From the History of Turkestan Emigration: «Turkestan Charity Society» in Cairo

Abstract

The article introduces the content of a previously unknown document related to the history of Turkestan emigration in Egyptin the 40s of the twentieth century. We mean the Charter of Turkestan Charity Society (Turkestan Jamiyat-i Khayriyesi), created inCairo in 1944 by a group of eminent people from the Bolshevik Central Asia political refugees. The document is written in two languages: Arabic and Turkish. Not only the main part of the document is of particular interest, but it also makes it possible to identify the names of prominent representatives of theTurkestan emigrant community who participated in the creation of the society. The relevance of the proposed material is caused by the fact that the information about the very process of creation and its initiators is not available neither in domestic nor in foreign theses published recently on the history ofTurkestan emigration. In addition, the article reveals some fresh evidence about a group of people who were in close relationship with one of the brightest representatives ofTurkestan emigration, a Tatar theologian, Musa Bigiev (1875–1949). Here we mean HH Princess Khadija Abbas Hilmi (1879–1951), a representative of the Muhammad Ali dynasty, as well as Musa Bigiev’s students Yusuf Uralgiray (1915–1976) and Muhammad Turkistani (1904–1991).