ABSTRACT
The present volume provides detailed empirical studies on the development of Islamic education in the Soviet Union and its successor states. It aims at an overview of the development of Islamic learning in six regions or republics of the former Soviet Union with a predominant or at least significant Muslim population over most of the twentieth century. These are Tatarstan in the Central Volga region, Ukraine (with a special focus on the Crimean peninsula), Daghestan and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus, as well as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia. Research for this project was conducted by regional teams of three to four researchers in each part of the former Soviet Union. In addition, Tim Epkenhans contributed a study on Islamic education in Tajikistan with a focus on the recent years. The omission not only of other Muslim areas of the Caucasus, but also of Bashkortostan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, certainly limits the comparative value of our overviews. However, the regions selected comprise the major centres of Islamic learning in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. In addition, a volume on Islamic education in further regions of the former USSR is to appear soon.1
