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Abdullo Khakim Rahnamo,
Leading expert of the Center of Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan PRIVATE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN TAJIKISTAN: PRESENT SITUATION, PROBLEMS AND CONCLUSIONS
Religious Education and Formation of Religious Thinking
The modernization of religious thinking in present-day Tajikistan as the necessary step on the way of optimizing the religious factor largely depends on the improvement of the system of religious education. An analysis of the current situation shows that the institutions of religious education stand at the sources of most renovation processes in Islam.
The institutions of religious education have been the main centers of philosophical, moral and legal discussions taking place in the Islamic religious elite. According to tradition, Islam has always been regarded the unified "great school", and therefore all initiatives of madrasah, including innovations, were considered legitimate.
The institutions of religious education have always exerted the decisive influence on the formation of religious thinking, religious sects and distribution of religious movements, including reformist ones, and schools in Islam. For example, the father of modern Islamic reformation, Mohammed Abda outlined the principles of Islamic reformation at the Al-Azkhar Islamic University in Cairo, where he worked as a professor,, and the leader of the Muslim liberation movement of the Muslims of India and Pakistan, Muhammad Iqbol announced his concept of "the revival of religious thinking in Islam" at religious seminaries. Ayatolla Homeini began his movement at Faiziya madrasah in the city of Kum and outlined the well-known theory of
"Islamic rule" in his lectures at the religious seminary in the city of Najaf, Finally, the most vivid example of the determining role of the institutions of religious education in the formation of religious thinking was the emergence of the Afghan grouping "Taliban" in Pakistani madrasahs. The very word "Taliban" translated from Arabic means "students of religious seminary."
Religious education acts as an institution of accumulation, reproduction and distribution of the intellectual potential of religion, as a mechanism of its improvement, rationalization and systematization. The levels and stages in the system of religious education determine the place, importance and tasks of each priest, and also points to his place in the system, thereby preserving the integrity of religion.
This shows the determining role of religious education in the formation of religious thinking and legalization of religious transformations. In this connection, improving the quality and raising the level of religious thinking in Tajikistan is only possible by way of modernization and perfection of religious education.
Going Underground, or Formation
Process of a Network of Private
Religious Education in Tajikistan
In the late 19th-early 20th century Central Asia as an inalienable part of the Islamic world faced the need for the transformation and adaptation in the conditions of a new life.
The first religious reformist ideas began to develop in the region, which led to the formation of the movements of enlightenment and jadidism. Throughout this evolutionary process the main problem was that of reforming religious thinking, and the main step on the way of its solution was modernization of religious education. Despite the fact that the Bokhara Emirate lagged behind the leading countries of the Islamic
world in the modernization level of educational systems (for comparison's sake, in Iran the first religious school working by a "new method" was opened in 1852, and the Ministry of education was set up in 1855), during the first two decades of the 20th century a great experience of intellectual quest in this field was accumulated there. Heated debates were going on in Bokhara about the need for universal reforms, which should have touched, first of all, the sphere of education.
But after the establishment of Soviet power, Central Asia has become practically isolated from the Islamic world, and a radical change of the character and direction of all socio-political processes has taken place in the region. As a result, such crucial historical process as the transformation and modernization of religious thinking and along with it the reformation process of religious education remained unfinished, having been replaced with the process of the forcible secularization of society and harsh persecution of religion.
Two factors exerted the decisive influence on the fate of religious education during the Soviet period. The first was the establishment of the principle of separation of religion from the state, whose component part was separation of school from the church. In the conditions of the total separation of the state from religion and strict state monopolization of the educational system, the existence and continuation of religious education as a legal system became impossible. The second factor, which had the decisive impact on the destruction process of the system of religious education, was a special character of educational policy of the first decades of Soviet power, which was denoted as transfer from education to enlightenment. Regarding education as an important link of ideology, Soviet power began to introduce complete changes of traditions, methods and the philosophy of education.
The first principle (separation of school from the church) contributed to the destruction of the infrastructure of religious education and deprived it of the legal status, whereas transfer from elitist education to universal enlightenment led to the destruction of age-old traditions and scholarly and intellectual methods of the Bokhara pedagogical school.
In the course of the struggle with the "survivals of the past" and especially during the "atheistic five-year plan period" (1932 - 1937) the onslaught of militant atheism was accompanied with the destruction of religious literature and physical reprisals against religious intellectuals all over the region, which entailed the maximal destruction of traditions and the potential of religious education in the region. Although during a meeting of religious leaders with Stalin in 1943 certain concessions to religion were announced, which was prompted by political calculations of the time of war, there were no tangible changes in the sphere of religious education.
