Review of the monograph by V.Kh. Akaev "Sufism in the Context of Arab-Muslim Culture. Monograph. Grozny: State Unitary Enterprise "Book Publishing House", 2020. 523 pp."

Монографическое исследование В.Х. Акаева представляет собой самостоятельное авторское исследование, посвященное проблемам генезиса и эволюции суфизма в глобальном и региональном измерении. Отмечается, что суфизм, сформировавшись в лоне арабо-мусульманской культуры, как религиозно-мистический феномен проник в духовное пространство народов Северного Кавказа. Его отличительной чертой в рассматриваемом регионе стало то, что суфистские братства сумели встроиться в структуру традиционных этносоциальных институций ряда северокавказских народов. Однако деформация общественно-политической жизни Северного Кавказа в начале 1990-х гг. привела к активизации деятельности радикалистов и экстремистов в Чечне и Дагестане. В рецензируемой монографии осмыслен деструктивный потенциал религиозного радикализма, который активно продвигался идеологами ваххабизма, оперировавшими концептами шахидизма. Определены принципиальные расхождения ваххабизма и суфизма в интерпретации теологической доктрины ислама. Отдельного внимания заслуживает и авторское описание социально-политического портрета асоциальных акторов радикализма. Делается вывод о том, что наиболее эффективным инструментом профилактики религиозного радикализма является диалог культур, нацеленный на смягчение культурных конфликтов и обеспечивающий их активный обмен при сохранении культурно-исторической самобытности. The monographic study of V.Kh. Akaev is an independent author's research on the problems of genesis and the evolution of Sufism in the global and regional dimension. Having formed in the bosom of Arab-Muslim culture, Sufism as a religious-mystical phenomenon penetrated the spiritual space of the peoples of the North Caucasus. Its distinctive feature in the region under consideration was that Sufi fraternities managed to integrate into the structure of traditional ethnosocial institutions of a number of North Caucasian peoples. However, the deformation of the socio-political life of the North Caucasus in the early 1990s led to the activation of the activities of radicalists and extremists in Chechnya and Dagestan. The peer-reviewed monograph makes sense of the destructive potential of religious radicalism, which was actively promoted by Wahhabism ideologists who operated on the concepts of Shahidism. Fundamental differences between Wahhabism and Sufism in the interpretation of the theological doctrine of Islam were determined. The author's description of the socio-political portrait of asocial actors of radicalism deserves special attention. The research shows that the most effective tool for preventing religious radicalism is the dialogue of cultures aimed at mitigating cultural conflicts and ensuring their active exchange while preserving cultural and historical identity.

On Understanding of Tawhid in Isma‘ilism

The article raises the question of understanding the principle of tawhid in the Isma‘ili philosophical discourse. Isma‘ili philosophers defended the absolute transcendence of God and His indescribability. The article describes the understanding of the one and only God in Isma‘ilism, analyzes the problem of the relationship between the One and the multiple within the paradigmatic pairs of Arab-Muslim philosophy ‒ “explicit‒hidden” and “basic‒branch”. It is impossible to call God the Original, otherwise it will be necessary to recognize that He is dependent and conditioned by His consequence, and this detracts from Him. God, according to the ideas of Ismailism, has only one “true” attribute — huwiyya, which forms the required nominal multiplicity and “transition” from the transcendent God to the cognizable plural world. It is the huwiyya of God that gives the impetus for the appearance of the First Cause — the command of God “Be!”, which is also its own consequence. Combining cause and eff ect, the command of God has absolute completeness. The reader is also off ered for the fi rst time in Russian a commented translation of an excerpt from the treatise of the Ismaili philosopher of the 11th century Nasir Khusraw “Six chapters” (Shish fasl) — Chapter “On the knowledge of tawhid”.

Robert Merton and Ibn Sina: A Roll Call of Moral Imperatives

The paper attempts to expand the authentic understanding of the imperatives of the scientific ethos given by R.K. Merton in 1942. In the original interpretation, Merton’s Code referred only to the European science of the New Age and subsequent centuries. As Merton himself and his followers have seen, the applicability of this code to other societies is not relevant. However, the author of the paper believes that the original four maxims of Merton in one way or another work effectively outside the specified space-time frame and, in particular, work in medieval Arab-Muslim science. The philosophical allegorical parable "The Message of Birds" written by Ibn Sina in the XI century is used as a text in which the imperatives that semantically coincide with Merton's maxims are found. The analysis shows that the text of the medieval scientist is transparently articulated: 1) Mertonian "communism" which assumes the collective ownership of epistemological discourse participants of the products received in its process (new empirical facts, theoretical and methodological innovations); 2) "universalism" that excludes any discrimination of discourse subjects on external, non-scientific criteria; 3) "disinterestedness", according to which the scientist builds his activities as if he had no other interests but to understand the truth; 4) "organized skepticism" according to which there is no presumption of innocence in science, and whoever comes forward with epistemological innovation must calmly and patiently prove his rightness to those who are standing in defence of the existing body of knowledge. Since the author of "The Message of Birds", despite his chosen artistic and mystical form for this work, is one of the largest figures of medieval Arab-Muslim science, his parable should be interpreted, first of all, as a text, which reflects the very process of cognitive search in pre-classical science. A closer familiarity with the nature and content of epistemological discourse in ancient and medieval traditional societies provides a good reason here to see one of the attempts to systematize the ethical rules that have actually been in force among scientists for many centuries.

