The Everyday Life of Moscow’s Ismaili Muslims in the Context of Sociocultural Change

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2026-2/223-239

Authors

  • Tokhir Kalandarov the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology

Keywords:

anthropology of Islam, everyday life, everyday Islam, Tajik Ismailis, Islam in Russia, sensory ethnography, religious rituals

Abstract

Moscow, a metropolis with a centuries‑old history, is today a complex conglomerate of cultures, religions, and identities. In this polyphony, the Ismaili community holds a special place as one of the least studied yet dynamically evolving religious groups in the capital. Ismailism a branch of Shia Islam. One of the indigenous and compactly residing Ismaili communities inhabits the high-mountain valleys of the Pamirs — the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) of the Republic of Tajikistan. As a result of labor and other migration to Moscow, an Ismaili community has emerged here. The everyday life of Moscow Ismailis is a unique blend of tradition and modernity, rooted in the global umma and seeking its place in Russian society. This everyday existence, like a sensitive barometer, reflects profound sociocultural changes taking place both within Russian society itself and in the global Muslim world. The article is based on the author's field materials collected in the spring and summer of 2025 in Moscow. The author analyzes the everyday life of Shia Ismailis in the context of the changes occurring in their lives due to migration from Tajikistan to Russia.

Author Biography

  • Tokhir Kalandarov , the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology

    Kalandarov, Tokhir S. — Ph.D. in History, Senior Researcher, the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (Moscow, Russian Federation). E-mail: tohir_s70@mail.ru

    For citation: Kalandarov, T. S. 2026. The Everyday Life of Moscow’s Ismaili Muslims in the Context of Sociocultural Change. Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii) 2: 223-239.

    Funding: The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant No 25-28-01536. https://rscf.ru/en/project/25-28-01536/

    References

    Asad, T. 2017. Ideia antropologii islama [The Idea of the Anthropology of Islam]. Islamology 7 (1): 41–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.24848/islmlg.07.1.02  

    Basilov, V. N. 1984. Izbranniki dukhov [Chosen by Spirits]. Moscow: Politizdat. 207 p.

    Bectovic, S. 2011. Studying Muslims and Constructing Islamic Identity. Ethnic and Racial Studies 34 (7): 1120–1133. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2010.528782   

    Belovinskii, L. V. 2008. Kul’tura russkoi povsednevnosti: Uchebnoe posobie [Culture of Russian Everyday Life: A Textbook]. Moscow: Vysshaia shkola. 767 p.

    Bolshakov, V. P., and S. N. Ikonnikova (eds.). 2016. Istoriya kul’tury povsednevnosti: uchebnoe posobie [History of the Culture of Everyday Life: A Textbook]. Moscow: Prospekt. 496 p.

    Certeau, M. 2013. Izobretenie povsednevnosti. Iskusstvo delat [The Invention of Everyday Life.  Arts de faire]. Saint Petersburg: Izdatel’stvo Evropeiskogo universiteta. 330 p.

    Halm, H. 2001. The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning. London: I. B. Tauris. 112 p.

    Howes, D. 2003. Sensual Relations: Engaging the Senses in Culture and Social Theory. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. 283 p.

    Huntington, S. 2003. Stolknovenie tsivilizatsii [The Clash of Civilizations]. Moscow: AST. 603 p.

    Kasavin, I. T., and S. P. Shchavelev. 2004. Analiz povsednevnosti [Analysis of Everyday Life]. Moscow: Kanon+. 432 p.

    Kazmina, O. E., and P. I. Puchkov. 2008. Konfessii mira: veroucheniia, ritual, organizatsionnoe ustroistvo, chislennost’ posledovatelei i sovremennoe rasprostranenie [Religious Denominations of the World: Doctrines, Rituals, Organizational Structure, Number of Followers and Contemporary Distribution]. Moscow: Otrazhenie. 276 p.

    Lashkarbekov, B. B. 2001. Kasydy, madkhia i munadzhaty, posviashchennye imamu Ali, i ikh mesto v dukhovnoi zhizni narodov Pamira [Qasidas, Madhiyas and Munajats Dedicated to Imam Ali and Their Place in the Spiritual Life of the Peoples of the Pamir]. In Imam Ali i dukhovnoe vozrozhdenie (materialy Mezhdunarodnoi konferentsii po iranistike) [Imam Ali and Spiritual Revival (Proceedings of the International Conference on Iranian Studies)]. Moscow: Gumanitariy. 42–44.

    Lotman, Yu. M. 1992. Izbrannye stat’i v trekh tomakh. Tom 1. Stat’i po semiotike i tipologii kul’tury [Selected Articles in Three Volumes. Vol. 1. Articles on Semiotics and Cultural Typology]. Tallinn: Aleksandra. 479 p.

    Mamadnazarov, M. 1980. Narodnaia arkhitektura Zapadnogo Pamira [Folk Architecture of the Western Pamirs]. Dushanbe: Znanie. 20 p.

    Markov, B. V. 2017. Kul’tura povsednevnosti. Uchebnoe posobie [Culture of Everyday Life. A Textbook]. Saint Petersburg: Piter. 368 p.

