The article provides a fresh insight into the little known peacemaking initiative in the history of the Soviet diplomacy launched and planned by the head of the first Soviet diplomatic mission in the Arab world – in the Kingdom of Hejaz – Consul General Kerim Hakimov. As the troops commanded by Abdel Aziz bin Saud, the then ruler of Nejd, were rapidly approaching the Hejaz, and by the early 1925 had captured its capital Jeddah, Moscow, mindful of the future, gave its approval for Hakimov to get along with forging contacts with the Nejd representatives. The author reviews the motives underlying the decision to make an attempt at reconciliation between Ibn Saud and Sharif Hussein that would allow a possibility to establish a direct contact with the would-be founder of Saudi Arabia located in Mecca. Eventually, the Soviet Consul General managed to procure the vital information about the situation in Arabia and make a realistic assessment of Ibn Saud’s chances to gain victory. The trip made by the Consul General had an impact on Moscow’s determination to move forward along the way of supporting Ibn Saud in his efforts to unify the Arab lands, as a result, the USSR was the first nation to recognize the new state in Arabia.

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.

The article is devoted to little-known facts of the history of the Muslim community of Prokopyevsk, Kemerovo region, which arose from the Stalinist repressions of the 1930s from among the exiles and dekulakized and managed to preserve its ethno-religious characteristics right up to the collapse of the USSR. On the basis of archival sources and historical interviews with religious and religious figures for the first time, the activity of representatives of the Muslim clergy during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, the peculiarities of the interaction of the community with authorities at different historical stages and the fate of the local Muslim community in the context of the transformation of state policy in relation to Muslims.

The article deals with the events of the 14^th cent., when the Ruler of Samarqand, Timur Leng started a military campaign against Chinese Empire (under the Ming Dynasty). The Empire was saved from conquest by the death of the “Iron Lame”.

This is a continuation of the publication [1] of the translation into Russian of a treatise by Ibn Rushd (Averroes 1126–1198 AD). In this treatise he criticizes the principles of Kalam theology, especially those of Asharites. They are juxtaposed to the Qur’anic arguments. The present chapter deals with the Divine attributes, such as the God’s Unity Kalam argument cataphatic descriptions. Critically assessed is the main argument of the `ilm al-kalam the dalil at-tamanu` (proof of mutual prevention). In the chapter are also discussed the fundamental theological issues of whether the Qur’an (as Divine Speech) is eternal or created as well as the relationship between the Divine attributes and His essence.

The article reflects the keen scholarly interest to the works of Musa Jarullah Bigeev’s (1875–1949) scholarly and spiritual heritage, in particular, his handwritten translation of the Koran into the Tatar-Ottoman language. This work although have not been discovered, however, it was known to exist. Musa Jarullah Bigeev was one of the outstanding Tatar theologians of the last century. His knowledge of the Quran and Quranic Sciences was rather remarkable. His interest to these subjects had never ceased. The article presents the results of another Ankara and Istanbul expedition, which took place in May 2018. The expedition team managed to find some valuable documents, which comprise a record of some circumstances related to this important work. The photocopies of the discovered documents are published in the article and accompanied with the relevant translations into Russian. The findings allowed the author to improve the existing database, which deals with the manuscript translation of the Holy Quran. The documents explain the reason for the departure of Musa Bigeev from Istanbul to Cairo in the autumn of 1948; the reason, why Fauzia Dogrul, who took care of Musa Bigeev in the last months of his life stayed in Cairo. They also describe some hitherto unknown features of his character. The article also outlines some future research prospects.

The article provides a concise description of a collection of texts in Arabic. The copy is preserved in the Ibragimov Institute of Language, Literature and Art of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, Kazan, Russian Federation. The copy originates from the Sterlibash district / Bashkortostan. The MS book comprises a collection of works on tajwid (recitation of the Holy Qur’an), Islamic creed and medicine. The aim of the publication is to introduce another hitherto unknown item, since the general descriptions available are far from being satisfactory. The item has entered the collection in 2017 under the shelfmark 7879 and assigned to the collection no. 39. The description offered provides titles of the work, their contents and authorship as well as the summary of the contents. The text in the MS was compared to the printed text of the same works (subject to availability). The cataloguer came to the conclusions as follows: the Tatars based their education on classical Islamic works in Arabic and Persian. The education was modelled after the system used in Central Asia. In the areas located remotely from the centres of education people also had a recourse to the texts, which comprised information, which was different from that from the “orthodox” writings. The Tatar medical writings used both local and classical medical texts.

