ABSTRACT
Central Asia, the last major territorial annexation of the Russian empire, was an integral part of the Muslim world at the time of its conquest. Its literary culture, and the historical vision that informed it, were intimately connected to patterns of cultural practice in the broader Muslim world. The short period of imperial Russian rule--practically coterminous with the postreform era--ushered in the forces of modernity in the region, which transformed the historical imagination of its elites. The new historical imagination lay at the bottom of the intense politics of identity that marked the first decade of Soviet rule.
