...is assistant professor (Universitair Docent) of East European Studies and a Principal Investigator of ERC Starting project MIND: The Muslim Individual in Imperial and Soviet Russia (2019-2024). He teaches BA and MA level courses on Islam and European history.
Alfrid has published widely on past and present of Islam in the post-Soviet realm. His recent monograph, The Library of Zainap Maksudova, addresses the study of Muslim subjectivity through the egodocuments and personal library preserved at the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan in Kazan. This book is a result of the NWO project The Russian Language of Islam (2014-2018), in which Alfrid occupied a postdoc position. Next to that Alfrid has edited a Tatar translation of the Qur'an, prepared in Leningrad by 'Abd al-Bari Isaev (d. 1983), a Soviet mufti.
Between 2014 and 2019, Alfrid Bustanov was professor of Islamic studies at the European University at St Petersburg. His chair in Islamic studies was generously supported by the TAIF Company (Tatarstan). Since 2014, he has launched an annual summer school Islam in Russia, which aim is to promote the study of Muslim cultures in the post-Soviet realm among the postgraduate students and early carrier scholars. The previous meetings took place in Kazan, Makhachkala, St Petersburg, and Penza. Alfrid organized a series of international workshops on the languages of Islam in Russia (St Petersburg, 2016), Islam and the City (St Petersburg, 2017), and Muslim subjectivity in Russia (Amsterdam, 2019), as well as a lectures series in collaboration with the State Hermitage (2015-2019). In addition, since 2005 Alfrid has been organizing annual manuscript expeditions throughout the Russian Federation with a goal to collect, preserve, and analyse the written heritage of Russia's Muslims.
Alfrid is also the author of Soviet Orientalism and the Creation of Central Asian Nations (Routledge, 2015), and co-editor with Michael Kemper, of Russia's Islam and Orthodoxy beyond the Institutions: Languages of Conversion, Competition and Convergence (Routledge, 2019), as well as Islamic Authority and the Russian Language: Studies on Texts from European Russia, the North Caucasus and West Siberia (Pegasus, 2012). His long efforts in digging out the history of Islam in Western Siberia has resulted into a monograph on the history of Islamic book culture in the region (Moscow: Mardjani Foundation, 2013).
Alfrid's academic work has appeared in the Journal of Persianate Studies, the Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, Asiatische Studien, Antropologicheskij Forum, Manuscripta Orientalia, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, State, Religion and Church in Russia and Worldwide, Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, and a number of edited volumes. Alfrid is a columnist of Bisness-Onlain and Real'noe Vremia.
In collaboration with Arzamas (Moscow), Alfrid Bustanov has published two audio courses on the history of Islam and Tatar culture. He also currently participates in the five-year art program carried out in Al'met'evsk (Tatarstan) by the Institute of Public Art (St Petersburg) with support of the Tatneft Company.
Alfrid has a PhD from the University of Amsterdam (2013) and an MA from Omsk University (2009).
Major publications:
Monographs
The Library of Zainap Maksudova (Moscow: Mardjani Foundation, 2019)
Soviet Orientalism and the Creation of Central Asian Nations. (Central Asian studies series; No. 29) (London: Routledge, 2015).
Knizhnaia kul'tura sibiskikh musul'man (Moscow: Mardjani Foundation, 2012)
Source Editions
Daulatshah al-Ispijabi, Burhan al-zakirin, ed. by Alfrid Bustanov & Evgeniia Nikitenko (Moscow, 2020, forthcoming).
Gabdelbari Isaev, Dini äsärlär, ed. by Alfrid Bustanov (Kazan, 2019).
"Albert Fätkhi. Ütkän gasïrlarnïng shigri säkhifäläre," ed. by Alfrid Bustanov, Fänni Tatarstan 2 (2019), 149-166.
Gabdelbari Isaev, Qur'an kärim tärjemäse, ed. by Alfrid Bustanov (Kazan, 2018).
"Albert Fätkhi. Gabdeldzhäbbar Kandalyi shigyrläre zhyentygy," Fänni Tatarstan 1 (2018), 149-170.
Islamskaia poeziia v epokhu Stalina: Sbornik stikhov Kyiametdina al-Kadyiri, ed. by Alfrid Bustanov (Kazan: Mardjani Institute of History, 2018).
Peer-reviewed Articles and Book Chapters
"Muslim Literature in the Atheist State: Zainap Maksudova between Soviet Modernity and Tradition". Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, 9.1 (2018), 1-31.
"The Language of Moderate Salafism in Eastern Tatarstan," Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 28 (2), 183-201.
"The Bulghar Region as a 'Land of Ignorance': Anti-Colonial Discourse in Khvārazmian Connectivity," Journal of Persianate Studies 9.2 (2016), 183-204.
"Speaking “Bukharan”: The Circulation of Persian Texts in Imperial Russia," Nile Green (ed.), The Persianate World (California: University of California Press, 2019), 193-206.
"Against Leviathan: On the Ethics of Islamic Poetry in Soviet Russia," M. Kemper, & R. Elger (Eds.), The Piety of Learning: Islamic Studies in Honor of Stefan Reichmuth (Islamic History and Civilization; Vol. 147). (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 199-224.
