00:00Did Lev Tolstoy convert to Islam?
00:03In our last episode about Tolstoy, the triple extremist, this question kept appearing in
00:07the comments.
00:08In Russia, the question of whether the great writer became a Muslim is actually a hot topic
00:13of discussion.
00:14There are two extremes.
00:16Many Islamic websites quote a phrase from Tolstoy's private letter,
00:20Please consider me a Mohammedan, and count him among the faithful, while on literary
00:25and museum websites, it seems as if Tolstoy didn't even notice Islam.
00:30School and university textbooks also don't mention this.
00:34At the same time, they never forget to mention that the writer's main focus was his attempts
00:39to understand the personality and teachings of Jesus Christ.
00:42Everyone knows that in 1901 he was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church.
00:47It's no secret that the all-Russian Tolstoyan movement, which began during his life and
00:52was nearly destroyed under Soviet atheism, is now being revived and seen by religious scholars
00:57as a form of Protestantism.
00:59So can Lev Tolstoy be considered a Muslim or not?
01:03What was the final spiritual choice of the genius of Russian and world literature?
01:08Let's determine if Tolstoy had any interactions with Muslims and what he knew about Islam.
01:15He may have had more personal contacts and knowledge than any other classic of Russian literature.
01:21At 13, his family moved to Kazan, an ancient city on the Volga that kept its own images.
01:29Tolstoy in Kazan, the grandfather of the future writer Ilya Andreevich, was the governor from
01:351815 to 1820, and his grave is still preserved there to this day.
01:40In 1844, the young Tolstoy entered Kazan University in the Department of Oriental Languages of the Faculty
01:47Faculty of Philosophy.
01:48He then transferred to the Faculty of Law, studying there for under two years.
01:53Although brief, Tolstoy studied Arabic and Turkic languages here with Mirza Kazimbek, a leading Russian Oriental
02:01Studies scholar.
02:03Studied does not necessarily mean that he mastered them, of course, so we can only speak of his
02:08first acquaintance with Arabic and Turkic.
02:11In 1851, Nikolai, the writer's older brother, convinced him to join him in the North Caucasus,
02:17where Tolstoy spent nearly three years in a Cossack village by the Taric River.
02:22He traveled to Kislyar, Tiflis, Vladikavkaz, and joined military actions, initially as a volunteer,
02:28participating in what official chronicles called the Pacification of the Caucasus.
02:33This conflict revolved around the Russian Empire's colonial expansion into eastern lands inhabited
02:38by peoples with various beliefs.
02:40Some followed ancient pagan cults, others Orthodox Christianity, but most practiced Islam.
02:47Today, the customs of groups like the Chechens, English, and Ossetians are still shaped by
02:53adat, traditional mountain pagan practices.
02:55Lev Tolstoy directly interacted with the people of this multinational and complex world.
03:01The majestic nature of the Caucasus, knowledge of the daily life and customs of the warring
03:07sides, and the understanding of characters shaped by the spirit of the mountains and Islam.
03:12These appeared in Tolstoy's autobiographical novella, The Cossacks, the stories, the raid,
03:18the cutting of the forest, and later in Haji Murat.
03:21When he returned to Russia, the writer wrote in his diary that he had grown fond of this wild
03:26land, where war and freedom are so strangely and poetically intertwined.
03:32He remembered his Caucasian Kunak friends for the rest of his life.
03:36Once, a young and reckless count lost at cards and was facing a debtor's prison, but he was
03:41saved by a Chechen named Sodomy Serbiev, who completely won back his losses.
03:46Tolstoy wrote the famous Sevastopol stories during the Crimean War, while commanding an artillery
03:53battery in besieged Sevastopol.
03:56His bravery earned him the Order of St. Anna and several medals.
04:01In Crimea, he witnessed both the war's heroism and tragedy, as well as the customs of the
04:06indigenous Crimean Tatars.
04:08Moreover, some of the most important ideas that emerged during those years allow us to
04:13see in the young officer, the later Tolstoy, the preacher.
04:16In Crimea, he began to dream of founding a new religion, a purified and practical religion
04:22of Christ.
04:23Later, he corresponded with Muhammad Abdo, a well-known reformer of Islam who became the
04:29chief mufti of Egypt in 1899.
04:32He was both a student and associate of pan-Islamism theorist Jamal al-Din al-Afghani.
04:38Communication with the Arab scholar, a native speaker and tradition bearer, became crucial for Tolstoy,
04:44as he translated hadiths into Russian.
04:47Tolstoy considered knowledge of the hadiths to be just as important for Russian readers
04:51as knowledge of the wisdom of other peoples.
04:53Lev Tolstoy and the Muslim Turks developed unexpectedly close communication.
04:58It can be generally said that moral prose, and later journalism, exposed the vices of Russian
05:04society.
05:05Lev Nikolaevich believed the Orthodox Church's teachings strayed too far from Jesus Christ's,
05:10which in turn sparked sympathy among the Muslim Turkic peoples of the Russian Empire.
05:16The first to actively translate Tolstoy into their language were the Azerbaijanis in 1896.
05:22He corresponded and personally communicated with many Tatars, both supporters of traditional
05:27Islam and reformers in the Tatar press of 1905-1907.
05:33During the period of the Tatars' vibrant national revival, Lev Tolstoy received more attention
05:39than all other Russian writers combined.
05:42He was very concerned with religious questions, especially Islam, then called Mohammedanism.
