Tsarist Oppression and the Resistance of Islam in Turkestan
On Wednesday, December 18, 2024 at 11:30 AM, Camila CORAEVA, a PhD student at the Faculty of Theology at KTMU, gave a seminar titled “Religious Situation in Turkestan During the Tsarist Period”. The seminar was attended by the Dean of the Faculty of Theology Prof. Dr. Hasan AYIK and academic staff. The speaker mentioned that Tsarist Russia implemented oppressive policies to control Islam in Turkestan, which was occupied in the 19th century, and that the Russian administration, which initially avoided intervening in Islam, had recently restricted the authority of religious affairs by oppressing mosques and madrasahs. He emphasized that Russian-Tuzem schools were established to assimilate the people and that attempts were made to teach Russian and Christianity, but that the people kept distance from these schools and turned to madrasahs. Coraeva then stated that the Jadid movement came to the fore with its proposals for modern education and religious reform, but that Jadid movement was prevented by Russian traditional clergymen. Coraeva particularly said that despite all the pressure from Russia, Jadid movement had shown that it had a more resilient structure and that religious values became a means of resistance.
At the end of the seminar, Dean of the Faculty of Theology Prof. Dr. Hasan AYIK thanked Camila CORAEVA for her academic contributions and presented her with a certificate of appreciation.
