Issue №13 / 2026

The article summarizes the results and outlines the prospects for the work of the Bоlgar Islamic Academy. Special attention is given to the statistical analysis of data from 2025 on students and the academic staff. The author analyzes the statistics of the admission campaign, highlighting the significant increase in the number of applicants from various regions of Russia and abroad, as well as the high level of competition and preparation among applicants. Special attention is given to the academic performance of students, the results of final assessments and dissertation defenses, and the high quality of teaching and the successful work of the dissertation council for awarding theological degrees. A significant part of the text is devoted to international cooperation, the development of partnerships, and the activities of the Center for Interreligious Dialogue. In conclusion, the results of the year are summarized, promising areas of development are outlined, such as digitalization, the study of theological heritage, and the strengthening of the unity of the peoples of Russia, and the leaderʼs position is confirmed.

The problem of disintegration of the Islamic ummah a long time ago became the important subject of close attention of both Muslim theologians themselves and secular scholars. In the Tatar theological heritage as an integral part of Arab Muslim book culture, the problem of intra-Islamic disunity was reflected in a number of wellknown works of outstanding Tatar scholars who lived in the XIX–XX centuries. This complex and confusing range of issues that have devided the Muslim world into two competing streams – Shiism and Sunnism, continues to attract the scientific interest of modern Tatar theologians and scholars. In the Tatar scientific environment of XXI century, which remains a noticeable part of intellectual life of the Moslem world, there is an aspiration of scholars to seek and formulate innovative approaches to understanding the Sunni-Shiite split that happened in the early Middle Ages.

This article is devoted to the analysis of the interpretation in the Tatar language of the Qur’anic verses on usury by an unnamed author, published in 1907 in the journal “Ad-Din wa-l-adab” edited by the famous theologian Galimjan Barudi. Based on the reference to the sacred primary sources – the Qur’an and the Sunnah, as well as the classical Sunni authority Fahr ad-Din ar-Razi, the author confirms orthodox approaches to both the dogmatic problem of the position of the great sinner and the understanding of the prohibition of usury. At the same time, special attention is paid to the importance of humanism and charity, which, according to the theologian, underlie this prohibition and the Islamic religion in general.

This article analyzes a specimen of diplomatic correspondence between the Mongol Ilkhanate (more precisely, with the rulers of the post-Ilkhanid state, though the distinction is immaterial in this context) and the early Ottomans. The first part examines the multilingual nature of the Ilkhanid chancellery: Middle Mongolian (Uyghur script) as the primary language of original letters, Persian as the lingua franca of Middle Eastern diplomacy, Arabic for correspondence with the Mamluks, and Latin for Western recipients. Special attention is paid to the role of Christian translators (notary Richard, Ugeto). The second part presents a textological investigation based on the letter of the Ottoman ruler Orkhan Gazi (741 AH / 1341 CE), preserved in the Ottoman collection “Munsheʼ atu-s-salatin” by Feridun Bey (1574). The author refutes the attribution of the addressee to the Golden Horde khan Jani Beg, which has been persistent in historiography since İsmail Hikmet Ertaylan. Through philological analysis of the titulature (“possessor of the Ilkhanid throne”, “sovereign of the Turks and Daylamites”), dating (1341 CE, before Jani Beg’s accession), geographical horizon (only Anatolian toponyms), and language (highly rhetorical Persian, alien to steppe diplomacy), it is demonstrated that the real addressee was a representative of the postIlkhanid world – most likely Sheikh Hasan Jalayir (Hasan Buzurg) or Hasan Kuchak Chobanid. The replacement of the addressee with Jani Beg was a deliberate act by the compiler Feridun Bey, who, as head of the Ottoman chancellery (nishandji), was guided by didactic and panegyric aims: to create a model textbook of epistolary art (insha) and to exalt the antiquity of Ottoman diplomacy. The conclusion formulates practical recommendations for textual scholars and translators of Persian diplomatic documents preserved in later compilations.

The article presents the thematic blocks «Kok Orda» and «Khorezm» of the planned encyclopedia «Golden Horde», which will be written in the coming years by the staff of the Institute of Tatar Encyclopedia and Regional Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan (the head of the temporary research team is the director of ITER Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan E.M.Galimova) and other interested representatives of the scientific community. from the Russian Federation, the Republic of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the Republic of Uzbekistan and other countries. The value and significance of the plots «Kok Horde» and «Khorezm» of the encyclopedia «Golden Horde», which has been officially prepared since January 2026, is noted.

The article is devoted to a lingua-hermeneutic analysis of translation strategies applied when translating Arabic-script Old Tatar written monuments of the late 19th and early 20th centuries into Russian. At the intersection of translation studies, Oriental textology, and Islamic studies, the authors explore the dilemma of the relationship between form and content in texts of high sacred and ethnographic density. Based on the manuscript of A. Umari (1926) and the work of R. Fakhretdinov (1903), typical lexico-semantic deviations and errors of literal calquing are classified. The paratextual layer is substantiated as a tool for the de-conservation of implicit meanings, alongside the method of literary editing within the framework of linguo-didactic adaptation of the Quranic narrative for children.

