Reading the Russian Empire and Soviet Union in al-Manar (1898-1935)

Roy Bar Sadeh

This paper turns the spotlight on the impact of Islamic modernist circles in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union on Islamic modernist circles in Cairo from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. Asking what these connections can tell us about the development of Islamic modernism in both Egypt and the Russian/Soviet entities during the period in question, this paper focuses on the Cairo-based journal, al-Manar (1898-1935), and its publications on the Russian Empire and Soviet Union, in addition to its correspondences with Muslim intellectuals from those entities.

Founded by the Syrian-born Muhammad Rashid Rida, al-Manar was one of the most important outlets of Islamic modernism. Calling for Islamic unity and the conflation between Islamic and secular sciences based on the study of Arabic, al-Manar was circulated to Muslim communities around the world. Considered as one of al-Manar’s major circulation destinations, the Russian Empire — and later the Soviet Union — were extensively discussed in the journal. While issuing fatwas to Russian Muslim readers, the journal published various articles on political, religious and scientific developments in the Russian Empire. Moreover, al-Manar published Arabic translations of works by both Muslim and non-Muslim Russian thinkers, like Ismail Gasprinski and Leo Tolstoy respectively, in addition to its engagement with various ideologies, e.g. Bolshevism, circulated from Russian hubs, like Kazan and St. Petersburg.

This paper makes both an historiographic and conceptual intervention in the study of Islamic modernism. Based on Arabic and Russian sources, this paper argues against current historiography which has so far only been limited to the “echoes” of al-Manar among Russian Muslim subjects. While not disregarding of al-Manar’s impact on Islamic modernists in the Russian and Soviet Empires, this paper takes a reciprocal approach, demonstrating how Islamic modernist circles in Cairo were shaped by their engagement with thought imported from the Russian/Soviet-ruled territories.