Islamic Law and Legal Authority in Inner Asia Under Russian Imperial Rule: A Historiographical Survey

This article presents a historiographical survey of scholarship on Islamic law and legal authority in Central/Inner Asia under Russian Imperial rule. It analyzes the debates, paradigms and assumptions that have dominated the field up to the present. The binaries that have dominated the field—between cooperation and insulation, rupture and continuity—disguise the complex legal history of the region. The historiography has shifted to emphasize a more pluralistic legal landscape, shaped by imperial intervention, local custom, practical considerations, and agency of ordinary Muslims. I suggest that by integrating a variety of sources, both archival and Islamic, scholars can take a bolder anthropological turn to develop new directions in historiography that will involve studying the lived experiences of legal actors and ordinary Muslims, gendered dimensions of legal practice, the meanings of socio-legal institutions, and the daily interaction between religious scholars and their communities.