Books

This book presents the first annotated English translation and critical study of the writings of ‘Alī al-Ghumūqī, a Daghestani Muslim intellectual, historian, and participant in the revolutionary transformations of the early twentieth century. Bringing together intellectual history, translation, and historiographical intervention, the volume introduces anglophone readers to a largely unknown voice from the Muslim Caucasus whose works illuminate the intersections of Islam, empire, and revolution.

How did Armenian intellectuals read the revolutions of 1917? The book follows their debates over the Bolshevik formula of peace without annexations, the fate of Turkish Armenia and the shape of a future Armenian state, drawing on the periodical press of Tiflis, Baku and Yerevan.

This book explores how the Muslim scholars of Daghestan, an important Muslim region within Russia, experienced the 1917 Russian Revolution and how they attempted to gain religious and political authority in the new post-imperial environment.

Covering the period between the February Revolution and the first mass repressions of the scholars of Islam, it challenges the view that relations between Muslim reformers and Bolsheviks were simply antagonistic. Relations were pragmatic rather than ideological: there was cooperation on modern education and language policy, alliances against assumed common threats, and disagreement over atheism and class struggle.