In the postwar period an important event in the history of religious education in the region was the opening of the Bokhara Miri Arab madrasah in 1947, which later became the main center of training Muslim priests for the entire Soviet Union. The Tashkent Islamic Institute, which began to function in 1971, trained 378 priests during the first 25 years of its existence (1971 - 1995), that is, only 15 men a year.
Despite the continuing anti-religious policy, the years of Khrushchev's "thaw" could be regarded a period of certain respite for religious education in Central Asia. Along with a relative softening of the political climate in the country, reactivation of religious life was also due to return of representatives of the Islamic clergy who remained alive from Stalin's labor camps. Among them was the well-known scholar and key figure of the revival process of religious education in
Central Asia Kori Muhamadjon Rustamov, also known as Mavlavi Hindustoni.
Harsh measures for the elimination of the seats of religious education and periodic reprisals against religious figures and scholars forced Islamic education to go deep underground. Education was carried on at hundreds of small "family schools" where religious knowledge was passed secretly from generation to generation. The authorities were unable "to catch and crush" them. Thus, the network of clandestine educational circles contributed to the preservation of pedagogical traditions, curricula and prerevolutionary system of religious education.
As Doctor Akbar Tursun said, religious knowledge was usually passed along secret lines from grandfathers to fathers, children and grandchildren and relatives through Sufi sheikhs in an oral form.
Lessons at such underground schools took place at night, sometimes at 3 or 4 a.m. before the Morning Prayer. Despite that, teacher often changed the place of studies.
The opening of official institutions of religious education in postSoviet years could not decrease the importance of private religious schools at home. Believers' attraction to these schools was preserved not only because of a very small number of official religious institutions, but also due to the very limited character of their curricula. Most believers regard the official network of religious madrasahs controlled by the government as schools preparing the conformist clergy. Thus, despite the existence and functioning of official madrasahs, there is a whole network of informal small private family schools, and the number of their pupils is tens of times greater than that of official religious students. Thereby the training of the Islamic clergy is done simultaneously at two parallel networks of religious education.
Present-day Position of the Network of Private Religious Education
The present-day network of private religious education in Tajikistan embraces hundreds of private family schools, circles and courses. The peak of its expansion was reached in the latter half of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s. It was at a time when during the free atmosphere of perestroika the number of mosques and madrasahs was growing quite rapidly. Private schools, groups or circles of religious education were opening in almost each populated center or living quarter of a city.
In the period from 1980 up to 1992 in the Tajik capital Dushanbe alone such medium-sized and big home schools of religious education functioned as the school of Mavlavi Hindustani, Domullo Eshonjon, Mullo Abdulgaffor, Makhsumi Sadriddin, Mahsumi Sairahmon, Mahsumi Ubaidullo, Domullo Abdulhai, Eshoni Nuriddin, Eshoni Mahmudjon, and others.
The number of pupils in such schools depended on the possibilities and prestige of their instructors and could comprise from 10-20 up to 150-200 simultaneously. For example, the well-known religious teacher Domullo Naimjon had more than 100 pupils in 2011, and that of the popular teacher Eshon Mahmudjon was over 120 pupils. During the funeral prayer of the well-known private religious instructor Mahsumi Sadriddin in 2003 it was announced that throughout his life about 5,000 pupils had studied at his school, which by right could be compared to the activity of an entire institute.
In the northern part of the Republic of Tajikistan private schools are better organized and are called "hujra" (from "room" in Arabic). Since the 1980s up to our day the biggest hujras were those of Domullo Naimjon in Isfar, Eshoni Mirzoyusuf in Zafarabad, Domullo Abdurashid in Ganchi, etc. In the city of Hudjand there was a network
of religious hujras of the "Ferghana type," whereas private religious schools in the mountain districts of Sogdian region, such as Maschoh, were closer to the schools in the south of the Republic of Tajikistan.
Private religious schools in the north of Tajikistan can be divided into three categories: First, "Hujra" - private school of an ordinary type. Second, "Korihona" - friendly male clubs of Muslim activists of an enlightenment character. Third, "Huchrai tahfizi Kuron" - home schools preparing pupils only for reading the Koran.
