The Formation of Russian Islamic Studies: Between Confessionalism and Scientific Objectivity (Second Half of the 19th to the Beginning of the 20th Century)

This article is devoted to an analysis of the emergence of Islamic studies in Russia in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The Faculty of Oriental Languages at St. Petersburg University opened in 1855, and the so-called Anti-Muslim Branch in Kazan Theological Academy opened in 1854. The two schools were usually called the "academic" and the "Kazan missionary" school, respectively. The key figures in the academic school were A. Kazem-bek, V. Rozen, V. Barthold, A. Schmidt, and I. Krachkovsky. Their studies were free from confessionalism and were directed toward the objective examination of Islam and Muslim culture, although as elsewhere in Europe, many of them presumed the superiority of Christianity over Islam. The Kazan missionary school, in contrast, published polemical anti-Muslim works, although they also made a breakthrough in the study of the dogmatic aspects of Islam. Some of the representatives of this school, like M. Mashanov, N. Ostroumov, and P. Zhuze, gradually abandoned direct anti-Muslim polemics.