Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan
The Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan (SADUM) (Russian: Духовное управление мусульман Средней Азии и Казахстана (САДУМ); Uzbek: Ўрта Осиё ва Қозоғистон мусулмонлари диний бошқармаси) was the official governing body for Islamic activities in the five Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the five newly independent republics reformed their respective branches of SADUM into their own national Islamic institutions.
Like SADUM, the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly was governed by a supreme mufti, and oversaw the appointment of imams and management of mosques throughout the empire.
[4] Russian administrators had been involved in the religious hierarchy of Central Asia since the initial conquest in the 1860s, though the level of government interference varied throughout the region.
Some district chiefs were directly responsible for the appointment of instructors at the local madrasahs, as well as naming the overseers of religious endowments (waqfs).
Other chiefs retained oversight privileges, but allowed the local community to run affairs autonomously, stepping in only when disputes arose.
[8] As religious persecution subsided and mosques began to re-open, the Central Asian ulema saw an opportunity to push for concessions.
[citation needed] In June 1943, several prominent members of the ulema petitioned Mikhail Kalinin, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, to permit a conference of the Central Asian religious elite in Tashkent.
[citation needed] SADUM moved quickly after its founding to re-open local Islamic institutions and re-establish ties with the wider Muslim world.
[citation needed] In 1945 a meeting was held with the Saudi king Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, after which Soviet Muslims were allowed to participate in the Hajj.
[14] This new organization was renamed the Religious Administration of Kazakhstan's Muslims (Kazakh: Қазақстан мұсылмандары діни басқармасы; Russian: Духовное управление мусульман Казахстана).
[citation needed] Major theological questions were considered by the mufti and the Council of the Ulama, whose decisions were then related to the people through local mosques.
"Wahhabist" was a derogatory term used in the Ferghana Valley region for scholars whose fatwas deviated from traditional Hanafi interpretations.
After the fall of the Soviet Union and the fracture of SADUM into independent state-run organizations, Muhammad Yusuf became the first mufti of Uzbekistan, but was removed from office in 1993.
