At the end of the 19th century, the total amount of Tatars in Chistopol (Kazan province) were 24.5% of all the townspeople. However, the history of the city’s Muslim communities in the pre-revolutionary period are among the poorly studied scientifi c problems. The information about Muslim female education in Chistopol in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is very fragmentary. This exact research embraced the analyses of various documents and materials, including photographs from museum collections. Moreover, the article presents the biography of a famous Tatar journalist of the early 20th century, born in Chistopol - FatimaFarida Vagapova (Navruzova) (1889–1914) and describes her long journey to knowledge. Until 1917, in Chistopol there were three Tatar educational institutions: two madrasahs and a Russian-Tatar school. In 1913, 355 girls studied in this schools. The article analyzes the main problems of Tatar women’s schools formation and development, reveals the information about the staff of these educational centers. The author provides a conclusion that the decisive role in the development of Muslim female education in Chistopol belonged to the representatives of Muhammetzakir Ishan Kamalov (1818–1893) clan and to the other residents of the city close to this family.

The 1930s were a troublesome period for all religious communities in the Soviet Union. Muslims were not an exception. The widespread closure of mosques and repressions against religious leaders took place in all regions of the country. The history of the TatarMuslim community of Leningrad in 1930s has not been properly researched as yet. It would be interesting to know how Muslims managed to maintain control over the mosque until 1940 despite growing pressure from the authorities. The article examines the strategies used by offi cials of Leningrad City Council (Lengorsovet) and other state authorities to reduce the religious activity of Muslims. The article centres around the restoration of the Cathedral Mosque of Leningrad which served as one of the main pretexts for the closure of the mosque.

The article is devoted to the charitable work of an authoritative Muslim theologian of the Middle Volga region, Sheikh, Akhun Nurgali Khasanov (1852–1919). This part of his life is revealed on the basis of the pre-revolutionary Tatar newspapers the Koyash, the Yoldyz, the Azad, the Mаglumat magazine, the memoirs of contemporaries, published documents and his work “Al-Gauatyf al-Hamidiya fi ssayakhati nuriya” (Commendable Feelings of Light Travels), dedicated to pilgrimage. The events described cover the period from 1886 to 1917.  

On the example of charitable activity of this bright personality, it seems possible to perceive the historical processes of that time, to understand what diffi culties Muslim religious fi gures, theologians of the Middle Volga region of the late XIX – early XX centuries encountered in life.

The study identifi es the semantics of the words islām and muslim in the Qur’an on the basis of contextual and diachronic analysis. During the research there were defi ned 8 thematic groups of uses, only 5 of which can in one way or another be attributed to the period of Muhammad prophecy. At the same time, considering the only exception in 72 cases of usage, all the lexemes are used as a technical religious term in all the abovementioned thematic groups. The periodization of surahs studies demonstrated the absence of semantic evolution, the assumption of which was made by some European authors. Profound analysis of lexical antitheses of this term has revealed the fact that it is opposed not only to unbelief and deviation from God’s way, but also to faith as an internal belief, thus representing an external act of accepting religion and observing its institutions. In conclusion, the author proposes a new version of the lexemes translation within the Qur’an, where he refl ects their religious, general monotheistic and performative meanings.

The article includes the translations of some fragments from the biographical work “Wafi yyat al-aslaf wa tahiyyat al-akhlaf” (“Devotion to the ancestors and greetings to descendants”) of the outstanding Tatar theologian Shihab al-Din al-Marjani (1818–1889), dedicated to the Arabian preacher Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792) and his religious teachings. The texts from the specifi ed source were compared with the other available sources in order to fi nd out which books and which authors Marjani relied on. The author of the article tried to fi nd out Marjani’s assessment of the teachings of Ibn ‘Abd-al-Wahhab and the actions of his followers.  

As a result, it was revealed that the Tatar scholar used such historical works as “al-Ta‘ribat al-shafi yya” (“Convincing translations into Arabic”) by Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi (1801-1873) and “al-Mir’a al-wadhiyya” (“The Clear Mirror”) by Van Dyck Cornelius (1818-1895), theological treatises such as “Sulh al-ikhwan” (“Reconciliation of the brothers”) by Ibn Jirjis (1816-1882) and “Fath al-mannan” (“Disclosure of the Giver”) by al-Hazimi (d. 1866). Presumably, he also relied on “Tarikh ‘ajaib al-athar” (“History of the amazing heritage”) by al-Jabarti (1754-1822) and “Radd al-mukhtar” (“The answer to the bewildered”) by Ibn ‘Abidin (1784-1836). Marjani, assessing the teachings and activities of Sheikh Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, kept himself rather restrained and cautious, though he admitted the negative consequences of Abd al-Wahhab preaching that came in the form of Muslims accused of disbelief (takfir) destruction.

The article deals with the aspect of an attitude towards a person, researching Theological Discourse.  

The article reveals the processes of marginalizing the so-called Subjective and Objective Faith. Thus, the theological discourse is directed precisely to an objective-oriented faith, since it seems more real for a person, and it necessarily comes from him. Separation of faith, on the one hand, is a language trick shown directly through the language and processes of linguistic distinction (the opposition); on the other hand, through an array of determinations of one’s faith according to the traditions, culture, family and society as a whole. As a result, the authors point out that this division shows the opacity of a human being according to his/er own nature, which leads to a person wholeness collapse. As a result, some possible problems related to the methodology based on the concept of the total subject are identifi ed.