As an example of a typical private religious school let us dwell on the home school of Domullo Muhammadsharif in the north of Tajikistan, which has been functioning since 1998. The school has been placed at the teacher's own home of an old Finnish design divided into two parts. The teacher and his family live in the first part, the hujra, or private school, is in the second part. It have five rooms (one is used as a class for study, another is used for prayers, and the remaining three are for the pupils of different age living there. Their number is from 17 to 20.
The school is functioning on charity donations, as well as on the material help coming from the pupils' parents (they supply the school mainly with food products).
The school premises were repaired in 1996 and now look quite decently. The pupils sleep on the floor on national blankets, and the school premises are cleaned by the pupils themselves. Each Friday is called "Cleaning Day." During the week cleanliness is kept by two pupils - these "cleaners on duty" are elected by toss up every week. The cook is appointed in a similar manner. The rules of behavior at the school are not strict, but they should be observed on schedule. Pupils can go home to their families three times a month, but in an extraordinary situation they may leave more frequently. Lessons begin after the mid-day prayer and last to the first evening prayer.
If the order is crudely violated by any pupil or his behavior is not up to the mark, the teacher summons his parents. The latter agree that the teacher has the right to punish their kids strictly.
Corporal punishment and heavy-handed discipline have been included in the tradition of elementary religious schools from early times, and its effectiveness is expressed in the Tajik proverb - "Beating by a stick can teach a bear to become a mullah."
The school of Domullo Muhammadsharif can be regarded general elementary school. Each pupil studies three or four subjects simultaneously, but the level of teaching is not identical for all. There is a different method at another school according to which a pupil studies only one book at a time and on finishing it takes up another.
Relations between Parallel Networks
of Religious Education
There is a definite competition between the official and private networks of religious education in Tajikistan. The limited and superficial character of curricula, inadequate religious knowledge of graduates, and conformism of official madrasahs remain the main arguments in the negative attitude toward the official network of this education on the part of leading authorities in private religious education. In the view of the well-known private tutor Eshoni Mahmudjon, this competition is less pronounced today, but in Soviet times it was quite strong.
Indeed, the quality and level of education at the "Soviet madrasah" were inferior to that in the private madrasah. For example, in order to become a full-fledged mullah, such well-known and respected priests in the republic as Domullo Habibullo and Domullo Mansu Jalilzoda, just as many others, after graduation from the official religious madrasah in Bokhara had to study under Eshoni Nuriddin for
ten more years (the latter received religious education in the private network).
Today the religious medium in Tajikistan is dominated by graduates from private religious educational institutions. Among the fifty most authoritative and popular religious figures in the republic during the past ten years there were only four or five who had graduated from the official religious institutions, and they had also studied at foreign religious universities, among them Hojji Akbar Turajonzoda, Hojji Husein Musozoda, Hojji Muslihiddin Mukaramzoda, Ibodullo Kolonzoda, Haidar Sharifzoda, and others. They all asserted that the foundation of their religious knowledge had been laid in the family and by private teachers.
Relative Decline of Private Religious
Education in Recent Years
Despite the fact that the private network of religious education in the Republic of Tajikistan retains its leading role, one can speak now of its relative decline as compared with the 1990s. This is due to several factors.
First, the authorities have stepped up their activity aimed at establishing maximum control over religious education. In recent years the government body for religious affairs tried to transfer the entire process of religious education on to the official platform and reduce to the minimum the possibility of receiving informal religious education in the private network. The number of students of most private religious institutions has become smaller, their activity is restricted, and many of them are closed.
Secondly, the role of systematic regular religious education is gradually raised at all levels. On the one hand, it is because of its greater legal security, and on the other, it is thanks to the latest positive
changes in the curricula of a number of Islamic madrasahs in, say, the cities of Hujand, Vakhdat, and others. An increase in the number of graduates from foreign religious educational institutions of traditional trend also contributes to this positive tendency. It should be said that the local clergy recognizes these graduates who have raised the level of teaching much higher than it traditionally was.
Thirdly, a decline in the living standards of private pupils and teachers has also played a significant role in this respect. Certain private teachers, such as Eshoni Mahmudjon (Vakhdat), regard this factor as the main one. According to tradition, a definite part of the upkeep of pupils at private religious schools was backed by the tutor, but today most of them cannot afford this luxury. Such well-known teachers as Mullo Eshondjon (Dushanbe) and Domullo Abdulhai (Rudaki) said they were quite well-to-do in the 1980s and in the 1990s and kept pupils mainly at their own expense, but today they live in very difficult material conditions.
