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LEO TOLSTOY AND ISLAM SOME REMARKS ON THE THEME

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This article was published in: “The Quarterly Journal of Philosophical
Meditations”, Vol.2, No. 5, Spring 2010, pp. 2-22

LEO TOLSTOY AND ISLAM

SOME REMARKS ON THE THEME
DR. PIOTR STAWINSKI

ABSTRACT

The paper presents the attitude of the great Russian writer, Leo
Tolstoy, towards Islam. It was expressed in several levels from a
childhood fascination of folklore, through university studies and
personal contacts during the wartime career to a deep interest in
religious issues after the spiritual breakthrough. As in other religious
systems, the writer attempted to find what he considered as valuable
although he never avoided criticism of the matters he disagreed with.
An interesting example of it can be a dialogue with Kazan Tartars
quoted in the text. Moreover, perceiving numerous valuable elements
in Islam, he endeavored to bring it to a wider audience along with his
associates. The title issue is depicted on a broader, biographical and
artistic background of the activity of the writer.

INTRODUCTION


Assistant Professor in Study of Religions, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University, Poland (E-
mail: Bielany@autograf.pl). The author thanks to Marzena Zaba for her valuable assistance in the
preparation of this essay.
1
Leo Tolstoy is commonly known as a writer, author of War and Peace,
Anna Karenina, Resurrection. These literary works are outstanding, but
what is related to their formation, is only a part of a much richer and more
complex personality of their creator. The knowledge of Tolstoy as the
author of those three pillars of nineteenth-century Russian literature is
only half truths. The full truth has a chance to meet a reader in A
Confession, What I Believe, The Kingdom of God is Within You, Critique
of Dogmatic Theology1 and other works, where with courage and honesty,
‘the sage of Yasnaya Polyana’, draws a history of his constant quest to
achieve spiritual ideal.2
So we look at his articles on social and political subjects, in which,
with a huge commitment he raises the problems of his times, diaries,
memoirs, and numerous correspondence that show the dynamic
development of his worldview, constant striving after moral improvement,
and the crystallization of his relation to God, other people and to himself.
Therefore, we have two levels on which Tolstoy met various
religious systems, including Islam. One is related to his writing, it can be
called: erudite, and second, in which religious and ethical issues became
the writer's most vital and focused on life itself, its nature, purpose and
meaning. Of course, such a division is conventional and based on a clear
boundary between the two halves of the author’s life. The difference is
not only seen in the lifestyle or interests, but also in the themes and modes
of the literary expression. Accordingly, Islam was perceived initially as an
element of knowledge about the realities of literary described reality.

1
Critique of Dogmatic Theology was his first important religious work, written in 1880, and then
followed immediately by another important work, A Synopsis and Translation of the Four Gospels,
(written 1881; abridged under the title A Short Account of the Gospels).
2
See also essays on social issues such as: What Then Must We Do?, The Slavery of Our Time, Thou
Shalt Not Kill, Bethink Yourself and others.
2
 The second level started with great intensity in the second half of
his life, when he was in his late forties. Being already well-known and
respected writer, Tolstoy was losing the sense and meaning of life, and the
value of existence:

‘I felt that what I have been standing on had collapsed and that I had
nothing left under my feet. What I had lived on no longer existed, and
there was nothing left. My life came to standstill… My mental condition
presented itself to me in this way: my life is a stupid and spiteful joke
someone has played on me… it is impossible not to see that it is all the
mere fraud and a stupid fraud!’3

Years 1875-1878, was a particularly strained period of exploration

with crisis reaching up to the suicidal thoughts, and then healing by a
faith. The faith that was born as a result of reappraisal of his ideals in life
which not only saved him from the worst but also brought some
reassurance. In reality, however, the writer was looking for the most
appropriate formula to the end of his life, and it was that constant quest
that made him open to philosophical, religious and ethical ideas and
brought him closer to several representatives of the religious life of
different continents.

