Muslim educational revival in modern Tatarstan in the course of millennial historical development

Abstract

The article analyses the different forces involved in the processes of reform of the Islamic educational system. Some of its distinctive features go back to previous periods of the development of Tatar Islamic society, while others related to the contemporary socio-politic situation in the Russian Federation and throughout the world. The current determining factor is growing control from governmental and state structures on Islamic society and especially Islamic education. This state control is implemented in two main ways: 1) through police surveillance of some foreign graduates and preventing them from teaching in local mardrassas and 2) through indirect financing of Islamic educational reforms in the spirit of the Hanafi-madhab historically approved traditions. The article also provides some data and statistics on current madrasas in Tatarstan, student numbers, subject taught and the number of hours devoted to different courses. © 2012 eum (Edizioni Università di Macerata, Italy).