Acknowledgments
This project began thanks to the active support of Michael Kemper, who was ready to challenge accepted knowledge and explore new horizons in the history of Muslim cultures in Russia. During our work with the life narrative of al-Qadiri, we enjoyed fruitful conversations with Ilham Gumerov, who had first introduced the authors to each other. Many of the ideas expressed in the Introduction to this volume derive from the international symposium On Muslim Subjectivity in Russia: The Hybrid Languages of Self-Description, convened jointly with Naira Sahakyan at the University of Amsterdam in December 2019. We are grateful to the participants of the conference, including Shamil Shikhaliev, Galiia Muratova and Mansur Gazimzianov, as well as Danis Garaev, Naira Sahakyan, Teo Benussi, Pavel Shabley, and Dinara Mardanova. Similarly, we have taken inspiration from our colleagues Allen Frank, Roy Bar Sadeh, Paolo Sartori, Jeff Eden, Gulnaz Sibgatullina, Dasha Dorodnykh, and Artemy Kalinovsky. Special thanks to Shamil Shikhaliev who read multiple versions of the book and shared with us a great lot of ideas.
We would also like to thank David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye and Dittmar Schorkowitz for their invaluable help in publishing with Brill’s Eurasian Studies Library. Two anonymous reviewers helped us to sharpen our arguments and strengthen the way we present al-Qadiri’s memoirs.
The family of al-Qadiri in Ufa and Istärlibash opened their doors to us and allowed us to use the treasures of their personal archives. Without the support of Zuhra Valiullova and Vladimir Galimov, this project would not have succeeded.
We are indebted to Elly Dutton for her tireless editorial work as she made our text look more professional. Needless to say, all remaining typos and mistakes are the sole responsibility of the authors.
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (gran agreement No 804083, MIND: The Muslim Individual in Imperial and Soviet Russia (2019-2024).