Musa Bigiev (sometimes known as Luther of Islam) (1870Azade-Ayşe Rorlich: ''The Volga Tatars'', Stanford 1986; pp. 59–61./75Charles Kurzman: ''Modernist Islam, 1840–1940. A Sourcebook'', New York 2002, p. 254. in

Novocherkassk Novocherkassk (russian: Новочерка́сск, lit. ''New Cherkassk'') is a city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located near the confluence of the Tuzlov and Aksay Rivers, the latter a distributary of the Don River. Novocherkassk is best known ...

,Elmira Akhmetova: ''Musa Jerullah Bigiev (1875–1949). Political Thought of a Tatar Muslim Scholar'', Intellectual Discourse (2008, Vol.1), pp. 49–71.

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

– 28 October 1949 in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

, Egypt) was a

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

Hanafi The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named ...

Maturidi Māturīdī theology or Māturīdism ( ar, الماتريدية: ''al-Māturīdiyyah'') is one of the main Sunnī schools of Islamic theology, founded by the Persian Muslim scholar, Ḥanafī jurist, reformer (''Mujaddid''), and scholastic th ...

scholar, theologian philosopher, publicist and one of the leaders of the Jadid movement. After receiving his education in

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering ...

Bukhara Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

and

, he became a political activist for the Ittifaq, the political organisation of the Muslims of Russia. He also taught in Orenburg, wrote journalistic texts and translated classic works into

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

. After emigrating from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, he travelled Europe and the Middle and Far East while writing and publishing.

Naming variations

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

, Bigievs name was written as Муса Җаруллаһ Бигеев (موسى جارالله بيكييف). He had various names in Arabic; for example, ''Musa Jarullah ibn Fatima at-Turkistani al-Qazani at-Tatari ar-Rostofdoni ar-Rusi'' (موسى جار الله ابن فاطمة التركستاني القازانى التاتارى الروستوفدونى الروسى), ''ibn Fatima at-Turkistani ar-Rostofdoni ar-Rusi'' (موسى جار الله، ابن فاطمة، التركستاني الروستوفدوني الروسي), ''ibn Fatima ar-Rusi'' (ابن فاطمة الروسي), ''ibn Fatima at-Turkistani al-Qazani ar-Rusi'' (موسى بن جار الله التركستاني القازاني الروسي), ''at-Turkistani al-Qazani ar-Rusi'' (موسى بن جار الله التركستاني القازاني الروسي), or ''Musa Effendi Jarullah ar-Rusi'' (موسى أفندي جار الله الروسي). There is no standardized English transliteration of Bigievs name; versions include Bigi or Bigeev. His pen name his also variously given as Musa Jarullah, which is the name most contemporary Muslims knew him under, or as Musa Carullah, which is the name mostly used in modern Turkish literature.

Life

Early life and education

Both the date and the place of Musa Bigievs birth are disputed. Opinions for the date include 1870, 1875 or 1873.''Tagirdzhanova A. N.'' A Book about Musa-effendi, His time and Contemporaries (in Russian) — Kazan, 2010 — ; The place is either the village of Mishar or the city of

. He was born into a middle-class family as the younger of two brothers. After his father was appointed as

Akhoond Akhund (akhoond, akhwand, akhand or akondo) ( fa, آخوند) is a Persian title or surname for Islamic scholars, common in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Azerbaijan. Other names for similar Muslim Scholar include she ...

, the family moved to

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don ( rus, Ростов-на-Дону, r=Rostov-na-Donu, p=rɐˈstof nə dɐˈnu) is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East ...

. After the father's early death in 1881, Bigiev's mother, Fatima Hanim Bigiyeva, provided for the education of him and his elder brother

Muhammad Zahir Bigiev Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monot ...

.Ahmet Kanlidere: ''Reform within Islam. The Tajdid and Jadid Movement among the Kazan Tatars (1809–1917)'', Istanbul 1997; pp. 52–56. The publishers of Ülfät newspaper

Bigiev spent most of his youth studying at

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...

s in

Samarkand fa, سمرقند , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from the top: Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zi ...

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow val ...

Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the second-holiest city in Islam, and the capital of the ...

