“Divide According to Sharīʿa”: The Islamic Inheritance System in the Russian Empire

Until the end of the imperial period, the Volga-Ural Muslim communities in the Russian empire practiced several methods of intergenerational property transfer, such as waṣiyyat (bequest), hiba (gift), ṣulḥ/takhāruj (peaceful settlement) and the “science of the shares” ( ʿilm al-farāʾiḍ ). The Volga-Ural Muslims considered them all as legitimate ways of property division according to Islamic law ( sharīʿa ). However, a significant shift occurred in the early 1820s when the Russian imperial state confirmed the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly as the court of appeal for family and inheritance matters. Subsequently, Volga-Ural Muslims began to petition the oa , seeking a reconsideration of their inheritance divisions, specifically requesting a division “according to sharīʿa ”. By the end of the nineteenth century, most of these petitions resulted in divisions based on the science of the shares. I argue that the oa served as an extra-communal venue where Muslims could challenge intra-familial or communal methods of inheritance division, and request divisions based on the science of the shares.