By Paolo Sartori The collectivization of agricultural land (1929–1940) was one of the major transformative projects pursued by the USSR both in terms of scale and results. This project entailed … Continue reading … And Zakāt for All! Islamic Taxation in a Dagestani Kolkhoz (1950s)
By Paolo Sartori In 2018, the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Dagestan published a collection of fatāwā (Islsamic legal opinions) crafted between the 1950s and 1980s by the cleric Muḥammad … Continue reading Qāḍī by Necessity: Muḥammad al-Khartikunī against the “Wahhabis” in 1980s Dagestan
By Paolo Sartori In 1956 rumors spread in Socialist Kyrgyzstan that the apocalypse was imminent, and it would happen in the early summer of that year.[1] A date was set … Continue reading Apocalypse in the Tian Shan: Or the Story of a Wasted Fatwā
By Paolo Sartori Female suicides plagued Soviet Central Asia at least since the 1950s,[1] but their number increased significantly in the 1980s, during which period they became a matter of … Continue reading Saving Lost Souls: Fatwās Against Suicide in Socialist Uzbekistan
