The Crimean Tatar hereditary clergy and its genesis (1783–1831)

Abstract

The article deals with the Islamic clergy on Crimea (the Province of Tauria), which as a corporate body was officially registered on the 17^th of September 1796. On that day the clergy officially became tax exempt. The Islamic “hereditary” clergy in Crimea was not homogenous: its formation was influenced by the migration movements of the local population in the 18^th –19^th cent. The nucleus of the “hereditary” clergy consisted of the spiritual leaders of the bygone epoch who accepted the Russian Empire as their new patria. The deficit in clergymen, which was provoked by the mass emigration of the Crimea Tatars to the Ottoman Empire resulted in the fact that many vacant places were taken by the low classes (petty bourgeois) who did manage identify themselves in the Russian registry documents in 1795 and 1811 as “clergy”. In this way Tatar religious communities sought to ensure the continuity of their religious traditions and practices as well as to create an alternative in choosing a local spiritual leader. The attempt of the Russian authorities to establish in 1831 of the closed privileged class of Tauria’s clergy in order to control their number, turned out to be unrealistic. However, already in 1833, a large class of “hereditary” clergy was legalized by making them tax and other duties exempt when they were actively involved in the pastoral care.