“Divide According to Sharī'a”: The Islamic Inheritance System in the Russian Empire

Until the end of the imperial period, the Volga-Ural Muslim communities in the Russian empire practiced several methods of intergenerational property transfer, such as wasiyyat (bequest), hiba (gift), sulh/takhāruj (peaceful settlement) and the “science of the shares” ('ilm al-farā͗id). The Volga-Ural Muslims considered them all as legitimate ways of property division according to Islamic law (sharī'a). However, a significant shift occurred in the early 1820s when the Russian imperial state confirmed the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly as the court of appeal for family and inheritance matters. Subsequently, Volga-Ural Muslims began to petition the OA, seeking a reconsideration of their inheritance divisions, specifically requesting a division “according to sharī'a”. By the end of the nineteenth century, most of these petitions resulted in divisions based on the science of the shares. I argue that the OA served as an extra-communal venue where Muslims could challenge intra-familial or communal methods of inheritance division, and request divisions based on the science of the shares.