(where he attended the

Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah Egypt's Dar al-Ifta ( ar, دار الإفتاء المصرية ) is an Egyptian Islamic advisory, justiciary and governmental body established as a centre for Islam and Islamic legal research in Egypt in 1313 AH / 1895 CE. It offers Muslims ...

and was educated by

Shayk Muhammad Bakhit al-Muti'i Irina Valeryevna Shaykhlislamova (russian: Ирина Валерьевна Шайхлисламова; born 6 January 1986), known professionally as Irina Shayk (; russian: Ирина Шейк), is a Russian model and television personality who ...

), Damascus,

and

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

in India, where he studied

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

and the

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the K ...

. While he attended many famous universities, he preferred studying on his own while benefitting from the mentorship of different scholars. In 1904, he returned to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

, where he married Asma Aliye Khanim, daughter of a merchant and madrasah teacher from

Chistopol Chistopol (russian: Чи́стополь; tt-Cyrl, Чистай, ''Çistay''; cv, Чистай, ''Çistay'') is a town in Tatarstan, Russia, located on the left bank of the Kuybyshev Reservoir, on the Kama River. As of the 2010 Census, its p ...

. Afterwards, he moved to St. Petersburg and attended lectures at the Law faculty of St. Petersburg Imperial University as an auditor, in order to be able to compare Islamic and Western legal systems. He also became good friends with Abdurreshid Ibrahim, the editor of the newspaper '' Ülfät'', in which he published several times.

Political activist

During the

Revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

, Bigiev became actively involved in the founding of the Muslim political organization, and later party,

Ittifaq al-Muslimin The Union of the Muslims of Russia (Ittifaq, short for tt-Cyrl, Иттифак әл-мөслимин, ''Ittifaq âl-Möslimin'' and , ''Ittifaq al-Muslimin'') was a political organisation and party of Muslims in the late Russian Empire. The organi ...

, starting with the first Congress of the Muslims of Russia, which was held in

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...

in August. He also participated in the second and third congresses of 1905 and 1906, where he was elected as a member of the central committee of the parliamentary group in the

Duma A duma (russian: дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were f ...

. Bigiev was responsible for providing the protocols of the Ittifaq meetings. After the end of the Revolution, he also worked in publishing (in 1908 editing and publishing his deceased brother's book "A trip to Mesopotamia") and from 1910 onwards as a teacher at the Husayniya madrasah in Orenburg. He also held lectures at the city's philanthropic association (''Orenburg Jäm'iyät-i Khayriyäsi'') and became secretary of the fourth Muslim congress in 1914. In 1915, he published ''Islahat Asaslare'' ("The Fundamentals of Reform"), a catalogue of social and political change among the Muslims of Russia between 1904 and 1915. After his publications in

Rizaeddin bin Fakhreddin Rizaeddin bin Fakhreddin (Kichuchat, Samara, 12 January 1858 1936) was a Bashkirs, Bashkir and Tatars, Tatar scholar and publicist who lived in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. His numerous works on religious, political and pedagogical ...

s journal ''

Shura Shura ( ar, شُورَىٰ, translit=shūrā, lit=consultation) can for example take the form of a council or a referendum. The Quran encourages Muslims to decide their affairs in consultation with each other. Shura is mentioned as a praisewor ...

'' drew immense criticism from the local Ulama, he left Orenburg.

Under the Soviets

Bigiev welcomed the February Revolution, claiming that "slavery is gone, and will never come back". Even after the takeover by the

Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in th ...

, he saw the new regime as a potential ally against what he perceived to be the primary enemy of the Muslims of the world – the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading post ...

. During the course of the

Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...

, Bigiev toured the Volga region together with

Abdul Hafiz Mohamed Barakatullah Mohamed Barakatullah Bhopali, known with his honorific as Maulana Barkatullah (7 July 1854 – 20 September 1927), was an Indian revolutionary with sympathy for the Pan-Islamic movement. Barkatullah was born on 7 July 1854 at Itwra Mohal ...

in order to mobilize the Muslim population for military service against the British. He also held close contact with other anti-British Indian activists and arranged for them to live in the Soviet Union. View of the building of the Muslim Religious Administration in Ufa

View of the building of the Muslim Religious Administration in Ufa

In 1920, Bigiev could be found in Ufa, where he presented a program for social reform with the title of "Appeal to the Islamic Nations" to the members of the Muslim religious administration; this included the allegiance of the Russian Muslims to the caliphate above the Soviet State. The program formed the basis for his book ''Islam Milletlerine'' ("To Muslim Nations"; or ''Islamning Elifbasi'', "The Alphabet of Islam", as response to

Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...

s "Alphabet of Communism") of which 5,000 copies were printed in Berlin in 1923. Following this publication, he was arrested in Moscow while on his way from Petrograd to a conference in India. The Soviets had begun to suppress all forms of religious expression, including "Pan-Turkists" and "Pan-Islamists". His arrest provoked a storm of indignation; for example, the Tatars of Finland requested the assistance of the Turkish government, which at that time was on friendly terms with the new Soviet regime. The leading newspapers of Istanbul and Ankara published telegrams with pleas to set Bigiev free again. The campaign finally succeeded; Bigiev was freed on the condition that he was to live in Moscow under state surveillance for two years. Several years later, in May 1926, Bigiev was included in delegations of Soviet Muslims to the Pan-Islamic Congresses in

and Cairo. On the return trip, he attended several sessions of the Turkish parliament and met the Turkish prime minister

İsmet İnönü Mustafa İsmet İnönü (; 24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish army officer and statesman of Kurdish descent, who served as the second President of Turkey from 11 November 1938 to 22 May 1950, and its Prime Minister three ti ...

. After his return, he was also elected by the Leningrad Tatars to become their delegate at a congress of Muslim clergy in Ufa. He returned to Leningrad again in 1927. The political climate had worsened harshly; Bigiev witnessed the

League of Militant Atheists The League of Militant Atheists (), also Society of the Godless () or Union of the Godless (), was an atheistic and antireligious organization of workers and intelligentsia that developed in Soviet Russia under influence of the ideological and ...

and was personally forbidden to leave the country. He was also out of work; he continuously applied to the scholar Ignaty Krachkovsky as a teacher of Arabic, Persian and Turkic languages at Leningrad University, and in 1929 even applied to the government of Afghanistan for a job. His wife and four of his children were temporarily arrested. In 1930, after he, his family and other clergymen where deprived of food coupons, he finally decided to secretly leave the country.

Exile

He first crossed the border into

Chinese Turkestan Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

, where he tried to settle down in

Kashgar Kashgar ( ug, قەشقەر, Qeshqer) or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of Southern Xinjiang. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan ...

; however, the

Chinese government The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an authoritarian political system in the People's Republic of China under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It consists of legislative, executive, mi ...

prohibited him from doing so. He then travelled on horseback to Afghanistan, where its ruler

Nadir Shah Nader Shah Afshar ( fa, نادر شاه افشار; also known as ''Nader Qoli Beyg'' or ''Tahmāsp Qoli Khan'' ) (August 1688 – 19 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian ...

provided him with an international passport. This allowed him to go to India, where he met some of his friends he had made in earlier years. However, he did not stay in India for long, instead starting a period of worldwide travelling. In 1931, he held a speech at the World Islamic Congress in Jerusalem, where he praised Finland for its friendly attitude towards Muslim émigrés from Russia. He also visited Ankara, Berlin (where he founded an Islamic publishing house), Finland and Iran and Iraq, where he studied

Shia Islam Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are ...

. He resumed his tour in 1937, again visiting India, more specifically

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the '' de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the sec ...

and

Benares Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

. He was then invited by Abdurreshid Ibrahim to Japan; the two travelled together to China,

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

, Sumatra and Singapore. After the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in 1939, Bigiev tried to reach Afghanistan again, but was arrested by British authorities in

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

without any charge. The ruler of

Bhopal Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It ...

Hamidullah Khan Hajji Nawab Hafiz Sir Hamidullah Khan (9 September 1894 – 4 February 1960) was the last ruling Nawab of the princely salute state of Bhopal. He ruled from 1926 when his mother, Begum Kaikhusrau Jahan Begum, abdicated in his favor, until 194 ...

, petitioned for his release, but Bigiev was kept under house arrest until 1945. In these years, he wrote ten of his major works. After his release, Bigiev suffered from illness which forced him to undergo several surgeries. In 1948, he travelled to Turkey and from there to Cairo, where he died on 28. October 1949. He was buried at the Royal Cemetery of the Khedives of Egypt.

Legacy

While Bigiev left "a deep imprint on the history of the reformed

s and the Muslim press of Russia in the 1910s", his work and even his name are largely forgotten today. This can mostly be attributed to the Soviet Union under Stalin, where his name was

purged In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...

from documents and bibliographies and the study of his works forbidden.

Rediscovery

He was officially rehabilitated by the High Court of the Russian Federation in February 1997. Still, only a small amount of research on his life and work has taken place and the amount of literature available in English is very limited. However, a movement towards rediscovery seems to be taking place; one of Kazans streets is now named after Bigiev. In 2007, as a part of the project ''Ijma' – Concord'', the Kunstkamera (Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography) of the Russian Academy of Sciences sponsored the documentary ''The manuscript and the Fate'' about Bigievs life, with a script written by the Orientalist Jefim A. Rezvan. A year later, in 2008, the documentary ''

And the moon has split or AND may refer to: Logic, grammar, and computing * Conjunction (grammar), connecting two words, phrases, or clauses * Logical conjunction in mathematical logic, notated as "∧", "⋅", "&", or simple juxtaposition * Bitwise AND, a bool ...

'', directed by B. Baishev, was awarded a special prize "for the contribution to Islamic Enlightenment" at the fourth

Golden Minbar International Film Festival The Golden Minbar International Festival of Muslim Cinema was an annual film festival held in Kazan, the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, providing a forum for Muslim filmmakers from around the world. Founded in 2005, the festival ...

. Bigievs Quran translation was reprinted in 2010 from copies saved by descendants. For the 140th anniversary of his birth, a number of activities were held in the

Penza Oblast Penza Oblast (russian: Пе́нзенская о́бласть, ''Penzenskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Penza. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 1,386,186. Geo ...

of Russia; on June 23, a plaque was dedicated in the city of Kikino, one of Bigievs supposed birth places, and a maktab and a garden near the mosque of the town were renamed in Bigievs honor.

Family

Bigievs wife Asma died in Ufa in 1979; of their eight children, two died young. His son-in-law Abdurahman Tagirovich Tagirdzhanov became a professor of

Orientalism In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist ...

Leningrad State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

, while his cousin Abrashit Museevich Bigiev (1917–2010) became professor for

Metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sci ...

Magnitogorsk State Technical University Magnitogorsk State Technical University is located in Magnitogorsk, Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, wit ...

. Today, descendants of Bigiev live in Russia (in Ufa, Moscow and St. Petersburg) and in Ukraine (Dnepropetrovsk).

Views

While he was one of the leading members of

Jadidism The Jadids were Muslim modernist reformers within the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century. They normally referred to themselves by the Turkic terms ''Taraqqiparvarlar'' ('progressives'), ''Ziyalilar'' ('intellectuals') or simp ...

, Bigievs provocative nature led to opposition not only from the Kadimists (nearly all issues of the Qadimist journal '' Din vä Ma'ishät'' include one or more articles written directly against him), but also from fellow reformers. In his 97-page essay ''Rahmet-i Ilahiye Burhanlari'' ("The storms of God's clemency"), published in Orenburg in 1910, Bigiev argued that God would also include unbelievers in his mercy and forgiveness. This elicited criticism from many Ulama, including

Ismail Gaspirali Ismail bey Gasprinsky (also written as Gaspirali and Gasprinski: crh, İsmail Gaspıralı, russian: Исмаи́л Гаспри́нский ''Ismail Gasprinskii''; – ) was a Crimean Tatar intellectual, educator, publisher and Pan-Turkist pol ...

. The influence of Bigiev was felt beyond the Russian Empire, for example in Istanbul, where the scholar

Mustafa Sabri Efendi Mustafa Sabri Effendi ( ota, مصطفى صبري أفندي; 1869 – 1954) was the last Shaykh al-Islām of the Ottoman Empire. He is known for his opinions condemning the Turkish nationalist movement under Kemal Atatürk. Due to his resistance ...

criticized Bigiev for his "dangerous and heretical" (''küfriyati muhtevi'') ideas and was responsible for the ban of three of his works in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. However, Sabri defended Bigievs qualification to discuss theological matters. Sabri coined the epithet "Luther of Islam" for Bigiev. Bigiev has also been described as one of "the most notorious Sunnite polemicists against Shiism in the 20th century", along with such figures as Muhibb-ud-Deen Al-Khatib and

Ehsan Elahi Zaheer Ehsan Elahi Zaheer ( ur, احسان الہی ظہیر) (31 May 1945 – 30 March 1987) was a Pakistani Islamic scholar. He was the founder of Jamiat Ahle Hadith. He died from an assassin's bomb blast in 1987. He was taken to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ...

