The Role of Spiritual and Theological Literature in Tatar Culture of the XVIII and Early XX Centuries

The urgency of the problem under investigation is caused by the growing interest in the spiritual roots of national cultures, where there is Tatar culture among their number. Religious and theological literature is an essential part of the Tatar national culture and has played an invaluable role in its formation process. The purpose of the article is to identify the most significant works of the Tatar theological and spiritual literature of the period studied, to classify, to establish their basic cultural, historical, linguistic, functional and stylistic features. The leading methods of investigation used were the descriptive-comparative method and structural-linguistic analysis. These methods made it possible to observe the complex process of development of the Tatar religious literature from the XVIII century to the first decades of the XX century and to identify the main features of this process. It was determined that the Tatar theological literature of the XVIII - XIX centuries was enduring the same processes as the literary language of the same period. The most prominent and well-known works of the Tatar theological literature of the time were created by the intellectuals, who were known as the most educated part of the society, encyclopedic scientists fluent in several languages. Materials of the article can be useful to university teachers dealing with the courses on the history of Tatar literature, to oriental literature researchers, students and post-graduate students.