This book focuses on the cultural dimensions of the Central Asian form of an Islamic
modernist movement, Jadidism, which arose among several groups of Muslims of the Russian
Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Politics was not an option for the Jadidists until
the final years of the czarist monarchy and the early revolutionary period, so the author relegates
that aspect of the movement to the later chapters. To the extent that involvement in politics in
Russia became possible, Central Asian Jadidists sought to participate, not to pursue either
isolationism or separatism. According to the author, Russian officials were the ones who
mistakenly assumed that Jadidism posed a separatist threat; subsequent generations of scholars
misperceived the movement through the lens of those fears. The author argues that culture is a
significant dimension of the movement in its own right. It mattered in Central Asia both in the
rivalry between the Jadidists and traditionalists for leadership of the region's Muslims and
as a way for educated Muslims to preserve their distinctiveness within the Russian Empire.
