On October 2 at St. Petersburg State University, Vadimir Bobrovnikov from the Department of Central Asia and the Caucasus at the Institute of Asian and African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences delivered lectures for students of undergraduate and graduate programs in Islamic studies.

The first lecture, “Legal Pluralism and Customs among Muslims of the Russian Empire,” was devoted to various aspects of the interaction of three sources of law: adat, Sharia and secular law, as well as concerned the activities of Muslim judges and the specifics of the functioning of the waqf institution. In the second lecture, “The cult of saints in Islam: discourses, practices, politics,” Vladimir Bovrovnikov spoke about the variety of approaches to studying the Ziyara (visiting sacred objects) ritual in domestic and world Islamic studies and the attitude to this rite in various regions of the Muslim world.

Over the past 4 years, Vladimir Bobrovnikov regularly gives lectures for students of St. Petersburg State University.