Jadids vs Qadims: The Battle for Uzbekistan's Soul

In the early 1900s, a cultural war erupted in Turkestan between Jadid reformers, who wanted to modernize Islam and education, and Qadim traditionalists, who saw change as a threat. This episode zooms in on the Jadid-Qadim conflict, a bitter struggle that shaped Uzbekistan's path to modernity. We meet Mahmudhoja Behbudiy, the Jadid firebrand who toured the Ottoman Empire and brought back the idea of usul-i jadid — the new method — teaching geography and history alongside the Quran. And we explore the Qadim response: fatwas, riots, and the assassination of a Jadid teacher in Kokand. By the 1910s, the Jadids had founded newspapers like Samarkand and schools that taught girls, but the Qadims fought back through the clergy and traditional madrasas. This is not a simple story of progress versus reaction; both sides had valid fears, and both lost when the Soviets came. A nuanced look at a forgotten battle over the future of Central Asia.

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