Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly


The Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly was a state-controlled religious administration in the Russian Empire that had jurisdiction over certain aspects of Islamic activity in Siberia, the Volga-Ural region, and parts of Central Asia, including the Kazakh steppe. It was established in 1788 by order of Russian Empress Catherine II.

History

The Kazakhs were removed from the assembly's jurisdiction in the 1860s as part of a policy to decrease the exposure of the Kazakhs to Tartar influence.

Structure

The head position in the assembly was mufti, under whom there were 5 or 6 qazis.

Mufti

The role of the mufti was established in the assembly's founding documents of 1788, however neither his social status or the scope of his powers were made clear. The first mufti, Mukhamedzhan Khusainov, immediately began to push for more power, demanding the same status as the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church. He met several times with Catherine II in St. Petersburg, and began to see himself as an important political figure in the Volga-Ural region. This worried local Russian administrators, who requested and received permission from Prince Alexander Bezborodko to severely limit Khusainov's influence and keep him under their control. Local authorities then decreed "his duty is to administer strictly religious matters, and not to touch secular ones, except when the administrations sees fit to use him for these".
According to an 1802 decree the mufti could not make any decisions without the consent of his deputies, however this was rarely followed by Khusainov. The first mufti was constantly dogged with lawsuits and complaints concerning bribery, swindling, and failure to follow salat. Though Emperor Alexander I send a letter supporting Khusainov, and in effect granting him legal immunity, charges over Khusainov's abuse of power continued for the duration of his time as mufti.