‘Tolstoi rightly believed that the specifically ethical doctrines of

Christianity can be fairly easily paralleled in other religions and the
philosophical schools, that there is, in fact, no special Christian but only a
true ethic, which might be acknowledged by all, whether Christian or not.’4

3
L. Tolstoy, A Confession, English translation of Aylmer Maude, in: J. Bayley (ed.), The Portable
Tolstoy, New York 1978, pp.677, 679
4
E. Lampert, On Tolstoi, Prophet and Teacher, ‘Slavic Review’, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Dec. 1966), p. 610.
3
FASCINATED BY FOLKLORE

Before beginning his own study on the religious and philosophical

tradition of the East, Leo Tolstoy was significantly influenced by its
folklore and artistic heritage. It reached into the times of his childhood
and the fascination with narratives of The Book of One Thousand and One
Nights (The Arabian Nights), the collection of Indo-Persian tales that
around the early tenth century began to circulate in Baghdad as an Arabic
collection. The collection, which in the following centuries was a
continuously enriched source of cultural studies of the world rather than
historical knowledge and certainly under the influence of Islamic vision of
history.
At Pelageya Nikolaevna Tolstoy (nee Gorchakov) home, the
writer's grandmother (babushka), lived a blind storyteller, Lev Stepanych.
With monotonous, singsong voice he used to tell his mistress bedtime
stories about king Shahryar and his brother King Shah Zaman, stories
about righteous God and others. If his grandmother happened to fall
asleep he would continue the interrupted story the next day, according to
the loved ones.5
In the pre-emancipation Russia talented peasants at a manor house
infrequently carried out such entertainment to owners and Stepanych was
exceptionally gifted. He was able to tell a tale the word for word after
hearing it just few times.6 This mysterious figure, living at home but seen
only in the evenings when going to grandmother’s bedroom with a couple
of new fairy tales, made a great impression on young Tolstoy. He
probably had the opportunity to listen to the old men stories several times
5
L.N. Tolstoy, Moi vospominaniya, Moscow 1933, p.20. Countess Pelageya Nikolaevna (1768-1838),
wife of Ilya Andreyevich Tolstoy, Governor of Kazan.
6
N.N. Gusev, Lev Nikolaevitch Tolstoy. Materialy k biografii s 1828 po 1855, Moscow 1954, p.70; R.
Bartlett, Tolstoy. A Russian Life, London 2010, p.40.
4
and later he thought about these times as the most meaningful and
expressive moments of his childhood.7
Many years later, when asked in June 1891 by a Moscow bookseller
and publisher Michael M. Lederle for a list of books that have had the
greatest moral and intellectual impression on him at different periods of
his life, Tolstoy put The Book… in the range of the age of fourteen.8 He
singled out only the Old Testament story of Joseph and his brothers9,
traditional Russian stories and folk tales (byliny), and a novel of Antoni
Pogorelsky The Little Black Hen, or the Underground People. A Fairy
Story for Children [1829], but the Pushkin’s poem Napoleon (1821, the
year of Napoleon’s death) he treated equally with it.10 Nikolay Gusev, a
secretary of the writer in his youths, a devout Tolstoyan and his
biographer afterwards, emphasized that the strong impression made by
these works on the writer remained to the end of his life.11
Of course, the mentioned literature Tolstoy knew not only from the
tales heard in his grandmother's house, but also from his own reading. At
that time there had already been several translations of it into Russian.
The French orientalist Antoine Galland (1646-1715) was the first
European translator of The Book of Thousand and One Nights. His
translation in twelve volumes appeared between 1704 and 1717 and
exerted a huge influence on subsequent European literature and attitudes

7
E. Zaydenshnur, Narodnaya pesnya…, p.514; L.N. Tolstoy, Vospominaniya detstva, in: L.N. Tolstoy,
Polnoie sobranie sochinenii, Moscow 1928-1964, Vol.1, p.348. See also: Vol.34, p.361. Stiepanych
appeared in one of the earliest version of War and Peace, where in the Rostov’s house blind storyteller
told his Countess bedtime stories.
8
Letter to M.M. Lederle from 25th Oct. 1891. L.N. Tolstoy, Polnoie sobranie…, Vol.66, p.67.
9
Genesis, 37-50
10
N.N. Gusev, Lev Nikolaevitch Tolstoy…, pp.140-142.
11
Ibidem, p.141
5
to the Islamic heritage. The Russian translations from the French appeared
in Russia as far back as XVIII century.12
Tolstoy could have come into contact with one of them, the 12-
volume translation from the French, Nikiforov’s edition, published in
Moscow in 1796 and used it when he was absorbed with the pedagogical
work in his own school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy
presumably made use of some fragments of fairy tales, adapting them to
reality, sensitivity and imagination of Russian children (e.g. replacing Ali
Baba with Dushenka). As a result, in the year 1862 some children’s books
were issued as a supplement to the pedagogical journal ‘Yasnaya Polyana’
which contained two stories from The Book of One Thousand and One
Nights: Dushenka and the Forty Thieves and Unfair Trial.13
Tolstoy returned to the Arabic theme in the early 1870s, when
preparing the Primer (Azbuka). It consisted of Turkish, Hindu, Arabic and
Chinese myths and legends. In this work he benefited of a French
publication: ‘Pantheon litteraire. Orientale Literature’ published in Paris
in 1839.
To the end of his days Tolstoy thought highly of this literature. It
can be proved with the words of his sons’ teacher, Vladimir Lazursky,
who wrote on 5th July 1894:

12
The first twelve volumes were published in Moscow in the years 1763-1774, 1794-1795. The
volumes 13-20 were added in Smolensk in 1796. Knigoizdatelskoe delo na Smolenshchine,
http://www.admin-smolensk.ru/our_region/enciklopediya/books/ (11.11.2011)
13
Appeared in February and March 1862. A lot of information on Tolstoy’s early contact with Arabic
literature I gained from : E. Zaydenshnur, Folklor narodov Vostoka v tvorchestve L.N. Tolstogo,
‘Sovietskoe Vostokovedene’, Moscow 1958, No. 6; and: the same author and title, in: Yasnopolyanski
sbornik. Statii i materialy. God 1960-i, Tula 1960, pp.19-39.
6
 ‘He [Tolstoy] likes and appreciates the Arabian tales and says that it can
be awkward in the old age but young people should read them
mandatory.’14

MEETING WITH MIURIDISM

Tolstoy acquainted himself with the Arabic culture and language in the
years 1844-1945, when he was studying Oriental Studies at the faculty of
Arab and Turkish at at University of Kazan, founded by tsar Alexander I
in 1905. In spite of the periods of intense Russification the town didn’t
lose its Tartar atmosphere, to which Catherine the Great contributed
restoring the right to build mosques. In Tolstoy’s youth, the level of
education there was high (‘the second after the St. Petersburg center for
Oriental studies’15) and the town itself, because of its location, was to
some extent a link between East and West culture. It was portrayed by
Edward Tracy Turnelli who lived in Kazan in the mid-nineteenth century:

‘University of Kazan may, in many respects, compete with the most

celebrated Universities of Europe; I will even add here, that in one point it
surpasses every other that exist: I allude to the study of the oriental
languages. As regards this branch of education, there is really no
establishment in the world which offers the student such great advantages
as does the University of this town. Independent of the lessons of
numerous professors many of whom (for instance Mirza Kazembeck) have
acquired, by their writings, a European reputation, and under whose
guidance the student becomes theoretically acquainted with the oriental

14
‘Literaturnoe nasledstvo’, Moscow 1939, No. 37-38, p.460; N.N. Gusiew, Lev Nikolaevitch
Tolstoy…, p.142.
15
L. Bazylow, Historia nowozytnej kultury rosyjskiej, (History of Modern Russian Culture, In Polish),
Warsaw 1986, p.183. See also: N.A. Mazitova, Izuczenie Blizhnego i Srednego Vostoka v kazanskom
universitete. 1-aya poł. XIX w., Kazan 1972.
7
 languages, there exists moreover what is greatly wanting in other
European Universities – extraordinary and unexampled opportunities for
the practical study of these tongues and dialects. The town of Kazan, alone
in the world, possesses a University attached to which are to be found
Persians, Turks, Mongols, Tartars, Armenians, etc.’16

