Book Review 

Russia's Muslim Frontiers: New 

Directions in Cross-Cultural Analysis 

By Dale F. Eicke Iman ( ed.), Bloomington: Indiana Uni­
versity Press, 1993, 244 pp. 

The sudden independence of five Muslim Central Asian coun­
tries-Khazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbek­
istan-and one Muslim country in the Transcaucasus region­
Azerbaijan-has surprised even the international scholarly community. 
When the former Soviet Union was alive and well, there were "Soviet 
scholars," a rubric that largely included specialists on Russia, Ukraine, 
and the Baltic states. Western scholars were almost never inclined to 
specialize in, or to give any serious attention to, the Muslim regions of 
the Soviet Union. This neglect was also reflected in their evaluations of 
the problems of this region, as can be seen by the uncritical acceptance 
of the Soviet vocabulary. For instance, the Qorabashi armed resistance 
in Muslim Central Asia was labeled the "Basmachi" (or bandit) move­
ment by the Soviet Union and its scholars. This phrase was also used by 
western scholars. 

Now there is no more Soviet Union, the cold war has entered history, 
and there are six new Muslim republics. These developments have 
engendered a renewed interest in these republics, as can be seen by the 
number of recently published books that have been devoted to them. 
Although some of them have been hurriedly compiled, others have been 
written with a lot of forethought and balanced analysis. 

Eickelman's present anthology definitely falls into the latter cate­
gory. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, his anthology is one of the 
first books that raises the question of whether the above-mentioned 
Qorabashi movement was indeed an armed struggle against the Soviet 
imperial masters or was a "bandit" movement as portrayed by Soviet 
scholars. This book comprises four parts: "International and Regional 
Perspectives," "Central Asia " "Afghanistan and Iran," and "Pakistan." 
The first two sections formulate the essence of this study. Eickelman's 
introduction, in my estimation, is certainly one of the best chapters. It 
is unfortunate that he did not include more of his writing in this book. 
His review of the literature on modernization theories and orientalism 
in this chapter will be read by students of Central Asia and the Middle 
East with interest. 

Other noteworthy contributions are the two essays by Richard 
Cottam and Gregory Kornyenko. It is refreshing to read Cottam's schol-



120 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 12: 1 

arship after a long prelude, as he is one of the very few specialists on 
the Middle East who can lucidly apply some arcane theories of political 
science to the republics' intricate politics. Cottam's discussion of the 
"spiral conflict model" is highly intriguing, especially since his Russian 
counterpart agrees with his analysis of this model as an explanation of 
the role of the Soviet Union in the Middle East during the cold war 
years. 

Alexi Malashenko's essay, "Islam vs. Communism," is an interest­
ing and accurate interpretation of the role of Islam in the former USSR. 
The author writes: "It is clear that the 'Islamic line' was never broken in 
Islamic society .... Islam remained the preserver of spirituality, the 
framework of a worldview, and to a significant extent, the regulator of 
relations between people." 

There are a number of articles on Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. 
However, they contain few new insights. In summary, despite the fact 
that this book contains a number of thoughtful and well-written essays, 
it falls short of achieving the purpose stated in its subtitle: "New 
Directions in Cross-Cultural Analysis." 

M. E. Ahrari
Professor, National Security and Strategy 

Armed Forces Staff College 
Norfolk, Virginia