This article will focus on Muslim women, Imperial and Soviet schools in Central Asia. The chronological framework of the study covers the regional history from 1865 to 1930. The lower temporal boundary is due to the beginning of the Russian colonial order establishment in the region, the upper one to the year of the women's departments liquidation. Using comparative analysis, the author reconstructs the history of the women's education development in Central Asia. The problem of the research is to find out whether there has been a gap in the approaches of the administration of the Turkestan General-Governor and TASSR and the Uzbek SSR authorities in educating Muslims women and European migrants. The relevance of the paper lies in the study of the new imperial history, along with the revision of the stereotype view on the women emancipation in Soviet Central Asia, alike a successful project of the Bolsheviks, which changed the indigenous people cultural values. In addition to introducing little-known sources of the Soviet period into scientific circulation, the novelty of the article lies in the study of the institutional history of Central Asia through the prism of a gender. In the course of the study, it was found that the relative successes were achieved among the European population, especially during the Soviet period, because was formulated a meaningful gender policy. Despite the difference in management concepts, there were more Muslim women schools under the Soviet regime, especially after Hujum.

The relevance of the problem under study is due to the poor knowledge in the national historiography of the activities of Muslim Tatars in the Kazakh steppe, who were included in the hereditary and titled nobility. The article aims at examining the official lists of Tatar translators and interpreters as a source revealing the specifics of the social status and functions performed by Tatar officials in the Kazakh steppe. The principle of historicism, which allows us to consider the problem under study in all its versatility and permissible completeness, came as the leading approach to the study of this problem. The study revealed that Tatar officials at the end of the XVIII and the first half of the XIX centuries could occupy the civil ranks from the 8^th up to the 14^th category of the "Table of Ranks". However, there were two people to be identified having risen to even the higher ranks. The main function of Tatar officials in the Kazakh steppe was military intelligence; the information they obtained was confidential and was necessary for the Russian authorities to build relations with Central Asian elites. The official lists is a representative source for studying the social and property status of Tatar officials, their corporate ties at the level of business and matrimonial relations.

The article delves into the intricacies of Arab-Muslim culture, with a particular focus on the scholarly contributions of Abdullah Quilliam, a notable figure recognized as the first European to embrace Islam in Britain in the 19^th century. Abdullah Quilliam leveraged the opportunity to disseminate the teachings of Islam among Europeans. The article further underscores the profound impact of Quilliam's scholarly works, particularly the periodicals "The Crescent" and "The Islamic World." These seminal research publications significantly enhanced the understanding of Arab-Muslim culture in Britain, sparking an increased interest in the Islamic faith. In addition to Quilliam's contributions, the article also explores the works of other researchers engaged in similar academic pursuits. This comparative analysis enriches the discourse on the influence of Islam in Europe. In conclusion, the article provides a comprehensive examination of the intersection between Arab-Muslim culture and European society, highlighting Abdullah Quilliam's transformative role and his enduring legacy in spreading Islam in Britain. It emphasizes the importance of scholarly discourse in fostering mutual understanding and respect between diverse cultures, thereby contributing to the enrichment of the global cultural heritage.

The publication examines the views of the famous political figure Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev from the point of view of his influence on the religious policy of the Soviet government in the 1920s. An attempt was made to trace the connection between Sultan-Galiev's view of the socio-political basis of Islam, his recommendations for adjusting the religious policy of the Soviet state and the instructions of the party organs of that time. It was determined that in the first decade, the Soviet government mainly relied on the ideological groundwork of Sultan-Galiev and carried out its religious policy in accordance with this. It was also established that Sultan-Galiev was a lobbyist for a fairly soft policy towards Muslim institutions. Не was proved to act as a defender of the interests of all Muslim peoples of the USSR.

This article analyzes how Shihab al-Din al-Marjani, a Tatar historian and theologian, criticized the statements and opinions of the major Meccan Hanafi scholar ‘Ali al-Qari. He relied on the information from the book of Imam al-Muhibbi, who criticized al-Qari for madhhab fanaticism and for the statements which some theologians consider to be offensive to Prophet Muhammad and his parents. Marjani discussed the authorship of the book "al-Fiqh al-akbar", attributed to Imam Abu Hanifa, and expressed doubts about the authenticity of this book, arguing that it could have been written later on the basis of the views of Abu Hanifa and that it can be partially distorted. Marjani also criticized al-Qari's version that the Prophet's parents died in disbelief. He claimed that this opinion is erroneous and is not supported by reliable hadiths. The article also mentions that disagreements on this issue are associated with the ideological confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites, as well as with different approaches of the two Sunni persuasions on the need to adopt Islam through reason or appeal.

Insufficient attention is paid to spiritual and educational activities as non-religious socially oriented activities of religious organizations in modern research, although spiritual educators have a high need to develop competencies in the field of spiritual and educational activities. Considering the relevance of the issue, the work presents the results of a scientific study with ministers of religious organizations of the Republic of Bashkortostan to identify their ideas about spiritual and moral education. The study was conducted within the framework of the project “Competence Center “We Enlighten”: comprehensive support and development of spiritual and moral education” with the assistance of the Presidential Grants Foundation. A survey on current issues of spiritual and moral education demonstrated that for the Bashkortostan clergy the priority in educational work is the spiritual and moral direction. Spiritual and moral education, unlike the education and missionary work, has a unique goal and original content. One category of respondents characterizes spiritual and moral education from a secular point of view, the others do from a religious point of view. The clergy does not yet have a common opinion on this issue. Servants (staff and volunteers) of religious organizations of the Republic of Bashkortostan feel the need to master methods of spiritual and moral education.

