Pan-Islamism Among South Caucasus Muslims (1870-1920AD)

In the late 19th century the idea of Ittihad-Islam (pan-Islamism) proposed among a number of Ottoman scholars and in the era of Sultan AbdulHamid II, was introduced as state policy. This idea soon passed the Ottoman borders and found adherents from Iranians and other Muslims. The South Caucasus Muslims that were under Tsarist Russian rule were not excluded from this influence and especially upon intellectuals, who were in contact with Iran and Ottoman Empire, pan-Islam was effective, and some of the thinkers of Caucasus became the harbinger of this idea. The cause of Caucasusians tendency towards pan-Islam and the acceptance of this idea among them is an issue that is discussed and different opinions expressed about it. Present paper attempts to study the works and texts that have remained from the South Caucasus Muslim scholars of that period, and also by studying the social and political situation of Russian Muslims in that juncture, identify the causes of their tendency towards pan-Islam and determine their apperception about pan-Islam and their particular perception of pan-Islam in that period.