At the beginning Tolstoy hoped for a diplomatic career but soon he

changed his mind and abandoned his studies in Kazan. Several dozen
years later [1909] he would mention learning Arabic at the University of
Kazan and noted with regret that he had forgotten almost everything
‘except for reading and a few words’17. He also believed that Oriental
education would be more appropriate in Russia than classical.18
During his stay in the Caucasus, first accompanying his brother and
then joining the army as a cadet or later involved himself into the vortex
of the Crimean War and struggling with the allied forces as an artillery
officer defending Sebastopol, the writer had many opportunities to meet
Muslims, representing a multimillion part of community in Russian
Empire and living mainly in areas of Central Asia in Kazakhstan, Tataria,
Bashkortostan. The Caucasian issues reflected in many of the Tolstoy's
works such as, ‘The Raid’, ‘The Wood Cutting Expedition’, ‘Meeting a
Moscow Acquaintance in the Detachment’, ‘The Cossacks’, ‘The
16
E.T. Turnerelli, Kazan, the Ancient Capital of the Tartar Khans; with an account of the province to
which it belongs, the tribes and races which forms its population, etc., London 1854, Vol.I, p.270.
Mentioned here world -famous professor Mirza Kazembeck (1802-1870), was an eminent Orientalist,
an expert on Persian culture and language, whose name appeared on the list of the foreign members of
the Royal Asiatic Society in London in the years 1835-1871. He was called ‘the Patriarch of Russian
Oriental Studies’. See: A.D.H. Bivar, The Portraits and Career of Mohammed Ali, Son of Kazem-Beg:
Scottish Missionaries and Russian Orientalism, ‘Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies’, London 1994, Vol. 57, No. 2, p.295; D. Schimmelpennick ven der Oye, Russian Orientalism:
Asia in the Russian Mind from Peter the Great to the Emigration, New Haven 2010.
17
U Tolstogo 1904-1910. ‘Jasnopolyanskye zapiski’ D.P. Makovickogo, ‘Literaturnoe nasledstvo’,
Moscow 1981, Vol. 90, kn. III, p.326.
18
Tolstoy said: ‘It might have been necessary in the West, as many scholars, theologians, philosophers
wrote there in Latin. But with us there is no raison d’être of general classical education. We are closer
to the East and would rather study languages: Hindi, Chinese, even Persian and philosophical literature
of these countries, which is extremely interesting.’ [A. Goldenweiser, Tolstoj wsrod bliskich, Warsaw
1961, p.281, In Polish]
8
Caucasian Captive’. But it was his last comprehensive work, entitled
‘Hadji Murat’, in which the fate of the eponymous hero was presented in
the most extensive and dramatic way. Describing the fate of the dzhigit19
fighting alongside the spiritual and military leader of Caucasian Muslim
tribes, Szamil, and after that collaborating with Russians against him, the
writer aimed at accomplishing a psychological analysis of a man
entangled in a clash between two powerful despotisms: Asian and
European. Shamil’s fight, lasting from 1834 to 1859, were the actions
provoked largely by the tsarist administration taking the land from the
Highlanders and selling it to the Cossacks settling here. What’s more the
burdens imposed on the local people in connection with the construction
of growing number of military fortifications and defenses became very
acute. In such conditions, single actions of dzhigits consequently turned
into a long Caucasian war, waged under religious slogans of gazavat.
Tolstoy indirectly illustrated the spiritual character of miuridism,
the religious movement in Islam, developing in the northern Caucasus in
the nineteenth century. Active in the struggle against the colonial policy
of tsarist Russia miuridism popularized the ideas of a theocratic Islamic
state in the area. At that time the writer probably acquainted with the
Sufism, thought and like many of his contemporaries overestimated the
connections between the miuridism and the Islamic mystical tradition.
Since, as shown in the recent studies, there is no justification for
miuridism to be considered as the Caucasian variant of Sufism. Despite
some similarities, terminological as well as organizational, and the revival
of mystic attitudes in the Caucasus in the nineteenth century, miuridism

19
Dzhigit is the term describing the brave and honorable person in the Central Asia and Caucasus. It is
worth to note that Tolstoy during more than two years in the Caucasus won from locals this highest
commendation, the title of dzhigit. E.J. Simmons, L. N. Tolstoi: A Cadet in the Caucasus, ‘Slavonic
Year-Book. American Series’, 1941, Vol.1 p.27.
9
was closer to the orthodox fundamentalism rather than intellectualism and
mysticism of Sufis.20
Since then it seems that Tolstoy saw Islam from the angle of the
‘spiritual journey’ [tariqa], which - as we shall see below - hindered him
from the communication with Kazan Tartars. ‘Haji Murat’ was written in
the years 1896-1904, the time of discussions with the various Muslim
communities. It wasn’t published until after the writer’s death.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE TARTARS

At the beginning of 1901 the Holy Synod announced Tolstoy’s

exclusion from the Orthodox Church (sometimes not precisely defined as
anathema) and warned of the harmfulness of his views. Document signed
by the metropolitans of Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Kiev decreed that
Church does not consider writer as its member.21
The writer received expressions of solidarity from various circles of
the society including Kazan Tartars, which started the exchange of letters
and views on religious subjects. ‘Your unanimity in the main elements of
my faith, expressed in response to the Synod’s ruling, made me very happy
- he replied to them - I greatly appreciate spiritual relations with Muslims’.22
Further correspondence was less courteous, but more matter-of-fact. The

