Islam Across Eurasia

Author: Hannah Yuri Choi

“This paper analyses the relationship between Central Asia and Islam that in the wake of Russian imperial expansion and Soviet rule manifested itself in a range of ethnic and local cultures. Our objective is to challenge the accepted norms regarding colonialism, Orientalism, nationalism, and Islam. We will analyze the nature of Russian academic and popular Orientalism, discussing the distinct features that differentiate it from the Western models described by Edward Said and the implications they have had on the Russian popular perception of Islam. This paper seeks to apply the arguments about Orientalist and colonial discourse to a case that is rarely studied--Russia. Russia’s ambiguous positioning between Europe and Asia introduces some peculiar complexities into Russian colonizing discourse. How did Muslim leaders respond to the Russian project (in both imperial and Soviet context) of civilizing the Asiatics?”