From the early 2000th private religious education in the north of the Republic of Tajikistan was in decline. The main reason for this was a broad campaign of struggle against the Khizb-ut-Tahrir party in Sogdian region. Although traditional religious schools had no relation to the activity of this party, the struggle against it did influence their work.
Fearing that these schools could become seats of distribution or objects of the party's influence, as well as the influence of other non-traditional Islamic trends, the local authorities restricted their activity.
Besides, many parents took their children out of these schools and did not allow them to visit religious circles, afraid of accusations of belonging to this party.
Fearing accusations of support Khizb-ut-Tahrir or other radical Islamist trends many sponsors ceased their financial or other material
support to private schools, including the granting of premises for the functioning of religious educational circle.
As a result, many circles and private schools were transferred from private quarters to mosques, where studies were of a semi-legal status, or took place during the intervals between prayers. A private teacher had a lesson before the prayer or immediately after it. But in the summer of 2005 the activity of educational religious circles at mosques was officially banned. In the view of certain analysts, such decisions contribute to driving private religious education into deep underground, where it can become dangerously radicalized.
Programs and Stages of Teaching in the System
of Private Religious Education
Numerous private schools differ not only in their materialtechnical conditions, but also in the level and content of education. The most widespread type of private religious teaching which can be met in almost every village or urban neighborhood is "elementary" schools. Pupils are taught the ABC of religion, that is, the alphabet, the foundations of religion, etc. on the basis of such books as "Koidai Bagdodi" ("Baghdad Rules") and "Zarurieti dini" ("Rules of Faith').
The main link of private religious education is "middle schools" -circles and schools with more advanced content of the study course in which the level of teaching certain disciplines reaches that of madrasahs and universities. At these schools, which are formed around well-known religious teachers, a great number of the clergymen of the Republic of Tajikistan receive their education.
Along with this, there are few private schools which could be called "religious academies." Subjects of the highest level of difficulty are studied there. A case in point is the home school of Mavlavi Hindustani in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. He teaches the
highest subjects which cannot be studied under other teachers. Before accepting students he always checks the level of their knowledge, and if it is not high enough he recommends them to study under another teacher, and only after that come to his school.
Hindustani studied with his students mainly commentaries to the Koran, interpretation of sayings of the Prophet, Islamic law, and creative work of Mirzo Abdulkodir Bedil, poet and philosopher of the late 19th - early 20th century, whose views made a profound impact on the literature and thinking of Central Asia.
Teachers usually do not use any elaborated curriculum, although the teaching process at private home schools has its rules and logic. Each teacher is absolutely free in choosing methods, textbooks, study aids or deadlines in studying one or another book, subject, etc. Sometimes, the latter is chosen by the pupil himself. One wishes to study the Koran, another - Arab grammar, still another - fikh. Despite big differences between approaches to teaching, most teachers try to draw their methods and content maximally closer to the standards and curricula at the Bokhara religious madrasahs, which are considered the best model in this sphere.
At the most popular private school of Eshoni Mahmudjon the curriculum includes a great many subjects and books, some of which are exceptionally difficult medieval texts in Old Arabic.
Such broad selection of subjects and books contains very vast material, whose understanding and perception can be compared with a full university or academic course. A man who succeeded in mastering so much knowledge could well be regarded as a highly intellectual and educated person because this program includes a wide range of not only theological, but also historical, philological, philosophical, pedagogical and aesthetic knowledge. Besides, the process of private education also includes a whole range of practical and ceremonial knowledge.
A certain part of students interrupts regular studies after mastering the foundations of religion and learning prayers and ceremonial texts and practices. The fact that a student knows the ABC of faith and studied Islamic sciences with a teacher for some time gives him the right to carry on religious activity among the local population. Thus, the ranks of the clergy are replenished by understudied and semi-literate mullahs, which is now one of the major problems facing the Tajik Muslim clergy.
Certain Advantages and Problems of Private Religious Education
An analysis of the specific features of private religious education shows that it has its pros and cons as compared to the official network of such education. Some of the positive and negative features of private religious education are as follows:
First, students receive deep and full enough knowledge of certain subjects in private religious schools and circles, which cannot be achieved at official madrasahs. The full text of the basic books on Arab grammar and Islamic law - fikh is learned by heart.
