Michael Kemper
By teaching Russian, Central Asian, Ottoman-Turkish and Islamic history at St. Lawrence, I am exploring the vast frontier region between Europe and Asia, which is also a huge contact zone between Christianity and Islam. I am especially interested in the Muslims of the Russian Empire/the Soviet Union and the Balkans, as well as in the relationship between Russia and Turkey, the Caucasus, and Central Asia - regions where I have conducted research in archives and manuscript libraries, and where I have many friends and colleagues with whom I cooperate in research projects. My foremost aim is to make students understand that this Central Eurasian contact zone was not only a permanent battlefield as many want to make us believe, but also an area of mutual enrichment. I obtained my MA (1994) in Islamic, Oriental (Arabic and Turkic) and Slavic (Russian) Studies at Bochum University, Germany. My PhD thesis (Bochum 1997) analyzes the history of Islamic culture (Islamic theology, law and Sufism) among the Tatars of Russia. From 1998 to 2005 I was leader of the Junior Research Group Islamic Networks of Education in Local and Transnational Perspectives (18th - 20th Centuries) at Bochum University. This group consisted of PhD students who studied networks and discourses of Islamic scholars in various settings of the Islamic World, such as Turkey, the Balkans, Syria, Yemen and India. In my post-doctoral thesis (Bochum 2002) I studied the development of the Islamic and customary legal cultures of the Muslims of the North Caucasus and their jihad against Russian imperialism in the 19th century. In addition, I am a co-editor of the series Muslim Culture in Russia and Central Asia, which comprises contributions of Russian, Caucasian and Central Asian as well as American and German scholars. Other interests of mine concern the relationship between customary law, Islamic law, and colonial law in the Muslim World, as well as the Islamic education in the former Soviet Union and the CIS. At present I am doing some research on the development of Oriental Studies in the USSR. Book publications: Muslim Culture in Russia and Central Asia from the 18th to the Early 20th Centuries [vol. 1], edited by Michael Kemper, Anke von Kuegelgen, Dmitriy Yermakov (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag 1996). Michael Kemper, Sufis und Gelehrte in Tatarien und Baschkirien, 1789-1889. Der islamische Diskurs unter russischer Herrschaft ["Sufis and Scholars in Tataria and Bashkiria, 1789-1889: The Islamic Discourse under Russian Rule" (in German)] (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag 1998). Muslim Culture in Russia and Central Asia from the 18th to the Early 20th Centuries, vol. 2: Inter-Regional and Inter-Ethnic Relations, edited by Anke von Kuegelgen, Michael Kemper, Allen J. Frank (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag 1998). Muslim Culture in Russia and Central Asia, vol. 3: Arabic, Persian and Turkic Manuscripts (15th-19th Centuries), edited by Anke von Kuegelgen, Ashirbek Muminov, Michael Kemper (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag 2000). Muslim Culture in Russia and Central Asia, vol. 4: Die Islamgelehrten Daghestans und ihre arabischen Werke. Nadīr ad-Durgilīs (st. 1935) Nuzhat al-adhān fī tarāğim culamā` Dāġistān, herausgegeben, uebersetzt und kommentiert von Michael Kemper und Amri R. Shixsaidov ["The Islamic Scholars of Daghestan and Their Arabic Writings: Nadhir al-Durgili's (d. 1935) Book Nuzhat al-adhhan fi tarajim 'ulama' Daghistan, Arabic edition, German translation and commentaries by Michael Kemper and Amri R. Shikhsaidov"] (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag 2004). Rechtspluralismus in der Islamischen Welt. Gewohnheitsrecht zwischen Staat und Gesellschaft, herausgegeben von Michael Kemper und Maurus Reinkowski ["Legal Pluralism in the Muslim World: Customary Law between State and Society", in German] (Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des islamischen Orients, vol. 16) (Berlin: De Gruyter 2005). Michael Kemper, Herrschaft, Recht und Islam in Daghestan. Von den Khanaten und Gemeindebuenden zum ğihād-Staat ["Political Rule, Law and Islam in Daghestan: From the Khanates and Community Federations to the Jihad State" (in German)] (Caucasian Studies vol. 7) (Wiesbaden: Reichert-Verlag 2005). Forthcoming: Islamic Education in the Soviet Union and the CIS, edited by Raoul Motika, Michael Kemper and Stefan Reichmuth (London: Curzon-Routledge 2006).
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