    Martynova, M. Yu., V. V. Stepanov, and V. A. Tishkov. 2017. Metodicheskie rekomendatsii v sfere etnomonitoringa i analiticheskoi deiatel’nosti [Methodological Recommendations in the Field of Ethnic Monitoring and Analytical Activities]. In Etnologicheskii monitoring: razrabotka fundamental’nykh podkhodov etnopoliticheskogo monitoringa dlia optimizatsii mezhnatsional’nykh otnoshenii i predotvrashcheniia konfliktov v Rossii [Ethnological Monitoring: Developing Fundamental Approaches to Ethnopolitical Monitoring to Optimize Interethnic Relations and Prevent Conflicts in Russia], ed. by M. Yu. Martynova and V. V. Stepanov. Moscow: IEA RAN. 511–514.

    Nikiticheva, A. O. 2022. Etnicheskii i religioznyi faktory Vserossiiskoi perepisi naseleniia v ponimanii mestnykh musul’man Moskovskoi oblasti [Ethnic and Religious Factors in the Russian Census as Local Muslims of the Moscow Region Understand Them]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 4: 192–208. https://doi.org/10.31857/S0869541522040108

    Oparin, D. 2020. Religioznyi avtoritet i etika povsednevnosti v musul’manskoi migratsionnoi srede [Religious Authority and Ordinary Ethics in Muslim Migration Contexts]. Laboratorium: zhurnal sotsial’nykh issledovanii 12(1): 81–105.

    Pushkareva, N. L. 2005. «Istoriia povsednevnosti» i «istoriia chastnoi zhizni»: soderzhanie i sootnoshenie poniatii ['History of Everyday Life' and 'History of Private Life': The Content and Correlation of Concepts]. In Sotsial’naia istoriia. Ezhegodnik 2004 [Social History. Yearbook 2004], ed. by K.M. Anderson, L.I. Borodkin, A.K. Sokolov. Moscow: ROSSPEN. 93–112.

    Pushkareva, N. L. 2011. Povsednevnaia zhizn’ v Rossii: mezhdistsiplinarnyi podkhod 13–15 maia 2010 g., Blumington (shtat Indiana), SShA [Everyday Life in Russia: An Interdisciplinary Approach, May 13–15, 2010, Bloomington (Indiana), USA]. Antropologicheskii forum 14: 457–470.

    Pushkareva, N. L., and S. V. Liubichankovskii. 2014. Ponimanie istorii povsednevnosti v sovremennom istoricheskom issledovanii: ot shkoly annalov k rossiiskoi filosofskoi shkole [Understanding the History of Everyday Life in Modern Historical Research: From the Annales School to the Russian Philosophical School]. Vestnik Leningradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta im. A. S. Pushkina 1: 7–21.

    Schütz, A. 2003. Smyslovaia struktura povsednevnogo mira: ocherki po fenomenologicheskoi sotsiologii [The Structures of the Life-World]. Moscow: Obshchestvennoe mnenie. 336 p.

    Shagal, V. E., A. A. Skanavi, and O. V. Tarasenko. 2008. Kul’tura povsednevnosti v arabo-musulmanskom mire. Ucheb posobie [The Culture of Everyday Life in the Arab-Muslim World. A Textbook]. Moscow: Otrazhenie. 395 p.

    Shnirelman, V. A. 2002. Identichnost’ i obrazy predkov: tatary pered vyborom [Identity and Images of Ancestors: Tatars Facing a Choice]. Vestnik Evrazii 4: 128–147.

    Sokolovskiy, S. V. 2010. Vtoraia vserossiiskaia perepis naseleniia: kategorizatsiia naseleniia i politika identichnosti [Second Russian Census: Categorization of the Population and Identity Politics]. Ab Imperio 4: 393–414.

    Sokolovskiy, S. V. 2024. Antropologiia vospriiatiia Devida Khauza (Retsenziia na Sensory Anthropology by David Howes [Review of David Howes. Sensorium. Contextualizing the Senses and Cognition in History and Across Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge, 2024. 86 p.]. Sibirskie istoricheskie issledovaniia 3: 206–209.

    Stjernholm, S. 2025. Sensing Islam. Engaging and Contesting the Senses in Muslim Religiosity London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. 176 p.

    Van Den Berg, G. 2007. The ‘Sura of the Gift’ in the Oral Tradition of the Ismailis of Tajik Badakhshan. In The other Shiites. From the Mediterranean to Central Asia, ed. by Monsutii A., S. Naef, and F. Sabahi. Bern: Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers. 219–230.

    Zarubina, N. N. 2011. Povsednevnost’ v kontekste sotsiokul’turnykh transformatsii rossiiskogo obshchestva [Everyday Life in the Context of Sociocultural Transformations of Russian Society]. Obshchestvennye nauki i sovremennost’ 4: 52–62.

Downloads

Published

11.06.2026

Issue

No. 2 (2026): Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik antropologii)

Section

Muslims of Moscow