This book brings together a selection of academic texts on Islam in Central Asia and the biographies of the authors, most of them trained in Oriental Studies (vostokovedinie). The collection of biographies of Islamic intellectuals, ranging from officeholder to (opposition) politicians and academics, covers the late socialist period, perestroika and independence. They document the long-term transformations of Islamic identities of Central Asians and the impact intellectuals have on shaping contemporary society. The book aims to facilitate a comparative reflection on the effects of knowledge production on Islam in the matrix of social movements and the spirit of an epoch, personal life trajectories and convictions, politics and its effects. Several of the authors presented here are well-known in their scholarly or political field, so their articles have to be seen as authoritative texts in the same way as their biographies are. The main focus in this book is on the development of individual livelihoods and developments in a spectrum of scholarship, religious conviction and political activism.