Public spaces and inner worlds: Emplaced askesis and architectures of the soul among Tatarstani Muslims

Abstract

The emergence of Islamic piety movements in post-Soviet Tatarstan has set afoot two parallel processes: (1) religion has progressively left the narrow sphere to which it was relegated during the Soviet era – old age, the private domain and ethnically connoted rural contexts – through a series of steps including the early appearance of makeshift shops catering to a Muslim clientele, the boom of self-cultivation techniques among the region’s youthful Muslim middle class, the subsequent development of a full-blown halal industry and the appearance of a whole range of new places for pietists. The deprivatisation of Islam has thus changed the urban fabric of Tatarstan, making Islamic piety visible in cities and towns. Concomitantly, (2) the ‘inner world’ – the soul ( nafs), self or subjectivity – of Muslims has taken centre stage as one of the most (if not the most) central sites of religious life, the main interface for encountering the divine and a ‘space’ that needs constant maintenance through discipline and ascetical practice ( askesis) framed in terms of care of one’s soul. Thus, the appearance of new ‘outside’ spaces (halal places) appears to correspond to the configuration of new ‘inside’ spaces (the subjectivity of religionists). This paper aims to explore this correspondence and to investigate its anthropological implications.