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The Revival of Sacred Sites in the Urals: The Local and Beyond

Article in Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics · December 2019

DOI: 10.2478/jef-2019-0023

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Lili Di Puppo Jesko Schmoller

National Research University Higher School of Economics Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
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 Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics 13 (2): 143–145
DOI: 10.2478/jef-2019-0023

T H E R E V I VA L O F S A C R E D S I T E S I N T H E U R A L S :
T H E L O C A L A N D BE YON D

The Islamic revival in the Ural region does instrument, the kurai flute, is made.1 Two older
not only translate into an increase in mosques women tell us the story of the kurai: Bashkir
and institutions of religious education (madra- nomads heard a beautiful melody and won-
sas), such as the newly built Rasulev madrasa, dered where it came from. They saw a plant
named after the well-known Sufi sheikh or with a bird on it, who was breathing into the
ishan Zaynulla Rasulev (1833–1917), in the city hole and producing the melody. Seeing this,
of Troitsk. Sacred sites are also places where the Bashkirs started playing the flute. The
one can witness a renewed religious activity. connection to the Bashkir landscape is also
Hence, in the same city of Troitsk, the grave present in the story of the national Ural Batyr
of Rasulev attracts numerous pilgrims and epos, as told by a group of Sufi women in a cir-
Muslim officials with a steady increase in the cle to Lili Di Puppo. Ural Batyr encounters an
number of visitors in recent years, as the cem- old man who invites him to drink the ‘living
etery guard tells us on a mild July day. The water’ in order to gain eternal life. Ural Batyr
number of visitors was particularly high dur- refuses, saying that it is not he who should be
ing the annual Rasulev readings, two weeks eternal, but the earth, the world. The women
before our visit. Sacred sites in the Urals have narrate the story as one of sacrifice for his peo-
become centres of encounters of different ple. Ural Batyr pours the ‘living water’ onto
pilgrims and visitors, and also places where the top of the Ieremel mountain, from which
identities – religious, ethnic and national – seven rivers start to flow.2
are (re)formed and strengthened. The connection between sacred sites in the
Urals and the surrounding natural landscape
Nature and the Sacred appears to be strong: these sites are often
On a mild summer day, we accompany a found in nature, far away from city life. Two
group of Bashkir Sufi disciples (murids) to a of the sites we visited, Narystau and Aush-
remote place deep in the mountains in central tau, have grave sites of Muslim saints near
Bashkortostan. We leave our minibus at the a healing spring. In Central Asia, which is
beginning of a bumpy and muddy road and geographically and culturally rather close –
continue by foot. On the way, our compan- the distance from Aushtau to the border
ions are busy collecting plants, flowers and with Kazakhstan amounts to only about 100
berries, reflecting upon their healing virtues, kilometres – the simplest version of a sacred
which are different for men and women. We site would at least consist of a tree, a water
converse with an older Bashkir man, with the source and a tomb (Abramson and Karimov
adopted Arabic name of Abdulkarim, who 2007: 321). The natural landscape, which con-
vividly explains to us how Bashkirs have tributes to a sacred geography, for example
always lived close to nature. He talks about in the form of healing springs or mountains
nature as a source of strength (sila) and energy such as the Ieremel moutain, is seen by some
for humans; city life deprives people of this of our interlocutors as intimately linked to
energy. He claims that a pilgrimage (ziyarat) Bashkir identity. In her new book on Rasulev,
will replenish his or her energies for at least the Bashkir writer Lira Yakshibayeva talks
one month. Jesko Schmoller receives a plant at length about different natural sites and
from a little boy, who has found it near the laments the ecological disasters that have
road and from which the national Bashkir marked the 20th century.3 While deeply con-

