The economics of Muslim cultural reform

The movement for Muslim cultural reform, or “Jadidism,” has long been a popular subject of investigation in the historiography relating to Muslim communities in late imperial Russia. While scholars have examined Jadidism in different ways over the years, in most cases the movement for Muslim cultural reform has been discussed mainly in terms of the “ideas” of a rather small number of well-known activist-intellectuals. ¹ Muslim opposition to Jadidism, meanwhile, has likewise been discussed primarily in terms of the “arguments” and “debates” taking place in the Muslim periodical press between Jadids and their conservative rivals, often referred to as “Qadims.” ² Although idea-based approaches to Jadidism have at times provided valuable insights into subjects like the nature of elite rivalries in Muslim communities, ³ at the same time such approaches can also leave the impression that the issue of Muslim cultural reform was something that concerned only a relatively small number of people. ⁴