The Muslim Question and Russian Imperial Governance [Hardcover]

From the time of the Crimean War through the fall of the Tsar, the question of what to do about the Russian empire's large Muslim population was a highly contested issue among educated Russians both inside and outside the government. As formulated in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Muslim Question comprised a complex set of ideas and concerns that centered on the problems of reimagining and governing the tremendously diverse Russian empire in the face of the challenges presented by the modernizing world. Basing her analysis on extensive research in archival and primary sources, Elena I. Campbell reconstructs the issues, debates, and personalities that shaped the development of Russian policies toward the empire's Muslims and the impact of the Muslim Question on the modernizing path that Russia would follow.

Elena I. Campbell is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Washington.

Campbells book shows how profound official Islamophobia paradoxically led to the preservation of earlier confessional structures, grudging non-interference with the spiritual and social life of mostMuslim communities, a restraining hand on the actions (if not the rhetoric) of Orthodox missionaries, and a certain uneasy toleration.For someone whose native language is not English, [Campbell's] prose is remarkably clear, and she makes a major contribution to the understanding of Russias 'Muslim Question'past and present. . . . Recommended.Readable, original, and endlessly interesting, Campbells book deserves the very highest praise.While Campbells study covers mostly well-trodden ground, she provides an engaging and enlightening synthesis which significantly supplements, compliments, and at times challenges existing scholarship. She pulls together a tight, lucid, and well-structured study anchored firmly in multiple archival, primary and secondary sources.

For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia by Robert D. Crews (Harvard UniversilÓ: