Review

Reviewed Work(s): The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia by
Adeeb Khalid
Review by: Edmund Herzig
Source: Social History , May, 2001, Vol. 26, No. 2 (May, 2001), pp. 255-256
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4286786

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May 2001 Reviews 255

subjects have fallen out of fashion, with some assistance from subaltern and 'resistance' studies.
Set beside Kotsonis's original and elegant monograph, much of the work in the Russian field
appears at best derivative, at worst faddish. It may be hard for some to accept Kotsonis's impec-
cably argued indictment of Russian professionals for making peasants backward, and it will be
still harder for many to accept that peasants were not necessarily collectivist victims of capitalist
development, although they were represented as such by intellectuals purporting to help them.
In my view, Kotsonis's study, presented with grim humour, sound structure and passion, is the
most profound book on the cultural history of imperial Russia to appear in over a decade.
Jane Burbank
University of Michigan

Adeeb Khalid, The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform:Jadidism in Central Asia (1998),
xxiv + 335 (University of California Press, Berkeley, $55.00, paperback $22.00).
Jadidism is the name given to a reform movement among Muslims in the late nineteenth-
century Russian Empire. Enthusiastic proponents of modernity and progress and biting critics
of the backwardness and ignorance of contemporary Muslim society and elites, the Jadids
believed that modern secular education offered a panacea that would allow Muslims to catch
up with the advanced western nations and reassert their place in the world. The movement
began among the Tatars of the Crimea and the Volga, but spread to other Muslim peoples from
the Caucasus to Central Asia. Khalid's important study focuses on Central Asian Jadidism, a
hitherto neglected region.
This is no easy task since, as Khalid remarks, existing studies of Central Asia are mostly the
work of historians working in the Soviet Marxist tradition or of nationalists and western nation-
alities scholars, none of whom have demonstrated much interest in or sensitivity to the region's
pre-Soviet Muslim cultural background. As a result,'Many of the most basic outlines of modern
Central Asian history have to be delineated anew' (xv). Khalid embraces this challenge with
enthusiasm, and for non-specialist readers the book's most important contribution will be in
providing a stimulating and authoritative introduction to the social and cultural history of
Central Asia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (They will, however, regret the
absence of a glossary of the many foreign-language terms used throughout the text.)
Khalid's aims, however, go considerably further. He sets out to reclaim Central Asia for the
study of Muslim societies. Reform movements elsewhere in the Muslim world provide a produc-
tive comparative context, and Khalid also emphasizes the direct links between intellectual
currents in Central Asia and similar developments in the Ottoman Empire, Iran and South Asia.
In emphasizing the wider Muslim context of Jadidism, Khalid also seeks to accelerate the erosion
of Arabo-centrism in Islamic studies and, beyond this, to contribute to the wider academic and
public debate over Islam and modernity by challenging the essentialism of the orientalist tradition
and the'clash of civilizations' paradigm. Finally, the study makes a significant contribution to our
understanding of the origins and development of Central Asian nationalism.
The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform succeeds remarkably well in fulfilling this large agenda.
Khalid readily rebuts Russo-centric and Soviet Marxist versions of the story, and he refutes the
interpretation of Central Asian Jadidism as inspired and led by Tatars (an interpretation favoured
by nationalist historians eager to emphasize the unity and solidarity of the Turkish peoples of
the Russian Empire). Acknowledging the inspiration provided by the Tatar movement, Khalid

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256 Social History VOL. 26 : NO. 2

goes on to demonstrate the autonomy of the Central Asian movement and reveals that marked
differences of status and outlook between immigrant Tatars and the 'native' Muslims in Central
Asia frustrated Tatar efforts to co-opt the movement.
In developing his analysis Khalid draws extensively on Pierre Bourdieu's work on the social
reproduction of culture, while Benedict Anderson's work informs the discussion of national-
ism in chapters 6 and 7. Khalid locates Jadidism'at the intersection of Russian cultural policies
and processes of social and economic change set in motion by the Russian conquest which put
older patterns of cultural production under strain and allowed new voices to emerge' (8). Special
emphasis is given to new forms of communication and organization: modern schools, the press,
journalism, European-style belles lettres, theatre, benevolent and cultural associations. The Jadids
used these to propagate the benefits of modern progress and scientific knowledge and assert
their claims to the cultural and moral leadership of their'nation' (the latter remaining a fluid
concept throughout this period).
The Jadid reformers' message challenged the sole right of the traditional religious special-
ists, the ulama, to interpret and transmit Islamic culture and tradition, thereby threatening to
undermine their social status. The conservative ulama responded by decrying the Jadids as
unqualified youthful innovators. This gave rise to a vigorous debate and a long-running compe-
tition between modern and traditional Central Asian cultural elites. Similarly, the Jadids chal-
lenged the legitimacy of the political elite if it failed in its responsibility to provide enlightened
and effective leadership for the nation. In the long run, of course, this competition was brought
to an end not by the victory of either side, but by Soviet rule. But by that time the debate and
competition initiated by the Jadids had opened up for Central Asians new ways of imagining
the world and their place in it.
Politically the Jadids were anything but radical. Throughout the Tsarist period they saw
Russian colonial rule as offering the best framework to achieve progress for the empire's Muslim
subjects. Their political aims were limited to achieving for Central Asian Muslims full partici-
pation in the Russian mainstream. In the early Soviet period, after the confusion of the Revol-
ution and Civil War, the Jadids again adapted to rule from Moscow, seeing co-operation with
the Soviet government and the adoption of its ideology as the best strategy for achieving their
goals of enlightenment and progress. In many respects, particularly in the field of education,
Soviet policies did indeed fulfil the ambitions of the Jadids. Many occupied prominent positions
in the Soviet educational and cultural establishment before falling victim to Stalin's purges.
Khalid has no interest in making heroes of the Jadids, but he is sympathetic in his treatment
of them. His explanation of their ideological and political flexibility in 1917 and after is generous.
Opportunism and lack of intellectual weight also provide a credible explanation for their sudden
embrace of Turkism and anti-colonialism. In spite of thorough research, the paucity of bio-
graphical information leaves the portraits of the main protagonists rather grey, while their
conservative opponents remain an undifferentiated force, rather than articulate individuals. This
is a pity, since Khalid seeks to rescue his protagonists from the stereotypes of Russified reform-
ers and reactionary fanatics. This is only partly achieved: how the ulama adapted to the rules of
the modern game well enough to trounce the Jadids in electoral politics in 1917 remains a mystery.
There is surely another book to be written focusing on the ulama but, as Khalid notes at the
outset,'There are many stories to be told here: this book is perhaps a first step' (xvi).
Edmund Herzig
University of Manchester

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