Heroes in the Turkic-Muslim Environment: Reasons and Criteria of Heroization

The purpose of research is to study the content of the process of heroization in the Muslim environment. The implementation of the purpose is carried out on a heterogeneous source basis. In the article, the author examines specific features of the process of glorification in the Muslim environment based on the study of previously unknown or less-known archival documents, legislative acts, memoirs of Muslims or their descendants (“voice of Islam”). The perspective of presenting historical material with an emphasis on the religious phenomenon of heroism is original. For the first time in Russian historiography, the author used the optics of studying glorification in relation to the Turkic-Muslim environment, examining the factors influencing the transformation of this process: the connection between ethnic and religious principles, the deeds of outstanding Muslim heroes, and the state-ethnic-confessional policy. Conceptually, the article provides an analysis of the interweaving of religious and ethnic principles in the historical memory and objective reality of the Muslim part of the Russian population, which allows for a more in-depth study of the basic foundations of Pan-Turkism and Pan-Islamism. Particular attention is focused on the criteria for defining a hero or a group of heroes. It is concluded that the criteria for defining heroes of the Muslim world are: the deep faith in Allah, the ability to defend this faith even to the point of losing one’s own life, the knowledge of the fundamentals of Islamic doctrine, the adherence to the norms of Sharia in daily life, and the nurturing children in the spirit of Islam. In addition to that, there is a set of certain factors that contribute to the consolidation of the names of heroes in historical memory or, on the contrary, reduce their significance. Traditional society preserves the memory of its heroes from generation to generation, adding new names in the process of developing national self-awareness. A person who loves his multi-confessional Motherland extrapolates his understanding of the criteria of heroism depending on interfaith interactions.