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Accepted Paper:
Speaking Tsarist: Muslim Petitions in the late Imperial Russia
Nurlan Kabdylkhak
(UNC-Chapel Hill)
This paper explores the petitions produced by Muslim communities of the Kazakh steppe addressing tsarist authorities. Scholarly works usually emphasize the significance of petitions as informational instruments aimed at provoking political action. In this paper, however, rather that focusing on the grievances expressed in the petitions, I prioritize different language strategies employed within them. I argue that in the late imperial period, tsarist Muslims have developed a special rhetorical device to persuade Russian authorities to grant their requests. This rhetorical device that I refer to here as “speaking tsarist” included affirmation of Muslims’ loyalty to the Russian empire by referencing tsar’s name and Muslim prayers for the tsar and his “august royal family,” while also exploiting tsarist stereotypes about “ignorant Qazaqs” and “fanatical Muslims.”