Russia's Muslim Frontiers New Directions in Cross-Cultural Analysis by Dale F. Eickelman ( ed.), Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993, 244 pp.

Abstract

The sudden independence of five Muslim Central Asian countries-
Khazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan-
and one Muslim country in the Transcaucasus regionAzerbaijan-
has surprised even the international scholarly community.
When the former Soviet Union was alive and well, there were "Soviet
scholars," a rubric that largely included specialists on Russia, Ukraine,
and the Baltic states. Western scholars were almost never inclined to
specialize in, or to give any serious attention to, the Muslim regions of
the Soviet Union. This neglect was also reflected in their evaluations of
the problems of this region, as can be seen by the uncritical acceptance
of the Soviet vocabulary. For instance, the Qorabashi armed resistance
in Muslim Central Asia was labeled the "Basmachi" (or bandit) movement
by the Soviet Union and its scholars. This phrase was also used by
western scholars.
Now there is no more Soviet Union, the cold war has entered history,
and there are six new Muslim republics. These developments have
engendered a renewed interest in these republics, as can be seen by the
number of recently published books that have been devoted to them.
Although some of them have been hurriedly compiled, others have been
written with a lot of forethought and balanced analysis.
Eickelman's present anthology definitely falls into the latter category.
In fact, to the best of my knowledge, his anthology is one of the
first books that raises the question of whether the above-mentioned
Qorabashi movement was indeed an armed struggle against the Soviet
imperial masters or was a "bandit" movement as portrayed by Soviet
scholars. This book comprises four parts: "International and Regional
Perspectives," "Central Asia " "Afghanistan and Iran," and "Pakistan."
The first two sections formulate the essence of this study. Eickelman's
introduction, in my estimation, is certainly one of the best chapters. It
is unfortunate that he did not include more of his writing in this book.
His review of the literature on modernization theories and orientalism
in this chapter will be read by students of Central Asia and the Middle
East with interest.
Other noteworthy contributions are the two essays by Richard
Cottam and Gregory Kornyenko. It is refreshing to read Cottam's ...