Читая Асада, Ахмеда и Халлака: что есть ислам сегодня?

This essay is a brief review of three books, What is Islam? The importance of being Islamic by Shahab Ahmed (2016), Secular translations: Nation-state, Modern Self, and Calculative Reason by Talal Asad (2018), and Restating Orientalism: A Critique of Modern Knowledge by Wael Hallaq (2018). The authors’ arguments are analyzed in terms of the ongoing “linguistic turn” in Western studies of Islam, that is, the creation of a methodological paradigm that recognizes the value of the polysemy of the global Muslim community (past and present) and pays attention to multiple languages (imperial, colonial, academic, etc.) to describe Islam. The essay concludes with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of this paradigm and its applicability to studies of Islam in Russia.