IRCICA’s Third International Symposium on “Islamic Civilization in Volga-Ural Region” was held in Ufa, capital of Bashkortostan, on 14-16 October 2008, under the patronage of the President of Bashkortostan Mr. Murtaza Rakhimov, and opened with the President’s address. The cooperating authorities were the Bashkortostan Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Language, History and Literature attached to the Ufa Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Bashkir State University, and the State Foundation of Culture and Arts of Bashkiria. The symposium generated a wide array of studies on Volga-Ural region’s features and developments relating to intellectual heritage, religion, cultural identity, ideological movements, arts and architecture, multi-cultural influences, and the Islamic influence in the formation of all these processes. The book has the text of the comprehensive address (in Bashkir) of President Rakhimov. The 39 papers are published in their original language, in Bashkir, Russian or English. Some of the titles are: “A comparison of Idil-Ural madrasahs and the Ottoman madrasahs” (Prof. Ali Arslan), “The Myth on the Origin of the Bashkirs and its variants in the Turkish world” (Prof. Özkul Çobanoğlu), “Islamic institutions and activities in Volga-Ural region during the 1917 revolution” (Prof. Nadir Devlet), “Nogays in the steppes of the Caspian Sea in the eyes of the 19th century Western travelers” (Assoc. Prof. Mustafa Eravcı), “The Timurid Lyceum” (Dr. Mohd. Sanaullah), “Astrakhan from the view of English and French travelers in the first quarter of the 19th century” (Dr. H. Kara, Dr. A. Başer), “The impact of Zeki Velidi Togan (1890-1970) on Turkish Politics” (Dr. T. Erdoğdu).
