My research focuses on the history of the encounter of Muslim societies with modernity from the perspective of the religious scholars (ulama) and Islamic law in the Volga-Ural region of the Russian Empire. I continue to examine in my current project how modernization and homogenization policies of the Russian state affected Muslim family and women in particular. Novelties introduced in the sphere of family law had a crucial impact on the practices of Muslim marriage and divorce and on Muslim family life in general. Moreover, the transformation of the religious authority of the ulama and Islamic law also had repercussions on the lives of Muslim women.