On the initial stage of adopting Islam as one of the official religions in the Russian Federation

Abstract

Introduction. The article is devoted to determining the historical time and place on the territory of the Russian Federation, where Islam established itself as an official religion. It is not legitimate to speak about Islam as a state religion already because Islam is not institutionalised by its very essence. Materials and Methods. Since the process of spreading the Muslim doctrine for history is nothing more than yesterday, well known in all details, the sources and special literature are quite enough to solve this question chronologically, even in the case when we are talking about the most remote, northern area where Islam spread. The content and essence of this article is not in the sequential presentation of facts and events, but in their methodological interpretation, free from ideological attitude and ethno-political bias. Analysis. The article considers the very fact of the establishment of the Muslim religion as a purposeful process initiated and carried out by the state power within a certain ethno-political and ethno-territorial community that has existed continuously on the territory of the Russian Federation up to the present time. The article consistently argues that the issue under consideration in the article might not have arisen if the Russian historical science in recent decades had not been largely influenced by ethnic myth-making, which ousted a conscientious, balanced approach to historical facts that have long been present in scientific circulation. Results. The Arab invasion of the Caucasus in the 8th century, unlike in the South Caucasus, did not have any significant consequences for Dagestan. The establishment of Islam in Dagestan occurred at the turn of the 11th12th centuries as a result of the missionary movement, known as the Ghazi movement, i.e. the movement of fighters for the faith, which spread widely in the Middle East, as well as in West and Central Asia.