Akif Tahiiev is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany, and the University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran. Also, he is a research and teaching assistant at the Department of Human Rights and Legal Methodology, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Kharkiv, Ukraine. Previously he was a Visiting Fellow at the Goethe University Frankfurt, the University of Vienna, and the IWM (Vienna, Austria). He holds a PhD in Law from Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University (Ukraine) with a thesis on Shia Islamic Law and its specifics.

Research Interests:

• Shia Islam
• Minorities
• Islamic Law
• Islam in Europe (especially Eastern)
• Comparative Law
• Legal History

 

Current Research Project:

“Russian Invasion and Shia Muslims of Ukraine”

The war in Ukraine has drawn more attention to the events taking place in Eastern Europe, including the processes within the Muslim communities of the region. But, as before, most of these studies are one-sided and not all-encompassing, since they do not pay attention to the minority issues such as processes within local Shia communities. Although many authors do not emphasize that their research concerns local Sunni Islam only, such a conclusion can be made by analysing their results and how local Shia Islam still remains little researched. This project will focus on how the war affected the religious life of Ukrainian Shia Muslims and traditional religious authority constructs for some of them, and how their experiences can be explained through different social concepts of identities.

Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications:

Tahiiev Akif. Shi’ism in the post-Soviet space: the influence of new media. / Шиизм на постсоветском пространстве: влияние новых медиа. In: Virtual Islam in the post-Soviet space: cyber environment and religious authorities, pp. 80–108 (Eds. E. Muratova & Z. Khabibullina). Idrak, Baku (2023).
Tahiiev Akif. Prospects for higher Shia religious education in post-Soviet countries. Religions 2023, 14(7), 822.
Tahiiev Akif. Impact of the Events of Saqifa on the Formation of Differences between the Islamic Sunni and Shia Tradition. Journal of Al-Tamaddun, Vol. 18 (1), 2023. 161–167.
Tahiiev Akif. Application of the Islamic Family Law in European Countries and experience of Ukraine / Практика застосування норм ісламського сімейного права в окремих країнах Європи та досвід України. Shìdnij svìt / The World of the Orient, 2023, No. 1 (118). 114–123. 
Tahiiev A., Lukianov D. The Role of the Events of Fadak in the Formation of Differences between the Islamic Sunni and Shia laws. Islamic Inquiries, 1 (1), 2022. 61–74. 
Tahiiev Akif. Minority within a minority: Shia community in Ukraine. International Journal of Islamic Thought, Vol. 19: (June), 2021. 14–20. 
Lukianov D.V., Ponomarova H.P., & Tahiiev A.S. The Quran in Shia Jurisprudence. Journal of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, 27(4), 2020.29–42.
Tahiiev Akif. Sources of Shia Islamic Law (According to the Twelvers madhhab), Theory and Practice of Jurisprudence. 2020. Issue 2 (18). 
Tahiiev Akif. Правова доктрина джерел ісламського права Імама Садика (Imam Sadiq’s legal doctrine of the sources of law), Recht der Osteuropäischer Staaten (ReOS), 2020(2): 62-66.