LIMITATION OF SHARIA COURT AUTHORITY AS A MEASURE FOR INTEGRATION OF OUTLANDERS OF VOLGA-URAL REGION IN THE RUSSIAN LEGAL SPACE (IN THE JOURNALS OF SPECIAL MEETINGS IN MUSLIM AFFAIRS OF 1914)

Abstract

One of the tasks of the internal national policy of the Russian Empire in the post-reform period was the integration of the Tatar-Muslim population into the socio-cultural and legal life of the country. To achieve this goal, the government considered various ways of influencing Islamic institutions, including the Sharia court. For a comprehensive study of this issue at the beginning of the century, special organs (Special Meetings) for interdepartmental interaction were convened. The purpose is to analyze the journals of the Special Meeting on Muslim Affairs of 1914, which reveal the attitude of the authorities to the system of Muslim legal proceedings, and also contain concrete measures for its reform. On the basis of the materials studied, it was concluded that both civil and religious laws were used to regulate the daily life of the Muslims of the empire. There was a certain symbiosis of norms that contributed to the normal functioning of society. At the beginning of the XX century, to ensure the integration processes, the government planned to limit the sphere of influence of the Sharia courts and establish a uniformity of the norms of substantive and procedural law. At the same time the complete exclusion of Sharia from the legal system was not considered. The history of the functioning of the Muslim court is a good example of the possibility of interaction between Russian and Islamic law in a multi-confessional state.