This book explores how to locate the sources which influenced the political social and
ideological stance of a famous Turkestani Jadid thinker writer journalist and scholar
'Abdurra'uf Fitrat (1886-1938) thus also putting in perspective some overall intellectual
trends in Turkestan especially in Bukhara in the early 1910s. Based on Fitrat's early
publications the book discusses what intellectual milieu it was that shaped his worldview in
the early 1910s a worldview that could be designated as a first attempt at freedom and
sovereignty through Islam. A thorough review of these publications also brings greater clarity
to the issue of Fitrat's ethnical identity which sheds light on how he related to the
worldwide community of Muslims and how he positioned himself towards political unity of the
Muslim World. Furthermore by scrutinizing Fitrat's intellectual legacy of 1910-1915 this book
highlights some of the origins of Jadidism in Turkestan and places Turkestani Jadidism in the
context of worldwide Muslim reformism at the turn of the 20th century.
