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Aksakolov, Sultonbek (2014) Islam in Soviet Tajikistan : state policy, religious figures and the practice of religion (1950-1985). PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/20339 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this PhD Thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This PhD Thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this PhD Thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the PhD Thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full PhD Thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD PhD Thesis, pagination. Islam in Soviet Tajikistan: State Policy, Religious Figures and the Practice of Religion (1950-1985) Sultonbek Aksakolov Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in History 2013 Department of History School of Oriental and African Studies University of London Declaration for SOAS PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ____________________________ Date: _________________ i Abstract This thesis explores the history of religious life among Muslim communities in Soviet Tajikistan from 1950 to 1985. The analysis of the history of religious life of the Muslim population during this period is contextualised within the background of changing Soviet religious policy and its implementation in Tajikistan. The thesis seeks to explain how and why the interactions between the various actors in the field of religious policy affected the implementation of unionwide decrees and decisions in the distinct religious context of the Soviet peripheral regions. In so doing, it also examines how Muslim religious figures functioned and how the communities in Soviet Tajikistan practiced their religion in the context of continuous administrative pressure and atheist propaganda. With the formation of special councils and various commissions under the local government, the Soviet state succeeded in creating a bureaucratic system for the analysis, monitoring and regulation of religious activity. Nevertheless, the findings of this thesis suggest that in the specific local context, the implementation of Soviet religious policy was dependent on how the officials representing the state and the religious figures representing religion understood and carried out this policy. The practice of obligatory religious rituals by both state officials and ordinary people in turn blurred the dividing line between the strata of population defined as Muslim believers, the clergy and Soviet officials. The thesis reveals that religious practices and activity evolved in various ways in the context of continuous surveillance by the state. Muslim religious figures in Tajikistan like their fellow clergy in other parts of Soviet Union used different strategies to integrate and adapt themselves to the changing state religious policy and social transformations. ii Acknowledgements Studying for a PhD was a lonely endeavour and a long journey, taking me from a remote village in Tajikistan to bustling cities and centres of learning. I could have not completed this thesis without the support I received during my study. My largest debt is owed to the Institute of Ismaili Studies, which provided me with a full scholarship. My desire to study for a doctorate would never have been fulfilled without this scholarship and the encouragement I received from staff and colleagues. I am therefore extremely grateful to the director of the IIS, Dr. Farhad Daftary, and its former director, Professor Azim Nanji, for recommending me. I also owe a large debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Benjamin Fortna, for his encouragement, and guidance at every stage of my research. In the adab of traditional learning and respect, I would like to say ‘thank you okhon Ben’ for your advice and input. I should also like to thank my colleagues, especially Wendy Robinson and Dr. Isabel Miller, for their invaluable support in reading my thesis and offering helpful suggestions. I am particularly indebted to Russell Harris for proofreading my thesis and for his meticulous corrections. My debt of thank goes to my colleagues at the IIS. I am grateful to my classmates and friends at SOAS, Nurmamadsho Nurmamadshoev, Alena Kulinich, Melania Savino and Phillip Wirtz for their remarks and company during my studies. I am also grateful to Dr. Shirin Akiner for her encouragement. My particular thanks go to Dr. Antony Russell for his remarks and corrections. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Professor Yaakov Ro’i who provided me with copies of the CARC archives for the Tajik SSR. I express my sincerest gratitude to Dr. Stephane A. Dudoignon for the guidance he brought to my research. I should also like to express my gratitude to my former teacher and colleague Dr. Sarfaroz Niyozov for his continuous advice during my study. In Tajikistan, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Mahrambek Anwarzod, Mrs Gulsara Rahmatova, Haidarmamad Tawakalov and Elbon Hojibekov for their support in arranging interviews with a number of religious teachers and students of religious schools. I am also indebted to the interviewees who recalled their memories and experiences of religious life under the Communist system; they were not devoid of certain iii nostalgia for that life of peace and stability. I am also grateful to my colleagues in the Khorog Research Unit for their warm welcome and for sharing information. I should also like to express my deep appreciation to the staff and researchers at the regional archive in Khorog, and the state archive in Dushanbe for the support they gave me during my archival research. I am also very grateful to Professor Muso Dinorshoev at the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, as well as to Dr. Ramazon Nazariev and Dr. Lolo Dawlatbekov for their encouragement. I should also like to thank the staff at the archives of GARF, RGANI and RGASPI in Moscow, Russian Federation. I am grateful to Sulaimon Shohzoda, Ubaid Okimbekov, Tohir Qalandarov and the late Boghshoh Lashkarbekov, as well as to my friend Palla Palalev for their support during my field research in Moscow. My largest debt of gratitude is to my late teacher, Professor Nisormamad Shakarmamadov at the Institute of Humanities, in Khorog, who set me on the path to academic research when I was still an undergraduate student. He was not only my first academic supervisor, but also the humblest and kindest mentor one could ever have. I also owe a large debt of gratitude to my closest friend Nazarkhudo Dastambuev for his continuous support and his warm hospitality in Dushanbe. I remain grateful to my friends Majnun Majnunov, Sherozkhon Qizilov, Munosib Madimarov and Dr. Amirsho Lashkariev for sharing the difficulties and joy of this research. My special thanks go to my relatives in Moscow for hosting me during my field research. I am also extremely thankful and indebted to all my family members, especially my sister Sayorakhotun Aksakolova, who has taken care of my parents in my absence. I must thank my wife for taking care of my son, whose smile and happiness is my constant source of inspiration and joy. My parents brought me up in the spirit of sharing and caring. They encouraged me to be industrious in the Soviet school system. Most of all they were happy to see me learning musulmoni ilm (Islamic knowledge). My late father set me on this particular path of learning from the time I was in secondary school by taking me to the okhon (teacher of religion). It was my father’s deep religiosity, which inspired me to study the Muslim experience of Soviet rule. It is to my parents, to my late father, and to my mother, that I dedicate this thesis. I alone am responsible for any mistakes in this thesis. iv Abbreviations BMDJT: Boygonii Markazii Dawlatii Jumhurii Tojikiston CARC: The Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults CRA: The Council for Religious Affairs GBAO: Gorno-Badakhshanskaia Avtonomnaia Oblastꞌ GA GBAO: Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Gorno-Badakhshanskoi Avtonomnoi Oblasti GARF: Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii RGASPI: Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Sotsial'no-Politicheskoi Istorii RGANI: Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Noveishei Istorii Tajik SSR: The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic v Notes on Transliteration and Names The archival and interview materials used in this thesis were mainly in Russian, Tajik and Pamiri languages. I have modified the Library of Congress system of transliteration from Russian (Cyrillic) into English and I represent ‘й’ as (i); ‘я’ as (ia); ‘ю’ as (iu), ё as (io) and ‘ы’ as ‘y’. Otherwise I follow the standard Library of Congress system for Russian words and terms. Russian and Tajik orthography requires only capitalisation for proper names. For this reason I have not capitalised the title of books, articles and other documents in the footnotes and bibliography. When transliterating the names of place, individuals, religious, cultural and official terms from Tajik and Pamiri languages, I have endeavoured to reflect their pronunciations. For example, I write the words jamo‘at-khona, qozi, imom and mullo as they are pronounced in Tajik. The exceptions are the administrative names of administrative districts and provinces, such as the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast, Shugnan, Murgab, Rushan, and proper titles such as the Ismaili Imam, for which I have used standard English spellings.