Our mission

The Mardjani Foundation for Support of Research and Cultural Programs, named in honour of  the eminent Tatar scholar and Muslim theologian Shihabutdin Mardjani (1818 - 1889) is founded in 2006 as the result of ten years creative activities of the team of scholars and historians.

As a non-governmental non-profit private operating organization our sphere of interest is the support of original research projects in all branches of humanities, arts and social sciences concerned with the historical heritage of Islam in Russia and Eurasia. Actually our activities focus largely on holding exhibitions, as well as publishing and cultural and educational programs in the field Islamic studies and Muslim culture in Russia and Eurasia.

The Foundation promotes implementation of  research, educational and cultural projects and actions, aiming to preserve cultural traditions of Eurasian peoples, whose past and present are connected to Islam. We actively cooperate with academic institutions, research and cultural centers, museums and other public organizations in Russia and  other states of the Former Soviet Union.

Publishing program of the Foundation includes publication of project proceedings, classical works of the Islamic literature and religious heritage, contemporary studies by Russian orientalists in history, linguistics, social anthropology, arts and more. In the field of preservation and propagation of museum collections the Mardjani Foundation has held series of exhibitions, prepared in collaboration with several leading museums, such as the State Museum of Oriental Art and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Hermitage Exhibition Center ant the Tatarstan State Museum of Fine Arts in Kazan.

Research program of the Foundation includes translations of fundamental works of Islamic religious and political thought of the past and the present from Arabic, Persian, different Turkic and Caucasian languages, introduction of valuable archival sources, related to the history of Muslim communities in Russia, the Former Soviet Union, Middle & Near East and Europe and further development of research contacts between scholars in Russia and abroad.

In order to carry out this huge program, the Foundation keeps close contacts with the leading Russian academic institutions, including the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian State University for the Humanities, the Russian University of National Friendship, the Kazan Federal University and the Mardjani Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Among other research and cultural projects, initiated by the Foudation one should mention gathering the cilection of objects of fuine and decorative arts created by different Turkic and Muslim peoples in the past and the present, on the basis of which the Islamic Arts Museum is planned to be established in Moscow.

The Mardjani Foundation is open to dialogue and collaboration with all parties in the Russian Federation, interested in implementation of research and cultural projects as concerned the above mentioned field of activities.