The Qur’an for Soviet citizens The rhetoric of progress in the theological writings of ‘Abd Al-Bari Isaev

This article deals with the rhetoric of progress in the works of ‘Abd al-Bari Isaev, a Muslim authority of the late Socialist era. These texts demonstrate a peculiar combination of a thorough study of the Qur’an and of the Prophetic traditions on the one hand, and a fascination with the success of Soviet cosmonautics and science on the other. Traditional Islamic subjects of Qur’an commentaries merged with a popular genre of Friday sermon and became a prominent field for the diffusion of Muslim and Soviet ideologies. Still, even Sovietised (and partly Russified) examples of Islamic theology of the Stagnation period were never published and broadly disseminated. Such censorship clearly demonstrated the borders of cultural and ideological pluralism in the society of late Socialism.