Sbornik Materialov Po Musul'manstvu ("Collection Of Materials On Islam"). Sostavlen Po Rasporyazheniyu Turkestanskago General-Gubernatora, Generala-Ot-Infanterii Dukhovskago ("Compiled On The Instruction Of The Governor-General Of Turkistan, General Of The Infantry Dukhovskii"). YAROVOI-RAVSKII, V. I. (Ed.).

First edition, first printing, of this collection of articles showing how imperial Russia attempted to study the religious culture of its recently formed empire in Central Asia. The collection was commissioned by Sergei Mikhailovich Dukhovskii (1838-1901), Governor-General of Turkistan, who was appointed in the aftermath of the 1898 Andizhan rebellion, in which the Sufi leader (ishan) Muhammad Ali Madali led a popular revolt against the Russians. The most significant articles examine the sociology of popular Islamic religion in Central Asia, including one on the dervish movement in Turkistan, another on the five major Sufi groups, and another on the role of the ishan within Sufism. A separate piece on the concept of jihad (holy war) examines the conditions under which Islamic jurisprudence permits adherents to fight and when peace with non-Muslims is encouraged. The editor of the collection, Yarovoi-Ravskii, was a lieutenant-colonel in the Russian imperial army. Dukhovskii spent his life in the Russian military. He served in the Caucasus in the 1860s and was made a colonel in 1867 in recognition of his achievements on the battlefield. He had a distinguished record of service during the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-78, fighting in Georgia and eastern Turkey, briefly becoming governor of Erzurum when it was under Russian occupation. Following a short stint as Governor of the Amur region in the Russian Far East, he was appointed Governor-General of Turkistan in 1898. He died in 1901, shortly after contracting malaria. We have traced only one copy of this work in institutions (Illinois). Octavo (210 x 150). Contemporary brown half sheep, spine with gilt bands and lettered in gilt, marbled sides, recent endpapers. Text in Russian. Binding rubbed, wear at spine ends and tips, inner hinges recently strengthened with brown linen, contents toned but clean: a very good copy.