^{#smrgKİTABEVİ} Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Islamic Civilisation in the Volga-Ural Region - 2011

The fourth symposium on the theme “Islamic Civilisation in Volga-Ural Region” was held in Ufa, the capital city of Bashkortostan, in October 2010. The previous ones had taken place in Kazan, Tatarstan in 2001 and 2005 respectively and Ufa in 2008. Their proceedings were published earlier; thus with the addition of the present volume, a valuable body of articles in four volumes is now available on multiple historical, cultural and civilizational aspects of Volga-Ural region.

The experience of multi-faith coexistence in the Russian Federation and the deep-rooted Islamic culture and heritage that is living in some of its regions, among them Volga-Ural region, constitute a noteworthy dimension in the study of Islamic civilization in its regional achievements. Islam in Volga-Ural region is eleven centuries old; historical records starting with the travelogue of Ibn Fadlan in the tenth century provide evidence of inter-faith contacts developed from then on. IRCICA has been promoting research on this history and throwing light on the historical evidence at the background of the cultural relations that have been growing between the Muslim world on one hand and Russia with its Muslim communities on the other. To this aim IRCICA instituted among others this series of symposiums, which it organized in cooperation with the governments and academic institutions of countries in the region. These activities were encouraged by the Presidents of the host countries according their patronage to the symposiums and their governments' supportive and constructive partnerships. Thus the fourth congress was organized jointly by the Ministry of Education and Sciences of the Russian Federation, the Government of Bashkortostan, and Bashkir State University. H.E. President Rustem Zakievitch Khamitov, President of Bashkortostan Republic, gave his patronage to the event and participated in the opening ceremony. In addition to the working sessions on different topics and as part of the symposium, a separate conference with 20 presentations was dedicated to the eminent Bashkir scholar Ahmed Zeki Velidi on his 120th birth anniversary. The papers of the symposium are published in this book in their original languages of presentation: there are 71 papers in Russian, 6 in English and 4 in Bashkir.