"Koran dlya sovetskikh grazhdan: ritorika progressa v bogoslovskikh trudakh 'Abd al-Bari Isaeva," Antropologicheskii forum 37 (2018), 93-110.
Co-authored with Igor Pankov, "Transregional History of a Muslim Family: Oral and Written Testimonies on the Descendants of Muhammad Sharif al-Bulghari," Manuscripta Orientalia. International Journal for Oriental Manuscript Research 24.1 (2018), 20-25.
Co-authored with M. Kemper, "Valiulla Iakupov’s “Traditional Islam” Vostok/Oriens, 2 (2017), 123-139.
Co-authored with M. Kemper, "Mirasism v tatarskoi srede: transformatsiia islamskogo naslediia v tatarskoe prosvetitel'stvo," M. Piotrovskii, & A. Alikberov (Eds.), Ars Islamica. : Sbornik trudov, prosviashchennykh S.M. Prozorovu (Moscow: Nauka, 2016), 753-769.
"Islam i iazyk sovetskoi vizual'nosti," Aziatskaia Rossiia: Liudi i struktury imperii (Omsk, 2016), 78-81.
"Ssora po-islamski: Zhaloby i anonimki sovetskikh musul'man," Islamology, 7.2 (2017), 127-149.
"Mezhdu natsiei i artefaktom: vostochnaia arkheologiia v Sovetskom Kazakhstane," Musul'mane v novoi imperskoi istorii. Sbornik statei, ed. by Vladimir Bobrovnikov et al. (Moscow, 2017), 38-79.
Co-authored with D. Dorodnykh, "Dzhadidizm kak paradigm v izuchenii islama v Rossiiskoi imperii," Gosudarstvo, religiia i tserkov' v Rossii i za rubezhom 3.35 (2017), 112-133.
"Govorit' po-bukharski: persoiazychnye teksty v Rossiiskoi imperii," Islam v Sovremennom Mire, 12.4 (2016), 81-92.
"From Tents to Citadels: Oriental Archaeology and Textual Studies in Soviet Kazakhstan," M. Kemper, & A. M. Kalinovsky (Eds.), Reassessing Orientalism: Interlocking Orientologies during the Cold War (Routledge, 2015), 47-83.
"Lichnyi arkhiv tatarskogo arkheografa Al'berta Fathi i vostochnaia arkheografiia v Kazanskom universitete vo vtoroi polovine 20 veka," Islam v Sovremennom Mire, 11.1 (2015), 159-174.
"Nozhnitsy dlia sredneaziatskoi istoriografii: vostochnye proekty leningradskogo vostokovedeniia," Orientalizm vs. orientalistika, ed. by Vladimir Bobrovnikov (Moscow, 2015), 108-166.
"Sviashchennye rodoslovnye i mezhregional'nye sviazi musul'man Severnoi Evrazii: istoriia sem'i Shikhovykh v 17-20 vv.," Sufizm i musul'manskaia dukhovnaia traditsiia: teksty, instituty, idei i interpretatsii, ed. by Alexander Knysh et al. (St Petersburg, 2015), 106-125.
Co-authored with Michael Kemper, "Islam i russkiii iazyk: sotsiolingvisticheskie aspekty stanovleniia obshcherossiiiskogo islamskogo diskursa," Kazanskoe islamovedenie = Kazan Islamic Review 1 (2015), 211-221.
"Sufizm bez granits: Pis'ma dagestanskogo shaykha Makhmuda al-Almali v Chistopol'," I. K. Zagidullin, O. F. Fayzrakhmanov, & A. V. Akhtyamova (eds.), Materialy mezhdunarodnoy nauchnoy konferentsii «Istoricheskiye sud'by narodov Povolzh'ya i Priural'ya (KHVIII – sere-dina XIX vv.)» (Kazan: Mardjani Institute of History, 2015), 51-66.
" 'Abd al-Rashid Ibrahim's Biographical Dictionary on Siberian Islamic Scholars," Kazanskoe islamovedenie = Kazan Islamic Review 1 (2015), 10-78.
Co-authored with Svetlana Korusenko, "Rodoslovnye sibirskikh bukhartsev: Shikhovy," Arkheologiia, ėtnografiia i antropologiia Evrazii, 60.4 (2014), 140-149.
Co-authored with Svetlana Korusenko, "Genealogies of the Siberian Bukharans: The Shikhovs," Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology, 42.4 (2014), 136-145.
Special Issues and Edited Volumes
Co-edited with Michael Kemper. Russia’s Islam and Orthodoxy beyond the Institutions: Languages of Conversion, Competition and Convergence (London: Routledge, 2018).
Islamology: Языки советского ислама. (Moscow: Mardjani Foundation, 2017).
Zhenshchina i islam (Moscow: Dizart Tim, 2017).
Co-authored with M. Kemper. Islam po-russki: Analiz sovremennoi islamskoi literatury v Rossii: Uchebnoe posobie (St. Petersburg: Prezidentskaia biblioteka, 2016).
