The Evolution of Infrastructures and Practices for the Dissemination of Islamic Knowledge: The Case of the Muslim Community of the Town of Bor, Nizhny Novgorod Region

Abstract

The paper investigates the process of the genesis and establishment of infrastructural ideas that contribute to the dissemination of Islamic knowledge in the local Muslim community in the town of Bor, Nizhny Novgorod region in the period of the 1930s — early 2020s. The author analyzes how the infrastructure affects the practices of spreading Islamic knowledge in the local Islamic community and how the local Muslim community changes in the period of creation of infrastructure. The paper focuses on exploring the infrastructures for spreading Islamic knowledge in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods of the community’s life. The study is based on ethnographic material, interviews and archival materials, and presents how the creation of infrastructures changed the practices of spreading Islamic knowledge and the configuration of the local Muslim community. These changes exacerbated issues of power relations and the identifying of behaviour patterns within the community. Simultaneously new ideas were born within the community about community development, new infrastructure for disseminating Islamic knowledge and the formation of Muslim personalities. The Tatar community who initiated and organized the building of the Mosque has lost control over it, and it has become part of urban public space, a source of Islamic knowledge available to any Muslim in the town of Bor.