20
A.K. Alikberow, Sovremennoe musulmanskoe vozrozhdenie na Kavkaze: osobennosti, tendencii i
perspektivy, [w:] Islam i problemy mezhcivilizacionnyh vzaimodeystviy, Moscow 1994, pp.23-24.
21
The reasons for excommunication were numerous, ‘most notably for attacking the basic tenets of
canonical doctrine… the Trinity, the virgin birth, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, the
existence of angels and devils, the six-day creation of the world, the Garden of Eden, and Adam’s
expulsion from paradise.’ [I. Bunin, The Liberation of Tolstoy: a Tale of Two Writers, Evanston 2001,
p.188].
22
J. Koblov, Graf L.N. Tolstoi i musulmane (Po povodu perepiski L.N. Tolstogo s kazanskimi tatarami),
Kazan 1904, p.4.
10
writer made a distinction between ‘faith’ [Russian: vera] and ‘trust’
[Russian: dovere], to explain his and Islamic relation to the religion:

‘What you call faith is in fact the trust, I mean, the recognition as true what
someone well-known said; all religions are based on such trust… there are
thousands of them, contradicting each other and hence comes all the evil in
the world. The true faith is merely the one recognizing the existence of the
Supreme Cause – God I came from and to whom I return, for whom I live
and a part of whom I am.’23

In a letter addressed to someone called Asfendiar Ziaynetdinovich,

Tolstoy expressed his distrust of any pretenders to the role of prophet and
points to the source of wholesome religious beliefs, which in his opinion
exists within every human being:

‘Let’s listen to two people, but not prophets (there aren’t any), just ordinary
people. One of them asks: Do you feel that there is something more in you,
not only body? Everybody… answers that there is something spiritual,
thinking and loving. Is this spiritual being almighty? No, limited. Then we
say: therefore, there should also be an unlimited being – God, whom in this
imperfect way you feel in yourself and you are part of. So says the first one,
not talking about himself that God sent him to be a prophet. What he says
everybody knows and can find in themselves.
The second man – Muhammad – begins with the words: believe me, I
am a prophet and everything I tell you and what is written in the Qur’an is
the truth revealed to me by God. Then anyone who is not a fool asks: Why
should I believe that your teachings come from God? I have not seen Him
giving them to you and I have no evidence that you are a prophet. There are
prophets of Buddhists, Brahmins, Mormons and they say the same about
themselves.

23
Ibidem, p.10.
11
 Therefore, that you say you are a prophet does not persuade me in
any way of the truthfulness of this teaching and the Qur’an. I have not seen
the ‘fly to the Seventh Heaven’ so this argument is not convincing, either.24
There are some unclear passages in the Qur’an, and even – as I heard from
people – historically inaccurate. I might be convinced only with what I feel
and what can be subjected to verification of thought and inner experience.
That is the answer of the wise one… to the words of the other and I
think he is right.
These are, dear brother, my views on Islam. It will become good
teachings, consistent with the beliefs of all truly religious people only if it
rejects blind faith in Muhammad and the Qur’an and becomes consistent
with reason and the conscience of all people. Please, forgive me if my words
have offended you. The truth cannot be spoken partly – the whole truth or
nothing.’25

He received a full reply, which seems to be worth citing, since it illustrates

the position of Muslims in the discussion:

My dear, kind Leo Nikolaevich,

We cannot cease to muse on the letters from you, which complement
one another filled us with amazement as well as encouraged to join in the
discussion. In your first letter you spoke about the knowledge of the term
‘tariqa’ and the Sufi tradition. By paying them all due respect, you cannot
agree with the fact that the knowledge of God was to affect only some
people, properly prepared by the asceticism and the prayer. I do beg your
pardon, but this shows your incomplete knowledge of ‘tariqa’ which you
have drawn not from the source but the Orientalists secondary opinions.
The temperance, moral life, pondering over God are only the ways of
bringing our soul closer to Him and not to grasp the meaning of His

