Topic: Muslims in the Russian Empire – accommodation and resistance. Your essay should address the position of Muslims within the Russian Empire, citing at least one way in which the Russian Empire attempted to accommodate its Muslim subjects and at least one way in which Muslims resisted Russian rule.

Detailed instructions: Your essay does not have to cover all Muslims of the Russian Empire in all time periods. You might choose to focus on the nineteenth century, for instance, and/or you might want to focus in particular on one or two regions (for instance, the Volga, the Caucasus). You might also want to consider the divisions within Muslim communities during times of resistance (consider, for instance, the figure of Hadji Murat or the conflict created by the 1898 Andijan Uprising reflected in the poem by a resident of Namangan).

Every good history essay takes a position, and yours should as well. You might, for instance, weigh in on how effective Russian strategies for accommodating Muslims were, or you might think about the extent to which Islam mattered in Muslim-led resistance. A good thesis is one that your reader might argue against – but with enough evidence in the body of the essay, your reader should be convinced by the end of the essay that your interpretation/position is a good one.