05:48The Tatars knew about this and wrote to him about their faith, asked questions, sought advice,
05:54and debated with him, and he replied to them.
05:57The Tatars not only wrote to Tolstoy, but also traveled to see him at Yasnaya Polyana.
06:02The topic of Tolstoy and the Tatars is extremely broad.
06:06At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, there was probably not a
06:10single Tatar writer or public figure who, in one way or another, did not turn to the
06:15works and teachings of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
06:18Sheikh Qasim Subayev wrote to Tolstoy from Kazan, to the great teacher of morality, on behalf
06:24of all Muslims of Russia, I express my gratitude for teaching us and all peoples, regardless of
06:30religion or nationality.
06:32And moreover, you are a great teacher of life.
06:35You worked describing the life of the Bashkirs in a small but valuable work, the story Ilyas,
06:41which I translated and published.
06:43Here, another of the Muslim peoples of Russia is mentioned, the Bashkirs, whom Tolstoy visited
06:50in 1862 in the village of Korolik for kumis treatment.
06:55Tolstoy never visited Islamic countries, but learned about Islam from Caucasians, Tatars and Bashkirs.
07:02His Islamic journeys covered the North Caucasus, Astrakhan, Orenburg, Bashkiria, Tatar settlements
07:09in the Volga and Penza regions and Crimea.
07:12Tolstoy's correspondence with the Tatar Asfandiar Voinov became especially well known in Russia.
07:19Outraged by the decision of the Synod, the main body of the Orthodox Church, on February
07:2422, 1901, to excommunicate Lev Nikolaevich, Voinov wrote to him from Istanbul, I admit,
07:32when I read about how they treated you, I shuddered for you.
07:35Yes, may the Almighty save and protect you.
07:38Tolstoy responded quite kindly to these letters from Istanbul.
07:41Your agreement with the main points of my faith, as expressed in my response to the Synod,
07:47brought me great joy.
07:49I greatly value spiritual communion with Muslims, he wrote to Voinov.
07:53However, Asfandiar Voinov and Tolstoy's correspondence drew Tsarist authorities' attention
07:59and appeared very dangerous to them.
08:01The growing authority of the writer among Russian Muslims required immediate action, so
08:06the task of discrediting the writer was entrusted to the Kazan missionary Yakov Koblov, who published
08:13a major exposé article, Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and Muslims in Orthodox Interlocutor
08:20Journal.
08:20Thus, the polemic that Tolstoy conducted with the state church became, in many ways, a shared
08:25one for him and the Muslims of Russia, extremely important spiritually and very dangerous socially.
08:31Tolstoy's courageous example inspired many Muslims to revive their ancestors' faith and
08:38make it equal amid the country's democratization.
08:41Well, as for the acceptance of Islam, here is a quote from a letter written to a woman who asked
08:47Tolstoy
08:47for advice on what to do.
08:49Her sons were planning to convert to Islam.
08:52Strange as it may be for me to say this, since I value Christian ideals and Christian teachings
08:57above all else in their true sense.
08:59For me, there can be no doubt that, in its outward forms, Islam stands incomparably higher
09:04than Orthodox Christianity.
09:06Christianity.
09:06Here, essentially, Tolstoy places true Christianity above all else, but considers the external forms
09:13of Islam to be superior to those of Orthodox Christianity.
09:17And here is another excerpt from the same letter.
09:20If a person is given only two choices, to adhere to Orthodox Christianity or to Islam, then
09:26for any reasonable person, there can be no doubt in the choice, and everyone would prefer
09:31Islam.
09:31This phrase is often considered evidence of the writer's conversion to Islam, but it only
09:36says that if one must decide which of the two official churches is preferable, the choice
09:42would be in favor of Islam.
09:43As for himself, Tolstoy excluded himself from any official churches altogether, calling for
09:49a return to the times of the first apostles and a rethinking of the very essence of Christian
09:54teaching.
09:55Here is another quote.
09:56I would be very glad if you shared the same faith as me.
09:59You will understand a little about my life.
10:02All the successes in life, wealth, honors, fame, I have none of that, my friends.
10:08Even my family turns away from me.
10:10Some liberals and esthets think I'm insane or feeble-minded like Gogol.
10:15Others, revolutionaries and radicals, consider me a mystical blabbermouth.
10:20Government people see me as a dangerous revolutionary, and the orthodox think I'm the devil.
10:26I admit, it's hard for me, so please, just see me as a good Muslim, and then everything
10:33will be fine.
10:34Yasnaya Polyana, April 1884.
10:38But we must not forget that while searching for the truth about Jesus and recognizing himself
10:43as a good Muslim, he was no less fascinated by Buddha and Confucius.
10:48He kept a close correspondence with devotees of different spiritual traditions, including
10:54Mahatma Gandhi, and featured their texts in his well-known daily reading list.
10:59And finally, one more quote.
11:01It will be a very good teaching, and will coincide with the teachings of all truly religious
11:07people.
11:08Only then, when he rejects blind faith in Muhammad and the Quran, and takes from it what is in
11:13accordance with the reason and conscience of all people.
11:16It turns out that in this quote, the writer suggests doing with the Quran and with Islam
11:21the same thing he has already done with the Gospels and Christianity.
11:25That means removing all dogmas and keeping only the pure idea, its essence.
11:30Examining the writer's whole life, this attitude is typical of Tolstoy.
