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Vol. 18, No. 1 (44)
Spring 2021

Journal based in 2004
Issued quarterly

The entire issue as a *.PDF file

PUBLICATIONS
HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, PHILOLOGY

“The Description of Ezo” by Arai Hakuseki. Introduction, translation from Japanese into Russian and commentaries by Vasilii V. Shchepkin — 5
“The Description of Ezo” is the first Japanese historical and geographical description of the Ainu, a people who lived to the north of the Japanese, in Hokkaido, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. It was written in 1720 by the famous scholar and statesman Arai Hakuseki (1657–1725). In the second half of the Edo period (1603–1867), owing to the figure of the author and lucidity of the text, “The Description” virtually acquired the status of an official document. It was a significant source for many later works on the Ainu. The article presents the first full translation of the text into Russian.
Key words: Ainu, Hokkaido, Kuril Islands, historical and geographical descriptions, Arai Hakuseki, Japan, civilization and barbarians

RESEARCH WORKS
HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, PHILOLOGY

 Youli A. Ioannesyan. The Tats of the Absheron Peninsula and Other Regions of the South Caucasus — 20
The article discusses the Tats, an ancient Iranian people of the Absheron Peninsula and other regions of the South Caucasus, who have partially survived there to the present day. On the basis of various sources — Russian, Azeri and Western — the author demonstrates that the Tats are an indigenous population of the above region with their own centuries-old history and traditional culture, who, despite the vicissitudes of fortune and sometimes unfavorable external circumstances, have preserved their language and identity.
Key words: Iranian peoples, Persian-speaking population of the Caucasus, ethnography of the South Caucasus

Zare A. Yusupova. Kurdish Poets: From the History of Kurdish Literary Studies — 29
The article presents an account of the history of Kurdish literary studies (based on the sources available to the author). Literature discussed in this work covers the period from the late Middle Ages to the mid-20th century. The article gives an extensive survey of research works on Kurdish literature, which exists in various dialects. It also defines the tasks for the studies of Kurdish literature.
Key words: poetic literature, written monuments, divans, collections of poetry, Kurdish studies in Russia

Anton D. Pritula. “Grammar is the Bridge to All Knowledge”: Short Poems on the Flyleaves in a Manuscript of the Metrical Grammar — 44
The article examines short poems written in the hand of ʿAbdīšōʿ of Gāzartā, East Syrian patriarch (1555–1570), poet and scribe, in his own copy of Bar ʿEbrōyō’s Metrical Grammar (1226–1286). The short works in question were added by the scribe himself between the larger texts, as well as on the flyleaves. The question of the relation of these poems, as regards their contents, to the main text of the Metrical Grammar is essential. This paper discusses the poetic features of these short texts, mainly quatrains, which illustrate the complex processes in the literary life of Christian communities during the Ottoman period. In addition, a general typology of these previously unknown texts is constructed.
Key words: ʿAbdīšōʿ of Gāzartā, Bar ʿEbrōyō, Syriac poetry, Metrical Grammar, short poems, flyleaves

HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY
TEXTOLOGY, CODICOLOGY, PALEOGRAPHY, ARCHEOGRAPHY

Faris O. Nofal. Theonyms in Safaite Inscriptions: Preliminary Remarks — 53
The present article reviews the theonyms mentioned in the corpus of Safaite epigraphic inscriptions. For the first time in the history of Russian Oriental Studies, the author conducts a comparative analysis of Safaite, Hismaite and Samudi texts and acquaints the Russian reader with the major deities of the North-Arabian pantheon. On the basis of this analysis, the work marks the two levels of Safaite “Olympus”: the cosmic one, represented by common Arab deities (al-Lat, Belshmin and Radw), and the tribal one, which includes the mythical characters of Salam, Yath‘, Dath and gadd-deities. In addition, the author observes the use of the reviewed theonyms by the denizens of pre-Islamic Arabia for the purposes of nomination.
Key words: Arab Epigraphy, ancient Arab Religions, Safaites, Hismaites, Thamudites

Roman Yu. Pochekaev. Untypical Sources for Court Decisions by the Rulers of Central Asian States in the 16th–19th Centuries — 62
The article analyzes specific cases of making court decisions by the rulers Central Asian states on the basis of sources which were either unrelated to the basic legal system of their state or were not sources of law. The author characterizes cases from the Bukhara Khanate of the 16th and 17th centuries and from the Kazakh Steppe of the first half of the 19th century. He finds that rulers used such sources of their court decisions to demonstrate their political position for their own subjects or rulers of neighboring states.
Key words: Turkic-Mongol states, sources of law, court and procedure, traditional law, Islamic law

COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES

Shimon M. Iakerson. Who Was Collecting Hebrew Books in the Capital of Russian Empire and Why — 74
By the beginning of the 20th century, a unique collection of Hebrew manuscripts (more than 20,000 units) and first printed books was formed in the capital of the Russian Empire. These books ended up in St. Petersburg as part of several private collections, such as the collection of a Protestant paleographer and Biblical scholar Konstantin von Tischendorf, of the Karaite leader Avraam Firkovich, of the Archimandrite Antonin Kapustin, of the Barons Gunzburg, of a First Guild merchant Moses Aryeh Leib Friedland and of an Orientalist Professor Daniel Chwolson. The history of these collections and the motives for the collecting activity of their owners are the subject of this article.
Key words: Hebrew manuscripts, Hebrew incunabula, Russian National Library, Russian State Library, Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, RAS, Konstantin von Tischendorf, Avraam Firkovich, Archimandrite Antonin, David Gunzburg, Daniel Chwolson, Moses Friedland

ACADEMIC LIFE

Tatiana V. Ermakova. The 14th All-Russian Oriental Conference in Memory of O. O. Rosenberg (St. Petersburg, November 16–17, 2020) — 84

Ekaterina V. Gusarova. “A Feast for the Mind during a Pandemic”. The XLII Annual Session of St. Petersburg Arabists (St. Petersburg, November 16 and 18, 2020) — 91

Iuliia V. Boltach. The “Far East: Tradition and Modernity” Academic Conference (St. Petersburg, November 25, 2020) — 97

Irina V. Kulganek. The Awarding of the Corresponding Member of RAS I. F. Popova with a Ch. D. Frähn (Fren) Golden Medal (Kazan, December 1, 2020) — 102

Alexander V. Zorin. The Ninth St. Petersburg Seminar of Tibetan Studies (St. Petersburg, December 4, 2020) — 108

REVIEWS

Iranian Linguistics 2020. Proceedings of the “Readings in Memory of B. Lashkarbekov on the Occasion of His 70th Anniversary” International Conference. Institute of Linguistics, RAS. Moscow, October 18–20, 2018. Moscow: Yazyki Narodov Mira. 2020. 495 pp. (Olga M. Chunakova) — 112

IN MEMORIAM

Marandjian, Karine Genrikhovna (1956–2021) (Тatiana А. Pang) — 118

Burykin, Aleksei Alekseevich (1954–2021) (Vladimir A. Popov) — 121

Vasil’ev, Dmitrii Dmirtievich (1946–2021) (Тatiana А. Anikeeva, Il’ia V. Zaitsev) — 125