THREE DIMENSIONS OF TATARS IDENTITY: ISLAMIC, TATARI AND RUSSIAN

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Professor; Reginal Studies Department, University of Tehran

2 Assisstant Professor, Political Science, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (IHSS)

Abstract

As most of Russian Muslims are Tatar, then Tatarstan is the most important
Muslim republic of Russian Federation. In the past, Tatars have conquered Russia
and for 200 years. Yet Tatarstan is important for Russia culturally and economically.
Russian leaders consider Tatarstan as a model for the other Muslim republics
especially the Caucasians, because Tatari Islam is too modern and in harmony with
the Orthodoxy. The question of the paper is: "what are the characteristics of the
Tatars’ identity?” The hypothesis of the authors is: "all three Islamic, Tatari or
Russian-Slav-Orthodox identities has shaped tatari culture and identity".

Keywords