Notes and Reviews 143

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 nected to the Bashkir earth, understood as age that has been re-established, evoking the
sacred, these sites are also open to all pilgrims renewed presence of the Naqshbandi tariqa
and visitors and often characterised by a mix among Bashkirs and referring to Rasulev.
of religions. The spring at Aushtau only carries water
during the month of May, which is the time
Springs and Saints of year when the greatest number of pilgrims
The way to Narystau from Sterlitamak, with gather at the place, even from far-away coun-
a local Russian taxi driver, is long and diffi- tries such as Israel and Mozambique, as our
cult as the place is not known by the major- guide, a Bashkir-Kazakh man in his fifties we
ity of locals. Only a little closer to the place met in the village, tells us. The site reveals
are people able to indicate the direction to us. efforts to regulate pilgrimage practice in the
We later learn that the sacred site of Narystau form of signs and boards warning against the
is new. Boards at the entrance to the water sin of idolatry. One board explains that the pil-
spring instruct visitors to dress appropri- grim needs to ask only the Almighty for help
ately and not be naked, as this is forbidden and also carries recommendations for the reci-
by sharia; one board also advises people not tation of specific chapters (suwar) and verses
to wear swimming costumes. However, we (ayat) of the Quran. It says that the Almighty
see members of a Russian Orthodox family will only accept the pilgrim’s prayers, out of
sitting around the water spring in their swim- respect for his beloved slave, the wali, if the
ming gear. In the adjacent bathing house we pilgrim came with sincere and pure inten-
learn that they also consider Narystau a holy tions. Another board instructs visitors not to
place and especially value the water there, tie ribbons to trees near the grave site, as it is
but that the Muslim associations do not mat- forbidden in Islam and leads to sin. Ironically,
ter much to them. After taking a bath, we this is exactly what pilgrims have been doing
enter a small mosque, whose imam tells us all around the grave at the top of the moun-
the story of the sahaba, the companions of the tain. In neighbouring Central Asia, the reli-
Prophet Muhammad who are buried up on gious authorities likewise prohibit the use of
the small hills. A few days earlier in Chishmy, ribbons at sacred sites, while many people do
the burial site of Huseyn Bek, who played a not comply with these instructions (Abram-
major role in the region’s Islamisation in the son and Karimov 2007: 320). The presence
14th century, we heard a Tatar imam in a local of ribbons thus evokes a broader pilgrimage
mosque invite Muslims to join a pilgrimage space, transcending the Russian-Kazakh bor-
to Bolgar, a site near Kazan, where sahaba are der and establishing a connection with wider
also believed to be buried. These two sites can Central Asia. The same can be said for the
thus be seen in parallel as sites where both a Kazakh pilgrims who regularly visit the tomb
Tatar and a more pronounced Bashkir iden- of Rasulev in Troitsk. Here, one also finds
tity are formed. Some local Muslims appear discussions around correct pilgrimage prac-
to visit both places; however, the site of Nar- tice. At the grave site, we notice the porous
ystau seems to elicit scepticism from certain surface of the gravestone, from which, we are
Tatar Muslim officials. The Narystau site also told, Kazakh pilgrims break off small chunks,
reveals the transnational dimension of a local crush and mix them with water and drink
Bashkir conversion story, as the transnational the resulting substance. When we talk with
Naqshbandi Haqqani Sufi order (tariqa) has imams and mosque-goers in Troitsk, they
supported the building of the site.4 During express some concerns about pilgrimage ritu-
a gathering of murids, a spiritual leader in als that do not conform to Islam, even if they
the tariqa declares that Salafi Muslims can celebrate local customs that can be integrated
literally not take roots in Bashkortostan, as into the religion. While today the ribbons are
the Bashkir earth does not accept them. The attached to the branches of trees in the hope of
spiritual leader talks in Bashkir about a line- being granted a favour, in the past, according

144 JOURNAL OF ETHNOLOGY AND FOLKLORISTICS 13 (2)

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 to one imam, pieces of cloth were hung up for Notes
poor people, who could take them and turn 1 The plant from which the kurai flute is made
them into items of clothing. is an Apiaceae or umbelliferous plant.
2 There are variations of this epos. We are told
that Ural Batyr is considered a Muslim prophet
Conclusion by mountain Bashkirs; he is incorporated into the
The observation of sacred sites helps approach Islamic religion.
the question of how a local Islam, inscribed 3 The Russian-language version of the book is
into a particular territorial sacred geography, titled Zaynulla-ishan. Chast’ 1: Na puti k istine.
shows a capacity to create multiple connec- 4 Other brotherhoods are present in the Volga-
tions, sometimes with far-away places in the Ural area today, such as the Naqshbandi-Mujad-
didi order, which was historically the most influ-
Muslim world. The interconnection between
ential in the region, together with the Naqshbandi-
the ‘local’ and the ‘transnational’ in these Khalidi order.
places helps problematise the conventional
dichotomy, which one often encounters in
References
the post-Soviet space between a local, ‘eth- Abramson, David and Elyor Karimov. 2007. Sacred
nic’, Islam and a universalist, ‘foreign’, Islam. Sites, Profane Ideologies: Religious Pilgrimage
The universalist and transnational dimension and the Uzbek State. – Everyday Life in Central
of Islam is often associated with Salafi inter- Asia. Past and Present, edited by Jeff Sahadeo
pretations of the religion. The observation of and Russell Zanca. Bloomington, IN: Indiana
sacred sites in the Urals region reveals that University Press, 319–338.
Yakshibayeva, Lira. 2016. Zaynulla-ishan. Chast’ 1:
pilgrimage practices that can be associated
Na puti k istine. Ufa: Kitap. [Якшибаева, Лира.
with the notion of ‘traditional Islam’, in the 2016. Зайнулла-ишан. Часть 1: На пути к
sense of a ‘popular’ Islam, likewise have a истине. Уфа: Китап.]
transnational dimension. Pilgrimages reveal
a deep spiritual attachment to nature and to
the Bashkir sacred earth, as well as attract
flows of international visitors, thus connect-
ing these sites to a broader Muslim space.
Furthermore, the presence of the Naqshbandi
Haqqani brotherhood also shows how trans-
national connections can contribute to the
revival of Bashkir sacred geography and a
local identity. Those pilgrimage practices,
such as the tying of ribbons, which are seen
as not conforming to Islamic rules, also evoke
a broader pilgrimage space uniting Russia
with neighbouring Central Asia. Finally, the
boards near pilgrimage sites show efforts
from above to regulate pilgrimage behaviour
by making it conform to Islamic precepts,
producing a local Islam grounded not only in
the sacred soil but also in the universal foun-
dations of Islam.
Lili Di Puppo
(HSE University)
Jesko Schmoller
(European University St. Petersburg/Perm
State University)

Notes and Reviews 145

Unauthentifiziert | Heruntergeladen 08.12.19 10:36 UTC

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