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Abstract

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This paper briefly discusses the rise of the Mahmudiyya in post-Soviet Daghestan, and the political strategies of its leading authority, Shaykh Said-Afandi Chirkeevskii (Atsaev, 1937-2012). How did the Said-Afandi's Mahmudiyya branch of the Naqshbandiyya khalidiyya Sufi brotherhood become a state-supporting and state-supported institution in contemporary Daghestan? I argue that key elements of Said-Afandi's rise into the spotlight were his take-over of the republican Muftiate in the period when the old Soviet Muftiate for the North Caucasus was disintegrating, and the subsequent establishment of a network of Islamic teaching institutes that reached out to both Kumyks and Avars. Here the Mahmudiyya competes with another Khalidiyya branch and especially with the Salafi groups; the latter now appear as the major threat to the secular and multinational republic, while Said-Afandi's propagation of a conservative ethos matched the general conservative stance of the Daghestani and Russian leaderships. Also of importance is the integration of Shadhiliyya elements into Mahmudiyya teaching and practice that make the group's appeal more diverse. Said-Afandi's writings (originally written in Avar) were professionally translated into Russian, with a broad Islamic discourse for the masses and a specialized Sufi discourse for the inner circle. With these missionary policies Said-Afandi reached out not only to the Daghestani nationalities but also to Muslims in other parts of the Russian Federation, from Moscow over Tatarstan to Siberia. At the same not only the Salafi challenge but also the ethnic cleavages in Daghestan itself pose serious limitations to the Mahmudiyya success,and the question remains whether the current leadership of the brotherhood - after Said-Afandi's tragic death at the hands of a female suicide bomber in the summer of 2012 - will be able to hold the group together.