Ahl al-Sunnah: Conceptual and formal notions of the Islamic identity at the late 19th -20th centuries in the Volga region

© Serials Publications. The relevance of the problem under study is caused by the increased interest the society has in Islam, its history in the Russian Federation, and particularly in the rites and practices. The article considers forming of the conceptual content of the concept of "Ahl al-Sunnah" (People of the Sunnah) and its lay interpretation at the 19th - 20th centuries. The leading approach to studying this problem is an in-depth analysis of the periodicals and publications as a source that conveys the attitude of contemporaries in the most reliable manner. The article identifies the key features of Muslim identity in the Volga-Ural Region, its heterogeneity and the presence of sub-identities that have formal and conceptual features of common people's self-awareness. The development of this type of sources shows that the Muslim identity implied a double interpretation in the intellectual space of ulama (scholars) and in everyday practice of adherents of Islam