The object of the research is the problem of determining the exact time of the True Dawn onset (al-fajr as-sadik), with which the rituals of fasting and praying begin in Islam, as well as the completion of the rite of standing (wukuf) on Mount Arafat during the Great Pilgrimage (hajj), and its diff erence from the so-called “False” Dawn. (al-fajr al-kazib).  

The paper presents the Hadiths describing the signs of these two astronomical phenomena and reveals the results of visual observation of the onset of the True Dawn’s exact time in a number of Arab countries and in the Republic of Dagestan according to the mathematical calculation of the angle of the Sun inclination and the degree of the Sun position (azimuth) towards the horizon of the observed terrain during the true dawn.  

The study was based on the determination of the onset of the morning prayer exact time according to the methodology of mathematical calculations by astronomers of the early and late periods, and of the authoritative Muslim jurists (faqihs) as well.

The article is devoted to the study of the psychological portrait of a leader on the example of Muslim women. An empirical study aimed at studying value orientations, identity, motivation for achieving leadership was organized with the help of 100 respondents – all women leaders, where 50 of them are Muslim women and 50 non-Muslim between the ages of 20 to 55. The respondents have professional education (Professional Education – 0.9%, Secondary Vocational Education – 10.4%, Higher Vocational Education – 82.1%, incomplete Higher Vocational Education – 2.8%, Candidate of Science – 3.8%.); work experience in a managerial position from 1 year to over 15 years; 50.9% profess Islam religion, 43.5% are representatives of Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, 2.8% are atheists, 2.8% are the other. Comparative analysis of the empirical study results was carried out using the U-Mann-Whitney test for diff erences, Student’s t-test, and the Spearman’s r-rank correlation coeffi cient in the statistical package of the SPSS 18.0 program (PASW Statistics 18.0). Analysis of the research results confi rmed the hypothesis that the portrait of a Muslim female leader contains distinctive features due to value orientations and the identifi cation of one’s own “self-image”.

The article presents the results of the analysis of the marriage satisfaction level of Muslims in monogamous and polygamous families in Russia. Such studies have not been conducted previously despite the fact that this problem is relevant for the institution of family and marriage as a whole. Muslims make up approximately 15 percent of the population of the Russian Federation, and their well-being in family relations is important both for each individual, and for the community and the state as a whole. The study involved 172 people between the ages 18 to 71 years: 85 men and 87 women. The satisfaction of spouses with marital relations was measured using the Russian-language version of Susan S. Hendrik’s (1988) “7-point Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS)” adapted by Sychev O. A. Data analysis was performed using Microsoft Offi ce and IBM SPSS Statistics. The results obtained allow us to conclude that the level of satisfaction of spouses in monogamous marriages is higher than the level of satisfaction in polygamous marriages, and the level of satisfaction with the marriage of the fi rst wives is lower than the level of satisfaction of the second/third/fourth wives. These results make it possible to develop practical recommendations for improving the practical application of theoretical and empirical research data in counseling, therapeutic, adaptive and preventive work with Muslims who are already married and who intend to enter into it.

The relevance of the problem is caused with the lack of comparative studies on the problem of emigration attitudes and their predictors in the context of the cultural characteristics of Kazakhstan regions. The article analyzes the research conducted, the purpose of which was to compare the severity of emigration attitudes determined by the individual values of Kazakhs depending on the region of residence, and the following hypotheses are put forward: 1. The degree of expressing emigration attitudes among the Kazakh youth from the northern regions is higher compared to the same of the southern regions; 2. The meta-values of Preservation and Self-overcoming are more signifi cant for the young people of Southern Kazakhstan (in comparison with Northern Kazakhstan); 3. The emigration attitudes of the youth in Northern Kazakhstan are associated with the meta-values of Willingness to change and Self-affi rmation; 4. The emigration attitudes of the youth of Southern Kazakhstan are associated with the metavalues of Preservation and Self-Overcoming. The study participants, including young people (N=364) aged from 17 to 35, where 78% (285) is represented by women, were examined using such methods as the “Scale of migration attitudes” (S.A. Kuznetsova, I.Yu. Kuznetsov, A.V. Feshchenko), modifi ed into the “Scale of emigration attitudes”, which allows to identify the degree of severity of emigration attitudes; PVQ-21-ESS7 that is the version of a questionnaire for measuring individual values (Sh. Schwartz), aimed at studying the signifi cance of values, and the method of multiple linear regression analysis, the Student›s t-test. It is revealed that the Kazakhs of the northern regions of Kazakhstan (compared with the Kazakhs of Southern Kazakhstan) have more pronounced emigration attitudes, the importance of the Self-affi rmation metavalue is higher, emigration attitudes are positively associated with the Willingness to change meta-value; among the Kazakhs of Southern Kazakhstan (in comparison with the Kazakhs of Northern Kazakhstan), the meta-value of Preservation is of great importance, emigration attitudes are negatively associated with the meta-value of Self-overcoming; the meta-value of Self-overcoming is equally signifi cant for both the Kazakhs of the northern and the southern regions; emigration attitudes of the Kazakhs of both the southern and northern regions are negatively associated with the meta-value of Preservation and are positively associated with the meta-value of Self-Affi rmation. The obtained research results can be used in forecasting the migration behavior of Kazakh youth, as well as in the process of realizing a program “Rukhani Zhangyru – Public Consciousness Modernization” in Kazakhstan.