Abstract
The mosque is the most important building for Muslims. As such, the construction and management of mosques has received considerable attention from Central Asian political regimes, whether local rulers or colonial powers. Since the teahouse and mosque are reserved for men only, the village community is defined through its (senior) male inhabitants. This is especially true for the teahouse meetings that take place during Ramadan and, in mountainous regions, during the winter months.
The concept of tradition employed in this chapter works as a means of creating relationships across time and space, serving to historically root the novel practices of the local communities. Built at the same time as the mosques in local communities, local traditions serve to reconnect those attending those mosques to the Muslim world and its history. In this sense, we see a competition over the meaning of “mosque,” whether it is a national tradition or a rhizomatic part of global Muslim society. While the first section concentrates on the village community as it works and develops within the village around the mosque, the second section investigates the relation between the state, the local communities and the individuals.
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Notes
- 1.
At the very beginning of the Islamic community the mosque was not only a place of prostration but also held military, juridical, social, political, and educational functions; most of these functions would later be taken over by different institutions (Encyclopaedia Britannica Online March 26, 2014, s.v. “mosque”).
- 2.
For an example of how much bureaucratic effort was required to open a mosque, see Baimenov (2014).
- 3.
In my view, the community can be interpreted in two ways: firstly, as an imagined community based on territorial belonging (belonging to a particular village, for instance); and secondly, in terms of an actual face-to-face interaction through which a sense of commonness is re-enacted on a regular basis through institutions and unstructured interactions. For an excellent discussion on community and its different concepts and practices in Central Asian territories (among the Uyghur in Xinjiang), see Bellér-Hann (2008). In this chapter I also make use of the scholarship of Stéphane Dudoignon and Ariane Zevaco (2009) and Rasanayagam (2011) on sociality.
- 4.
It is beyond the scope of this chapter to discuss the development of the notion of community in detail. Among the main theoretical works we find Max Weber (1919), who conceptualized human community as those who claim a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence within a given territory (in opposition to a bureaucratic society), and Delanty (2003), who distinguishes between community as pre-modern institution on the one hand and society on the other hand, and Benedict Anderson’s (1991) famous definition of the nation as a socially constructed imagined community. For Central Asia, the book by Ildikό Bellér-Hann (2008) provides a detailed and nuanced discussion of the complexity of community among Uyghurs.
- 5.
A paradox of this search for traditions is, for instance, that they would watch old Soviet films and refer to the practices of the Muslims in these films as points of reference for their own practices, and in doing so overlooking the fact that these were actually anti-Islam propaganda films.
- 6.
See also Bushkov and Mikul’skii (1995, 52–54) for a horizontal hierarchy succeeding the vertical or “archaic” form of meeting. However, the case of Lakhsh shows that both forms exist concurrently and satisfy different needs.
- 7.
Elders (mullos) attend the mosque throughout the year and eat the food offered to the mosque; in return, they provide prayers and blessings to the donors.
- 8.
According to Kyrgyz custom, each cut of meat is attributed a certain hierarchical value; the fat tail is accorded the highest value.
- 9.
Wheat occupies a sacred place in Tajik communities, and is present in some form or another in all dishes and rituals—as grain, sprouts, flour, or mixed within a dish. Wheat flour is not only used as an ingredient in many dishes, but also to make numerous kinds of baked items, each with its own specific name. Young sprouts are said to symbolize youth, while flour is believed to convey the baraka (blessing) of the dead into the house, and is also used to welcome a new bride. In general, grain is considered a symbol of fecundity and many songs and stories reference wheat farming. Each breadcrumb that falls down, however minuscule, is picked up and placed on a higher spot so that nobody will step on it.
- 10.
A navbat, as I observed in the teahouses of Lakhsh and Shahrigul, consists of the meat of at least one sheep, twenty-five to thirty round loaves of bread, five kilogrammes of sweets, and a bag of fruit. After the meal and the last evening prayer, the male community sit and talk. Often, such a navbat is also an opportunity for discussions between women while they prepare the meal, whereas their respective husbands interact in the teahouse.
- 11.
The Tajik state has repeatedly called for an end to alternative healing practices, most of them done by women, and banned bakhshi and otin practices. Equally, religious lessons for young children were forbidden, a job often done by women and even girls in the Rasht valley.
- 12.
In this context, “religious film” refers to any film that speaks about Islam. This could be a sermon by a religious authority or a feature film about historical religious figures (some of the more common at the time of this research were Joseph or Yusuf, the Prophet Muhammad, and the first muezzin Bilal), produced in Egypt or Iran, or any other film the mullah considers moral and educational.
- 13.
Neo-Islamic activists seem to experiment with their ideas of a religious society on their sisters. While the most primitive way is to force their retreat from school, other strategies include marrying them to peers with a similar mindset, encouraging them to study Islam, and imposing their perception of proper clothing.
- 14.
Following international pressure, the Tajik state has introduced different programs such as “baland bardoshtani naqshi zan dar jomea,” presidential quotas for female students, and even laws against domestic violence. The laws and programs have, however, remained unavailable to most women if not required by male relatives (I thank Swetlana Torno for insisting on this point).
- 15.
This type of learning can be opposed to a formal education where students finish with a diploma. These informal methods leave the student without an official document but with strong community support.
- 16.
Gillian Tett (1994) formulated the life of women as switching between Soviet worker life and traditional housewife work. This is why women played a central role in providing continuity to Islam throughout the Soviet period through everyday practices and moral education of her children (see also Krämer 2002). Such code switching was not possible for men, who were perceived as public figures.
- 17.
Accompanying one of the girls, I saw how she performed this new status by wearing special clothes that distinguished her as “different” from the other girls: a long black coat and veil as markers of a pious life.
- 18.
It is a widely held view that daughters are from birth on visitors in their own families. Education and investment in a daughter is consequently seen as an investment for another family, that of her future in-laws. The status of a girl changes with marriage and even more so with an independent household, which allows her to display her skills as both host and guest within the circle of reciprocity.
- 19.
The government has repeatedly claimed reference to the Hanafi interpretation of Islam, without consistently applying Hanafi rules. This is a fundamental difference compared to the SADUM, which was free to use any religious reference so long as it did not contradict Soviet policy (see Chap. 1). For the SADUM’s use of Islam, see Olcott (2007a, b) and Babakhanov (1999).
- 20.
Most of these bans are not laws, but a response to the president’s talks. “Farmon” (lit. understanding) is an advisory statement or order without legal standing. However, a farmon is often implemented by security (police) more harshly than formal laws.
- 21.
Since 2002, I have observed a serious increase in violence by young boys in Shahrigul. While I might be wrong, it seems to me that villagers no longer feel collectively responsible for the boys’ education. In the past, if a boy was impolite anyone could and would rebuke him. Today they just try to avoid the boy, explaining his behaviour with “probably his father is in Russia, that is why he behaves so badly.” And in the past, my interlocutors also knew each boy and his family, while today the village has a larger and more anonymous population.
- 22.
In Khujand all the mosques I entered had cameras that work day and night.
- 23.
Especially since the conflict of 2010–2011, young mullahs are persecuted and fear the security services, not because they have done anything wrong—most condemn the events that only brought more harassment to the area—but because of the arbitrary nature of laws and legal practices.
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Roche, S. (2019). The Politics of Traditions. In: The Faceless Terrorist. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03843-4_7
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