The article provides the results of the field research based on social and psychological approach aiming a specific target, i.e. the attitude to religion and religious identity of the Ingush students who live in the Republic of Ingushetia and Moscow. In the study took part one hundred respondents of both sexes aged from 18 to 28. The research methods by Yury Sherbatykh and D. Van Camp aiming to quantify the individual / social religious identity were applied The study showed that the statistically valid differences between the Ingush students who live in Moscow and those from the Republic of Ingushetia have not been discovered. At the same time the religious component within the self-identity of the target group remains a very significant if not a dominant issue. The religion of Islam plays a crucial role as the source for moral standards and also functions as behavior regulator. In addition, Islamic framework of mind influences external appearance of an individual such as, for example, observance of the religious clothes standards. Maintaining social relations with the people of their faith is also crucial for Ingush students.

The paper presents summaries of the talks given at the Inaugural Meeting of the International Association of Islamic Psychology (IAIP): “Evolving Islamic Psychology: Past, Present & Future”. It also shows different approaches to the content and methods of Islamic psychology. The talks were arranged chronologically. In the day one were given talks on the origins of Islamic psychology as reflected in the works by Al-Ghazali, Al-Balkhi and others. In the day two the present stage of the discipline received a thorough analysis. It has been approached from the point of view of theory, psychology, and psychotherapeutics. The agenda of the day three contained the suggested ways of the future development of this discipline. The meeting has shown a considerable interest to the subject by scholars from different countries, the diversity of approaches to the scholarly discipline as well as enthusiasm and optimism about its further development.

The article contains a summary of the materials of the Second All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference with International Participation “Islam: Psychological Stability is the Basis of Personal and Social Well-Being”. Devoted to the problems and prospects of the development of Islamic psychology as an applied science in the Russian Federation. Among the main issues were topics related to the deliberate choice of the religion of Islam, the definition of Muslim identity in modern society. A special place was occupied by issues related to the psychological prevention of radical beliefs; resocialization of convicted Muslims. Psychological assistance to the families of convicts, interaction with the FPS. Different directions and methods of work in psychological counseling for Muslims are presented. A special place was taken by the presentation of the results of research in the field of Islamic work ethic and “Anchor theory of personality: the spiritual side of man”. The conference showed an increased interest of specialists (psychologists, theologians, religious scholars, doctors, journalists, educators, imams) from different regions of the country and abroad to the topic of Islamic psychology, directions and approaches to its understanding, research and development in Russia.

The article offers a summary of the talks presented at the second International Practical Meeting “Mobilization of the ethnocultural resource as the most important aspect in countering extremism and terrorism”. The Meeting took place on November 23–24, 2018 in Grozny. It was organized by three universities of the Chechen Republic (GSTOU, ChStUn, ChSPU) with the participation of Institute of Oriental Studies RAS and the Dagestan State University. The participants have identified the specific aspects of the so-called «radical Islamism» in the North Caucasus, which they have described as ‘religious and political extremism». They have stressed that the fundamental difference between Islam as a world religion and such religious and political movements as Islamism, Wahhabism, Salafism are based on extremely aggressive ideologies and receive an additional support due to the discrepancy between essential features of Islamic dogmatics and radical types of social and political activity under the camouflage of pseudo-Islamic appeals.

In article the analysis of the second interregional scientific and practical conference with the international participation “Islam in the Urals is given: history, the present, calls”, taken place on November 14, 2018 in Yekaterinburg. Relevant threats to Muslim community of the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia reveal, activity of the Islamic extremist and terrorist organizations and effective ways of ideological counteraction to Islamic promotion is analyzed, various directions of cooperation of public authorities and Muslim religious organizations in preservation of cultural heritage and spiritual and educational work among various categories of the population are analyzed and also the review of the latest works in the field of studying of history and the current state of the Muslim communities and Islamic infrastructure of the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia is given.

The article offers a survey of the meeting under the title “Theological education. Problems and Prospects” jointly organized by St Petersburg State University and The Daghestan Institute of Humanities. The meeting was held on the 20–21^st of December in Makhachqala. The speakers addressed various aspects of Islamic education from its origins till the present day. They also offered talks on the way the Islamic religion influences the formation of younger generation in Russia, highlighted the urgent need to develop in the teaching personnel awareness of the history and Islamic culture to subsequently join the religious institutions and the role the leading theologians can play in this process. Special attention has been paid to the modernization of the teaching programs and their adaptation to the modern challenges such as digitization and IT literacy. One has also highlighted the progress and desiderata in this process, the disbalanced curricula regarding the Islamic culture and history as still found nowadays in the both teaching state and religious institutions.