The publication of the book of Sheikh Murat Ramzi caused great resonance. Tsarist censorship regarded M. Ramzi's work as "an open insult to the Orthodox Church and direct incitement of Russian Muslims against Russians" (H. Algar). Most of the circulation was seized and burned. Indeed, the author compiled his work in the light of the national and religious interests of his people, and his Islamic and pan-Turkic ideas were at odds with the official ideology of the Russian Empire.

 

The very historical book of Sheikh M. Ramzi "Talfik al-akhbar" is valuable in several respects. First, as a written monument of the Bashkir historiography of the late XIX - early XX centuries. Secondly, the book is a written record of a milestone in the development of national self-consciousness and ethnic self-identification of the Bashkirs of that period. Thirdly, the very structure of the book by M. Ramzi, the way he tells the history of the Turkic peoples, the methods of attracting written sources of other historians - both Muslim and Russian and Western European - all this helps in some way to reconstruct the way of thinking, the mentality of a fairly common Bashkir intellectual of the late XIX - early XX centuries. It was a type of Bashkir intellectual with a pronounced claim to spiritual aristocracy, to belonging to the "educated minority", who rose to free dialogue with the common Muslim, Russian, Tatar and Western European cultures. On the other hand, this same Bashkir intellectual was clearly aware of his unprivileged, usual and ordinary fate, similar to the fate of his simple Bashkir compatriots in the Russian Empire, understood the general significance of the trials and sufferings that the dominant Russian colonial power rudely subjected to educated Bashkirs along with ordinary Bashkirs.

 

As for the actual content of Sheikh M. Ramzi's book, it is a presentation of the historical development of the Huns, Turks, Slavs, Magyars and Goths from ancient times to the Middle Ages. Then the author tends to focus exclusively on the history of the Golden Horde, its culture and peoples who inhabited it, studying the relationship of the Tatar khanates with the rapidly growing young Russian state. Finally, Sheikh Ramzi goes on to the final part of his historical studies, which explores the history of Russia's conquest of the Volga, the Urals and Western Siberia and the consequences of these events for the peoples of the Volga-Ural region. The destinies of these peoples are the subject of special concern for Sheikh Ramzi because of his ethnic background and his stay as a mureed in the ranks of the Naqshbandiya brotherhood. And this obliged him to take care of the fate of the "uninitiated", that is, the main part of the Muslim population of the Volga and the Urals. Of particular value is the bibliographic material on more than one hundred and fifty prominent religious figures, mostly Tatars and Bashkirs (but there are also reports about some Dagestani scholars) who carried out cultural and educational activities in the 18th and 19th centuries. Sheikh Murat Ramzi gave several pages for the presentation of the biography of Sheikh Zaynulla Rasulev ash-Sharifi Al-Naqshbandi, his spiritual mentor, and writes very warmly about him, praising him as a man and a religious figure.

 

The book of Sheikh Ramzi favorably differs from works of similar genre of other Muslim scholars of this region. He wrote his book in Arabic, but he already used rich experience, which he adopted from Russian and West European historians. Ramzi divides his work into chapters, paragraphs, gives a list of used works. His book is supplied with drawings, diagrams, tables and plans of historical places. It is in M. Ramzi's book that we see a transition to a fundamentally new method of historical research. For example, when analyzing the extent of colonization of the Bashkir land, methods of used by the tsarist authorities to suppress the grandiose Bashkir uprisings and colonists' ways of plundering of Bashkir lands, M. Ramzi operates statistics, clarifies the role of the economic factor in the policy of the Russian government, explains the negative effects of the Bashkir transfer to military Cossack class. The work of M. Ramzi is based on a large number of historical materials. But most importantly, Sheikh Ramzi has reasonedly criticized the incorrect approaches of Russian historians to covering the history of Russian Turks and Islam in the territory of the Russian Empire.

 

Sheikh Ramzi's principledness in upholding the idea of ​​the national independence of the Turks, his open condemnation for the policy of violent Christianization of the peoples of the Volga and the Urals, criticism of swaggering and corrupt local officials found a response in the soul of the future great historian-Turkologist Zaki Walidi Togan (1890-1970), the founder of the Bashkir republic. Now we can explain the reason for the great success of the young Zaki Walidi Togan, who in 1912, in his incomplete twenty-two years, published the book "The History of the Turks and Tatars". This book almost coincides with the structure of the book of Sheikh Murat Ramzi. Of course, Zaki Walidi can not be accused of mechanical rewriting, but one should recognize the fact that he wrote his book under the strong influence of the work of Sheikh Ramzi. Moreover, Zaki Walidi writes in his Memoirs that he read the book of the Sheikh in the manuscript, since he was friendly with his father and uncle, often visited his father's house in the village of Kuzyan (now Ishimbay district of the Republic of Bashkortostan) and left there drafts of his work to be viewed by the parent of Zaki Walidi, Mulla Akhmatshah.

 

We can only hope that among the Russian Muslims there will be people who are not indifferent to the historical heritage of Islamic scholars in Russia and will render effective assistance in translating the book of Sheikh Murat Ramzi from Arabic so that a wide range of readers interested in the history and culture of the Muslim world can benefit from it.