Prof. Dr. Elmira Akhmetova – Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies

Prof. Dr. Elmira Akhmetova

Institute of Knowledge Integration (IKI)
History and Civilizational Studies

External Senior Fellow (Alexander von Humboldt Fellow)
December 2021 – May 2023

Last Update: 31.08.2023

Curriculum Vitae

Elmira Akhmetova, a Tatar scholar from Russia, is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Knowledge Integration, Georgia; and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of South Australia. She was previously employed as an Associate Professor in Department of History and Civilization at the International Islamic University Malaysia between 2015-2021; and as a Research Fellow at the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS), Malaysia, studying the history of Islam in Russia and current political developments, which are reflected in her two books, entitled “Islam in Russia: Historical Facts and Current Developments” (IAIS Monograph Series, 2013) and “Politics and Islam at the Age of Nationalism: The Conception of Pan-Islamism and the Issue of the Caliphate in Russia and Turkey” (IIUM Press, 2017). She obtained her PhD from IIUM in 2014, where she did a research on Pan-Islamism in Russia in the beginning of the 20th century. In 2005, she joined Centre for Islamic Studies (ISAM), Istanbul, Turkey, as a visiting scholar, working on the project entitled “Musa Jarullah: Career, Scholarship and Impact.” Akhmetova is the author and editor of several books in the areas of Islam in Russia, Islamic Political Thought, Diplomacy in Islam, Nationalism in the Muslim World, and has more than sixty articles and book chapters to her credit. She annually prepares reports on Islam in Russia for the prominent Brill Publications volume of Yearbook of Muslims in Europe since 2009. She is also a recipient of High Impact Responsible Innovation Award, Top 30 Contributors to IIUM Research Performance Awards in 2019 and 2020, and Journal Article Publication Award (Gold, 2020).

Selected Publications

Elmira Akhmetova (2021). “Said Nursi on Secularism, Religious Rights, Ethics, and Education.” Islam and Civilisational Renewal, 12 (1), pp. 53-72. ISSN 2041-871X. DOI: https://doi.org/10.52282/icr.v12i1.816
Elmira Akhmetova (2017). “Al-Farabi and Said Nursi on the civilising mission of the prophets.” Intellectual Discourse, 25, pp. 453-475. ISSN 0128-4878.
Elmira Akhmetova (2019). “Islam and politics in Malaysia since 1957: fluctuation between moderation and radicalisation of the state, society and religion.” Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 9 (2). pp. 1-19. ISSN 2075-0943.
Elmira Akhmetova (2019). “Dimensions of Muslim unity in Russia, 1905-1917.” The Muslim World, 109 (3: Special Issue: Conceptualising the Ummah), pp. 224-239. ISSN 0027-4909.
Elmira Akhmetova (2020). Russia 2019. In: Yearbook of Muslims in Europe 2020. Brill, Leiden, pp. 560-576.

FRIAS Project

Tatar Translations and Commentaries of the Qur’an in Imperial Russia

This research sets out to analyse the historical, socio-political and linguistic dimensions of Qur’anic translations and exegeses written by Tatar Muslim minorities living in Imperial Russia from the 19th century until 1917. The research investigates the following primary sources: (1) Imperial Russian archives of Tatar Qur’anic translations and the issues debated therein; specifically from the Russian cities of Kazan, Saint Petersburg, Ufa and Orenburg as well as Istanbul in Turkey; (2) Muslim periodicals published in the Russian and Ottoman Empires, including: Terjuman (Bakhchisaray, 1883-1918), Shura (Orenburg, 1908-1917), Waqt (Orenburg, 1906-1918), Sirat al-Mustaqim (Istanbul, 1908-1911) and Sebil Al-Reshad (Istanbul, 1912-1914/5); (3) Original treatises by Muslim scholars of Imperial Russia who translated the Qur’an or commented on issues relating to the translation Qur’an and its permissibility. It is a novel endeavour that sets out to locate and analyse original works and periodicals for the benefit of an English audience. This will no doubt enrich the existing studies on Qur’anic translation by providing new viewpoints on the vernacularisation of the Qur’an, carried out by specific Muslim communities under Russian imperial rule.