. This is the result of him penning several well-known

anti-Shia Anti-Shi'ism is hatred of, prejudice against, discrimination against, persecution of, and violence against Shia Muslims because of their religious beliefs, traditions, and cultural heritage. The term was first used by Shia Rights Watch in 201 ...

books, including ''Al-Washi'ah fi naqd 'aqa'id al-shi'ah''. In these works, Bigiev notes that during his travels in Iraq and Iran he had not met even one Shia individual who knew the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...

to a satisfactory level.

Works (selection)

Bigiev wrote extensively; for example, he published 64 books and more than 120 essays and articles on theology. Included here are some of his most notable works. * Translations of the

and

Hafez Khwāje Shams-od-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shiraz, Shīrāzī ( fa, خواجه شمس‌‌الدین محمّد حافظ شیرازی), known by his pen name Hafez (, ''Ḥāfeẓ'', 'the memorizer; the (safe) keeper'; 1325–1390) and as "H ...

' '' Diwan'' into

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

* ''Tarihu'l Qur'an ve'l-Masahif'' ("A history of the Quran and the Quranic texts") – Published after Bigiev discovered editorial changes by Mullahs in a Quran edition * 1913: ''Rahmet-i Ilahiye Burhanlari'' ("The storms of God's clemency") * 1913: ''Insannarning Aqidah Ilahiyatlarena Ber Nazar'' ("A Glimpse of the People's Belief in God") * 1913: ''Ozin Konnarda Ruza. Itjihad Kitabi'' ("Fasting during Long Days. A Book of Itjihad") * ''Sherhu'l Luzumiyat'' ("Commentaries on Al-Luzumiyat") – Critical commentary on the work of

Al-Maʿarri Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī ( ar, أبو العلاء المعري, full name , also known under his Latin name Abulola Moarrensis; December 973 – May 1057) was an Arab philosopher, poet, and writer. Despite holding a controversially irreli ...

* ''Büyük mevzularda ufak fikirler'' ("Small thoughts on big issues") – Critique of the work of the

Ulama In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...

Ziyauddin Kamali, shows Bigievs high opinion of

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...

and

Sufism Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...

* ''Qavaid-i Fiqhiyyä'' ("The principles of Islamic jurisprudence") * 1915: ''Islahat Asaslare'' ("The Fundamentals of Reform")

Literature

* Ahmet Kanlidere: ''Reform within Islam. The Tajdid and Jadid Movement among the Kazan Tatars (1809–1917)'', Istanbul 1997; p. 52-56. * Ahmet Kanlidere: ''Rusya Türklinderinden Musa Carullah Bigi (1875–1949)'', Istanbul 1988. * Azade-Ayşe Rorlich: ''The Volga Tatars'', Stanford 1986; p. 59-61. *

Charles Kurzman Charles Kurzman is a Professor of Sociology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specializes in Middle East and Islamic studies. Education and employment After completing his B.A. at Harvard University in 1986, he completed his M.A. ...

: ''Modernist Islam, 1840–1940. A Sourcebook'', New York 2002, p. 254. * Elmira Akhmetova: ''Musa Jerullah Bigiev (1875–1949). Political Thought of a Tatar Muslim Scholar'', Intellectual Discourse (2008, Vol.1), p. 49-71. * Aydar Khairetdinov: ''The Last Tatar Theologian. The Life and Heritage of Musa Jarullah Bigiev'', 1999. * Dimitri Spikav and Nayla Tabbara: ''Christianity and Islam in the Context of Contemporary Culture. Perspectives of Interfaith Dialogue from Russia and the Middle East'', St. Petersburg / Beirut 2009; p. 45-47.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bigiev, Musa 1870s births 1949 deaths Jadids Islam in Russia Quran translators Tatar people from the Russian Empire Expatriates from the Russian Empire in India Expatriates from the Russian Empire in the Ottoman Empire Translators to Tatar 20th-century Muslim theologians Critics of Shia Islam Hanafis Maturidis Expatriates from the Russian Empire in Egypt