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Джихад в Черкесском султанате (1382–1517): феномен добровольчества в контексте мамлюко-османского противостояния
The classical concept of jihad, which formed in the 9th–10th centuries, evolved under the influence of circumstances and was developed by the great Muslim scholars of the Mamluk era (1250–1517). The present paper is based on the works Ibn al-Nahhas (d. 1411), and focuses on the understanding of the theory and the practice of jihad in the Circassian Sultanate (1382–1517). The idea of jihad became a key element of the ideology of Mamluk sultans and was aimed at strengthening the legitimacy of their power. In the Circassian period, jihad as a teaching retained its connection with the most important Islamic values embodied in the concepts of «justice» (al-ʿadl) and «truth» (al-ḥaqq). Anyone who knew how to use the jihad doctrine as a means received in his hands a powerful tool for manipulating the consciousness of believers in his own political interests, regardless of what moral principles he was guided by.
The authors explore the issue of understanding jihad as the responsibility of the community (farḍ al-kifāya) and/or personal responsibility (farḍ al-ʿayn) and the role of jihad ideology Ottoman-Mamluk confrontation in the 15th–16th centuries.
A fertile ground for this paper was given by studies of M. Bonner and D. Cook, who supplemented a balanced approach to the interpretation of jihad in historical perspective with a critical consideration of its religious and political meanings. The authors emphasize the importance of difference between the understanding of jihad as a collective and individual obligation using the concept of minimalism and maximalism developed by Y. Waghid.
The conclusions of the study are valid not only for the Middle Ages, but are directly related to modernity. The authors emphasize this point, drawing parallels between the theory and the practice of jihad in the Mamluk period with the events in modern Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.