24
On the subject of the Tolstoy’s critical attitude to the ’fly to the Seventh Heaven’ report, see: G.M.
Hamburg, Tolstoy’s Spirituality, in: D.T. Orwin (ed.), Anniversary Essays on Tolstoy, New York 2010,
s.141.
25
J. Koblov, Graf L.N. Tolstoi i musulmane…, pp.11-12. I quoted extensive fragments of the letter, for
clarity with minor stylistic corrections.
12
 existence with our senses. We cannot agree with you that the human soul is
the part of deity. However, we believe that it is able to understand God
because according to our teachings He penetrates it and rises to commune
with Him. In this way happens to the soul of the most obdurate godless
person.
We were really surprised with your judgment of Islam, which
replicate medieval prejudices. As it turns out, nowadays they have control
over the minds, even with the likes of Leo Tolstoy. You say that it will
become a good religion ‘if it rejects the blind faith in Muhammad and the
Qur’an and becomes consistent with reason and conscience of all people’.
Therefore, we can conclude that also in your opinion, there is in Islam an
element consistent with reason and conscience of all people, whilst there is
really nothing in it inconsistent with them, if it is not seen from the angle of
Christian bias. ‘The lies, which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this
man [Muhammad], are disgraceful to ourselves’26 – said Thomas Carlyle. A
Muslim is the last to whom an allegation of blind faith can be made against.
As Muhammad said to some envoys of the Arab tribes, explaining the
essence of his teachings: ‘Do not oppose me, to what is good for you’, thus
opening the way to meditations.
From our, Muslim’s point of view, there is no blind faith, there is
only the faith confirmed with reason. The man you mentioned feels
something unclear which he cannot explain reasonably whereas I, the
Muslim, can see everything around me: the sky, the ground, the stars, people
and animals, and I know that neither me nor anybody else can create
something of the kind. Therefore, there is a Being who has created all of
them. I muse on myself: here I have the sense of sight to see, sense of smell
to enjoy the scent of flowers, the sense of hearing to delight in the bird song
and finally the ability to think. When I ask myself who gave you all of it, the
only answer is that the same Being did it. Thus, the faith was born - a clear,
well thought out and based on self-evidence, not a vague feeling. There is no
blind faith in God at all, since the Qur’an repeatedly refers to human reason.

26
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic In History by Thomas Carlyle, Lecture II [May 8, 1840]:
The Hero as Prophet. Mahomet: Islam. A PENN STATE ELECTRONIC CLASSICS SERIES
PUBLICATION, 2001, p.40 http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/carlyle/heroes.pdf (11.11.2011).
13
 As for the faith in Muhammad, isn’t he deserves the reverence we
have for him? Yes, but note that we say: ‘We confess: Muhammad is a
servant and the Prophet of God’. That is why there is no possibility of his
deification, as it was with another great man. Qur’an says addressing
Muhammad: ‘Say: I am only a mortal like you; it is revealed to me that your
god is one God’.27 Such an attitude towards himself, makes his teachings
approachable to a man, who senses something close to his soul, the familiar
meaning that does not come from an angel in heaven but from someone like
him, mortal and living on the earth. This is one of the greatest merits of
Muhammad, brightening his face. He wanted neither fame nor wealth for
himself. ‘The places of worship are for Allah (alone)’28.
That is why he demanded humility, sincere devotion [Islam] but not
for himself, for God. It does not concern some kind of fatalistic humility, as
it is sometimes believed, but devotion arising from gratitude for His
generosity, praise for His profound wisdom, striving for Him. This is the
love of the truth, God is the Truth after all. In these few words the essence of
Islam is included.
History knows no other man who has performed such a feat having
nothing more than burning desire for freeing his compatriots from a
misconception and a firm conviction of his own mission. Neither the
persecutions he encountered nor ridicule he was met with nor life threatening
were able to stop him. This was not just a sheer coincidence but a
manifestation of Providence. I have no intention of elaborating on this
subject as you could say that it is the Muslim’s view. Nevertheless, I cannot
remain silent about your comment on the Night Journey of Muhammad,
ironically called 'the fly to the Seventh Heaven' as it is one of the main
matter under criticism of Islam by its opponents.
In order not to bother you extensively, I can say briefly that none of
the Muhammad’s proof of the truthfulness of his teachings about God is
based on it. What is more, the Qur’an mentions that it was merely a dream,
glorious, astounding and even prophetic, if you want, but despite of

