Chechnya

The Chechen Republic is part of the Russian Federation, located in the northern Caucasus Mountains. Islam is the dominant religion of Chechnya, claiming more than 94% of the 1.2 million population. Chechens are Sunnī Muslims following the traditions of the Khanaphi and Shaphii Mazkhabs schools of thought. At the same time, Chechen religious practices are also influenced by Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam. The Sufi Tarikats (“orders”) of Kadiria and Nakshbandia have the most influence in the country. These Tarikats are further divided into some 30 religious groups or Virds (brotherhoods, communities). Besides Muslims, there are some small groups of Christians in Chechnya affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church and evangelical Protestant Baptists.

Before the arrival of Islam, Chechens observed paganism. The early spread of Islam in the area was linked to the Arab seizure of the northern Caucasus in the 8th to 10th centuries. Arab missionaries propagated Islam among domestic ethnic groups.

[Page 193]In the 9th to 10th centuries, Christianity arrived in Chechnya, coming from Georgia and other areas of the northern Caucasus. The process of Christianization of Chechens and other Caucasus peoples, however, was terminated by the war of Mongols with Georgia in the 13th century.

The most important period for Islam in Chechnya was in the 13th and 14th centuries, when Chechen elites accepted Islam under the influence of Zolotaya Orda (“the Golden Horde”). From this time on, Islam became the predominant religion among the Chechens.

In the 18th century, Islam and its clergy began to play a political role in Chechen society. The leaders of national freedom movements—Sheikh Mansur (in the 18th century) and Shamil (in the 19th century)—played an important role in Chechen history.

Sufi Islam began to become popular in Chechnya beginning in the mid-19th century. The most significant figure in the Chechen Sufi tradition was Sheikh Kunta-Khadji Kishiyev, who was a follower of Kadiriya's Tarikat and was the founder of an independent Vird.

During the Soviet era (1917–1991), Islam was strictly controlled by communist authorities. During World War II, ethnic groups such as Chechens, Ingushes, and others were deported to Central Asia, and the practice of Islam was prohibited.

The revival of Islam began at the end of the Soviet era in 1989. Islamic traditions were restored, mosques were built, sacred places were reopened to visitors, and Islamic institutions were opened in Grozny and Nazran (Ingushetia). In the 1990s, many Muslim Chechens went on the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca (Makkah). Many students went to Arab and other Islamic countries to study. An independent institution of spiritual administration for Muslims was founded in 1991. The Wahhabi form of Islam has been spreading in Chechnya since 1992.

Islam has thrived in post-Soviet Chechnya. Within 20 years of the end of Soviet rule, there were 465 mosques and 31 madrasas (religious schools) in the country. A mosque described as “The Heart of Chechnya,” accommodating 10,000 worshippers, was built in Grozny in 2008. An Islamic university named after Kunta-Khadji Kishiyev was founded along with a Center of Islamic Medicine based in Grozny, which is the largest institution of its kind in Europe.

...