The article is devoted to reveal eternal theological causes of misunderstanding as the greatest purpose of inter-religious dialogue. Judaic and Islamic Theologies closely related by history and causality of origin face a challenge caused by social and political dimension of the contemporary world. Searching the mechanisms of understanding it becomes a key problem within both philosophical and theological aspects.

Understanding is both a phenomenon of Theology (understanding God, the Sacred Text) and the goal of exegetics, which unfolds in the context of confronting the universal evil. At the cognition level it is the evil of misunderstanding that relates to the distortions of a natural language and detracts from the truth. On the level of values it is the need for an inter-religious dialogue to overcome the fragmentation struggle of ideas against destructive infernal force of informational field provokes disunity and wars.

The article is devoted to the discourse of interreligious dialogue in Islam, its instrumentalization and interpretation by modern theologians. Examining the precedents of interreligious dialogue in Islam, scholars usually refer to two examples – the Najran and Medina treaties of Muslims with Christians and Jews, and thus confirm the initially pluralistic and tolerant tradition of the Muslim religion. The paper examines the interpretation of these treaties and the use of interreligious dialogue discourses by modern politicians and theologians in Muslim societies: the Tunisian Republic and the United Arab Emirates. The work also shows how the internal resources of the Muslim religion can serve as a means for constructing and forming discourses of interreligious dialogue.

The article examines the features of the Islamic renaissance in the Kazakh SSR in comparison with other republics of Soviet Central Asia. The author analyzes the role of Kazakh national identity in the process of Islamic revival in Kazakhstan in 1985–1991. The article comprehends the peculiarities of the formation and development of The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Kazakh SSR, establishing partnerships with the Muslim world and its counteraction to the radical confessional movement "Alash" and the penetration of extremist ideas from the Middle East into the republic.

The article presents the specific terminological (conceptual) apparatus used by M.-Said M.-Ramadan al-Buti in the book “al-Salafiyyah”, with a detailed consideration of the concepts of “Arabian scales”, “scientific and ideological shield” and “compass”, defined by the Sheikh as the pillars of the methodological path of knowledge (manhaj) established by the righteous predecessors with sincerity of confession and pristine Arabic speech. Based on the systematization of information found in more than half of the sections of the book, the research provides a brief characterization of the scholars who adhere to the scales of sanity and those who have deviated from them, as well as the results of their work. In the course of identifying Ramadan al-Buti's position on the issue of the limits of questioning, the paper reveals his attitude towards the Quranic prohibition of questioning formulated by the representatives of the extreme conservative approach, as well as the limits of freedom of authorial judgment advocated by the representatives of the liberal approach in religion. Using the example of Ramadan al-Buti's classification of knowledge, as well as the flexibility of his language and his ability to choose words delicately, the author describes how, through his proposed methodology, the sheikh manages to balance the extreme viewpoints, thereby offering a moderate position of Islamic methodological approach.

The relevance of the topic of this study is determined by the mutually conditioned increase in interest in modern psychological approaches and practices on the part of Islamic psychologists, as well as the growing demand for qualified religiously oriented psychological assistance from Muslim clients. For a significant part of the Islamic client sector, not only the religious immersion of the helping practitioner plays a fundamental role, but also the religious supervision of the approach used by him. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the potential of the narrative practice in psychological counseling of Muslim clients and its compliance with the fundamental values, ideas and principles of the Islamic religion. The materials and methods include a theoretical analysis of the works of postmodernist and constructivist scholars, as well as practice-oriented works of narrative psychologists describing the principles and methods of work in the narrative approach, client cases, the essence, goals and assessment of the effectiveness of narrative conversations of different types. In addition, the author's personal consulting experience, work as a part of an intervision group of narrative practitioners and supervision of the narrative approach by a specialist in the field of Sharia sciences are also analyzed. Among the most significant conclusions there are the statements about the fundamental compatibility of the narrative approach with the ideas, principles and concepts of Islamic doctrine, about the effectiveness of using the main types of narrative conversations in working with the requests of religious clients. The conclusions also contain provisions on the specifics of using narrative practice to provide assistance to different categories of Muslim clients.

The article is devoted to the analysis of collectivistic and individualistic aspects in the Islamic tradition of self-knowledge: how they are combined and how they interact within the framework of the Islamic faith. The collectivist tendency in the form of the desire to be connected with fellow believers and to be on good terms with them is one of the central issues within the Islamic worldview. Moreover, a person's awareness of their own self through social self-determination, through the search for their place in the ummah is the most important ontological aspect of self-knowledge in Islam. At the same time, in Islam, the main, ontologically embedded attachment of a person is his connection with Allah, and the entire dynamics of human individuation within the Islamic worldview is directed in one direction - to the Creator. Only through the establishment of personal relations with the Almighty a person can understand himself, those around him and the world as a whole.

In Islam, which is considered to be the so-called "religion of the middle", the collectivistic and individualistic are in a balanced state. Having created the man as a creature with a dual nature, the Creator thereby laid in him a simultaneous desire for self-actualization and an urge for society. Such anthropology also explains the strategies of religious self-knowledge of man within the framework of the Islamic faith, which combines a personal search for knowledge about being, the truth of religious faith through the "self", the uniqueness of the religious experience of each with collective experience, which contributes to the inclusion of a person who has chosen the path of self-knowledge through the religious sphere, in the dialectical system of the individual and the social.