27
Qur’an, 18:110.
28
Qur’an, 72:18.
14
 everything only a dream. Here is the verse: ‘We granted the vision which We
showed thee.’29 Muhammad did not mean to depict his ‘fly’ as something
miraculous, sent by God, he simply tells about the dream. As for the
adherents of Islam, isn’t the religion responsible for proselytes’
understanding of its truths?
We cannot blame Islam for the fact that the dream of its founder was
taken a miracle – one of the foundation stones of the evidence of its divine
nature.
Here, my highly esteemed Leo Nikolaevich, all I have to say on your
letter. I would like to emphasize once again necessity of summarizing, so as
not to make you tired of these significant issues.’30

THE ‘CIRCLE OF READING’

The writer’s interest in various religious systems and teachings was

enormous since the time of aforementioned spiritual breakthrough. Tolstoy
calls these teachings a ‘science’ but at the same time he opposes it to the
‘world, deceitful science’.

‘The goal of science, according to Tolstoy, should be to expose people to

the laws of life, which will ‘infect’ them with goodness.’31

That is why the faith is a science for him as it tries to find the answers to
the mankind fundamental questions, the meaning of life, human destiny.

29
Qur’an, 17:60. The author of the letter numbers the verse as 62 and inserts the word ‘dream’ in
brackets after the word ‘vision’.
30
J. Koblow, op.cit., pp.11-18. There is no name of the author so we cannot tell if it was mentioned
earlier Zaynetdinovich.
31
K.C. Wenzer, Tolstoy's Georgist Spiritual Political Economy (1897-1910): Anarchism and Land
Reform, ‘American Journal of Economics and Sociology’, 1997, Vol. 56, No, 4, p.640.
15
These answers are not given by scholars but wise men and religious
thinkers of all times and nations. 32
Tolstoy also studied Islam, knew the Qur’an and wanted to
disseminate this knowledge in the society. Already in 1884 he had the
idea of issuing a set of the most valuable thoughts of eminent
representatives of humanity, a compendium of texts on various spiritual
themes for any given day for a year (‘Circle of Reading’). Later he
formulated it as follows:

‘We own sifted through a strainer of time thoughts of wise men who have
emerged during the millennia among nations. The mediocrity was
rejected, remaining only what was independent, self-reliant and needed,
preached by all the sages of the world – Zoroaster, Buddha, Lao-tse,
Confucius, Socrates, Plato, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Jesus, Muhammad,
and among the moderns, Rousseau, Pascal, Kant, Emerson, Channing, and
many others.’33.

In November 1884 a publishing house ‘Posrednik’ (The

Intermediary) established together with a writer’s friend and collaborator
Vladimir Chertkov was to serve purposes for the general public. The
editorial office, the bookshop and the storehouse were situated at first in St.
Petersburg and then (from 1892) in Moscow where inexpensive, but
considered by its organizers as useful for spiritual development books were
printed. The house issued large printings of many books by Tolstoy,
Vsevolod Garshin, Vladimir Korolenko, and other Russian and foreign

32
L.N. Tolstoy, Polnoie sobranie…, Vol.38, p.136.
33
L.N. Tolstoy, Dnevniki 1895-1910 gg, Moscow 1965, 23 X 1909; W.F. Asmus, Mirovozrenie
Tolstogo, ‘Literaturnoe nasledstvo’, Moscow 1961, kn.1, p.57.
16
writers like Thoreau, Emerson, Eliot, Dickens.34 Chertkov persecuted by the
state authorities and then exiled from Russia moved to England in February
1897, where he continued his activity, according to his principles.
Tolstoy’s relations with Islam were revived considerably when he
was preparing to print a small collection of Muhammad’s thoughts. It was
based on the selection of Hadiths issued in India in 1905, edited by
Islamic scholar and academic Abdullah al-Mamun Suhrawardy35 who sent
a copy to the writer. In Tolstoy’s opinion all of them were interesting and
profound, and the whole book deserved to be published. They allowed
him to overcome his prejudice towards the Prophet and the Qur’an, which
he previously harboured and led him to a deeper studies of Islam.
We know that he read a book by W. Solovyov, ‘Muhammad, His
Life and Teachings’, published in St. Petersburg in 1902. Tolstoy's work
on that theme didn’t appear until the year of his death [1910]. It was
printed in the aforesaid publishing house ‘Posrednik’ as: ‘The Statements
of Muhammad not included in the Qur’an. Selected by L. N. Tolstoy, with
a foreword by N. Gusev: Who was Muhammad’. 36
The short, contained a few pages characteristics of a Prophet could
not, of course, provide complete information on the circumstances of the
creation, development, and principles of the religion in which ‘200
million people believe all over the globe’. It wasn’t the main goal of the
writer, though. For our deliberations it is worth quoting a paragraph
illustrating the basis of Islam:

