Becoming Behbudiy

Abstract

Abstract Mahmud Khwajah b. Bihbud Khwajah, more commonly known to posterity as Behbudiy, is widely regarded as a foundational figure in the Muslim reformist movement that took shape in early 20th-century Turkestan. But while an inordinate number of studies have discussed his journalistic, literary, pedagogical and political activities, very little work has been done to consider his legal career. Drawing on a range of archival materials held at the Uzbekistan Central State Archive, the present article explores Behbudiy’s activities as a Muslim jurist, and shows how a better understanding of these activities can help to contextualise, and in some cases to ironise, the political vision he articulated in his well-known writings. The article concludes by considering the currently ongoing debate between those historians of modern Central Asia who emphasise the significance of Behbudiy and other so-called Jadids and those who reject such a view, and suggests that the picture of Behbudiy that emerges from our archivally-focused study offers a point of congruence between these two contending opinions.