Environmentalism and Sustainability as an Expression of Islamic Morality

The present essay relates to a line of enquiry that focuses on the Islamic contribution to the values held in common by different cultural traditions, with the aim of working towards a shared ethical conscience and peaceful coexistence in the cities of a globalised world. The essay emphasises cultural specificities, starting with the terminology currently used to describe environmentalism and sustainability. Drawing on the works of a number of contemporary Arab Muslim intellectuals, my enquiry aims to look at environmental sustainability from an Islamic perspective, and to address it as part of the ethical heritage of Islam.

“Mountain of Tongues” The Languages of the Caucasus in Arabic-Islamic Sources

The paper is devoted to the linguistic diversity of the Caucasus as reflected in the writing of Arab-Muslim geographers and historians. Dealing with the locus classicus jabal al-alsun ‘mountain of tongues’ in the output of Arab-Muslim authors, the author juxtaposes the current state of the study of Caucasus polyglossia with the description of the jumble of languages in the works of Ibn al-Faqīh, al-Mas‘ūdī, Abū al-Fidā’, al-Muhallabī and other authors. Outlining some parallels in Graeco-Roman historians, the author concludes that the diversity of languages spoken in the Caucasus as described by Arab-Muslim geographers appears to be in concord with the degree of the linguistic diversity as conceived today in areal-typological studies.

THE THE CONCEPT OF “HAPPINESS” IN THE WORKS OF AL-FARABI AND THE RELIGIONS OF ISLAM

In this article, we will try to study deeply about the concept of “happiness” based on religious concepts in the Arab-Muslim society and to determine the notion of “happiness”. Analyzing the foundational and theoretical significance of the concept of “happiness” in Islam, quoting from the texts of the Quran and Hadith, thereby we explained the meaning of “happiness” and its role. Also, the article presents the views of Kazakhstani and Arab-Muslim scholars’ about “happiness”. We use methods of comparative theoretical research of the “happiness” concept. According to the verses of the Quran and Hadith in Islam, a Muslim must not only learn and practice in this life but also pray to Allah in the hope of achieving endless happiness in his future life. Believers trust in a new life that begins after worldly life, that is, an eternal life, and they believe real-life and infinite happiness will be found only in the future. In religious texts, the eternal soul is happy only with the sounds of eternal happiness. Hereby, a religious person knows that material happiness cannot make him happy totally.

THE ORIGINS OF THE ARABIC TRANSLATION TRADITION

The Arab Caliphate was famous for its highly developed book culture and the fact that it turned the Arabic language into the international language of communication, science and art throughout the Arab-Muslim East. During the reign of the Abbasid dynasty, the Arab-Muslim civilization is experiencing the peak of its heyday and power. Under the Abbasids, Baghdad became not only the political, but also the cultural capital of the Caliphate. The famous House of Wisdom opens in Baghdad, where a large-scale translation activity has been carried out for centuries. The Abbasids achieved amazing success because they were able to absorb the rich cultural traditions of the peoples they conquered. At the same time, they pursued their own political goals - the strengthening and development of the Arab Caliphate. The Abbasids were not pioneers in translation, they skillfully used and developed the pre-Islamic developments of the Iranians in this area. It is important to study the reasons why the Arab Caliphate at one time reached historical heights. This is necessary in order for the lessons of the past to serve the good of the present.

Dialogue of East and West on the Example of Arab-Muslim Сulture

The dialogue expresses the simultaneous coexistence of the past and the present, the preservation of continuity between them. The Arab-Muslim civilization, in its heyday, embodied the ideal of dialogue between East and West. The purpose of this study is to study the mechanisms of intercultural dialogue of the Eastern Renaissance era, analyze them for their application in the conditions of the modern globalized world. Islam played a key role in the formation and development of the Arab-Muslim civilization. Religion, along with philosophy and science, played the role of a connecting link in the spiritual and intellectual life of medieval Muslim society. Dialogue is possible when, in the collision of different cultural traditions, some new unifying knowledge is synthesized. The development of their own spiritual and religious movements as Sufism among the peoples of Central Asia conquered by the Arabs indicates that the Arab-Muslim culture was not limited to Islam. The peoples of the Arab Caliphate preserved and developed their distinctive cultural and religious traditions.