The book presents the first integrated study of the relationship between official Islamic leadership (muftiship), non-official Islamic authorities, grassroots Muslim communities and the state in post-Communist Eurasia. It employs a history-based perspective and compares this relationship to that in both the Middle East and Western Europe. 

List of Figures; Glossary; Note on Transliteration, Place Names and Calendars; Additional Signs Used; Introduction; Part I Islam, Islamic Authority and Leadership before and during the Russian Rule; Chapter One Authority and Leadership in Islam: A Historical and Comparative Perspective; Chapter Two Islamic Leadership among Tatars and Other Turkic Peoples prior to and during Russian Rule; Chapter Three Islam and Islamic Leadership in the Caucasus; Chapter Four Islam, Islamic Authority and Leadership in Central Asia; Part II Islamic Authority and Leadership in the USSR; Chapter Five The Volga-Urals; Chapter Six The North Caucasus; Chapter Seven The South Caucasus; Chapter Eight Central Asia and Kazakhstan; Part III Islamic Authority and Leadership in Post-Soviet Lands; Chapter Nine Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania; Chapter Ten European Russia; Chapter Eleven The Caucasus; Chapter Twelve Central Asia; Chapter Thirteen Eurasian Islamic Leadership within the Global Context; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Galina M.Yemelianova has researched and taught for over thirty years on various aspects of Middle Eastern and Eurasian history, and contemporary Muslim and ethno-national politics. She is currently affiliated to the Centre of Contemporary Central Asia and the Caucasus at SOAS University of London.