«Татарский язык не принадлежит татарам, как и русский язык не принадлежит лишь русским». 4 November 2019. https://www.business-gazeta.ru/article/444983
«Приятно слышать каждый день «мишаризмы»: о набеговой экспедиции и погребальной эпиграфике. 19 October 2019. https://www.business-gazeta.ru/article/442024
«Памфлет Дамира Исхакова вполне объясним, хоть и анахроничен». 15.09.2019.
https://www.business-gazeta.ru/article/438285
«Вокруг БИА сложился клубок из трех взглядов на ислам в России». 29.09.2019.
https://www.business-gazeta.ru/article/440616
«Будущее татарского народа – это концепции, не связывающие себя с советским проектом». 18.08.2019. https://www.business-gazeta.ru/article/435439
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/136950-tatarskie-grammar-naci-pochemu-vse-sporyat-o-yazyke
Любить по-татарски: заметки об интимной культуре мусульман. 18.03.2019
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/132893-lyubit-po-tatarski-zametki-ob-intimnoy-kulture-musulman
«Марджани оставил после себя целых два памятника...». 24.11.2019.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/121270-kolonka-alfrida-bustanova-o-tatarskom-bogoslove-mardzhani
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/109602-intervyu-s-istorikom-alfridom-bustanovym-ch2
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/109197-intervyu-s-istorikom-alfridom-bustanovym
«Со временем КФУ все дальше будет отходить от республиканских интересов». 11.08.2018.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/108939-chto-takoe-respublika-tatarstan-chast-chetvertaya-gyylem
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/108067-chto-takoe-respublika-tatarstan-chast-tretya-miras
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/107286-chto-takoe-respublika-tatarstan-chast-vtoraya-horriyat
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/106633-chto-takoe-respublika-tatarstan-chast-pervaya-jomhuriyat
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/105865-alfrid-bustanov-o-poezii-kyyama-kadyrova
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/89856-obessmertit-tatarskiy-yazyk
Русский ислам: от языка полемики с православными и атеистами до госпроектов. 29.01.2018.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/87834-alfrid-bustanov-est-li-buduschee-u-russkogo-islama
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/87529-aulskaya-kultura-kritika-odnogo-kolonialnogo-tezisa
Исламское богословие в Советском Союзе: десять фактов о муфтии Габделбари Исаеве. 06.01.2018.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/85854-10-faktov-o-muftii-gabdelbari-isaeve
Единобожие от Бабича: об одном открытии в Средней Елюзани. 02.12.2017.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/83037-edinobozhie-ot-babicha-ob-odnom-otkrytii-v-sredney-elyuzani
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/82363-kultura-pisma-u-musulman-rossii---intervyu-bustanova
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/75894-kolonka-alfrida-bustanova-ob-islame-mezhdu-politikoy-i-naukoy
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/75474-miting-musulman-v-moskve-pered-posolstvom-manyamy---vyvody
«Спорить о «дате проникновения ислама» в регион и подобных мифах бессмысленно». 30.07.2017.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/71047-kolonka-bustanova-ob-islamizacii-v-rossii
«Исламская литература в России по духу не была ни провинциальной, ни сельской…». 03.07.2017.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/68497-kolonka-alfrida-bustanova-o-tatarskoy-rukopisnoy-knige«Ислам в России III»: поиск новых горизонтов. 28.05.2017.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/66459-islam-v-rossii-iii-poisk-novyh-gorizontov
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/49152
Чтобы помнили: большое дело «маленького» человека из «татарского Эрмитажа». 13.11.2016.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/47940
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/46721
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/40008
Проклятье джадидизма: как устроена история прогресса у мусульман России? 13.06.2016.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/33803
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/33236
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/32578
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/30918
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/29225
Говорить Кораном: пара слов о коранической культуре у мусульман России. 27.03.2016.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/26414
Борьба за язык – 2: говорить по-исламски. 14.02.2016. https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/23862
На пути к цифровым гуманитарным наукам в Татарстане. 31.01.2016.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/22871
Борьба за язык: постсоветский опыт. 24.01.2016. https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/22380
«Татарские старости»: где в Татарстане можно найти «горцев». 11.01.2016.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/21003
«Татарские старости»: туда и обратно в загадочный Хорезм. 10.01.2016.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/21001-tatarskie-starosti-tuda-i-obratno-v-zagadochnyy-horezm
«Татарские старости»: переселенцы из Сибири в Турцию. 09.01.2016.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/20992
«Татарские старости»: люди знания между Поволжьем и Дагестаном. 08.01.2016.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/20881
Как казахский хан оказался учеником татарского суфия. 20.12.2015.
https://realnoevremya.ru/articles/19927
Ekho Moskvy
Эволюция общественных пространств. 29 August 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyPGpEEBAq8&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1sgfiYB6jz4pDR_xagGeWuBVvxjZRBbj-Y5nM6JyXgCjbH8MNbmjE2F2g
The New Times
Кто остановит человека с ножом. 04.10.2017. https://newtimes.ru/articles/detail/119456/