Muhammed-Gabdulkhay Kurbangaliev

Who is Muhammed-Gabdulkhay Kurbangaliev?

Muhammed-Gabdulkhay Kurbangaliev was a Bashkir religious leader, public and political figure in the early 20th century.

Born in 1889 in the village of Mediak in Chelyabinsk province, Orenburg Governorate to the family of the religious leader of a local Islamic community; his father Gabidulla Kurbangaliev was the local Imam khatib and a religious teacher who had a number of followers.

Received instruction in the local medrese frounded by this father, then in the medrese Rasulia in Troitsk. Taught in the medrese in his home village. Embarked on a promising clerical career. In 1916, he was preparing to become Russia’s head Mufti as Mukhammat-Safa Bayazitov’s successor. These plans were foiled by the Russian Revolution and the subsequent Civil War. In 1916, Muhammed Kurbangaliev took the post of the head of the Saint-Petersburg Muslim district.