Jadid

For places in Iran, see Jadid, Iran.

The Jadids[1] were a political, religious, and cultural movement of Muslim modernist reformers within the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century. They normally referred to themselves by the Turkic terms Taraqqiparvarlar ("progressives"), Ziyalilar ("intellectuals"), or simply Yäşlär/Yoshlar ("youth").[2] The Jadid movement advocated for an Islamic social and cultural reformation through the revival of pristine Islamic beliefs and teachings, while simultaneously engaging with modernity.[3] Jadids maintained that Turks in Tsarist Russia had entered a period of moral and societal decay that could only be rectified by the acquisition of a new kind of knowledge and modernist, European-modeled cultural reform.

Modern technologies of communication and transportation such as telegraph, printing press, postal system, and railways, as well as the spread of Islamic literature through print media such as periodicals, journals, newspapers, etc. played a major role in dissemination of Jadid ideals in Central Asia.[4] Although there were substantial ideological differences within the movement, Jadids were marked by their widespread use of print media in promoting their messages and advocacy of the Usul-i Jadid[5] or "new method" of teaching in the maktab of the empire, from which the term "Jadidism" is derived. As per their Usul-i Jadid system of education, the Jadids established an enterprising institutions of schools that taught a standardized, disciplined curriculum to all Muslims across Central Asia. The new curriculum comprised both religious education and material sciences that would be resourceful for the community in tackling the modern-day challenges.[6]

A leading figure in the efforts to reform education was the Crimean Tatar intellectual, educator, publisher, and politician Ismail Gasprinsky (1851–1914). Intellectuals such as Mahmud Khoja Behbudiy, author of the famous play The Patricide and founder of one of Turkestan's first Jadid schools, carried Gasprinsky's ideas back to Central Asia.[7] Anti-colonial discourse constituted a major aspect of the Jadid movement; leaders like Gasprinskii promoted anti-Russian political activism. Following the defeat and collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I, the Jadids extended their anti-colonial critiques against the Allied great powers like the British and other Western European empires. Jadid members were recognized and honored in Uzbekistan after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.[8]

  1. ^ DEVLET, NADİR (2004). "STUDIES IN THE POLITICS, HISTORY AND CULTURE OF TURKIC PEOPLES". Jadid Movement in Volga-Ural Region. Istanbul: Yeditepe University. p. 204.
  2. ^ Khalid (1998), p. 93.
  3. ^ Khalid, Adeeb (1998). "Introduction". The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia. Comparative Studies on Muslim Societies. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 1–18. ISBN 9780520213562.
  4. ^ Khalid, Adeeb (1998). "Introduction". The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. pp. 9–10. ISBN 0-520-21356-4.
  5. ^ Paul Bergne (2007). Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity and the Origins of the Republic. I.B.Tauris. pp. 16–. ISBN 978-0-85771-091-8.
  6. ^ Khalid, Adeeb (1998). "Introduction". The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 0-520-21356-4.
  7. ^ Khalid (1998), p. 80.
  8. ^ Kendzior, Sarah (1 November 2016). "The Death of Islam Karimov and the Unraveling of Authority in Uzbekistan". World Politics review.