Secondly, special attention is paid to the study and understanding of practical aspects of religious activity. In contrast to madrasah students, those at the private religious educational network master the ceremonial part of religion quicker and better, including such important subjects as rhetoric and elocution, which are very important for the Muslim clergy. Elocution is especially important for religious figures in Tajikistan because it wins them greater respect of the local population.
Thirdly, private religious education has no age or time limits: students of any age can study and train at any time of day or night with mullah. Besides, they can interrupt and resume their studies at any stage; some people continue studies for 25 years, even longer.
Fourthly, private religious education, on the other hand, gives unsystematic knowledge which cannot be assessed by qualification parameters. This is one of the most serious problems facing the Tajik Muslim clergy, for nobody can judge properly the level and competence of the functioning clergymen. According to existing practice, the minimum of religious information obtained from studies with any tutor gives grounds for taking a religious post.
It should be borne in mind that studies in the private network of religious education contributes to the formation of a narrow outlook of students because individual studies with only one teacher in an isolated medium and a limited range of specific knowledge do not lead to the formation of a broad scholarly and modern socio-political area of thought. Sometimes knowledge of students acquires quantitative scope, but as to quality it leaves much to be desired.
Private religious education contributed to the preservation of the atmosphere of strong individualism and contradictions among clergymen. This reality was expressed in a clear-cut manner by the well-known Khojent imam I. Kalonzoda in the following way: "In the private network the student receives from his tutor, along with religious knowledge, his likes and dislikes concerning others. For instance, if this tutor has difficult relations with his mullah or is at loggerheads with his colleague, their students are also at loggerheads with one another. Thus, the line of hostility is drawn by the classical scheme of "teacher against teacher - students against students."
Private religions educational schools are the keepers of the old and traditional methods of teaching today. Especially now, when attempts of reformation are being made in the official network of religious education, the private network will insist on the need to preserve these methods and will not recognize the heretical innovations in the system of religions education.
In contrast to official madrasahs, in most private religious educational schools practical writing skills are not taught. As a result, most graduates from the private network of religious education do not have written communication skills.
Some Conclusions and Suggestions
The study and analysis of the present situation in religious education in the Republic of Tajikistan, especially the state and problems of the private network of religious education, enable us to make certain conclusions and recommendations.
Religious education plays the decisive role in the formation of the type and level of religious thinking of the Islamic clergy and society as a whole. In this connection we may state that modernization of religious thinking as en effective measure to optimize the Islamic factor is possible only through modernization of Islamic education.
It is only enlightened, progressive and intellectual Islam that can play the constructive and stabilizing role in the formation process of the Tajik national state. Conservative and reactionary religious thinking can serve as a factor of destabilization, a seat of radicalism, and a weak link of national security.
The private network of religious education in Tajikistan today, too, remains the most effective network of the distribution of religious knowledge and a channel for the formation of real and influential religious leaders. The private network of religious education remains a medium preserving traditions and methods of religious education, which serves as the foundation of its effectiveness, and on the other hand, lends it a conservative character. In this lies the strength and weakness of this network.
In modern Tajik society the position of the official network of religious education is rather weak. The low scholarly level of its
institutions contributes to the preservation of the dominant and determining role of private religious education and the formation of a religious atmosphere, values, approaches and standards.
In order to strengthen the role of official religious education and put an end to its deep and prolonged crisis it is necessary to create a legal basis and foster political will for rendering it state financial and methodological assistance, which is not possible today due to numerous legal, political and psychological barriers.
To recognize the official network of religious education by private teachers of religion it is necessary to change radically the present-day curricula of Islamic madrasahs and institutes in accordance with the established traditions of the Bokhara elitist school of religious education and international achievements in this sphere. It is also necessary to invite to teaching at official madrasahs such well-known and authoritative tutors as Eshoni Nuriddin, Domullo Khakmatullo, Domullo Naimjon, Eshoni Mahmudjon, and others.
A more resolute struggle with private religious education, especially the use of forcible methods in this campaign, will result in ousting the private network and driving it into deep underground, which will be fraught with the danger of its radicalization and enmity toward state policy.
It is necessary to remove the existing barriers in the way to legalization of private religious education and introduce licensed teaching of religion. This will make it possible to have a real idea about the scope and content of private religious education and at the same time facilitate the implementation of government control over it.
"Islam v SNG", Moscow - Nizhni Novgorod, 2011, No 4(5), pp. 100-107.
