An Epistle of Change: “Ta？āduf al-Shar？ wa’l-Zamān…”

This is a brief note about Shākirjān ？amīdī, a Tatar scholar of the Kazan region active in the early 20th century, and his short epistle entitled Ta？āduf al-Shar？ wa’l-Zamān fī Balda Ma？rūfa bi-Qazān (A Chance Meeting of the Law and the Time in a City Known as Kazan). The author composed the work in an ingenious way as a dialogue between the Law (sharī？a) and the Time (zamān), in which they discuss the necessity of change on a number of hot religious issues between reformists and traditionalists of the time. A minor figure in the Jadidist camp, ？amīdī and a number of works by him seem to be rather neglected in modern studies on the reformist movement. This article aims to bring him and his work to the attention of scholars and after a short introduction provides a modern Turkish translation of the above-mentioned work with the facsimile of the original 1904 publication