MATERIALS FOR THE STUDY OF THE WORK AND THOUGHT
OF ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE
by Teodoro Tagliaferri (University of Naples Federico II)
No. 4
(January 1st, 2022)
WRITINGS ON THE EMPIRES IN WORLD HISTORY, II
Arnold Joseph Toynbee, Islam in Russia since the Revolution, in «Journal of the Central Asian Society», V, 3-4, 1918, pp. 73-83. Text of «an extemporaneous address» (ibid., p. 73) given by Toynbee at a meeting of the Society on May 22, 1918, with following discussion (ibid., pp. 81-83). Previously published with the same title, in a much shorter version, in «The Near East. A Weekly Review of Oriental Politics, Literature, Finance, and Commerce», XIV, 368, May 24, 1918, p. 420 (see my ADDITIONS, INTEGRATIONS, CORRECTIONS AND SUPPLEMENTS TO THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ARNOLD JOSEPH TOYNBEE, Nos. 41-42, https://www.academia.edu/62741549/Arnold_J_Toynbee_Islam_in_Russia_since_the_Revolution).
“I must ask you to excuse the charlatanism of one who has not travelled among the Russian Moslems and does not know their languages in venturing to lecture upon them. My excuse is that Islam in Russia was, before the Revolution, an unknown field – at least, compared with other fields of sociological study in Asia and Europe. It is characteristic of our lack of knowledge that we do not know whether to call it an Asiatic or a European problem.”
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