamika rossiisko-turetskikh otnoshenii v usloviiakh global’noi nestabil’nosti (Moscow, 2014), pp. 42–44.