Мусульманская субъективность? Personae, self и «запросы жизни» в свидетельствах о себе мусульманина-самозванца (Магомет-Бек Хаджетлаше, 1870 (?) — 1929)

Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом. 2023. Т. 41. № 2. С. 129–161.

Bessmertnaya O.

In the context of growing studies on the history of “Muslim
subjectivities” taken “from below”, i.e. the individual, the author
suggests transcending the presumptions of the absolute performativity
of subjectivity and going beyond the individual’s “personae”, so as to
reveal “techniques of the self” behind them. To do that, the author
explores the correlation between self and the deliberately invented
“personae” of the impostor and double-dealer M.-B. Hadjetlaché, a
baptized Jew who claimed being Muslim, and was, inter alia, a
journalist working both for the opposition-minded Muslims and the Interior Ministry and anti-Islamic circles. This extreme case of the
invention of Muslim identity is taken as a prism which can “reveal
patterns available for more everyday experience” (N-Z. Davis).
The ways by which the protagonist constructs — in search of his
subjectivity — his multiple “personae” are analyzed to disclose the
distance between them and his self, and its structure. Given the
strength of Hadjetlaché’s Muslim identity coexisting with the memory
of his rejected Jewry in his self-perception, and the fact that those
around him (including a number of Muslims) considered him Muslim,
the author puts the question of “Muslimness” of his subjectivity in the
context of historiographic discussions on defining the boundaries of
the Islamic identity.

Keywords: индивид, Self, персона, persona, Магомет-бек Хаджетлаше, the individual, Muslim subjectivity, Magomet-Bek Hadjetlaché, мусульманская субъективность

Publication based on the results of: Traditional Foundations of Modern Oriental Societies: Institutions, Narratives, Practices (2023)