34
‘The Intermediary was a huge success – 12 million of the little books it produced were sold in the
first four years of its existence’, one of which was Tolstoy’s story The Caucasian Captive [R. Bartlett,
op.cit., pp.315-316.
35
Sayings of Muhammad, London 1905. He was the publisher of the magazine ‘Light of the World’.
36
Series: Zamechatelnye mysliteli vseh vremen i narodov. Izrechenya Magometa ne voshedshe w Koran
izbrannye L.N. Tolstym. Perevod s angliyskogo S.D. Nikolaeva. Izdanye „Posrednika” No. 762, Moscow
1910, p.31.
17
 ‘The essence of this faith came down to the fact that there is no deity
worthy of worship except the One True Almighty God, that He is merciful
and just, and will judge each person individually, according to his or her
faith and the balance of his or her good and bad actions which means
peace for the righteous, and damnation for evildoers… He wants people to
love Him as well as each other. The love for God is expressed in a prayer,
compassion for others, assistance and forgiveness.’37

Further he emphasizes the persecutions that Muhammad and his followers

suffered, and the positive distinguishing features of the new community.
However, ‘rejecting the war and violence in the social and material
issues’, the Prophet, succumbing to the pressure from his fellow believers,
allowed ‘militancy in faith matters thinking that he will please God by
winning the faithful with force…’38
A little further we find the echo of the Tolstoy’s idea not to oppose
the evil with violence (passive resistance) when it is said that

‘regardless of the strict morality and purity of Muslims life, causing the
sympathy and respect of all, the teachings have not spread like religions
advocating gentleness, mercy and granting only God the right to decide
about life and death‘.39

The foreword was written by Gusev, but it was Tolstoy who was
the editor of the entire composition, so that we can assume that it
expresses his views on Islam. All the more so because we have a
testimony of the Moscow Conservatory professor, pianist, a close friend
of the writer, Alexander Goldenweiser, that Tolstoy had a considerable
influence on the content of the entry. As a result, the parts underscored the

37
Izrechenya Magometa..., p.4.
38
U Tolstogo 1904-1910.., Vol. 90, kn. III, p.325
39
Ibidem
18
negative side of Muhammad’s last years of life had been removed. If we
are to believe Goldenweiser, it was in accordance with the goal of the
publication (indicating highly-valued aspects of Islam), and on account of
feelings of Muslims.40 And yet, even after the corrections a note of
criticism still remained.

Conclusion

The attitude of Leo Tolstoy towards Islam deserves an extensive

analysis. Although ‘the elder of Yasnaya Polana’ was not devoid of
criticism, a great deal of Islamic teachings was close to his heart. At the
end of his life, in1909, he said that he had always referred to Islam with
the great respect, and thought that it compared favorably with the
Orthodox teachings. This superiority, as he explained, was the
consequence of the later appearance of Islam, avoiding misapprehensions
of Christianity and what is more it did not require a dramatic change in
the life of the individual.
The interest in Islam as well as other religion systems was for
Tolstoy a manifestation of his concern about both his and other people
fate and the fate of other societies. The author of ‘The Resurrection’
believed that wisdom of the Vedas, Taoism, Christianity and Islam has the
same religious basis, aiming for strengthening and unity.

40
A. Goldenweiser, op. cit., p.302. According to the author’s recollections, Tolstoy asked the editor of
‘Posrednik’, Ivan Gorbunov-Posadov, for making amendments. It was under the influence of a close
friend and follower of Tolstoy, Paul Boulanger’s remarks, expressed in a conversation on 26 th Aug.
1909.
19
 ‘What is common to religions is also in the Qur’an: Proclamation of Love.
The Qur’an is consistent and Muhammad forbids war as a mean to expand
Islam and killing. In fact, we do not know Islam as Muslims know
Christianity and the nation without a religion is doomed to be in a
deplorable state…’ 41

41
Ibidem, p.251 (a note made 21st Nov. 1909)
20

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