This article analyzes the Russian translation of two major Turkish Islamic reference works: the multi-volume “Islamic Encyclopedia of the Turkish Religious Foundation” and the seven-volume corpus “Islam through Hadiths”, prepared by the Directorate of Religious Affairs of Türkiye (Diyanet) and the Center for Islamic Studies (İSAM) in cooperation with the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation. The study examines the organizational, methodological, and terminological dimensions of the translation process, including the compilation of a glossary, selection and adaptation of articles, standardization of Islamic terminology, translation of Qur’anic verses and hadiths, and the involvement of canonical editors in text validation. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between philological and theological competence in translation practice, as well as to the interaction between Turkish and Russian editorial traditions and the transmission of Turkish theological discourse into the Russian-language context. The analysis also addresses challenges related to the translation of infographics, biographical entries, and Arabic-Islamic religious terminology. The study concludes that the translation project functioned not only as a publishing endeavor but also as an institutionalized form of transmitting Islamic knowledge in a contemporary transnational context.

The target audience of this article is the few specialists currently engaged in the professional translation of medieval scholarly and religious texts from Oriental languages (Persian, Arabic, Turkic). Using the Persian language as an example, this paper briefly reviews all modern types of «non-human» translation of these texts: computer-assisted translation (CAT); neural machine translation (NMT) involving a set of microchips and algorithms, which today is referred to as artificial intelligence (AI); generative AI translation (GenAI); and AI translation based on large language models (LLMs). When using any of these methods, to a greater or lesser extent, a translator needs to create a glossary of key terms and words with their unambiguous target language equivalents, i.e., a terminological database of a specific author for a specific work. The preparation of such a database is practical in two cases: 1) in the presence of a voluminous text (or texts) of a single thematic focus (preferably by the same author), wherein a glossary prepared during initial phase substantially optimizes translation efficiency in subsequent stages; 2) during interruptions in work due to objective and subjective reasons, where a previously prepared (or generated) and subsequently forgotten glossary facilitates the resumption of text translation within the same thematic framework.

The article presents a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of the problems of deciphering, transliterating, and digitally representing the Old Tatar written heritage based on the unique collections of the Center of Written Heritage of the G. Ibragimov Institute of Language, Literature and Art (“Mirashane”). The relevance of the work is driven by the need to integrate a vast array of Arabic-script Turkic texts, numbering over 50 thousand depository items (including manuscripts of the 14th–20th centuries, personal archives of G. Tukay and G. Iskhaki, early printed press, and epigraphic monuments), into the modern global information space. The aim of the research is a deep analysis of the evolution of academic and technological approaches to the machine processing of the Old Tatar graphic code. Structural-linguistic, source study, and contextological analysis, along with advanced digital humanities tools, were applied as research methods. The fundamental problem of Old Tatar script variability, which historically complicates direct optical character recognition (OCR), is revealed. The results of the long-term development of the domestic system of algorithmic transliteration “MirasTat” and large-scale consortium projects on deep learning of neural networks are presented. It is proven that the radical solution to the problem is the use of generative artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs) trained on reference academic datasets, which led to a tectonic shift in digital Turkology. The conclusion is drawn about the necessity of a conceptual transition from mechanical visual digitization to the paradigm of semantic full-text search, as well as the importance of creating specialized data centers and developing a unified canonical transcription system.

This study seeks to establish a foundational framework of professional competencies for Arabic language teachers of non-native speakers within the Islamic religious context, through a systematic survey, analysis, and comparison of specialized educational literature. The study proceeds from a core problematic premise: that the competencies required of Arabic teachers for religious purposes differ qualitatively from those demanded by general teacher preparation models, given the distinctive profile of learners who pursue Arabic for the understanding of the Holy Quran and the study of Islamic jurisprudence, Hadith, and Quranic exegesis. Adopting a descriptiveanalytical methodology, the study examines the conceptual frameworks underlying the terms com-petency and standard, reviews prominent international and Arabic models – including the ACTFL framework and the models of Tuʻaymah, Al-ʻUsh, and Al-Hudaybiʼs tripartite classification and ultimately delineates a comprehensive competency framework encompassing: detailed linguistic competencies (phonological, grammatical, morphological, semantic, communicative, discursive, and pragmatic); professional pedagogical competencies (planning, implementation, and assessment); Islamic cultural competencies; and personal attributes. The study concludes that integrating language and Islamic culture constitutes a functional necessity rather than a theoretical luxury, and that the existing gap in the preparation of such teachers necessitates the development of a specialized normative framework responsive to the demands of this distinctive context.