2. ‘Vernacular Qur’anic Space’ within Post-Soviet Uzbekistan

This chapter explores the dynamics and trends of the ‘vernacular Qur’anic space’ in Uzbekistan from the 1950s to the present day, focusing on the case of al-Sayyid Maḥmūd al-Ṭarāzī’s Qur’an translation written in Central Asian Turki. In contrast to al-Ramzī’s translation, which until recently remained unknown to both scholars and the general public, this translation, by a prominent figure in the Turkestani émigré community in Saudi Arabia, managed to reach Soviet Uzbekistan despite the Iron Curtain, albeit with limited circulation due to the anti-religious policies within the state. The chapter provides a history of the circulation and reception of al-Ṭarāzī’s translation, arguing that it was primarily ‘popular’ and recognized during the Soviet era, while its post-Soviet reception highlights the challenges of competing with locally produced works. Al-Ṭarāzī’s ability to disseminate his translation in a country walled off by communist dogma vividly demonstrates the mobility of Qur’an translations even under the most challenging conditions for this process. Thus, the material presented in this chapter enables one to reflect on the complexity of recent Islamic intellectual history within Soviet and post-Soviet Uzbekistan, showing that not only Muslim scholars of the region, but also those religious figures who lived and wrote outside Soviet Central Asia, were involved in the formation of the local vernacular Qur’anic space through their writings.

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