The Center for Islamic Civilization Studies, affiliated to the Academic Research Sector of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, is organizing a lecture entitled «The Cultural Geography of Islam in Russia». The lecture will be delivered by Prof. Atef Moatamed, Professor of Geography at the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, and former Cultural Advisor at the Egyptian Embassy in Moscow. The event will take place on Sunday, 4 May 2025, from 1:00 to 3:00 PM at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Conference Center, Lectures Hall.

The lecture aims to shed light on the cultural geography of Muslims in Russia, beginning with the emergence of Islam in Russia during the early centuries of Islamic civilization. Islam has played a significant role in the demographic, economic, political and cultural fabric of the region.

Muslims in Russia constitute a considerable cultural and demographic presence, accounting for no less than 15% of the country’s total population. The geographic regions through which Islam entered the territories later known as Russia were diverse, particularly through three key fronts: the Caucasus, between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea; Transoxiana, in what is today known as Central Asia; and the Volga River basin, near the Ural Mountains and the fringes of Siberia.

Over more than a thousand years, Muslims in Russia have developed a distinct cultural and civilizational identity among the global Muslim community. They have played a pivotal role in Political Geography and geopolitics, as well as in international and regional conflicts.

Although they remain connected to the jurisprudential concepts and teachings of Islam within the broader Arab-Islamic sphere outside Russia, they have forged their own local identity, leading some to exaggerate the notion of "Russian Islam."

There are always two distinct experiences of Islam in Russia: the peaceful experience, exemplified by Tatarstan in the center, and the confrontational experience, represented by the Caucasus in the south. This makes the internal map of Islamic and Muslim identity in Russia far from uniform, varying from one region to another. Thus, the identity of Muslims in Russia is constantly evolving and faces unending challenges, not least of which is the recent Russian-Ukrainian war.