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Family and Religious Authority in Soviet Central Asia: Evaluating the Archival Evidence
Abstract
Although the political significance of client-patron networks and extended family ties has been documented throughout the Soviet Union, including Central Asia, it remains unclear how the Soviet experience impacted the traditional family networks associated Sufi shaykhs and Islamic scholars. This paper navigates Soviet archival materials dealing with Islam in Central Asia to reevaluate the nature of these networks in the five decades following World War II. Did master-disciple networks survive the anti-religious violence of the 1920s and 1930s, and, if so, in which direction did they evolve during the stable decades following World War II? In what areas of religion life did some connection to a broader network of religious authority, family-related or otherwise, NOT matter? To answer these questions the paper will look at archival evidence concerning several shrines as well as the Boboxonov family (sometimes referred to as "dynasty"), which ran Central Asia's only legal Islamic organization from 1943-1989.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Central Asia
Sub Area
Central Asian Studies