“Mohammedan Cults Were Formed by Comfort…”: Islam and the Philosophical Thought of the Silver Age

This article examines the complex and often contradictory perceptions of Islam among Russian reli­gious philosophers and intellectuals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Through a critical analy­sis of works by prominent Silver Age thinkers – including Vladimir Solovyov, Sergei Bulgakov, Nikolai Berdyaev, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Pavel Florensky, Vasily Rozanov, and Andrei Bely – the author reveals how their understandings of Islam were shaped by Orientalist stereotypes, cul­tural biases, and reliance on secondary sources rather than direct engagement with Islamic theology or Muslim contemporaries. The study highlights a fundamental duality in Russian philosophical dis­course: while some circles (like Vyacheslav Ivanov’s “Tower” gatherings) aestheticized Islam as ex­otic cultural material, others (particularly Merezhkovsky and Bulgakov) framed it as a political and ideological threat to Christianity. Even sympathetic thinkers like Solovyov, Frank and Rozanov rarely moved beyond superficial characterizations, with the notable exception of Andrei Bely. His travel writings on North Africa and the Middle East demonstrate unusually nuanced observations of Islamic religious practices and social structures. The article’s title quotes Bely’s provocative for­mulation about Islam’s “comfortable” nature – a concept the author explores as both an insightful cultural observation and a revealing limitation of Russian philosophical engagement with the Mus­lim world. Ultimately, this work not only maps the blind spots in Silver Age thought but also sug­gests pathways for more substantive dialogue between Russian and Islamic intellectual traditions.