About the book: 2019 / In the 60-70s of the 19th century, the Russian Empire completed the long and complex process of annexing the Kazakh steppes. In order to establish the management of these territories, St. Petersburg needed to codify local law - study it, clear it of what was considered “wild customs”, as well as the influence of Islam - and bring it into a common system. This book examines the specifics of this project and the numerous difficulties that its organizers encountered. Participants in the codification and, more broadly, construction of knowledge about the legal culture of the Kazakh steppe were not only imperial officials and oriental scholars, but also local residents. Each of these actors had different motives and had different ideas about the key problem of codification - the relationship between adat (customary law) and sharia (Islamic law). Why was this problem so difficult to solve? What discussions did it generate in the empire? Why has Russia been unable to implement any of the projects for the codification of customary law - not only in the Kazakh steppe, but also in other regions, such as Eastern Siberia and the North Caucasus? The authors of the book are specialists in the history of Muslim societies: Pavel Shablei - associate professor Kostanay branch of Chelyabinsk State University, Paolo Sartori - senior researcher at the Institute of Iranian Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.