Sa’id ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Vahid b. ‘Ali al-‘Asali ash-Shami ad-Dimashki at-Tarablusi (1867-1932), better known among Tashkent theologians as “Shami-damulla”, significantly influenced the development of Islamic doctrine during the Soviet period. In our investigation, we concentrate on his personality, his works and the activity of his followers; we focus on his role in changing religious situation in Tashkent and throughout Central Asia.

During our investigation, the following sources were found:

1.  Works of Sa’id ibn Muhammad ash-Shami (“al-Djamhara al-farida”, “al-Kasida fi ahl ash-Shash”, “az-Zuhdijat”, “Risala fi ashab al-kahf”, “Abu Zarr al-Gifari va socialism”, “Hitab li-ahl al-iman”, “Hadj faridasi” etc.).

2.  Permission (hatt al-idjaza) on lecturing collections of the hadis of Muhammad ibn Isma’il al-Buhari and Muslim ibn al-Hadjjadj an-Nisaburi, given by Shami-damulla to his leading followers.

3.  Photographic materials of Shami-damulla from private archives.

Preliminary investigation into the above-mentioned materials shows that every day after the evening prary (huftan), worshippers of Shami-damulla met together from the whole Tashkent.

In these discussions, questions arose in the city center that interested people: politics, economics, reforms in Islam, pan-Islamism, pan-Turkism and others. In 1925-26, due to the deterioration of state’s attitude toward religion, he was forced to move his activities from the center to the guest room of Shakir-bek-hadjji, situated in mahalla “Uzbek”. In 1932, Shami-damulla was exiled to the Turtkul’ district of Karakalpakstan, where he died in 1932 or in 1940s (in 1940 or 1947). People say that his grave is situated in Karakalpakstan or to the east of Khiva.

As a result of Shami-damulla’s work in Tashkent, a group of theologians called “Ahl al-hadis” emerged. It played important role in the religious life of Tashkent in the Soviet times and is functioning to this day.

The atmosphere of this group influenced the exile from Petropavlovsk of theologian Hasan-hazrat (his full name is Hasan Ahmadiyarovich Ponomarev). This follower of Shihab ad-din Mardjani (1818-1889) brought a negative attitude to the hanafi and sufi traditions of the Bukhara and Samarkand schools. The future mufti of SADUM Z. Babakhanov (1957-1982) had permanent, close connections with the representatives of this group and felt a spiritual closeness with this circle.

The influence of Shami-damulla and his group on the worldview and activities of mufti Z. Babakhanov (and today on his followers in Uzbekistan, Central Asian states and other countries of the CIS) is represented in the following:

1. A strongly negative attitude toward the traditional Central Asian form of Islam (which corresponded with the official Soviet ideology).

2.  The interpretation of reformed Islam in more shafi’it, fundamentalist way, based only on the Koran and authentic (sahih) hadis. This rational core was acquired later by wahhabs in the Soviet variant.

The education of students based solely on the disciplines of Arabic philology (refuting Persian and Turkic texts in the ancient tradition), the Koran without interpretation and authentic hadis (excluding authoritative works of hanafi school). This was introduced to the system of religious education of SADUM and then the its followers and successors.