Antropologicheskij forum, 2018, no. 36

BELONGING TO MUSLIM COMMUNITY IN DAGESTAN: ANALYSIS OF INSTITUTIONS AND PRACTICES

Anna Glyants
Université Libre de Bruxelles
50 Franklin Roosevelt Av., Brussels, Belgium
anna.zaytseva()ulb.ac.be

Abstract: This article is focused on an analysis of social aspects of religious life in the context of Muslim communities and is based on empirical material collected in the republic of Dagestan. The research seeks to clarify if it is possible to define Muslim communities as a social entity with particular aspects of organisation and typical practices, as well as a specific relationship between its various actors. The author defines the concept of “religious belonging” and seeks to identify conditions that shape and maintain it. The article identifies institutions that constitute the boundaries of religious communities. It also reveals the conditions that impact the establishment of religious authority in the Sufi jamaats under the control of the muftiyat and within the Salafi milieu, as well as the role of local and non-local actors in these processes. The analysis of the selected Muslim practices, which became the subject of controversy in the republic, highlights the various aspects of the intersection of socialties that are based on religious and non-religious types of solidarity. The author concludes that expressions of religious belonging are determined by several levels and types of loyalty.

Keywords: Dagestan, Muslim institutions and practices, religious belonging, religious authority, religious solidarity.

To cite: Glyants A. ‘Prinadlezhnost k musulmanskoy obshchnosti v Dagestane: analiz institutov i praktik’ [Belonging to Muslim Community in Dagestan: Analysis of Institutions and Practices], Antropologicheskij forum, 2018, no. 36, pp. 154–182.

doi: 10.31250/1815-8870-2018-14-36-154-182

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/036/glyants.pdf