The Ur-Text of Jadidism: Abu Nasr QUrOwi's Irshad and the Historiography of Muslim Modernism in Russia

The conventional historiography of jadidism begins with Abu I -Nag Qursawis (1776-1812) rejection of taq/id and embrace of ytiluid, which was furthered by Shihab al-Din Marjani (1818-89), leading to the flowering of jadidism proper at the beginning of the twentieth century. Beginning in the late 19505, Qursawi's Irshad was put forward by Tatar academics seeking to support the narrative as the specific source of his views on ijtihad. The discussion of (t/had in this text does not, however, conform to the Jadids' conception of it, and the attempts to locate jadidist ideals in it rely on -highly anachronistic and specious interpretations. Based on the study of the relevant Soviet historiography, and its sources, I argue that this narrative is not supported by the works of Qfirsawl or Marjani but comes ultimately from jadidist writings from the 1920s.